Updates

Timothy's had 2 drs appointments this week. First up was his 6-month check-up with the pediatrician, whom we haven't seen in 2 months. That was kinda nice! Anyway, T weighed 19# 4 oz and was 26" long. Since I'm such a bad mother at keeping up with who weighed what and when, I thought "It's so nice I have a blog. I'll just go back through the posts and see what he weighed and how long he was after his 4-month check-up". Well, apparently, I'm a bad blogger, too, as I couldn't find that info anywhere! Other than that, the dr was very pleased with T overall, especially the fact that his breathing sounds so normal. Other than sickness, we won't have to see him again until September and no shots until December. That's always good news!

Second up yesterday was the surgical follow-up with the ear dr who put in his tubes. I wish I could report that this visit went as well as the first. It wasn't a "bad" visit -- don't get me wrong -- it just fell so short of what I was hoping for. Since T's breathing is normal, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to repeat the bronchoscopy again but while the dr was pleased at the lack of noise, he believes that the calcified section of his airway is definitely still there and since it can still stunt his airway growth overall, we still need to keep an eye on it meaning another bronch. Probably in October as we go back to see him in September and will schedule the bronch after that. Blow #1 although I was expecting this, I was hoping for a different answer. Blow #2 was totally unexpected. No one had mentioned to me that he would have a hearing test yesterday but I was totally excited about having one done. I just knew it would tell us he could hear normally. Wrong again. Strike #1 was the fact that his eardrum doesn't move as it's supposed to, in either ear, which is because of the tubes. They said that was normal so we moved on. Strike #2 was one test that was stopped before it even began. When they make an incision in the eardrum, which is how they put the tubes in, then the eardrum will seal or heal around the tube as healing progresses. That hasn't happened completely yet so there was a leakage of air around the tubes so whatever-the-test was they were trying to do couldn't be done. That test would have given us some concrete info. So, they decided to try something else. They put us in this soundproof booth and talked or played noises at different noise levels and on different sides from outside the booth. T likes the sound of his name and could definitely hear the sounds they were making at the medium and high levels but didn't appear to hear the low sounds. And, when he would hear a noise, he couldn't "locate" it. Meaning when he heard something, he would turn his head searching for the sound and, more often than not, didn't find it. That's called localization and he failed that test miserably. Overall, the conclusion was that, if we had to go on yesterdays tests alone, we'd say that he can hear but not very well. What does that mean exactly and how much hearing loss is there? We don't know right now. Can he continue to heal after the tubes and regain more of the hearing? There's no way to know other than to wait. We have to wait until September when those tests will be repeated. The one test that they couldn't do because of the leakage of air around the tube -- when they repeat that in September it will give us some sort of number from both ears. If the number is high enough and the same in both ears, then that's a "passed" hearing test and we're done. If, however, that shows either a low number in both ears or different numbers from each ear, then we have to have a hearing test done like he had done at 8 weeks. The only problem is that he has to be asleep for that test. Once babies start to get around a year old, they have to put them to sleep with anesthesia as opposed to letting them fall asleep on their own because that's so hard to predict when they'll fall asleep and if they'll stay asleep. You know how curious babies are! Anyway, if we find out in September that he has to have this done, he'll already be 9 months old. We'll then have a wait for an appointment to do that and then he'll be awfully close to that one year mark. I'm sure you can see where I'm heading with that....

So, to summarize, #1, pray for T's eardrums to continue to heal and make an affective seal around the tubes before September. #2, pray for continued improvement in his hearing. #3, continue to pray for his airway, that the break in stridor (the fancy word for noisy breathing) will be a permanent thing, that the stridor doens't come back, and that his airway grows proportionately as he grows over the coming months.

Oh, and in case anyone's curious -- no, nothing was said about an apnea monitor for while he sleeps. I'm very thankful for that!

I'd like to take just a sec and mention a few other things:
*Pray for friends of ours who are dealing with a job loss; without a new job, income will stop end of June, insurance for them and their 2 children will stop in July.
*Pray for Nate, Tricia, and Gwenyth, who I've mentioned before. Tricia has cystic fibrosis and recently had a double-lung transplant. Less than a week after being back in their real home, which they left in late December while Tricia was still pregnant with Gwenyth, Tricia has been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer that is common in transplant patients.
*Saturday is the 21st...please remember Steven Curtis Chapman and family on the 1-month anniversary of Maria's death. They had a meeting today with the trauma team at the hospital who tried to save Maria that night. They wanted to say thank you (it was exactly 4 weeks ago today).
*Pray for yet another financial bump-in-the-road in our household (I'm sure many of you noticed that our vacation countdown disappeared; we cancelled the trip due to financial reasons but are hoping to make the trip in September)
*It might seem silly but please pray for potty training in our house. We just ran out of diapers for T from his baby gifts (can't believe they lasted 6 whole months -- that's so amazing!) so now we've got 3 in diapers, financially speaking. After VBS next week (pray for that, too!), I'm going to try a few things the pediatrician suggested to see if I can't get Elizabeth and/or John on the road to being diaper free. Our grocery budget needs a break!