My Sickie

How can you not just love on this poor, pathetic, sick little guy?

Well, I certainly couldn’t resist so I snuggled him all evening.  And the next morning he tested positive for strep.  Here’s hoping nobody else in the house gets it…. It’s bad enough when one gets sick, but when it makes the round through the house and everyone gets it one after the other.  That’s the worst!  Mainly because it drags out for a week or more and than the first one has caught something else and around we go again!

Does this only happen in our house or do you experience it in yours as well?

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Update on Owen’s Eyes

I’m not sure what I expected to hear (or not hear) this morning at Owen’s eye appointment.  We know there is still an issue with his eyes, but we were hopeful that the doctor would use any of the following words:  normal, fine, improving, not bad or looking good.

Deep down I knew better, but was still hopeful none-the-less.  Unfortunately we didn’t really hear any of those words this morning.

Owen has a condition called Strabismus which basically means his eyes cross.  They measure his eyes with a prism test.  Prior to surgery the eye crossing was very obvious and was happening very consistently all day long.  If you look at the photo on this link you will see the prism testing tool.   You can see how they are measuring that person’s eyes at one of the notches very high on the tool.  Each of those lines moving down that tool shows more severity.  The stronger the prism that is required to align the eyes, the greater the eye turn.

When Owen was originally being tested last fall he was the second or third from the bottom.  That was consider severe and past the point of glasses being able to correct his condition.  This is why we needed to do eye muscle surgery.

Today as they were testing him they started at about the second section from the top which made me feel good.  However, the doctor had to keep moving it down in order to align Owen’s eyes.  With each notch he moved down, I felt my stomach turn.  I just wanted him to stop moving down the prism tool.  Owen is now at about the half way mark on that tool.  He’s come a long way from the bottom, but still not where he needs to be.

It’s not horrible.  But it’s also not great.  Obviously after surgery we wanted it to be corrected and for this to no longer be an issue for Owen.  For the last 6 weeks since our last appointment we have been doing alternate eye patching therapy.  Owen has gotten used to it, but certainly doesn’t like doing it.  And Ryan?  Well, Ryan loves that Owen has to have a patch because it usually means that they both get a jelly bean when Owen gets his patch on.

Today, Dr. Lipsky said we could stop patching for the next four weeks.  He wants to follow back up with Owen in 4 weeks and see what his eyes have done on their own during this time.  And he said he would monitor him and determine next steps at that point.  He also wants to dilate his eyes and check a few other things out.

I almost didn’t want to ask the question, but I did “What next steps are you thinking?  Glasses?  Or another eye surgery?”

He said that is what he’ll start to determine next time. I didn’t leave with a warm fuzzy feeling today that’s for sure.  I have a feeling there will be more surgery in our semi-near future.  I do have to say that it’s a good thing I really like Thomas Pediatric Eye Group.  They have my complete trust and I know they are doing everything they can to fix O-wee’s eyes.  There is no doubt in my mind that Dr. Lipsky is the best!

And then the best part of the whole visit?  Owen’s fabulous temper tantrum as we were walking out!  He screamed at the top of his lungs, cried and then attempted (actually succeeded) to hit me several times as I was carrying him out with my purse, a diaper bag, snacks and our paper work in other hand.  There was nothing I could do to stop the hitting since both of my hands were completely full (one with a squirming, screaming toddler).  It was awesome.  Oh how I wished daddy hadn’t left so quickly to jump on a conference call…..

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Owen’s Eyes

I haven’t given an update on Owen’s eyes for awhile and quite a few of you have asked how he’s doing.  Things are still status quo for now and we are still doing the alternate eye patching every day.  He’s handling it quite well and typically doesn’t scream anymore when we get one out for him to wear. 

If you ask him if he wants and eye patch he always responds quickly with “NO!”  But if you just bring it out and put it on he tolerates it.  It’s not his favorite thing, but he is handling it well.

Ryan likes to try to convince me that Owen needs an eye patch on both eyes at the same time. I try to explain to him that Owen wouldn’t be able to see if we put patches on both eyes, but Ryan still wants both of Owen’s eyes to be patched.  I hear this a lot “But momma.  O-wee NEEDS an eye patch on both eyes.  It makes him feel better. Yes, yes it does.”  Ahhhh…. brotherly love.

