Camp-say-whosey-whatsit?

Yesterday morning we had our much anticipated follow-up appointment with Sam's hand surgeon to a) check that the bones in his thumbs are still growing straight after last year's procedure and b) to have a look at why those little smurfy fingers are growing in a bit of a funky curve. The entire appointment took two hours...which ordinarily would be a little frustrating but throw in a blessed outcome and it becomes less frustrating and so much more worth the trouble.

Firstly - Sam's thumbs, although not completely "normal", continue to grow in as straight a manner as possible, ie. no regression to growing skew again. We will still have to look at repeating the operation when Sam is five but should Sam seem to have a relative amount of functionality at that time, I am not too certain we would go ahead with the surgery.

Secondly, Sam has a condition called Camptodactyly in three of his fingers on the left hand and two fingers on the right hand. I was certain the remedy would involve a surgery in the near future, but amazinly Dr C feels nighttime splinting might be aggressive enough to correct the fingers. So, most of yesterday's two hours was first spent trying to get remotely accurate x-rays of the thumbs and then a good sitting at the occupational therapist to fashion a splint for Sam. The only problematic issue is that take one little smurf + some serious sensory issues = not great success with handling of hands/fingers....as the poor OT discovered yesterday while trying to mould the splint on a squirming, screaming Sam. I decided that I would wait for Sam to fall asleep last night before putting the splint on but eventually didn't go through with it because for the first time in a long time Sam fell asleep relatively easily and seemed quite peaceful. Taking into consideration the difficulty we've had over the past few weeks to first get Sam to sleep at night and then to keep him asleep, I decided not to rock the boat on the one night it was all going well. Tonight though, regardless of all of this, I am definitely going to put the splint on - "Oh Happy Days"

It looks like Spring has finally sprung here and Sam and I have celebrated with an occasional morning walk, although Sam looks more like he's going on safari in the North Pole (if there is such a thing) instead of a quick stroll around the block.

Spring or no Spring, the morning air is still quite nippy and we are (touch wood) off to Stilbaai for the weekend so can't have our little man getting ill now.

Sam seems to be getting back into the OT swing of things  (pardon the pun) and gave Pippa a much easier go of it on Monday morning, although I think it is much more Pippa's "special" way with Sam as opposed to Sam putting in a whole lot of effort. Tsk Tsk....if it was easy, it just wouldn't be Sam!

I have to rush off as my spirited little boy, amongst all his new-found abilities, has learned how to throw a "fake" tantrum by forcing out a really exaggerated type of cry/grunt/shriek...all because I refused to let him sit on my lap and press on the pc keyboard while I am trying to update his blog :)

You *have* to see it to believe it.....

For some time now, when Sam watches his Brainy Baby Numbers dvd, he will hold up which ever foam number they are speaking about at that moment. I have taken a video of this too, a while ago, but my near-hysterical exclamations of joy completely overpower the video so, in an attempt to preserve some element of self-respect, I decided not to post the video.

This afternoon while watching Sam carefully select his numbers I couldn't quite understand why, when he's done it correctly so many times before, he kept selecting the incorrect numbers. My first reaction was to try and correct him but it was only after the second "take" that I realised he was selecting his foam numbers, in the correct order of course, in advance before they actually appeared on the screen. My silence thereafter is a clear indication of how stunned I was.....it's a bit of a long video even though I did stop at number 5 (be sure to turn the volume up so you can hear which number is being counted on the dvd) :

To say that my little smurf blew me away today would be the understatement of the year...Brampies and I barely managed to control the tears when we began to fully comprehend the amazing blessing we'd experienced. How awesome is our God!!!!

A One-Smurf Band

I am becoming more and more concerned about our little man's absolute LOVE for tv, especially as he has taught himself how to turn the volume up using the buttons on the tv. Just this morning we had a war-of-the-fingers as I stood behind him with the remote and for every notch I turned the volume down, so he turned it up.The only, very slight, consolation is that he is only interested in watching singing/music or anything to do with numbers and counting. He has no interest in anything remotely cartooney anymore, not even Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which used to be his favourite.

One other not-too-bad aspect is that he has picked up a decent amount of knowledge from his music/number shows, coupled with our daily "lessons" on numbers, counting, colours, etc. (although he does seem to pay more attention to the tv lately and when I am sitting in front of him with whatever activity we are busy with at that moment, he will quite often look passed me and point to the tv - maybe I should make myself a cardboard frame to wear with some background music from a hidden iPod). Anyway, Sam quite often imitates what he sees on the tv especially on his Brainy Baby : Music dvd (as I've mentioned before, all the characters on the Brainy Baby dvd's are children which I think is actually what the attraction is for Sam). So, when the children are learning about musical instruments Sam is keen to participate....

Sam can find a rhythm in *anything* even something simple as running bathwater and, of course, anything remotely rhythmic calls for a serious amount of hand-flapping and head-shaking. He is awfully sweet, this little boy.

We finally got back into our OT routine yesterday and it felt good...well for me anyway. Whenever we are therapy-deprived I feel unsettled and anxious, like we are losing valuable time. I know, doesn't make sense, not even to me :) So it was great to see Nita and Pippa again yesterday, although with the latest surgery and sensory regression, even Pippa noted how defensive Sam is at the moment. It'll probably just take one or two more sessions before Sam's back to his old self again. Next week we've ST and a trip to the hand surgeon to add to our schedule as well and an utterly thrilling trip to the dentist for me, appointment no. 2 in yet another root canal process. I am keen to get Sam to a dentist soon too, although I don't see any obvious cavities or problems and he's quite okay with teeth brushing at the moment (surprisingly), has even taken to sticking his tongue out so I can brush that too. I guess with hair brushing, sensory brushing and teeth brushing he just figures ALL of him needs some type of brushing. I have noticed that his one little front tooth seems to be discolouring a little at the back so am thinking of having it checked out, but will wait until we've our orthopaedic appointment behind us before I subject Sam to any unnecessary trauma by adding another doc to our entourage.

We have had quite a long stretch as well since our last PT, but Sam and I still have our own PT session almost every day. He has gotten awfully cute with his PT exercises and when stretching his hams he does the leg exercises on his own and has even started lifting his own bum now...Heidi would *love* this, she tried at every session to get him to do this, but I am almost certain that if I had to try and coax him to do it during an actual PT session, Sam would just lie there like a ragdoll.

