Ears, 'Cept Different

Not to be left out, today we discovered that both of Alexander's ears have "bad" ear infections that "look like they've been bothering him for a while." Based on his other symptoms (like not eating much and sleeping in today till 11:40) and hearing his cough, doc says it could be bronchitis or pneumonia as well. Didn't need to officially diagnosis the last two as the azithromycin would help all of it. Poor guy has been miserable for nearly a week but I had no idea he had an ear infection (or 2 rather). He's never had one before. Rapid strep was negative and they're doing a full culture.

His daddy is really sick with a cold. Since he's prone to pneumonia and we were already in the building, I made him go to convenient care. While waiting I took both kids into the women's room. Alexander made an escape. Just as I was about to get security as he could not be found, a nice lady in the waiting room pointed out the table he was hiding under. (sigh) People actually giggled as I hauled the two of them outta there to the car to wait. Karma will get 'em.

Sophie and I have the cold crud and when momma's grumpy, everybody's grumpy. Blasted winter! Now back to American Idol. Ya, I admit it. I really like the guy singing now who recently lost his wife. Nice guy. Good pipes. Hope he goes far. Same goes for the piano player who happens to be blind.

Eyes and Ears

Sophie's 11:30 appointment with ENT/audiology finally got under way today at St. Louis Children's Hospital around 12:45. The nurse held her down with a vice grip so that the ENT could get a look and clean out her waxy ears. She screamed so much that there were snot bubbles coming out of her nose and mouth and capillaries broke all over her little face (see red spots in pic above). He got a good look in her right ear and saw fluid and no movement of the ear drum. The left ear was even more waxy and Sophie had had enough so I asked for a break. He didn't get as clear of a look, but decided to stop as he had made his decision. (The left ear also had "some white" in it.) So, she's getting tubes in both ears at SLCH in 3 weeks. Audiology was cancelled for the day as it would be pointless now and they check hearing 4-6 weeks post surgery anyway.

Then, the eyes. Sophie's Strabismus surgery last May on her left eye was related to superior oblique muscle palsy. To 'fix' it, the surgeon cut and moved the opposite muscle to weakened it so that they would be even (layman's terms). This muscle effects more of the up and down movement of the eye. What Sophie has now is also Strabismus, but of the (bi)medial rectus muscle, or those that effect the left to right movement. As this Momologist suspected and insisted they check (though I'm sure they would have anyway), this time BOTH eyes are affected. Her eyes are not turning in severely at this point and her vision is good and pretty much equal in both eyes, which means her brain is not favoring one over the other. They're calling it intermittent esotropia. We were instructed to come back in 3-4 months or earlier if it gets worse. Hmm. I wonder what we might be doing around May 10th (Maybe's due date), and June (a possible move depending on the job situation)? So we haven't scheduled yet as I've got to figure that out.

We didn't see our regular opthomologist today as she was in surgery. Instead we had a resident. Nice guy, but I've got more questions than answers and will be calling to talk to the doc tomorrow. The resident said that this is not something that eye exercises or patching will help and that 'possible' bimedial rectus recession would be needed. However, once you start moving more than one muscle, you can end up with 'weird' things happening.

I know it could be much worse news. I will adjust to this new information and move forward. In the meantime I had a hot fudge sundae on the drive home.

Also, our dentist had the misfortune of calling to reschedule Alexander's appointment for Friday. This would be the 4th appointment in a row that they've rescheduled just days prior so that the dentist could attend a meeting or training. Guess what? I fired them and politely but firmly explained that they clearly do not value their patients' time. So now we need a new dentist.

On a wonderful note, it was 66 degrees in St. Louis and Kinlee was born today! I won't steal her momma's glory, so I'll hold back from revealing the details. We had planned to get a peek, but with our sickies, we opted to drop off some goodies with RK's sister instead. We'll see them in 3 weeks when we go back and I won't have to fight off the crowd! Congratulations to the family!

Cookie Tragedy

I just burned a dozen cookies because:

a.) Although I thought I set the timer, it didn't work
b.) I'm watching the DVD The Saint and Val Kilmer always has my full attention
c.) Pregnancy brain
d.) The grips of Facebook have me
e.) All of the above

My reaction to the burnt cookies was:

a.) Oh well. Its just 1 dozen. I've got housework to do and need to prepare for our trip to St. Louis Children's Hospital tomorrow anyway (for Sophie's appts. ENT/audiology & opthomology)
b.) Got mad, chucked them off of the back porch where at least the cats can enjoy watching the squirrels get them.
c.) Dig out a half bag of chocolate chips left over from another baking project and immediately whip up another half batch.
d.) All of the above except 'a'

Name That Movie

Anyone can play, but this is dedicated to all ya'll over in Facebook. I joined 2 weeks ago and have found it to be an amazing and strange new land. Since you're not 'allowed' to post video clips that aren't yours in the FB, I'm placing it here. Come on now. Name that movie! (bonus points for naming the woman who does her voice)

Beautiful Mind

Conversations with our 4 year old son.

