The New Nurse....

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So I take Noah and Nathan to their Pediatrician ...  mind you, they have a different doctor than the rest of us because of their insurance.   Anyway - their Ped's normal nurse was very pregnant last time we saw her, and she wasn't there.  It was some new girl.  So we get there at 3 for a 3:15 appointments, we sign in and wait to be called.

No one is up there....

No...... the receptionist is way too busy talking personal life with one of the nurses .....

This goes on and on and on ...  at 3:10 some guy walks in and gets checked in right away ....

At 3:15 a couple of ladies walk in and sign in ...  the receptionist makes some joke about them being right on time....

Another minute passes by as she continues to talk personal life with the other receptionist who is also doing nothing (well she might be doing something on her computer .... )

Another minute or so passes ...   finally we get called up to the window to check in at 3:18 ...  REALLY?

So I get them checked in - initial this and this and go sit down. 

I go sit back down with the boys ...   the door finally opens and there stands this new nurse ...  apparently the normal nurse is on maternity leave?

"Nathan"  She says ...

So I get up - start gathering the jackets and my bag ...  and Noah goes "Should I come too?"  ... "Ah, yeah Noah."  So he gets his stuff and follows.

We get behind the door to their little weigh in station and the nurse says "Nathan can you please take off your shoes" and I notice she's looking at Noah.  I'm still trying to juggle stuff and put stuff down.  She repeats herself, looking straight at Noah....  So I said, "That's not Nathan," I point to Nathan now that I got the stuff out of my hands...  "That's Nathan," so I grab him and start to help him take off his shoes.

"This is for a five year old?" she says ....  Nathan looks two and Noah looks like he's six or seven... I can see where the confusion takes place ...

"Yes," I said.  "He is five."

She looks really confused, looks at Noah again.

"I'm ten!" Noah tosses in.

"Oh," she says ...  obviously still confused.

Lesson One:  DO NOT ASSUME!!!  It's awful simple to ask "which one is" when parents come in with more than one child - unless one is obviously a baby and the other is older....

Nate hops up on the scale.  26 lbs...  and he was 37 inches (I think) 

After Nathan gets weighted and measured ...  I said, "I have Noah too, they both have DR appt with DR A."

"huh?"

"Noah has an appointment with Dr. A. too."

"Oh, what's his name?"

"Noah."  Didn't I just say that?

She disappears and comes back with his chart.  Tells him to take off his shoes.... he's 56lbs ...  "DO I WEIGH THE SAME AS NATHAN" he trembles.

"No, you weigh more," I say.  He's relieved.  Silly boy.

We get back into the room. 

She goes through vitals and all that for both kids... asks me a million questions .... then leaves.

I bring out Nate's blue bird and green piggy so they can play Angry Birds while waiting.

15 minutes later ....  she comes back in and takes Noah's blood pressure again and leaves...

They are bored playing Angry Birds, not to mention - the "sound" box for the blue bird got broke there...  lovely - Nathan is wigging out ...

They play Doctor for awhile, I think I got 500 shots between the two of them....  every one of them was administered with great care, while I was reading, I didn't feel a thing.

5 minutes later .... knock on the door - I'm thinking it's the DR ....  nope, it's the chatty Cathy receptionist who decided she needed to go pen hunting and comes in and steals all the pens from the room claiming "there's so many in here" and "I don't need many" but then I hear her knocking on another exam room when she leaves ours....

 2 minutes later the nurse comes in and hands me some papers "Oh these are for you, are you done with those?" pointing to the ones the desk had given me.  "Yes" I said and handed it to her... ... walks out. I notice there are two more pens under where I had put the clipboard... 

Kids are still bored.... we try to sing Old McDonald Had A Farm ...  but the only thing he had on the farm was a DINOSAUR and who knew Old McDonald lived on the island of Jurassic Park???

The kids then proceeded to be dinosaurs.  Noah was a Velociraptor and Nathan was a Triceratops... how do I know?  Noah announced it and Nathan was a series of questions and knowing his favorite dinosaurs...  plus he kept head butting Noah...  LOL...  impaling him with the three horns I assume. 