In the middle of typing this blog, I slipped out for my very first EVER Sam-less breakie with Aunty M, while Brampies stayed with Sam.....A-L-O-N-E! And, how do you know our Sam, he had to of course give Brampies a dirty nappy (Brampies' first EVER poo nappy...LOL). It was awesome to just sit back and indulge in some girly chatter while drinking a warm cappucino and munching on a muffin...thanks M xxx. And I got home to a perfectly calm little smurf and equally calm Brampies, with the only "oops" being that Sam has somehow managed to change our tv to black and white and I can't figure out how to fix it.

A short update on Sam's eating and sleeping (short because I am scared to jinx the good stuff) : Sam's appetite seems to have returned and/or his sudden aversion to pureed food has disappeared, whichever was the culprit. Sleeping is still a struggle with some really trying moments, like last night when it took two hours of trying to get him to sleep before eventually caving in and just going to lie with him in our bed. Oh, but at least he is eating again....thank the Lord!

Luvin' Reflux

We possibly just attended our shortest church service *ever*! Why,you may ask...because our v-wording smurf, just as our minister's daughter began giving her first ever testimony, refluxed up not only the bottle he'd just been drinking, but both his porridge and morning bottle as well.

Luvin' reflux right now *sigh* (especially as this was the first time in almost 2 months that Sam seemed healthy enough to attend!)

Ride for Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome

Well, it's confirmed...Chris and I have entered to ride in the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour being held on 11 March 2012. We would desperately love to be able to ride as a Charity Bond for RTS, which would mean we'd be featured on the official website and be able to purchase a stand at the Expo at a special rate, all in the hope of raising a greater awareness of Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome in South Africa.

The only slight drawback is that to enter as part of a Charity Bond you pay a R500.00 registration fee, as opposed to the normal R300.00 but there are a number of advantages of riding in the Bond, well worth the extra R200.00 in my opinion, being :

• A start time of no later than 08:45am (great news for "new riders" and especially for me as a first-time rider, as the latest starting time is 10:00am)
• A "special" goody bag
• A special area at registration for collection of race packs
•  The opportunity to support a good cause

In order to be able to ride as a Bond, we need to have confirmed a minimum of ten riders by 30th September 2011 and (at R500.00 per rider) be able to pay the R5,000.00 by that time as well. Thereafter, we have until 15 January 2012 to add riders to our Bond.

Yes, the thought of cycling 110km's is pretty daunting for some (or just plain scary for me), but the modus operandi from my side is to simply have heaps of fun, to get caught up in the excitement and anticipation of "getting ready" before the time...enough to actually make the 110km's within the allocated time...and of course doing all this while knowing I am doing something for my precious little smurf. So you need not be a veteran or even half-serious cyclist to join us. And to give you an idea of how challenging this is going to be for me....it took me half an hour to cycle 5km's on Wed! Yikes! Oh please let me finish in less than eleven hours :)

So come on, folks, we need to find just eight riders in fourteen days (Gee, that sounded a lot simpler in my head). For further details, email me at nicky.debeer@telkomsa.net

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday

Hurry! Hurry!

As I frantically switch the computer on, grabbing a bowl of cereal while it starts up (yes, it IS 11:38am already but it's the first chance I've had to have breakfast) I am already mentally typing my post in order to waste no time. You see, it has just taken forty minutes to get Protesting Smurf to sleep and I guarantee he will stay asleep for less than half of that.

So, a quick review of the past week....on Friday, as mentioned, we headed off to the paed with a temp, a cough and a snotty nose. Paed confirmed that Sam has croup...yet again. Started the oral cortisone and whammed him with a mighty dose of Pulmicort through the neb...

And when I say "mighty" it's no exaggeration, it took over forty-five minutes to completely neb the 8mls. We had to take a five minute break in between but, although he fought like crazy when we first started (as usual), eventually Sam settled down and just sat it through.

We've been having a really rough time getting Sam to eat. He was tolerating absolutely NO pureed food last week, not even porridge. In fact, there were two days where he ate practically nothing - thank goodness for Pedisure, which at least gives you peace of mind that he is getting some fragment of nutrition in. By Monday I was totally convinced there had to be a physical/medical reason for Sam's refusing to eat because at times he would open his mouth for a spoonful of food, but just not swallow it. He kept one mouthful in his mouth for over twenty MINUTES! He doesn't quite know how to spit the food out but eventually the food was reduced to nothing more than an orangey-slimey-glob and just sort of poured out of his mouth while he was crawling. So off we went to the GP on Monday, almost certain we were dealing with tonsilitis at the very least. The diagnosis? No tonsilitis, no weird obstructions in his throat preventing swallowing, no sores in his mouth...not even remotely red and/or swollen teething gums. Nothing except for a fairly mild ear infection and the persistent low-grade temp. (Did you gasp when you read "ear infection" and wonder to yourself why, if Sam has had continuous problems with his ears for the last four months, was under anaesthetic for another ENT procedure AND all the equipment to insert grommets/tubes had been rushed to the theatre moments before Sam's op because Dr S was so certain Sam would need gromments - why they weren't put in? I, along with several other doctors, have found ourselves wondering the exact same thing!)

So off we went on Monday afternoon, with another antibiotic but still completely baffled as to why Sam was not eating. Over the past couple of months I have slowly being introducing small amounts of "normal" food into Sam's diet, largely because I could see he was quickly becoming bored with purity especially because he is so incredibly fussy and eats only a tiny variety. So on Tuesday I thought that this HAS to be the problem...Sam wants to eat "normal" food all the time. I made him a bowl of instant noodles (cooked to almost a pulp, of course) and he ate it. I thought "Yay! Problem solved. My little smurf is just growing up!" 

As if it could possibly be that easy!

On Tuesday we decided to make a last minute reservation for Goudini Spa. Sam's croup seemed to be gone, he had been in better spirits on Tuesday morning and after our lunchtime success we were all feeling a little more positive. Meghan left on Wednesday morning for her very first school camp, it was a very stressful couple of weeks leading up to Wednesday as she is very much a "homely" little girl and not always comfortable spending time away from home. It would be first time she would be sleeping out of the house in a good couple of years. After a rather teary farewell (on both her's and my part) on Wednesday, we packed up and headed off for Goudini. Although Sam's eating victory was short-lived and we were back to almost force-feeding him by Thursday, the rest of our little "vacation" was awesome. The resort was a little busier than we expected, just enough to feel like we weren't alone but peaceful enough to just do what we wanted, when we wanted.

Of course we went prepared and packed Sam's dvd player in so that he didn't have to miss out on three day's of number counting!

