Long Overdue Update . . . Again

I know this is a long overdue update and I will try to make it quick.

The good news is there is not much to update with me. Overall I feel well, although I still get winded at times. I’m using my PEG tube for feeding quite a bit more as I am down to eating food once a day. I thought when it got to this point it would be depressing but it’s a relief to not have to put forth effort to eat food unless I want to. So I still get Mexican food at least every two weeks and now that I don’t need to worry about fat or cholesterol I have scrambled eggs, which are one of my favorite foods, with cheese at least three or four times a week. =) I typically nap daily but other than mid afternoon naptime I usually have fairly good energy.

Tana is anxiously looking forward to the end of the school year. I can write this only because she does not read the blog, because if she did she would probably never speak to me again for what I am about to write, but boys entered her social scene this past winter. So it’s even harder for her to make time to communicate with her parental units as we have been moved down a notch on her priority list. She was recently asked to prom so our house, the phone line, and the texting bill are abuzz with the whirl of pre-prom activities.

Joshua has been battling ear infections since January. We have not gone more than 2 ½ weeks without going to the doctor’s office with ear infections. In three months time he had been on three separate antibiotics and in mid March his ENT scheduled him for tubes on Wednesday April 7th. Joshua was on antibiotics for an ear infection up until the Friday before his surgery when we took him back in because he still wasn’t feeling well. After being on antibiotics for 10 days he still had a double ear infections at which point they gave him an antibiotic shot in the office and scheduled him to return on Monday for another antibiotic shot to hold him over until his surgery on Wednesday.

As of the day after the surgery he is like a brand new child! He’s back to the happy boy that I almost forgot existed! The only downside is that during the surgery while under anesthesia his heart rate dropped into the 50s and 60s. So they had to remove the anesthesia mask, give him a shot of atropine to raise his pulse back up into the 80s (normal for his age is 110+). Once they raised his pulse back into the 80s they resumed the anesthesia and quickly finished the procedure. The Anesthesiologist told us this was very common in Down Syndrome kids who had VSP (the hole in his heart that closed on it’s own), but we should let our Pediatrician know in case they wanted to monitor him. Our Pediatrician contacted his Cardiologist who feels it was also normal but ordered a 24 hour pulse rate monitor test to get a baseline for him and just to be safe. We will know the results of that next week.

That’s all for now.