Nana's visit

During nana's visit we met the Pope and went to a space museum. 

Then Nana left to go back home and I got sick.  I know I look healthy in this photo but I had a fever around 102F for 6 days and finally got diagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics.  I should feel ready to go back to school on Tuesday after the holiday.

I did get my first interim report card in the mail yesterday.  I am meeting all the objectives of 1st grade (reading, writing, speaking, math, social studies, science, listening, art, PE, Music, work habits and conduct)  The only one I did not met was handwriting.  I am constantly writing my numbers and some letters backwards.

Broken

 

Can you believe I have another broken bone?!?

Mommy was running on her treadmill and I wanted to run as well so I jumped on the back and very quickly got slammed down onto the bottom on the treadmill/concrete floor.  So it is back into my old sling for at least a month.  I fear I have gotten my daddy's weak bones, I am going to drink a lot more milk!

Pins Out!

A little blurry, but here are the three pins sticking out of my arm.  The doctor pulled them out with pliers, it hurt a little bit and I cried but I laid very still while he did it.

 

After the pins came out we went to McDonalds to have lunch.  I have a dressing over the pin sites now and I need to wear the sling for a few more days as my arm improves and becomes less stiff.   I am still restricted for another month from running, jumping and climbing.  I am allowed to swim in a few more days.  

This month in school we are learning about the states and learning a song about the states.  Daddy likes to collect coins so he bought me a big map so we can collect each state coin.  Going through my piggy bank we already have 42/56 of the states and territories.  I will be on the look out for the missing ones. 

Pins

Here are some X-rays from my checkup with the surgeon.  The X-rays were taken through the cast so that makes the arm look larger then it actually is.  In 2 more weeks I will have the pins removed in the office.  I have watched a few youtube videos of pin removal and I am not sure if that helps or hurts to watch because they are literally pulled out with pliers and it seems a bit crazy. 

Broken Arm

My last 24 hours:
Friday 16:20 - I fell at my school playground.
Friday 16:30 - The school called mom because I tell my teachers my elbow hurts and I can't move my arm.
Friday 16:50 - Dad picks me up and takes me home, It hurts too much to get out of the car, so we try cupcake medicine - which for the first time ever, doesn't fix the problem.  I then fall asleep in the garage from crying non-stop for 45 minutes.

Friday 17:30 - 19:00 Dad and Dexter go to the local urgent care.  They take x-rays and tell us Dexter's arm is broken but all they can do is splint it and tell us to go to an ER. Since mom is still at work they go to her hospital.

Friday 19:30 - Dad and Dexter arrive at Prince William hospital to get checked out.  They get x-rays taken again which confirms what urgent care said: "There is transverse transcondylar fracture through the distal humeral metaphysis with dorsal displacement of distal component."  Translation:  broken upper arm with elbow displacement.  The orthopedic doctor on call can't fix a child's elbow so he recommends we transfer to the big hospital in DC which has pediatric orthopedic doctors on call.  They call ahead so the next hospital knows we are coming, but we turn down the ambulance ride and mommy drives Dexter instead. 

Friday 22:30 - We leave Prince William Hospital and drive to Fairfax Hospital.

Friday 23:30 - We arrive and are quickly checked in and the ortho doctor resident is waiting for us.  They look at our X-ray CD and again confirm the break.  Described as "the worst kind of long bone break kids get." Dexter will be NPO and have surgery first thing in the morning. I get my first real dose of pain medicine - Morphine - and become happy and then very sleepy. 

Saturday 01:00 - We get transferred to our room for the night and I begin freaking out about my hunger and the sink in my room not being able to give me water.

Saturday 02:45 - We all finally fall asleep for the night.

Saturday 07:00 - We go down for surgery.  We meet the CRNA that will do the anesthesia and the attending orthopedic doctor, Dr. Theiss, who will be doing the surgery.   The plan is to sedate him under general anesthesia, then do a closed reduction of his elbow and a percuteneous pinning (3 pins total) of his upper arm, and splint it back again.

Saturday 08:00 - We roll back to the OR, with mommy, until I fall alseep, move to the OR table and get hooked up to the monitors.  I do great with this due to my complete exhaustion and get put off to sleep.  Mom leaves and surgery can start.