A few days ago at bed time.

(Mark) I'm exhausted.
(Alexander) What's eggasted?
(me) V e r y, very tired.

Two nights ago just before bedtime.

(Alexander, stated in a long, drawn out fashion) I'm exhausted! (pronounced correctly)
(me) You are?
(Alexander) Ya. I want go bed now.
_____________________________
Alexander has a bad cold and has been fighting a shake inducing fever for 24 hours. We took his temp and felt his skin just before bed time last night.

(me) Oh boy. I think your fever broke!
(Alexander) It didn't break. It's fixed!

You're Fired

When was the last time that such a thing was wonderful news? I'll tell you when. When we were told not to ever come back, when we crossed an 'ologist off of Sophie's list. When Sophie was born there were 3 findings regarding her heart including a small muscular VSD, PFO and small PDA. None of the findings required any action beyond monitoring. Last February, Sophie had a repeat echo cardiogram that revealed that she only had a small PDA. Yesterday she had another echo and I am overjoyed to announce that the small PDA has closed on its own and we no longer have need of a cardiologist! That's right. Dr. Heart fired us and we couldn't be happier.

Other health updates are that Sophie is working on tooth number 8, a lower left molar. Next week we travel back to St. Louis Children's Hospital for an appointment with her ENT and audiology. This time they plan to isolate her ears to find out how each one is hearing. We have also been worked into the schedule with opthomology. After Sophie's last check up, we were told to come back in a year. However, the eye that she had Strabismus surgery on has begun turning inward and upward slightly, once again. I already knew that it is not uncommon to need repeat Strabismus surgeries, but am hoping that won't be the case.

In archiving my videos recently, it struck me how much she has changed in her 19 months on Earth. She's no longer my little baby. She's getting bigger and doing more every day. This update is not meant to be a comparison or brag and it is not my wish to upset any other extra special moms who I know love her. I'm proud of Sophie's accomplishments and I know you are too, just as I am proud of the little ones I've come to know and love.

Sophie has added the word 'boo' to 'peek.' Her favorite words are Daddy, baby, and Bubba (Mom/Mama comes in much further down the list). She waves and says 'bye bye' consistently and in the right setting. She even shouts it if the person she's greeting is far away. She's a millisecond away from cruising and pulls to stand like a champ. She could set world records in speed crawling. She kisses with puckered lips and sound vs. her original open mouth slobbers. She makes car and train noises when playing with Alexander's toys. She's developed a giggle and sense of humor that's contagious. Sophie nurses once at night and I expect to wean her by the end of the month. Straw drinking was a long and wholly worthwhile learning experience and without her ST, I'd be tandem nursing! She's great at putting toys 'in' (even when its other things like Daddy's slipper 'in' the bathtub or a ball 'in' the toilet). She has a great attention span, even with new toys, and gets very focused and intense. She seems to understand questions, like "where's Daddy?" because she often points with her index finger (though not every time). She often complies to requests like, 'hand me the toy.' She loves books and anything her big brother likes. In fact, she thinks her brother is the coolest guy around. She's such a social butterfly and she draws people to her where ever she goes. She also has developed a little princess attitude when she doesn't get her way, though it's so cute, its hard to get mad when she's being a stinker. In a word, we think she's pretty great.

(blog note: in the new menu bar, the VIDEO and CONTACT sections have been updated)

Tech Joy

It's been a techy day and I even managed to get some house cleaning done. I took on a personal challenge of messing with html coding and such to build a navigation/menu bar for the blog after learning how to add audio files earlier in the day. Thanks to this site, the menu bar wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. What's been more time consuming has been filling it (adding photos, building a blogroll, etc.).

I have received an error message a few times saying that there has been a problem with add ons in internet explorer and it has shut down. grr. It restarts right away with no problem. I don't know if it is an issue with the audio files or the menu bar or what. That aside, I'm quite pleased with the results of my journey into tech land today. This is definitely not my area of expertise, but it was fun to see if I could do it.

That brings me to a request about the blogroll. Please leave me a comment if you would like to be added, want your listing/name altered, or find a misspelling or broken link. Let me know too if you see the site crash.

I'll be continuing to mess with the menu items in an attempt to clean up my cluttered sidebar. As for now, its off to bed.