Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Happy Boy Again!

Jerry is feeling much better as he gets over his cold and ear infection. He is getting around great in his cast now. I hope he doesn't get too crazy and break the other leg! Probably should not joke like that.

Jerry's heart? Always I worry about his heart. He is at times out of breath or looks really pale but mostly he seems fine. There is not much I can do with little worries unless there are bigger more substantial red flags. This is of course hard since he had no BIG red flags when his heart was getting worse before. It is killing me not to know how much he weighs. I can tell that he has gained since he got his cast on but I don't know how much his cast weighs!!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

A spring cold and ear infection to top it off

My poor guy has been sick with a cold/virus since last Sunday (Isaac is so good at sharing!). He has walked a little on his cast but has been pretty worn out from his cold. Today he still seemed pretty congested, was pulling on his ears more and not at all into eating. So I took him to the med center around the corner and they found an ear infection. So now hopefully the antibiotic will kick that and we will be on the mend. I hope his leg is OK after the cast comes off and that he won't be really weak. It is supposed to come off on May 5th. However, I bought plane tickets for Tuesday the 4th. I am not sure how this is all going to work but we want to be there for sure for the weekend and the cheap flight was on Tuesday. John will meet us there Friday to drive home on Sunday. Our orthopedist is out of town so we will not hear from her until Monday. I was thinking we could take his cast of a day early or a few days later when we get back or even have it taken off in Cleveland??? Probably not the later I guess. If none of these are OK we will just cancel our flight and....I'm not sure what we will do.

In the meantime we have appointments scheduled with an ENT to make sure nothing there is making him reluctant to eat and an appointment scheduled for his Cystic Fibrosis test. I will schedule an appointment with the endocrinologist and after that....I think there is nothing left to look into. If he doesn't start packing on the pounds (or at least ounces) in the next month we will be heading for the feeding tube. I will want to have his heart completely checked before we have that surgery. Praying that these appointments are at least buying JJ the time he needs to forget the pain he had from eating and start new habits.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Waiting for the next adventure and hoping for none!

Jerry is doing OK with his cast. He tried to walk in it a little more today but he has been sick with a virus so that isn't helping much. I'm hoping this is a passing cold virus but he is pretty congested, coughing and miserable. No fever today so that was improvement. I keep wanting to say JJ can't catch a break....but I guess he did! He has now missed 2 sessions of Kid Rock music class (he's very upset about it, hehe). Not sure if we should just withdrawl. I need to see how many sessions there are to see if it is worth while.

Gigi left yesterday and we were sad to see her go. She was amazingly helpful, although we wish we didn't have "adventures" every time she was here! We plan to travel to Cleveland the week before Mother's day weekend and stay through the weekend. I am trying to get a flight in so the kids and I can go early since John won't be able to come until Friday night. This would be JJ's last free flight since he turns 2 on the 16th!! The logistics of getting to the airport are difficult and the good fares end tomorrow.

In the next few weeks we will have the test for cystic fibrosis, consult with an ENT, and hopefully have the cast removed on the 5th. Also trying to schedule to see an endocrinologist. All of this just to be absolutely sure there is nothing going on with eating and weight problems that we haven't uncovered yet.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The best news ever... a broken leg!

















Our appointment today went really well. JJ did such a good job and really did not cry until he saw them put on the gloves for the cast. He for sure thinks this means shots. He got over the gloves thing when he started playing with the cotton wrap and I told him it would fix his leg so he could play and walk. He locked into the play part and just kept repeating "go park."

So this doc thinks that the x-ray shows an old break healing. She believes he re injured it but what they see is the healing of the old one. He has toddler fractures which would not show up right away but do show up later when they are healing. I feel really kind of guilty that I did not end up taking him in the last time but he was walking on it some the same day and walked and climbed normally in 4 to 5 days. The doc assured me that we would be in the same position because the break would not have shown up.

