Busy week

Today Rooney got neutered.  Poor little guy.  He's been gone all day and it's been so weird.  I miss him!  I get to pick him up in an hour.

Harlie came home from summer school today (it was her last day) and she asked where Rooney was.  I told her that he was in the animal hospital because he had to have surgery (I wanted to use words that she might know and relate to) and you should have seen her little face!  She was so sad!  And she just put her head down, started to cry and walked away.  I told her that he will be fine and that he'll be home tonight.  I am going to take her with me to pick him up.  I'm hoping that she will think she's not the only one who has to go through that kind of stuff.

Tomorrow Harlie will have surgery for a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA).  I know, I haven't gotten a chance to blog about this topic in so long.  You might remember that I met with her local ENT about it back in June.  Well, I decided to go on ahead and do it.  I've run it through my head thousands of times.  Here are my main reasons for going ahead with it now instead of waiting...

1.  It takes 6-8 months from the first surgery until it can be used and benefits from it can happen.
2.  I think it will be much less traumatic for Harlie to have the smaller, out patient surgery first - before the big one in Boston.  I don't want her to have to go back under after such a big surgery - for all she knows it's another big one.  I can see that being much more stressful for her.
3.  Between all the follow-up appointments in Boston, her normal appointments, therapy, school, etc. I don't see how I would fit it in anyway.

It just has to happen now, and get it out of the way.  Done.  I'm sick of thinking about it.

So, we're doing it here (not in DC) and I feel comfortable with that decision.  Of course I get the call a few hours ago that I have to have her there at 6:30am.  And then I get a call from the doctor's office that she still hasn't received pre-authorization from our insurance company for the procedure.  She's been trying to get it since the end of June!  And when I think of how much we are paying for that insurance... grrrrr!  So, now I am hoping that she got the authorization so that when we get there everything will be okay and I won't have to deal with issues later.

And just to complicate matters a little - I scheduled an appointment with Cooper's eye doctor like six months ago (she is booked for months and months!) for tomorrow morning.  He has Duane's Syndrome and his eyes have been doing some weird things.  Of course, when I scheduled it - the BAHA thing wasn't on the books yet.  And then when I got the date for the surgery, it was the only one I could do.  So, it's not the ideal situation.  Because now Tom has to take Cooper. I am not rescheduling it to have to wait another six months!  But, Tom is full swing into the Ronald McDonald House renovation.  So, it's not ideal for him to be away from work.

Luckily, Murphy has a play date, so that worked out great!

So, definitely not my ideal week to have Rooney neutered, Harlie have surgery (her 29th, I think?) and have a doctor's appointment for Cooper.  But, sometimes that's just the way it works.

Okay, gotta go and get Rooney! More later!
Thanks!
Christy

Cooper

On Tuesday, Cooper had an eye appointment with an eye doctor.

A long time ago (like when Cooper was six months old) we noticed that his right eye wouldn't track the same as his left eye when he looked to his left. I talked to the pediatrician about it, and I couldn't get Cooper to do it so I could show him what I was talking about. He said to wait and give him more time and see what happens.

Well, in the past few months it has gotten more and more noticeable. So, at Cooper's 18-month check up a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned it again. He said to call Dr. Brown (Harlie's eye doctor).

They did their stuff (Cooper was very UNcooperative) and said that he has Duane's Syndrome, Type II.

I beg your pardon?

She said it is a misnomer in that a syndrome usually means there are multiple abnormalities (yeah, I'm familiar) but that Duane's Syndrome is just this one thing. Whew!

Basically, one set of his eye muscles in his right eye are weak or underdeveloped or something like that. So, when his head is facing forward, and he looks to his left (with only his eyes) his right eye does something funny - and they are not even. It's almost as if his right eye looks up instead of to the left. And it most often occurs when he is looking up AND to the left at the same time.

She said that as he grows, we will notice it less and less. He will learn to turn his head to compensate. She said that he probably sees double when that happens, so to correct that he'll just have to turn his head to see more clearly. There's no fix.

So, that's that.

I had to laugh at myself, though. On Sunday, I told my friend Heather about his upcoming appointment. On Wednesday, she called me and asked me how his appointment went. I said, "what appointment?" HA! I had already completely forgotten about it!!! Poor Cooper.

Oh, darn it. I meant to take a picture of him today. Tom gave him another buzz cut and he looks so adorable. Oh well, I'll just show you this one from a couple of weeks ago.





He can now say the following words:

Mommy
ball
all done
aw, man (he totally learned that from me)
uh-oh

And he has said please (came out "peas") once.

And despite my many efforts and much energy - the kid REFUSES to sign one stinking word. Not one! Just out of curiosity I went and looked at some of my old Babysite journal entries. By the time Harlie was 16 months old, she knew 20 words in sign!!! And Cooper, at 18 months (almost 19) knows ZERO signs and can only say a few words.

He is so stubborn. And funny. Last night, Tom went to CVS to pick up Harlie's meds and he bought Cooper a pair of knock-off Crocs. Well, Tom put them on him this morning, and he would not take them off. He even took his nap wearing them. And at one point during the day Harlie tried to take them off and he threw a fit and wouldn't let her.

OH! I almost forgot... tomorrow is the Little Feet Meet at a local high school. It is a Special Olympics Event. And since Harlie is in a special education preschool, she gets to participate. I am excited to see what she can do. I will take lots of pictures (of course) and write about it tomorrow night.

Thanks!
Christy