10-15 minutes later .... Knock ...  DR is finally here....

"I'm sorry about the wait but there is a lot to review for your kids.... "

"Nah," I counter.  "Not my kids.  Couldn't be my kids."

She laughs.

She's looking at the kids - who are still pretending to be dinosaurs....  I say "they are dinosaurs"

"I see that," she says.

So it's suppose to be a well-child check for Nathan and Noah ... and I told her that I wanted to talk to her about Nathan's cough because it's concerning me.  I tell her about it and she brought up whooping cough - which is something Dennis and I thought it might be.  If he has it, I think it's mild.  But it's still concerning.  She wanted to give him a little while to see if he gets over it over the weekend.  He has an appointment for his well child check up now on Tuesday - because they can't seem to do more than one issue at a time.   His lungs are clear - etc and so on.  So she wanted to wait - because the test isn't pleasant...  We talked about how I originally thought it was Nathan's asthma so I had been given him nebbies and how I even thought about giving him some of Kaedyn's prednisone ....  but I didn't.  I couldn't remember the dose of his albuteral cartridges .. she said if it was under 2.5 to double up (it's 2.5) ...  so I'll wait to see if she still wants use to double up or just stick with one.

When the DR came in ....  Nathan was okay - when she went to examine him - he flipped out and ran into the corner behind the exam table and was screaming - I had to pull him out.  Once the exam was over and I put him on the floor - he ran off and hid under a chair - sometimes screaming - until the appointment was over, this isn't like him .... at all.  :( 

Nathan's coughing fit while playing Wii Tennis with Kaedyn (long video, the tennis is funny, coughing fit happens at about 1:20 in with some little coughs, has a bigger one at 2:40 and again at 3:05 ...  but these are mild compared to a lot he's had)
 
Nathan's coughing fit this morning (short video - all about his coughing, I didn't catch most of it, this is the tail end, there was gagging involved in this one
...)


Then she moves onto Noah ....  everything looks good other than he is having issues getting himself clean (from the bathroom) ...  :::sigh:::    She brought up follow ups we're suppose to have, two of which we already did ... one I need to schedule ...  When she checked his back for scoliosis - it was funny - she got her scolimeter ... and kept taking measurements over and over and said "I think he's just not standing straight or something.  I told her "His left leg is longer than his right, so yeah, he can't help it."  LOL... 

She leaves but pops back in saying that Noah's blood pressure had been high ... that the systolic number was high ... normal is lower than 111 ... and his was 116 (one of the times) ...  the nurse came back in and took it again and it was normal.   Noah gets super anxious for appointments - so I'm not surprised I guess.

The nurse prints off the papers from the appointments (appointment summaries) and  then says goodbye...

So we get jackets on and clean up our stuff...  and walk out the door to the exam room....

... in the hallway after we round the corner I hear "Oh hey - wait" and so I'm directing the kids back towards our room we had been in - as I'm rounding the corner with the kids I hears "Wait Nathan's Mom" ...  and she's standing at the other end of the short hallway ...  so she says "hang on" and she's searching for something.  She comes back with a pulse ox monitor ..  Nathan puts his finger in and after a little while it starts going - his oxygen is only at 85% ... after awhile of it staying there she takes it off and starts doing it again ....

Then this other nurse comes along - she's probably captivated with Nathan's adorableness ... and she stops, literally hovering over him ...

I'm thinking ....  Lady, this kid has autism, he doesn't LIKE to be hovered over unless it's one of the family ....  I'm expecting him to start curling up into his ball or come closer to me OR start screaming, but he's good - he doesn't move.... He stands there with his finger in the thing.   The other nurse says "Sometimes it helps if you put two fingers in there" but then it starts up again ...  this time his ox starts out at 93% then dances around 97-96% ...  she took the 97% ...

THEN we left....   thankful that was all over.  We got there at 8 and left at 10:10 ....... yep, two hours and ten minutes.......

