Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Next appts in Cincinnati

To start I was gone this weekend at retreat. The kids went with me on Friday while Mike worked and his niece came out to keep an eye on the kids after she got off work until about bedtime. Then I bathed them and gave them a movie to watch. They were out in minutes. Mike picked them up on his way home from work.

I had talked to Dr. Nelson who was on call for Dr. Matias who is on maturnity leave. He decided to add Sydnee's Respirdal back due to the behavior problems we are having with Sydnee. He didn't just add it back, but increased her dosage. He said if you don't get enough it will cause the behavior issues. Well after Sunday evening, she has been great. No arguing, lots of yes or no ma'ms. She doesn't stomp off or yell at me for asking her something, etc.

I didn't get much done since I went off and had forgotten my pictures. I was so aggravated with myself. But I just had fun anyway.

On Sunday evening, Mike called me just about 4 pm. I was getting ready to start packing up because I had to take the kids to Cincinnati that evening. We had 8 am appointments on Monday morning. Anyway, he called to tell me that Sydnee had fell out of a hammock in the new shed he is building and landed the back of her head on the concrete floor. WHAT??!!! Sure enough she has a huge goose egg on the back of her head. There was no blood except for a little dried on her bump. He told me he needed me to come home "now". I told him if it was bleeding that he needed to take her somewhere to have it checked. When I asked if there was blood, he said "I don't know". So I asked if it was split open. Response was "I don't know". So I said "can you check to see if there is a split?" Response was "no". So I packed up and headed home.

He hadn't taken her anywhere, but he had bathed and fed the kids so I could take them. I knew it would be late to get to Cinci. She wasn't acting wierd or anything, so we went to the doctor as soon as we got up there. We got back to the hotel at midnight. And had to be up at 6:30am. Yikes....

So up at 6:30 we were. Grabbed a little breakfast at the hotel and headed to the doctors office. They both did great with Dr. Parkins and we were out in 2 hours. More instructions in hand.

We went back to the hotel to get a nap. Sure enough we got about 2 hours in. Or at least Sydnee and I did. Simon decided to stay awake and watch cartoons even though he knew the deal was that if we all got a nap in and behaved for Sydnee's next appt at 2:00, we would go to the brand new Lego store in Kenwood. I woke up about 1 hr 15 min later and he was still awake. He looked over and asked when we would be going to the store. My response was "you won't be able to go if you don't lay down for a bit". He went ballistic. But I told him he still had time. He fell asleep within 30 seconds.

We say Dr. Maugans (neurosurgeon). He was a very patient man and took his time listening and reading the reports given to him. He said Sydnee has Congenital Stenosis of the cervical spine. This is a lack of fluid around the spinal cord in the cervical area. What this means is that she could get severe damage to the spinal cord if she falls on her head or neck. He said you can't protect your children from everything, but he would recommend that she not play ice hockey, football, gymnastics or playing on a trampoline. These particular things have much higher risk for her to get this injury.
As you can see there is a lot of white around the spinal cord in the lower spine area. This is the cerebral fluid protecting the spinal cord within the bony area. Showing here she has a very thin line of white showing the lack of fluid in the cervical area. So a big bend of the neck in a jolt or snap is where she could get an injury.

So in the end, Sydnee isn't going to be able to do some of the things she loves to do. She understands why now though. He talked to her quite a while about it.

My plan is to take her to Anne Steele for Cranial Sacral Therapy. This is what she specializes in. It a non-invasive procedure and it can't hurt. She has worked with both kids before with success. It's kind of different, but it has worked for the kids before. Sydnee returns to see Dr. Maugans again in December. We'll be able to see what the progress is when they do a repeat MRI.

Ok, now for the Lego store in the Kenwood Center. Dr. Parkins told us about it last week. They were opening at the end of that week. The kids and I went there and what a place! I loved it as much as the kids did. They of course have a ton of Lego sets. But they also have a wall full of bins where you can fill a bucket for a set price. This wall is full of tiny odd pieces like ladders, flowers, stems, grass, tires, tiny blocks, blocks with eyes on them, etc. There were many different things. It was fun to just pick a handful from each bin of what you wanted. We must have been in ther 2 hours. Not only that, but they played with them in the hotel that evening for at least 23 hours. You could have heard a pin drop.

Yesterday, we got home around 5:30 or so. It was a long day. But I had promised them they could swim. Then of course they wanted to play legos again. We went to a few stores and they were so pleasant all day. No arguing or yelling.

Again today, they had reading lab at school and then we came home. Sydnee and I layed down for a nap after lunch (about 1:30). I woke up at 4:30 and she at 6:30. Simon was in the livingroom watching PBS the entire time. Mike had left at 2:30 for work. I can't believe we slept so long. It felt so good.

The rest of the day was LEGO's. Can you imagine that? And again no arguments or fighting. It was a great day!

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