What a Saturday!

Ok, now keep in mind, I haven't done this in well? A LONG TIME! *thinking* It's been since 1998, maybe? I use to go shopping in the fall, and take $100 and just buy some new clothes. Being a "big girl" our clothes cost a bit more. Even on the clearance racks and sale racks, it's expensive. Well, Saturday, the best hubby in the world gave me free reign to BUY NEW CLOTHES for my new job! Oh did I have fun!

New shoes! New makeup! New dress pants! New shirts that are BEYOND beautiful!! I got so many things. Mostly all of it was on sale or on the clearance racks! OH, THE BEST PART?!?!?! I found a pair of jeans! I haven't bought jeans in YEARS! I was actually measured for my jeans. They fit like a glove and they are bootcut! I look taller in them!!!! I like that.

I had so much fun. I know it wasn't so much fun for the hubby and the kids, but hey, they found a playground in the middle of the mall and had at it!! Sears and Kohls had the best stuff.

I'm so excited to be in my FINAL week at my old office! I'm so wanting to just dive right into my new job! I already know who my branch chief is, who will help train me, possibly keeping my AWS day, where I sit.............oh wow!!! HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

I'm doing well in my Calculus class. It's hard. No doubt about that. The Crazy daddy is doing well in his Philosophy class and his College Algebra class. So far, so good with us all.

This Thursday, we find out about Matthew's IEP from the county and what school he will attend. He's getting help!!! Thank God!

Momma Kooky

It's OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This unspoken prayer request has been answered and answered in a HUGE way!!! I went for 2 job interviews last week and I got a call yesterday (about 2:45pm) asking me if I would take one. Um, let me see, DUH! YES! YES! YES!

We are so darn happy! You have no clue! It will be a nice and refreshing change and start to something good, you know?! I've been doing the same thing at work for over 14 years!!!! That's a long time.

REJOICE with us, because we are over the moon!!! Hey, you know the hubby is happy when he says, "you need to go shopping, right?" OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Momma Kooky

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

It's that lovely time of the year! My husband and I snuck off to a VERY cozy Italian place and had such a lovely lunch/dinner. It was nice. I love their food. Not like Carrabbas, mind you, but close.

Today we had our 2nd meeting at ChildFind. (ChildFind is the counties equivalent of special services for children who need it.) Matthew has been tested, evaluated and we got the results today. We weren't terribly surprised. He surpassed all expectations in the Cognitive thinking and intellect. Layman's terms? HE'S SMART as a whip scoring HIGHER than alot of American kids!!!!

On the Language side? Expressive Language to be exact.....he didn't pass not one thing. Not one. Which is where we knew he needs help. He scored well below average and well below most American children.

End result? He WILL receive special services from the county at one of the public schools. He will receive speech and possibly some hearing impaired help. We need to find out if this hearing loss is permanent, if it's reversible, does he need a hearing aid? Things like this. We will see his ENT on March 10th. We should hopefully know more than.

We had a long talk with the director of his daycare. They will begin to implement some "hearing impaired" things that they can do to ease Matthew's learning. (ie, make him sit upfront, specific instructions geared towards him only, speaking up, etc.) We were informed that this is the only child they have ever had with hearing impairedness. (is that a word?)

We will look into the means of the medical aspect of the hearing to see what can be done. As well as the non-medical also. Until then? We keep doing what we are doing.

Momma Kooky

Friday's new hearing test..............

Well, we knew (and were told) that even with Matthew's new ear tubes in his ears, he may have a problem. Friday it was confirmed. The audiologist with Calvert County did more hearing tests and Matthew could not hear in the low range and some in the mid range! I thought for sure he'd be ok and hear everything. I'm hearing all these sounds and trying not to "make" him look (unless he hears them) and darned if he didn't hear ANY OF IT! I just wanted to cry! Literally!

The audiologist told us to check into a medical reason why he cannot hear as well as he should be. We will do that with Dr. Pena, ASAP! We are trying to get an appointment with her as you read this!!

That was a bummer, to say the least. She did tell me that Matthew's tubes in his ears are a green color. I said, "infection green? or green, green!" She just started laughing and said green, green. (Hey, if she only knew how many infections this child's had, she wouldn't have laughed!)

Next up? We see Dr. Murthy on Wednesday. Hopefully Matthew's "new nose" has stayed in place and is doing what it should and everything is clearing up and healing up nicely!!

Everyone is just about back to "normal". Momma Kooky still has an OCTAVE lower register in the voice, but is ok. (Ecstatic now that she knows she got a high B+ on her Calculus quiz! Thank you Lord!)

