Baby it's cold!!

It was a long week for us. The temperatures have dropped and the wind chill has kicked in. Last week it was warm enough to melt most of the snow along with some rain... but this week was downright cold with temperatures dipping into the single digits. Matthew went back to school for the full week and is pretty much back to normal now... although his voice has changed, we are happy so far with the results of his surgery. He has barely snorred since the mucous that was caused by the surgery has gone away. He has been sleeping much better this week, hardley waking up at all except when he had the 24 hour stomach bug. Ughhh, spaghetti & meatballs on cream carpet... not easy to get out.

Sean froze his buns off this week at work delivering in the extreme cold in Lake Placid. I had a long week at work since a co-worker had surgery, so I had to fill in the evening shifts that he normally works along with my regular hours. Lots of overtime this week and I feel like I've barely seen Sean or the boys.

Today Sean went to pick up our treadmill for Andrew to do therapy on, so he was gone all day 2 hours south of us to pick it up. He and a friend visited a furniture store while there so it took longer than expected. (imagine two men furniture shopping together! LOL) Anyway, Andrew loved getting onto the treadmill at full incline and even attempted to run on it. He did really well and hopefully I can find the time to get on it myself. With all this cold weather outside it is not very motivating to get out and get some exercise. With my Cholesterol through the roof, my doctor is looking to me to get it down with diet and get some exercise (real exercise... not chasing kids around) to help keep my heart healthy. I've turned to eating honey nut cheerios and granola as snacks instead of chips, and am trying the new smoothie by "Promise" that says it will help lower cholesterol. So we'll see how it goes at my follow up visit in February. If it does not come down with diet & exercise they will try some meds.

Speaking of meds, we'll be starting on Chantix this week.... things may be a bit rough for a while around here but in our hearts we know that it will be worth it! Sean smokes about 2 packs a day and it is time to quit! We're looking for all the support we can get and pray that this will be something that actually works for us. We're in this together and have a lot of support from co-workers & friends but anyone else out there that can offer up some advice, feel free to leave a message.

He's BAAACK

So Matthew is back! It's amazing how kids can bounce back so fast! He's on an eating frenzy and his energy is back. He seems to not be having any side effects of the surgery at all. Over the weekend we went to his friend Owen's birthday party and ate a whole plate of pancakes after eating a bowl of cereal before we left. He basically munched all day long and enjoyed apples, bananans and peaches as his afternoon snack... then ate a full dinner! Even though he is still a little picky eater (only wanting Michellini's Wheels & Cheese, Chicken Nuggets and Peanut Butter, Jelly & Fluff) he is at least eating in quantity. Hopefully he will change his eating behaviors soon. I'm sure it will all pass eventually, but he does enjoy the healthier snacks like fruit and yogurt. So I guess it's not all bad. He does eat healthy at school, so that is a plus.... we dont feel as bad knowing that he eats the organic foods and veggies at school.
His voice has changed since the surgery and for the first time he has slept 2 nights in a row without waking up for one reason or another and has (so far) not snored in 2 nights! He seems much happier in the morning the last few days...up until this morning when it was time to go to school. Unfortunately, Andrew & Matthew have seemed to switch bodies! Andrew is happy to go to school without many complaints and is so much easier going than Matthew. Matthew used to love school but ever since his surgery, he does not want to go to school. Hopefully this will pass. But over the last few months he has been a little brat complaining about everything and has showed signs of separation anxiety... something that has NEVER bothered him before. Maybe it's just a little late coming on than most kids. The preschool teachers note that a lot of children go through this at this age. I guess it is age appropriate for him to be feeling this way, but he was always so easy going before, that it has taken us by a bit of a surprise since we had no idea that it would happen to him. I guess it is normal and healthy, so we'll just grit our teeth and chug on through this just like all the other obstacles of parenting!

Andrew apparently only had a little bug. After throwing up that night, he has been fine since. He is feeling fine now but started with the sniffles over the weekend. I guess it's to be expected this time of year and we've been lucky with the both of them since they have not been sick at all this winter so far. So, I guess that this is to be expected now. Sean's not feeling well either with a bit of a cold coming on and with the weather being below zero or teetering on it, he is freezing his buns off today at work. So we've been running the humidifier all day and night and are hoping to get through this with out any missed school or work. It's about to be a busy week for me since I will have to cover for someone that will be out of work due to his surgery and have to stay late a few nights this week along with being on call.

Otherwise, we had a great weekend... Friday night, my parents came to watch the boys and we enjoyed a night out for a change. We went to a local pub and had munchies and drinks, played some pool and then went bowling. It's been a long time since we've been bowling and I must say... For everyone who knows Sean, he is very competitive... I OUT BOWLED HIM!! He'll hate me for this but his first game he only bowled 86!!! I bowled a 175 (somewhere around there)!! It's amazing I cant remember exactly the score but all I know is that I beat him and he'll never live it down now! He did beat me the second game but overall total... I still WON! LOL.
Anyone reading this will have to help me rub it in!

sorry for the update delay....

