Reese's post-op appt.

Today Reese had his post-op appointment.  It was pretty much what we expected.  The right tube did come out, but the duct seems to be draining well.  The left tube is still in and the eye is still tearing quite a bit.  Dr. Khammar said that it does sometimes continue to tear until the tube is removed.  After the tube is removed the opening is bigger and the duct can drain more effectively.  We'll take a wait and see approach as long as the eye doesn't seem to get worse.  It has been a tiny bit "goopy" looking, so I have to watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't get infected.  Other than that we discussed the study that they want to enroll him in for far-sighted kids.  They are still waiting on approval, which they know they will get.  They asked if we would enroll all 3 boys in the study.  I happily accepted the offer!  We will get paid for the visits and if they get glasses they will be paid for as well.  Why not?!  To me the best part is that they get followed the next 3 years to see how their eyes are doing.  We scheduled a 1 1/2 hour block of time to get Reese's tubes out and do the initial evaluation of all of their eyes for the study.  We know Reese qualifies and Noah was at very least on the borderline, so the only question is Aiden.  We'll see.  I scheduled the appointment while we were there.  They gave us July 8.  Being that my due date is June 30 it's a tentative appointment based on when this little one decides to make an appearnce.

After I posted about Aiden having a fever last week Noah came down with a fever.  The spent the day falling asleep on the couch and me.  Aiden had the fever Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.  It went away Wednesday afternoon and came back Thursday.  Noah only had it Wednesday.  Neither of them really had other symptoms though.  Strange.  Aiden has still been tired and crabby.  He has been messing with his ears too, so we'll see if that turns into anything.  I don't want to take him in unless I know he needs to go in and I don't want him on an antibiotic for his ears unless it's absolutely necessary.  We're just trying to wait it out and see how it goes. 

I have a dr. appointment on Wednesday. The time is flying by!  We have 11 weeks, at most, before this baby comes.  We are so unprepared!  :)  So what if she comes and has no name...right?

A bit of relief and a fever

I heard back from Dr. Khammar (Reese's eye Dr) this afternoon.  After feeling guilty all last night and today that somehow it was my fault that the tube came out Dr. Khammar reassured me that it just happens.  He said that it is really not uncommon and that they sometimes come out while a child is in recovery.  All day I felt like I was waiting to get called in the principal's office and get in trouble!  He just laughed and said that since the tube was in the duct was open and that hopefully it just stays open.  He said he would look at make sure it was the right tube that came out and then we'll just keep a closer eye (no pun intended!) on that eye.  What a relief!  I was so nervous that we were going to have to go through the whole thing again. At 28 weeks pregnant I was not looking forward to trying to figure out how to make that work.  We have a follow-up on Monday morning and we'll get to talk about it more at that appointment.

Today brought a tired and lethargic Aiden.  He felt a little warm after lunch, but the thermometer that I used said he was fine.  It's the temporal one that scans across the forehead and I normally don't really trust it.  I put them down for their nap and when he got up he felt warmer.  I used the temporal thermometer again and it just didn't seem right.  I used the regular thermometer under his arm and sure enough.  100.8  He didn't seem too bad and was still playing, just kind of crabby and tired.  So I gave him Tylenol.  He ate okay at supper, but then seemed to just get more mopey.  We took his temperature at 7:15 before he was ready to go to bed.  Now he was at 102.6.  Poor kid.  We gave him Tylenol, most of which he let run out of his mouth.  We tried getting him to drink some juice but he only drank a little.  Maybe he has a sore throat.  Who knows.  That's the hard part about them talking, but not able to say enough to tell us what's wrong.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I know one thing..I'll be checking on him before I can go to bed tonight.

While things have felt a bit stressful we've had some moments that made us say, "These are the days we'll look back at and miss".  Last night we listened to Reese sing himself to sleep.  He was singing "Jesus Loves Me", the alphabet and "Wheels on the Bus".  What a great way to end a not so great day.  It reminded me to be thankful and enjoy them being little.  They are so darn cute at this age!  I won't lie, some days are really hard.  Most days we have moments where we could scream.  So, I guess it's a good thing they do many cute things to balance out the moments of insanity. :)

What a day...