Crazy Daddy? He's still sick. Never went to the doctor. STUBBORN as a mule!! ;o)

Hey, say a prayer for an "unspoken" prayer request for Momma Kooky. I'd appreciate it.

Ok, Time to go. Nose is running and my feet DON'T stink. So.............until later.

Update

It's Wednesday and Matthew continues to do well. I just gave his eardrops to him and he just about kicked me in the face. You have to wonder if these things work or just cause pain! Other than that, his "glue" sutures are just starting to fall off. Which is a VERY GOOD thing because he can't eat too well with the one that is on his top lip but the one that is in between his nose and lip is fine.

Matthew's cough is better. We stopped tylenol because his temperature has been normal. Mom and Dad though?! We are both sick as I don't know what. Momma went to the Urgent Care last night and was diagnosed with Bronchitis/just about pneumonia. A fever of 101.8 and just having a sugar level that isn't normal (that's why they took me in so fast). Some xrays later, one albuterol treatment for 20 minutes and I was breathing normal again! Thank God!

Crazy Daddy? Well, he decided not to go to the Urgent Care. He's still suffering. I'm wondering if he will go tonight.

Becca is the only one not sick! Trying to keep her healthy and away from everyone else is quite the challenge!

Matthew goes for a follow up with Dr. Murthy next week. A hearing test Friday and back to Children's in about 7 weeks to see Dr. Pena (ENT).

Momma Kooky

Another SCARE with Matthew!

I tell you one thing. Gray hair? I've got it. Thank God for color, but I'm going to need another bottle by the end of the week. I'm wondering if I'm just too darn old for this!

I woke Matthew up today (I let Becca and him sleep in) and he was hot. He just wasn't hot, he was HOT ENOUGH TO FRY SOMETHING ON HIS FOREHEAD! He didn't want to get up, he didn't want breakfast, he didn't want something to eat, he didn't want to change clothes, nothing...............just cry and whine and do nothing. Well, luckily I know the number to Children's Hospital by heart now! Spoke with another on-call physician about his 102 degree temperature. (Mind you, he's still on TYLENOL!) So I'm wondering...........being on anti-biotics, being on tylenol, and he still has a big temperature! Off we went.

By the time we got to the hospital, his temperature was up to 102.5. AFTER, I gave him Tylenol, yet again (because I was told to give it to him before we left). Geez. He was so hot. He didn't want his coat on, he started taking off his no-no's, he didn't want his hat on......etc. Spongebaths (no real bath because of his ear tubes and facial sutures) and Tylenol. The end result is they think he has a viral thing happening. He has a nasty cough, but his lungs are clear. (Asthma is ok.) The cough is related to the tube being down his throat for inabation. (hope I spelled that right)

No meds. Just to treat the symptoms but if the temperature reaches 104? Take him to the local ER, ASAP! So far, it's down to 101. With Tylenol. He's gotten it every 4 hours.

I tell ya, rushing him here and there and as hot as he was..........they took us right in! No waiting! He was NOT a happy camper. Listless is a good adjective to use for him.

Now though? He is sleeping. He slept for 4 hours at naptime. He's tired. He's better. He's drank alot of apple juice (the one with splenda). Had a "blue clue's" ice pack on his forehead for a bit. Made him feel better.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully? NOTHING! His sutures are starting to fall off his lip. We took the packing out of his nostril yesterday before church and WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! What a difference!!!! Still puffy, mind you, but wow!

Oh yeah, we've had 4 nose bleeds since Friday too. (that's another reason why Children's knows us REAL well at the moment. Because of the color of the nose bleeds! Bright, bright red! *clot red*) Other than all of this? We are doing well.

Kim? (from CHI?) Thank you for telling me about the "blowing in his ear with the Floxin"! It works like a charm! Have no clue why, but he doesn't fight us anymore when we do that. Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who is giving us encouragement through emails, IM's, comments, mail, etc. We appreciate it!

Momma Kooky

A little quirp from daddy

My otherwise eloquent and beautiful wife forgot to mention that Matthew also has a huge improvement in his hearing. Just about an hour after he woke up from anesthesia I whispered with a very, and I mean VERY, soft voice from about 3-4 feet away and Matthew turned around and answered me. It made my fathers heart leap with joy. When you can say something to your son without having to almost shout for him to hear it, is a really big thing in my book.

Crazy Daddy

Matthew is home! Praise God!

After a VERY long day and part of the evening at Children's Hospital (Wash, DC), we were finally allowed to leave the recovery/CICU. Our day started out early. TOO EARLY! We got a call on Thursday night from the Surgical nurse who said our time had been moved up. (earlier) His allotted time was changed to 7:45am for surgery.

We got to Children's about 5:45am. Checked in and started to wait. Didn't have much to wait for. They took us right back. Matthew was one of the first children having surgery for Friday. Trust me when I say, he remembered where he was. The first person he saw with green and/or blue scrubs, he was IMMEDIATELY scared and didn't want them to touch him. (he remembered from September 2007's surgery) With some coaxing, he allowed them to work with him. He fit those little surgery gowns MUCH better this time around. Still weighs just 29 pounds. Still 35 3/4's in length.

Then we got to meet all the surgeons. First was Dr. Murthy! He was ready to go. Matthew LOVES him! He says they are "buddies". Matthew gave Dr. Murthy a high five and Dr. Murthy's resident was with him and started smiling/laughing. Dr. Murthy turned around and said that gaining the trust of your patients and their parents was definitely a key for a healthy and mutual friendship, as you will see alot of the patients and parents for years to come. (cleft patients) I thought about it and I think he is right! We feel so at ease with Dr. Murthy! I totally trust him with our precious prince!!!!

Then, we saw Dr. Pena, Dr. Tate, his OR nurse, and the anesthiaologist (sp?). They gave Matthew some sleepy stuff to make him at ease beings he remembered things from last surgery and the nurses picked up on that. In 20 minutes? He was doing the bob and head duck that a boxer would do, except he was watching Jo-Jo Circus. Holding him in my arms like a baby was a treat. He just closed his eyes and a second or two he'd pop them right back open to fight off going night-night!! But.....he didn't last long. Those two oral liquids they gave him, that smelled like GRAPE, did their job. He was totally incoherent and eyes glazed over.............it was time. I handed Matthew over to the resident anesthiaologist and she carried Matthew to the OR. He wasn't with it. Trust me. He went. No crying. No nothing. HE WASN'T THERE. (I wonder if they give that stuff to the parents? Hmm.....*kidding*)

8:30am is when they came and said they were starting. We waited in the Family Surgical Waiting Room with a couple of other parents. And waited, and waited, and waited. Dr. Pena came out about 10 to nine and said her part was done. Everything went fine. About 9:10am, Dr. Tate came out and said that she took the tooth out. It was a VERY good thing that she did. They left another tooth behind that one (didn't know there was another one behind it) because of bone issues. But that the one that was removed was literally almost dead. *Thank God it's gone!!!*

From 9:10am to 11:50am, we waited. Dr. Murthy said it would only be 2 hours, max. I (Momma) was starting to worry at 11:10am. Dr. Murthy is usually RIGHT on with everything that he says. Well, it took a little longer than expected. Working with delicate tissue in the lip and in the nostril/nose. End result? Matthew has an artificial "bump" at the end of his nose to give it height. (which will be absorbed by the body to be totally natural looking in about 6 months) His flattened side of his nose is now TOTALLY MATCHED with the right side of his nose. It's VERY, VERY swollen!!!!!! It's bruised!!!! It looks horrible, but it'll get better!!! His lip? LOOKS SO DARN GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. It's a miracle! Give it 6 months and I'm sure you won't even tell there was ever a surgery done on it!! (the lip) He does have sutures. Mostly on the top lip, both inside and out. He has sutures on the inside of his nose and on the outside. (mostly inside) His lip is bruised as well, and kinda fat. They said it will go down within 3 days. His left eye is swollen (because of the left nostril being worked on) and the left part of his face is bigger than the right, but he is doing well.

We had a REAL BIG scare about noon to 2pm. Matthew's temperature was going up and NOT coming down, even after having Tylenol 3 w/codeine. (for pain mostly) It was almost up to 102 degrees. They paged Dr. Murthy twice, but he was in surgery again. As soon as he got out, he'd be with Matthew. I made some calls to some folks and they started PRAYING quick for Matthew!!! THANK YOU GUYS! Matthew's temp finally came down. (don't know if it was infection starting or just the fact that he just had surgery, but it came down)

Yes, he is in some pain, but we are handling it. He will tell you if it's too bad. He ate a popsicle and about 4 apple juices RIGHT OFF THE BAT FROM SURGERY! Dr. Murthy was totally happy about that. For dinner he had softly scrambled eggs. So today he can start real food.

He's doing well. He's sleeping alot, but the Tylenol 3 will do that to you. So will some of the other meds he is taking. Matthew's ear drops are the WORST! He screamed when we put them in his ears last night! Literally SCREAMED! It was horrible, but he has to have them.

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Forgot to add this, HE CAN HEAR US AT A WHISPER! HE CAN HEAR! HE CAN HEAR! HE CAN HEAR! From the moment he woke up! He told us "too loud" when his vitals machine went off from his BP cuff falling off! AMAZING! THANK YOU LORD!!!

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I'll leave it here as this is really long. Will update you more later.

Momma Kooky