Matthew's new do

Matthew has had this cute little mullet growing for awhile. I finally decided enough was enough. So I got out my trusty shears and off it came. I also trimmed the top and sides, but it is not quite as noticable. Here's some before and afters

Before pictures

After in the back...it looks so much better

So Matthew had his second ride in an ambulance yesterday. All seemed well in the morning, but by 10:45, when he woke up from his morning nap, he had a very croupy cough. I got an appointment for him at the ped's office, to JUST get a breathing treatment. When we got there, they gave him a breathing treatment and a shot of steriods. His oxygen levels were in the high 80's/low 90's...so they figured he better go to the hospital. After they gave him his steriod shot, he cried so hard, he held his breath, which almost always causes him to have a seizure---which he did. I think that was the final straw for the office staff. They decided that I would not be able to drive him to the hospital and that we should take an ambulance! I'm sure that made for an interesting conversation in the waiting room!

Luckily, after about 4 breathing treatments throughout the evening and night, he just now has a slight cough and a very snotty nose. They sent us happily home today. That is one place I don't enjoy being and thank goodness it was only overnight. We're happy to be home!

Fishing

Last Friday, my brother, Curt took the big 2 kids fishing. It was actually Micah's birthday present from Curt...to take him fishing for 1/2 the day. He let him invite 1 person and he invited his sister...what a nice kid if I do say so myself! They had a blast and they caught a ton of fish at my friends private pond. They got up very early to fish and didn't even ask for lunch, so you know they were having fun!

Micah LOVES to fish!

Megan even touched the fish! This was nearly as big as her!

Curt said this one was 3 1/2 pounds! Nice fish

ahh..........summertime

Micah and the neighbor boy jumping on the wet trampoline

Mason and Megan enjoying the swing set with the sprinkler

Water...swimsuits...friends...great fun!

A monkey lives in our home

Crawling up the wall in the hall; stopping only so he didn't knock down mommy's pictures!

Last weeks busyness: Part #2

Friday, after we saw the Kimba, my MIL (Grandma Cheryl) came into town for the weekend. I had to work all day Saturday and Sunday, and I was exhausted, so I went to bed early (for me at least- I was IN BED by 10 pm) Saturday, Steve took the kids to the lake with some friends of ours. The kids wanted to go out on the boat for a bit. Matthew was asleep and had Steve had just fed him, so his extension set to his G-button was still in place. He was due for his meds in an hour, so he figured he would just leave him asleep in his carseat ( he's still in his infant carrier) with my friends on the bank, and come back after a quick boat ride and give him his medications.


Well, while Steve was on the boat, Matthew woke up. When he initially wakes up. his usually is very upset. And when he is upset he arches. Well, he was arching and my friend thought she would try to calm him down, and went to take him out of his carseat, and well, the extension tubing to his button got caught in the carseat buckle and when she picked him up, she pulled his button out. OUCHHHHHHHH! He was not happy! Steve, luckily, was docking the boat and he quickly picked up Matthew and tossed him in the car and headed back to town. He called me at work, and said he was heading into my work and would I please replace his button. Luckily, I had picked up an extra Thursday and just happened to have it in my car. Problem was, though, they were 45 minutes away!!!

Steve was worried about that too, but came up with an ingenious idea. The button that the doctor had put in on Friday did not have a balloon in it, but rather a device on the end that collapsed with a special tool when you inserted it and expanded when the tool was taken out.

When the button got pulled out, the device was still expanded (double ouch) and he didn't have the tool to collapse it. Here's kinda what this looks like

The only part that actually stays in after placement is the bottom piece. So you can see how the tool on top (the purple piece and the T shaped handle) expands it.

So in his words, he "MacGuyver'd" it. He used his Leatherman knife (which he always carries) and cut off the tip and put the remaining piece back in to hold his stoma (hole for the g-button) open. Well, his idea worked, because when he finally got to the hospital (he also drove in the wrong direction for 15 minutes because he was so panicked!) the replacement button I had slipped right in and he was back out the door in 5 minutes. Whew!

(And we had a nice visit about how it's not smart to leave the extension tubing hooked up and then leave Matthew with someone who doesn't know it's still hooked up!)

After that, the rest of the weekend was quiet. I worked, Steve and the kids hung out with Grandma Cheryl. Perfection. Because I wasn't ready for any more drama!!

I'll end with a sweet picture that was taken shortly after Steve got back to the lake (after the drama!). Matthew did not seem phased. He was hammin it up and talking to my friends little girl, Abby. So sweet!

Last weeks "busyness"

I think I'm finally ready to blog about last week. Phew, it was a busy one. In order to keep everyone, non-confused (is that a word??) I think I'll do this post in bulleted-form.



