yay for artistic integrity

Check out the new Sevendust cd cover... look familiar? It should. Its a pretty blatant rip off of a piece by Cleveland artist Derek Hess. Hess has created rock posters for bands ranging from Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam to Cows, Converge, Thursday and Dillinger Escape Plan. He has taken on cd cover art for bands, his original portfolio is part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and he has work hanging in a permanent collection at the Louvre.

the original.

Hemorrhage

2 color serigraph, edition of 125, 10 1/8" x 29 1/4", printed at the Highway Press - Image created March 6th 2005.

An open wound that won't heal due to the lack of closure. - DH

That's pretty freakin' pathetic.

Long live Hess.

I hope Hess sues, I hope the person who ripped him off feels like the piece of crap s/he is.

*edited to provide updated links; sevendust's pos came out yesterday.

an update on kindness

Just as Sprout was getting started on an art project from our stash (we received a box filled with assorted craft project goodness) two women came in and said that'd they'd gotten the dirt on her "isolation" and so long as we didn't mind they were willing to forgo the gowns and gloves and such...

Turns out these women were hospital volunteers, who came to us from The Rose Theatre. They came in to see her (and were going on to see some other children) who due to restrictions/ their condition were not able to attend a storytelling performance they did earlier today. Instead, Sprout just had about thirty minutes of up close and personal time with them, while they told her/ acted out three stories.. and made her a part of each one.

They were great, Sprout loved it, and I daresay we're going to have to drop a couple of notes (to the hospital and the theatre) for both of them.
yay for people who arent completely skeeved by coming in and making a day a whole lot better for these kids.

in which we sit

Yesterday we met with neurology, they agreed to pull her off the depakote. Apparently you don't need as long of a weaning period for the medication when you're taking it for its anti-convulsant properties as opposed to its psychiatric uses. They halved it last night, she'll have the same dose tonight, followed by cold turkey tomorrow. We'll most likely need to add a new medication in its place as the lamictal alone was no longer keeping her seizure free.

Sprout has not vomited since her episodes yesterday morning- during breakfast and just before lunch. She got up in her chair to eat lunch today, and is weak and wobbley, but now pissed that she isn't allowed to go to the playroom because she is still in isolation. Unfortunately, she's only in isolation because they are afraid she'll vomit on something, not because she is contagious.

Let's hope this lasts a bit.

the endoscopy

Friday was a difficult day for the kidlet. She was tired and miserable . Friday evening Sprout had her endoscopy, when they came for her, she looked at the nurse and wanted to know exactly how many pictures the doc planned on taking, and attempted to argue that she'd had enough of those already. Unfortunately, she lost the debate.

The procedure went well, with no complications other than difficulty getting the IV in. The results? Well, at least now we're looking at the primary problem, rather than the secondary ones (gall bladder and bowel). Also, when I say "looking" I mean it literally. Dr. Z came out after the procedure and showed me images he printed of the problematic sites.

She has a series of lumps between her middle and distal esophagus and in her antrum. Her distal esophagus, antrum and body of the stomach are all red and inflamed. Her fundus is bruised, lumpy and all chewed up looking. The doc believes the latter is due to the retching. He has taken biopsies of the inflamed areas and lumps. He told me everything he saw suggested this was the primary problem, but that he didnt want to jump the gun and start interpretting without the biopsy results, He didn't want to over or understate the potential of what he saw.

What I can do, and am doing now is patiently waiting for Wednesday, because that is the earliest we will have the results of the biopsies.

Our current plan for her care is continuing the medication and trying to keep her hydrated. I'm guesstimating she is keeping one in three meals down- keep in mind there are some days where she doesnt eat at all, and she rarely eats three meals a day. Thursday the only thing she kept down was her half slice of birthday cake. Friday- nothing. Saturday she ate a few carrot sticks at lunch and half a cup of cottage cheese and a couple of bites of mac n cheese for dinner. I got all of that back with interest last night. :(

As soon as she is eating and only vomitting 1-2 times per day, we're going home, just so we can avoid catching something worse by staying here. Yesterday they thought we may go home today to await our results, but she barely ate, and kept none of it down. So we're still here. She's sleeping about 18 hours a day. My BIL and nephew came up this morning and Spog climbed into bed with her and they used her bed table to make with some crafty goodness which completely wore her out..

So, I sit. I knit. I read a little bit. I watch terrible little kid movies(presently "Annie"- not terrible but its like the sixth time this week), and read to a half with it kid, then I knit some more. And I do not, under any circumstances google phrases like "esophagus lumps".

ps
to the gal who sent us the harry potter books on cd- Sprout listened to book one while she was in the OR for the endoscopy.
and Kelly.. the balloons and stuffed kitty were fabulous. i'll try and get a pic for you so you'll know exactly what you sent :)

friday updates..

This morning we had our upper GI.. before I had a cup of coffee or my pain meds had a chance to kick in. Two things I generally require in order to start my day off with any semblence less than suck.

Spout slept fairly well.. and we went downstairs to radiology. She was quite the trooper. Due to her recent issues though, she has a hard time doing just about anything without gagging.. she managed to get 3oz of the barium down before her body started a mutiny. Just as we were making reading to install the NG tube to put the rest in, two things happened.. a small blip of it moved past her stomach so they got enough of a glimpse of the intestines to determine there was no malrotation.. and a large portion of the barium refluxed itself up into her esophagus.

We came back up to our room to await word.. Sprout rested until she started this morning's batch of vomiting. The barium came back then she switched to stomach acid. The poor thing was retching for about three hours.. then she'd doze off.. then wake up whimpering/mewling.. then doze off.. wake up whimpering/mewling and sobbing.

She is scheduled for an endoscopy and biopsies of her esophagus, stomach and intestinal walls.

Hopefully they will find something to get us going in the right direction.

as Sprout says.. "Mommy..doesn't he have enough pictures of me already?"