Wonderful Week!

This has been one of the calmest weeks ever! Sydnee has done wonderful. She has been so pleasant to be with. Much different than over the last 6-10 months. She told me one day "Mom, I love doing things with you. I think my medicine is making me happier." I said "isn't it nice to not be mad at the world?" She just laughed and said yes. She had played for hours with or without me. She has been laughing, being silly, decisive, active, etc. It's been absolutely a joy to be around her. This is way different than the past few months.

Yesterday I went through toys in the garage. I think I had about 5 large black garbage bags to donate, 2 bags of garbage and maybe one bag to keep. So that was progress. I am done with keeping things. If it hasn't been used over the last couple of months, it's out of here! Mike kept asking me "save or keep?" on things and I would say "throw out". He kept trying to store things in the garage attic or rafters. But he finally got my point when I said "GET RID OF IT!" What a weight lifted off. Then it poured rain and in I went.

Today I had a dentist appointment getting two crowns on. Wahooo! How exciting. Simon had an orthodontist appointment getting another bracket. We met Mike for lunch and then went to the "safety city" to do the smoke in the house thing. They also did a DNA teeth imprint for us to store in the freezer. So now we have DNA from the saliva and the teeth imprints. Kind of neat. Hopefully we'll never need them. After that we headed to the pediatrician because both kids have poison ivy. How wonderful! And then it was back across town again for Simon's ear checkup. He has a very tiny hole left in his new eardrum, but he is hoping it will heal on it's own. The only problem there is Simon isn't known to heal anything on his own. His hearing test was perfect though, so that was good news. He wants to see us again in 6 months for a recheck. If the hole isn't better, then it's back to surgery. So please pray that it does heal on it's own.

We are now home and I am tired of running. Tomorrow we leave for Cinci in the later afternoon.

Kids update

First off this morning, it started with Simon having a follow up for this ear surgery. Well thank God, his ear is healing well. He will start his ear drops in 4 weeks and follow up with Dr. Creely 2 weeks later. He said it looked very well.

I returned Simon to school and picked up Sydnee to head to Cincinnati. She had a 1:00 appointment to see Dr. Michaud. She is a Pediatric Rehabilitation Physician. The Neuropsychologist sent her there for two things. One being the rigidity in her legs. She has always had a rigid gait. When she runs, she tries to do so fast, so she won't lose her balance. Her right foot has always turned out to the right so she could keep her balance. But in the end they found or confirmed what her physical therapist has been saying. Normally she would be able to bend her ankle 20 degrees. But she has a 0 degree bend. They spent nearly three hours with her today determining what was going on and what needed to be done about it.

She is going to have "Serial Casting" done. This entails giving her Botox injections in her calves. Then 5-7 days later, she will have casts put on both legs, setting her ankle to a certain position. A week later, the cast will be removed and another one at a higher angle will be placed again. A week later, she'll have it again, and then again for a third time. A week following the third casting, she will have it removed and then evaluated to see what has been accomplished. If they have gotten the results they are looking for, she will have splints made to wear at night to hold this position. She will have intensive physical therapy to help the stretching and we hope to see more movement in her muscles.

Now for the second part of Sydnee's evaluation. When she had her MRI's done earlier this year, they found she has a narrowing in the cervical area of the spine. It's much smaller than normal. They asked when she potty trained, walked, etc. She was very late on both. Dr. Michaud is referring her to a Neurosurgeon for further evaluation. She said unless there is a surprise, they expect the neurosurgeon to say it's ok and everything will be fine. But since it wasn't her area, she felt more comfortable having someone seeing her that has this specialty. Hopefully that will all be fine and we will only have one trip there for that.

After our appoinments we went to the GI surgery area. I had been blogging back and forth with a woman who has a little 2 yr old from Dayton who came home from Ukraine with esophagus issues. He was in for a major surgery and they just happened to be there today. So we stopped to see them. We didn't get to see her son because she had finally gotten him to sleep. So there was no way we would take the chance on him waking up. She was exhausted. It was good to meet her and I hope we can visit again sometime. Her blog is on my link list.

So much for our uneventful day. I'm tired and heading to bed. These Cinci trips up and back in one day is hard sometimes. But tomorrow I have a massage and Friday I get my hair cut again. So that will give me some relaxation.

Simon's ear

Simon had a great week with his ear. It's healing well and the glue is starting to come off a little. He said it itches quite a bit now too. So I guess it's healing like it should. He has a follow up this coming week.

I had a crop at the Bullitt Co Extension Office yesterday and it went well. We are scheduled monthly until the end of the year.

Today while it decided to rain all day I started to dream. Every once in a while I do this. I will sit for hours and just draw house plans. Well, we really like where we live, and I like the house, just wish it was larger. So I sat and drew an addition to the house to see what it would like. Well I really like it. The deck would be moderate, a large screen porch, add a bedroom, 1/2 bath, laundry room, and a mud room. I will try to get a picture so I can post it. I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

Day one after surgery

Simon is doing extremely well. He has not complained of pain one time at all. Not one drop of pain meds either. He did wake up at 3:15 am and was up for 3 hours. So I am pooped from no sleep. But Mike is home, so I can take a nap if needed.