The outside rock pool (exclusive to our little circle of bungalows) was literally a stone's throw away from our patio. On Wednesday afternoon it was warm enough outside just to make do with this pool, but by Thursday morning strong winds had set in and after some afternoon drizzling, we resorted to the undercover pool.

Sam *LOVED* the warmwater pools (there's a little video of him at the end of the post)!

Just taking it easy on Saturday......

And so, for our next really REALLY big news....Sam has an iPad! The topic of Sam's communication capabilities, or lack thereof, has been one of the main topics in our home lately. Although at one point Sam seemed to show some aptitude towards signing, we have stagnated and he makes very little effort now with this at all. He can, to an extent, communicate certain things to us by either gesturing with his hand or actually physically taking our hand and, say, putting it on a book he wants us to read. Also, as with many of Sam's RTS brothers and sisters, Sam's receptive language is excellent. He almost daily takes us by surprise by understanding things we say to him, or even to each other. There was a time when Sam did do some baby-babbling, but he hasn't done that in months and now most of his verbal language consists of grunts or a really lovely kind of sing-songing! Of course our heart's desire is that Sam will talk one day, but we need to be realistic as well and make all possible resources available to him which might make it possible for him to communicate with us. Speech has also been a regular topic on the RTS listserve recently, which couldn't have come at a better time, and one comment I read which stays in my mind and was a definining moment for me was this one (hope you don't mind Kristi) :

"Even though it's not Noah's actual voice on his I pad it is still his thoughts. So to me it IS his voice."

So Chris and I chatted...and chatted....and chatted some more. We decided that Sam will undoubtedly benefit from the the iPad, even if he is not able to fully utilise it from the beginning, and the knowledge that a large number of Sam's RTS brothers and sisters rely very much on their iPads for communication pretty much had us convinced this is the way we want to go. Our only concern and obstacle was the price of the iPad. And that's round about when Sam's precious Aunty Anthea stepped in. As a mom of two special needs girls and being extremely passionate about giving non-verbal children a voice, Aunty Anthea was desperate for Sam to have the iPad and so contributed a large portion of the cost thereof as an awesome, totally unexpected, hugely appreciated gift to our Sam! How amazing is that? We can never thank you enough, Aunty Anthea, or fully express how grateful we are to you for making this possible for us and for Sam of course xxx

So, we are slowly introducing iPadding Smurf to this lovely new device. We have looked at a couple of communication applications so far as well as some fun apps for Sam. I am hoping to make an appointment with the ST before the end of the week so that we can also have a professional input as well...but it is soooooooooooo exciting!

In closing, a videa of Sam in the warm pool at Goudini. Just before I picked up the camera, he was acting like a crazy loon...squealing and so on, but decided "less is more" by the time I pressed "record".



P.S. Sam has now been asleep for 1hr57mins.....that's the longest sleep in over a week....WHOOP! WHOOP!

Bit of an unfair trade :(

We have had to trade our much anticipated three day's of hot pool swimming, relaxing and just having a much-needed break next week for a visit with Sam's paed at 12:00 today instead, thanks to increased coughing, gagging, a blocked nose and now a temp as well. 

Is there a more descriptive, expressive word for *FRUSTRATED*?

If there is.....that's how I'm feeling!

Oh Happy Days! (Wish I could get that song out of my head...especially as those are the only three words I know! I just might have finally lost "it", folks). Oh Happy Days!

Tuesday's post........now Wednesday's post......Oh please let's manage Thursday

You know what they say, third time lucky - so here's hoping my third attempt at publishing this post actually makes it. On Tuesday I downloaded the pics and started adding my comments but our little smurf, even more niggly than usual thanks to the onset of something viral or pneumonial...or both....was not having any of it. Tried again on Wednesday morning, no luck. Decided by Wednesday afternoon to at least just post the pics under the heading "Wordless Wednesday" but the second I settled down at the desk, two desperately-pleading blue eyes planted themselves at my feet, completely irresistable of course. So I picked our little man up and sat him on my lap, thinking I could surely manage to open the blog, go to edit posts and press "publish post", right? Wrong (again)! Ten little fingers reached instantly for the keyboard, so I pushed it as far away as what my short arms would allow only to find two little hands trying mightily to remove dad's speakers from the hard drive. Aborted Project Posting-with-Smurf-on-lap!

So I am determined to post something today so if I find myself having to stop mid-sentence, please understand :) 

We have regressed to where we were several months ago with trying to get Sam to sleep, now both during the day and the evenings. Walking/shushing him only lasts as long as he's in my arms, the second I lay him down he's instantly awake. This morning was no different, walked up and down with him for over 20 mins, laid him down and there it was. So, after an exhausting couple of weeks now, this morning I decided just to leave him in his cot to sob a little before picking him up. It's not that easy a task because of the ever-present threat of him v-wording if he cries too much and also because his wheezing and coughing does have me a little worried. Nevertheless, I settled him down, covered him with his blanket again (which he promptly kicked off) and left the room. Twenty-five minutes later, after much protesting, kicking and crying, he fell asleep and I thought WOO HOO! And now, sixteen minutes after THAT (in other words - as I sit here typing this), I can hear him moaning in his cot. Was it worth it? Absolutely NOT! My goodness....what am I going to do :(

Well up until Sam's getting sick a couple of days ago, he was doing heaps better with regards to recovering from his surgery and (as seen in the pics below) was even settling down into his usual playful and joyful self, so much so that Chris and I have been contemplating a little three-day trip next week. Meg is scheduled to go on a her first ever school camp on Wednesday so we thought, just in case, we would book into a nearby resort and enjoy the, hopefully, mid-week peacefulness there while ensuring we are closeby to Meg should she not last the entire three days away. However, with Sam being sick now we will more than likely have to cancel our plans as being in and out of the warmwater pools will probably just leave us spending three days in hospital as well. It was kinda exciting entertaining the thought of taking a break :)

In closing, some comment-less pics, whilst I go attend to Wide-Awake Smurf...
*sigh* 

Pondering.....................

Sam had his two week post-op appointment yesterday afternoon. We sat in the waiting room for almost three times the length of time our actual consultation took. Fear not though...the consultation took less than ten minutes so the thirty minutes spent waiting was nowhere near catastrophic (we've endured almost twice as long sometimes), however it was the rather hostile ambience in the waiting room that made it slightly unpleasant. We were met with a rather dismissive nod of the head and a barely audible something-resembling-a-greeting/acknowledgement of presence. (Just a quick ponder - when one decides to take on a position as a medical practitioner's receptionist, you do surely take into account that said position will entail considerable interaction with people, right?).

