We had another wonderful Christmas morning. Here’s a recap in pictures:
Kids wait “patiently” at the top of the stairs before seeing what Santa brought:
Diving into the presents
Christmas breakfast and the reading of the Christmas story:
Kirby Ann has a breathing treatment. We are so thankful that she is with us and not at the hospital
Our annual tradition of ice skating on Christmas Eve wasn’t quite the same since Kirby Ann & Valerie were at the hospital. Kendall, Trent & Reed got to go anyway and were joined by Jessie. I dropped them off before I went to get Valerie & Kirby Ann at the hospital so I made the picture, but I didn’t get to skate. They had a great time and many friends were there with them. It is such a beautiful place to go skating.
It wasn’t in the plan, but Valerie, Kirby Ann & I spent Christmas Eve morning in the hospital. We decided that we haven’t had enough medical challenges yet, so we were ready for an adventure. Ha!
It wasn’t in the plan, but Valerie, Kirby Ann & I spent Christmas Eve morning in the hospital. We decided that we haven’t had enough medical challenges yet, so we were ready for an adventure. Ha!
Kirby Ann woke up at 2:15am and was having trouble breathing. She was wheezing and coughing and wasn’t doing well at all. Valerie made a quick call to the American Clinic here in Budapest and the doctor said to hurry right over. Thankfully, our good friend Jessie is spending the weekend with us so Valerie & I were able to just jump in the car and go. We were at the doctor’s office by 2:45am and the doctor quickly gave her a steroid and started her on a breathing treatment. The doctor said that it was a bad case of croup (4 out of 6 on the Croup Scale). Kirby Ann starting doing better quickly, but the doctor recommended that we take her to a hospital for more treatment and observation. She also told us that the norm was that she would remain in the hospital until she had a symptom free night. That would mean that she would spend Christmas in the hospital.
We drove to the hospital and arrived around 4am. They checked us in and gave her another breathing treatment. She was doing much better by this time. I left around 5am and Valerie and Kirby Ann fell asleep from 6 to 7. Then, it was a long day of waiting. Thankfully, later in the morning, Valerie begged the doctor to let them leave today. We have a breathing treatment machine at home so we felt sure that we could take care of her. Thankfully, the agreed that she could come home. We didn’t make it home until around 3pm, but we are home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Pray that the croup won’t return. There is still a risk that it will return tonight.
It was our first overnight experience in a Hungarian hospital. It went fairly well. Kirby Ann felt right at home because she is so used to going to Hungarian preschool. The nurses were able to communicate with her in Hungarian and she loved the hot tea and even the food. It’s funny that she felt so comfortable in a place where Valerie & I weren’t quite as relaxed.
Here are a few more pics from the hospital. They were taken with my phone so they aren’t too great.
Valerie & I watched the #6 ranked Aggies play the #1 UCLA Bruins yesterday. First of all, I can believe that the Aggies are ranked so high. Two years ago we went 0-16 in the Big XII so it is hard to believe we have come so far. We already lost to #9 LSU this week so my fear was that we would get blown off the court and it would be obvious that we didn’t belong in the Top 10. Even though we didn’t win, the opposite happened. We showed that we can play with the #1 and take it down to the wire. If we didn’t make so many mistakes, we should have won the game.
I was a bit disoriented the whole game. I couldn’t believe I was watching the Aggies on national television with Jim Nantz and Billy Packer commentating. Actually, it was the first time that A&M has ever played on network tv in the regular season. What surprised me most was several comments by Billy Packer. He said, “These are two strongs teams that will definately make a run in the NCAA tournament!” He also said, “I could see both of these teams in the Final Four this year.”
What?!$%^&* Are you kidding me? It’s December and the Aggies are already in the tournament and expected to make a big run! The best the Aggies have done in the past is to sit and watch the tournament seedings and pray for an 11th seed. Now, Billy Packer has them already in and making run. He might be right, but I still can’t believe he’s talking about the Aggies.
It’s going to be a fun year to follow them!
Saturday morning, I rode the train back to Austria and drove Valerie & Reed home. They were very ready to get back home as the walls of the hotel were closing in on them. The good part is that they stayed right on the main square and there was a Christmas market going on with lots of activity. They took several excursions into to the square although Reed couldn’t make it very long.
Reed is having some pain, but overall he is making progress everyday. It is good to be all back together again.
Yesterday morning, Reed was released from the hospital. It was very different than our experiences with hospital discharge in the US. Our experience in the US has been that it takes forever to get out of the hospital. In Austria, as soon as the doctor made the decision at around 7:30am, they started circling like vultures to get Reed’s room. First they came in and wanted to change his sheets. Then, others started wandering by our door and looking in like “Are they still in there?” Someone suggested that we get out and sit in the waiting room across the hall. Reed didn’t like that idea at all as he wasn’t feeling too well. I think we finally got out around 10, but they were hurrying us as fast as they could.
Reed and Valerie checked into a hotel yesterday and will stay for 2-3 days. Reed is feeling much better although he is still in some pain and is pretty week. He was in much better spirits and took a good nap.
Last night, I returned home via train to Budapest. I was supposed to have a 3 hour direct train to Budapest where I didn’t have to make any train changes. My first clue that something was wrong was when the first train that pulled up was a single car “commuter train.” It was going the right direction, but there was no way this car was going all the way to Budapest. Then, it made stops about every 1-2 minutes. Quickly, I realized that I wasn’t in the right place. I arrived at the first major city on my journey and hurried into the train station to make a connection and I missed the connection by 1-2 minutes. I had to wait an hour and 15 minutes before the next train left. Then, I had to change again in another city. I was supposed to arrive in Budapest at 8:30 and I finally pulled in at around 10:45. OUCH! I still have no idea what happened and how I got on the wrong train. It was at the right time and it was going the right direction.
I’ll go back on Friday or Saturday to bring Valerie & Reed home. Hopefully, I’ll get the connections right this tiem.
Here are some pictures of Reed in the hospital. Here he is showing his expertise with the remote for the TV.
This is Reed in the recovery room about 10 minutes after the surgery ended.
Sometime in the past year two of the three Seely guys have been in the hospital. I had back surgery last year on Dec 6th. Trent had many tests run over the summer for his stomach.
I guess Reed was feeling left out. Therefore, we leave tomorrow for Austria for Reed to have his tonsils removed on Tuesday. He has been battling throat infections for the last several years, but in the past 3-6 months he had many, many infections. The last one took 5 antibiotics to clear up.
We chose to go to Austria because the hospital should be much closer to what Reed is used to in the US. Also, there should be english speaking doctors and nurses which are pretty rare here in Budapest. We will be in the town of Wiener Neustadt, which is about 50km south of Vienna and just across the Hungarian border. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive for us.
Reed will be in the hosptial for 3-5 days and Valerie will stay with him for the duration. I’m going up just for the procedure on Tuesday and then I’ll take the train home on Tuesday night to take care of the other kids.
Please pray that God would guide the hands of the doctors and that Reed would heal quickly. Also, pray for the 3 kids that we are leaving behind as they all woke up sick this morning and are in different stages of recovery.
Hopefully, the girls won’t try to catch up with the guys in the coming year. We have seen enough doctors offices and hospitals in Europe. We’re ready to get back to touring churches and castles.
