A Boy and His Droid

Last weekend, Lauren and I flew to Georgia to visit a friend of mine and her family. Josh had told me that I should take a weekend off sometime, and she wanted us to come visit, so we did. Josh actually meant for me to leave both kids, but I thought this was a better compromise. It was actually very relaxing for me even with travelling by plane with Lauren, who, while a good traveller, didnt' sleep in either direction. Max was quite upset the week leading up to the trip when he realized that Lauren and I were going on a trip without him, and we dealt with a couple of days of bawling and begging to come along. I pointed out that he was going to have a special weekend with Daddy but he wasn't buying that. He wanted to go with us. I told him that he and Daddy would get to do special stuff, and had a few things in mind, but when I suggested them, he said they were things he did with me (zoo, museum, etc). I asked him what he liked doing with Daddy and he said "Working in his workshop" so I requested that Josh plan something for the workshop. We also promised him a nice dinner at his favorite restaurant (sushi, what every 5YO loves, right?). Finally, I bribed him with a trip to The Little Gym, which seemed to satisfy him, though we were still a bit nervous that Saturday morning would bring an anouncement that he was packed and ready to go. However, instead, he happily helped us check in and carry our stuff to security, gave happy hugs, and went off with Daddy. Phew.

While we were gone, they did have a great weekend. Max got to try a class at The Little Gym, which had been Lauren's thing (we have had to cut out most activities for financial reasons, including this, but hopefully we will be able to get back there one of these days), and he got his sushi and other fun meal experiences, but the highlight was working in Daddy's workshop. Max has been very interested in Star Wars. It is funny, as we have not let him watch it (you should have seen him when he discovered we had the original trilogy, but has accepted that we feel he is too young to see it) but many of his friends have, and so many kids are very interested in Star Wars. Max has been especially interested in R2D2, which kind of goes along with his interest in robots in general. It was a multiday project, from what I understand, and has gotten two coats of paint since these pictures, but both Josh and Max are rightfully proud. Now he wants to make an X-Wing fighter and a C3PO, which Max said is going to be bigger than him because the real C3PO is bigger than him (Josh is so excited about this, I am sure ;) ).

A side note: Max barely seems to have missed me while I was gone, which is probably a good thing, but it is very apparent that he missed Lauren. When we returned, he yelled "LAUREN!" as soon as he saw her and started running towards her (she yelled "Max!" and ran towards him while I cringed at the expected collision, but actually, they managed to hug without injuring each other) and couldn't wait to tell her all about his weekend. He was very disapointed when she fell asleep. I am glad they enjoy each other as much as they do.

CBC - 11/10/2008

We actually went longer than two months between appointments this time around, as we were scheduled for last week, but cousin Sophie's birthday was on the same day and we do have our priorities and wouldn't have missed that for anything. :) I had originally planned on taking Max out of school for the day and doing a whole Boston trip with him, but between a teacher's workshop on Friday, Veteran's Day tomorrow, and having to miss a day for the allergist a few weeks ago, I decided to just do a pop in and pop out this time around. It went well, except that I think next time I will try to go straight from school to the hospital because getting settled in the house before we left made for a difficult start. However, once we got on the road, we were in and out quickly.

Dr. Ebb saw us first thing today (probably because we were running late) and brought in two stethascopes so that Max and Lauren could have one to play with while he asked his normal questions: any illnesses, bruising, lack of energy, anything else notable, how has he been doing, how are we doing etc. Every time I go there, I am reminded how lucky we are to have him. I know he is incredibly busy, and yet he always takes the time with us. Then he looked Max over and said he looked great and said we could come back in 2-3 months. This was before getting the labs done, he just felt by looking at him that he would be in good shape. Oh, for those who remember that we never got the ANC last time, it was 1800. The nurse came in and did Max's blood draw, which was a lot less traumatic than last time. He had brought a bear to snuggle which seemed to help. He did balk at the first attempt, but I just gently held his arm and she did the draw quickly. While he complained for a second, as soon as it was done, he was all happy again, especially when he found out he was getting a Spiderman bandaid. Then, Lauren wanted her turn. I never thought I would be happy to say that she has a pediatrician's appt on Thurs, but never was a child so looking forward to seeing "my doctor."

Dr. Ebb and I talked about saving the cord blood, and he talked with one of the nurses who has a lot of experience with it and got a form from the Cord Blood Registry. He, as Max's doctor, needs to send them a letter. He said he would start the ball rolling, but suggested I check back in with him and make sure he remembered to do it. Then, I bribed the children to leave (seriously. They did not want to go, but I wanted to beat traffic) and headed home without the lab results. Dr. Ebb said he would try to call but that he had a family thing to take care of and if the labs came back before he left, to just call them.

Around 4:15 (right after we got home), I called the clinic and left a message and about 15 minutes later, Suzanne, one of the nurses, called with Max's labs. About 30 seconds after picking up with her, Dr. Ebb called my cellphone. I ended up talking with both of them because she had all the labs but he wanted to talk about the results. They were very good. His retic count was a bit high and his red count a bit lower than in the past (I think) which isn't a bad thing, but Dr. Ebb suspects that his counts dropped a bit when he was sick. The retic count shows that his body is making red cells to make up for it, so that is a good thing. I don't like that he still seems to drop when he gets ill, but at least his body is able to recover. This does indicate that maybe the slight paleness and lack of energy that I was worrying about a few weeks back may have been real, not imagined, but I am not going to stress that. The rest of his numbers were just fine. We are going back in January (we decided that seeing as the baby is due in early Feb, it would be good to have a mid Jan appt instead of waiting until mid Feb. I am sure Josh will appreciate this.

