HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today is a very special day for me. First off it is a reminder of all the things in my life I have been blessed with.

The first thing that I'm truly thankful for is my oldest son Coltan. Coltan is my hard headed, stubborn son and I wouldn't change anything about him. I love when I come home and he gives me a hug and tells me he loves me out of the blue. He also loves to wrestle and is always "picking" on me. Well he is officially taller than me so now it is actually a challenge. Coltan has the personality that he is very caring and doesn't like it when someone is upset with him. He is a lot like me. I love you Coltan......

The second thing I'm thankful for is my middle son Cody. He likes to be my little slacker but I have got some tricks to get him up and moving. Cody is usually my go with the flow child and sometimes that is nice in itself. Even though Cody is 12 he still has a lot of kid traits and he really doesn't care what other people think. He is more of a leader than follower and I love that about him. He is wonderful at home with Carson and is always calm with him and very loving. If Carson is crying, Cody will do everything he can to make him better. Cody also about once a week tells me he is going to sleep in my bed. It is nice to see that he still shows affection as well. I love you Cody.......

I know that it is a matter of time that my two older boys will go through that stage where I'm not their mother. Don't all teenagers do that?

My third blessing is Carson. He is kind of my surprise baby. Everyday he gets smarter and cuter and I love his ham personality. He loves everybody. He is so sweet and I'm very thankful that even though we have so many doctor appointments every month, he doesn't have something more life threatening. As I walk into Children's Mercy I look around and even though I'm stressed out with how time consuming all the appointments are, or how many sleepless nights I get, I'm still in a little easier position than some parents of very sick children.

I'm thankful that I have met some of these parents as well. They are a true inspiration with their strength. I pray for the parents I met over the the last few weeks for their children to come home soon and be healthy.

I'm also very thankful for my mother and step father. They have been very helpful with Coltan and Cody and she is always running to the store for me so Carson and I don't have to get out of the house. She is my best friend.

I'm thankful for the rest of my family which is a lot of people. We are always together on holidays and birthdays and days just because. It is nothing for us to walk in a restaurant in the middle of the week and ask for a table of 15 or 20. Most of my family lives with 10 minutes of each other.

I cannot exclude my friends and my blogging friends. You all have been my rock. I have a lot of things going on and to see everyone so eager pushing me forward because you know I can do it, it is wonderful. Thank you to each and everyone of you for your presence in my life. You all mean so much to me.

Most importantly, I'm thankful for God. He has blessed me with everything. There are so many times I question his decisions but I know he is doing what is best for me. One of the biggest things I'm trying to change about myself is to stop trying so hard and let him guide me without me worrying so much about it. Everything happens for a reason and HE is the reason.

I hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful day and eats so much that we all need naps. Only to wake up and eat some more!

Home Sweet Home

Carson and I are back home. He went in yesterday at 1:30 PM and Dr. S was running behind. So he was kind enough to give my mother and I some dinner vouchers. That made up for it a little. :-)

So anyways, we gave him the Versed and Carson was very happy and drunk acting. It was actually very funny. He kept leaning his head into my face and would say "mommy, how are you"? Then he would giggle. Of course his words were very slurred. So when it was our turn and we had to pass him off, he really didn't care that much. He was actually laughing. It was such a huge relief. I got on the elevator and just had the most peaceful feeling. I can't even explain it. Dr S was in there for about 35 minutes and came out and said he did remove a pebble. He said he cut it out along with some scar tissue and will send it off to the pathologist. But he didn't expect anything to come up with that. He also put internal stitches in and said they will dissolve on their own in a couple of months. He then put the steri-strips on the outside. He said he also cleaned up the scar and it will like a thousand times better when it is completely healed.

Because we gave him the Versed before hand he did come out a little slow. He also had some strider like last time but they were so on top of it. I really felt like they did an awesome job keeping a very close eye on my little Porkchop.

We did continue to give him all of his breathing treatments every 6 hours and this morning he did pretty good. They kept him on the IV until about 12PM because he wasn't eating or drinking well but that is just my typical Carson. So we were discharged around 2:15Pm and we went downstairs to eat and then we went to Occupational Therapy at 3:00. Carson had a wonderful time with Nancy and we are starting to work more on his muscles for his eating issues to see if this will help out with our swallowing problems.

We left the hospital around 4:30 and home by 5:00. Carson actually fell asleep in the car and it is almost 8:00 and he is still asleep. Oh boy, am I in for an early morning.

