Off to the DR with my SHOOTING DINO!

We had appointments today.  Daddy had one today in Seattle and Nathan had one with his Autism Doc..

Out the door with the T-Rex shooting Dino-boy for a (not) fun day of driving and appointments

Chocolate Lucky Charms .... better and more addicting than crack....

Mom got bored....... 

 Um... isn't Blue (from Blue's Clues) supposed to be BLUE???   But ... Red is cool....

Nathan's appointment with Doc T was good today - Doc T is his Autism Doc. Nathan was previously placed into the NOS-PDD classification. Because the previous doctor who was following him saw that he used his imagination and that he made eye contact and wasn't afraid of people. That didn't fit with the classic Autism .... so, he wants me to do another assessment so that HE can determine, and in his office today - he said he was pretty sure that he would be put into the clear Autism area ... he's just a unique Autistic because he does make eye contact, he does talk (or try to) and have a little bit of a conversation, he has an imagination and he has absolutely no stranger danger, he has no sense of danger at all... he stims and various other things. He wants him to get an ABA and in order to do that, he's pretty sure the Autism classification needs to be there (for the insurance)... and feels the other doctor may have mishandled Nathan a little since he doesn't present typically. So the assessment is already done - I added everything up, he scored a 108 (you can see where he falls in the picture attached to this status) .... so yeah.... I have known he was Autistic since he was 18 months old, this is no surprise, but it still makes me a little sad. I love Nathan, I wouldn't change a thing about him - but some days, you just wish that your special little people could have to do with out so much interventions and medical crap

Stopped to get something cheap to eat before heading home. .... this is Nate with his drink. .. just love his facial expressions. ..

Never seen him more excited over ice cream (free ice cream at that!) He would never touch ice cream or popcicles so these little things are so awesome

 Homeword BOUND!

Our little reader. .... I love that my kids love books!  LOVE IT!

When I did the evaluation,, I was a little surprised where that he feel in the highest area.  He barely did - but he did.

Kaedyn's Eye Appointment ....

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Kaedyn had an eye appointment today ....  The DR is really stressing the using of the eye patch.  Kaedyn cries every time and it breaks my heart.  He ends up (9 times out of 10) crying himself to sleep because he just can't see.  His prescription changed some.

This first one is the prescription his glasses are set at, and the lower one is what he was "today" ... which can change.  

I found a site HERE ... which helps explain what prescriptions mean.   This is what Kaedyn's (current - today's) mean ...  

RIGHT EYE - "Compound myopic astigmatism"

There is low myopia(shortsightedness) combined with low astigmatism . 

Myopia means that the near vision is better than the far vision, which is blurred. Most myopia is due to the eye being longer. Sometimes it is due to the cornea being more curved and sometimes it is due to both. 

Astigmatism means that images from distant objects, entering the eye, are not focused at the same focal point. The astigmatism is at an axis of 103 degrees. In your prescription, the focal points are both in front of the retina, instead of on the retina (where a normal image would be destined to focus). Most commonly, this is because the cornea is more curved in one direction similar to the curvature of a football or a teaspoon. Sometimes astigmatism is due to the crystalline lens inside of the eye being irregularly shaped. 

LEFT EYE - "Mixed astigmatism"

You have a mixture of farsighted astigmatism and nearsighted astigmatism. 

Astigmatism means that images from distant objects, entering the eye, are not focused at the same focal point. One focus is in front of the retina and the other is destined to be behind the retina. Most commonly this is because the cornea is more curved in one direction similar to the curve of a football or teaspoon. This means that the focus is farsighted in one axis and nearsighted in the other. The astigmatism is at an axis of 92 degrees. 

Farsighted means that the far vision is better than the near vision. 

Nearsighted means that the near vision is better than the far vision. 

March 14 ~ Hospitalization Day: 3

Nathan went in for his FOURTH hypospadious surgery.  He was peeing out of three holes this time, and they had to go in and close off the two that opened up - that weren't supposed to.  The parts in quotations, they are my facebook status messages.....

