An update to the D-Man

I waited until Jason got up for the day to discuss what would be done. He watched him and agreed that it wasn't right. He wasn't putting any weight on it at all. He would get around by sliding around on the floor or doing this crab like crawl. Definitely favored that leg. My mom brought Gage home from spending the night and we asked what she thought. We all agreed to take him to the ER. It just didn't feel or seem right. We don't know how he hurt himself but not standing or putting any weight on it wasn't right. Especially with it coming on so fast.

So, we devised the plan on who was going where and with who. Since Jason works tonight we had to make sure just in case (our ER is notorious for leaving you there hours on end) that he had a car to get to work with. So he dropped my step-dad off at home, kept their truck with Gage's car seat in it. My mom and I then took off to the ER with Bishop and Dane. I went armed this time with diapers, coloring stuff and toys.

Surprisingly it didn't take forever to get back into the room. Met with the Dr and the nurse, they told us what they were going to do first. Another set of x-rays but this time unlike urgent care they were going to do from foot to hip. We went back for those, they came back clear. The Dr still wanted to make sure there was nothing more going on, so they ordered blood tests and an ultrasound on his hip, just to make sure there was no fluid built up. They drew the blood and then we went back for his ultrasound. There was no fluid in his hip, which is good. Came back to the room, the blood tests came back clear. Great! They drew another vile for 2 more tests that would take a bit longer to get the results for. That wasn't fun.

So, with the x-rays clear, the ultrasound clear, the blood work clear (minus knowing the other two results) everything checked out fine. But we still don't know why a perfectly healthy 2 year old would just suddenly stop putting weight on one leg. So, we are to call the Orthopedic office on Monday and set up an appointment with them for a follow up. They have ruled out anything broken and checked for infections, nothing of those kinds. Its quite possible its a muscle inflammation. So they gave him a shot of and please forgive me if I get the name wrong, I believe it was Trodal? Something similar to that name. It is supposed to help with the pain and inflammation.

So this is where we stand. We have ruled out anything that could be very serious, infections, abscess or broken bones so far. We will hopefully find out more when we meet for the follow up at the Orthopedics office. It's very scary to not quite know what is going on with your child. More so when this child has gone from perfectly healthy to suddenly ill so fast before. I feel more protective over him because of what has previously happened to him. But thankfully no abscesses or anything serious that kept him hospitalized. I feel much more comfortable with the ER visit then I did the urgent care. They ran tests I wanted them to run, everything came back fine.

So hopefully we get the whole 100% okay when we see the Ortho and just find out that he has an inflamed muscle. He was feeling a bit better when we got home but he ate dinner and went to bed. Poor kidlet has had enough.

Glad I decided to go and make sure that it was nothing more serious.

Midwives and Well child visits

Lets start with my midwife visit. I was 29 weeks and 4 days (image is 29 weeks. I'm now 30.) along and had to pee like nobody ever had to pee before haha. I know this is a bit TMI (too much info) but honestly, normally I forget about my appointment and go before we leave. Duh, doesn’t work very well for myself that way.  So this time I actually remembered and I had to pee so badly I bolted for the bathroom when we got to our midwives house.

So since I was in there, I did my urine test and weighed myself. With all our stress I figured I had put on weight. I know stress can cause you to lose weight but I admit, I’m a stress eater. I didn’t watch what I was eating. I managed to lose 4lbs. That is great! A big shock but actually great.

We went into our meeting and it was nice. My midwife was happy with my weight loss and we talked about all of what is going on. My BP was still very good! Surprised but a good relief. I have honestly felt I would have ended up in pre-term labor with all that was going on. My midwife even thought so and we were just both thankful I haven’t.

She then went on to check up on Bishop. His heartbeat was 142bpm He was head down and his back facing my left side. Which is good, meaning he’s in an anterior (facing my back) position and that is what we want for labor. She suggested I do knee rocks in order to open my pelvic bone and if I can manage it, to see a chiropractor again. I’m going to check into it and make sure I can get in with her again. I was at that appointment measuring 31 weeks. Which was interesting because I always measured on time. Oh well, I know it really doesn’t mean anything significantly so we’ll see. Jason feels he’ll only be a day “late” I hope so!