So that is it for now. Hope everyone is having a great day.

Update on Carson....

This is Shari from The Beauty of Life.

I talked with Kaci today at 6:00 her time and Carson has come out of surgery fine. They are waiting to get to a room and he will be there overnight.

She will update as soon as she can when she gets home.

Blessings,

Shari

Surgery is on for tomorrow

Well we went to the Pulmonary doctor today and she was going to have the final say about his surgery tomorrow. Dr E was very concerned with Carson having two surgeries 25 days apart. She went over his history and the lab work came back from scoping his lungs and I'm happy to report that it came back just fine. Then we discussed him being on Advair for the last couple of months. It is a small improvement that he has gone from having flare ups 5+ times a week to about 2-3 times. We are going to leave all alone with his medicine and report back to her in Feb. If he hasn't slowed down on flare ups by then, she will probably go back and do a different type of scope. So keep your goods thoughts and prayers coming that the Advair is going to work. So after that, we discussed Carson's night terrors. How lucky is that ? Our pulmonary doctor is actually in charge of sleep studies? So she gave me a few ideas to help Carson and she said if we don't have any improvement in about 3 weeks, call the office and they will prescribe him something temporary until we come back in this Feb. So after all of that, she said she would allow him to have surgery but she would come check on him on rounds Wed morning and she would let Dr Singhal know that she will not release him until she has seen him as well. She is kind of the Chief in all of this. But I'm glad because I think she truly loves Carson.

So the plans tomorrow??? Well we got bumped back again so now it will be at 2:50. We go to Same Day Surgery and check in at 1:30. I hope they are running on time this time. He does have a 10-20% of ending up in ICU but again, with all of your happy thoughts and prayers, he will be just fine. We will be giving him a medicine orally called Versed. This is a medicine that will calm him down so much that he won't even realize we are passing him off for surgery. I just feel with all the trauma from last time and the closeness of the two surgeries, this will be for the best.

So, please say a prayer for Carson and let us get home soon so Mommy can get us ready for turkey day.

And the winner is...........

First off, I just wanted to tell everyone thanks for sharing your recipes with me. I'm going to be trying a lot of them out very soon. Starting this week. So I put everyone down on a sheet with a number and you received extra entries for extra recipes and also another entry for adding me to your blog roll. I then went to Truly Random Numbers website and had it pick. The lucky winner is Colleen over at Spaghetti.

I will be mailing her a gift card from Wal-Mart this week.

I was very excited by the turnout and the number of recipes that came along with it. Thanks again to everyone and as I do use your recipe, I will make sure to let you know!

So for the rest of the week

Well it turned out to be a very long and busy week. Coltan and Cody both had their usual soccer practices. We did some homework and had some reading time. Nothing to exciting or new with them. We did rent a movie last night called the Iron Man. It was okay. I have heard a lot of good feedback so I was a little disappointed. Guess I'm more into more girlie movies.

As for Carson, well we only had 4 doctor appointments this week. I already posted on his ENT appointment and his plastic surgeon. Thursday we went and had our pre admission testing. The anesthesiologist is a little concerned with Carson going under. I knew on his last surgery that they had a little problems with him after taking the breathing tube out but she made it sound like it was a bigger deal than they told me. So that didn't make me very happy at all to think the doctor withheld pertinent information from me. I understand that maybe she didn't want to worry me more or think that maybe I wouldn't understand completely, but bottom line, she withheld info from me. So anyways, she said he will have a 10% chance of staying on the vent and going to ICU but because he did so well last time, I'm going to stay positive. Dr. M did want to make sure that I knew that we would be staying overnight for observations.

After that appointment we ran to our OT appointment and as usual Carson had a ball. We worked on the swings again and he showed her how he can make a police car now. My mom bought him an etch and sketch and this boy loves it. Nancy had been working with Carson on drawing straight lines, circles, and the letters X and T. So we have been using this at home and practicing a lot. He is always telling me to draw him a car and a couple of days ago he drew a straight line and the two circles for the tires. So Nancy was really impressed. Carson has also learned all of his shapes including diamond, heart, star, oval, rectangle, square, and circle. He officially knows all colors as well including white, black, grey, pink, and brown. We are also practicing all the colors in Spanish. He is so smart.

