2-Year Check UP

My blogging days are drawing to a close I think - no time to even read other blogs let alone write mine.

Anyway, Braeden had his 2-year check-up early this month. He weighed 25 pounds (20th percentile), was 35 inches tall (75th percentile), only got one vaccination, is doing great. Still not talking much, but he's got about 20 words and a few phrases down, and that's fine with his pediatrician, so it's fine with me, although I can't wait for him to start chatting away.

His playgroup had a speech pathologist visit 2 weeks ago, so we got a mini private consulation with her. She wouldn't even consider seeing him until he's 2 years and 10 months old, the magic age according to her. That made me feel better.

Yesterday was traumatic for all of us. Brae had to go for a blood test to determine what food allergy he has, after the reaction he had awhile back. The pediatrician thinks it's peanuts, but we'll find out. The little guy did very well at the lab all things considered. Once the needle was in, he stopped crying and seemed to relax more. It probably hurt less than those awful vaccinations.

As for me, my eye is still being a pain. I had my radiation cataract surgery in August, but the retina continues to be swollen, so I'm on drops for another month, then the doc will reevaluate and see where we go from here. He's not able to do any further laser surgery, since there's no leaking. My retina just likes swelling up.

But I guess the bottom line here is that my blogging days are basically over. I'll still post if something interesting happens, but otherwise my posts will be few and far between. I've enjoyed all this, but time to move on, at least for now. Good luck and happiness to all of you. Thanks for sharing your stories, and for reading mine. Take care.

Braeden Turns Two

Yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 21) was Braeden's 2nd birthday. Where has the time gone?

We had a little party for him at the house on Saturday with family and friends, then spent his special day quietly (he's getting over a cold). Thanks to his grand parents for coming to his party, bringing some food, and for his card and birthday money. They couldn't stay long, but we were glad they could stop by.

Thanks to everyone for their email, e-cards, greeting cards and gifts. Braeden enjoyed his party. He loved the pizza his Daddy picked up for him, and the Baskins Robbins ice cream cake I got for him. Thanks to our neighbors also for their good wishes, cards and gifts. The outpouring of love for Braeden was overwhelming, and we'll never forget it. Thanks again for remembering our son on his 2nd birthday.

As for my eye, it's healed well. I had the stitches removed a week ago and was finally able to order new eyeglasses late in the week. I go back to the retina specialist in mid-Oct. to be sure the cancer's still gone, but thankfully the cornea problems have been rectified.

Great Post-Op Report

Yesterday was my post-op exam. I got a great eye report. My vision in the surgery eye is now 20/60, where before surgery it was zero. And that's without glasses for that eye. The pressure is great, so no risk of glaucoma. They've been watching for that.

We stopped at my optometrist on the way home and I had him pop out the right lens of my eye glasses - don't need it now. My glasses look a little funny missing one lens, but until I get the stitch removed in about a month, I can't get new glasses. So hopefully problems with that eye are finally behind me, after 4 years of dealing with it, the past year being blind in that eye.

We all stopped for ice cream to celebrate. Brae loves ice cream, but his new favorite food is watermelon. Dang he can eat a lot of that stuff. He roamed around the waterfall there and then we headed home for his afternoon nap - late, but he was exhausted.

Now it's on to planning Braeden's 2nd birthday party, just a small gathering here at the house with cake and ice cream. DH and I will take Brae to the zoo ourselves 1st, then have people come over to help us celebrate. It's hard to believe he's 23 months old today.

We have to take Braeden next week for allergy testing. That won't be a fun thing for the little guy, but we really need to know what the allergen was that caused his allergic reaction. I'll let you know when we find out anything.

My Surgery's Over

I had my cataract surgery this morning. My inlaws were kind enough to arrive about 5:30 a.m. to take care of Braeden while DH and I were at the hospital. Nobody should have to be up at that early hour.

