Myringotomy.

Well many of you know that Friday was a big day in our household. It was T-Day! In an attempt to relieve little man of his chronic otitis media we went ahead with the myringotomy procedure.

Camden was a little rockstar through the whole procedure. When we woke him up and put him in his carseat that morning he was a little confused. Normally he gets some milk, a change of clothes, and his hair and teeth brushed. We skipped all that in lieu of letting him sleep later.

We headed to the building where the procedure was done. We checked in and were given a little teddy bear. It wasn't long before we were taken back to the pre-op room. This is where Camden had a blast. He was pulling cords, running around and pushing wheelchairs. They offered us a wagon to put him in and pull him around but at this point we didn't think he'd stay put. He was more than happy to explore with his own two feet! Then we put him in his ADORABLE little hospital gown. SO cute.

{Oh please stop with the adorableness of Toms and a hospital gown. Isn't that precious?}

{messing with the wheels on the wheelchairs}

{walking the halls with Mommy}

At this point we had lots of nurses and anesthesiologists checking in on us. Our nurse of the day was SO sweet and told us that she had already prayed for all of her patients for the day. Melted. My. Heart. How awesome is that? It wasn't long before they came in with some Versed and we had a little drunk midget on our hands. Literally. He was feeling SO good. Laughing and pointing at things, and constantly wanting to do little backbends and emitting sweet little giggles when he would go over backwards while we were holding him. Husband and I were laughing as he was being so ridiculously cute. We hardly got to enjoy his "happy meds" before the nurses came in with a warm blanket and wrapped him up and carried him off to surgery. He didn't have a care in the world that he was leaving us, he was having a grand time! As they were taking him away they kept warning us that "this happy drunk baby probably won't be here when you come back. Some kids have a bad reaction".

{doing backbends and giggling with Dad}

I think we sat in the waiting room for a whole 15 minutes before they paged us to go see him. Met with the doctor first who said that his left ear was worse than his right and that the fluid was "very thick and needed to come out". He also said "it was good that you did this, he should be hearing better as well". He then took us back to see our little boy in post-op. He was being rocked and hadn't yet opened his eyes. I got to hold and rock him and he was having a bottle of glucose water at the time. Homeboy was THIRSTY as he sucked it down. Next thing I know his eyes pop open with frustration because he was out of water. They got him another and he was perfectly content again. Then we had the same issue. We ran out of water again. So they got him some juice, but he doesn't really drink juice so he didn't care for it. So we gave him his paci and all was well. I knew he wanted milk but they kept telling us to wait until we were home and to make sure he's okay before giving him some.

{In post-op drinking some glucose water. He still wasn't sure what was going on}

Now that he was awake and vitals were stable we went to the recovery area where they monitored us for 20 more minutes. I was overjoyed to get some Camden cuddles. He sat patiently and was quiet with his paci, no fuss at all! He passed all further inspections and held down his water so they sent us on our way!

{In Recovery, where we reunited with our blankie. Thank goodness for blankie and paci, they are your favorites!}

Once home I gave him his milk and he sucked it down, only burping up a small amount on me. Afterwards we ate some late breakfast and then he took a 3 hour nap that I had to wake him up from. He spent the rest of the day in a great mood, acting like nothing had happened.

{After the car ride home}

The next day we got a letter from his nurse in the mail. How cute is that?

{Seriously. LOVE. THEM.}

Since this surgery he has been nothing but pleasant. He is acting fine and like nothing happened. The best part? The very best part is seeing him play and move around without clutching his ears or the side of his head. Nothing confirms a Mommy's intuition better than seeing a happy baby. Now lets keep our fingers crossed for health!!

(PS- Yes I cheated and took a camera and pictures. But I'm glad I did!)

Oz: Part 1.

Our trip to Oz was so incredibly eventful, and I don't want to forget how it all panned out! So bear with me as I attempt to get most of it down in writing. We travelled with Preston and Jennie and went to visit Jennie and I's friend Missy - who is working in Oz for a year (or so). We had a blast travelling with P and J and we got along like one big happy family!