All is well, which is all I want. She did have a student there who is going to school to become a physician’s assistant. I am hopeful that with her witnessing natural home births it may lead her to being open minded. She seemed really nice and will be at our birth for Bishop.

Now onto Dane’s 18 month well child visit. It went really good. He again was very well behaved. He seems to be getting better at this haha. His weight was 27lbs and he is a smidge under 2’9”. His head was 18.5” round. When his doctor came in she said his weight and height did go down some but isn’t concerned. It is a normal thing for kids to fluctuate with their weights. I figure it also was because he was just recently sick and didn’t really want to eat. He would but it was very little.  He is developing just as he should for his age and that’s great. He loves helping get undressed but thinks getting dressed is a game haha. His words are growing and his favorite at the moment is No. He had his leg check up which I posted about a while ago and we discussed what happened at that appointment. So we’re hoping that the leg will fix itself and just basically waiting to go from there.

So that is my appointment update J boring I know. I have a post to do for tomorrow, well now actually today. I am going to get some sleep though, my wonderful bed is calling my name!

xx Marisa

Surprises and Sickies

So, I'm late on updating our blog and I do apologize! This post is basically about two things, a surprise and two sickies.

Life lately has been, hectic. Stressful, frustrating, unnerving, living in limbo basically. I have one absolutely wonderful friend. We go back, what, thirteen years? She's been there by my "side" through a lot of things in my life. A great friend and is just an awesome person.

With all that has been going on in our lives she has been there, to listen to me vent/cry, rant - whatever it was, she listened. I do the same for her and about 90% of the time we have the same mind on life. Anyways, she sent me a wonderful package. My mom got it at her house and brought it over to me, I loved it!

Now, we have not done anything for Bishop yet. It's been hard given the circumstances and sorry, I won't be able to go into them right now. So if you don't know, hopefully soon you'll have the full story. Anyways, we've been in a position where we could not plan out rooms and such, or even really put anything together. Bishop is going to be a summer baby and the other boys were winter babies. I saved all of their clothes and yet here we are with a summer baby haha. Jason and I were getting things out a few weeks back during all the moves and it hit us. We have nothing summer related for a baby! Well, we do, but not in the right age for the season.

She was so wonderful to send us a small package of things for the baby and even some Australian play money for the boys. Oh and I got some candy haha. Her seasons are different then ours (she lives in Australia) and so she sent us a few small newborn outfits. I adore them! Absolutely adore them. My mom loved them as well. We also got a beautiful adorable polka dotted Elephant for him.

I have some photos that I will post at the end of the entry. But Zoe, we thank you so very much for the wonderful package. You are honestly an amazing friend and one day hopefully our lives will cross and we can finally meet. Or you know, when you're in the states, drop by MI - duh! Its funny to think how far our friendship has grown in these years. Who would have thought it would have lasted this long? You truly are a wonderful friend beyond amazing. You're one of my closest friends, well, you knew that. I love you dearly! We all do <3


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The sickies. Ah, my sickies. It was odd that it came out of nowhere. Last Saturday (the 5th - see, I am behind!) Dane started out fine. He was himself, playing and being trouble. We were playing outside and he was doing just fine. All of a sudden he had a dirty diaper and i went to change it. It was obviously a bad one and I put ointment on it. From there I noticed a change. I thought maybe his tush hurt and he was just being a bit sulky about it. So we cuddled outside while Gage played and Jason worked on a set of stairs for the back door.

Something was off. All of a sudden he was burning up. His head, back, tummy, under his pits and back of his knees. It was seriously too hot to the touch. I took his temp; 101.3°F. I know its not too high to be so concerning but he started showing other signs that didn't sit well with me. He all of a sudden was lethargic, breathing short and fast (if that makes sense. It was hard to describe), jittery and his heart was racing. You could feel how fast it was going. He also was making this odd noise. I sat with him for an hour inside (started at 5pm and we came in at 6pm) mentioned it to Jason and he checked him out. I told him something in me didn't feel right. Right there he told me to go to Urgent Care.

