Santa Babies

Family Wii Play

So we bought a Wii for the family. All I can stay is we haven´t stopped playing with it for the past week or so. What a fabolous family activity game. Wii Fit and Wii Sport are a big hit. António is a Boxing and golf Pro. Everyone and I mean everyone was trying to beat him but with no luck. You can see how frsutrating it was for some grown ups with childish behaviours LOL!

Moments to cherish

Christmas Evening

Christmas Eve Dinner was at our place, as usual. The table looked lovely and the whole family had a wonderful time. Opening presents had to happen before dinner for obvious reasons. Kiko was thrilled with his new toy that Rosária gave him. He´s been fixing our floors ever since. The Lopes Vieira´s were greatly missed but I guess we will have a turkey day in February to make up for Christmas.

António - End of 1st Term

António had his school Christmas Party on the 20th of December. There was singing, laying and multiple activities. He was very proud to show us his work. This term they did an extensive research on dinosaurs. He is still very academic orientated. He favorite activities include reading, letter and number games. He now knows all the letters of the alphabet and can even read some things. He knows all numbers up to 100 and can play with them nonstop. We are very proud of him.

Vicente is HOME!

What an emotional moment.

Fever Free for mor thean 24h

Feve is gone for good! Waiting for Ped's visit and hoping she will release us. Will come back to update.

Fingers crossed!

It has now been 18h with NO FEVER at all. Maybe, just maybe we can go home tommorow. All tests have come back negative so far so we will probably never find out what bacteria it was. He was also checked for Rota Virus today and that was negative to so I am very happy but keeping slient so I don´t jinx myself!

Morning Update

Last night around 11 p.m I lost - I snapped! Fever came as high as 39.8 TWICE in a 4h period after having dropped to 37ºC. I called Dr. Volker (his regular Ped) and just sobbed the entire phone call. He was worried (probably more about me) so he made me threaten the entire staff that I would take Vicente into the ER room myself if a doctor wouldn't be here in the next hour. Well after 30min. this "Tia" Ped comes too see us. AFter taking a look at him she tells me he has a breathing infection ???? WTF???You should have seen my face. Anyway, I din't make a huge fuss over it because she asked for all tests to be repeated ASAP. So more blood and X-Ray. His blood results came back much much better than the previous ones so the anthibiotics is working on the bacteria. She still says that after seeing the x-ray she believes he has a viral breathing infection which for me is total BS. I mean of course he has something virul going on but its not his breathing that has been infected! Anyway, in an hour or so the morning Ped (a different one, so I hope) will make his call.
Night was a breeze. Vicente was so tired that he only woke up once for a feed and Zé slept here with us. His fever is in the 37.5ºC range and has been for the past hours so he isn't taking any meds and we are hoping his body can do the tick on its own. Will update as soon as we have more news.

Evening Update

Urine culture came back negative as did the poop culture. So where the heck is (was) the bacteria? Fever is still high - 39.6ºC around 5 p.m. This one only came down after nearly 3h so lets see how long he now lasts without a fever. Vicente has now had 6 full days of high fevers and that worries me. I just don't know what to think anymore. I want this to pass but I also want some answers. My brain is too tired to think properly so I don't even know what to ask the doctors. Lets see how he sleeps tonight.

Morning Update

Night was crap. We have nurses coming in every hour to check fever, oxygen levels and whatever they do more. His fever rised yet again during the night and he has 39.1ºC at the moment. So something is going on in there and they still suspect it a virus he caught (probably in the ER) on top of everything else. He didn't sleep much nor did I but we will work on that during the day. Waiting for the Ped to come this morning so we get more answers. Zé took some wonderful photos so we will update them soon.

Doctor was just in. Virul infection has been confirmed on top of everything else. So another 3 days here. He is very grumpy this morning probably due to lack of sleep.

Vicente is in Hospital

I am sorry for not updating here but I have been text messaging people but I guess here is the best place to keep you all updated. I am copying all the messages I have sent and will update everytime I have fresh news!
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Saturday Evening:
He has had very very high fevers 40ºC and above so he was addmited for xray, blood work and urine. His blood work came back with some kind of infection, a bacterial one - unknown - possibly menigitis (sp). So we are in Hospital for the next 3 days and I will keep you all posted.

