My last two posts I feel like I have focused on the big kiddos – which they probably deserve….they haven’t gotten quite as much spotlight on this blog as their younger counterpart :) but this time, it’s all about my youngest heart throb – that boy that may or may not have gotten a full dose of stubborn from his mother but whose smile might also make me a total softy…yeah, that one!
He’s had a busy few weeks! It all started off pretty exciting (not) with a little surgery! How fun right??!! I mean who doesn’t want to have surgery – especially on your boyhood (yes gentlemen….you are allowed to feel bad for him but for the record he put you all to shame cause I think you probably felt his pain just reading that and that boy was a ROCKSTAR) Bless his little heart as mom wakes him up at the crack of dawn only to throw him in the car without anything to eat or drink. By far the best part of the morning was the fish tank – he was mesmerized!! After waiting, and waiting and waiting we finally got put in a room and he got put in a gown (which I think he looked pretty adorable in). The second picture is him giving a "thumbs up" right before we headed out....
Before I could even get situated and comfortable in my chair Dr. Erhart was out looking for me. He said everything went great and made sure to let me know that he did indeed get a high five from Easton – said he actually got several once he got back into the OR before they put him under!! Bless his heart – he was smiling all the way!! The doctor assured me that they would come get me once he got out of recovery so I could meet him in post-op.
He showed up with this….
He didn’t let me down though…that boy put away FIFTEEN graham crackers yep, FIFTEEN!! The nurse was cracking up! We headed home shortly after – he took a nice long nap, sleeping off the rest of those good drugs and then woke up his happy crazy self a few hours later (and proceeded to put away a ton more food – just in case you were worried about his calories – or maybe more importantly based on the 15 grahams his nutrition).
Well, mommy likes to torture herself so one week later we were scheduled for another awesome procedure – an MRI, which meant more anesthesia :( That one didn’t go quite as planned though….
I put him to bed healthy on Thursday night and got him up at the crack of dawn on Friday coughing – seriously?? Well, long story short , I drug him down there, paid my co-pay, filled out paperwork and then sat with the anesthesiologist for 20 minutes while he tried to talk himself into going ahead with the procedure. When it was all said and done….we went home…..without the MRI and instead made an appointment with the pediatrician. DANG! Those silly MRI’s are hard to schedule – and unfortunately it wasn’t just the MRI that had to be rescheduled :( He had a follow up with neurosurgery the following week that had to be rescheduled and prior to anesthesia you have to be cleared by your pediatrician within 30 days….guess what….30 days are up which means we get to go back there too, not to mention that I’ve got to get child care worked out again for the big kids and drag him down there at the crack of dawn yet another time :( AHHHH!!!
So, for those of you panicking about why he needed an MRI – fear no more!! It’s really just to get a baseline. From what I understand it is common for kids with spina bifida to have some fluid around their spinal cord…you and I, not so common! So, they like to get a baseline image so they have something to compare it to in case down the road they started to have some concerns (concerns do happen relatively commonly…and normally they are do to something called tethered cord. The simplest way I know how to describe it is to picture a horse’s tale – which is often how the bottom of your spinal cord is described. Tethered cord is what happens when the horse’s tail gets all knotty and they have to go in and “brush it out” essentially they notice something is up when a kiddo starts to have new issues with bowel/bladder or when they start to present with new weakness in their legs…likely something we will deal with eventually but hopefully not any time soon!!)
The visit to the pediatrician was good….it was croup and just as the doctor warned, he shared with his brothers! Wasn’t that nice of him??!! So just a few short days later I was back at the pediatricians office with the two big boys – round of steroids for everyone and we are back to our healthy selves!! Thank goodness!!
So….all of that isn’t the real reason for writing this blog……but this is :)
So he’s gotten better even since that first video…..Here’s a little background before I show you another :) We live in the worlds best cul-de-sac! Yep, you all should be jealous because I don’t care how cool you think yours is, it isn’t as cool as ours!! Every evening we all end up hanging outside after dinner until bath time….it really is my favorite time of day! The girls usually chitchat, the big boys are typically doing something crazy (throwing a Frisbee, hitting golf balls etc) and all the kids run around, ride bikes, color with chalk and overall act like they own the place. Its awesome and I seriously love every minute of it!! So this is our little show off the other night…..
Sorry the second one is so dark :(
So, here we are! A walking machine :) He’s getting better and better, walking more and more and though he hasn’t quite grasp the whole steering thing, I’m sure it’s coming. He gets so proud of himself when he takes off with that little old man walker of his – he makes this momma (and his daddy and bubba’s) pretty proud!!
For the record, this kid is also crawling up onto and off of furniture, crawling all the way up the stairs, pulling up ON EVERYTHING, cruising around the coffee table, transitioning between surfaces (like the coffee table and couch) and is now working very hard to maintain standing without any support…record so far is 2 seconds (it was probably more like 1 ½ seconds but I’m giving him credit for 2 :) I’ll keep you posted on that one!)
Thanks for following along on his journey – we are having fun figuring things out together!!
For now, I think that’s all I’ve got! So there are the updates!! Thanks for all of the continued prayers – our little man is certainly proof that prayer works and that God is doing pretty amazing things with him!! God is good all the time!
Love and Hugs
PS – the silly MRI is rescheduled for October 31st – yeah….that’s Halloween – prayers that first and foremost everything goes as scheduled and that the results are perfect but also that my little guy is able to sleep off the anesthesia as well as he did a few weeks ago and will be ready to go in time for trick or treating!! Thanks in advance :)