Fogot to Blog

I am sure no one cares if I blog any more or not, but I seems like good therapy to do tonight. Here is a quick summery of the last 2 months since I have blogged.

April saw Ryan getting his first cold. That meant repeated visits to the ER and Pediatrician and an over night stay in the hospital. His cold wasn't that bad, but we were scared to death it would go into his lungs and he would stop breathing. As it turned out his cold consisted of just congestion of the nose and never went into his lungs.

In May, Ryan went to the lung doctor and she advised if I was in a hurry to get him off the oxygen she would try taking him off but she would rather wait another month. I didn't feel he was ready to be off the oxygen so we decided to keep him on another month. I know he could go without the oxygen for an extended period of time. When he was in the hospital for his cold the nurses wondered why he was on oxygen and asked if they could take him off and see how he did. They talked to the Dr. on call and he said fine as long as his pulse ox level didn't go below 92. So they took him off and for 5 hours he hovered around 92. I finally asked them to put him back on the oxgyen, he obviously still needed it.

Ryan had other plans though, May 30th he ripped his nasal cannula out of his nose so hard that he tore one of the pads off his face that keep the cannula on. The pad took with it some of his skin. At the time I was in a class and I didn't have another set of pads to put back on him. Besides I would feel really bad putting the pad over the damaged skin. I knew he could be off oxygen after out experience at the hospital so I left him off while I was there. At the time we had stopped using the pulse ox monitor and we didn't have any probes to use it anyway. I would have liked to check his oxygen level once I got home but I couldn't. I didn't feel comfortable leaving him off the oxygen permanently so I hooked him back up when he went to bed. When he woke up the next morning he had the cannula under his chin instead of in his nose. I put it back in his nose and he again ripped the cannula and a pad off. Thankfully the pad that he tore off this time was the one he didn't rip off the day before. Since it was older and the sticky stuff wears off, it came off without taking any skin with it. So I left him off that day as well. I put him back on that night though.

This went on for another day before we got probes for the pulse ox monitor. Once we got the probes I checked his oxygen level. He had already been off oxygen for several hours when I checked it and he registered 98. I left him on the monitor for a little while but once I could see he was doing fine I took him off. At that point we called the lung doctor and told them what was going on and asked them to order the test. The test is an over night pulse ox test to ensure that he is keeping his levels up. To make a long story short, between the doctor and the oxygen company who had to bring the unit to do the test it took almost 30 days to get that test completed. Finally we performed the test and hear back from the doctor. She said his levels were great and he was definitely ready to be off the oxygen.

Thankfully we got the test done before he got his second cold. We completed the test Friday night, Saturday morning the congestion started. Now if the oxygen people would come pick up their stuff we could be done with this whole mess!!

In other developments... Once Ryan was off the oxygen we could actually put him down in his own crib to sleep. No more bassinet in the living room of chaos! Once he could stretch out in his big bed he started sleeping all night. We are talking 8-12 hours a night. At first this freaked me out, who am I kidding it still freaks me out. At least when he woke up every couple of hours I knew he was alright. Now I just have to constantly check on him. It makes me a little neurotic, of course Doug would say I am a lot neurotic all the time without things like this. Oh well it takes some neurotics to make the world go round.

Ryan is a very good, very happy baby. He doesn't cry much. He like to talk to anyone who will listen to his story. He love his daddy and his brothers. He gets excited with his whole body when he sees daddy. Of course he gets excited like that when strangers talk to him. He is just a sweet happy baby. It scares me to think we might have lost him. It scares me that we might still lose him. Overall he seems normal. His development is where it should be based on his due date. Actually based on the due date he is about 1 month ahead. He goes and sees the eye doctor next week to make sure his eyes still look normal. He will also see the lung doctor and pediatrician again. I just keep praying that God stays with him and helps him continue to do well.

Of course if it isn't Ryan, it's somebody else. All of the boys saw the eye doctor and Andrew was prescribed glasses. He only has a minor distance prescription but the doctor felt it was necessary. Alex and Tyler had similar prescriptions but based on their age they were not given glasses. The eye doctor said they could out grow the near-sightedness and not need glasses in a few years. Andrew could out grow his as well, but since he needs to see in school he was prescribed the glasses.

I took Alex to the doctor because he seems to be developing and Adam's Apple. Call me crazy but that seemed a little strange in a four year old. I asked the doctor why he was getting his Adam's Apple and she said that isn't an Adam's Apple. This caught me off guard as I hadn't considered it was something else. She said it was probably a cyst and cysts are common in children. But since it is the mid line of his neck she felt it should be check out. She ordered a CT scan for him. He just had it done this morning. It was a CT scan with contrast so they had to start and IV. Alex wasn't very excited about the IV. I had gotten him over the concept of the CT scan. At first I told him he had to have a Cat scan and he would go through a machine. To this he said no I don't want to be turned into a cat!! Once I showed him pictures on line and assured him he wouldn't become a cat he was okay having the test done.

Hopefully the test will come back that it is just a normal run of the mill cyst that we don't need to worry about.

In good news Doug was promoted to Detective. He isn't sure he will like it because it takes him off patrol which he loves and puts him on a desk job with lots of paper work. I love the Detective job because it means he will work Tuesday through Friday 7-5!! Not only a normal shift but weekends off!! It will be so fabulous to have him home at night! The other good thing is it is a 5 year commitment. Not to say he couldn't get put into another position before he hit 5 years but it will be normal shifts for a few years anyway.

Well it's almost 1 am and I am sure this blog is full of errors due to my tired eyes. I will sign off and try to stay current.