He has eaten like he hasn't eaten in a month. Yesterday he ended up going through 2 sleeves of saltines, 2 applesauce tubs, chicken noodle soup, 3 cans of gingerale, 3 large cups of water and a few pieces of his Easter party candy.

When Mike got up this morning, Simon was sitting in the living room floor watching a movie (if I see more Veggie Tales, I think I will throw up) with his mouth full of chocolate easter candy. He has now devoured every piece of candy he had. So now it's gone (until tomorrow) and that's it. Today he is still eating like crazy. But he of course doesn't want a meal. He wants something to snack on. So we'll keep working on that.

Still no pain and he wants to go to school on Monday. So this will be interesting. He isn't supposed to be active at all for 7 days. And it will be 6 weeks before he gets his hearing back.

So far so good.

Ear Surgery done

We went to Kosair at 10am this mornig to get Simon checked in. He was pretty anxious about it all which is very understandable. His surgery was supposed to start at 11am. Nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist all came in to talk about the procedure. My only concern was that he was so anxious and I knew there would be a problem putting IV's in if they didn't calm him beforehand. I asked what their plan and procedure was and it wasn't like I thought it would be. They wanted to give him Versaid and Dexa something nasally first and then take him back. They promised him it would be just like his Nasonex. Wrong! It was 1cc of liquid that they shot into his nose holding his head against their chest to hold it tight. He wasn't happy at all. It burned and went way up. He refused to let them finish the dose. And I can't say I blame him at all. Well of course it didn't work. He didn't relax and was more anxious than before. After finally realizing he wasn't going to change for them, they asked me what I preferred. In the end they dressed me from head to toe like an Easter Bunny and we went to the OR. They moved him to the operating table. As soon as they told him about the belt they were going to hold him. He didn't plan on having anything to do with that. I told them if they would give him a little gas first he would be good to go and then start the IV. Finally they heard me and we had no problems after that.

Pastor Jeff from Hyland Park Baptist Church came in and prayed with him. That was so nice. He was Simon's basketball coach during the Upward Basketball program. Very nice guy.

This is his right ear marked by the doctor with his initials. Simon thought that was funny. His surgery was only 40 minutes and then recovery was about 3 hours. They had given him quite a bit of drugs and we knew he would sleep a lot.


I got Simon's "Tom and Jerry" quilt done about 10 minutes before recovery. Nothing like cutting it close. But he was thrilled to get it finally. Grandma brought Sydnee up after school so she could see him. She just kept telling him she loved him and that he would be ok.

This is a picture of the incision site. It starts at the upper end of the ear and goes down to where you see the yellow/brown spot. That's quite a line. There are stitches under the skin and then the glue on the outer portion. There was also one inside the ear canal, and it just has a little drainage. He's supposed to be out of school 7 days and no big activity for 6 wks. Yeah right! We are home now and he is already wanting to eat like crazy and is walking around like nothing happened. Not one ounce of pain. He hasn't had a bit of pain meds since he's been home. He said nothing hurts and he doesn't want any. He is already asking if he can go to school tomorrow. At least it's Saturday, so that isn't an option.

Simon is doing much better with his ears, but now he has a cough that almost sounds asthmatic at times. Hopefully the antibiotics he's on will help with anything that could be lurking around. Tomorrow we leave for an appointment he has on Monday morning in Cincinnati. We are supposed to be there all day for testing. I think they said something like 7 hours of being there. So it will be a long day.

Last night Sydnee walked out into the living room to show me her dress. She looked so cute. Cousin Kim gave this to her one weekend when she stayed with her. I was shocked to hear her say she really liked the dress. Sydnee is not a dress up kid. But she really liked this one.

These are pictures of the kids while at a birthday party at the Paint Spot. They enjoyed making the ceramic pieces. They painted them and will get them in a week or two after they are fired.

I love this little outfit she has on. I think she looks like a little hippie girl. I can't wait until her hair grows out enough to get it trimmed up again. Her bangs are getting there, but have a way to go.

Simon worked very intensly in covering his piece to make sure it was a good solid coat. He really enjoyed this and told me he would like to do it again.

Here Sydnee is asleep at bedtime and I noticed when checking on her that she was sleeping with her newest doll. This is one that Natosha gave her.

The other day Sydnee came around the corner in the kitchen with her stroller and carrier with her dolls in them. I heard her say "oh man, these kids are so heavy". I wanted to laugh so hard, but took a picture instead. I am seeing her play with her dolls, talking to them, carrying them, etc. I love it!

Mike took this picture while I was snoozing in a chair in the living room. I think the one he was really trying to take the picture of was Smokey. He climbed up with me and got under the cover and layed on his back. For some reason he has been getting up next to me more and more in the last week. Even at night he wants to sleep right there with me. I had just gotten out of the shower here and dosed off from being up so long in the middle of the night. My hair looks so gross here. But it was soaking wet when I sat there.

Smokey has a toe fettish. This started quite some time ago. But today when I was sitting in my chair on the computer I felt something tickeling my feet. Sure enough it was Smokey. He chews on the toes.

Silly tat!