Neurosurgeon Visit

We went and saw the neurosurgeon yesterday. For all of the anticipation over the last few weeks, we didn't find out a tremendous amount. First, he can't give us an official diagnosis until we have a CT scan. So, we'll have that in a month. The doctor's office will call us with the actual appointment time. After the CT, we'll go straight to the neurosurgeon's for another visit. At that visit, he wants us to bring some dates that would work for surgery. From the exam, he said it looks like Andrew's sagittal suture is fused. The sagittal suture is the one that runs from the middle of the head back. Because that suture is closed, his head can't expand from the sides, so it lengthens front to back. The soft spot on the top of his head is smaller than it should be, and the soft spot on the back of his head has closed completely already. The surgery would involve cutting two strips of bone along the suture to allow for the head to expand. He'll probably stay in the hospital for 4 days or so, with one or two of those in Intensive Care to monitor how well he reacts to the anesthesia. The doctor was wonderful and very knowledgeable. His name is Dr. Andrew Reisner, so he related very well to our Andrew. Here is his group's website. He's on the home page holding a little girl's hand. He's also the director of Neuro Trauma at Children's Healthcare, so I know we're in good hands. He said they've done hundreds of these surgeries, and once corrected, it won't cause him any further problems. We'll keep everyone posted with updates as they come!

Once Every Four Years - Just Like the Olympics

We have snow here in Georgia! Here's a picture of the house.




According to the weather pundits, this only happens about once every four years or so. The boys have had fun playing in it. They both went out a couple of times today.



I went to the store earlier today to get our groceries for the week, and it was funny to watch everyone. One lady was telling the woman with her that they needed to stop at the gas station when they were done because she was on a half a tank, and she wanted to fill up since it was snowing. Another womans was stocking up on batteries in case the power went out. The lady in front of me spent almost $250 in groceries. Unless she has ten children, they'll have enough food to last them through until spring. Everyone was giving my cart funny glances. I was only buying what we needed for the week, and since I had already gone to the Farmer's Market earlier, I had more health and beauty items than I did food. It's supposed to be 40 tomorrow, so all of this snow will melt away by mid-afternoon. It will be slippery in the morning since we're expecting temperatures in the teens tonight. All of the roads are wet right now, so when it freezes tonight they'll get icy. It is really pretty though. Here's a shot of our yard from the back deck.

I have to be honest, this is the way I like snow. It looks pretty outside, it's not too hard to drive in, and it'll all melt by tomorrow! Can't complain too much.

Quick update on Andrew. We go to see the neurosurgeon on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what's happening after that visit.

I finally talked to a doctor late Monday night. At about 5:30, I was able to get a hold of the doctor's paging service, and after pretty much telling the lady I wasn't going to get off of the phone until she paged a doctor, she agreed. The doctor I talked to was the one who had been in on Monday, so she was able to tell me what she could remember from reading the x-ray report. Then, today, I called the office again to talk more in-depth with someone. I spoke to the nurse practitioner who originally saw him last Thursday (Has it only been a week?). Anyway, according to the radiologist's report, there is some partial fusing of the skull bones. I forgot to ask if it's just one suture or more than one, but from what I read, more than one is usually very rare. From this point, we need to be referred to a neurosurgeon, so she was going to fax all of his information to the surgeon today. She said we should hear from them by the end of this week. It sounds like we'll probably need to have a CT scan to give the doctor a better idea of what's going on. After that, who knows? It could be wait and see, it could be a helmet to help shape the skull, or it could be surgery. We'll have to let the surgeon tell us that. I was able to stop by school today and let my principal know what's going on. I'm scheduled to return to work on Monday, and I just wanted to let her know that the return date has become a little fluid. She was very understanding, and my sub is willing to stay next week if needed. Right now, it looks like I'll be back on Monday, though.

No News Yet

I know now why parents of kids with chronic illnesses become such advocates. Doctors can be pains. I called the doctor's office this morning at 9, as soon as they opened, to get the results of Andrew's x-rays. The guy I talked to said they had the report, but the doctor hadn't looked it over yet. He told me that as soon as she finished with the patient she was with, she would look at the report and give me a call back. So I waited. And I waited. Finally, around 11, I called the office back. This time I talked to a lady who told me it was very hectic there, but the doctor would definitely get back to me by 12:30 or 1 at the latest since they were closing early. So I waited. And I waited. At 12:55, I decided to call again, because I didn't want to miss them. Unfortunately, they had already closed the office, and no one answered the phone. There wasn't even a paging service that I could talk to. I waited a little longer, and then I decided to call the hospital where they took the x-rays. I figured that even though it's a holiday the hospital never closes and somone there will talk to me. No deal. The person I talked to there said they don't give results to parents only doctors. Now, I understand that I'd need to speak with a doctor to understand all of the ramifications of a diagnosis, and what the next steps would be, but all I'm really looking for is a yes or no right now. Does he have this condition or not? Because if it's a no, I'll be a lot more comfortable while I wait for the doctor's call. Even if it's a yes, I would be OK. This not knowing at all is what is driving me crazy.