I get to go back next week  on Tuesday ....... YAY!!

Update *Nathan*

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First I want to say that Nathan just turned FIVE!!!  I had a little walk down memory lane in my main blog, and had to post all about his birthday!!  So go check those out if you are interested :)

As for medical updates......  what kind of doctor HASN'T he been to lately .... oh I know one...  Gynecology! 

On that note - we'll start the updates.......

First he had a visit with his autism doctor - who sometimes - annoys me.  Because Nathan will play with toys and has an imagination - he thinks that he will eventually "grow out of" the PDD-NOS diagnosis.  Because he was playing with the big duplo type blocks and making the Mommy & Daddy go to Mars in the rocket ship he built.  How do I know this - yes and no questions.  He was having a good day when we were there.  He wasn't stuck in Angry Bird land, he was very interactive ...  it was a good day.  Because of that, it's in his Doc's head now that he may not *really* have autism, just autistic tendencies ...  he said he wants to push the speech therapy ...  which I think it pointless and just another thing to add to my already over-filled schedule.  When I get a chance to talk to his speech therapist at his preschool whom I really like and respect, and ask her about it - then I might consider it.  Nathan has more speech issues than just "autism" stuff.  I think Nathan is more in the Asperger spectrum than PDD-NOS - he is super smart and if he could talk, I think he would be having some very interesting conversations - however - his speech issues have more do with medical stuff ... which I'll get to later.  My mom went to this appointment - and she's gone to several appointments with me... and when Nathan gets into his moods ("autistic tendencies") which is a lot of the time.... most the time..... I say "and Dr. H says he may not have autism" and she laughs .  She thinks that he should just sit and actually observe him for more than 15 minutes with toys he hasn't played with before.

Beginning of April he meet with his Cleft Palate team ....  this consists of .... well a lot of people.

and Magenta ....... can't forget about Magenta ...

First we saw the Speech Lady - the same one we saw last time.  If you recall .... HERE .... I wasn't all that impressed with her.  Nathan wasn't cooperating with her - I had to do stuff to get him to say anything - and the words that he says that are really good "Momma" "Bubble" "Purple" are his most used words that he's been working on for years.  Momma is a given .... Bubble... he looooooooooves bubbles.... and purple is his favorite color (other than pink) ...   so because he could say BUBBLE and PURPLE she said that he wasn't losing air when he talked due to his cleft ... (Cuz his speech therapist at school called me up to address that specifically) ... this lady just wouldn't listen to me.  So this time.... I just had this..... attitude.  I figured she wasn't going to listen to me again - but this time.... was a little different.  I told her again .. "Listen, Nathan's Speech therapist at school says he's losing air when he talks." and she's all "well we addressed that last time and honestly I have found that speech therapists who work with kids in a school setting hear 'cleft palate' and just start saying that." ...   So I was like .... really??  REALLY???  She's just going to say that these people don't know what they are talking about???   That's just not cool.  So last time she said Nathan had Dyspraxia ... so .... she gets him to work with her this time.... and he says Bubble and Purple again and she says "because he can do the Bah and Pah sounds he can push that air or sound out of his mouth - he's not losing air."  She's working with him some more, he's repeating words ... blah blah blah .... then she pulls out this stethoscope looking thing with the tip of a booger squishier (nasal aspirator) on it.  So she puts the ends in his ears and she has my mom and me say words to show him it's okay and then does it to him.   He says the words and she sits back and says ....  "He's losing air through his nose" ......

SLAPS FOREHEAD ........

DUH!!!

She goes back and looks at her notes and goes "he definitely wasn't losing air last time" ... yes he was.  She A: didn't get close enough to hear and B: Didn't use that nose thingy and C: he wasn't cooperating with her.   YES HE WAS!

At least she admitted she made a mistake ... sorta.

So he has .... VeloPharyngeal Insufficiency - or VPI.  They gave me a paper on it ...  you can view it here.  That's the link the Seattle Children's thing on it - which is pretty much the paper they handed me.