{Preston and Jennie}

You all know from previous posts that the morning we were leaving we found Camden had thrown up in his crib, slept in it all night, and then proceeded to throw up all over us before leaving. Did I mention that I had a little greasy throw up stain on my shirt that I didn't notice until boarding the plane? Yep, I definitely wore that shirt ALL. THE. WAY. to Oz. Awesome.

We had a short layover in Vegas, a Loooooong layover in LAX where we proceeded to walk with our carry ons to In and Out Burger. Even though it was such a long layover, the time passed quickly with our silly antics. We spent time owling and planking and taking pictures of random things. :)

{This is Boone - Preston and Jennie's traveling gnome. He was ALWAYS with us!!}

{husband owling}

We boarded the plane around 10pm or so, and were very excited to find our own personal TVs with TV, radio and movies. We all quickly got lost in movies and I think we surprised ourselves at how much we were actually able to sleep while we were on this plane.

{our enourmous plane}

Once in Oz we found us a taxi, and he was quick to drop us off at the end of the street without ACTUALLY finding the proper address. So we wandered around for a while, asking where Missy's apartment was. So that was fun. Standing on the streets with our luggage looking very lost, while all the locals are heading to the train station (which is two minutes away from her apartment) laughing at us on the inside. I know it happened!!

{MJ's street. This was before we realized we were actually standing right. outside. the. door.}

That first day we showered and then decided to hit the town running. We roamed around, saw the bridge and the opera house and then wandered the Royal Botanical Gardens. We had trouble staying up late but it was what we had to do to get used to the time change. I do believe this was the evening that Missy took us to her local bar, Gilroy's. I say hers, because it was just around the corner to walk. So easy. And they had the best 10 dollar meals. I think Chris wanted to marry the Chicken Schnitzel with Pepper Gravy. For the sweet price of ten bucks, it was by far the best priced dinner meals we had there. (I think this is why we went like 4 times. Or was it 5??)

{Please note the ridiculous price. That is TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS for a TWELVE PACK. YIKES!!!}

{Oz Candies and Cough Drops..aka Throaties}

{Owling in the Botanical Gardens}

{Flying Foxes..aka BATS. SICK! These were ALL OVER the place in the garden.}

{Jennie and I outside of a quatrefoil fountain}

Tuesday was another day left for exploring. We spent the day learning how to ride the rails and learning our stops. We did lots of walking, through chinatown and circular quay and through all the little shops/malls like the QVB. The QVB stands for Queen Victoria Building and was built in 1898 and was used as a variety of things, Sydney city council, hairdressers, florists. It was threatened with demolition in the late 1950s but instead was refinished in 1986 and let me tell you, SO worth it. This building is just gorgeous.

{The Royal Clock activates on the hour and displays six scenes of English royalty.}

{Pretty elevator}

{The Great Australian Clock, designed and made by Chris Cook, weighs four tonnes and stands ten metres tall. It includes 33 scenes from Australian history, seen from both Aboriginal and European perspectives. An Aboriginal hunter circles the exterior of the clock continuously, representing the never-ending passage of time.}

{Isn't this building gorgeous? LOOOOOOOOVVVVEEE it}

Well, I feel this post is long enough and I am going to stop this installment here. More to come!!

Why I am Mom of the Year....

So I was perusing Camden's pictures that I took on the day of his party, just glancing through to see which ones turned out, which ones I want to frame, etc. His birthday party lunch, his nap, smash cake.

That is when I happened upon this beauty. It took me a second to realize what he is grabbing for in this shot. Come to think of it, I don't remember if I was the one that made him stop before he CUT someone or himself, or if it was someone else who stopped him, but this picture is hilarious. Shows how fun it can be to chase around a toddler!

:)

Memory Walk.

This past Saturday we had a Memory Walk here in town. It raises money for the Alzheimer's Association and it seems to be growing by leaps and bounds each year. My work is always involved in this since that is what we do, is work with people who have dementia. I didn't get to be overly involved last year since I had Camden just a mere 6 days prior.