"So....... he hasn't peed all night (he's been hooked up to the IV all night) .... and he still hasn't pooped and it's been well over 12 hours since the suppository  He is still complaining about a belly ache too... (which pretty much told me he didn't poop, but I wanted to get it confirmed and she said he hadn't, nor had he had a wet diaper.) ... so they came in with a portable ultrasound machine and said his bladder was pretty full (at least a cup of urine in it) ... but didn't like to be any blockages. This kid.... :: Sigh ::"

"So update on Nathan this morning. As of 8:30 this morning he has not peed ALL NIGHT LONG ....... he's just refusing all around, he actually just stood up to try to pee in a urinal (because I bribed him) and couldn't do it at all. They are talking about doing a catheter.... boo. He had a stool softer suppository yesterday (I thought it was a explosion suppository) .... we'll get the exploding one today. And his pain level is been around a 6 ... he is still complaining about his belly hurting a lot ... So, we're going to get up and moving a bit this morning to see if we can get anything going before having to go to extremes...."

We decided to get out of the hospital room for awhile.  Got him all unhooked from everything again, and away we went.  First stop, cafeteria for breakfast for me and the Daddy....

Nathan had some chocolate milk....

Then we stopped in the gift shop again for more bribery ....  we tried on some Mickey Mouse ears ...  probably closest to Disney we'll ever get (boo!)

The puppy in his hands is what he decided on.  His encouragement to poop and pee!

I love this owl thing.  They have another one with cats...

"Conversation that just happened. ... taking a picture of my hot chocolate. ...I say. ..."getting proof that they don't know how to spell Dennis" we are use to my name getting misspelled but how can you screw up Dennis? DB says "did they really?" Me. .."Yep only one N" .....DB... "I should have just said DB, kinda hard to screw up DB" Me...."well they could spell it out. ....." and together we said "d-e-e-b-e-e" and laughed. ....."

And then he put it behind my laptop (or maybe I did) and I went to move it to do something, and all over the floor it went!  Smelled like Chi-tea or awhile...  

Hot pack the nurse brought in to try to help him get things moving....

Such a hobbit, second breakfast .... he mostly stuck to the fruit again ....

Nathan and Liam .... that's what he named him.  

The doctors have been in and out, a lot of them... talking of all the things that can be done... all the way to doing a cath ... don't want no catheter .... see... revolting ...

Liam is cheering Nathan on along with the rest of his fan club.   Seriously - we're losing so much hope at this point of even GOING home ... usually we go home on day three but he's hurting and nothing is coming out.  Ugh ugh ... I'm surprised he's doing any intake ...

I went down to get his prescriptions so we had them when we went home. I stopped in the gift shop just to delay my going back to the room for a bit....   I love these tiny glass animals.... the two doves, reminds me of my Grandma ...  Blue Birds of Love is what she called them.  

This is AWESOME ....

I got back to the room and I was thinking, I should take him in the bathroom and have him try to go in there.  Just about at that point in time, Dennis said it.  So I did.......

"Woohooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooo!! Nathan finally peed after 12 hours of NOT PEEING ........."

Shortly after he peed, he screamed "I HAVE TO POOP!"

"The missile has acquired it'd target and we had our explosion!!! Not only did he pee, but he pooped too - yay!!!!!!!! And he was definitely backed up. Also - HE ASKED TO USE THE POTTY TO POOP!!! This is HUGE! This is the first time this has happened!! HUGE YAY!!! We had a discussion after - asked him if he wanted to continue to poop in the potty and wear underwear, he said yes.... we shall see ::: crossing fingers for that and going home today :::"

WE ARE GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Who needs to see out the back window?"

"Goodbye Seattle. ....."

We stopped to get something to eat around dinner time.  He was so excited NOT to be in the hospital...

"Just wanted to let everyone know we made it home safe. That's all I have to say tonight."

Nope, I don't look tired... not.at.all....

March 13 ~ Hospitalization Day: 2

Nathan went in for his FOURTH hypospadious surgery.  He was peeing out of three holes this time, and they had to go in and close off the two that opened up - that weren't supposed to.  The parts in quotations, they are my facebook status messages.....

"7 am this morning and he slept through the night. .... good pain control. .... Waiting to see how he is feeling...."

He slept pretty late ...   I think it was almost 9 before he got up ...

"Someone is waking up  First thing he did was look for Daddy.... he loves his Daddy...."