So he definitely has that - as far as the dyspraxia - I don't know ....  in addition to the VPI they say his mouth is very uncoordinated ...  they want me to keep with the alternative communications appointment - and actually- his Speech Therapist and the OT (I think) said they wanted to go with to that appointment. There are a lot of different devices they can use for him.  He already has a communication book (linked his IEP blog when he recently got it) and some other things are in the like that I posted at the beginning of talking about the speech stuff (.... the I wasn't impressed with her....)  .... but what I am REALLY hoping for is an iPad with the ProLoQuo2Go app.  You can read more about that in THIS BLOG.

 So she wants him to work on sounds such as M, N, W, Y, L, R, H that he can work on.... and 2 syl words w/ same consonant.... 2 syllable words with different consonants...

Anyway .....  then we had a little bit of a lull....  so I kept commenting on Nathan's dimples and he was loooooooooooking for them.... 

 (Video of Nathan looking for his dimples)


The next appointment was Social Work.... she couldn't really help us out at all - we've got all the services we can - at the moment - so she can't really direct us to anything else.

Nathan just decided to start ignoring everyone at that point and play on his computer.

Nutrition came in next ..... I looooooooooooath nutritionists ....  MOST of them sit there and tell you everything that you've already been told or make you feel like you aren't feeding your child properly ...  we are doing everything we can, but you can't force a child to eat and you can't make them eat things that they just won't or makes them sick due to taste/texture ...

But this one was nice, and I like her - and I think we'll continue to see her.  And Dennis agreed!

So I outright told her ... this is what we're doing, this is what we've tried .. this is what he will eat, this is what he won't ... this is what we add to food he does to bump up calories ... this is how much Pediasure he drinks....  we offer him the same foods we do our other kids and his little brother is bigger than him and actually we're being told he needs a little baby diet by one pediatrician ...  etc and so on .... and she says "It sounds to me like you are very knowledgeable and doing everything you can to encourage him to eat."

She is going to help us get Pediasure through the insurance since WIC won't be picking it up anymore.  Once he's 5 - he gets kicked out of WIC ... and so we have to find another way to get it. 

By the time the main doctors came in ....  Nathan was D-O-N-E ...... and thankfully, neither of them made us wake him up.

Dr.P - the ENT - came in and talked to us.  He said there was no doubt he needed the surgery to correct his cleft palate (V.P.I) ... that his biggest concern moving forward would be Nathan regressing and not being able to get him to eat after the surgery.

Dr. C came in and was telling us about the surgery (he's the one who will actually do it) and how he's planning on first putting another pair of tubes in his ears ... and then he'll start to correct the cleft.  He's going to fold over something from one side to create resistance on one side, and pull down some muscle from his nose to create resistance from the other side. 

We were telling DR. P and DR. C how when Nathan eats pasta - he gets it up his nose.  Everything gets up his nose :/    So they were talking about how they may have to go in and put a bump in the back of his throat (to keep stuff out of his nose) ...  and how they hope he won't need it and this will solve it - so they aren't going to do that until they have to.

We talked about how that might be part of Nathan's problem eating things....  he has no resistance at the roof of his mouth and when stuff pushes against it - it's got to hurt :/  so those foods that hurt, he doesn't want to eat......

Oh, right ...  he said they were going to sew up his uvula also ...  so he won't have bifid uvula anymore. 

Funny thing - Dr. P was the one who wanted to solve the mystery of Nathan (not believing the RSS diagnosis) ...  and he took one look at him this time and agreed he has RSS ....  dur.....

Craniofacial clinic is always a long day - so we were happy to get on the road home!

After that he had Neurology appointment ... I mean a different day of course - not the same day ...  and that went well.  Mainly - he's happy that the migraine meds are working and didn't say to much else.  At least ...  not that I remember ....  if I remember - I might have to come back and add.  Cuz - I'm totally drawing a blank.

