This last week was harrowing. The short story:

• Kazu had more than gas (see previous blog post)--he had intussusception.
• It took 3 trips to the emergency room and 2 nights in the hospital to get him diagnosed and treated.
• We brought him home today, and he seems to be feeling back to his old self.

The long story:

Sunday (5/25) - Monday (5/26)

Kazu started experiencing symptoms (bad tummy aches, which later turned quite severe) around Friday or Saturday. We treated with typical remedies (carbonated water, simethecone for gas, etc.)

His symptoms worsened.Monday afternoon (5/26), I took Kazu to the ER, where he gave blood (with nary a tear nor a complaint), urine, and he had an X-ray done. They didn't find anything strange, and suspected constipation and gas. We went home.

Tuesday (5/27)

Monday (around 2 or 3AM), Kazu again got a severe tummy ache, which wouldn't let up. The poor little guy was in terrible pain. We took him to the ER again. They took blood again,  did an X-ray, and did a rectal exam. He was much less cooperative this time around (who wouldn't be at 2AM?), but they didn't find anything useful (again). The doctor mentioned intussusception, but she said he was missing some key identifiers (blood in the stool, and vomiting). They sent us home again.

Wednesday (5/28)

Kazu was still having pain off and on. We took him to see his regular doctor, who almost immediately recommended we take him to the Children's Hospital ER. We arrived there around 5-6pm.

Children's did an Ultrasound, which revealed the Intussucption. He was treated with a contrast enema (enema+MRI type imaging done at the same time). He was, suffice to say, crying and screaming a lot. Around 11pm or so we checked into a room at Children's hospital and I stayed the night with him.

Thursday (5/29)

Kazu was still having a lot of pain in the morning, but he seemed to get a bit better as the day went on. He was treated with morphine, tylenol, and ibupfofen, and gradually weaned from the morphine. Amy stayed with Kazu and I went home with Katsuya.

Friday 5/30

Kazu was discharged around 11am. My mom and I picked him and Amy up.  I even took him to my friday night BJJ class so he could just watch (I watched with him; I didn't roll/work out). One of my comrades at the school had his 5-year old there too, so he and Kazu played together and had a good time.

"The frequency of anal gas evacuation in healthy subjects varies depending on the diet, but is usually around twenty times per day."

Read all about your gassy self here.

[Just FYI: I stumbled on this while doing a little research. I as/am looking for information to help my oldest son, who has had terrible pain and discomfort for the last couple days that -- at least for now -- seems to be caused by gas.]

So the extended weekend wasn't as nice as it could have been. Here's a quick recap.

• Friday: Saw Iron Man, went to BJJ -- good evening in general.
• Saturday: Went to BJJ, took Kazu to his gym class, worked outside a lot.
• Sunday: I don't even remember what I did. I think I just puttered around the house.
• Monday: This is where it got ugly. Poor Kazu (my oldest son) got a severe, nasty, chronic tummy ache. Bad enough that I eventually took him to the doctor and spent 4 hours of the day waiting for tests, doctors, etc. Eventually we got home, but he was still feeling crappy and in a lot of pain (off and on), so the whole day pretty much got shot to heck.

Unfortunately, Kazu's gas got worse and carried over to the wee hours of Tuesday, and around 2:30AM we took him back to the ER because his pain was much worse and unrelenting.

More tests, more waiting, and the final verdict was essentially that he had really (really) bad gas -- good news, considering some of the other possibilities such as appendicitis, bowel obstruction, and other things I can't pronounce or spell.

We got home around 6am this morning. I got virtually 0 sleep for the entire 24 hour period 6am Monday through 6am Tuesday. Thankfully we don't have much going on today. 

I found a poll on a Web site (www.techreport.com) about PC gaming. In the comments section I found this:

"I don't play games, period... I have tried it a couple of times since though and I do find a game I like every now and then but I just can't bring myself to waste all of that time on something that doesn't give anything back (but waste of time). Just imagine how much I learn from sitting in front of my computer and using it for self education (like reading close to everything on TR) compared to ya'll gamers who spend three days trying to complete some task in a game! Who'll get the most out of it in the long term?"