This year was a special year for us, as I got to participate as well as recruit some fellow walkers (my mom and Janelle) and I managed to raise 300 dollars, largely in memory of my Uncle who passed this April after a hard fought battle with the disease.

This year I got to bring Camden, and my Mom and I both walked wearing pictures of her brother, and My mom brought along her BFF Janelle who has a mother suffering from the disease. Below are a few pictures from our day, I apologize they are all iPhone pics, and just like the awesome scatterbrained-ness that I am, I forgot to take a picture of us walkers together AND of Camden. Fail. Anyhow, a few pictures that I DID managed to snap.

The promise garden was an area of flowers where families could write messages to loved ones.

This is a picture that I took of the promise garden. The purple flowers were written in honor of someone who had passed from the disease. The yellow ones are in honor of family members still living. And the blue ones, the blue ones amazed me. It seemed to me that there were SO many. The blue ones stood for those that were present and walking that are currently living with the horrid disease.

Janelle and my Mom with the flowers, including the one from me for my Uncle. And that are both wearing the pictures of their loved ones. So sweet!

A close up of Janelle's flower.

A close up of my Mom's flower.

I wish I had taken better pictures, but it was so scorching hot that all I could focus on was finishing that walk and getting some water and AC. But it was incredibly touching to see all of the community come together to fight this disease. I was so glad to see it! They are still collecting money and tallying things up but it appears that our community has raised over 200k so far. This is amazing and it is so desperately needed, especially as the baby boomers continue to age and need this care.

Thanks to all those who donated!!

ONE!!

A taste of birthday fun....

Oz

So I have yet to acknowledge how fantastic my trip to Oz was. I have a few different posts that I want to do about them, and I will work on those and hopefully have them up in a week or two. It was so much fun to explore a whole new continent with some amazing friends! Here is just a taste of the beauty...

Ears, Part II (Alternately titled: Hand, Mouth, Foot...What???)

Well, we went to the ENT. Little C was ADORABLE while he was there. He had napped well and just had a snack so he was a good little booger. He played in the play area then they called us back for a hearing test.

First thing they do is put this little rubber stopper in his ears and get a reading for the amount of pressure in the ear. This showed fluid behind the left ear, the right ear was okay at the time.

Next, he sat on my lap and they shut the door, and then played sounds out of speakers on either side of the chair. It sounded like a heartbeat when it played and if he looked the right direction he was rewarded with a monkey that would light up and play the drums. Ohhhh boy did he find this game FUUUUN! He thought that by waving he was setting them off. So he would stare intently at one and flail his arms around trying to set them off. He was babbling and GAH GAH GAH-ing and it was adorable. There were plenty of times when it would go off and he would completely miss it until she set the monkey off on the other side. So then he would snap his head around the other direction and continue waving to get it's attention. He didn't do so well with the quieter noises but he did really well turning to his name.

In the end, he had mild hearing loss. We met with the doctor who was very nice and explained the risks and benefits of tubes. In the end, we decided to go for it and we set up an appointment for Monday the 29th. I was pumped because Camden has still been waking up at night and crying out, so I knew something is still off, so sooner was okay with me.

Fast forward to today. I get a call telling me that my insurance wants pre certification so they had to push it to NEXT FRIDAY. (sad face). And I had already done a twenty minute pre-op with the other location for Monday! Boo.

In conclusion, a week we must wait.

*****

So I picked up Camden from daycare today and noticed that what I thought was a diaper rash had spread to his legs/arms and hands. EW! I called the pedi real quick to get a once over before the weekend, especially after I noticed what appeared to be little blisters on his fingers. OW!

Turns out it is Hand, Mouth, Foot Disease. What is that you ask? Me too, cause I didn't have the FAINTEST idea. It is a highly contagious viral infection. It is something that you cannot fix but also cannot prevent therefore he does not need to be isolated or kept home from daycare. There is nothing extra I can do either except Caladryl and monitor. Then he said "It is likely to get much worse before it gets better". Awwww, that is no fun!

This leads me to my next question....CAN WE PLEASE CATCH A FLIPPIN' BREAK?? Lol. Poor kid has had it rough lately!

Cheers to a better week next week!! :)