Saturday 09:30 - Surgery is done, he did fine.  He will remain with his splint for 3 weeks and then come into the office to have his pins removed.  He is supposed to not "run, climb, or jump" for 2 months.

Saturday 11:00 - Woke up and ate all his breakfast and chocolate milk.  Had another dose of Tylenol and rested in his room watching Toy Story 3.

Saturday 13:00 - Cleared for discharge and eager to go home!

Saturday 14:30 - Finally arrive home, less than 24 hours after all my drama began.  Sad I can't go to my cousin's house this weekend like we planned because I wanted to visit them all and exchange our presents!

Now we can begin the 3 weeks of healing before the cast and sling can come out.  All I am allowed to do is wiggle my fingers on my right side. 

Strep

The entire family is on antibiotics for Strep throat.  Mommy was the only one with symptoms but she took me to the doctor also and my test came back positive as well. I don't mind, the medicine tastes great!

Antibiotics

Saturday morning - 103 Fever, rash over chest & back, generally feeling crummy. 

 Sunday morning after two doses of antibiotics - No fever, eating great, dancing and laughing.

Thank you modern medicine!!

Sick?

My cousin Luke is sick again and yesterday I was sick too! I don't know what was wrong with me but I had a fever of 102.7 whenever the Tylenol wore off. I slept about 18 hours yesterday and today I feel just fine again. No fever, up playing and eating like a champ again. Back to terrorizing the dogs, wonder if they missed me yesterday - I am sure they missed all the extra food I normally give them.

Tell me where it hurts

Today Dan finally met with his Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) doctor that he was referred too 3 months ago.  One of the first things this doctor said was he wished the doctor had called him directly and he would have gotten Dan in a week instead of 3 months since he is young and the arthritis is so bad already.  The doctor wants to be "super aggressive" with his treatment of Dan.  He is currently on some old school RA treatments (Prednisone, Methotrexate, and Arava).  The goal of this new doctor is to eventually get off those 3 (we stopped the methotrexate a couple weeks ago already) and to get on a once a week shot of either Enbrel or Humira.  This shot will start in 2 weeks (Aug 11) once the results of some baseline lab work, x-rays and ultrasounds come back. The doctor compared the 2 treatments to trying to kill 8 people - using his current treatment its like tossing a grenade at the people and hoping it gets them all and using the new treatment plan its like a sniper killing each one with precision. 

So hopefully this new shot works well for Dan.  The current meds do work but Dan is still having joint pain and lots of side effects from the current drugs.

ENT Doctor

I visited a hearing doctor today and an ear doctor today. I got to see them because I had so many ear infections earlier this year. The hearing tests were fun, I got to sit in a special room and the tested my ability to hear sounds and then they stuck a special thing in my ear to test my ear drum movement. I passed both tests with no problem. Then I met my ear doctor who looked in my ears and said I had no infections currently but if I started to get them again I could come back and visit her anytime. Overall it was a fun day at the doctor but I hope I don't need to see them again!

Hurt Leg

I hurt my leg! All weekend I couldn't stand on my left leg. I would try to pull myself up to stand but my left leg hurt I would just hold my leg up or go back down to my knees. It even hurt to crawl in and out of containers which is one of my most favorite activities. Well today I got to see Dr. Kim to check out my leg. She didn't see anything obviously wrong so she took some x-rays which were also negative for any fractures. Then I went to baby school. They told Daddy that on Friday I did fall funny once but they checked me out and I seemed fine.

So I am going to just take it easy and let people carry me around for a few days. It is starting to get better already because tonight I was able to put a little weight on my left leg.

Hope I get better soon! I feel like I am always visiting Dr Kim for something.

Sick again

For the last 2 days I have felt very sick. Didn't want to do anything but sleep or be held. Didn't even want to eat or drink much (which is rare for me!) Today I finally got a high enough temperature (102.8) for mommy and daddy to take me to the doctor. And surprise surprise I have another double ear infection! That makes number 4 since Christmas, do I see PE tubes in my future? I also had low oxygen sats again - 88%. After a getting a suction tube down my nose and a breathing treatment it was up to 92%. They sent a sample of my snot to the lab. They also sent a urine sample to the lab - this was not fun since I can't pee on demand they cathed me! The urine was to check for a UTI and check my sugar levels because I haven't eaten much and to check for diabetes since mommy said I smell fruity. The urine test was normal however. Hopefully the antibiotics clear up my ears this time - I am on my 3rd different antibiotic since the previous ones never seemed to completely clear up my infections. I also am the proud owner of a breathing treatment machine now, so I can do albuteral treatments whenever I need. Last time we just rented one for 2 weeks. Well that is all, I really hope I get better by Saturday because the Easter bunny is coming to base and there is a big Easter egg hunt planned.

Pink is not my color

I have pink eye!

Some kid at school had it last week and now I have it. I thought mommy said it was nice to share? Now you cant really tell in this picture because my eye are wiped clean and I have gotten my tobramycin eye drops a few times now - but trust me yesterday my eyes were so crusty & red it was like a constant stream of yellow junk from them!

Back to the doctor

Me getting a chest X-Ray - I was so good for the x-ray lady holding still! I got a batman sticker!!

Seems like every post is about me being sick! I was doing good for a couple days but yesterday I got a fever of 103 and I was super sleepy all afternoon and night and this morning also. Today my fever was back down around 101 but just to be sure mom took me back to my doctor. She took a picture of my chest (all clear) and looked in my ears (infection improving - little red in the left ear, clear in the right ear) and looked in my mouth (also clear) The doctor doesn't see anything obviously wrong with me. Told mommy to watch me and if I keep having fevers above 102 to come back on Friday and they would check my urine to see if I have a bladder infection (which isn't common in little boys I am told - which is good because I didn't like the thought of how she was going to get that urine from me). My breathing is still ok, not great - sats 93-94% on room air.

I am so tired of being sick, I want to go play!

Also related to doctors - Daddy had his CT-Scan, Blood work and new cancer doctor visit yesterday. The CT-Scan showed no signs of cancer. Blood work was also negative. Their plan is to every 4 months get either a chest/abdomen x-ray or a CT-Scan. So remission continues!

Doctor update

Things went well at the doctor visit today. Dexter's sats were 95% on room air. His ear infection looks better but not completely cleared up - he still has 3.5 more days of his antibiotic for that. He is still getting 1-2 breathing treatments a day as needed for wheezing and we can continue that for the next few weeks. He will not have another doctor visit unless he gets worse. So that is all from here, hopefully Dan and I are almost done being sick as well.

I added in this video that Dan shot on his iPhone while waiting on the doctor.....enjoy.

Another Doctor Update

Mommy had to go to work today so Daddy went with me to see the doctor. My sats on Oxygen was 94-95% and off Oxygen 91%. My ear infection is now in both ears. Despite this my doctor told daddy I dont need to wear the Oxygen any longer and can do the albuterol breathing treatments as needed. I dont know why my oxygen level is low and the doctor didnt give any explanation as to why it remains low. Hopefully when we go back on Monday it will be in the normal range - if not mommy will be asking to see a specialist or at least run some additional tests.

Here is a picture of me and daddy after our fun day together! Daddy said he wants to be a stay at home daddy after all the fun we had.

RSV

I am sick. I have RSV which led to me getting an ear infection in my left ear and getting Bronchiolitis. Since Friday I had a low grade fever of 100.5 and a cough. The last two nights I have not slept well waking up every hour or two. Well this morning I decided to finally get my mommy's attention by wheezing and breathing faster. Finally she thought I should visit the doctor! Went I went in they hooked me up to a sats monitor and my oxygen level was only 88% (good would be above 94%) They didnt believe that number because I am so handsome and was smiling at the nurses. But after double checking, it was true. They put me on Oxygen and gave me a breathing treatment of albuterol. My sats after an hour or so was 92-95% on 0.5L of oxygen so they said I could go home, but I have to go home on Oxygen. I also have to do the breathing treatments every 6hours, take a steroid and an antibiotic for the ear infection. I go back tomorrow to the doctor - hopefully I am way better and dont need the oxygen any longer.

Me at the hospital with my Oxygen

Me getting my breathing treatment - tricky nurses blow it past a pacifier!

At home, crawling around with my 20 feet of Oxygen tubing