My little man

After coming home from my amazing mommy vacation at the end of September, I had envisioned the month of October being one of catching up on projects, planting some fall flowers, cooking freezer meals and getting the house in order for after Noah's eye surgery. Well, after all my energy was re-directed to Caleb and his needs and a very busy month at work, let's just say, not much of that happened. Until last Monday, I had decided I just needed to let go of that, and we would get by just fine. Then, we had Noah's pre-op appointment.

There were several things I was not aware of until Monday. One is that for 2 weeks after eye muscle surgery, the eye muscles (and hence, eye balls) are not stable. The papers they give you say "no contact sports" but then the eye doctor's assistant goes on to describe what that translates to in toddler-land: no running, jumping, bike riding, scooter riding or anything other than just walking. Seriously? Anyone who has spent any time around a 3 year old knows that's just crazy. But, I totally get why it's that way, just not enjoying what that actually looks like. Oh, and no dirt, dust or sand.  So basically, no going outside. Lovely. Then, we find out that as he grows, his eye will likely turn out again and he will require surgery again later in life (if you asked me today, I'd tell you he'll just have to suck it up and deal with a crazy eye til he's 18 cuz we're not doing this again), but I digress. Again, makes sense to me, but still kinda stinks to know this isn't a one-time deal.  And, his eye will most likely turn in (aka be cross-eyed) for a few weeks after the surgery until his brain adjusts to the new position of his muscles. Needless to say, I left that appointment freaking out a little bit about what the next few weeks were going to be like.

We are now 2 days out from surgery and, honestly, it has been as rough as I thought it would be, but in the midst of the difficulty, I am reminded that there is much to be thankful for. First of all, there were no immediate consequences from the surgery or anesthesia, which is huge. The surgeon was very pleased with how the muscles were positioned and complimented him as having big, beefy muscles. :) But, equally as important is the amount of prayer and support we have been surrounded by. All day Thursday, I felt how enveloped we were in prayer.  It was not an easy day, but we got through and did ok. I was blessed by the mother of a patient who has become a friend, who very honestly shared with me what to expect after surgery because no one had prepared her for what her son would look like after eye muscle surgery. I'll spare ya'll the details, but I cannot say enough what a blessing it was to be to be prepared for all that. We have also been blessed by a church family that has made up a meal schedule for us and my sweet sister who got more people on board with that. Just a simple thing like not having to think at all about dinner and having a warm, yummy meal to sit down to is wonderful. I'm also trying to see the silver lining in the amount of time I have spent sitting on the couch with Noah keeping him occupied and quiet, and have been catching up on the blog and some reading when he is quiet.

We are far from done with all this, but I'm hoping the worst is behind us and glad to know that when his eyes are all healed up, our little dude will actually have depth perception and will not fall and hit his head on stuff nearly as often. Thank goodness for that!

My big boy

You may remember that last fall (you can read here if you don't), we had Caleb evaluated by a neuropsychologist who diagnosed him with ADHD (no surprise), and generalized anxiety disorder with possible OCD (quite surprising, actually). He is now doing well on two medications and has had a really good year, except for one issue: his weight. The medication for ADHD is a stimulant, which commonly suppresses appetite. We worked diligently from the beginning to keep his calorie intake up so that he would not lose weight (at 6 years, 49 pounds and 48 inches is pretty skinny) that he did not have to lose. He has held steady over the past year until a month ago. He had 2 doctor appointments 3 weeks apart and in that time he dropped to just above 44 pounds (now 7 years old and still 48 inches tall). Needless to say, we were all very alarmed. We have just recently switched pediatricians (a story for another day), so she was really concerned as these were the first two times we had ever seen her. We immediately went to work on a very structured daily meal plan packing in as many nutrient rich calories as possible. The pediatrician asked us to go see his neuropsychologist again to see what he thought of the situation because she thought it must be the medication, wanted us to work on increasing calories and to come back in 2-3 weeks.

John and I went and met with the specialist last Friday and he was quite puzzled by the situation, but was rather adamant that the medication could not be the sole cause for the sudden weight loss. If the medication were going to cause that kind of side effects, it would have done so in the first month or two, not a year later.  When looking at the whole picture of all his current symptoms, he raised the question of if he might have a thyroid or adrenal gland issue. I had honestly never even thought about that nor had our previous pediatrician ever mentioned that. So, back to the pediatrician we went this past Tuesday. Caleb gained back almost 3 pounds which is AMAZING but at the same time, still puzzling as to why he dropped it in the first place and why he has essentially weighed the same and been the same height for 18 months now. I asked her what she thought about testing his thyroid and her response was, "Well, that was ruled out before the ADHD meds, right?". Um, no. Apparently, that is one of the things that could/should be checked before starting meds. This was further confirmation that we had made the right choice in switching pediatricians.

So, for now, we are awaiting the thyroid test results and will see where we go from there.  In the meantime, we are working diligently on Caleb's diet. He has been a trooper and is very proud of himself when he eats all his food for the day and that he has made up his own menu, complete with numbers (which I apparently didn't learn quickly enough!). Needless to say, I was rather surprised to be spending the past month so focused on Caleb's health, when I thought October was going to be all about getting ourselves ready for Noah's surgery. Ah, the roller coaster ride of parenting!