Ooooooh I remember .... I did ask him if his speech issues could have anything to do with his brain malformations .... (missing vermus & polymicrogyria) ...  and he said he thought it most likely had more to do with his Russell Silver Syndrome more than anything.  

Next appointment we went too (this week actually) ... was Endocrinology ... his growth doc!  He still isn't anywhere near being "on the charts" .... but he did grow - a little.  A couple months ago, after all this started happening with Dennis - he started having major anxiety issues with his shots.  So we stopped them.  Was it really worth all the calories he burned throwing this massive fit and having this horrible anxiety???  So I just wanted to stop until we could get in and talk to her.  And she helped.  Giving your child shots is hard :/  no parent wants to do it.....   but I am the one who fought for the HGH shots anyway :/   So .... I told her what was going on, why we stopped ... she said it was okay.  She explained to me that with Nathan's thyroid meds his thyroid is normal - YAY ....  but with his last labs (last fall) his growth hormone was .6something ... and normal.  But with this last lab he did - it was .3something and that was low.  So he definitely has a growth hormone deficiency  ... and he really does NEED the shots.   So she had a child life specialist come in and talk to us, try to give me some tips for him - for me - for the whole process ....  she gave him hospital kids for him, Kaedyn and Noah.... and so they all have dolls with gowns and have bags of bandaids, a "shot" ... and various other stuff....

He did grow, just not well.   And he seemed to have gained the weight he lost from being sick with the bad virus he had - back!  YAY!!  He finally got over the 25lb hurdle and was 26lbs ... and when he got sick, he went back down to 24 :(   So he was back up to 26!!  YAY!!! 

So when we got home we drew faces on the hospital babies....

 Noah and his (he wanted blue eyes)

 Nathan and his..... 

 Kaedyn and his .... at first he said "blue eyes" but then he changed it (after I already did one) and said "noooooooo GREEN EYES!!!" So they are blue-green eyes... lol.... 

 PAGING DR. NATHAN!!!!!

So that brings us to Wednesday ......  Nathan's last day of being FOUR YEARS OLD!!!  We were in Seattle for most the day for three appointments - two for Noah and one for Nathan........... lucky doctor of the day .... Urology!!

running off some energy between appointments ... Noah, Nathan & Kaedyn.... 

Dr. B ...  we really like Dr. B ...  he has a son, himself, how has medical issues....  so it's always nice to have a doctor who understands.  Anyway ...... so the first thing out of his mouth when he exams Nathan is .. what a fantastic looking penis Nathan has (no lie) ... ha ha ... and told me that even though he put the urinary tract opening on the top of Nate's penis, after the cath came out and such it retracted to the point that it's coming out under his penis just below the head. So he wants to let Nathan's penis mature another year - and then if he's not peeing straight or what not (doesn't fix itself), then they are going to go back in and finish the job - taking it to the tip - but this is going to involve taking some skin from someplace (I think he said the inside of Nathan's cheek) .... to finish it. ALSO .... his right testicle (after his hernia surgery at 6 months, we think) got stuck up in his belly and wouldn't come back down. They tried to move it down with his first hypospadious (penis urinary tract correction) surgery and it failed because it went back up. So it has shriveled up and died - and is stuck in his belly .... so it will have to - at some point - be removed. I remember last time we talked about this he had said that it was because the body will attack it - eventually - and there is a very good chance it could turn cancerous or something... so in a year we'll know more about that.

So ..... two surgeries in the future.  Cleft Palate in the end of May (totally terrified about this) and another surgery on his poor poor penis sometime next year :/   Nothing really pressing coming up now....  his very last WIC appointment...  well child visit with his Ped....  visit with the dentist ..... and then on the 22nd of May is his Alternative Communications appointment, that same day he will see anesthesiology in preparation for his surgery on the 25th.    I'm scared .... I know it needs to be done though.  It really does.... 

I think that's it.  I'm sure I forgot something......... but I'm tired.  Ha ha .... 

UPDATES *Kaedyn*

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We're going to skip over Nathan's update .... for a moment....  because his will be the longest .... by far. 