With an already anxious knot in my stomach over Sam's questionable behaviour, especially in public, I was relieved to find the waiting room empty. However, literally before I had a chance to sit down an additional six people came in - a mom with three kiddies in tow and another mom with just the one little boy. The kids all promptly grabbed themselves a book from the bookcase and settled down, with the exception of one little girl who after throwing a rather entertaining tantrum when mom refused to surrender her mag in order to read her little girl a story, came and sat down next to us in a bit of a sulk. By this time I had already read through the only two books I had managed to grab out of the car on the way in, but which books Sam was already throwing down on the floor from frustration and boredom. Sam started squirming and throwing himself back and I prepared myself for the almost inevitable smack in the face. In an effort to distract him, I grabbed my cellphone and quickly started the video of Meg singing "Wheels on the Bus" to Sam. Just as I did this, an elderly lady came out of the consultation room and, as we sat right up against the reception's desk, came and stood right next to us. She glanced at me, holding my phone in front of Sam...at the little girl next to me, also "bookless" (obviously presuming that she belonged to me as her mom sat across the room with her siblings) and then at the other children who were all sitting reading quietly. She looked back at me and with a smug-type chuckle said "I never thought I'd see the day when you could entertain a child with a cellphone" and then to the little girl next to me "There's lots of books on the shelf for you to read" whereafter she shared a brief roll of the eyes with the mom of the one little boy, before leaving. (The mom of three kept her eyes glued to the Kate & Will article she was apparently completely engrossed in). (Just a quick ponder - at what point does any individual feel that they are *that* perfect a human being and just *that* perceptive that they should have no qualms about commenting on complete strangers' children...whether it be regarding behaviour, appearance, development, etc?).  Here's building the bridge and moving on to the actual consultation which was relatively unremarkable.

Unremarkable is anything but what my own ENT appointment was this morning. It turns out that there's fairly good reason for the constant throbbing and general stuffiness of my left nasal passage...that reason being that our "Rocky Balboa wannabe" has managed to cause some serious internal swelling to my nose, as well as appearing to have dislodged my newly-septoplastied cartilage. How awesome is that? I know Sam and I are close and all but did he really feel it necessary for us both to have repetitive surgeries! Hopefully though the current swelling will go down enough for us to find at my next follow-up that things aren't as gloomy as they seemed today, possibly avoiding a retake.

Over the past couple of days I have read several posts/FB chats about a number of RTS sweeties who have taken a liking to hair pulling and/or biting and the general feel seems to be that a frustration at not being able to communicate properly is largely responsible.  Apart from the discussions reminding us that many RTS families are going/have gone through similar challenges, it also got us thinking about whether lack of communication could be contributing to Sam's behaviour as well. So we are seriously contemplating buying Sam an iPad. Yes, we know that he might appear to be too young to use it, but let us take into account that he not only knows that the remote control manipulates the PVR, but can also stop and start video's on my cellphone. We are not completely decided yet, especially as an iPad is a fairly pricey little device (well for us at least) but if there's even the slightest chance that it might aid Sam's communication I think it most certainly deserves a really good think.

(Just a quick ponder - if our friendly waiting-room-consultant was so horribly taken aback at Sam's operating my cellphone, imagine her utter disapproval had it been an iPad.

Happy Days :)

Perhaps "Happy Days" is a tad too extreme in the midst of Sam's slow recovery and the ever increasing SID (which resulted in Sam's much anticipated "first" bath in seven days being reduced to little more than a clingy, whiney, petrified ten minutes). Still, the Happy Dance is most certainly what I felt like doing when leaving the hospital yesterday morning after our urology consultation.

The first ten minutes started off a little shakey when Sam started crying as the dressings were being taken off (can hardly blame him though, the skin under the dressings had turned a rather angry red) and for a split-second it looked like we'd be doing some v-word cleaning up right there and then. But my super-brave little smurf pulled it together and before you could say "vomit be gone" it was all over. Even though it was already the second time I've seen the wounds, the length of each still startled me initially and of course the right side, having been subjected to a far more aggressive surgery, is still relatively swollen and bulgey.

So, the good news...is that we can wait up to as long as eighteen months to two years before we need to open up the right side to go remedy the halfway-relocated testicle. And it gets even better yet - as the left testicle is securely embedded where it's meant to be and as only one testicle is really necessary to ensure adequate hormone production when Sam hits puberty, Dr J advised that it would be quite okay for us to simply remove the right testicle when the time comes as opposed to having to put Sam through this entire ordeal again. I was *SO* relieved to hear that, that I could have skywritten "YAY" with my immensely long sigh of relief  :)

We have an appointment with Sam's hand surgeon next month to make sure that his thumbs have not started angulating again and also to figure out what's going on with five of the remaining eight fingers which fingers are currently unable to be straightened/flattened. At this point it appears as though it might be a problem with his tendons being too taut, but we'll confirm this then as well as to what intervention is required. Should surgical intervention be the only option (which is how it looks right now) I am most definitely going to request that we prolong it as much as possible but trying to avoid permanent damage to the fingers is obviously also vital. It would be so amazing if it turns out that we could get away with the next twelve to eighteen months (at the very least) being completely surgery-free, after which we could perhaps consider doing the fingers and remaining teste together. After yesterday's surprisingly optimistic appointment though I can just see us leaving Dr C's rooms next month with a completely surgery-free remedy for Sam's little fingers. Here's praying :)

The only slightly downside to yesterday's events was that Sam's basic allergy tests came back negative for food products and external allergens but with raised igE levels (immunoglobulin E). For this specific purpose, a more detailed blood test was requested but unfortunately not enough blood was drawn during surgery to carry out the further tests so once Sam is feeling a little less traumatised, we will have to see about drawing some more blood. Sounds fairly simple, right? Well, if you'd been in that ward on Friday watching the pathologists desperately trying to find one of Sam's extremely elusive veins you would understand how much of a challenge this could turn out to be :)  For now, we're just putting this thought out of our minds and taking it day-by-day...in between trying to sidestep Sam's still ongoing target practice, with my face being the bull's eye! *Oh Happy Days....Oh Happy Days*

A little too familiar......