Matthew is recovering well now. I guess he just needed those bags of fluid to help kick start his recovery. It still was not fun, but needed. Thank you to everyone's well wishes and cards. Thank you to our friends and neighbors for the "get well treats". Matthew realized that Jello is now his favorite food! (If you can call it food)

His first day back to school was yesterday and it was rough getting him out the door. He was afraid to leave the house... Afraid to be in pain... Afraid to eat... and has become afraid of even sleeping. He's afraid that if he falls asleep that he will wake up in pain. He's gotten better sleep last night but still is afraid to sleep since he knows that his throat will hurt more when he wakes up. but as soon as he gets up and moving, drinks a bit, he feels much better. School for him today was much better. It was still like pulling teeth to get him out of the house to school. But again, as soon as he was there he was fine. Yesterday he fell asleep on the playground and almost again in his bowl of soup! But after his nap, I picked him up a bit earlier and he was happy to get home again.

THEN we thought Andrew was playing games with us saying the he was "sick". We though he was acting jealous. He ate dinner fine and an after dinner snack... had his bath and played a bit. The whole time he kept saying "ouch" and saying his tummy hurt. We told him that we were not playing games and to just go to bed. About 10 minutes later.... he vomited all over his bed!! I guess he was not joking! We sanitized his room and bathed him and he went right to bed after that. Apparently it must have just been a little bug, because he woke up in the morning and asked for breakfast and ate a whole bowl of cereal and oatmeal... went to school and ate there too without any problems. He didnt even mention that he was sick today... Although he loves to tell his "throw up" story to anyone who will listen.

So that's been our last few days and we'll post again soon. For now... I'll try to get SOME sleep.

We were back in the hospital yesterday....

Unfortunately, our little Matthew was not doing so well today. He ended up in the ER because he could not get any fluids in or hold anything that he did get in, down. His ENT thought it was best if we went to the ER to get him rehydrated since it is crucial to his recovery that he stay hydrated.

Although he was acting semi-normal last night, the lidocane they had placed during surgery in his throat had apparently worn off by about 4pm. He was still doing ok until about 6 or 7 after eating donut holes and drinking everything in sight. He fell asleep and woke up at about 11pm and we gave him another dose of tylenol w/codene. Then about every hour he was up and crying. They crying irritated him more, he couldnt drink and would not keep down the meds for the pain. All morning he would not drink even if forced to drink. He had not urinated since the day before in the hospital before we left. So that was our first clue that he was dehydrated. He was really lethargic and wouldnt move. The ENT's office told us to go to the ER and that they would call to let them know that we were on our way and that all he would need was IV fluids and pain meds.

When we got there about 12pm we waited about 20 minutes before even being checked in. I told them that I didnt want him to be exposed to the other 20 sick patients in the ER. So they took us back until he could get processed through. They finally took him to an ER room by about 1pm. Apparently it was no use that the ENT's office called to tell them we were coming. It was 2 1/2 hours before I finally told them that we would not wait anymore. Unfortunatley Matthew's ENT's office was in a hospital that was about and 1 1/2 away in another state. Or else we would have gone there and they would have treated him immediately.

Our ER is horrible. I HATE going there. I asked what the hold up was if we were wating for a Ped. or ENT and they said there were 8 people ahead of him that their charts were not even looked at!! I told them that all he needed was IV fluids and pain meds but they said that he could not have it until the dr. saw him. I asked if it were possible to send him up to pediatrics and they said he could not go there unless he was admitted. I asked how that could happen and they said that his ped or ENT would have to approve it. So I told them, show me a phone and I'll make it happen.
At this point matthew was pretty much incoherent and was really starting to worry me. Meanwhile the man behind the curtain in our room was hacking up a lung, there was a young girl in the hallway going on a rampage and there were people screaming in pain etc. Matthew had told me that all them were scaring him. So that was it. As soon as I got up to go call his ped to get him processed faster, they came in to finally give him an IV. So now we had to stay. It took 3 people to hold him down to give him the IV. It was aweful. They just poked and poked and could not get a line in. They decided to try his other arm. That poor kid was so wiped out and now they were poking him full of needles and didnt even know how to pick a child. Not to mention that he was dehydrated so it was harder to get a line in. THEN they decide to give him a tylenol suppository and do a rectal temperature!! I was FURIOUS. THere was no need to get his temp since it was obvious that he had a temp since he just had surgery and if they were going to give him tylenol there was no reason to get a temp. AND if they were giving him IV fluids, I asked them why they could not just put something in his iv. They told me that it's because they have not been able to master how to create tylenol for the IV! DUH, use something else!