So we're going to go with Kaedyn....

Kaedyn - as you know if you know us or have been keeping tabs for awhile - doesn't have a lot going on.  HOWEVER he got some pretty impressive HIVES (linked back to the blog) back in October which causes A LOT of concern for me.  Because I'm allergic to a lot of things - we joke and say I'm allergic to "everything" because really - it's pretty close.   Soy, fruits, pollens, grass, animals, personal & cleaning products, medications....  oh and there's more I'm sure, but this isn't about me.  Daddy is also allergic to shellfish.  He has anaphylaxis to Lobster ... he can't even be in the same room.

The day that Kaedyn got the hives, and here is a picture incase you don't want to look at the blog from last October....

(there are a lot of pictures on the other blog)

The only thing I can pin-point that he ate that was different was candy corn.  And he had some of that the year before....

So we finally got him into the allergist ... and he went through the lovely allergy testing.  If you have never been through allergy testing - you should do it - it's good fun!!

What they do is put a "grid" on your back so they know what "oil" is where.  Once they have a grid in place they take these things that have "oils" in them with the pollen, dander, whatever ... to test what you are allergic to - and after these drops are on your back, they take a little needle and scrap or poke or scratch (however you want to put it) the skin under the droplet ...  then you sit there for awhile, and if a hive develops and the skin is red then you are allergic, and depending on the size of the hive... is how badly you are allergic.

Kaedyn - suggesting we leave ......... NOW ........

 This is about the time that he freaked OUT .... poor kid

 The visible hive in the middle-ish of his back is a "control" one ... I don't know what they have in it to make it a control one (what is everyone allergic to?) ....  

 They had put on Blues Clues for them to watch

 You can see several red welty areas now....

 His biggest allergies were grass, dogs, & cats ...... poor kid is screwed!

Because of this chronic croup when he's sick and his allergies and asthma - they want him on a inhaler every day ...  he gave me some advice on the eczema ... and various other stuff.  Benedryl every night before bed to keep his allergies at bay ... more if he gets bad ... etc and so on :/ 

That still doesn't explain his hives that night in October- unless he was exposed to something at school ....

Other than that ....  he's been pretty healthy and a huge handful.  His speech has gotten SO MUCH BETTER this past year.  We can now - at least are starting to - understand him.   YAY!

UPDATES *Noah*

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 Noah hasn't had a lot of things going on recently.  He's had a few follow up's with specialists...  and various other things.  If you don't read my other blog, Noah had a shooting at his school recently and it has really made us re-evaluate public school vs. homeschooling.  On one hand - I like the break him going to school gives me .... however, he's at a 1st to 2nd grade level overall.  He has dyslexia and who knows what other learning disabilities.  He'll be going into 5th grade this fall and even though I have asked the schools to hold him back - because he has expressed he doesn't like being pulled out of class - and especially when he's sitting in class and doesn't understand what is going on - now, he has a folder of worksheets he can do when he feels like this.... and he pulls it out on his own to work when he feels like that ... which is great - but he has told me this all makes him feel stupid.  Noah isn't stupid.  It makes me sad.   So the schools unwillingness to hold him back and pushing him through with his peers is - in my opinion - not doing him any good.

He is Mr. Popular... all the kids love him.   He says all the time he has no friends.  But I've seen him in action.  He doesn't care about it all - and maybe that's why everyone likes him - because he just doesn't care.  But everyone flocks to him.   He will strike up a conversation with anyone around - no matter the age... he just loves to talk and tell you all about the stuff he thinks is super cool. 

So I'm torn....  I love that he gets all the social stuff at school but is it worth it in the long run?  Social is easy though - there are homeschool groups and other stuff....

But first we are doing a trial this summer to see how things go - if Noah listens to me (he didn't last time we homeschooled) ....  then we'll continue.  Otherwise - back in school he'll go.

