Friday, August 26, 2011

This summer we...


Fell asleep in odd places...



And climbed in pools at pack meeting...



Made silly faces...



And grumpy faces...



Rode in a carriage...



And made a mess in our rooms...



Wore silly hats...


And just in general had ourselves a grand old time!

Friday, August 19, 2011

More medical stuff.

Doctor stuff is about all we've had going on this week. Besides trying to clean the house...

William decided to slide down the slide really fast, on the edge, last night. He came back in screaming about an owie, wouldn't put his arm down or anything. We took him into the local urgent care center where they x-rayed his collarbone. Sure enough, broken! Just a green stick fracture, but he'll be in a sling for a while. We take him back in a week to possibly have another x-ray done, make sure it's healing well.

Then today Nathan had an appointment with an ENT. He's been a lot more nasally lately, and almost gurgly in his speech. So we went to get him checked out. The first surgery he had, a couple years back, was to do a valve reconstruction on the valve between his nose and throat. 6 months later the doctor went back in to rotate the muscles above his pallate, only to discover that the valve had slipped down. So she fixed it, with strict instructions for us to bring him back in if we noticed him getting nasally again.

The new ENT did a fiberoptic scope, and we discovered that the valve isn't closing all the way. In fact, there is a lot of saliva hanging around it, and when air gets forced through it partially closed it makes lots of bubbles. Which explains the gurgly sound he's been having. So it's back to more speech therapy for Nathan! We're trying to get him in with a therapist who had cleft palate and valve flap work done herself.... since if anyone would be able to know how to best help him, she'd be it. Hopefully 3-6 months of therapy will show some improvement in those valve muscles, because if they don't, he's in for another surgery. :-(

And out of the blue, the doctor asked if he could take a look at Daniel as well. Danny-boy was born with these adorable dimples in his lips that nobody could explain except that his Daddy was born with them too. Turns out, they are a manifestation of Van Der Woude Syndrome, which also corresponds with cleft palatte/cleft lip! So he checked out the inside of Daniel's mouth and listened to him talk. Looks like the dimpled lips are the only thing he's got, but it was very interesting. And it really reassured me that this doctor knows what he is doing, unlike the first ENT we worked with for Nathan before we found the lady that did his surgery.

Reading more on the symptoms of the syndrome, it looks like Nathan has the same, as does Mark, theirs are just presenting differently. Interesting!


Friday, August 12, 2011

Doctor, Doctor... Tell me the news!

I got a bad case of.... lovin' you!

Ok, some of that is because I'm up way too late waiting on cake to bake because my first one fell completely apart and is now slated for a cake pop experiment at some point.

But we have had lots of doctor-y stuff this week.

William got to go in Wednesday afternoon after his toes kept him up crying for several hours in the wee hours of the morning, and his mommy too. Poor little guy has some pretty good ingrown toenails that have cracked on their own, they look like something has smashed them, it's pretty bad. And one was infected. :-( So he's got his little self a referral to a nearby podiatrist who will likely want to pull them off. A 4 year old with no big toenails. That's a recipe for some painful stubbed toes! (I know they'll grow back, but still...)

Then Nathan has his yearly checkup today, where we discussed his speech. He's been getting really nasally again, which has us worried. So he has a referral now to an ENT to make sure that his surgery site, that valve between his nose and throat, is up where it should be. He may need to go back to therapy, not sure yet.

We also discussed William, and the possibility that he has the same needs as Oren. But we're going to wait until his annual checkup to start evaluations.

I feel very blessed that we have good doctors, and that at least the children are covered, so their needs are being met.

Today saw me being really creative in the use of gum paste. There is now a cute rattle made of keys, like those plastic ones that have been around forever, and a mostly put-together pacifier just waiting to get placed around what will hopefully be an adorable diaper bag cake. I'm exhausted, but it will be worth it.