I was ready to leave the house for work at 7:20 AM on Monday morning. I bent over to zip up my computer bag and — WHAM — my back exploded with pain. I yelled, and continued to yell, as I went to my knees. “What’s wrong?” Jodi shouted from the other room. “MY BACK,” I managed to yell in between screams. She came running into the room with Charlie on her hip as I tried to maneuver onto my back to stop the pain. I finally got there and the sharp pain and spasms subsided a bit. I was breathing hard, looking up at Jodi and Charlie, with thoughts of life-long back problems running through my brain. I couldn’t move without major stabs of pain. After a few minutes we both knew this was something serious, so we decided to try to get me into the truck right away. I yelled as I got to my knees and then onto my feet using Jodi as leverage. I leaned heavily on Jodi trying to keep weight off my back while I shuffled very slowly outside and into the truck. Jodi got dressed and gathered Charlie’s stuff and we were off to the emergency room.

The hospital had us pull the truck into the ambulance bay so they could help me out and into a wheel chair. I hadn’t moved since getting into the truck, so moving again wasn’t fun. They brought me into the emergency room triage center to check me in. Then we waited in the waiting room. And waited…for two hours.

Finally they brought me into the emergency room. Jodi and a nurse helped me into the bed. Jodi helped me get me out of my clothes. The doctor came in soon after and I explained what happened. Now came the really painful part. He checked to make sure I hadn’t broken my back and that all my parts were moving. As I was laying on my back, he told me to try to lift each leg off the bed. I couldn’t do it – too much pain. He said try again. I couldn’t lift my heels off the bed at all and attempting to do so was very painful. Then he had me turn onto my side so he could check out my back. This was also very painful. The doctor said I didn’t need x-rays because the problem wasn’t bone or spine related. Most likely I had a pulled muscle or torn ligament or something. He said they would medicate for the pain and that I’d have to go to my doctor in 3-5 days if the pain didn’t go away. They put in an IV and gave me a serious narcotic and muscle relaxer. They had to give me three doses to get the pain under control.

Charlie was restless and we’d been at the hospital for hours so Jodi took him home while I waited for the meds to take effect. After some time (kind of blurry how long) I was able to get off the bed and take a few steps. They gave me another round of meds and after a bit I was able to walk down the hall. I called Jodi and she came back with Charlie to pick me up.

The doctor prescribed a steriod, pain medication and muscle relaxer to take at home while I healed. The drugs don’t allow me to drive and keep me feeling groggy, but they help dull the pain. Today is Wednesday and my back is still very sore. I can walk, slowly, but thats about it. I have an appointment with my doctor on Friday to see what the next steps are. I’m hopeful that by then that I’ll have recovered enough to stop taking the medications.

Oh yeah, another story. Yesterday, Jodi noticed that Charlie had something stuck to his eye ball, right next to his pupil. She tried to get it out, but it wouldn’t budge. She took him to his doctor but they couldn’t get it out either. We thought it might be a bit of glitter with glue on it from his birthday party. He probably got it on his finger and then rubbed his eye. Jodi took Charlie to a pediatric ophthalmologist this morning and they were able to get it out. They had to anesthetize his eye with drops and hold open his eye with a brace (the adult version because he’s too strong for the child version) while three people held him down. She said he was scared and cried but handled it very well. It only took a few minutes.

So, we’ve had quite the week.

It is hard to grasp that a whole year has passed and that Charlie is going on two! We had a fun birthday party on Sunday September 25th with a great gathering of family. Charlie decided to take advantage of the gathering and show off by taking his first steps in front of the whole party. It was a great moment and we’re thrilled so many of his loved ones were there to witness it. Charlie has since taken many steps and will probably be running by next week.

Charlie had his one year doctor checkup on Monday. He is in the 97th percentile for height and weight (30.4 lbs). He had his little finger pricked for a few standard tests and he didn’t like that at all. He does really well with getting shots.

You can find recent pictures on our flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/detoffol/

And you can still find a bunch of “old” baby pictures of Charlie here http://www.detoffol.com/charles/

This last week has been a doozy. Jodi complained of a stomach ache as we hit the sack last Tuesday night. She woke up at midnight with severe stomach cramping, nausea, and sharp pain on her right side. We waited a bit to see if it calmed down, but it didn’t so we packed up Charlie and headed in to the emergency room at 2:30 AM. It took the emergency physician about a minute to diagnose appendicitis, but he wanted a cat scan to confirm, which came back positive. The surgeon showed up around 7:30 and said Jodi was scheduled for laparoscopic appendectomy at 9:00 AM.

Besides the obvious concern we had for the surgery, we had Charlie’s breast feeding to worry about. All the drugs and anesthesia that come with this procedure had the potential to interrupt our great success so far with breastfeeding. But with lots of help from Jodi’s sister Kris and mother Sue, a limited but essential supply of expressed milk, and our diligence informing the doctors and nurses, we were able to choose the timing and types of drugs that gave us the shortest amount of time that Charlie couldn’t feed from Jodi.

On top of all this, Charlie had been battling his first cold for about a week. The day of the surgery his cold made a turn for the worse, even though his spirits stayed good. This weekend, however, he was more fussy than usual. It turns out he developed an ear infection and is now on antibiotics.

Everyone is recovering and feeling better every day. Thanks to everyone who called or sent flowers. And a special thank you to Jodi’s wonderful family, who graciously stepped in to help us with watching Charlie, bringing food, and even fixing leaking sinks!