Okay, so we are on post-op Day no. 5 and already the all too familiar signs of the sensory trauma Sam experienced with his TSC surgery are here. The only difference? They've showed up so much sooner and with equal, if not elevating, intensity. Which effectively means we have had to accept back into our lives the relentless startling/Moro when moving or basically handling Sam or just putting him down to sit on the floor, the struggle to get him to eat and...joy of joys....the waking up crying every night. I am also struggling to control his pain effectively as suppositories are officially a no-no as from last night, due to the obvious discomfort he experiences when putting it in and the alternative option prescribed, being Myprodol suspension, makes him cough, gag and ultimately v-word so we are relying solely on 3-hourly, alternating doses of Ponstan and Panado for total pain relief - certainly not the most optimal solution. Yesterday definitely seems to have been Sam's worst day so far. In addition to his slightly-off wellbeing at the moment he seems to be holding me personally responsible for his whole ordeal. Quite a hectic statement to make, for sure...but what other assumption can I make taking his sudden obsession with smacking me in the face, more often than not square on my barely five-week-old post-surgery nose. I mean, I can certainly relate to his wanting to see more of my ENT...she really is THAT lovely a person...but there has to be another way to go about it :-D
I am trying really hard not to keep replaying the events of Friday over in my mind, but it's quite difficult when I think of all the "small" changes that could have been made which in turn would have resulted in HUGE improvements in the way everything played out. But a lesson or two has been harshly learnt in that I have had to realise I am nowhere near as assertive as I thought I was when it comes to advocating for Sam's care and that both Chris and I are sometimes so afraid of upsetting others, that it obscures our vision of ALWAYS ensuring that we act in Samuel's best interest first, regardless of whatever bad feelings might need to be dealt with as a consequence.

But, thank the Lord, tomorrow is a new day! I am going to write the remainder of this day off due to the already immense amount of time wasted on dwelling on my "what if's" and "should have's" and the potential number of "what if's" and "should have's" I am bound to dredge up before the end of the day (Oh...indulge me a little!). I am anxious to get to our follow-up appointment with the urologist tomorrow at 10:00am to find out for sure what, if any, other alternatives there are to having to put Sam through this again in Feb. I have read that there's a medication that could be used to bring the remaining teste down (although not sure if this is an option here in SA) or really kinda loved Aunty A's suggestion that we rely on faith to bring it down..but alas, I forgot that Dr J mentioned that in order to avoid the right teste from moving back up again before continuing the process, as the left one did, they have secured it to a blood vessel which I am sure would also prevent it from moving down.

In closing, some pics of our little conquering smurf....

On Saturday morning we were still under the silly disillusion that keeping Sam in bed the ENTIRE day might be an actual possibility. And Sam, being the ever compliant little babe that he his (?) decided to play along with some "fake" sleeping.

By Sunday Sam was determined to be more mobile and, as we were still doing suppositories then and had already been told by his urologist that a little crawling won't do any damage, we decided to give him some freedom. He did look frightfully "out of it' though...

...and just seemed to wander around in a bit of a daze at first.

It was't long before Sam found his favourite First Baby Words Book and wasted no time in finding one of his favourite pictures - the kitty. And talking about kittie's...our two are quite baffled, but certainly not ungrateful, for the few day's grace they've had from our tail-pulling little smurf.

Anyway, it wasn't long before simply paging through his book became too dreary and was quickly turned into some smurfskiing.....

On Monday it was Miley's turn to go for a spin!

Sam is fascinated with any picture of a person's face (particularly if it happens to be a female face)



"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope."

Romans 15:13



And surgery No. 4 already on countdown..

It's a little over twenty-four hours since Sam came out of theatre after having his adenoids removed and, more importantly, his undescended testes brought down...or should I say, partially brought down. My source of reassurance over the past couple of weeks building up to yesterday's surgery was that if we could get through Sam's TSC surgery, we could pretty much get through anything, right?

Wrong! The day started off badly with us misjudging the morning traffic into town so we arrived almost 40 mins late, then instead of the original one-and-a-half hours guestimated surgery time, Sam was under for an extra hour and eventually came out of theatre just before 11am, after going in at 7:45. And obviously there had to be a reason for the extra time, which reason could only be a complication. The complication - Sam's right testicle was sitting too high up for them to bring it all the way down in one go without damaging the blood vessel which would in turn cause the testicle to shrivel up and die. So instead the teste has been brought partially down and attached to a blood vessel to kind of hold it in place for six month's, when the urologist will have to go in again to try and finish the process. As if that wasn't devastating enough, for the first time Sam really battled to come out of the anaesthetic and the nursing staff were less than attentive (even though we were in high care) and at one stage left Sam screaming for 45 mins and only came to check on us after he'd thrown up. Sam seems to have been more traumatised this time than with the TSC surgery. He is in full sensory overload at the moment, we can hardly touch or move him without him startling or crying, even tho he's on the same painmeds as the last time, which pain meds had him doing all kinds of acrobatics regardless of the long cut in his back. Disappointment and anxiety are setting the mood at the moment, having to accept that Sam has to go through this all again so soon :(

There is one thing though that does lift the spirits and that is once again the number of messages, well wishes we've received and genuine concern shown from good friends and family, among others from Monique, Henriette, Sara, Laura, Ina, Rone, Aunty Bernie, Elaine and especially Aunty Mandie, Aunty Cammy, Granny, Brampies and Aunty Anthea and precious cousin Amy...thank you so much for keeping us and, more importantly, little smurf in your thoughts...xxx

"Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you
in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who
would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what."

But Mom...I just LUV her!

Mom [wondering why Sam is so quiet] : What you doing, Sammy?



Sam [smiling innocently] : Nah, nothing Ma...you know, just hanging around and stuff!

As soon as Mom turns her head (or so Sam thinks), he focuses again on the object of his attention, with a grin so mischievous it's even apparent from behind...while humming softly to himself "A hunting we will go....."

Okay...so first we try lift up this leg... 

Or maybe it's THIS leg... 

No! No! It MUST be this leg then... 

Oh..COME ON! I am soooooo close.

And what, may we ask little smurf, might have you so determined to climb up on the chair?

Why, the kitty, of course! Oh please, Mom, don't just sit there giggling while I struggle so. I PROMISE not to grab her by the tail as I *ALWAYS* do. I just LUV my kitty so much. Please? 

Seriously? You're just gonna sit there?  

Well, who can say "No" to such a desperate little face? So, I lifted Sam up onto the chair and guided his hand to softly touch our Belle Kitty, but the second I let go of his hand, what do you think he did?