BTW - The good news is that our room has Internet access!
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UPDATE 1: (sunday morning) Well, the night was crap.. my poor poor baby. I had a break down episode - just exploded in tears which did him no good either but it was just to much stress acumulated. His fever is under control because he has been taking fever medicine every 3h. His anthibiotics are taken only ever 24h so not much to say on his improvment specially because he has only had one dosage. He is very unhappy and cries most of the time. My heart is the size of a pea as of now. I really dont know what to do. I just feel so helpless. Anway we will have more blood results tommorow morning because the ones missing take longer. As of now we are ruling out menigites (sp) - only on Tuesday we will know if he needs to remove fluid from his spine to test for it. I hope not - I really dont think he has menigites and mummy gut feeling has to count for something, right? LOL! So not really that much to update. Just feeling very sorry for my poor baby and for myself, I guess.
Thank you all for you thoughts.
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UPDATE 2: Sunday night - His blood work came back and thankfully the reults are indeed slighty better. Our aim at this point was simply for them not to be worse. Still don know what kind of bacteris it is but we will be getting more results tommorow. Bad news is they suspect he has a stomach bug too so they checked his poop for analysis and to check for virus. Good news is he smiled a few times and finally made some eye contact.
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UPDATE 3:Monday morning - Another crappy night but not as bad as the night before. Vicente has been withou a fever for the past 12h now!!! Happy about that. He woke up this motning all smiles and has been a happy and comunicative baby this morning. Happy about that too. Not to happy about the virus he now has on top of it all. He has bronchiolitis (sp) again so we start breathing therapy today. There goes my hope to go back home. We have been told maybe just maybe tommorow. Menigitis is now ruled out so that is a big relief but I knew it wasnt that. So now all we need is for him to start breathing properly and to find out what kind of bacteris he has.
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UPDATE 4: (Monday Evening) Well... the fever is back. Just like that, without a warning it just came right back and high too. He has been so happy and smily today so why is the fever back? I am so shocked and sad. So now the docs say it could have just been a fever spurt and if in the next 12 hours he is fever free, then thats all it was. If he does coninue with fever then it means the medicine isnt working as expected and we will have to dig in further - whatever that means. Besides all of this I have been negleting my food intake so I had a colapse this afternoon due to very low blood presure. So now I have a nurse forcing food down me. Oh, and one more thing - so we are in probably the best private Hospital in the country (which insurance will only cover up to 3 days - but thats a whole new story). So this feels like a Hotel and it has an amazing huge window with a very surprising view - The cemetery! I just LOL each time I look out the window, I mean a top noch institution could have afford a place with a different view!
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UPDATE 5:(Tuesday morning) - Unfortunately it wasnt a fever spurt. his fever is def. back. Every 6h it raises straight up and only comes down with appropriate medication. I really dont know what to think now. He obviously wasnt released today and we have already been told no such luck for tommorow. I dont want him released until we figure out what is wrong with him so im fine with that. The urine sample is still being "cultured" all samples that have gone to culture we still dont know any results. I think everyone is in a guessing game now - like it might be a virus on top of the bacterial infection or it might just be that the anthibiotic is so generic that its not working where its supposed to etc... I know I shouldnt search the Internet but I would love some answers.

Vicente is healing nicely

Most of you don´t know but Vicente and I spent hours in the ER last Thursday. This is him now, sleeoing peacefully - (just so my father doesn´t run to the phone to call me worried LOL! )He has been very snotty (so I thought) and fussy too but because it has been so cold and everyone has runny noses and/or a cold I thought nothing of it. Well it turns out he had bronchiolitis. When I got home from work I noticed he had difficulty in breathing so off we went. It turns out his oxygen levels were very low and he needed propper treatment for the nasty virus. So he was on oxygen for a few hours and was addmited so he could take propper medication. I felt awful because I didn´t realize how serious it was. Anyway, we are home and he is improving imensly. We have check up calls with his ped every 24h so he is on top of things. So thats our news - not so good I guess but just another reason to keep me from sleeping!

Three is a Charm

Bath Time Fun