The tubes are in....the tubes are in...

the little guy's ears that is. It went well today. It was a whirl wind morning. I had my first sono at the ob's office. It was just to get a due date. When I saw my Dr. I told him we had to have my son to the surgeon's at 9:30. That gave him 5 minutes to do his job. He spent 2 of it finding out how the little guy was and what the plan was for him. We then went over everything on me for two minutes and he zipped out of the room to fill out paperwork for the triple screen at the speed of light. He told the secretary to call me for my level 2 sonogram appt in three weeks and told me to get my labs drawn whenever I had time today. I've met many dr.'s that would not have been that accommodating.

We made it to the ENT/surgeon's office right on time. He said that the little guy actually had a crust built up on his ear drum from the infections. He explained the procedure, had him fitted for ear plugs and said the MRI looked good. We went and registered checked in for surgery and before we knew it, we were on our way home. The dr. was able to clean up the right ear drum when he put the tube in and could find nothing wrong that caused the Bells Palsy. It is believed it was from the infections. This was good news and we all hope to live happily ever after. If the ear drums don't heal when the tubes come out, then the dr. will patch the holes. Normally, I'm not a fan of tubes, but sometimes these things are necessary. This dr. had seen the Bells Palsy in infants before and is very optimistic that the nerve will eventually heal. There is nothing better than when the medical community works together just as it should. It is amazing that we were able to see a dr. of his caliber in that time frame and accomplish the surgery. His first personal contact on this case was an email from our pediatrician on Sat. The two emailed back and forth through the week and made a plan. From the first time the Bells Palsy was discovered 6 mos ago, everyone did everything right and in a timely fashion. The little guy has had flawless medical care throughout this, excepting the anesthesiologist on the first MRI, and has the best chance for recovery.

I haven't had a fever in two days and hope I feel like working around the house and knitting soon.

I'm doing a happy dance!

Dr. Novak's office called late this afternoon and surgery for the little guy is Friday. Tomorrow we have the MRI with general anasthesia and then some time Wed. or Thurs. he'll have to see a pediatrician. Friday morning he'll see Dr. Novak and at noon the tubes will be put in. Hopefully, this will be the end of the Bells Palsy getting worse instead of improving. My mother-in-law already had taken Friday off and will be watching the three older kids while we are at the hospital.

On the down side, I'm running a temp with the evil cold/wicked sore throat thing. I tried very hard not to breathe on anyone when I went to vote at lunch today. Hopefully, I'm well enough to do MRI duty tomorrow, if not, pray for my husband. He gets woozy when they have to put IV's in the kids.

Bummer!

I have a wicked cold/sore throat combo. Since I'm expecting again, I cannot take any cold medicine, drink any rock n rye, etc.

The ENT dr. did not call today to move up the appt. If they don't call by Wed, I'm supposed to call my regular pediatrician back. I willed the phone to ring all day, but no luck.

The storm radio went off today. We are expecting a winter storm. So much for the first day of spring. Atleast I'm not in Springfield. They have a blizzard warning with a hundred percent chance of snow. A guy that works for the city told people to go home, shut their doors when the snow starts and don't come out. Apparently, there is still so much debris from the two tornadoes that they won't be able to plow like usual. This could put a real dent in the primary turnout for election day in the capital city.

If I felt better I'd knit wool socks.

Over at Elann there is some really nice Regia spring sock yarn. I've knit with both yarns and like them both. Since I went a little overboard when my lys had this yarn on sale, I abstained from the elann purchase today.

We were back at the pediatrician's today

Fortunately, our regular pediatrician was working Saturday this week. We had a bad night so I took the little guy in to make sure he wasn't any worse. His ear is the same. The Dr. feels the only thing that will help the ear is a tube to drain it. Right now he is on maintenance antibiotics that are keeping the infection down, but now getting rid of it. He's had a really strong antibiotic and it only got us to this point so we are in a holding pattern. The Dr. was emailing Dr Novak, the ENT, and she thought he would be able to see him within the week. In the meantime, we can expect to be woken up every time he rolls over onto his right ear. He also has a bit of a fever this morning.