I am pretty much on board with this but still a tiny bit nervous that a bone infection could be missed. The doc is pretty confident but said we will look into it more if any other symptoms turn up or he does not heal. I never thought I would be so happy to have a cast on my baby (the bone infection can be pretty serious). We did go to the "park" playground when we picked Isaac up from school and then later went to the library which he loved. He is trying to walk on his cast a little and decided he would hop so he finds it pretty funny to say "hop...hop..hop."










Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Can't believe this is happening

We have been evaluating JJ's leg injury since he has not yet put any weight on it. We had ankle and foot x-rays one day and then went back for x-rays of his lower leg the next day (thinking we missed where the fracture could be). The x-ray today showed possible bone bruising or osteomylitis (bone infection). Usually with bone bruising he would be walking and also he did not fall with the part that would be "bruised" hitting the ground. Tomorrow we will go to a pediatric orthopedic doctor to check this all out. My research into all of this is NOT helping me feel better. He had a strange fever few weeks back and then fell and had hurt the same leg. Anyway, it all adds up to at least suspicious. Please send good thoughts and prayers that everything is fine. Also, I am thinking of Isaac who cannot seem to get in a good visit with his GiGi. Every time my mom is here (since he was 2) there is something going on that prevents a fun week of activities from taking place. We have plans for a few fun things that we have not been able to do.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Nothing's Simple

John took the boys to Cleveland on Friday. Yes, I was home alone and I am a new person.

So now it is 11 pm Sunday night. They are on their way back with my mom. They called to tell me they are running late because Jerry woke up screaming and ended up throwing up all over himself. They had to get him out of the car for a bit to clean him up and calm him down and could not get him back in no matter what they said. He finally let my mom take him in her lap. Praying they have a safe trip. I don't like that he is in the front seat riding but I do believe that there might have been no other way. So then my mom goes on to tell me that he hurt his ankle or foot earlier in the evening and would not put weight on it. Yes, he just hurt his foot a few weeks ago but seemed to recover from that. So maybe that is hurting him and making him cry? I wouldn't expect him to have trouble in the car. The last trip that John and I had with him we did not hear a peep out of him the entire drive.

Tomorrow Jerry is supposed to go to his first park district class...Kid Rock! So we will see how he does with his leg and if we go to music class or for an x-ray. I can't wait to see him to make sure he is OK.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

It's official!

At the doctor's office today Jerry weighed 20 pounds and 11 ounces. That is with his shirt and diaper so probably, more accurately, 20 and 8. So now it is really ok that his car seat is facing forward. I took him just for weight because I knew he was gaining and I wanted an official record of it before he lost it somehow. I think I have forgotten to write this but an average boy his age would weigh 27 or 28 pounds. I guess he has got a way to go but we are excited about every little bit. He is getting quite the 2 year old temper to go along with the weight gain. He insists on doing everything himself! He has been asking me "WHYYYYYYYYYY?" for a while now when I tell him things must or can't do.

Friday, April 2, 2010

gaining again!


















Jerry's weight on the scale at the doctors yesterday, showed no gain since his appointment there 3 weeks ago but we know he was gaining and lost it when he was sick for 3 days. The last few days on our home scale he has been gaining. He has been playing hard and eating pretty well. He has not complained of any tummy aches in the last few days and has been very happy. I think the mirilax was maybe bothering him and just took a bit of time to get out of his system maybe. He also has been sleeping pretty much through the night.. waking at 4 or 5 and then going back to sleep until 6:30 or 7. Today he slept until 7:40...that never happens!

The shots he had yesterday were the last ones! So nice to put that behind us for a while. The report from his GI x-rays said everything is normal. Now we just see how much consistency we can get with eating and weight gain.
In the top right picture, Jerry is wearing an Edward Hospital newborn side snap t shirt. Can you believe it? He is almost 2!! I am used to how small he is so sometimes things like this just hit me. He must have come home in a smaller one than that though at under 5 pounds!