After the hour or so of wearing the patch is up, we ask Owen “are you ready to be done with your eye patch?” and he will rip it off and bring it over to you in a split second.  No questions or hesitation what-so-ever.  And if forget that it’s been an hour he will usually tolerate for about an hour and 15 minutes and all of a sudden he’s standing in front of you with the eye patch in hand saying “all done.”  We just love that kid.  So matter of fact.

We do have a follow up eye appointment on Friday morning so hopefully that will give us a better idea of how he’s doing and if the surgery was a success.  Jim and I have noticed a difference over the last 6 weeks and we think it’s improving. I’m not sure I would say it’s corrected entirely, but it is better than it was right after surgery. Much better actually.

So keep O-wee in your thoughts on Friday and keep your fingers crossed that his eyes are improving!

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Ugh.

On Sunday night I was convinced that this would be a good week.  There was so much potential for it to be good; there really was.  And while it hasn’t been horrible, it certainly hasn’t been good either.

I haven’t slept through a night yet this week.  It’s either been Owen up playing in his crib at 2am.  Or Ryan picking up his monitor in the wee hours of the morning to say “Mommy.  Daddy.  I need to go pee-pee.”  Or work on my mind and keeping me awake.  Or Owen’s eyes.  Yes, you heard it.  Owen’s eyes.

Over the weekend we noticed that Owen’s eyes started crossing a bit again.  Ugh.  The last three weeks have been awesome with absolutely no crossing.  But over the weekend we noticed he started favoring one eye over the other and crossing them.  So on Monday, I called Dr. Lipsky’s office and explained what was going on.  They agreed that we shouldn’t wait another 4 weeks for our follow up appointment and they squeezed Owen into their schedule today in Newnan.  Yes, you heard correctly.  Newnan.

Newnan is about an hour from our house with no traffic.  And don’t forget we live in Atlanta.  So regardless what day of the week it is; what time it is; or what direction you are going there is always traffic.  Always.  And today it happened to be raining buckets with numerous semi trucks on the freeway.  Oh, and they are doing construction on I-85 and down to two lanes; no shoulders; construction cones everywhere.  So all of that combined the drive to/from was super.

Dr. Lipsky and his nurse each did all of their usual tests and screenings.  Owen did fantastic.  He cooperated with all of it and was a happy little camper.  The nurse was very impressed and commented several times how great he was!  He really does cooperate with them and will look where they want him to; do what they tell him to do; and let them move his head around and cover his eyes over and over.

Dr. Lipsky said their is some crossing, but that he’s not ready to throw the towel in (his words) and say the surgery didn’t work.  He just thinks me need to work on it a little more and force his eyes to work correctly.  As he explained, when the surgery is done, most brains will say thank you for fixing this for me; I couldn’t do it on my own.  Owen’s brain isn’t.  But we all know how stubborn Owen can be and he isn’t just going with what should happen.

I can be thankful that all we are having to deal with is alternate eye patching for another 6 weeks.  I get that.  And I am very, very thankful that it isn’t more serious.  But I’m tired right now.  And I wanted this surgery to be successful and to not have to worry about this anymore.  Owen absolutely hates wearing his eye patches now and cries and cries when he sees us coming with one.  Tonight he put his head down on the kitchen table and just cried big ol’ crocodile tears not wanting to wear it.  Breaks my heart.  It certainly doesn’t hurt him to wear it, but it breaks my heart to make him do something he doesn’t like.

Tonight though it was cute because after wearing it for awhile, he took it off and brought it over to me “Momma.  All done.” and he handed the patch to me and walked away.  Ugh.  Mind of his own this little O-wee.

One day down and another 40+ days to go.  Wish us luck.

On a brighter note it is 2 weeks and 2 days until my mom, aunt Nancy and cousin Catherine get here!!  I cannot wait.  I am so excited to have them here for 10 days or so and over Easter!  Ok, I will also admit I’m excited because Jim and I will be going on a date night while they are in town.  They don’t know it yet, but we are.

We are yet to have a free babysitter for a date night.  Seriously.  A free babysitter.  What is that?!  We’ve never had such a thing for a date night.  We either pay a fortune for a sitter so we can escape together for a few hours or we use our babysitting coop and then I’m minus a bazillion points and have to sit for other families in our neighborhood to make up for the few hours we were able to escape for.  Both situations are stressful to me and therefore Jim and I have not had a date night since last November.  And I can’t even tell you when it was before that.  I don’t even remember.