So finally, matthew was able to rest. Grandma came by to help me out. The doctor finally came in to look at him and it was by then 4pm!! He tried to force Matthew's mouth open to take a look at his throat to be sure he was not bleeding... which to me was a waste of time because we would have seen the blood in his drooling mouth since he could not swallow. Luckily he was gentle or he would have gotten a piece of my mind. He agreed that after the fluids and urinating, that he would be a lot better off... DUH! Imagine if we had to wait unitl it was 4pm before he got his IV. That poor kid.
Then Nana & Grandpa came to visit too. A short time later Sean showed up. He left work to come home and another driver helped him out, having to have gone through the same thing with his daughter.

A little while later he finally perked up and said he was feeling better after they gave him some morphine. He decided that he wanted to drink and finally go pee! He at some ice and a popsicle and promised that he would take his medicines and drink so we could go home.

He was doing 100 times better by the time we left. Now we will push every drop of fluid in and we've been telling him that we dont want to go back there so he HAS to keep drinking and taking his medicine. So far, so good.

Things went well today.

So we got up at and left the house this morning at 4:30am. Nana came over to bring Andrew to school so that we could leave for the hospital. We got there about 6:45 for registration. Matthew was still very tired so he was quiet. The staff moved him in quickly since he was not able to eat or drink before surgery. He was excited to play with all the toys, games and coloring books and markers they had for him to use. He was really great about all the nurses and doctors buzzing around. I think it helped to have him exposed to hospitals and doctors with Andrew while he was in St. Louis. He was not nervous at all. I also think that since this was a breeze surgery compared the Andrew's SDR, that we were not giving off any nervous vibes. Although we knew that having his adenoids out was easy, we have no idea what to expect from him having tonsils out. Dr. Hubbell told us what to expect and how he may react after surgery and during recovery. He went in for his surgery at 7:40am and they had to really increase the anesthetic to get him to give in. He drifted off easily without a wimper. at 8:15, the Dr came and told us that Matthew's Tonsils and Adenoids were huge and that knowing how large they were that he believes this will be a great help to matthew's health by having them out. Less Sinus problems, easing the apnea (hopefully) and maybe altering his behaviors for the better since he will be much more rested. He explained something about people that have breathing issues can become irritable over a long period of time and eventually it catches up with you causing moodiness and eventually cognitive problems down the road if not addressed early. It's been known that breathing problems do something to the oxygen makeup in the body and can alter behaviors... so sometimes children that have these problems fixed early can stop those behaviors before they get out of control. We've all known that Matthew is a little devil child but lately he has been just unreal. Seems like it was within the time he started preschool. We just assume it is a preschool thing, but after hearing what the dr told us we all seem to think that it is a chain reaction to things.

So after he came into recovery we waited about 15 minutes for him to weak up. He just suddenly sat up and said "Where's my chocolate Ice cream?" LOL. So the nurse got it for him along with some juice. After about 5 bites of ice cream and a few sips of juice, he said his tummy hurt and he threw it all up. Right after he fell asleep for about 4 hours. They let him sleep until the extra Phetenol wore off and gave him some Zofran for nausea. By about noon they said if he didnt wake up that they would give him something to counteract the Phetenol. About 12:15 he just jumped up again and said all wide eyed and smiling "I feel better... who took my chocolate ice cream?" We immediately knew he was snapping out of it. I went to the gift shop and got him some balloons and stuff and by the time I came back, they were ready to release him! So we left there at about 1pm.

The trip home was interesting. There are very high winds and we knew the ferry ride home was going to be a trip and a half. We ran into the mall food court quick to grab some lunch for the road and of course there was a Dunkin Donuts there. Matthew decided that he wanted chocolate donut holes. So we said yes. We figured if he wants to eat it, he can have it. Dr said that ANY food or drink was fine until he could get back to a regular diet in about a week. He said the first day would be the easiest.
Then we had to take some photos and video that I will try to post later of the Extrememly HIGH waves on the lake while we were on the ferry home. It was the biggest waves I have ever seen on the lake... that I remember. Matthew loved it. We thought for sure he would throw up. He held tight to his donuts and kept saying he would save them for later. He didnt even try to eat them.

We got home safe and sound and rented a few movies for him to watch while he rested.
About 20 minutes after being home he decided he wanted something to eat and tried to eat a donut hole.... he realized quickly that he was going to be in pain when he ate. We realized that the lidocane that they put in the surgery site was probably worn off. So we decided to give him his first AWFUL dose of tylenol codene. YUK. But he did swallow it. After about 20 min. of that he decided to give eating a try again. He ate an ice cream cup and a half container of pudding snack pack and decided to give the donuts a whirl again... It worked this time! He gobbled down 5 donut holes no problem... Hopefully he can keep up the eating and get well fast.

