Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Little Swamp Boy


On Thursday we had appointments for Critter and Ruby. I brought my mom so I wouldn't have to carry Critter and Ruby at the same time. I am so thankful to have such a supportive mom. As we walked into the hospital she started getting "snow alerts" from Alta on her phone. It turned out to be a pretty sweet day up the canyon but she didn't even complain about being stuck in the hospital with me. When we got to clinic we weighed and did vital signs on both kids. Critter found some skeleton gloves before leaving the house and refused to take them off so we did the oxygen monitor on his toe instead. Once we were in our room we had the nurse, the doc, the bone marrow coordinator, the phlebotomy team (2 ladies) plus me, Critter, Ruby and my mom. It was packed. They drew a ton of blood from Critter through his line so no big deal then the phlebotomist drew a ton of blood from Ruby. They had to stick her 3 times to get all the blood. I held her binky and Critter sat on the table next to me and kissed her free hand. He kept saying "I love you Roobs" and " It's ok Roobs Just a little owie" then what got me is when he said "Your so brave Roobs." It’s all the encouraging things we say to him. It was really touching to see him care for her. You could tell he sympathized with her. He acted so much older than his age. It was really sweet.

After clinic we went to the RTU and they put him out for a bone marrow aspirate, LP, hearing test and dental x-rays. Yep sedated for dental x-rays (he won’t sit still). They found that his chipped tooth was abscessing so they pulled it. Now he has a huge hole in his mouth. This picture is actually really good. He looks like he could be on the show Swamp People. I just keep telling myself...it's just a baby tooth....it will grow back. Oh well.


Monday we went for our Echo, Ekg and a neuropsych eval. Echo and EKG are all old hat. It did take Critter a little bit to settle down but eventually he did. The neuropsych eval was interesting. They are doing this eval to see if he is on track developmentally. I thought he was behind but he tested on average. They said considering how much time he has spent in the hospital he did really well. One thing that was really interesting was the doc asked him "Critter what color is grass?" I was sitting behind Critter and I shook my head. The doc asked again then looked at me and said he doesn't know his colors. I said well no but watch and I said Critter what colors are your lines. He lifted his shirt and said this one? I said "ya what color is that?" He said "Blue" I said "Right what color is the other one?" He said "Yellow" I said " Good."What color is blood?" He said "Red." I know he should know some colors by now and when we are at home I have been working on them, things like what color is this frog, or what color is your blanket. I didn't think he knew any colors but when the doc started asking about colors I realized that he just need things he is familiar with. The doc’s next question was "Critter what comes in a bottle?" He said "medicine." It was really interesting. He also did normal things like the doc showed him a pic of a fork and said what is that? Critter said "a fork" then pointed to the doc and said "You eat your dinner!" It was really funny. All in all I'm just glad he isn't way behind. Tomorrow is Ruby's clinic day. We meet for a history and physical and meet the bone marrow doc representing her. There has to be a doc representing the donor and a different doc representing the receiver. All in all things are going really well. Critter is happy and healthy at home. It’s a real bummer that we have to go back. Being home is so blissful!

2 comments:

  1. Still sending prayers your way. Those babies of yours are darling!

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  2. What a tender spirit Critter has! We are still praying that things continue to go well for all of you.

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