First Month, First X-Ray

I took Andrew in for his one month check-up yesterday. The nurse must have thought I was a brand-new mom, since I had about five things I was concerned about. He's had a lot of trouble with spitting up (just reflux) and congestion (nothing major). I was also a little worried about his head shape. It seems like he has a ridge running across the top of his head from front to back, but I figured I noticed it because the poor kid is bald. The Dr. was a little more worried. They said there's a chance that his skull bones have fused early since his forehead and the back of his head bulge a little. It's called craniosynostosis. So they wanted me to take him over to Children's Health to have his head x-rayed. After today, I think I'm the one that needs my head examined, but that's another topic! So after trying the orthopedic clinic close to me fifty times only to have no one answer the phone, and finding out that the Benefits office at the school system didn't turn in my paperwork on time so he had no insurance, I was finally able to get everything straightened out and get to the hospital for the x-rays. Unfortunately, it was after 5, so I won't hear anything from the Dr.'s office until Monday at the earliest. We keep joking that he's going to be our high maintenence one, and it looks like it's turning out that way!

Merry Christmas!!

It's a fairly quiet Christmas day at our house. We don't have any family in town, so we're taking the day pretty slow. Jeremy and Matthew are at Alvin and the Chipmunks right now. I was planning to take the boys during break, but Nathan was adament about not going, so we decided on this instead. Nathan's playing with his toys, and Andrew's trying to sleep.

Here are the boys in their Christmas pajamas. I started a new tradition this year of buying them each new pajamas and having them open them after we got back from our Christmas Eve service. Andrew didn't get any this year, but I'm already planning a trip to Old Navy for next year since their prices before Christmas couldn't be beat. I went over on Friday and had to force myself out of the store, or I would've bought their entire winter wardrobe for next year.

It looked like I had gotten a ton of gifts, and the pile was bigger than I had planned, but looking at them last night I realized that the only gift I spent more than $20 for was Jeremy's. He got a cordless drill. I know, it's a little boring, but we needed it. He bought me new glasses since the ones we have in the cupboard are wedding gifts. I even went discount on their stockings. I went to Dollar Tree last week and spent $15 to fill their stockings. I probably won't be able to do that for much longer, but right now they were thrilled. They seemed pretty happy with this year's gifts. Nothing really needs to be assembled, and the only things that needs batteries is Matthew's digital camera (so he can stop using mine!). I even bought gifts for Andrew. The boys had a great time opening them for him.

All in all, it's been a good Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church along with 2000 of our closest friends. The place was packed. They actually had to put chairs up in the foyer which is where we sat. Nathan lasted through most of it until the sermon, then Jeremy took him downstairs to walk around. Matthew did pretty well, too. Andrew slept through most of it, so he was the easiest. We want to try and do this every year. Now that they're getting older, I want to start some of these traditions that we can continue year after year.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Say Hello to Andrew Michael!

Our third baby joined the family two weeks ago Friday. Yes, he was about three weeks early! Needless to say, we were very surprised. We had gone over to my uncle's for Thanksgiving dinner and came home about 7 or so that evening. After we put the boys to bed, we sat on the couch for a while and watched the Colts try their hardest to lose to the pathetic Atlanta Falcons. (And I should know just how bad the Falcons are, I have to hear about it every day here in Atlanta.) Anyway, after the Colts finally won, we went to bed about 11:30. My cousin Stephanie and I were planning to do some shopping on Friday since it is, after all, Black Friday. I woke up about 1:30 am and had to go to the bathroom. My pajamas were kind of damp, but I didn't really think anything about it until I got to the bathroom and realized that my water had broken. I woke Jeremy up with the words, "You're not going to believe what just happened." Then, I called the doctor and he, of course, told us to go right to the hospital. Only one little problem (actually two). I had two boys that had nowhere to go. So after debating, we woke them up and decided to take them with us. This happened after I spent a half-hour packing and panicking at the same time. First, because we had nothing ready for the baby. I mean, no crib, no bottles, no diapers, nothing. Secondly, I had a list of about 100 things I was going to accomplish my last two weeks of school. I had my plans with me, my grading sheets, everything. I certainly wasn't ready for a sub. Jeremy finally convinced me that freaking out wasn't really helping, and we headed off to the hospital.

The nurses were great at the hospital. I was a little afraid that they would be leery of us showing up with two boys, but they took it right in stride. I think my nurse actually convinced the doctor to hold off on the c-section until the morning. Unfortunately, that meant I had to go through about five hours of labor. Not a lot, I know, but there is a reason why I like c-sections. I called my uncle at about 5:30 in the morning, and my cousin Laura came over to the house at about 6 to watch the boys. (That's a huge sacrifice for her since she's 14 and loves to sleep in!) Andrew arrived at 8:19 am. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

Andrew right after birth.

Everything seemed fine until we got back to the room. The nurse was getting ready to take him to the nursery when she noticed he was a little sweaty. She checked his blood sugar, and it was about half of where it should be. So he headed off to the NICU. There, they started an IV and gave him glucose. I finally saw him again Friday evening, and it looks like he has veins like mine. The nurse told me I had to be careful of his IV since it was the fourth one they had put in. He kept blowing the other ones out. Poor kid. Saturday, he came off of the glucose, and he was able to spend the rest of the time in my room with me. It was quite an adventerous start for him!

Matthew and Nathan think he is just wonderful. Everyday when they come home, they have to "pet the baby". Nathan did tell us right after he was born that the baby was a girl, and he was going to call her Mark. I think we've finally got him convinced that the baby is a boy, and we're calling him Andrew. Except for some trouble adjusting to sleeping in his bassinet, he's doing great. He likes to sleep everywhere else, he just is not crazy about his bassinet. He's also not nursing very well. The nurse at the hospital told me it would probably take 2 - 3 weeks for him to figure out how to nurse. I had to rent a pump, and I've been looking on ebay for a pump. I tried to get one last night, and I got outbid in the last five minutes by $10. They retail for about $200, and the one I wanted was sold for $60, so I should be able to find one fairly cheap.

Matthew and Andrew ready to leave the hospital.