So - Noah has also been complaining a lot about stomach aches.  Some mornings I think it might just be an excuse, others I believe him ....  so it's hard.  Took him in - can't find any big reason for them.  ::Shrugs ::

He lost his ear piece for his hearing aid.  Silly boy .... after a few days I called his Audiologist - told her - and scheduled to go in ....  so we had to go to Seattle to get a new cast of his ear so they could make a new mold to make a new ear piece ...

Here she was putting in the sponge in his canal so the goop wouldn't go down too far ... 

 He picked out RED ... DARK BLUE ... and CLEAR with LIGHT BLUE GLITTER this time

 Putting the goop in his ear ....

 putting some on his hand so he knows when he hardens

 playing with the goop

 Goop in the ear

 Is it hard yet?

 the look of boredom ... ha ha ha

 Taking the mold out

 Touching it....

So it takes a couple weeks for the new mold to come in ....  and so we picked it up yesterday (April 18) ...

 Colors up close....

 Pretty cool huh!?!

We think so!!

In other news - he got another hearing test ..... and his hearing is stable....  there aren't really any changes, and she did a test with his hearing aid in too... His right ear is still normal and his left he has significant hearing loss in both the ear and the bone... 

 His numbers ... even with his hearing aid in he doesn't hear perfect, but it's better...

 So his hearing is completely stable - which is a good thing :)

He also had an appointment with his kidney doctor....   there is still blood in his urine (of course) and a trace of protein.  He says everything looks good for now, but if he should ever have more than a trace of protein in his urine he's going to want to do a biopsy ... so ...  for now, it's wait a year and see how he's doing then, unless he gets sick.

And that's pretty much all there is for Noah right now :)   Oh ....  right....

Noah is 56 lbs and 14oz ... and 4 ft 3 inches... he's at the 4th percentile for height and the 6th for weight...

Oh and Noah's recent dentist appointment - NO CAVITIES!!!  He's got some major shark teeth going on - his baby teeth just aren't falling out and the adult teeth are coming in....   

UPDATES *Calahan*

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I haven't updated in awhile, we've had a lot going on with my husband losing the ability to walk (unassisted short distances, not at all long distances)  ...  so I thought I better start updating :)   We'll start with  the oldest first :)

Calahan has been going through a lot this year.  He has been in and out of urgent care, physical therapy and what not because of muscle/joint issues and pain.  As if the kid doesn't have enough to worry about with teenage angst ...

Anyway ....

We thought it was his joints - growing pains and all - and his muscles.....  and he does get growing pains!  Anyway - then we thought it was arthritis due to his broken shoulder (from birth) ... maybe effects of his scoliosis ....   in other words ... we just don't know.


These pictures were taken one night in January in Urgent Care ....

texting his girlfriend.....

 Ooooooooooooh the pain!!!

 Ugh it hurts here too......

 Back to texting the girlfriend...

In February it got so bad that he couldn't move his head - period -exclamation mark - at all.  Over the last couple months it's gotten better ...  he's gotten some physical therapy and been doing some exercises.  The PT thinks his muscles are too tight in his back, especially the ones that runs along his spine, and he's got to get them stretched out.  Doesn't help he sits hunched over and all that....  so now it's constant "Calahan, sit up straight!" on my end.  No fun at all...

He's not doing so well in school - and Doc thinks it might be because his ADHD meds aren't 100% right.  He's on a high dose right now and he is still struggling pretty bad.  So she wanted him to go see some behavior health people.  This happened the other day.  Cal was super nervous no matter how much we tried to put him at ease.   Went through an intake and they determined that Cal has some major anxiety, and a little depression ...so they want him to go to a different place that has a lot more services.  We'll have to go through intake with them again - and do all that all over ...  but at least we're on a path ....

Dentist:  2 cavities and a root canal :/  poor kid - he refuses ...  and he's bigger than me...

Back in Fall 2010 - he went through some testing in school - learning disabilities ..... it was determined he has DYSGRAPHIA ...  it's a disability where he can't get the words from his head out through his hand.  He has to - usually - verbalize it ...   the school is dropping the ball here.  

That's pretty much it with Calahan :)