But that’s about to change.  Date night when my mom gets here.  Gosh, I wish my mom lived closer.  And it’s not just because we’d have a free sitter now and then.  But because I know how much Ryan and Owen would enjoy having her around more.  Oh, and Delta too.  Grandma LOVES Delta and spoils her rotten.  And we can’t even talk about cousin Cathy and how every time Delta just looks at her leash Cathy takes her for a walk through the neighborhood.  Yep, Delta has cousin Cathy wrapped around her little paw.  Delta actually starts whining and whimpering and shaking when she sees Cathy each morning because she knows she gets to go walking.

So while we are dealing with alternate eye patching again, I know things could be worse.  I do.  And I’m thankful they are not.

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Our Champs!

Thank you to everyone who has called, emailed, text messaged us on a daily basis since Owen’s surgery.  It really means alot to know that so many of you are thinking about our little guy and have him in your prayers.  I wanted to let you all know that he is doing awesome!  He went to his eye surgeon, Dr. Lipsky for a follow up visit on Monday morning and he said Owen is perfect.  He is very pleased with how the surgery went and how Owen is recovering from it.

He has been back at school (Woodchase Academy) this week and doing great!  His teachers said that his eyes look great and are not wandering like they used to do during circle time.  They noticed how he’s much better at focusing and seems to be his normal, happy self.  Just as if he’d never had surgery at all.  Granted his eyes are still bloody and bruised so he still gets the “Oh poor O-wee” looks and comments, but the kid takes it like a champ and smiles and waves.

Our other little champ is Mr. Ryan James.  He can now identify all of his letters of the alphabet and all numbers up to 9.  He still gets a little confused with double digit numbers and for 12 will say “One and Two” and when I tell him it’s twelve he will tell me “No momma.  See.   It’s a ONE and this is a TWO.”  Well, ya got me there kiddo.  You’re right.

We finally have our kitchen chalkboard hung up; 2+ years of sitting against the wall and thanks to cousin Catherine for hanging it up when she came to visit last month!  Well I wrote the alphabet scattered all over the chalkboard and our new mealtime game is to discuss each letter and what it stands for.  Example…. E for Eagle.  G for Garbage.  U for Umbrella.  And so on.

Ryan can identify each and every letter and tell us what words starts with the letter.  He’s doing amazing since he’s only three years old.  He’s also learning how to write his name and is so proud of himself when he traces it correctly.  There is nothing better than to see the joy on his face when he does it correctly.

We’re so proud of both of our champs.  They amaze us everyday.

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Hours of Fun!

Who knew that a rubbermaid bin that we use for toy storage could provide hours of fun for two little boys?!

Warning… these photos were taken the day Owen had surgery so his eyes are pretty bloody in them.  I’ll try to spare you the really gross closeup ones. But as you can see from the photos he was on the road to recovery by evening.  These were taken just before bedtime.

Brothers!

Ryan

Owen after eye surgery

So much fun! And contained 🙂

What? Me?

Whatcha doin' Ryan?

I also had to throw one of the snuggle pics in here since it’s so rare that Owen will sleep like this in our arms.

Mommy & Owen snuggling after surgery

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Owen’s on the Mend

He came through his surgery with flying colors.  It was a long day on Thursday, but he’s on the mend now and back to his spunky and happy go lucky self.

If you know Owen or have read any of my previous posts, you know how much the kid likes food.  And how stubborn he is.  So waking him up in the morning and not bringing in a warm cup of milk for him to drink in his crib started the day off on a bad note.  He screamed and cried for “Mi” (which translates to milk).  We distracted him enough to forget about his usual warm cup of milk only to head downstairs and have him scream and cry for “nak” (which translates to snack).

Again, we distracted him enough to get him to the car only to have him scream and cry all the way to the surgery center because he wanted a “ca-ca” (which translates to cracker).  We were pretty stressed by the time we arrived because we had a little 18 month old who had been crying since he woke up that morning.  Ugh.

Luckily, they were pretty quick and got us back to pre-op and started to prep us for surgery.  That portion went really well and no tears were shed.  Well, until they took Owen from us to bring him back to surgery.  Owen SCREAMED at the top of his lungs while reaching for us with this confused, desperate look.  Yep, mommy lost it too.

The surgery only took about 45 minutes or so which went by fast.  Having Grandad Jim and Grandmom Janice there to chat with helped pass the time.  It was nice to have them there with us.

