Freaking OUT!!!!! (if your sqeemish dont look)

Next Thur my baby boy is going in to have his tonsils and adenoids out. This is totally freaking me out. He is going to have to be put to sleep, have vital parts inside his throat cut out, and then spend a day or two in the hospital. I'm sure it will be fine, he will be ok, and all is will be great when recovery is done. However, right this minute, I'm-freaking-the-hell-out!

The plan is simple. We get to the hospital at 6 am for a 7:30 surgery. He is going to get some fun medicine orally before going in, that way he will be relaxed when they do the IV. Then they do the surgery, we go to recovery for anywhere form 30min to a few hours. He will then be transferred upstairs to the pediatric care unit. (picu). They will be watching him for breathing issues, bleeding, and other issues that can arise from such a young one being put under, alone with infection & dehydration. (#1 leading cause of a little one to stay in the hospital after a surgery)

Nolan and I did a tour of the PICU yesterday, and it's right across the hall from where he was born. They were really nice and explained how it's all going to be. The good thing is that for children under 4 they do send one adult tray of food up for each meal and I can order from room service (charge of course) but that way I won't need to leave his side. They also have a Ronald McDonald's house that has a supply of anything else I may need for my stay. It will depend on what the Dr says after his surgery but the nurse said that he will likely be put in a room with an actual bed it instead of a crib since I will be there with him. That is what I prefer that way I am able to lay with my little boy. If all goes well he will be sent home Friday afternoon. This is what I'm hoping for.

His recovery at home will take about two weeks, and the Dr. warned me that the 8-10th days will be the hardest because this is when the most swelling will occur.

Hoping I can sleep between now and then. :(

I will update when possible.

Here is what his throat currently looks like: (no wonder he can't breath, swallow, etc)

This picture is the best as you can see each tonsil is actually touching his uvula. If you could get in there and look, you would see that there is an airway about the size of an tiny coffee straw that he has been breathing, swallowing, etc through. 

How fast things change.......

As I stated in my last post, Nolan was due to have eye surgery on Oct 19th.  Sadly, that surgery is now on hold. Yesterday was his appointment with his new ENT. His GI Dr, primary care physician and the ER Dr's apparently had good reason to make sure we kept this appointment. The Dr took one look in Nolan's mouth and said his tonsils and adenoids needs to come out as soon as possible. He said normally he doesn't do surgery on kids younger than 2, but because Nolan is such a big boy (he's the size of an average 3-4 yr old) and because they are what he considers a 4, on a scale of 1 which is not so bad, to a 4 which is not so good, that he is confident all will be well. Nolan's tonsils are so big that they are actually touching in the middle. The Dr assured me this procedure will help with the breathing while sleeping issues, his drooling, etc.

I am very nervous to have him go under for the procedure and to go through this. I had my tonsils removed when I was 8 years old but back then I was left for two days in the hospital to let the wounds heal and then couldn't eat real food for almost a month. Now they actually cold cauterize the surgery site now, so it's faster healing time. He will have to be in the hospital at least over night but they said to plan on at least two nights just in case. He is currently scheduled for surgery on Thursday Oct 4th and hoping he comes home on Fri but will most likely be Sat.

As soon as this surgery is done, we will be scheduling his eye surgery for about a month later. The ENT assured me this would be perfect timing. The reason he has to have the tonsils out first is because the Dr said that being put under and being intubated would not be a good situation to put Nolan in until his tonsils actually come out. So, he will have tonsils out then about a mont or so later his eyes will be done. I am hoping that these are the final things that will need to be done to make this child of mine better.

Medical Issues

Last week Nolan had his eye appointment. He is going in for surgery on Oct 19th. They will be doing surgery on both eyes because due to his exotropia. It's scary, nerve racking, and frustrating all at the same time. The Dr said that his glasses (which he will also have to wear after surgery, permanently) and patching is not going to help. His eyes are too bad, and I recently found out that it is hereditary and that both my aunt and my grandmother had it. I can't wait for him to have the surgery because I see how much better he does when he can see and I know it will be great for him. There is an 85% chance that it works, and 15% chance that he may have to have another surgery again at a later date. Only time will tell. I just get scared because of the possible side effects and the fact that he will be going under for a couple of hours and that they are in fact doing surgery on his eyes, both of them.