We had to be there at 7:00 a.m., my surgery was at 8:30 a.m. Everything went well. I won't know for 1-2 weeks how much vision I'll end up with, but I've got a lot more now than I had before the surgery, and my pupil's still dilated. It should be even better by morning. Before the surgery I was totally blind in that eye - the one that had cancer 4 years ago, which they treated with radiation, the radiation doing so much damage.

The surgery wasn't even uncomfortable even though I was awake throughout the procedure, and I've had no pain or anything. I've got 3 bottles of different drops to use 4 times a day for the next month, but at least I can use them all at the same time - confusing if I had to stagger them.

I go back to see the surgeon tomorrow (Wednesday) for a post-op check-up, but to me everything's fine. DH is off work this week to take care of Braeden - no bending or lifting for me for awhile, hopefully not for too long.

Brae was a tired little guy tonight, but he had a fun day and wasn't upset that daddy and mommy weren't here for awhile. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Braeden To Urgent Care

I had to rush Braeden to urgent care late Thursday afternoon. He had a bad allergic reaction to something he'd eaten. The bottom line though is that he's perfectly fine now, and will go in about 3 weeks for allergy testing to see what the offending food is.

Two possibilities - I gave him half a peanut before the reaction happened, his first peanut. I hope it's not that, but of course it's possible. I think the offender was a red mini popsicle. He loves all the popsicles, but wasn't too keen to eat the red one. He ate it though.

Here's my reasoning for it being the popsicle over the peanut. The red, itchy, bumpy rash was around his mouth, chin, throat, neck, upper chest, and the base of his right thumb, next to his index finger, where he held the popsicle stick, everywhere popsicle juice would have dripped. There was nothing anywhere else on his body.

As soon as I saw the rash I washed him down with a warm wash cloth, then raced him next door to a neighbor, who offered to drive us to urgent care. She's got 2 children of her own, had nobody to take care of them (I know that feeling), and I knew Brae and I would be fine. DH met us there.

The doctor examined Brae. By then the rash was nearly gone. But as a precaution she gave him an oral steroid, DH picked up children's Benadryl for that night and on Friday, and I gave him a nice oatmeal bath. He was perfectly back to himself Friday, playing at the park, doing all his normal things. What a scare though.

That morning I'd had to go for lab work at 7am, as part of my pre-op physical exam, which was the day before. Too much to deal with in 24 hours. My glucose numbers aren't as low as the doctor wants, so he's increased my meds a bit at night. It seems to be helping. But my surgery is definitely on for mid August. I'm nervous about it, but hopefully it'll give me at least a little vision back in that eye - I don't even see shapes now, everything's just white.

Will keep you posted on Brae if there are any changes. Any thoughts on which of the two culprit foods could have caused his allergic reaction? I really hope it's not peanuts, but if it is, we'll deal with it.

Latest Zoo Trip

Off we all went last weekend to the zoo, us and 3 of DH's co-workers and their families. Braeden had a grea time seeing some of the bigger animals. He was running too fast down a pathway though, and took a tumble, getting his 2nd boo-boo, this time on his knee. Since then he's fallen 3 times and whacked the same spot. Par for the course at this age.

My eye surgery is scheduled for mid-August. I'm scared half to death about more surgery, but I really need it done. Being blind in one eye ain't fun, and I'm lucky there's a fix for my problem, unlike others who lose their vision for one reason or another. Bad timing that my SIL is arriving the day before my surgery and staying for the whole week. DH is taking the week off from work to take care of Braeden, since I'm not allowed to lift anything or bend over for awhile. Braeden's not used to my SIL or his grandparents for that matter, and they appear ready to descend on us to "watch" him. I'm going to need some rest after the surgery, and it won't help to hear Braeden crying because they're here. Oh well, it'll work out somehow.

Otherwise, everything is fine. Brae continues saying more and more words, doing more and more things. I still can't believe he'll be 2 years old in less than 2 months - scary where the time went.

Miscellanous Stuff

Where to begin, after so long without posting - sorry about that. This may be long.