I don't normally panic over sicknesses. The last time I had a gut feeling Dane ended up being hospitalized for a week with an abscess in his neck. Then had surgery on it to drain it. So when my gut says go, we generally follow it. I'm just very thankful that this time it wasn't so serious. We were in Urgent Care and his vitals came back to his heart rate being much faster then it should be for his temp. I forgot to ask what his fever temp was. The doctor told me that what she could see what he had was viral. So a viral bug. She said for his vitals, she wanted us to stay another 20 minutes to give him Motrin and retest the vitals again then. Dane was seriously not himself. We honestly do not call him trouble for nothing. He was super snuggly and laid on the table in the room. He snuggled his blanket and actually fell asleep! That never happens with the doctors. He sat still for her exam, again, something that never happens!

They tested his vitals again 20 minutes later and his heart rate thankfully went down. His fever however didn't break. We were sent home with it being a viral bug but in the back of her mind she was not ruling out the possibility of it being the start of pneumonia. His lungs were clear and his oxygen levels were good though. But she said it could still be a possibility. If he got worse to come back. Thankfully he got better. It took about if you look at it really 3 days total to get better. We flip flopped between tylenol and motrin for him. Kept him hydrated, gave him easy foods to eat. He slept so much. On the 2nd day of it all he took a 4hr nap in his bed in our room (moved him away from Gage to avoid him catching it.. ha) and then another 3 hours on me. That was not him! He was so irritable at night too. Jason and I got no sleep during the duration he was sick but he is much better so no sleep was worth it.

Gage finally caught it. He thankfully beat it much quicker then Dane. He went down for a nap on Tuesday (unlike him) and woke up burning up. Sure enough like Dane; it struck out of nowhere! So we started the same treatment process with him and within 2 days Gage was back to himself. Thank goodness. Having sickies is no fun. I hope I can handle it when I know I will have 3 sick kidlets in a row. I'm sure I will! I am just very thankful that Jason and i escaped it. I don't know how I would have been handling it being 28 weeks at the time.

I have my 2 healthy happy boys back and I am so very thankful for that!

Here are the surprise photos + 1 belly picture from 28 weeks and 5 days :) One will be on the main page and to see the rest click "read more>>"

xx Marisa

(follow this link!)

A long day traveling

Today has been a long day. We woke up early and finished prepping everything we had to take with us for the trip downstate. Mainly snacks, drinks, lunch and dinner. Dane's appointment was at 2pm but we had to be there by 1:30pm to fill out paperwork. We left ahead of schedule and it gave us extra time for lunch. We arrived a few minutes early for the appointment, answered the usual questions for the receptionist and then sat down.

Finally called back, actually maybe 10 minutes of waiting, really quick anyways. He was weighed at 28lbs and his height is 33inches. Waited for the doctor to come in and see him. This is where it got frustrating, the wait time. This one was shorter then the 2nd, but I'll get to that in a few. She came in and saw him, stretched his legs, measured between his tibia's. Had him stand, lay on his tummy and then had him walk and run. We had to use the help of the big brother to get him to walk and run where she needed him to go. She came back in to the room and started talking to Jason and I.

She gave us an idea on what is going on and wanted the other doctor to come in look at Dane. After probably 30+ minutes of waiting on him after seeing her for 5 minutes it was a bit frustrating. We understood because he was with another patient. I was more annoyed at the fact they came in to tell us we weren't forgotten about but he was finishing up with another patient and a minute later he walked in. You couldn't have come in 10 minutes before? My kids were restless, my big pregnant butt was sore and we had just had enough. The room was stuffy as well.

Im not really trying to be a complainer but by that time we were just done, haha. Poor Dane was the most, you could tell he wanted a nap but we couldn't let him fall asleep. He finally came in and started talking to us. Wanted for us to tell him why we were there and such. We told him because of his one bowed leg and how it was a concern of ours. He was very nice and understanding, very friendly as well.