So in all, it was such a smooth day. Except for the nauseating ferry rides and waiting for him to wake up in the PACU for 4 hours. We were thinking that they were going to have to admit him but luckily he snapped out of it. We were exhausted from having to get up so early.

Hopefully we can all get to bed early tonight and maybe tomorrow wont be that bad for Matthew like they say. They say the first few days are good then it goes downhill before it gets better. Wish us luck and wish him well.

Long day tomorrow...

We will be off to have Matthew's Surgery. He is having his tonsils and adenoids out. Hopefully this will help with his sleep apnea, eating, and ability to swallow better. Mostly we hope that it will help the apnea but also hopeful that it will help prevent him from the sinus colds he gets all the time. No ear infection history, but his breathing is the main concern for the surgery. Wish him well and pray for a quick recovery. They said it will be pretty nasty for the next few weeks with little eating and that we need to at least push the fluids. I'm sure he will be happy to eat ice cream for the next few days as his main diet!

His surgery is scheduled for 7:25am. We have to be there at 6am so we will have to leave the house by 4:30am to get there in time for check in and preop. Matthew is not allowed to eat any breakfast in the morning or even to eat anything. This should be interesting. He is the type of boy that wakes up in the morning and immediately wants breakfast. It's his favorite meal of the day and he usually has one breakfast at home in the morning and then again at school at 8am. So this will be a good test at how well we can distract him!

The surgery should take about an hour from the time he goes in to the time he will be transferred to PICU. They said it should be expected that he will be able to go home within a few hours after surgery as long as he can keep down a certain level of fluids. They also told us that it is not uncommon for children to have to stay longer because it is taking them longer to recover. Some even end up there for the night to get fluids. Then we have to make it home on the 1 1/2 hr ride along with a 45min ferry ride! Should be interesting. They said that kids have a tendancy to vomit following anethstesia and not to mention that he will be in pain and the area wher the tonsils and adenoids were removed will be an open wound that will most likely bleed. SOOO we're going prepared with blankets, extra clothes, baggies for soiled things and a lot of patience! At least they are honest with what we can expect right??
We'll keep you all posted. I plan to bring my laptop for entertainemtn for Matthew to be able to play on Noggin & Playhouse Disney and watch movies to distract him, so hopefully I will get a chance to check in.

Love, Mel & Sean

travel time...

What a tiring weekend we had. As most of you know, my Uncle Jim passed away just before Christmas. We decided to attend the memorial service for him in New Jersey this weekend. So we all packed up and headed down. Uncle Jim was my mother's brother.

We arrived at my Aunt Barbara & Uncle John's home in New Jersey late on Friday night. Andrew & Matthew slept the whole way there but when we arrived there, Matthew was ready to party. He finally went to bed at about 2am. Andrew on the other hand, was out for the count. We got up the next morning and visited for a bit before packing up and heading to the Memorial service. The service was great, if you can say that about a memorial service. It was held at a theatre, which is something that my Uncle was passionate about... the arts. There, we spent time listening to all of the Eulegies (sp?) about his life. His sons, my cousins, wife, first wife, friends and collegues gave wonderful remembrances of his life and their times spent together. It brought back many memories of my own of times spent with them. We recalled some interesting, fun trips we had taken, countless hours of games and conversation. He was an amazing, talented, fun, loving man who will be dearly missed. After the service, we all gathered to get caught up in what we've all been up to. It was really nice to see that side of my family again since it's been years since we've gathered like that. Like they say, the only times families really get together is weddings and funerals. Unfortunately, that later was the case here.

So we made the long trip home last night and didnt get in until about 4am. Luckily the boys slept in this morning till about 8am so we could get at least a few hours of sleep. Needless to say, today will be a quiet day for us.

slideshow...

Here's a little christmas eve and day slideshow for you all to view. By clicking on one of the photos, it will bring you to our Picasa Web Albums. There you can view the videos and even order prints.

These photos were taken Christmas Eve at Sean's Parent's house, and Our house and more photos of Christmas day.

We had a GREAT Christmas and the Boys were Awesome... Except Matthew was a bit sick on Christmas day with a fever and was only slightly excited for Christmas.

Enjoy the slideshow.

Our First Post of the New Year...

This is our introductory post. If you check back here often we will be posting random thoughts, jeers, and little things going on in our lives. Sean AND Mel will be posting, so be prepared for all of you who know Sean, that some posts may just be literally "random thoughts" and comments. LOL. We will most likely post links to newly uploaded photos and videos, mostly of the boys, but we'll really try to keep things in general. Don't forget that the boys both still have their blogs up and going, so make sure you still check those often for their personal pages for themselves. We hope you enjoy these pages and be sure to stay in touch.

Love, Mel & Sean