Starting Off With a Bang

Wiz had several doctors' appointments in Seattle this week. We drove over Sunday, and met one of my knitty friends for lunch. Wiz wasn't feeling well, but it was nice to meet one of my virtual friends.
Monday was only one appointment. We saw the neurosurgeon, who will be doing Wiz's surgery. While we waited, he drew random dots on the whiteboard, and then drew a picture. This was serious to him.
This is the orca and her baby that we see every time we go to the hospital. Wiz loves this. He wants to count all of the faces in the two orcas.One thing he has always wanted to do is to go up into the Space Needle. We finally had time. It wasn't the best day to go up (rainy, foggy, and cold), but we went up anyway. It was really neat to see Seattle from up there. It's probably better on days that aren't cold, rainy and foggy, but we had fun.

The fog was actually a bit better after the sun went down, and we saw this when we were wandering around Seattle Center before we headed for dinner with a couple of my college friends.
We also saw this fountain in front of Key Arena. Wiz thought it was beautiful and amazing. The water was coordinated with music. He wants to go and watch it again.
Tuesday was all appointments, all day. He was exhausted after it was over.

The weather was clear and sunny on our way back. This is part of the Stuart Mountains that we saw from the rest area between Cle Elum and Ellensburg.
I've been trying to find something wonderful in all of these trips for medical appointments. This one was particularly good.

What I've Been Up To

Working, mostly. In two weeks, I'll turn in my last set of grades, and I'll only have one job. This will be a relief. I have two part time jobs, both of which really aren't. It will be good to have less juggling! (O, hai, free time. I miss u.)

Wiz has been to the doctor a lot this month. We saw the neurologist, the hematologist, the gastroenterologist, and the cardiologist this month. Neurology will want to see him again (unless the neurosurgeon needs to see him/do surgery), hematology and gastroenterology are pretty much permanent, and cardiology has signed off. Wiz has no heart problems. WOOHOO!

I've been knitting little things. First, I've knit 20 ornaments:I've knit a tam/beret.
Bottom of the beret. The brim. The top. (Mountain Colors, Weaver's Quarters in Sagebrush, which seems appropriate, since we are right on the edge of sagebrush habitat.)

I've knit a pickle. (This is for a tasteless, silly ornament exchange. I think it fits the bill.)
Finally, Game Boy made a boat out of duct tape (and got a hair cut). I think that the boys will both get duct tape in their stockings this year. There is just so much fun out of a roll of it.

Saturday Sum Up

It's been extremely busy around here. It doesn't seem as if I am doing very much, but when I blink, it's already the weekend. I know I've been saying this a lot, but it's always true!

This week was full of busy. I've been applying for jobs (I want something steady and that I can count on), and it finally paid off. I am going to start as the manager of a food bank close to home. One of the things I've become interested in due to my own dietary issues and to feeding Wiz, is food security. The food bank will allow me to work to help others who don't have that, have a bit more security in knowing where their next meal will come from. As the boys have gotten older, I've really wanted to do something that will make a difference in the world. I hope that this will make a difference in my little corner. I'm really excited about it.

The Collar is at convention and spent the week setting up a demonstration about resources for it. He's giving this seminar 3 times this weekend. He'll be back on Sunday afternoon.

Wiz's MRI results have come back. He has some issues, but hopefully they will be something that is monitored rather than corrected. I am not happy that there were abnormalities, but I'm trying to see this as a good thing to catch, rather than just bad news.

And I've been knitting. Lots. I finished the spumoni socks. They are soft, comfortable, and cheerful.
I'm knitting my niece a pair of fingerless mitts. I'm done with the cuff on one, and just need to add the thumb and weave in ends on the other. They are kind of sparkly, so K should just love them.
When I really want to finish something quickly, I've been knitting Christmas ornaments. This year, it's tiny little socks. (It takes about an hour to finish one.) I am going to buy myself a set of 4" dpns because of this:Yes, it's really annoying to have these long needles to deal with when I'm knitting such a tiny thing. Besides, I want to knit gloves, and fingers are about as small.
That's the Saturday Sum Up.

