Trying Our Luck on Facebook

As some of you are well aware, we are not on Facebook (I know how shocking there are still people out there that don't have FB accounts).  Mom is on FB however, and has posted Ethan's information in an attempt to win a specialized bed for him.  The winner will be chosen by the highest number of votes (kind of like a popularity contest)...none the less, we are currently in 3rd place with 832 votes.  You can vote daily and there are only 28 days left to vote.  We are thrilled with the response mom has gotten thus far and I thought I would try to help things out by posting the link here. 

www.facebook.com/BedsbyGeorge/app_192229990808929 

If you haven't already done so, and are willing to participate (I understand first you have to like the company and then you get the option of voting - but think that is just the first time...after that you can just vote daily) please drop in to vote for Ethan.  You may notice there are two Ethan's vying for a bed...ours has the following picture of Ethan attached. 

He has pretty much outgrown his crib (and the hospital ones as was pointed out several times during his brief stay) and this would be a great option for him at home.

Lucky Number 13...

Waiting for surgery.

Thankfully, although his surgery was cancelled in November, Ethan was able to get a time on December 4th.  When we went in to surgery, his hydrocele was not really noticeable but the surgeon decided to proceed anyway.  Surgery went well and in recovery she told us she was happy she chose to proceed with surgery and that it wasn't acting up as the anatomy of the hydrocele was different.  During his time in recovery, Ethan had a dip in his oxygen saturation numbers and was not able to keep a steady pattern they were happy with so he got admitted for the night.  For the first time they put us in a semi-private room.  When Ethan was a month old, they moved him from a ward room to a private one as he had the EVDs and chemotherapy.  We were quite nervous about what he might pick up as the floor was full and most of the doors seemed to have the precaution signs on them indicating there is a lot of germs going around!  We saw several nurses we got to know in our 2010-2011 stays and everyone was amazed at how much he's grown since they last saw him.

Ethan behaved during the night (although because they ordered the monitor on him and he tends to breathe shallow his alarm rang off a lot as apnic), and was able to come home Wednesday morning.  :)  Although the site is swollen, he was in pretty good spirits.  We are continuing to give him Tempra to ease the pain as you can see he is quite sensitive too.  Because of the location of his incision, we are not putting him in pants much and are not to use the back brace for 4-5 days so it can heal.  Last night and today Ethan had a rough go of it not sleeping, coughing lots, throwing up and generally in pain.  Hopefully he has a good night tonight!

I believe I've mentioned it before but at our local hospital, you can take part in a program that allows you to enter the OR while they anaesthetise your child for surgery.  I have been going in with Ethan since we started his serial casting.  In order to go into the OR, you need to put on scrubs, shoe covers, mask and hair net.  Clayton usually mocks me when I'm all dressed up and this time he grabbed a couple pictures (as you can see, I successfully blocked one of them).

Catching up

In October we also saw Ethan's orthopaedic surgeon and he is happy to keep Ethan in the back brace and revisit his spinal images in January to see if we need to move towards surgery.  Each time we wait, that allows Ethan to grow a bit older, bigger and stronger and reduces the minimum amounts of surgery he will require until fusion.  The surgeon said that in a year and a half, Ethan's back has only progressed a few degrees so although it is a severe scoliosis, it isn't changing rapidly right now.

In November we followed up with the general surgeon about Ethan's hydrocele.  It had reduced leading into November but started to act up again just before the appointment, which was nice as it allowed her to see what was going on.  She said that since Ethan is shunted, there will always be extra fluid and that his hydrocele likely will never self correct.  She planned for surgery on November 20th.  I then brought him to where he goes for therapy and he came home with a cold.  :(  It lasted about 3 weeks and meant he did not have surgery on the 20th. 

He also saw his neurologist last month who was quite pleased with his progress.  I had brought along the iPad in case Ethan got bored of back to back appointments and he was having a grand time with it, doing what he does and impressing everyone with his ability to work the iPad.

Lorelei too had an exciting day in November...she became a Brownie!

For anyone who remembers...she is wearing a vintage uniform (circa 1982).  She is not the only girl wearing a vintage uniform there is another girl also wearing one from her mom's youth.  The blue sash is so that she can collect her own badges as removing them from the dress would likely leave lots of holes and it might not hold up so well.  She seems to be enjoying it.  Just last week we toured a local fire station and they got to see a truck leave on a call (and come back to finish the tour).

This is Halloween, This is Halloween...

The night before Halloween, we sat down to carve our pumpkin.  Lorelei chose the stencil this year and helped de-gut the pumpkin and pick out seeds.  We took a bit of time for sensory play for Ethan and he didn't seem to mind it very much.

The photos are not great quality but Ethan was playing with the pumpkin guts with us and ended his session with...of course, dumping the bowl out (last 3 pictures).  I baked the pumpkin seeds again this year and they were pretty yummy!

Halloween worked out pretty well this year.  I got into the spirit again for the kids and painted my face before heading to work.  I had bought a blue wig on discount and figured I could use it for a specific costume, but saw an image online that I thought was pretty neat and I tried to copy it instead. 

I'm not sure if you can make it out, but it is a fish drawn on one side of my face (with our lips shared), kelp down my neck and bubbles on the other side.

Once we got home from school I got Lorelei's make-up done and she had to wait to go out because Clayton was working so she helped hand out treats.  Lorelei went as a vampire this year.

We were able to get Ethan into a costume just for photos without him protesting.  Which was surprising since he was too big for the costume and the last couple times he wasn't so into it.

Then to end the night, we went outside to grab pictures of the three of us dressed up. 

Surprisingly, Clayton hasn't been much into dressing up for Halloween...I thought it would totally be something up his alley.  I guess we needed someone to take pictures for us.  But while we were waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to come by, he was a good sport and let me try my wig on him.

Lorelei's pumpkin from school and Clayton's masterpiece.