Morgan ballet

This one is a glimpse of Morgan during the instruction time. She mostly follows directions, but almost always adds her own little twist to all of it...




And this one is the "free dance" at the end of the lesson, which Morgan apparently interprets as "track practice," and runs laps with a flailing hankie.

most ever!!

What you're watching is the most steps and distance Athan's ever done unassisted. This was actually the third time he did it during therapy earlier today. He went about 6 feet. Yeah! :)

therapy update

PT and OT continue to go really well for Athan. He has his up and down days, but he maintains steady forward progress at Athan's pace. He has ventured a few more unassisted steps here and there, and keeps improving his strength and balance all the time. He LOVES going in to Ms. Emily's gym twice a month.

He still uses his walker pretty effectively, so we're going to call and ask Shriner's if we can hang on to that until we move. We'll decide in June if we need to try to buy/borrow one for him once we're back in Texas.

We're also waiting to hear from the school so we can have meetings and get his IEP done before school is out. That way when we move we can have a starting place at the school, if we decide to go that route.

We just keep on cheering - Go, Athan, go! :)

oh, AND...

The other part of now-standard protocol around here is to knock on a friend's door in the middle of the night to keep Morgan. This time it was Jeremy and Jessica. It's been Adam and Dru, Jason and Hannah, Rob and Kat, Alan and Sarah, and on and on...

I'm not sure where we're moving next, but where ever we end up, I'll be scouting friendly faces for the person least likely to hate us if we have to wake them suddenly at 4 a.m.

To the many who have helped and the rest who have offered, we couldn't say how thankful we are...

The new info

Intussusception. That's what it's called. Probably what happened to Athan is that part of his bowel telescoped into another part.

Ouch.

As far as we know, there's no connection between this and his other issues. It can happen to anyone, and is more common in children under 5 or 6 years old, more common in boys. If left untreated over time, part of the bowel can actually die and have to be removed surgically.

Good news - not likely to happen again. Rarely happens twice, and if it does repeat, it is VERY VERY unlikely that it would happen a 3rd time. What I mean is that we're not looking at a chronic problem, most likely. Right now, no need to add another specialist to his list or anything. We will, of course, be extra-observant of his diet and diapers, in case there are signs of it again.

after the ER

Life after the ER is becoming unfortunately standard protocol around here. There are some things that seem to be part of it every time: There's the hurt - hurting to see your baby hurt. There is sleep deprivation, changing plans, canceling on commitments, tag-teaming naps for a couple of days, and trying to be nice to each other when it all makes us grouchy. We have to stress dose for a while, and keep track of stepping back down to normal doses. There's assimilation of new information (more on this later), and renewed sense of relief and thankfulness for having been carried through another round of trauma with/for Athan.

In the midst of all that, each new emergency has it's unique set of recovery experiences. This time had a few:
1 - The Clown. As I reported in the last post, Morgan's school put on a circus for parents to see, and she was a clown. I attended said circus after only a 2 hour nap on an ER bed with a toddler in pain. Honestly, I think the circus was funnier because it was all kinda fuzzy...
2 - The Poo. Athan had an enema. To save him the discomfort of prolonging the "tube up his butt" part, they only partially drained the fluid. The rest of the poop-water came in waves after we got home. Those "waves" would instantly over-flow the diaper every time. Lots of laundry (and a special trip to Nicholasville to get more detergent). Lots of scrubbing. Lots of baths. And we're going to try to re-cover one of our chairs (and maybe just drag it to the curb on trash day if we fail).

3 - The Time Change. Ugh. I hate the "spring forward" bit anyway, but 2 days after an ER trip?! Ugh, I say.

Really, after the ER, we're fine. Tired. A bit grouchy. But fine. Athan is downright chipper today. :)

meanwhile, at the circus...

I got a reasonable nap at the hospital, so I requested that Ryan take the first sleep shift at home. I went up to Morgan's school while the boys slept to see Morgan be a clown. Too cute! She ran around with the other clowns bopping people with balloons, and then squirting them with silly string and water.

Also, last Friday was clown day at school. The good pics are of her costume LAST Friday, and the fuzzier ones are from today, when silly mom forgot the real camera and had to use her phone to take pics. :)

home and resting

Athan slept through the entire discharge process (including removal of the IV), through being buckled into the carseat, all the way home, and in bed with Ryan until I got nervous and woke him up few minutes ago to have him eat a little and take medicine. He seems fine. Just sleepy.

correction :)

Given how well his procedure went, they gave us the option of admitting for observation or going home.

We're going home. :) We feel confident that we can monitor what we need to, and he'll rest better at home.

Hopefully we'll be discharged soon. I'll post whenever we're awake today.

enema done

They used a water soluble solution instead of barium, and it apparently went as well as enemas can go. No fun, but it's over. Kid you not, when we left Athan said "thank you" to the radiologist.

He said the enema either fixed it, or it had reduced on its own before we even started. Either way, it's fixed.

We're still in the ER for now, but we will admit to the pediatric floor for observation.

resting after getting IV

we are in the UK ER again

Not blood sugar this time.

At 11p, after being asleep for a couple hours, Athan woke up crying. Not unusual. But he didn't stop, it was very intense, and he was writhing in pain - pulling on his shirt, drawing his knees up to his chest, and saying "owie, owie, owie." It was obvious he was having abdominal pain, but no other symptoms - no vomiting, etc.

After nearly a half hour of this, we were nervous. It was abnormal enough behavior for Athan that we decided he needed to see a doctor right away.

Our gracious neighbors Jeremy and Jessica are at the house with Morgan, and we brought Athan into the ER.

X-ray was normal, blood work was normal, but ultrasound showed that part of his bowl is either looped around or telescoped into another part. It's fixable with a barium enema, which will likely happen in the next few hours.

Once again, we ask for your prayers, loved ones.

on the way to bed tonight

Morgan exclaims "I want a piggy back ride!"

Athan, not to be left out, cries "Mama, I ride backy pig!"