The doctor came out and said the surgery went perfect.  Awesome.  That’s what we wanted to hear.

I’ll spare you the details of the post op, IVs, bloody eyes and flailing, screaming child.  But I’m sure you can imagine that it wasn’t pretty.  It wasn’t fun.  And mommy almost passed out. Luckily daddy held it together to get Owen dressed and out of there.

Owen spent most of the day snuggled in mommy’s arms sleeping.  It was just what Owen and mommy needed.   By night time he was coming around and showing more signs of his spunky self.

The surgeon, Dr. Stephen Lipsky from Thomas Eye Group was amazing.  He was so kind and gentle and concerned for us.  He handled Owen and us so well and really put us at ease.  He gave us a level of comfort that was needed to make this whole ordeal less stressful.  And the best part was that around 9:15pm the night of Owen’s surgery, Dr. Lipsky personally called us to see how Owen was doing and to see if we had any questions.  He didn’t ask one of his nurses or techs to call.  He personally picked up the phone and called us.  Amazing.

And now today, other than having bloody eyes still you wouldn’t even know he had surgery.  He is doing great!  The risk of infection is still really high so we are staying in all weekend.  This ought to be interesting especially since our Atlanta Spring weather has been AWESOME the last few days.  It’s been so warm and sunny.  I love it.

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Owen’s Surgery Scheduled

Owen’s eye muscle surgery will take place tomorrow morning, bright and early.  We need to be there at 8am and the surgery is scheduled for 9:30am.  They say it should take an hour or so, but like the surgeon said, “the surgery will take as long as it takes for us to get his eyes fixed.”

Owen is a little champ.  He has been on a nebulizer this week for some wheezing which the doctor wanted to knock out of his system before going in for surgery.  I was worried about our oh so stubborn 18 month old who has taken a new habit of biting still objects if they don’t cooperate the way he wants them to.  I wasn’t sure how we’d get him to sit still for a 20 minute nebulizer treatment while something is strapped to his face.

Surprisingly though, he just sits there perfectly still not touching it or even moving.  It bothers Ryan far more than it bothers Owen.

Ryan:  “Momma.”
Mommy:  “Yes, Ryan?”
Ryan:  “Momma, O-wee doesn’t like that.  He done now.”
Mommy:  “No, Ryan.  O-wee doesn’t mind it at all.  O-wee is being a very good boy.  It doesn’t hurt him.  He’s just breathing air.”
Ryan:  “No momma.  It hurt O-wee.  O-wee don’t like it.  He tell me.  He done now.”
Mommy:  “Just a few more minutes buddy and we’ll take it off.”
Ryan (with a VERY concerned look):  “O-tay momma.”

We’re on our third day of “breathing” and even Ryan has adjusted to it.  He helps get it all ready for Owen and carts the little machine around while we set it up.

Now the eye drops…. a completely different story.  Owen screams at the top of his lungs when he sees those drops coming toward him.  He hates it.  And it’s awesome because we have 5 or more days left to do them.  Super.

Ryan on the other hand will voluntarily lay down and ask for eye drops so that he can have a lollipop.  That conversation goes like this:

Ryan:  “Momma.  I lay down and get eye drops.  I no cry.”
Mommy:  “Ryan, you don’t need eye drops.  Only O-wee does.”
Ryan:  “But momma.  I need eye drops too.  I no cry.  I get a lollipop.  Yah, I do.  I don’t cry and I get a lollipop.”
Mommy:  “Ryan, you can’t have eye drops.”
Ryan:  “Oh, but I still get lollipop??”
Mommy:  “No, no lollipops.  You bounce off the walls after a lollipop and it’s almost bedtime.”
Ryan:  “Momma.  I don’t bounce on walls.”

Mommy and daddy are tired, stressed and beyond worried.  We’re confident everything will be just fine, but it’s never easy to have to bring your baby in for any type of surgery.  Regardless of the situation.  It’s hard to do and hard to not think about it non-stop and worry about all those risks that are presented to you.  I am very excited for this surgery to be done and over and for Owen’s eyes to be corrected and for them to not bother him anymore.  He is such an awesome little guy and so full of spunk and energy.  He truly is a gift.  So please keep him in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.   We love our little O-wee oh so much!!