Thursday:

• this day started off innocently enough. We went to PT on Thursday morning (which he slept through-imagine that) and then to the pediatric surgeons office at 1:30 to have some granular tissue removed from around Matthew's g-button (granular tissue is skin that grows around his button because his body thinks it needs to close the hole-to heal itself--God made our bodies to know it isn't right to have a hole where it isn't supposed to be)



• We got home late afternoon, and I got ready for supper and went off to work.



• I received a call at 8 pm from my hubby that Matthew's g-button had 'fallen out'. Yikes. Again, God makes our bodies to heal themselves, so the button must get back in quickly or the stoma (hole in his tummy) begins to close. So he grabbed the extra g-button kit we have at home in case of emergencies and headed up to the hospital VERY QUICKLY so I could put it back in. By the time he got there, and it's a 10 minute trip no less, it had already started to close. So we decided it'd be best to head to the ER to have it replaced (BAD IDEA, you'll see why later)


• We were admitted and roomed right away, and there was no one in the waiting room. We told the nurse that this must be quickly replaced, but that I wasn't comfortable to push very hard on his stomach, and that we had approximately 1 hour to get it replaced. At 9:30 we FINALLY saw a doctor (1 1/2 hours after his button was out) and he was a real 'not very nice guy' to say the least. He couldn't get it back in, (imagine that) but was able to get a very small catheter in it (the same kind they use to drain your bladder). They taped it down and checked placement with x-ray and radioactive dye (just curious, but I don't understand where else this tube could've went- and there was stomach contents coming out of the end of the tube-that one baffles me) and told us we would have to go to children's to have it replaced and that we would go by ambulance. UM, NO. I told them I could drive him. Not gonna happen, it's not an emergency. Well, sorta, but not THAT kind of emergency.


• The doc gets ahold of childrens' in Omaha, but they say we can come to the office tomorrow and have it replaced. Only problem being, the catheter that is in his stomach is only held in by tape. Most catheters have a balloon that you inflate on the end of them after they are placed. That holds it in. So he had to remove the catheter and replace it with one that had a balloon. No big deal, except that that required another x-ray and dye. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the dye gives him horrible diarrhea-so a fun night was in store. (especially since he got it twice)


• Back home at 11:30-

Friday

• I was up with Matthew alot with diarrhea and his tummy gurgling. Poor baby. He had a ultrasound of his kidneys and a VCUG (this is a procedure to check for kidney reflux) bright and early. Poor kid. At least they sedated him! I'm hoping to hear from the doctor today with these results.


• Then up to Omaha to the surgeons (again) to see if they can get his button back in. The surgeon sees him and forcefully gets his button back in. Hindsight, I would've asked them to sedate him. This was very painful for him. Then we had to go to radiology to check placement AGAIN (since it was a new g-button, I guess--I still don't get this--where else could it go???) In radiology he started vomiting blood (I told you he was forceful) . All done with that we headed back to Lincoln. Matthew was surprising happy in the back seat and smiling at his sister.


• We were able to get to look at the stroller that we want to get for Matthew. We were an hour late for the appointment, due to the earlier appointment in Omaha. Our PT knew of a family that has the same stroller we wanted to look at (since I didn't really like the first one) and this family graciously allowed us to come to there home, meet there daughter Quinn and see her stroller. I liked it a whole lot more than the first one and Chrissy, our PT is going to write a letter of justification to our insurance company, so we can be in the process of getting it approved. From what I understand this is a long process, we probably won't see this till Thanksgiving (or later). The stroller is called a Kimba stroller. It is made by the company Ottobock. It looks so much more like a 'normal' stroller than the other one. And it comes in 3 cute colors, too. It has the 'tilt in space' option, and will optimally position Matthew as upright as possible. If you click on the word Kimba above, I have linked it to the stroller we will be getting.

Well, if you made it this far, congratulations! The sad part is, that's not quite the end of the story. But, it's enough to write about for now. I will continue the story tomorrow. I have to include a picture of Matthew though. This was taken earlier last week. I was making supper and Matthew was in his highchair. He was looking at his new lightbox that he got for a birthday present from his friend Cayman and her family. We tuckered himself out and was fast asleep. Too cute, huh!

The busy life...

This last week and weekend has been extra busy and I've barely had time to sit down and type. I plan on it settling down after today, so I'll try to regularly post this week about our happenings of LAST week. Until then, here's a picture of what we decided to order for Matthew. I think it will be good for him and easy for us to go places

17 was not the place to be...

or at least Matthew thought so! Matthew was at the doctors office two weeks ago and weighed in at 17 pounds even. We were so happy; if you remember we spent MONTHS at 15 pounds. Well, today, at the doctors office, he weighed in at a hefty 18 pounds 3oz. So he's put on over 1 pound in 2 weeks. Can you believe it!! Well, he's almost on the chart now for weight. Keep on growin' Matthew!