Reminders

The Wiz had an MRI today of his brain. It was both with and without contrast, so it took a while. Because he's a wiggly little boy (46 pounds--the nurse weighed him because she hoped I was wrong, but nope, I was right) he needed general anesthesia, so it took a bit longer than it might have otherwise.

When he woke up, I reminded him he couldn't have breakfast to which he responded that he knew, because he'd done this before. We drove the 5 minutes to the hospital (shortest hospital drive for us EVER).

We arrived at 6:30. We checked in and he helped give out his information: full name, birthdate, and so on. He knew exactly what they were going to ask, and just started answering the questions. We sat for about 5 minutes before we went back for his prep. The nurse would tell him he's brave, and he informed her that he was used to it. He told her his memories of other times he'd had anesthesia.

I'm really amazed that he did nothing when his IV was inserted. Usually he screams bloody murder, but he did very well. He chatted with the anesthesiologist about how HIS hospital was better than this one, but this one was okay. (His hospital is still Cincinnati Children's--even though we go to Seattle Children's now.) Even without his ADHD meds this morning, he was pretty self-possessed and able to carry on a conversation that the rest of us were also in on. It's times like these when I see how mature he can be. Medical tests and hospitals always bring that out in him. At the same time, he was clutching a stuffed animal. He's really not that grown up.

After he went to MRI, I went out to the waiting room. The Collar had two parishioners (Wiz is his most frequent hospital visit) at same day surgery so I got to talk to him too. It was nice to have someone to talk to while waiting. He couldn't stay the whole time, but I was happy to see him. He stayed about a half hour with me, which was great. I knitted the whole time I was waiting for Wiz to go to recovery. I knitted quite a lot of a sock:
My finger is on the spot where I started this morning. I have about 25% left and I'll have a new pair of socks. Waiting room knitting is always productive for me.

Finally, after nearly 2 hours, I went back to recovery. He was trying to wake up, and giving us all palpitations because he kept trying to get up before he had muscle control. He also kept trying to talk to us, which is new. He'd never tried to talk to me before he was fully awake. His waking up process took a pretty long time--at least an hour after I went back.

He was happy though--he was given a couple of toys, allowed to eat cookies, and he and I went to breakfast (Coffee Connection Cafe--his choice) and we were back home at noon. It's been a quiet day since.

Now I need to get cracking on his other medical stuff for this fall. We have all his Seattle appointments to set up.

After that, I can pretend he has normal health for awhile. Denial can be useful.

BMB Day 2008

It's kind of strange that I feel it necessary to write the year on these posts now. We've had 5 of them now, and I've been blogging for 3 years now, so it's not a big surprise.

We had to be at the hospital at 8:00 to have his IV placed. Once that was placed, they were able to draw his labs. It's quite nice to have the IV--it's much easier to draw the blood. I made a deal with him--if he did everything without fighting, he would get a bigger Ugly Doll. He did, so here he his with his ugly doll.
We met the new GI. He's pretty fast at his appointments. We only need to see him every 6 to 8 months. Wow! We aren't used to that.

The Wiz's bone marrow biopsy went well. He entertained everyone before he went out. He always does! I went and found us food and when I got back, he was in recovery. He had his bagel with strawberry cream cheese. Then the pain hit. Usually, he is fine after his biopsies, but this time he had pain. He couldn't sit up, or stand, or lay down. He tried to tell stories to the nurse and the hem, but he'd stop and cry. If you know the Wiz, nothing stops him from talking, so this was bad. He was given half an oxycodone (he's still pretty small) and he felt better so we were released to go home (and I was given the other half in case he needed it).

On the way out, he decided I should take a picture of the scultpture.And then with the pig bench.On the way home, he started feeling ill. I was able to pull over at the view point to let him rest a bit. I took a picture of the Stuart mountains. It's about 3:00 in this picture, which is apparently is late afternoon now.After that, we went on, and he put the yak in Yakima. :( He had some more problems, but we did make it home. He's feeling fine now, but he was pretty miserable all night. This morning he had one more bout, but now he's fine.

Tomorrow, he's going to school.