This morning was Reese's tear duct surgery.  I had to get him to the hospital at 6:30 this morning.  He was not a happy camper.  They took us back and got him ready and then we had to wait because the Dr. was running a little late.  No big deal.  I talked to lots of nurses, the anesthesia team and finally Dr. Khammar (Reese's eye Dr.).  A lot of nurses peeked in because they heard he was so cute and had to see him.  :)  A little before 8 they wheeled him back.  I choked back tears and watched them wheel him down the hall.  He just laid in the bed and didn't cry which helped me.  Less than an hour later Dr. Khammar came out to tell me things went great.  The left duct was extremely blocked and the right was blocked a little less than the left.  The funny thing is once he was out of sight and in surgery I wasn't nervous any more.  I suppose that's because a lot of people were praying for us this morning.  If that was you, thank you.  It reminded me of the peace I felt when he had surgery last time.  It's a weird feeling to suddenly feel totally at peace with the situation. 

A few minutes later they came to get me because he was waking up.  That was the understatement of the century.  A nurse was holding him and 2 others were trying to get his vitals.  He was very agitated!  Once I held him he just cried.  He was asking about shoes for some reason.  He didn't wear shoes to the hospital so I really couldn't help him out.  About an hour later we were discharged.  The rest of the day he just didn't know what he wanted.  He stumbled around a lot so I couldn't really put him down.  I held him pretty much all day.  At one point he got off my lap and started picking up and throwing toys and trying to knock over the rocking chair.  Less than five minutes later he was laughing and trying to eat a banana. Wow.  Mood swings! 

He finally fell asleep on the couch at about 3:00 (we had been home since 10:30 or so-Ugh!).  He slept a little over an hour.  I thought he would pretty much have slept all day.  He woke up and we went to my mom and dad's house.  They kept Aiden and Noah overnight for us last night.  While we were there one of Reese's tubes came out of his eye.  I wish I was joking.  I felt sick.  I called and left a message for the dr.  We'll see what comes next.  We have a follow-up next Monday.  I don't know if we'll have to go in sooner.  I really hope not.  I'm really bummed!  Hopefully we don't have to do this all over again.

To add to the day it was my birthday.  Yep.  Some birthday.  Not that I really care about birthdays anymore, but really?  Let's hope the rest of 28 is much easier than the first day was!  :)

Good news

Yesterday I took Noah to see Dr. Wolf, his allergist.  It was really a follow-up for his asthma.  He put him on a new medication twice a day.  It seems like it's helping, which is great.  We went over the results of his blood test he had done last time we were there.  Tree nuts showed up mildly allergic, but he had already told us to avoid them anyways.  So, no change there.  He said that somehow sesame seeds didn't show up on the results, but that he shouldn't have them because the body sometimes mistakes them for peanuts (some sort of cross-reaction that happens).  My response was, "Oops.  He had them in a meal last week".  He was glad there was no reaction and said to just avoid them from now on.  He told me to be thankful this wasn't a soy allergy.  I am.  I am also thankful it's not wheat, milk or any of those other ingredients that seem to be in everything.  We reviewed when to use the epipen (pretty much if I have any suspicions that he's having a reaction).  He also did some skin testing for environmental allergies that could be triggering his asthma.  They all came back negatvie.  Hooray!!  No need to do daily allergy meds at this point.  He also looked at his tummy and back, which was a bit "bumpy".  He said it was his excema.  We need to stop using baby wash because the additives irritate his skin.  Sorry buddy, you got your mom's skin.  We have to wash him using unscented dove bar soap.  Yes, that was his specific recommendation.  All in all it was a great appointment.

On an allergy related note we decided to try to go out to eat somewhere other than a fast food place Friday night as a family.  This would be a first...going out to eat just the 5 of us.  After 20 minutes of researching where we could eat with Noah we came down to Chili's.  So, we loaded the boys into the van and got to Chili's.  It was a 20 minutes wait.  Nope.  Not happening.  There was no chance on earth we were waiting 20 minutes with 3 toddlers.  So, we went across the parking lot to McDonald's.  Sigh.  It was a good try.  This was the first time the boys at McDonald's.  They clearly thought this was the greatest thing ever.  I remembered why we eat healthy and felt like junk for a day or so.  Noah 's stomach didn't agree with it either.  Ugh.  Lesson learned. 

We had a great Easter.  We spent time with Nate's family after church and just relaxed.  We couldn't go to a good Friday service because they started too late.  I'll have to post a picture of the boys in their Easter outfits.  Hilarious.  That's all I can say.

Finally, I am looking forward to and dreading this coming Monday.  It's Reese's eye surgery to unclog his tear ducts.  It's not the surgery that bothers me, it's the anethesia.  He had a hard time waking up last time.  Granted he was 5 weeks old and 6 pounds, but still.  I have been doing a lot of praying for peace and would appreciate all the prayers I can get for this.  He has a pre-surgery physical Friday afternoon and then Monday we have to be at the hospital at 7:15.  I'm not a morning person, but I'm glad we're getting it done right away.  I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as I can.