Life Snippets #16

I don't typically post on Saturdays, but I wanted to give you an update on The Kid and his MRI.  I'll put that at the end of this post.

I didn't take a ton of random photos in January, but I did get some cute ones of the kids snuggling with The Dog on the couch, and a couple of Baby, lost in Tablet Land.

She was so cute, every time the kids would stop petting her, she'd bark, or give them the stare down.

And then it was on to sliming each one of their faces.

I love The Girl's preparation face.

Ick.

So onto The Kid.

His appointment was at 8:30 yesterday morning and we got checked in pretty much right away.

The nurse clearly had experience working with kids, 'cause she was super good with him.

He and I both got dressed down into hospital garb, and then it was time for IV prep.

She went over everything with him, then showed him the fancy, cool new device that shoots a numbing agent under skin using air pressure.  She even filled one and shot it onto the floor, so he could see it work and hear the sound it would make.  Apparently they're just for kids, which I think is a rip off.  It was SO cool.

Anyway, she showed him a video of someone getting an IV on her phone, so he'd know what to expect, then let him watch Odd Squad (his new favorite show) on her phone while she did it.

Easy peasy.  I think it was worse for me than him.

Then it was onto the MRI room.

The guy got him all set up and went over everything, start to finish.

I was able to be in the room with him.

In between scans, he'd talk to him and tell him how well he was doing over the mic.

He only had to repeat two of the scans because of movement, so it was about an hour total.

He did SO well.

Again, I think it was worse for his mom than it was for him.

I could see the radiologist coming and going in the control room, looking at scans as they went.

When it was all done, the guy doing the MRI said they'd be looked at and available for review before the day was over.

So, of course, I immediately called our doctor's office when we got home to tell them that.

The Kid and I went to lunch, just he and I, for the first time probably since he was a baby, after the appointment.

I really like him.  :)  

I know that's probably silly to say, but I really enjoyed spending alone time with him, and having one on one, uninterrupted (key word), conversations with him.

I should make a point of doing that with all three of them on a regular basis.

Anyway, once we were home and I had made the phone call to the doctor's office, the waiting for the phone to ring was really, really hard.

At about 3:00, it rang, and I damn near broke my neck running for it.

It was a nurse calling to say our doctor was stuck in traffic and would call us later in the evening, but wanted her to make sure to let us know that the MRI was perfect and normal.

Perfect and normal with no signs of tumors.

The first words out of my mouth were, Thank Jesus, and then I cried.

Best. News. Ever.

Sooooo, what that means is, we have a kid who's having seizures for unexplained reasons.

Which isn't unheard of.  

The good thing about that is, a lot of times they grow out of them.

The odd part of them being in the back of his brain, instead of the typical front, is still a question as well, but we'll have more information when we see a neurologist.

Which won't be for another few months, just because of the waiting list.

So I think tomorrow we'll start his medication and see how that goes.

If there's no ill side-effects, we'll keep him on it until his appointment, when I can discuss alternative treatments.

I've read some good things about diet changes and I'm also interested in looking into any random food allergies that could possibly be causing it.

Ya just never know.

Yesterday, I saw him have five seizures.  And they seem to be getting longer in duration.

Instead of 3 to 4 seconds, there are some that are 5 to 6 seconds.

It's so crazy.  All of it.

BUT, it appears we have a perfectly healthy kid, who just happens to be having seizures. 

I'll take it.

Winter Jasmine

Another garden blogger gave me some starts of this plant a couple years ago.

This is the first time it has bloomed for me.

I planted it at the base of the front of the shed, in hopes of disguising the ugliness.

They get really big, so my goal is to train it to grow up and over the roof.

According to Wikipedia, Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) is a slender, deciduous shrub, native to China.

The latin name, nudiflorum, translates to "naked flower", because it commonly blooms before the leaves emerge. 

It generally has flowers from November to March, likes full sun to part shade, and should be pruned in spring after it's done flowering.

To start a cutting of your own, just stick a branch down in some dirt and wait for it to root.

In other garden news, my sweet box is continuing to smell up the entire back yard.

That plant is amazing.

I have yet to lift a finger in the clean up department.

Maybe next month.

And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my poor bird bath sedum planter.

I have a mini update on The Kid tonight.

His MRI was originally scheduled for Monday evening, but they called today to reschedule.

We are now going in first thing in the morning this Friday.

If ever there was a time for positive thoughts sent our way, this would be it.

Clean and clear photos of a healthy little brain is the outcome this mama wants.

Shameless plug alert:  

Just a little reminder that you can purchase my floral photographs in my Etsy shop.

If you see one in a post that isn't in the shop, shoot me an email and I'd be more than happy to list it for ya.
The Dad will thank you for helping to support my plant addiction.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RindyMae

How To Train Your Dragon Birthday Party

I've put an, as-of-last-night, update on The Kid at the end of this post, for those of you following along.

Okay kids, I got through the stockpile of birthday party photos.

Like I mentioned last week, The Kid had requested a How To Train Your Dragon theme this year, and The Mom waited until the last minute to round stuff up.  Like, I ran to the store to finish gathering, the morning of the party.