He explained to us that what he has is normal. They measure between the tibia's and he like I already said is still in the normal range, just at the higher end. We were told that most kids out grow it by 24 months old. So we are supposed to go back in 6 months for a clinical check up. They did say that if he seems to be outgrowing it or fully outgrow it by/before then we can call and cancel our appointment. If it gets worse, to call sooner or stays the same to come back and they will do further x-rays. So, this is where we stand.

It is answers, not complete 100% answers but those will come in time. Its all just a matter of his leg either fixing itself on its own or getting worse, staying the same where we go back and see further from there. We were warned that if it does fix itself, which they do think it will, he will become knee knocked/knocked knee (which ever it is) before it completely is fixed. So, it is nice to be warned about that or else I probably would have come up with more worries haha.

What he has is called Left (the affected leg) leg tibial torsion. It is normal, just tibial bowing of the leg. So we're hoping he outgrows it! I couldn't imagine making the 2 hour drive again with not one, not two but three kids. Bishop will be here by his next appointment date.

I do want to do some mom bragging. I am very proud of how Gage behaved today. He was so well behaved, well mannered and just over all a good kid. We thought at first with just the nature of today he'd have some problems but he didn't. We brought my laptop so the boys could watch a movie while we were going down and then back. He ate well at lunch and really didn't complain.

Sure he had a few moments but honestly, what 4 year old isn't going too? If he didn't, I'd be wondering where my child was! I am just so happy and proud of him. He has been doing so well and today just really showed how well he's done. It wasn't an easy trip, all in one day unlike our others where we'd drive the distance and stay for a few days. It was up, into the car for 2 hours, in a doctors appointment for almost 2 hours and then straight back into the car. We stopped for lunch and potty breaks but he did so well. I'm just love him so :) oh and I love that picture! He wrote it all by himself!

That was Dane's appointment. I'm happy with the outcome and we have time to see if we will have to go back or not. Fingers crossed we don't! I am also just proud of my Monkey Man. He's getting so big.

xx
Marisa

A change in plans

The other day I got a call from the Orthopedic Surgeon's office that we have to visit for Dane's leg. They were calling to reschedule his appointment, at first I figured great, they'll reschedule it for later. Considering by then it was already set up for October! Thankfully not. However the reschedule is a lot sooner then I thought it would be. Like, the 25th of this month. Yeah, big change.

So, that means I have a short amount of time to get everything ready. It would be easier if the doctor was in our town but I have to drive 2 hours to see this surgeon. He used to practice where we live but moved his office 2 hours away. So its our only option to drive that far. It won't be that bad but still not ideal in my mind. However we're one step closer to getting an answer on his leg.

I tried to get a decent photo of it the other day but couldn't quite get it. Its hard when he's an energetic 17 month old. I am unsure of what will take place during the appointment, but they did say in the letter to be there a half hour early to fill out paperwork and then to expect the appointment to last as long as 2 hours. So, it will be a long day. 2 hours to get there, a half hour to fill out paper work, possibly 2 hours for an appointment then another 2 hour drive home. That'll definitely be a busy day. I need to make sure everything is prepared for the car rides both ways as well has having snacks, toys, possibly a movie some how. I have to occupy both boys. With my luck we'll get on the road when it's Dane's nap time so he would sleep the whole time. Fingers crossed.

Here are 2 pictures of his legs from 2 days ago. One is very bowed, you can tell. That's the one we're dealing with and then one adorable picture of him.

Marisa

Insurance and Specialists oh my!

It feels like as of late I have only been updating on Dane. Its only because more has been going on with him then Gage. Gage is doing awesome. It's actually quite amazing to see how great he is doing. He is starting to learn reason as well, which I think is a good and bad thing haha.

