I got Ethan in for an 8:30am appt. this morning at the ENT so I stopped by the radiology place on the way there to pick up the films from his xrays last week for the ENT to look at. He said his sinus’s are filled with mucus and that Ethan needs surgery to take out his adnoids so that the mucus can flow freely(at least that’s how I understood it). He said he doesn’t do surgery on such a young child and wants us to have Ethan evaluated at the Cleveland Clinic or a pediatric ENT surgeon. He was put on medication again for the infection. Then we went to the pediatrician’s for an appt. for Ian. He was coughing really badly yesterday and all last night. A miracle-we were only there for 20 minutes. Turns out he has an ear infection. Poor thing. I’m pretty proud of all three of us. I took them to two appts. by myself without incident. Yay!

The allergist called with Ethan’s results on his CT scan and Xrays. He has another sinus infection and his adnoids appear to be “mildly large.” She doesn’t want to treat him again with antibiotics and wants him to see an ENT as soon as possible. He’s had more than six sinus infections in the last year. She also wants me to take him to the hospital next week to be tested for Cystic Fibrosis. It sounds like a quick and painless test. Unfortunately I have to take him back to the ENT I took him to in the fall because there are very few on our plan.

My back has not improved at all and because of the pinched nerves, my legs hurt constantly. I can’t get in to see my general practitioner for a couple of weeks to discuss the MRI so my chiropractor decided to try traction or spinal decompression which is one of the treatments for a herniated disc. It’s really a modern day version of medieval torture except that a computer does it to you. I get strapped down with all sorts of belts and other fasteners and the computer is responsible for stretching me, pulling my lower half away from my top half. It happens gradually over a period of about 15 minutes and I have an emergency stop button if it gets too painful. It was weird. Ian was next to me in his stroller and thankfully I had my hands free to help him. It felt like my hips and pelvis were being stretched as well and for hours after I left it felt like I had cramps. Not sure if it’s biologically possible for the machine to cause uterine cramping but I think it did. I have to go 3 times this week (essentially using up all my free time while Ethan is in school) and not sure how long of a process it will be.

I have been in such denial about how quickly Ian is growing. I have been squeezing him into his 3-6 months clothes the past couple of weeks. Then I started putting him in his 6-9 month clothes and found that he has just about bypassed that size. Wow! I bought 6-12 month socks for him and they don’t even fit right. And he’s only 4 months! Speaking of big boys, Ethan had blood work done recently. George said he did better than I usually do. He also had a CT scan and X ray. George said it was a bit challenging for Ethan to stay still but they got it done. The techs promised him a treat afterwards and after it was all done, they gave him some stickers. He was associating the word treat with cookies and asked where are the cookies? George said one of the techs gave him a granola bar from her lunch.

Ethan was tested again for allergies today. Actually they called it a screening. Nothing showed up and the doctor said he may still have allergies because they can’t thoroughly test for all allergies in young children. She also said that he will most definitely have allergies at some point if he doesn’t now because of genetics. Because he gets chronic sinus infections they are concerned about his immune system. So we are supposed to get blood work done and an Xray and CT scan of his adnoids and sinus’s. I’m taking him for the Xray and CT scan this week and leaving the blood work for George to handle. I figure since I can’t handle getting my own taken, I certainly can’t handle Ethan getting blood taken.

So I’ve been seeing my chiropracter twice a week for the past few weeks and there hasn’t been much of a change. I stopped carrying Ian around in his carrier because it is so heavy. My chiro. thinks I may have a herniated disc and wants me to get an MRI. I have one spot in my back that hurts and the tops of my legs always hurt and feel a little numb. They ultrasound me every time plus he does his manipulation of my back but there has been little improvement. Since he is not on my insurance I now have to go to my general doctor to see if she will prescribe the MRI. One of the treatments for herniated discs is back surgery. That doesn’t sound appealing to me so I’m hopeful we can resolve it soon. So no more painting of my bedroom, I guess we’re stuck with just two blue walls. He also said no vaccumming(sp.?)-that sounds good to me:)

Whenever George works a lot I try to get together with friends. Last weekend George had to work a double shift and my friend Marilyn’s husband was out of town so I invited her over. She brought the pizza, wine and chocolates:) (The wine and chocolates were for the grown ups) Ethan and Braden played for a while and enjoyed their pizza. Bath time was a big hit with lots of splashing. Ethan enjoyed Miss Marilyn doing story time. She is much more animated than I and does voices. Then Ethan went to bed in his room and Braden was in my room. Marilyn and I then enjoyed watching No Reservations while eating our chocolates. Actually I missed some of it because Ethan kept coming out of his room saying that he didn’t like his room and didn’t like sleeping in there. They went home after the movie was over. Thanks for playing with us Miss Marilyn and Braden!

Story time with Miss Marilyn

Bath Time

I went to Ethan’s class Valentines Day party today. We were supposed to bring Valentines for all the kids in his class. I just picked up “Car” ones at Target and put a child’s name on each one. I had a hard time figuring them out because when I was a kid, little envelopes came with the cards. The ones I got came with tatoos but how do I include the tatoos if there are no envelopes? I ended up attaching them with stickers and hoped for the best. Apparently, most mommies do more than that for Valentines. Most of them attached candy to their cards. One mommy bought heart shaped cans from Michael’s probably and decorated the lid and included candy inside with their card. Another created their own card with their child’s picture. I guess next year I’ll have to think ahead and at least get the kids some candy…