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Surgery is Scheduled

We had Owen’s eye appointment bright and early this morning and they scheduled his surgery for Thursday, February 18.  We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us with appointments and even a birthday party party thrown in there.  Owen has to be seen one more time by the eye surgeon as well as an appointment with his pediatrician.  Luckily we already had his 18 month check up scheduled for the 15th so it works out perfectly in regard to the timing.

Please keep our little man in your thoughts and prayers during this time.  But as the surgeon today said “It’s tougher on mom and dad than it is on the little ones.”  Owen is such a little champ and just goes with the flow so it definitely makes it easier.  Well, that is between biting anyway.

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Update on Our Week

Thank you to everyone for all of your phone calls, emails and text messages to check on us and how the week was continuing.  Even though the week was a rough one (and did continue on that path), we were all in pretty good moods and taking it all as it came.  It just seemed that it was one thing after another after another that kept us on our toes.  But again, things could have been worse and I know that.  We’ve had THOSE weeks.  Remember this one just a few months or so ago and how it continued with this one?

Yes, I am fully aware that this past week could have been worse.

It actually became a little humorous with all the craziness that kept coming up.  After our goose egg to the head incident, I thought it was improving.  But then it snowed in Atlanta on Friday and the city basically shut down.  The entire area was coated in ice and the roads were snow covered (by just a 1/4 of an inch or so), but on top of the ice it made for a bad situation when the city isn’t prepared like Minneapolis, Denver or Superior.

So even though I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts from my northern friends and hearing about the ridiculous amounts of snow they have had; the sub zero temperatures; and the crazy driving conditions, those areas are prepared for that weather.  Roads are plowed and sanded before work hours and everyone owns clothing that will keep them warm in temperatures below zero.

That’s not necessarily the case here in Atlanta.  People were having a hard time getting down the hill outside of our neighborhood because it was completely covered in ice and cars were slipping and sliding all over.  Atlanta folks don’t know how to drive on ice; they don’t need to very often.  While we “own” hats, mittens and scarves, we are not prepared with snowsuits, boots and big, heavy, thick winter jackets.  The temperatures here have been in the teens and 20’s and for Atlanta, that is cold!

I know, I know.  Teens and 20’s sound good to some of you reading this blog post right now, but again, we don’t typically get weather like that so it’s a shock to the system.

So the crazy week continued with all the weather on Friday and daycare being closed.  Yep.  Closed.  So I had to figure out how to occupy two active boys for two different conference calls AND still get my long list of to-do’s done for work that day.  It was a challenge, but one that went better than I could have hoped for.

We’ve had a constant fire in the fireplace for about a week now and I love it.  I finally took down the Christmas decorations this weekend too.  That made me very, VERY sad because I absolutely loved our Christmas tree this year.  I don’t know why I liked it so much more than past years, but I absolutely loved the house this Christmas.  We all did.  Ryan would tell me everyday when I would turn the lights on the tree “Oh, momma.  The Kiss-mis tree is beautiful!” and I would always respond with “Yes, Ryan.  It is.  It is absolutely beautiful.”

I can’t believe we’ve only been back to work for a week after our holiday break.  It really seems more like 3 weeks.  I haven’t even updated on Owen’s last eye appointment which was several weeks ago already.  It’s been determined that he will need eye muscle surgery.  No other options.  I had a great conversation with his eye doctor (that we like!) and surgery will be scheduled at his next appointment.  In case you aren’t up to date on what has been going on the story starts here and continues here and here and here and here.

At this last appointment, Dr. Levine explained how they wanted to build Owen’s case to be absolutely sure that this was the best route to take.  He said they needed for Owen’s eyes to become stable and to be more consistent with each other. He said that he’s doing great in his progress and what they were wanting from the results of this monitor and case building stage.  Of course, great is relevant to the situation because surgery is not a “great” end result, but we will do what is best for Owen and best for his situation.  We have not taken any of this lightly and I have spent many countless days and nights stressed over the whole situation.  Again, we are ever so thankful that his MRI was clear and that his pediatrician gave him a clean bill of health in the neurological area too.  This to me is all far more important than anything else could be.

His next eye appointment will be the first week of February and we will be meeting with his surgeon to discuss the actual surgery including pre and post as well.  We will also be moving forward with scheduling the surgery and from what I’ve been told it’s approximately 4 weeks after this next appointment.  So, it’s looking like it will be late February or early March so please keep our handsome, funny little man in your thoughts and prayers.  He truly is a gift and makes us all laugh and smile with the funny personality he is developing.  He is awesome.

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