Jack's eye appointment

I've been noticing for quite a while now that Jack's eyes just don't look right, so I finally made an appointment for him to see the doctor. His eyes bounce back and forth and sometimes it looks like he has a lazy eye. So I was expecting the doctors to give him eye exercises to do to help fix it, possibly even get glasses. Well after 3 hours of being there, the doctors let us know it just was not going to be that simple. Jack apparently has something called Nistigmus, which is the eye bouncing, and occular rotation. The Nistigmus is caused by the muscles in his eyes pulling in different directions so his eyes are not aligned the way they should be. The occular rotation makes his eyes rotate kinda in a circle, like they are rocking. Both of these will cause him to lose his vision if we do not fix it right away. So we have an MRI scheduled the beginning of February to see if it is a neurological problem. If it is, then he will have to have brain surgery because they are assuming his brain stem is too short. If its not neurological (I pray it is not) then they will do a surgery on his eyes where they detach the muscles on his eyes and re-attach them so they are properly aligned. Either way, it is surgery. I feel so terrible for Jack, he just can't catch a break. It seems like as soon as one problem is fixed, another one develops. He is so strong though and I know he will make it through this too. He also will be having his genetic appointment in February and probably be starting the growth hormone therapy. I will keep everyone updated and I will post about it again after he has his MRI.

Trip to the E.R.

Oliver has been sick for a little over a week with what I assumed was just a cold. He started getting worse but since I was staying at the hospital with Sammy and Milo I couldn't leave to go home and take care of him. So my mother-in-law ended up taking him to our pediatrician who thought that it was just a cold too and he would get over it. Well the poor thing was coughing all night last night and sounded terrible. He was wheezing so bad and was having such a hard time breathing. Finally at 4 a.m. I decided I couldn't wait any longer to take him in and headed to the E.R. Having been through so much with Jack has made me very paranoid. So of course while we are waiting for our turn Ollie seems like he is already doing better. I start worrying that I just worry too much. It's a vicious cycle. But then they call our name so we head back to see the doctor. He orders RSV testing and an x-ray to check for pneumonia. The whole time we were there I just kept thinking I can not make it through this ordeal again! Luckily the RSV came back negative so I had a momentary sigh of relief. Then it was off to the x-ray. I was prepared to hold Ollie down with his arms above his head and listen to him scream while I try not to cry. Instead, I had to place him on a seat that had holes for his legs and then hold his arms above his head while they enclosed him in a plastic tube thingy that he couldn't even move in, and then had to listen to him not only scream, but look at the terror in his eyes as he wondered what we were letting these people do to him. It is the most heart breaking look. After the x-rays came back it was confirmed that he does have pneumonia... luckily we caught it before it had the chance to develop and they were just able to send us home with antibiotics and an inhaler for him to use. I am so happy that we caught it early and I hope he gets better fast. I had to send him to Jake's house though since Milo is now home. I feel awful that I can't be the one to comfort and take care of him while he is so sick. But I know it is better to have him with Jake than to risk getting Milo sick too. He is a tough little guy though and I know he will be better in no time!

Christmas Cheer!