"Look at this smile this morning! He says his tummy still hurts a lot.... we shall see how today goes. ...."

"Trying to eat take two. ..... so far it's just the peaches .... and he asked for more. ... the eggs he isn't so fond of. ...."

"4 little cups of peaches......... that's what he's eaten! YAY!"

After breakfast he was just blah ... so I wanted to get him unhooked from all his wires and chains tubes ... so we talked to the nurse, got it all cleared....  and he got his IV unhooked to try to encourage him to drink more, and got in his own clothes...  

 I decided to take a walk to the cafeteria and get Daddy and I some breakfast.  Had to stop in the gift shop to bribe encourage him drink and eat and pee and poop...  he picked out a little dino claw thing...

"Got little man out for a walk right away this morning.... he didn't want to go but he had a good time riding in the wagon"

After Daddy and I ate, he decided that riding in the wagon was the thing to do ...

Then the trips to the playroom began ...

"Another gift from the hospital. ...."  This was one of the "freebies" that patients could take from the playroom that volunteers make.  Nate saw it and .... well.... love...

"OMGosh someone sent Nathan this little sloth. ...it is so cute and soft! There was no name on the card so whomever sent it, thank you! He got really excited when he saw it! It also had front row seat to his lunch! Lol"

"THIS JUST IN .................... NATHAN FARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a rumble in his bed.... I heard it .... I hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheard it... now, back to your regularly scheduled facebook feed...."

"Nathan and his fans are hanging out watching The Muppets for the first time. ..... he is actually watching it too"

"Some of Nate's favorite things for lunch! Cheese sticks bread, apples, carrots and celery. ... seriously, four winners in his book!"

There are several dogs that come around to visit the kids.... and this is Mika :)

Back down to the playroom for awhile, this time Nate wanted to play outside for a little bit...

 Um....  yes, this happened....  

Out for another walk, I took pictures of some of the tiny glass pieces (I think it's a type of shrink-a-dink type thing) .. some of our favorites... and the bottom are some of our pipe cleaner animals we did in the playroom earlier ...

It's pure SILLINESS here....

"Nathan was told that to go home he had to drink, I turned around and saw this. .... ha ha ha.... he did it for awhile but didn't actually drink much...."

"His nurse was just in here about 45 minutes or so ago, doing his vitals and he was doing really good - just when I think there is HOPE going home tonight - maybe - it gets crushed. She was doing his vitals and he pointed to a zero on the pain scale, and then just about 10 - 15 minutes ago - everything changed. He had a bad face, even burst into tears  Went from a zero on the pain scale to about a 6.  So we are doing some ibuprofen and hoping that helps. I am hoping he'll take a nap but fat chance of that...."

"We are for sure staying tonight ..... Nathan just got a suppository too ... so we should expect an explosion at some point ..."

Dinner came ... but ... he didn't eat much :(   He did have FUN eating though... and he cracked up his nurses....

"Asking your child permission to watch TV .... cuz, it's his hospital room and he's had an endless supply of DVDs of Blues Clues going..... right now, it's Monsters University .... but I literally just said to him "Hey Nate, can we watch Hell's Kitchen tonight" ... he went "um-hum" ... I think that was a yes. I think DB secretly enjoys Blues Clues ...dontcha Daddy?"

"Nathan got real upset tonight. ..."

"So Nathan just had a good cry, he wants to go home, so we called up is brothers and talked to them for a few minutes.... and now he's sleeping.  No poop yet though ......... humph."

"Sleeping at 7pm....."

"So Nathan's output has gone down a little and he has drank maybe 6 oz of liquid all day. He's been eating well but just not drinking - even though he's been off the IV all day. Took him until afternoon to really get all the IV fluids out of him and since then, diapers haven't been that good. So .... they are hooking him back up to the IV tonight. I can't disagree with that, I don't want him getting dehydrated. He's eating - now just need him to drink and poop"

"More on Nathan.......
They had to come in and mess with his IV line……… he weren’t happy like…. no no …. but he is sleeping again …. as long as he be sleeping, I be happy like…. 
And when I talk like that, I really need sleep….."

"Over two hours later ………. IV is finally in an more pain meds on board … he should be undisturbed for about 4 hours…"

And I finally went to sleep for a few hours.....