DH has been fighting some type of infection literally for months (bacterial we finally find out). Then he had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they put him on and broke out in a very itchy and red rash. Add a rear-end car collision into the mix (he was the hittee and not the hitter). He's still a bit sore after two weeks, but got checked out and it's basically muscular. Hooray for that. He's driving a rental while our car's in the shop - courtesy of the other guy's insurance company.

Did I tell you about our bee situation? Dang if I can remember, so I'll keep it brief. We (and some delivery people) saw bees flying around our roof (we've got a 2-story house). I let them do their thing for 2 weeks, in case they were just visiting, but they appeared to be staying put, so I called in a bee removal company. They sprayed and fogged the area, then came back the next week to remove some roof tiles and the plywood underneath to remove the hive.

Hive? There was a total of 10 honeycombs under our roof tiles, all built within that 2-week period. The scariest thing was that the bee/hive removal guy told me these were Africanized bees. I knew they weren't far away from our area, but never expected some to take up residence under our roof tiles. This particular type of bee doesn't make much honey. They concentrate on having babies, and yikes, they were sure going to town. They showed me one portion of honeycomb that had literally hundreds of bee larvae starting to hatch and break through the wax. Waiting much longer and we'd have had another swarm to have removed.

Ok, so the bees were gone, the honeycombs were gone, and our roof (part of it anyway) was gone. Next was trying to get the roof repair guy in, a fellow who specializes in beehive repairs. It only took a week of "I'll be there this afternoon" and no-show to get it finished, but we're put back together again, hopefully the end of that little nightmare.

Braeden is doing great. He's finally starting to talk more, although he's still the strong, silent type for the most part. He's come out with some phrases recently, "get up", "me doggy", "there ya go" kind of things. His newest exploration areas are the kitchen sink - he's taken to washing the unbreakable dishes and playing in the soapy water - and the spice cupboard. He not only wants to smell everything, which he's done for awhile, now he wants to taste the spices too. His favorite one so far is garlic salt - ewww, not on your finger, straight.

Brae's meals have become more fun now that he'll eat most meat, so long as either a dab of ketchup or mustard appears on his plate - dipping sauce ya know..hehe. He loves mac and cheese, all the usual foods. He feeds himself for the most part, always with either a fork or spoon. I provide both utensils and let him choose which one he wants. He just started drinking some of his milk from a "glass" glass - an old juice glass I brought with me from Canada. I've really got to watch that he's not in a throwing mood (that would be extremely messy), but he's doing a great job. He's been drinking from those red plastic cups that we thrive on in the summer, but this little juice glass is smaller in diameter, so easier for him to sip his milk without getting his shirt soaked.

He found a bare patch in our garden in an area that doesn't get much sun, and he's taken to excavating the place. He hauls out all his gardening tools, dump truck, etc. and goes to town digging, loading up the truck, then moving the dirt somewhere else and dumping it. Next it's on to finding gravel to fill in part of his excavation site, only to then throw everything on the concrete. That's ok, he loves to use the broom, so he helps me sweep.

We took Braeden to a pro baseball game the end of June. He wasn't too interested in the game, but loved the crowd and seemed to have a great time. We passed on the 4th fireworks this year since he's in bed early, but we'll all go next year. We're heading for the zoo this weekend with some friends and their children - should be fun. Braeden loves the zoo.

I'll end this post with some news about me. My diabetes is under control now, so I've rebooked my eye surgery for mid-August. Obviously I'm not looking forward to more surgery on that poor eye of mine, but I'm now totally blind in my right eye, so I'm left with no option at this point. Ok, let's get it over with, and please God, let me regain some vision in that eye. It's really hard not to trip over Brae, or his toys, or the dog, or the stairs even. My depth perception is so off that I even find it hard to pour Brae's milk now without spilling it. Of course he laughs every time I miss. I laugh with him, but I'm not laughing inside. Nobody knows how much vision I'll get back after the surgery, but it's got to be better than what I've got now - zilch. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy summer everyone!!