And ya know how I mentioned that there wasn't a store in our city still selling anything with that theme? Well, the day before, The Dad saw a bunch of the toys on sale at our local one-stop grocery store.  Go figure.  So apparently I didn't need to sculpt a dragon out of clay after all.  Oh well.

So I went with red and black for colors.  I dug through the attic for fabric for the table,  bought the streamers and balloons the morning of, bought a few of the little plastic dragons that were on super sale at the same time, cut a Toothless silhouette out of my endless supply of black contact paper, bought some red tulips, and used our everyday dishes for dinner.

He requested soft tacos, so that part was pretty easy.  For apps, I did chips and salsa, and a stuffed jalapeno popper cheese ball.

I bought a bag of instant horchata to make Yaknog, which is from the second movie, and put it in a punch bowl.

For the adults, I had champagne with Dragon Blood (cran-raspberry juice) and Dragon Drool (OJ).

There's gonna be a ton of photos, but I figured I'd cram them all into one post, instead of trying to break it up.

I'll start with the calm before the storm.  

When everything's ready and I'm chillin' on the couch, waiting for the first knock at the door.

The dining room table.

 Don't mind the wonky tulips, that were already following the sun.

The Yaknog station.

The Girl, rockin' her viking gear, aka, more fabric from the attic.

She made her own sign for the punch bowl.  :)

The contact paper Toothless.

And the cake, of course.

The Kid requested carrot cake, so I made the only recipe I ever make because it's the best in all the land.

With cream cheese frosting and pecans on the sides.

For the top, in addition to the clay Toothless, I used rock candy and gummy sharks, that were supposed to look like fish.

Before dinner, we did presents.

His homemade card from my mom.

The dopey dog.

His new bike from Grammy and Grandpa.

The Cat, looking quite annoyed.

Much better.

Trying to be paparazzi, and failing.

The cutest, sweetest, most loved, nine-year old boy in all the land.

Dinner time.

And last, but certainly not least, birthday cake time.

They're mostly typical Mindy, after-dark photos, aka, blurry, but I have to throw them in.

The Happy Birthday song.

Yes, The Girl rocked the viking gear all night.

And looky what I found when I emptied the camera.

I suspect my brother-in-law is to blame.

Yes, it's a rare sighting of The Mom.

And for those of you who made it through all that, I have a Kid update.

I feel like I should start off by saying, we are super lucky to have a really awesome doctor.

I say we, because he's my doctor, and the kids' doctor.  His mom was my doctor before she retired.  She delivered The Kid.  Well, she grabbed him by the butt and helped pull him out - he was a c-section baby.

She's also the one who found the lump in my breast that was biopsied and ultimately found to be nothing of concern.

Her husband was even The Dad's doctor for a short minute.  Their daughter is a doctor, too.  And their daughter-in-law.  Clearly there's some good genes in that family.

So with that little lead-in, I got a call from him last night.  I wasn't expecting to hear anything until at least the middle of the week, so I was SUPER excited to hear his voice.

The EEG was read by a neurologist and he was able to have a conversation with her yesterday.

The seizures in the report presented as typical Absence seizures.  So the preliminary diagnosis has been officially confirmed.

BUT, (there's always a but), Absence seizures are typically a frontal lobe deal.  I don't know exact statistics, but, in general, that's where the abnormal firing is happening.

In The Kid's case, all the funny stuff is happening in the back of the brain.

Not typical.  Not common. 

Sooooo, we're moving forward with the MRI.

Our doctor put in the order last night, so I should be getting a call to schedule it in the next day or two.

I won't bore you with all the details of that, but it's an hour appointment, the first half he's in the machine as normal, the second half he'll have an IV with some sort of dye.

We're going to attempt to do it without sedation.  If any boy can hold still for an hour, it's mine.

I'll sit down with him before the appointment, hopefully with a YouTube video, to go over everything that it will involve.

The goal is no surprises.  He's already completely over all of this.  Just knowing that he has another doctor's has upset him enough.  

The original 6 - 8 week waiting period for an appointment with the neurologist has been bumped out to 3 months.  At this point, today, an appointment isn't that important.  She's communicating with our doctor, so that works for now.

If the MRI comes back with something more pressing, then we'll consider changing to another pediatric hospital with a shorter wait time.

In addition to all that, the neurologist recommended starting him on anti-seizure medication right away, so that has been called in to our pharmacy.

He'll start out with half dose for a week, then bump up to full dose.  After a week of that, he'll have to go in for blood tests to check liver function and blood count.

I don't love the idea, but for now, I'll go with it.  The thought of giving my little kid heavy duty meds scares the crap out of me.  

If this turns into what looks like long-term seizure treatment, I'll be doing some deeper research into alternative medicine.

So that's the latest.

It's a lot.

It's a lot for The Mom and Dad and it's a lot for him.

Thank you again for the daily emails and prayers.

This is new, and worrisome, and scary, and awful, and all-consuming, and I'll take all the positive energy I can get.