Thanks for all the comments. I hadn't thought about the ability to use ear drop antibiotics once the tube is in place. I'm pretty excited about that possibility.

Another sad visit to the pediatrician

We went for my youngest's 15 mos check-up and his right ear was not good. He is on maintenance antibiotics and awaiting an MRI for his Bells Palsy. We have a visit scheduled to an ear, nose and throat specialist to see about tubes. If the MRI comes back with no brain tumors or abnormalities then he will have a tube placed to drain the gunk behind his right eardrum. Unfortunately, the first visit to the Dr. isn't scheduled until May 11. I'm concerned we can't make it that long without another worsening of the Bells Palsy. Every infection causes more damage to the nerve in his face and more severe residual weakness. The first step is to have Wed's MRI turn out normal and then I guess I'll start constantly calling the specialist hoping for a cancellation so I can move his appt up. What do parents do who have to work?

Starting slowly

 I jumped back into knitting with a nice simple scarf. I had picked up some of the new Silk Garden in sportweight and I'm mixing it with some Andean Silk for a nice lacey scarf. 

Everyone is all right!

My home town had two tornadoes go through on Sunday night. I'm happy to report that everyone is okay. Saturday was my last day in Springfield and I'm glad I wasn't there Sunday night. My brother was with my mom throughout the storm. He had come over to cook her dinner.

The devastation I've seen at the website of the local newspaper was amazing. The schools remain closed and I'm sorry to report that the Starbucks with the drive-thru remains without power and closed. My mother and brother were so stunned that it was closed when they were headed to St. Louis for mom's chemo this morning that they didn't even think to see if the other businesses had power. Apparently, both drive-thru coffee shops in Spfld remain closed. My brother is taking this quite hard. Fortunately, the downtown Starbucks in the Hilton remains open.

My mother was one of the few in Spfld. that had power throughout the storm. My brother-in-law lives just 4 blocks from a severely hit neighborhood and he was fine. Most of my family lives in the same neighborhood on the north end where no one has a basement. I'm thankful that area was spared. It's mainly ranches on slabs and is a combination of young families and the elderly. People in Spfld tend to ignore the sirens as the tornadoes ususally hit Chatham and miss the city. My mother had not gone to the basement when the sirens went off. I've suggested that she do that the next time.

I've started knitting again. Maybe I'll post a picture tomorrow.

I put the link to the local paper with the title of this post. There are picture galleries of the storm damage. I'm relieved to know that someone returned Paul Bunyan's head.

Maybe I'll get to knit today...

Last Monday my father passed away and I've been very busy with all the responsibilities that go along with that. I live about an hour and a half from my parents home. I made the drive 5 times in 6 days. I think that is a new personal record. The good news is that we've seen the lawyer and my mom should not end up living in a cardboard box. I think that my mom is doing as well as you can under the circumstances. My father has been very sick for the last year and a half. In the last 6 mos the doctors have talked a lot about hospice, but my father was not ready to give up. He went quickly and quietly and that is about all any of us can ask for.

This afternoon I have a Girl Scout Cookie Sale and then I'm hoping to catch up on some laundry and maybe knit something from Pursenalities Plus.

Hanging in there sort of...

Sometimes life throws you numerous curve balls in a row. Friday my little guy finished his steroids and Saturday we changed to the maintenance antibiotic. We still have the MRI to look forward to and unfortunately the Bells Palsy is still pretty significant. I think it's do to two molars that are coming in on the right side of the little guys mouth. We also had the flu on top of everything else.

Just about the time everything's settled down a bit, my father ends up in ICU with both feet on a banana peel. He's septic and it's still touch and go about his prognosis. He'd been in a nursing home for pulmonary rehab and physical therapy for exactly one week. We had been telling the nurses that we thought he was released too soon from the hospital for pneumonia. Sometimes being right is not a good thing.

I have not had time to knit since midway through the Olympics. Hopefully things improve soon. On the bright side, Girl Scout cookies come in on Tuesday and I can't wait!

Free Newborn Sock Pattern

 
With the help of my friend, Matthew, I now have a free pattern up on the web. The big bonus of putting it on the Needleworks website was Matthew's ability to proof read the pattern, organize it, and put it in a format that will print without using a lot of ink.