Well, we have survived our first cold of the season. I of course ran straight to the doctor's office with Ryan, even though his congestion was mild and his fever barely cracked 100. The medical student this time asked if he had any "medical history". I said that yes, he had open heart surgery and pointed to his chart and said "that would be a very thick chart for a normal 7 month old". I will kind of miss the over eager medical students when we switch to the new practice. I was hoping that would be this month (my insurance only lets you switch at the first of the calendar month), but Ryan did have the start of an ear infection and Dr. M started him on an antibiotic and needs to check him in 2 weeks, which is Feb 2. I don't want to switch in the middle of this, so I will wait until next month, I guess. Ugh. By mid week, we all felt better except for a lingering sinus headache for me. I vowed to stay in and away from germs so we didn't get into a cycle of never ending sickness, but got a little stir crazy today and took the older boys to church and to lunch at our favorite restaurant (Target). I was glad we went to church because a new batch of confirmation kids were going through some type of blessing and I realized that they were the kids I had taught as second graders when I made my first and last attempt at teaching CFP. This made me feel beyond old, I remember these kids as kids, not much bigger then Kyle, yet here they were, teenage boys with long hair and girls with makeup and these ridiculous looking boots. Kyle asked what they were doing and I told him that they were choosing for themselves to be a part of our church and that when he was as old as they were, that he would be able to do the same, that Mom and Dad would no longer force him to go to the church we had chosen, he would be free to choose his own or none at all. To my surprise, he said that he thought he would choose to still go to church. I was shocked. I am writing this down because I am sure I won't believe it later. Grant I am sure would not say the same thing at thing point, he repeats incessantly that he is not going to church (nope way, I am not going to church, just drop me off at Target). I asked him if he wanted to do peace with Kyle and he shouted "I don't like peace". You're telling me. Tomorrow, I am looking forward to attending a meeting of CHD Families, a support group for families touched by congenital heart defects. The speaker is a doctor doing CHD research at Children's Mercy and I think it will be really interesting. I have read that he is doing work in tissue engineering to develop a procedure that would enable the use of a patient's own cells to fashion a new, bioengineered heart valve. Because the valve would be comprised of living tissue derived from the child's own cells, it would grow and repair itself, and the child's immune system would accept the material as its own. This is exciting. I worry about Ryan's valve function long term, so any progress is great news. CHD Families is the group that gave us a care package while we were in the hospital with Ryan. It included a blanket that turned out to have been made by a family from our church. I volunteered to make blankets as well and even bought the material, but with Jason working so much, I just haven't gotten downstairs to sew, maybe this week.
The picture is just a cute one of Kyle an Ryan. I am still amazed by Kyle's interest in and love for Ryan. I worry that I don't have enough to give all 3, but seeing them makes me realize that while I may not have as much to give to 3 as I would for 2, they also have each other.
A couple of things that didn't happen in my family this week: No one referred to the breakfast we ate this morning as "dog poop" sausage, especially not my 3 year old. We also did not forget to give the baby his antibiotic dose on the 2nd of 10 days. That would we really irresponsible.
No comments:
Post a Comment