Promptly grabbed her by the tail and tried to lift her up, as always. Anyone have any great ideas/suggestions for somehow showing a predominantly non-communicative smurf how to gently deal with animals? Sigh.

Trying to climb up on chairs is not the only thing our busy little boy has been up to. In keeping with his obsession with knocking and banging, he has found the closing of Oupa's newly made safety gate to be extremely entertaining. And will go to any lengths, literally, to slam it...again...and again...and again! And, if we refuse to indulge him, he'll jolly well try and do it himself. 

What a busy little boy....a gloriously and thankfully busy little boy!

So.......6 sleeps till Sam's surgeries! Let the nerves begin. *Double Sigh!*

Sam luvin' Bruno Mars....

Surrendering normal and finding celebration....

Somewhere, amidst the now daily chaos that is trying to keep an extremely close eye on an ever increasingly mobile smurf while scheduling and confirming details for his upcoming surgery (Oh My! That reminds me - I haven't forwarded the authorisation numbers through yet!) and not forgetting the "normal" mundane tasks of housekeeping and taking care of kids, I vaguely recall a different time...what seems like just a distant memory now...of a friend, confidante, lifter-of-my-spirits. I can't always conjure up her image in my mind - it's just been far too long, but I'll never forget the joy of our times together. While rushing to catch a falling-off-the-couch smurf this morning, something caught the corner of my eye. My heart fluttered...could it be? My heart willed me - go ahead, look. It has to be her. My heart cautioned - but what if it isn't? Why put yourself through the disappointment?

My heart always overpowers my mind - and so I turned...the overwhelming emotion of laying my eyes on her created a lump in my throat as I stumbled over words, trying to utter her name as she stood there in all her glory -

BLOG POST CREATOR!

Or BPC as I lovingly refer to her. And what do you know - there on her screen, in equal radiance and beauty, was a picture of the lovely little being solely (well, almost) responsible for the lack of blog posting. Awwwhhhhh...but can you blame me? Isn't he just the most adorable little treasure? (Okay, so I am just a little biased...but indulge me, okay?)

Our little smurf is all over the place, crawling at the speed of lightening (which speed is daily honed by his unrelentless desire to catch the kitties) and THIS statement is made with little bias as, while standing in the paed's office last week, Sam covered the entire distance of the waiting room floor in a split second to get to the little girl standing on the other side, making her mom exclaim how fast he crawls. He has a habit of pulling his peers down to the floor, not out of nastiness but purely to bring to them down to his level. So when he saw this blonde hair, blue-eyed little beauty standing with her blankie on the far side of the room his little hands and knees motored across that floor with amusing "shimmying" and speed. Not only has he mastered crawling, he is now pulling himself up on everything and then quite confidently pulls himself along the length of whatever he's holding onto. As if all of that is not enough, Sam now crawls up the stairs and then tries to turn himself around to crawl back down again - this he has not yet mastered though and usually starts whimpering when he realises he's stuck.

The smurfskiing is going well and Sam is experimenting with all different kinds of equipment, from stacking cups to his Barney bus! His view is - if I can fit it under my hand, I can smurfskii with it! I bet if he could keep either one of the kitties still for half a second he'd try using them as a smurfskii-board. I am sure we'll have more pics on this topic soon....

Sam clapping for himself when I exclaimed how well he was balancing. He never misses an opportunity to applaude his own achievements, just in case we're a little too slow.

Almost daily I spend a good few instances in awe at just how intelligent this little boy is. Do you know that if you surrender all pre-conceived notions of "normal", you can find something to celebrate and appreciate in almost every aspect of your life? A perfect example - for months now I have been posting about (and, honestly) sometimes complaining about the fact that Sam is quite severely attached to me...which means he struggles to take a bottle or food from anyone else and plain and simply bursts into tears if either I leave the room or if, say, my Dad is holding him and leaves the room with Sam. Two of the more challenging issues are that he cannot be consoled by anyone else if he is upset and, perhaps the most trying, cannot be put to sleep by anyone else.Somehow that night that I stayed in hospital a couple of weeks ago, Sam knew that I was not there - that he had to be okay with being taken care of by someone else. But since then, even if we try and "wean" him off me in the evening by me trying to "fade off into the background" about half an hour before his bedtime, so that Chris can get Sam off to sleep, he just somehow knows that I am there and will cry and, ultimately, v-word until I come and take-over.

What is there to celebrate in this? Well, up until a couple of days ago, I thought it more a task than anything else. And then, on the RTS listserv, started reading mails from several RTS moms about
the heartbreaking emotions they endure when their own little RTS sweeties either fail to or have taken considerably longer to "recognise" them as their mamma's. I started e-mailing the listserv to share how super attached Sam is and also how affectionate he can be (when he's not giving me attitude). I decided not to send my thoughts though because I can only imagine how I would feel if the tables were turned and it would probably break my heart just a little bit more. So instead, I will cherish and savour each moment that Sam protests against him and I being separated and thank the Lord for how truly blessed we are.

Kindly Note : The author hereof reserves the right to amend this post/statement at any time, without notice, should exhaustion and severe backpain begin to cloud her judgement. Thank you.

Talking about attitude - on Tuesday Sam, Chris and I were lying on the bed and Sam was trying to get Chris and I to knock on the headboard for him. It being the end of a rather long day with me trying to do a painkiller-free day since the op, I was not particularly up to lying and knocking on the headboard (horror of horrors!) so instead folded my arms underneath me so that Sam would hopefully stop trying to pull them over to knock. Sam stopped, looked at Chris (knocking frantically to keep Sam happy), looked at me...took a step forwarded and bashed me straight on the nose! My warped idea of how to find something to celebrate in this? That this little mite of a human being is prepared to stand up and fight for what he believes he truly deserves....which in this case was plain and simple obedience.Okay, it took a couple of tears (mine, not Sam's), some tissues to stop my bleeding nose and a couple of days to work through the whole process to get to this point, but at least I'm here :)

So, Sam's surgery is scheduled for 12 August at 8:00am...beginning first with his annual glaucoma examination, then the removing of his adenoids and lastly the process to rectify his undescended testes. It looks like we might get away with coming home the same day but will probably discuss this further closer to the time or, rather, on the day.