Views

Mt. Rainier from Yakima

The views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier are from the rest area just west of Yakima. We stop at it every time (okay, only twice so far) and this time we didn't meet up with a prison bus.
Our room has some nice views. We can see Mt. Rainier and the Space Needle. The Wiz wants to go to the Space Needle some time. The sky was really pretty tonight. Last time we were here it was cloudy the whole time.

Time to give The Wiz his meds. I'm letting him stay up tonight, so I can sleep until 6:30.

Seattle, again

The Wiz and I are leaving for Seattle in the morning. We're seeing his hematologist and his GI and he'll be having his annual bone marrow biopsy.

We're leaving earlier, because I refuse to need to be driving on the highway at rush hour again. Can you say gridlock?

I'll probably write from Seattle or maybe I'll wait until we get back home. It all depends on how we're doing.

No, I'm not driving my car. I'm driving The Collar's as it's probably safer (snow has been seen in the passes!) so we should be good to go.

Seattle

Our trip to Seattle was good, if exhausting. The Wiz has decided he likes the hospital, even if he's mad about having two blood draws. (More on that later.)

We drove through the desert and saw Yakima. We saw Ellensburg. Then we went over the mountains. The Wiz was impressed. The mountains here are quite impressive. Then we went down and then we went up, and all of sudden we saw TREES! The Wiz thought that was good. He knew that other people thought that Washington was wet and forested, but he didn't understand why. Now he does.

We made it into Seattle at around 5:30. Exactly the wrong time to arrive. The traffic was horrendous. It's quite confusing, too, because you need to be in the left lane now then all the way across 5 lanes to reach the next exit or interchange. However, we made it with only one wrong turn, and that was because Google maps didn't actually say which way to turn off of the interstate.

We made it to our hotel, and went for dinner. I'd forgotten how busy it is around the University. There were all sorts of restaurants--unfortunately, most of them were Chinese or Japanese, so I couldn't eat there. We found a place to eat, and went back to our hotel.

This is what the Wiz thought of the hotel.:
We eventually went to sleep. The next morning, we got breakfast and went to the hospital. Seattle Children's is also a really great hospital. There is a lot of PacNW art in the hospital, and it's quite kid friendly. The Wiz thought the waiting areas weren't as good though.

We met the new Hem and we like her. She wants us to also see an immunologist, an endocrinologist, and a neurologist. I can't say that I'm thrilled, but I am happy that she is thorough. He also got his flu shot. He had to have it in his leg, because he's too small now for the arm.

We met someone I know from online who has sort of moved to the Seattle area. It was good to meet her and to meet her sleepy daughter.

Then we got his blood drawn. You know you are in for a bad one when there is concern that he doesn't weigh enough to draw all the blood needed for all the labs. For the first time ever, The Wiz REALLY freaked. I've never seen him do this before. He screamed and tensed and blew the first vein. So the phlebotomist had to use a different one. This time, we had him blow bubbles while drawing the blood because you can't scream and hold your breath if you are blowing bubbles.

We took pictures on the pig bench.

Then we started home. The trip back had two delays: a wreck in Seattle at the I5-I90 interchange and at the eastern Pass in Snoqualmie for helicopter testing. Helicopter testing is for avalanche control, if you don't know, which I did not.

It was a good trip, because I feel that he'll be in good hands here. It helps with my stress levels. :)

The Schedule

In the next few weeks, we have a crazy schedule of medical/dental appointments. Most of them are for the Wiz. I'm a bit nervous, because I've never driven to Seattle before, but it'll be okay. I was REALLY scared when we went to CCHMC the first time, so this is better. I kind of know what to expect at least this time.

On Friday, the Wiz goes to the allergist. A new allergist, so we'll have more allergy testing. I'm hoping that this time he has clear cut reactions, rather than last time, where he had over a dozen maybes. He's had a lot of "mystery" hives, so allergies would be good rather than needing to go on to finding out whether or not they are autoimmune. (Yes, of course. His immune system doesn't fight off infections, so why not attack his own body.)

The following Thursday, we visit our new hematologist/oncologist in Seattle at Seattle Children's Hospital. We'll have to go up the afternoon before, and we'll be spending the night at a motel. We'll be going up again for his annual bone marrow biopsy, but that has not been scheduled yet. I'm hoping we can get his IG started again.