Playing games on your PC by is not necessarily a waste of time, although like all leisure activities it can be taken to unhealthy extremes. I think "leisure" -- however you choose to define it -- is important "white space" for all our productive time.

I don't know about you, but I work hard at my job and at home taking care of my family. I train hard at the gym and in the dojo. I need that white space -- quiet moments to just sit back, have some fun, and "chill" for a while. I think everyone needs this in some form or another.

If we didn't this 'space', we'd probably all burn out from stress, or simply find another activity equally as enjoyable but arguably just as big a 'waste of time.'

That is what playing video games "gives back" to me -- short and long term.

I captured an enormous spider this weekend that I found in the basement. I'm not afraid of spiders--at least not phobic--but this one gave even me the willies.

I think it's called a 'Hobo' spider. That SOB was probably 2.5-3" in diameter (counting legs, of course).

If my wife (who is terrified of all things arachnid-ey) had seen it, I suspect her head would have exploded, or she would have set a speed record of some kind for the 100-yard dash.

I caught it in a glass so the kids could get a look at, before I set it free into the (distant) wilds of my back yard.

Other than this 'adventure', I had a productive if un-interesting weekend:

• I took advantage of the good weather and made some progress towards getting our yard toy kid-ready. I moved all the nasty rocks, including some very large ones and one very, very giganimous one-- I'd guess it has to weigh 500 pounds or more. It was a regular strongman-style workout!
• Got our brick retaining wall put down -- it's about 67% complete. Just need about 10-15 more bricks and some shoveling to get it finished. Hopefully that will happen this week.
• Mowed the lawn (2nd time in 4 days) to try and get ahead of the growth.
• Added chemicals to the pond to hopefully kill the excessive algae and what not.
• Got sunburned.
• Scraped up my foot by almost dropping a brick on it.
• Practiced BJJ.

Everyone in my family was just plain tired and grumpy last night--the kids, myself, my wife and I.

I had a headache all day, which I finally got rid of with the help of some ibuprofen and a decongestant (usually a good antidote for what I guessed was sinus-related pain).

But the kids were whiny and fussy all night, and my own fuse grew increasingly short. I was grumpy angry troll dad last night.

I stayed up later than I should have watching Beowulf with my wife, but otherwise slept reasonably well -- well enough that I shouldn't be *too* grumpy today. The kids slept reasonably well too.

Hopefully tonight will be better than last night.

I haven't been blogging as much because I've been working at home a lot more over the last 3 weeks. This has made me much more productive, both at "work" and at home. Why?

Down time/break time/brain time at work was spent surfing the net. That same time at home can be spent getting a few minor house chores done, or at least started. As a result, blogging has dropped off a bit.

I know a lot of people that say they have a hard time working from home. I can understand why. I'm just not (generally) one of those people. Give me a task or a document and I'm good to go.

It probably doesn't hurt that my home PC and monitor are vastly superior to what I have at work. It also probably doesn't hurt that I have a nice, big, windowed office at home. At work I have barely more than a closet.

It seems strange, but I'm actually-- generally speaking--more productive working from home, which I've been doing most of this week.

I have a small batch of documents to convert/write/design--and with everyone out of the house, it's just me, The Dominator (my PC), my coffee, and my work.

The best part about working from home is that it really pays dividends when it comes to saving time:

• I don't have to devote 60+ minutes driving to work (round trip).
• Greatly reduced 'morning routine' because I don't have to run out the door and drive to work.
• I save money on gas because I'm commuting less.
• I get more done at home because I can do any number of small tasks when I take a break--drop in a load of laundry, clean the kitchen a little, etc. -- that would otherwise have had to wait.
• I can work whenever I want to -- so I can work for 4 hours or so, take a break for a couple hours, and work some more later. In effect, you can spread your 8 hours over 12 or more if you like. I generally don't--I do most of my work early in the day, but I continue to monitor email off and on from about 6AM until 6PM).