Today was another busy day. Well, it was at least scheduled as a busy day. A doctor's appointment, lab work for Ryan, visiting teachers, lunch with a dear friend, visiting teaching appointment, grocery shopping, errands, employment work, get Jacob off to his canoeing trip, take Jessica to a party, finish preparations for Saturday's crazy busy day.

But ... well, apparently I've kind of gone AWOL. Without anyone's "permission", I skipped out on more than 75% of today's scheduled tasks. What have I done with the time? I sat in my desk chair for more than 45 minutes not doing anything. Really. Nothing. (Okay, Okay, David -- Yes, I was breathing, but nothing else. Oh, and yes, I was blinking occasionally. Can I go on now?)

When Dwight was leaving this afternoon to run errands, I told him I was going to take Ryan for his lab work while the other kids watched a movie downstairs. I put sleeping Ryan in his carseat and gathered my stuff, really intending to leave. But, then Dwight left. The room was quiet. No tv. No lights. No noise. And, that's when I heard it. I heard it just like I can now hear a child calling my name. It. It was the bed calling my name. "Just lay down for a few minutes," it pleaded, begging me to climb on to it's soft mattress and place my head on its perfect down pillow.

At first I resisted its calls knowing that I really needed to get the lab work done. But as I walked closer to the bed (intending to leave), the calls intensified, and soon I found myself snuggled between soft and silky 800-count thread sheets covered by the perfect weight of a much loved quilt. It only took a minute of being in its grasp before I decided that nothing really had to get done today. And, there I stayed for more than an hour.

Everything can wait, right? Right or wrong. Everything will wait. The choice was made and now I have the consequences. I went to the dr's. I met with my visiting teachers. And, I successfully managed getting Jacob out the door seemingly prepared for his canoe trip. That's it for today. Tonight I'll take Jessica to her party. And, tomorrow ...

Well, tomorrow I'll try to make up for the rest.

Upper GI Series

Today Ryan had his upper GI series. He had no problems drinking from the bottle and didn't seem to mind the taste of the barium-flavored milk. The really good news is that we didn't see the structural defects in the upper digestive system that we anticipated. Everything seemed to be where it should be and seemed to be shaped the right way. Whew...

We did, however, find that after about 1 ounce, the milk was pushed from the stomach back up the throat even as he was drinking. Reflux. He's already on Prevacid and he already sleeps sitting up. So, how do we treat it? I don't know yet. We will meet with the GI Specialist, the Nutritionist and the Dietitian next Thursday.

We also received a call this afternoon to let us know that some things were off in Ryan's bloodwork. Calcium levels, I think. (I was driving and despite my best efforts to quiet Jessica, she was talking through the whole conversation.) So, I'm not sure exactly what numbers were too high, but they want more blood drawn. His white blood cell count was also high. So, they are going to repeat his urinalysis as well. This time they want him to be catherterized instead of bagged. Poor guy. And, they are going to culture the urine for 72 hours.

So, good news ... no structural defects. Whew.

Neurologist Appointment

Ryan and I went to see the Neurologist today.

I updated Dr Seals on all the other doctor appointments, their diagnosis, and the new tests. We discussed that Ryan's red blood cell and platelet counts were really high on his hospital labs. He is anxious to see what they look like now. He is also anxious to see what we learn from the GI tests.

As for now, we're going to continue giving the same amount of medicine for the seizures, double the vitamin B6 dosage, and just hope for the best. The dr would like to delay the next MRI. He thinks we've been putting the little guy through enough and that we're just not going to get that much new information from an MRI due to him still being a small guy. So, we'll look at doing that later this year.

The appointment today was very enjoyable. We had quite the intellectual conversation. I'm reading a book called The Great Brain by HP Newquist. Dr Seals enjoyed looking through it and gave his stamp of approval on it. He also recommended a couple of other books that I might enjoy: The Executive Brain and Human. I might have to make a trip to the library soon.

PS Check out Ryan in his glasses. He looks smart enough to be able to read the Brain books, right? :)

A Little Good News

Today Ryan and I went to visit with his ENT Specialist. You might remember that at the last visit, Dr. Moe diagnosed Ryan with a submucous cleft palate, mild septal deviation, and a mild adenoid hypertrophy, and prescribed a steroid spray to reduce the excessive congestion the little guy had.

So, today we went in for our 6-week follow up. Dr Moe wanted to see the extent of the submucous cleft and was able to since the congestion is almost completely gone. The good news is that there is no hole. The muscles do not entirely align like they should; however, it doesn't require surgery, at least not for now.

We may need to consider surgery in the future, but we're talking about at least a couple of years down the road, and Dr Moe thinks we probably won't need it at all. (Keep those prayers coming!)

We can also start weaning him off the steroids. I'm sure Ryan will be very happy to be done with us spraying something into his nose.

Handsome, right?

For Jacob's birthday, Dwight bought him a new suit coat and a tie. This is what he wore today when he reverently passed the Sacrament.
Wow! It was a great Mom moment!

Doesn't he look handsome?