Living the good life

When I took Zack to his doctor's visit with the pediatric ENT to plead my case on the necessity of ear tubes, Zack was the naughtiest he's ever been at a doctor's appointment. I think it helped us get approved for round two of ear tubes and the first available surgery date. Zack was flipping upside down in the exam chair and tossing wooden puzzle pieces into the air. This was all happening as I was explaining how Zack's behavior has taken a steep downward turn as his hearing has decreased. I also mentioned how far this seems to be setting him back with his speech. The behavior and speech definitely swayed the doctor to agree that it was a priority to get tubes in Zack's ears right away.

It is rare to need a second round of ear tubes. Zack had his first set put in the month after he turned three. He had major fluid build up that was not draining then as well. However, the doctor believed it wasn't draining because of the size of Zack's tonsils and adenoids, so he removed them. Zack will turn six in October and the doctor said ear tubes are not put in after a child turns six. He also thought Zack's ears would eventually drain on their own if we gave them a few months. However, four months and many behavioral and speech consequences later, only a tiny amount of fluid had self-drained.

Last Wednesday, we took Zack in for the surgery. The nurses were great with him and he talked and talked like crazy to one of them about how well Andrew could play some game cube game. He also expressed his fear about the ear tubes that were going to be put in his ears. He said Andrew had told him that they would be really big and hang out of his ears. I don't know what gave Andrew that idea, but Zack was very apprehensive.
Zack asked if that giant white tube he is looking at in this picture would be going in his ears. This was his reaction when Ben said no, it would be a really tiny tube:

They let Zack ride back to the anesthesiologist in this power wheels jeep, which made him excited to leave us behind. I thought it was genius.

Notice the nurse helping him steer. Zack kept intentionally crashing into the walls and chairs as he drove.

The surgery went perfectly and the doctor told us in the recovery room how relieved he is that we did the surgery, because the fluid closest to Zack's eardrums had hardened and would have never self-drained. So, if we had not persuaded the doctor that the surgery was necessary Zack would have had permanent hearing loss. The doctor couldn't tell this from his examinations at the office, because the part closest for the doctor to see had not yet hardened. Parents, trust your instincts!!!!!

Zack is doing so much better now that he has full hearing again. We're hoping his speech will improve more quickly now that he can actually hear the sounds well. His attention span and behavior are already greatly improved. It is amazing the correlation between hearing and wanting to pay attention for a little five year old boy.

Now that Zack is better, we get to focus on Andrew.

He has had a chronic cough for years. Even when on his allergy medicine, he still has his cough. That was why one of his doctors thought it might be reflux making him cough, since he also has that. There have been many, many theories over the years and yet the cough remains.

This year, the cough has led to bad wheezing. I sent him to school last Monday, and they called me in to the clinic to get him because he was coughing and wheezing. The clinic had a couple of kids in it and a mother who had come to pick up a child who had fallen and hurt her wrist remarked how full the clinic already was so early in the day. The regional school nurse was visiting and replied to the mom, while looking in the direction of me and Andrew, "Some parents just can't wait for Monday to send kids back to school whether they are healthy or not." I thought that was a bit harsh.

I took Andrew to the pediatrician, and the doctor had Andrew do some sort of breathing treatment there because she felt his airways were restricted from inflammation.


Now, Andrew is on an obscene amount of medication. In the morning he takes his allergy medicine, uses his new inhaler, takes an oral steroid, and an antibiotic. In the afternoon we do more of his inhaler. Before bed, he takes singulair, uses the inhaler, takes more of the oral steroid, and more antibiotic. The antibiotic is a new addition to the line up. At Andrew's follow-up visit to the doctor on Friday, the doctor said the congestion is only on one side now, so she thinks he has lingering bronchitis and prescribed that antibiotic. On Sunday, after his first morning with the antibiotic, Andrew starting throwing up at church. The medicine did say it might be hard on the stomach. We gave it to Andrew with food hoping it would balance out. I'm hoping that we don't have a repeat with round two this morning.

Andrew and I had a fun little lunch date at Subway after his doctor's appointment on Friday, because he missed lunch at school while he was at his appointment. Can you see the excitement on his face and the dorito cheese on his fingers in this picture?



It is spring break now and my kids are looking forward to a week of no school. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do. I have a deadline approaching for an article I am writing for LDS Living magazine and it is amazing how distracting my kids can be! The past two months I have restricted video games until the weekend. I told them they could play video games over spring break. Andrew and Zack woke up at 5AM this morning to turn on the Wii. Apparently, they are not going to waste even one waking moment.

In other news, Maddie and Andrew finished another successful basketball season. They were excited to get their trophies. If I hadn't been taking this picture, I would have been in it equally excited giving the thumbs up that I don't have to drive them to practices or keep track of game or snack schedules for anymore of this basketball season!


On March 21, we had some of Ben's family come over to our house to celebrate his mom's birthday. Mylie drew an excellent (and very scary) picture of Grandma to give her as a present. Mylie still needs to work on drawing teeth instead of fangs, and eyebrows instead of knotty scribbles above the eyes. She drew her grandma's hands growing directly out of the shoulders. The eyelashes she drew were to die for. I wish we had scanned the picture before giving it away.

Here is a great personality showing shot of my four kids and their grandma: