Sunday, December 27

Echo and hearing test

We had Aaron's echo done earlier this month. The good news was that his murmur was totally innocent. Which was what we totally expected. However, we did find something. We found out that he has a right coronary artery (RCA) anomaly. His RCA branches out on the left side of his heart (by the left coronary artery) instead of the right side normally. The problem with this is that as it comes across the heart to the right side it goes in between the pulmonary artery (PA) and his aorta. What this causes is when he exerts himself with running and sports his RCA gets kinked by the PA and aorta with the increased heart rate causing lack of blood flow to the right side of his heart. Basically like little heart attacks. The cardiologist reassured us that this really isn't a huge problem until he active in competitive sports in high school. So, we are getting yearly echoes until then and when he's old enough we'll do a treadmill test to actually see how much damage happens on the right side of his heart with exertion. And when the time comes to fix it, it will be open heart surgery. Time will tell. The good thing about time is that by then I can only imagine the medical advances and maybe it'll be a simple procedure and not open heart surgery. Here's a picture of the heart so you can see what it should look like and imagine how Aaron's is.


Now for the best news yet. Wyatt had his hearing tested a week after Aaron's echo and his hearing is fine. Completely normal for a 2 year old. We already knew this because of the advances in his speech since his surgery but it was still awesome to get it in writing from the professionals!!

The next hurdle is Wyatt's appointment on Tuesday with the hematologist. I'll let everyone know how it goes. We have had a really busy and exhausting year but, it still was a good one. I can't believe that it's almost over. I hope next year will be just as good as this one if not better! I will post about Christmas in a few days. I don't have the pictures uploaded yet. Soon though, really soon!

Happy New Year!!

Tuesday, November 24

Aaron and Wyatt Update

A lot has been going on here that I really haven't been talking about... mainly because I haven't had much time. I have interesting updates on both boys. Let's start with the oldest.

Aaron. Many of you know how "spirited" Aaron has always been since birth and all my work with this issue. I was pretty much at my wits' end when the whole iron deficiency came up. That was fabulous for a while. Then his iron levels became normal and he was back to his usual self. I ended up switching pediatricians back in February. Within two visits she looked at me and asked, "So, what were Dr. Pattiillo's plans with all this energy?" I said we talked about going to child psychology to get tested for ADHD but that went out the window after the iron thing came up. She looked at me again and smiled and said, "yeah, it's time. Let's get it done." We took him and the tests were in September sometime. (our insurance works really slow) The results appointment was the Monday after Wyatt's surgery. What I thought was going to happen was the doc coming right out and saying, "Yup, ADHD alright and here's what ya need." I was wrong. When he said Aaron is dealing with child anxiety everything finally clicked. I really didn't know that children can suffer from anxiety, but I can look back at all the symptoms he was and is having and they just scream anxiety. He also said that anxiety and ADHD can go hand in hand sometimes. He doesn't want to label him ADHD until we get the anxiety under control. Now we are going to a Child Behavior Health Specialist weekly to help him understand his anxiety and how to work through it. You would not believe how many doctors and people have said to me now, "It's so good you stuck to your guns knowing that he had a problem and didn't give up. Now he can learn to deal with it before he starts school." I completely agree.

Also, Aaron has a heart murmur that was heard for the first time when he was 1 or 2 years old. Murmurs are fairly common in kids, but since it's a grade 2 (out of 5) the doc wants to just make sure everything is okay. Aaron has an appointment with cardiology to have an echo done. That happens in the first week of December.

Now, onto Wyatt. So, the iron saga continues. Anytime we try to wean Wyatt off the iron his levels just plummit. Kids usually respond with 3 months of iron treatment and then they can just take a multivitamin with iron and move on. Not so much with Wyatt. He has been battling this since birth. Now it is time to go to Hematology. Hematology deals with blood dycrasias. On December 29th we get to travel to Spokane to meet with the Hematologist to find out why he is iron anemic.

And last, (finally, right?) Wyatt has an appointment to get his hearing checked in the beginning of December. I know Wyatt can hear. He is saying or trying to say new words everyday. It's just another thing we have to rule out. December is going to be a very busy month for us, but I will let everyone know as we find things out.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are!!

Monday, November 9

Halloween Fun

I know that this is kind of late, but it's been a brutal recovery for Wyatt and I didn't have time to load my pictures until today. Wyatt has finally turned the corner and is getting better and better everyday. We still have our minor set backs, but each day he's eating more...( actually stuffing his face...making up for lost time ;) ) and discovering more with voice and vocabulary.

Now, back to what this post is suppost to be about... Halloween. Aaron was Ben 10 and Wyatt was a fireman. They were both adorable and completely enjoyed trick or treating. We went over to a friend house for a party that night and then all the mom's took the kids around the neighborhood. It was fun and pretty desent weather too.



Aaron and his good friend Will, who's a spider.



Fireman Wyatt. We tried to get the cutest Ewok costume, but it was sold out. We had to settle for this one and it turned out pretty cute! Very fitting for him.

Tuesday, October 20

Surgery for Wyatt

As of now Wyatt is going Friday to get his tonsils and adnoids out and more tubes in his ears. It is a pretty big surgery for him especially since he only turns 2 the next day. I know, happy birthday...right. Poor boy. Wyatt has had so many issues with his ears so our favorite doc wants to get it done. I totally agree. Not only is he sick all the time, but his speech is drastically delayed. He can say mama but doesn't refer to me as mama. I strongly believe that this is the next step to do. Please keep him in your prayers and thoughts.... And mama too. I'm so scared. Even though We've been through this before with Aaron. He so little.



Pumpkin patch

Saturday we took the boys to the pumpkin patch. It was super busy. They had bounce houses, carrusels, corn maze, petting zoo, hay bile maze and pyramid, and of course the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Lots of fun but tons of people. Maybe we'll go on a week day next year!



Hay ride to the pumpkin patch



Searching...



And searching.....



He loves this look. He does it with every picture. I have to remind him to smile soft.



On top of the pyramid.

Misc.

Here are some fun summer pictures taken along the way.



On the boat...obviously;)



Just chillin' in the 110* weather this summer.



Down at the park by our house.



I don't know why but I absolutely love this picture.



How you doin'?

Fair Fun

Back in August we took the boys to the county fair. We had a lot of fun. Mmmmmmm greasy fair food. Aaron rode rides, horses and bungy jumped. He had a blast. Wyatt ate food, loved the petting zoo and ate more food!! It was a lot of fun and can't wait til next year when Wyatt will enjoy the rides.



Kung Fu Wyatt!



Aaron loves riding the horses.




Transformation begins....




He thought he was so cool as Incredible Hulk.....

I'll post the video of Aaron on the bungy trampoline jump later... When I find it. All in all it was a fun evening!!

Tuesday, September 29

Test

I found this new app at the app store and I hadto try it. If it works it'll be fun and extremely easy to post new things.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Wednesday, September 16

ICE CREAM MAN!!!!

Why is it when you don't want the kids to hear the ice cream truck they do and when you don't care they don't hear it or it's already passed by?!? Yesterday, we were sitting at the park and in the distance over the noise of sprinklers, lawn mowers and kids playing I hear it...the all to familiar music to the song 'Do your ears hang low?' In my head I'm thinking, "oh crap, I know he's going to hear it and I have no money with me." And before I can even finish the though Aaron screams out "ICE CREAM MAN!!!" All I could do was smile. I remembered growing up and listening to Eddie Murphy's 'Raw' or 'Delirious" - which ever one had the ice cream man bit.(highly inappropriate, but the ice cream part is pretty funny.) So I explained to Aaron that since we road our bikes I have no money and if we catch him later at our house we'll get ice cream. Well, he got a huge grin on his face and continued playing. At about 6:45 I hear that song again and I made the mistake of telling Aaron. We grabbed our money and went outside and the truck was already way down the street. Aaron lost it. I would too I guess- two misses with the beloved ice cream man. Come on, who wouldn't right?!? So I packed Aaron up and went to DQ and got the family blizzards, because by then I really wanted some too!!

Thursday, August 6

Iron Man

Just a quick note that I had to share. Aaron is finally off the iron, well, at least for now. Weening off medicine is a celebration at our house since, for most kids, it is so hard to give to them and my boys are on a lot. Wyatt on the other hand just opens right up. It's second nature to him. I love that I don't have to fight him, but it's kinda sad if you really think about it. And speaking of Wyatt, his iron is still low. Very low actually. So, he's still on iron drops and multivitamin with iron. Someday though, he will be as strong as brother!!! Anyway, back to the point... one less med!!!! waahoo!!

Cool Desert Nights!

In the Tri-cities you know it's summer when it's time for Cool Desert Nights. For 25 years (I think) people enter their classic cars, (or any car they feel like, but really it's supposed to be a classic dang it...) drive around town and even have drag races. It's pretty fun. Aaron really enjoyed it and Wyatt's starting to catch on. I think Aaron's favorite was the new Camero painted just like Bumble bee. In fact, he thought it was Bumble bee. "Mommy, I want to see Sam and Mikaela." It was really cute. Here's some pictures of our faves.









And apparently all laws go out the window too. I can't believe they let them ride around for hours on his lap. (even though I have very fond memories of driving on my dad's lap, but that's not the point :) ) If you're going to make it a law enforce it, even in special occasions. Right???!??

Aaron's swimming lessons

Last year on the boat was pretty miserable since Aaron was pretty much petrified of the water. So we thought that we would get a jump on things for this boating season to be enjoyable (and safer) by putting him in swimming lessons. He started in the beginning of March and has already moved up one level from jellyfish to starfish. He loves it. Plus, he asks us to go boating now. It's awesome. I just wish that they weren't so darn expensive and lasted a little longer for the size of the class.
Aaron getting used to the water


Laps..laps...laps


Getting pretty brave!!

Wednesday, July 1

Welcome Colin Michael

On June 1, 2009 at 5:13pm Colin Michael was born. Andrea had an amazing textbook perfect delivery. It was unbelievable. He was a little guy at 6lbs 12oz, but was perfectly healthy. The funny part was she was scheduled for induction that day and went into labor herself at home in the morning. Mommy and baby have recovered great and are doing fabulous. Baby Colin is 1 month today and grwing like a weed!

Dad introducing the brothers for the first time.



Hanford Expo

Once again it was time for the Hanford Expo. Charlie and his department got to put on a show on and the boys loved it. Actually they just loved going down and playing with all the equipment and trucks. He's just a few pictures of them on the trucks.



Wednesday, May 27

Aaron's 1st dentist appointment

I finally took Aaron into the dentist. I know this sounds bad being that he is 4 and a 1/2 and I'm a daughter of a dentist and should know better. But come on, what do they really do before that anyway. Some call it "getting used to the dentist." That is all fine when your 18+ month old can sit still long enough. Aaron, not so much. There was no way he would have been able to do this even 6 ago. . He did have 3 cavities (bad mom!!), but in my defense they were really small cavities. I was so amazed how quick he filled them. I'm talking maybe 5-10 minutes tops per cavity. He had a total of 3 appointments and did amazing every time! I was so proud of him.


Appointment #1. X-rays and a simple cleaning. Notice that Optimus Prime had to come along for support!

Appointment #2. 2 cavities down and 1 to go. I recommend laughing gas for every dental appointment! It was a life saver for Aaron.

I don't have pictures of the last one, but you get the idea.

Juniper Dunes

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jen invited us to go to Juniper Dunes for a couple of hours to let the kids run around and get dirty. Her husband has 4 wheelers and they go out there often and camp out. We'd thought it would be fun the take the power wheels and let the boys participate some what.








This is Aaron on Will's Power wheel. I promise it's not a real 4 wheeler. I would never let him ride one without a helmet on!!

Andrea's Baby Shower

Last month my good friend Andrea had her baby shower for baby boy #2. Who knew we'd both end up with 2 boys. I get tired just thinking about it. The shower was really laid back. The fun part about it was that our friend from high school was there too. We just came back into contact with her and it was fun to be together again. We had fun catching up and eating, because that's what you do at shower's...EAT!! I only took one picture, but it's a good one.



From left to right: Sandy, Me, and Andrea. I am the only one not pregnant. Literally, every girl I know is pregnent or just had a baby. Crazy. Oh, did I mention I have to wear glasses now?!?

Easter

Despite the fact that I had to work the nights before and after we had a pretty relaxing Easter. Saturday the 11th my hospital puts on an Easter egg hunt every year. Aaron loves it and it was really fun to see Wyatt enjoying it this year too. The kids get separated by age groups and just go at it. Then there's activities inside after. We met up with my good friend Jen who has kids the exact same age. The mom's went with the babies and the dad's went with the big boys! Unfortunately each family only had one camera. So I got to take pictures of Wyatt and Stella and Jen's husband took pictures of Aaron and Will. I don't have their pictures yet and I haven't given them a copy of mine yet either.So here are a few pictures of Wyatt and his friend Stella at the Easter egg hunt.







Wyatt got bored really fast and started to go to the playground and eat rocks! Boys!!!

Thursday, March 12

ICU update

The ICU is going great! I should have moved there years ago. I am in week four of my orientation. The hardest part about it is being full time again. That is a huge adjustment for me! Another hurdle has been health issues. In the first week Wyatt got RSV and I had to leave to take him to the ER. It was really scary. He progressed really quickly. The ER doctor told me that he would be admitted to the hospital if he wasn't going home with a nurse and an EMT. They really don't do anything for RSV anymore due to evidence based practice these days. What they would do in the hospital we could do at home. All we could do was nebulizer treatments, suctioning and Tylenol for fever. He turned around very quick. I was amazed. Now, in the beginning of week four I got Strep throat. I don't think I have ever been so sick. I never knew strep throat was this bad. I had a fever of 101.9*, chills, and I head a upper chest cold as well. Let me tell you I am a huge fan of Penicillin now!! Charlie started to have symptoms so he got antibiotics as well. He came home with a fever of 103*!! Who needs work in the ICU when I have one at home?!?

Here we go- What I've learned so far:

-What it feels like to breath through a ventilator. We got to be hooked up to one for a few seconds. Let me tell you it's like breathing through a straw!!

-I hate phlegm. Every nurse has their thing they hate. Mine's phlegm. In ICU we have to do oral care at least every 4 hours when some one's on a ventilator. It helps to reduce ventilator acquired Pneumonia (VAP.) And the ironic part is that both my boys are phlegmy boys!

-2 critically sick patients can keep you busier than 4-5 non critically ill patients.

-Ambulate, ambulate, ambulate!! If the patient can walk assisted or by themselves, make them at least 4 times a day - even if they're 6 hours post heart pass!!

-Breaks are overrated!

-Knowing where a drug metabolizes and excreted from the body is really important.

-Lab values are not just for doctors.

More to come later. I'll try to do week by week. ha ha!!

Aaron's Reward Party

Charlie and I have always struggled getting Aaron to go to sleep and then staying in his bed all night. It has really been frustrating! Our bedtime routine would take us 2 - 2 1/2 hours from start til asleep in bed. Exhausting!! So, in December I made a poster with 4 rows of 7 boxes that made up 4 weeks. I called it "Aaron's Sleep Transformation." (He really likes Transformers so I went with it.) Any night that he slept in his bed all night he got to put a Transformer sticker in a box. When all the boxes had a sticker in it he gets to go to Chuck E Cheeses. He was so excited. He was good for a couple of nights and then had a set back or two, but we just kept going along with it. Half way though we mixed it up a bit and told him that 'when we tuck you in, you have to stay in bed until you fall asleep and all night and then you get a sticker." His response, "Ohhhh, okay Momma. Goodnight." We walked out of the room and he stayed!! A week before Valentine's Day all the boxes were filled and we got to take him to his reward party at Chuck E Cheese. He thought it was the coolest thing! Bedtime isn't a struggle anymore. It's fabulous. He still comes in our room at night sometimes, but we just put him back in his bed.

Disney Live on Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we took the boys to Disney Playhouse Live. Aaron has recently gotten into Disney shows, his favorite being 'Phineas and Ferb,' and he had the best time. I don't think he sat down the entire show. Wyatt made it through the first hour and was DONE by the second. Afterwards we took them to McDonald's to have lunch. It was fun and I loved including them on Valentine's Day.

Charlie did surprise me with a dozen orange roses(my favorite!!) and a box of chocolates. I know, you're thinking how original. How ever does he get these brilliant ideas?? Well, regardless of how cliche it was, it was still appreciated since we rarely have time for each other these days!


Hotdog Dance


Aaron showing off his Little Einstein's baton


Handy Manny


Tigger and Pooh


After the show.

-PS: I got both the boys' hair cut a few days later. This picture opened my eyes to how long their hair REALLY was!! Yikes!

Sunday, February 1

Movin' on Up

I have decided to make the big plunge and move to the ICU. As of February 8th I am officially an ICU RN. I am currently working in the step down unit for the ICU, but I am ready for a change and want more of a challenge. It'll be a huge learning curve for me and I am really excited. I'll keep you posted on my progress.