Now for my cute story, so today I told him that he needed a nap. He hasn't been sleeping well at all and he said NO. So I took him to my bed and laid down with him and told him to go night-night. Carson said No night-night. I asked him why and he said because. I said because why? He said No night, day day. OMG he is getting to smart for his own good. I cannot believe the things that come out of his mouth.

Coltan and Cody went with their dad until Sunday afternoon and Carson and I are going to hit a Christmas shop in Grandview this weekend. My mom went there last week and said they have everything and all at great prices. I'm not sure if I ever told anyone but a couple of years ago my sump pump went out and it ended up flooding my whole basement. My basement is finished and includes a closet, rec room, Coltan's room, a full bath, and a crawl space. Well now I'm slowly replacing everything and I only have until May to turn everything into my insurance for reimbursement. So I'm going to go there and pick up some cute things to decorate my house.

Until next time.....

WERE OFF HOUSE ARREST

Well Saturday was day 15. That means Carson's home bound for 14 days were over! So we went to Crown Center and celebrated. I left my house and went to pick up my mom, dad, and two nieces and off we went. First stop, Fritz and Co. (the train restaurant). Carson was excited the whole time and even got to eat real food. He has been on a non dairy, soft, and clear for the two weeks so today he got to eat chicken nuggets, french fries, and a chocolate milk shake. (with the thickener of course).

After dinner we started walking around the shops and bought Carson a few things that he couldn't live without. He got a cute little dog that sings a Christmas song all while flapping his ears. Then we went to the 'Crayola store and he got a big coloring book with some colors. We ended up leaving there around 6:30 and Carson was out 15 minutes later.

Saturday night Carson woke up at 1:00AM and never went back to bed. I had my niece Aspen come over around 11AM and stay with him so I could sleep for a couple of hours. Carson never went to bed until about 9PM that night and then of course we were up all night long. Carson wakes up and screams for long periods at a time and nothing I do will help him.

So Monday morning started all of this weeks doctor appointments, We went to the ENT for his post op check up and Dr N said his ears and tonsils look great. I expressed my concerns about Carson not sleeping and she stated that he is having night terrors. It is basically like sleepwalking without the walking. The child sits up and screams and hollers and isn't really awake. So since he isn't awake, you are suppose to sit and watch. Sometimes it goes on for a couple of minutes up to 40 minutes. It is so sad to know that he is going through this and there is really nothing for me to do. She said it can happen for a number of reasons starting with being sleep deprived (yup), separation anxiety (yup), or something that was traumatizing (surgery). So she said it can go on up to 1 month and if it goes longer than that, she will refer him to a child psychologist . So that is what I have been up against. Dr N said that I really should try to get some help with someone but Charlie is at the farm until Nov 24th and I have asked him to please help out but he is really involved with deer hunting. So with that said, I'll be the only one tending to Carson helping him through this.

Yesterday we just tried to work on getting him back on a routine and we will see if we can move forward.

Today we had an appointment with the plastic surgeon on his chin and I asked him if he thought this was too soon for Carson with the night terrors and he said it was up to me but why wait for them to stop and then start all over again if we push this back. He thought it would be in the best interest of Carson to get this over with and then not worry about him repeating this cycle in Jan or Feb. So surgery is still on. But he did ask if we could move it to Nov 25 (one day later) and he was very appreciative to me being flexible. I grew a whole new form of respect from him after him thanking me several times and even took the time to walk us to the elevator. What doctor does that? Pretty cool if you ask me.

Tomorrow we have to see the anesthesiologist and then we go to Occupational Therapy. Monday is back for the Pulmonary Clinic and then Tuesday is surgery. We will spend the night and we have OT scheduled on Wednesday so I'm going to see if Nancy would come up to see us.

So that is about all I know for now. I have been pretty busy with everything and cannot believe it has been since Saturday since I posted last.

Coltan came home Saturday and Cody came home Monday. Thank goodness soccer has slowed down a tad. We only have practice now on Monday and Tuesday's since we are now in an indoor fields. Of course we still have lots of games on the weekends. The boys are only on two teams for the winter so that will help out a little as well.

My goal this week is to get all of our X-mas decorations out and start putting them up. (okay Amy, you can put your tree up now. LOL) So wish me luck. I'm going to try and sneak into work tomorrow afternoon and Friday since I haven't seen that place in 3 weeks. I don't even know if everyone still works for me. :-) I think someone would have spilled that. LOL

I will try to update some more and I still have some cute pictures to post when I get the time.