Sorry for the wordy post. I shouldn't blog when tired. But if I didn't, I would never blog.

Here are the numbers.
WBC: 4.6
PLT: 144
HCT: 34.9
HGB: 13.2
ANC: 2020

Oh yes, and the picture? When we got home, he wanted to play Spy, so he got in disguise, including wearing his new to him ski helmet and goggles (we can not wait to get the kids on skis this winter) which he has barely taken off since we got them on Saturday. Love the blond curls.

Chef Max

I think my last post was a bit heavy, so here is a more lighthearted one. :)

Max went shopping with me today, and while we were out, decided that he would cook dinner, and picked out hot dogs, tater tots, and peas. While this is not our normal dinner, I had to admit that the occasional tater tot is pretty darn good, and at least he picked out the good hot dogs so I went with it. When we got home, he had me make him a chefs hat, and went to work. With a little assistance from Mom and Dad because the stove and oven were involved, he put together and cooked the meal. After it was done, he carefully cut up Lauren's hot dog, plated all the meals, giving Josh about four servings of tater tots (I usually make a bag last two meals, but this was his party), and served everyone. It was really fun to watch, and he was very pleased with himself. Plus, there was no begging him to eat at all. What a wonderful evening.

Brief Update and Rambling Thoughts

I realize that it has been two months since I have updated Max's blog. Life has been so normal, for the most part, that sometimes I have a hard time coming up with something to write. He is happy in school and has been doing some enrichment classes and loving them. I miss him when he is gone, but also have to admit I like my kid free time. He is growing and making new friends and it is so nice to see him get to do all the stuff the other kids around us are doing. He and Lauren are best buddies and worst enemies often within minutes of each other, but they are more buddies than enemies and she misses him something fierce when he is gone, often asking if we can go get him. They spent so much time together only having each other that I think it has formed a special bond, one that hopefully will last a lifetime. He is eagerly antipating the arrival of his baby brother in February, and loves to talk to the baby and feel the baby move. It is so neat to see him interact with my belly. Lauren likes to kiss my belly, but Max really gets it, and can't wait for him to arrive. We will see if he is as excited when this new life arrives at home and gets a lot of attention. He has been struggling with sharing things with Lauren (but not other children) and gets really distraught if she gets a present that he doesn't get, often talking her out of her new toy so that he can play with it, which I think bothers me more than Lauren, but hopefully he will outgrow that. Sometimes it is very tempting to just get two of everything to avoid the issue but he needs to learn that all gifts are not for him.

We had a small scare a few weeks ago with him. His docs wanted him to get the flu shot, but because of his egg allergy, we had to meet with the allergist, whom we hadn't seen since before Max got sick. We were supposed to take him for a food challenge right around the time that he was hospitalized for treatment, but it obviously got pushed off, and Max had told me he didn't care if he never ate eggs, that he didn't want to do the test, so I had pushed it off. I figured it wasn't worth making him miserable over at this time. But, the flu shot made it an issue, so off we went. First of all, much to my great disapointment, he had a definite reaction to the egg test. But, the doctor also heard some wheezing and his pulse ox was low. He had had a cold the week before and still had a lingering cough, so I figured the wheezing was just from that (actually, I hadn't heard any wheezing, to be honest, but when the doctor said he heard it, I figured no big deal). However, the doctor was very concerned that this was the beginning of asthma. We have a family history of asthma, which might be why he jumped to this immediately. I had a hard time dealing with this, for some reason, and was really upset that he put him on albuterol right away. After 7 months of steriodal treatment, the last thing in the world I wanted was to give him another sterioidal drug, partially because of what it does to his moods, and partially because the drugs just are not good for the body. After four days of roid rage tantrums (I couldn't believe how fast it affected him), we saw the pediatrician who said everything was normal and not to worry about it, that it was likely just an upper respiratory illness and no big deal. We do have to follow up with the allergist a couple of times, but hopefully this will have been a non issue. It did give me just one more thing to worry about.

While the worry I feel has greatly diminished, it is still in the back of my mind at all times. I try to ignore it but sometimes it comes out. I have gotten to the point where I can give him a bath without overanalyzing every single bruise on his body (I think he is really sick of me asking "where did that come from" or "did you bang yourself here?"), but if he decides he needs a rest on the playground and the rest of the kids are still running, fear strikes my heart, even if he has been going none stop for five days. A red mark on his body makes me call to Josh to come and inspect it, and every time we get close to the next doctor's visit, I get more and more anxious. I actually look forward to his next appointment because I just don't like not knowing. I also worry about health insurance. Josh changed jobs a few months ago and because of a communication glitch, we thought his insurance got dropped and I was in a real panic. As it turned out, he wasn't dropped (though they did drop the life insurance, which I think we are still trying to work out), but I worry that if Max is ever one day without health insurance, he will never be able to get it again.

One last note for those who are wondering. Yes, we are going to bank this baby's cord blood. There is apparently something available for families in our situation where a new baby's cord blood could be life saving for an older child that will reduce the expense of banking, and Dr. Ebb is suppose to have that information for us at the next appointment (though he is a very busy man and I realize he may have forgotten, but we have a few months to figure this out.)

That is it for my ramblings. I guess it wasn't that short an update. :)