In closing : I captured THE most awesome video of Sam jamming to Bruno Mars, but with Sam's ever exploring fingers of anything remotely technical (cellphones, remotes, keyboards, etc) he has somehow deactived my phone's facility to download pics/video's to the pc. I am devastated - to the point that I am going to take my phone in to my service provider tomorrow to ask them how to remedy this, so here's hoping there'll be a post on Sam's blog tomorrow, headed : Sam Luvin' Bruno Mars

A Merry Martyr

Don't you love how "casual" dads are about taking care of the kids? How they shrug off our, seemingly, feigned exhaustion at the end of each day because when THEY take care of the kids it's just no fuss at all? Well of course it ain't, because if I could spend the entire day just playing with Sam without having to constantly ensure it's constructive, stimulated play, without having to tidy the house, make the beds, wash bottles, make up a day's formula, drop and fetch the other kids from school, do the washing, etc etc....I would also end each day with a smile and a load of energy to boot!

Still, it was a huge relief to hear that Monday night had gone smoothly with none of the usual hysteria that has become synonymous with Chris putting Sam to bed. Such a relief in fact that I decided to take full advantage of Chris' eagerness to see to Sam for the next couple of days and, in anticipation, had pvr'd a good couple of movies I'd been wanting to watch over the past month or twelve, as well as stocking up on some mags to keep me occupied in between my intended movie marathon while seeing my recovery out in bed! Aaaahhh....the joy of disillusionment. I got home from the hospital just past 11am on Tuesday, made my way to the bedroom...do not look in the kitchen...do not look in the bathroom...do not pass Begin, go straight to jail...uhm, I mean, bed! Do not be THAT Mom, I told myself. The kind of mom that is desperate for some rest but when eventually presented with the opportunity to take it (even if it takes a surgery to get to that point), lets guilt and imagined (hopefully) expectations get the better of her. You know the kind, I think they also go by the name of merry martyr...LOL! By Tuesday evening I had washed Sam's bottles, made his formula, put on the dirty laundry and fed Sam. Do I regret it? Of course! I have now either contracted flu or something similar as I have a sore throat, headache, temp, earache and possibly the most entertaining - continuous sneezing which in turn means continuous nosebleeds. Oh Joy! I am sure at least one full day's rest would have made the world of difference but as I, defeated, removed my pvr'd movies from the playlist and placed my unread mags on the bookshelf I had to admit that I have only myself to blame. Sigh! (Although having Papa Smurf demand that I stay in bed might have done the trick - just a thought for when my tonsils come, C).

As for the procedure itself - all went well or as well as it can go with 10cm+ plugs stuck in your nose and sinus cavity and equally long splints sewn into your nostrils. Thankfully the last sinus plug came out on Thursday and the splints on Monday evening. Those first few breaths of air were AMAZING! I even told Chris it felt like I was breathing in too much oxygen at a time for my lungs to cope with...LOL! (Of course that was over a week ago before I got sick) My post-op nose is still a bit tender and raw but the overall experience was not unpleasant, largely thanks to having a truly compassionate and caring ENT!

Daddy Daycare

So what was all the fuss about. ON Monday Morning, Nicky said goodbye, I wanted to take her but we were not sure how Sam would take the goodbye at the hospital.Soooo, Sam slept till 8am, woke up with a smile and spent 10 mins talking to me, uuugh cooo aaaa etc and then it hit me, the bottle is not going to walk into the room by itself.

I put Sam in his cot and made sure the sides were up, and ran to the Kitchen, had a quick look at the thesis on the fridge door left there during the night by the Sam fairy,distant cousin of the tooth fairy. REALISED that I'm running 45mins late with Sam's Day plan,but hey Sam's not complaining. The list did help, Sam had every bottle and meal on his menu. Sam even managed to give me not on but two dirty nappies, and they were more than just wet, they had stuff in it.

Sam was just great, he ate and drank everything that was given to him (as per the list). He played, watched TV and did not cry once. OK he cried once, but it was not my fault, I told him not to ride his bike on top of the dining room table.......

Then Brampa and Mommy happened, when visiting Mom in hospital, I got all the suggestions, Maybe Brampa must sleep on a mattress in the room, just in case I don't wake up. We settled on Brampa sleeping in Luke's room and Luke slept in front of the TV. Bramps got up every 45 mins to check on us, but we were just great. I made use of my Dad SuperPowers and was aware of almost ever move Sam made. Sam made sure of it, I had a hand/head/feet in/on/bumped/slapped/kicked my face/ribs/arm the whole night. knew exactly what Sam was doing and were he was. So much for Nicky thinking that I will not wake up for him.

Day 2..... repeat most of Day 1. added we went to fetch Nicky from the hospital and to her surprise Sam was fine, still not sure why she was worried.

But on a Sad note... Nicky does look very sore or as they say in my world "vrek eina" , so I will have some more time to spend with SAM, bring it on, I had fun spending so much time with my little guy.

Sound like a plan?

Do you know where we were this time, two years ago? We were struggling the most wicked frustrations as Sam's "real" due date, the 8th July, came and went and we were still sitting in hospital after eight weeks with the last week being ventilator-free and the only thing keeping us there being Sam's inability to drink. I remember losing my cool with the nursing staff almost every single day towards the end, when they would do things which I thought were delaying our progress with trying to get Sam to drink, things like giving him a bath just before I arrived to try and breastfeed which of course meant a super sleepy smurf (funny how now a bath seems to re-energise him instead) or when I arrived one morning to find a temp nurse had moved his NG tube from his nose to his mouth!!! Yip - that's sure going to encourage him to swallow! Poor old Dr A...I phoned him every day with one complaint or another. The following Monday I went into his office to complain that, yet again, the NG tube had been put in his mouth. He said "Do you know what Sam the Man needs? He needs to go home!" (He always called Sam, "Sam the Man"). He asked if I was confident enough to go home with the NG tube...I said OF COURSE (have been asked this sort of question a number of times by now). I am not really sure if he was acting in Sam's best interests or his own, in an attempt to avoid any further whining on my part, but does it really matter? Sam was scheduled for an eye examination on the Tuesday and he said that if all went well we could go home within a day or two after that. That very Wednesday as I walked into NICU the nurses met me with huge smiles and asked if I would like to take Sam home...THAT day! The usual protocol was that the night before taking a preemie home the mom had to do a sleep-in, which I obviously hadn't done. I was too scared to ask about it in case this step had been overlooked and by asking I in turn delayed our leaving by another day. Eventually good sense prevailed but I was overjoyed to hear that Dr A had said he was confident I would cope with Sam and needn't do the sleep-in. I quickly phoned Chris and asked if he could leave work, rushed home to get Sam's never-yet-been-used carseat and rushed back to the hospital...just in case Sam's paed changed his mind. Did a couple of really quick practice rounds in front of the nurses for inserting NG tubes and we were off! It was the 15th July, exactly two months since Sam's birth.