He also has an appointment next week with an ENT. He saw his GI Dr a couple of weeks ago and I brought up several concerns to her. He is constantly drooling, he snores really bad, and when he's in his car seat (he has a HUGE convertible car seat with tons of support) he constantly sounds like he's struggling to breath. She told me to have his primary Dr take a look at him to see if he possibly has abnormally large tonsils. (which is a huge possibility because daddy has throat problems and mommy had her tonsils out at 8yrs old). So, a week and a half ago Nolan saw his primary care Dr. I explained to her what was going on, what his GI Dr said and she took one look in his throat and referred him to an ENT. She said his tonsils are huge. He has an appointment next Thur with the ENT. Now what I'm afraid of is that he's going to have to have his tonsils taken out also. I know it's not as big of a deal now as it was way back when I was a little kid, but seriously. That would make two surgeries for a two year old in a couple of months. They eye surgery I have to constantly be with him because he can't touch his face at all, and then if he has to have his tonsils out, oh my goodness. He won't be able to understand all of what's going on and it scared me for him.

I am just praying that if both of these procedures have to be done that they be done now, and they go good, and that this will be the end of his medical drama. (besides his GI issues which will not be going away any time soon)

If anyone reading this has recently know any little person who has had these procedures done please let me know what it was like.  You can email me at private email galinbakersfield at yahoo dot com. Thank you.

Life Changes

As you can tell I've done a little cleaning of the blog, made it a little homier, and we are doing the same here. There are many changes going on at home, the kids are off to school, Nolan and I are getting to spend mommy and me time together like I was able to with my other two, and major change for health reasons.

Adam and I have joined the "get fit" hype. :) We should have done this a long time ago, however there has always been a reason that we didn't. He is now doing the Biggest Loser at work and I am so proud to say that he is ahead by a long shot. He has already lost 23lbs and there is still 6 weeks left in the program. He is losing on average of 4-6lbs a week. He really is doing great. I couldn't be more proud of him. He has gone down several short sizes (he's gone from a 40 to a 36, which is not great for the wallet but great for health reasons), and he doesn't show any signs of stopping.

I can say that since he has started all this I have joined in and lost almost 13lbs, which is a feat in and of itself. For those of you that have thyroid issues, I'm sure you understand this. I am only 5lbs away from where I was when I found out I was pregnant with Nolan, and at my lowest weight since I had Tanis. That makes me feel great, not to mention that I can fit in a lot of my old clothes again. (what I had left since I got rid of a lot when we moved here and I was a giant prego lol)

We have been watching what we eat, eating minimal of what's not healthy, and exercising like crazy. Adam has been running 2mi every day at work and then we were doing the Power90 video, however last week we joined the local YMCA. It's great for us and for the kids. We work out for an hour and then we go swimming with the little ones. It's going to be a great activity to have when the dreaded winter comes around and we can still go to work out and to swim. Sadly, this meant that I had to get a swimsuit. That of which I haven't worn since before I had Tanis. (5 yrs ago) I was happy to say that since I have gone from a size 16 to a size 10, that I was able to find a bikini that didn't look too bad and some swim shorts to wear over the bottoms. (full bathing suits are so hard to find so I had to settle on a bikini, but didn't want it, hence the bottoms :)

 Reality has been hitting us hard lately, with watching  people pass away from heart issues, both of which run in each of our families. It doesn't help that I possibly already had a mild heart attack this past Christmas. (some Dr's have been saying yes it was & others were saying it was a massive migraine) It's very scary realizing that you could possibly have a heart attack any day or MIA because of a lot of things you can control. We are aware that we can't control health issues that run in our family, however we can control what we eat and exercising, so that's what we are doing. We both want to be here to watch our babies grow up, go to college, watch them walk down the isle, and have babies of their own. This is just a reality check.

Picture Overload

Here you will find some pictures I have recently found from the last couple of months.

We went to Mike's open house and Nolan only wanted to walk with Big Brother. I love it!

Nolan loves to read, even when he's so tired and he falls asleep in the car with a book over his head. 

Tanis and I went to her very first open house last week. This is her new "BFF". They met on the playground the first day of school and have been inseparable since then. They spend the whole weekend talking to us parents about what they are going to do when they go back to school. Both us mommy's were taking pictures the whole time. Way too cute. 

 Tanis showing mommy her new "homework" folder that is to come home and stay home. 

This past weekend was the Balloon Classic. All the hot air balloons father at Memorial Park and spend all weekend showing them off. This was the first year that we were here in the house and our neighbor told us that we hat the best view, he wasn't kidding. These pictures were taken Monday morning on the last day of the Classic and the kids were running from the backyard to the front yard watching them. Smokey the Bear actually made it so the balloon came down so low that we were able to wave at them and they waved back. (side note: i do not normally allow Nolan outside in his diaper but he has an ear infection and the side affects of his medicine make it very hard to keep him in clean clothes )

These are only a "couple" of the balloons we were able to see. There were many many more. I just couldn't keep up with the kids and all the balloons. 

This is our house, and yes, the balloon was right behind it. The kids loved that. 

Smokey the Bear came down lower than this but I was too busy holding Nolan up so he could wave to Smokey. He was so close we could feel the heat from the balloon.