However, I wanted to update on Dane and all thats been going on. We finally got the call yesterday about when he'd go see the Orthopedic Surgeon/Specialist. It's farther in advanced then I had thought it would be. We are set up for Wednesday October 13th to see him. It's at 10:30am but we have to be there 30 minutes before. It's about a 2 hour drive so we'll be up early and leaving early. Not looking forward to that, mainly because Bishop will be here by then. Granted he should be almost 2 months old but hauling 3 kids to this isn't going to be a picnic. My mom said she'd go with me, so I think we have enough advanced notice for her to take the time off.

I handed in everything for the insurance. Hopefully it'll be straightened out quickly.

The weather is beautiful here. Wednesday the boys and I went for a walk around our neighborhood. It was nice and beautiful. I think we may go again today, if my ankle isn't killing me too much. I was attacked by frozen chicken that night when I opened my freezer door. It is swollen and bruised. Still hurts today. I seem to have an issue kicking it when I'm in my sleep. Wonder if I strap my other leg down if it'll stop, ha. Right.

The husbandman has been working hard. Gage gets so excited to see him when he comes home during lunch and then for the day. It's nice to see him so excited to see daddy. Our schedule was so different before he got this job, now, its nice! He's gone during the day and home at night. He used to be home during the day and gone at night. I hated it, the boys hated it. Now you can tell when daddy comes home, mama is nobody, well, until dinner time! Then I'm needed again, haha.

Its amazing how things have turned out. From major upsets to wondering if we would be okay. To here we are, happy, building a house with two healthy boys and a wonderful surprise boy on his way. I had my ups and downs on feelings but knowing life will be okay, makes me okay. To make sure the boys have what they need is all that matters to me and they have it.

However, Gage's latest thing is to make sure you know he's bored haha!

It's been awhile

Lots of things have been going on this past week. I'm hoping this coming week is low key, however my hopes are not very high.

Monday I took Dane's to have his legs x-rayed. While waiting to be called back I was looking over the sheet the Radiology receptionist gave me. It was easier to read then the one attached to it from my son's doctor. Well, considering it was typed and not written. Anyways - it said that there was 'Suspicion of one leg being shorter'. Why did we go get his legs x-rayed? Well, because he's had one badly bowed leg for awhile now and it was not getting better.

My other son had two bowed legs and they fixed themselves around 21 months. However, D's wasn't getting better and it was only the one leg.. so, my concern was there. It lingered as we passed 1 year and at his 12 month check up his doctor said to keep an eye on it. There wasn't a lot of concern on either of our ends then. I kept watching and the leg started to become more noticeable. It affects how he walks, how he runs and even how he stands.

So, we were told to have him get x-rays and then we would move on to the next step. A referral to an Orthopedic Surgeon. Issues with that is unfortunately we no longer have one in our hospital. So we will have to travel 2 hours to see this one. I mean, in my sons best well being I will travel as far as I have to, don't get me wrong there. I'm just glad that it isn't winter anymore and I won't have to drive in crappy snow to get there.

We're currently in the waiting game on hearing back. I tried contacting the doctors office on Friday but had no luck getting ahold of anyone.

On top of that, when we found out we were having a boy I was told I might need to have another scan. Okay, that happened with Gage. They couldn't get all the heart chambers in good images so we had to go back. He was too wiggly for them. This tech focused a lot on ds1's heart. I'm telling myself its nothing, it may have been a bit too soon to get any good measurements. That's my hope anyways. She took a small video clip of his heart to send to the Radiologist to look over.. it just makes a parent nervous. I am waiting to hear back on that as well.

At least ds1 is a good comic relief! He's discovered telling jokes. Well, a 4 year olds version of a joke. However - it helps make the hard things go away and we can just laugh. He's so bright and smart! He can count to 5 in Spanish.

I'm not ready to let him go to kindergarten. Granted, i have one year left of him at home before he can start but not ready! Nope. The thought of him being ready next fall saddens me. He's my biggest baby, hes my first born. How can i let him go to school? I can't.. I won't.. wait, yes I will but I can say that I won't haha. I know he'll have a blast.

We are trying out Pre-K again on him this year. Only 2 days a week and full days. That way it helps prepare him somewhat for kindergarten.