WOW! I remember every minute of that day...what Sam was wearing, what I was wearing (okay, this one isn't too difficult because I only had two outfits I could fit into in my post-pregnancy state)...what a thoroughly glorious day! Our little smurf has accomplished so much in these past two years, he has such an incredible personality, so many gorgeous little smurf-erisms, the most enchanting charm...I love him with all my being. Oh, please don't misunderstand, I love all three of my children so and cherish each and every one of them for their own unique characters and spirits. But, as I am sure all SN parents can relate - seeing such a fragile little being struggle so hard to simply stay alive and then struggle to achieve and master abilities and accomplishments we generally take for granted, twinges that love with just a little extra admiration, a little extra awareness and a whole lotta AWE!

One of the blessings so often taken for granted is communication. Although I would absolutely love for Sam to be able to speak to us "normally", especially at times when he is ill and we are struggling to pinpoint the problem, I have always quite appreciated his ability to largely communicate to us what he wants by using different tones with his Sam-glish, his own hand gestures or, more commonly now, taking our hands and deliberately placing it on something he wants or wants us to manipulate, eg. the tv remote control, a book he wants us to read, etc. The past week or so I have really felt, unhappily so, the blatant absence of proper communication with Sam. You see, as mentioned previously, Sam is going through a particular bad case of separation anxiety. If there is enough distraction, it is occasionally overcome, but mostly not. Also mentioned previously, I am going in on Monday morning for procedures on my sinuses and nose. I have been incredibly stressed about this operation, purely out of worrying about Sam and how he is going to be, particularly because I have to stay overnight. (I asked my ENT if we could postpone the tonsillectomy for another time because I can't possibly manage a five/six day "downtime" and was sort of hoping it would mean that I could then come home on Monday afternoon already...but alas not). I am not sure if Sam has picked up on my being extra anxious the past few days but his separation issues have reached newly aggressive heights...the kind which calls for antics such as leopard-crawling through rooms, behind couches, so that he doesn't see me when Chris has managed to momentarily distract him, or doing amusing monkey-like acrobatics over beds in an effort to sneak past him by trying to silently scale the bed as opposed to having him spot me walking by. As humourous as what it is recalling these episodes now (probably some of those you-had-to-be-there moments), it is heart-breaking not being able to explain to him why I am not going to be there when he wakes up on Monday morning or when he goes to sleep on Monday evening and for the twelve/thirteen hours in between. Because of how hysterical he becomes when, for instance, Chris takes him from me just so I can quickly eat a plate of food or something equally trivial, means that we have had to reconsider Chris bringing Sam to see me at all on Monday.  I know that perhaps this all might seem a fairly silly challenge to some, especially as I am only going to be away for one night...but you need to personally know our Sam to know how upset and inconsoleable he can become.

We've tried to concoct all sort of plans to remedy Monday's overnight stay, ie. Chris brings Sam to the morning visiting hours, Sam screams hysterically when leaving, resulting in huge amounts of v-wording all over the ward, etc. At the afternoon visit : repeat above procedure (perhaps more elaborately) but add that Chris loudly announces when leaving "Sam and I will see you tonight then!". With any luck all the patients and nurses witness to these episodes will plead my case on my behalf by telling Dr N that I DESPERATELY need to go home! Think it'll work? Nah, me neither. The only thing I can hope for now, other than a miraculous healing of my URT by Sunday, is that I am in so much pain after the op that it completely distracts me from worrying about Sam. A bit warped, I know...but desperate times folks...desperate times!

Time for a subject change before I manage to think up something even more absurd en lieu of a cancellation rather. (Oh please - don't let anything GENUINELY happen to cause me to cancel, in case everyone thinks it's something I planned).

On Wednesday Sam had a Prevenar booster shot which will hopefully strengthen his immune system throughout the remainder of Winter (Hugs & Kisses and a great big THANK YOU to Aunty 'Laine). Yesterday we had a follow up with Dr dT - OP for back, hips, knees, etc. Sam's hip x-rays came back beautiful, even though Dr dT gave us a bit of a startle when he started the conversation with :

Dr dT :  So...do you want the GOOD news or the.....

Me & Brampies : Huh?
{Brampies and I look at each other in despair} 
There's a choice? Why's there a choice? What could possibly be wrong? Oh No! What do I ask for first? Good or Bad?

Dr dT :  ...the GOOD news!

Me & Brampies : Okay, what'll it be? Good news or bad news? {Cogs start shifting the gears of our     minds into action....Dr dT's last statement slowly replays in our minds}
Ahaaaaaaaa! The light finally goes on!

Sam's little left foot, however, is still cause for relative concern as a result of the hallux varus (mentioned before I think) and metatarsus adductus. The plan for now is basically to wait until Sam is about five years old, giving the metatarsus adductus time to remedy itself, failing which a procedure will be carried out at the same time the osteotomy is carried out to rectify the hallux varus. Dr dT is pretty hopeful though that the MA will not require surgical intervention and concluded by saying that he is super-pleased with how smurf is doing - his spine looks wonderful, no indications of scoliosis or hyperkhyposis at this point, knees and elbows look great (although Dr dT had to spend a relative amount of time reassuring Brampies that Sam's hyperextending elbows are more frightening for us than what they are for Sam). Dr dT had a look at Sam's little fingers, five of which are unable to straighten/flatten (excluding his two little thumbs, of course). He appeared a little concerned and is going to put a call through to hand-OP to request that our next appointment gets moved up from September.

This morning we were back at Dr B to re-examine Sam's ears. The right ear seems to be progressively on the mend, however his nose is still very inflamed and irritated. We are going to do another seven days with Betnesol, hoping for complete healing, failing which we'll head off to the ENT for a nasal scope. Thankfully, for now though, grommets seem to have been taken off the table. We have Sam's urology appointment coming up the week after next, as well as opthalmology. With regards to the operation to bring his testes down, I was kind of hoping we could couple it with the original plan of just correcting his hallux varus at three years old, but Dr B strongly recommended it gets sorted out ASAP, which is just as well seeing as his little left foot will only be operated on in another three years time now.

OMW - what a long post. I blame it on a busy little smurf, too many doc appointments and shocking energy levels at the end of the day which prevent me from posting shorter, more regular updates. More than likely our next post will have been published by a rather bruised and swollen-faced Mamma!