The second week in November, both boys have dental appointments. Yay. The Wiz will be having his tooth fixed and Game Boy will be going for a cleaning.

The week after that, The Wiz sees his new gastroenterologist. He's been having a bit of a problem with his weight so maybe his enzyme dose needs to be increased.

Oh, and he's been having a LOT of headaches. He seems to be having them at least weekly. I'm thrilled. He's uncomfortable. I'm guessing we're going to have to see a neurologist.

The Collar and I are both going in for checkups with our new doctor too. But that's not a big deal.

So that's the medical stuff going on. Next time, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming of house, adventures, food, and knitting. :)

GI and the Zoo

One of the things we try to do is have the Wiz's specialist appointments during school breaks. He misses so much school as it is, that it's pretty important to do.

Yesterday was the GI. In two weeks, it will be the Hem. His Hem is partially retired, so we have to go when he's there, which means we'll be missing some school. Oh well. (The Wiz will never have perfect attendance. Frankly, no child should. Too many parents send their kids to school sick.)

The Wiz has grown some. He's up to 43.5 pounds and is now 46 inches tall (10th percentile for weight, 25th percentile for height). He's maintaining his gain 5 pounds a year growth rate. His PI is still there, but he hasn't grown enough to need to change his enzyme dose. So, all is well. Dr. GI wants to see him in July. We rarely get a 6 month break from the GI. Oh well.

Note to self. Even if I want Game Boy to see some of the not-fun parts of The Wiz's doctors' appointments, it's not worth it to have the two of them messing around with each other. Oh my goodness are they annoying in closed spaces.

As per our tradition, we then drove the three blocks to the zoo. It's good to have fun after these things. Since we can never make it back for school anyway, we just head over there. It's educational, right?The peacocks are definitely ready for babies.The red pandas were active.The lions did their lion thing.
The polar bear was swimming.The rhino statues stayed in their spot by the front.

We had a good time, then we came back home. There are no adventures planned for today, but we'll have some this weekend.

Home Again.

The Wiz and I both have had medical tests this week. The Wiz is done for a bit, my next appointment is Thursday. The Wiz had a lot of blood drawn, but not as much as was actually allowable from a kid his size. When the nurse asked how he did with blood work, I tried to say he tries, but it's hard on him, but he beat me to it. He informed her that he screams, and that he was going to do so. And, he did! At least he's honest! (We won't receive results for two weeks.)

I had an MRI on my hand. It took forever, probably because I started every time the pitch changed. I hope to NEVER do that again. Thursday is the day I find out if I'm crazy or if I really did do something to my hand.

Anyhoo, that's enough of that. We'll talk about the zoo.

We went and had a blast! It was really great. We saw the cutest baby peafowl. One was yellow, so must have some weird genes in there. Dad was pretty darn handsome, too. We also saw a sloth. Last, we went and saw the wolf pups, who were tumbling around and enjoying the day. It was fantastic.

I don't like Tuesdays.

Most people don't like Mondays (tell me why!), but around here, it's Tuesday. None of us like them. M doesn't because we don't let him go play with friends, because it's unfair to L. It also isn't fair to M, but what else can we do? The rest of us hate it because it's SCIG day. L's doing very well on it (we haven't visited the ped since he started it), and it's going much better since we started using his thigh for the infusion. (See the picture--that lump is the IG. He refers to that as his Incredible Hulk leg. And yes, that's his upper thigh, not his knee!)

I hate that we have to do this with him, but I do think that it's worth it. L's not as upset about it since a couple of brothers who also have to do it, but it is still really hard for a not-quite 6 year old. We let him watch TV and he gets a sucker for the actual stick. It all works, but it's just not a normal way to do things.

On the bright side, he eats like a pig afterwards. We're pretty sure that he's the only child in Madison County that asked for 2 helpings of curry for dinner tonight. Tonight, we'll have B&Js after the boys go to bed (they are having dessert now), and relax for a week. (Only 3 more months and then we're off for the summer. Yeah!)