The Adventures of the Johnson Clan: ~One last hoorah & The first week of Surgery Rotation~

As a final hoorah before sending Travis into his surgery rotation, and the final 12 week count down before our FREEDOM (12 week surgery rotation is awful, plus at the end of it Travis takes his final Med school boards exam and will be completely free from studying at home -Mostly- and we'll FINALLY have Travis back!)

So we tried to stalk pile as much time as we could before going on a our last 12 week drought.

First thing in the morning we packed the car up and headed through New Jersey (which by the way, I now understand every joke ever made about that very ugly state ;), and into Pennsylvania where we visited Valley Forge. The drive there was pleasant and went quick. The boys thoroughly enjoyed each thing we saw while there. Maddix now talks a lot about George Washington, the men that froze that winter, and if we could please go back and visit it again; I think the best moment for Travis and I, as parents, was when we were leaving and Maddix said, "Wait we're going? But there's more I want to see, I haven't had enough time here!" :) We'll definitely have to go back. The journey back home proved... interesting. All Travis and I could figure was that our phones really wanted us to see all the back country that Pennsylvania had to offer because we didn't go back the way we came, and we didn't hit a freeway most the way home! And as we continued to follow directions from the phone I kept getting frustrated as our estimated arrival time increased, and our miles left increased... tell me how it works that we would drive 5 miles closer to home and yet we would have one mile added on to our total miles left............. Travis was a doll just saying to enjoy each added minute and mile we had left together before the next day when we wouldn't have that anymore; I love him.

Philadelphia Skyline

Philadelphia Temple

Valley Forge Information Center

Good ol' George

George Washington's Home

~Back to the City~

As if we could have fought it, Surgery started and Travis has been doing night floats to begin with. Now he works all night, sleeps all day, eats like a zombie, and tries to study; pretty fun, right? Thankfully, night floats will only last a few weeks then he gets to do his 14hr shifts during the day... better? Ha ha.

We went about our days routinely. The highlights from the week were getting together with Whitney and Camden, and celebrating Nala's 6th Birthday. The low moment was Thursday just after we had excitedly gone out and walked Travis home from his night shift. I was trying to change Aaron's bum, he kept trying to scoot himself away and when I pinned his legs down, this seemed to make him pretty mad, mad enough to trigger his breath holding spells again. I could tell that he wasn't going to breath so I picked him up and rushed him downstairs to be near Travis, just in case.

-I don't know if I ever wrote about the results we got from Aaron's neurologist. He said there is somewhat of a neurological problem that causes him to hold his breath, and no matter what you do you won't be able to make him breath once he reaches a certain point; it's a reaction in his body. When he holds his breath and passes out, it causes his body to restart, like a computer who's cord gets unplugged and it shuts off. When Aaron's body tries to "restart" it goes into a "false" seizure, completely real other than it doesn't touch his brain. He said it's totally normal and it's a malfunction that his own body should correct on its own within a few years. In the meantime, we're just supposed to leave him on the floor where he can't hit anything when he has the seizure and then just make sure he's still breathing.-

As he went into his seizure, I felt like this one was different. I just wrote all the details from it and realized, it does't need to be said; just know it was the worst one for sure, and all I know is I am so grateful for tender mercies like Travis having come home just minutes before I tried to change Aaron's morning diaper. If I'd been alone, I'd have called the ambulance for sure. I'm also glad for the blessing of Travis's medical training. After this seizure he didn't wake up right away, in fact he stayed completely limp and wouldn't respond. Travis was so calm. He stayed so calm and just seemed to know what to do and what signs to follow. Once we could get Aaron to respond he just laid on my lap and fell asleep; if anyone knows Aaron, you know this is very out of character. He stayed there for about an hour before waking up with a major head ache... that was that. Then later he banged his mouth into the bar of his bed and bloodied his face up. He also threw a fit and hit his head into a wall. The baby needs to wear a helmet, I swear.

So then to end the week we made it to Maddix's soccer practice which turned into one of those moments that all mothers hate to have in public where Maddix was throwing a fit and I had to carry him off the field to the stroller, where the dog was whining/barking/jumping like a psycho, and Aaron who had been clawed on the cheek from the crazy dog so he was bawling with milk running down his face, all while like 10 people had come over to introduce themselves and their children to us...

.... Ugh...