Ryan's September '09 Blog
September 1, 2009 - Yesterday we met with the orthopedist and he is still pleased with Ryan's hip development but said stretching is still going to be key. After our appointment we went over to the hospital as Mom & Dad had to do some stuff to get our ID badges for the family advisory councils. When we were done we popped by the NICU and visited with staff. We've been gone almost 2 years and haven't brought Ryan back yet. It was good to see the staff although some of their names escaped us and even once Mom called one of the nurses the wrong name. UGH! After that we headed up to the Peds floor because his little buddy Carter had his tonsils out and we wanted to pop in and see how he was doing. We had given Carter's parents the run down on how the whole process works - hopefully that helped reduce some of their stress of it. We visited with staff on the way. Carter was actually in the oncology area that we lived in for so many months - in the room Ryan had when we finally got discharged in April 2008. And his nurse was one of our favorite PICU nurses Mary and he had one of our favorite aids, Nancy. So we had a blast visiting with the staff. When we got in to see Carter he was up and getting ready to try to eat for the first time. He took a bite of his mac n cheese and then with the second one something happened and he started desatting so we left so we could get out of their way - we know all too well how that story goes. We then popped over to the PICU and saw nurse Sheri who was our admit nurse that horrible day in December 07. By the time we got home it was 4:30 and swimming lessons were at 6:30, he'd had a short nap and was cranky and hadn't had lunch yet. So Mom tried to get him to take some bottle and then put him down for a power nap. She got him up at 5:30 and then fed him before we were off to swimming lessons. We have a fish on our hands! Ryan did way better than Mom or Dad imagined. We are looking forward to going tomorrow night. We start OT today after waiting for 9 months. The therapist is big time sensory so we're looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish there.
Thursday is the BSU vs. Oregon game and Dad will be going without Mom or Ryan since the game doesn't kick off until Ryan's bed time. Instead Dad will take Brian, Chuck & Jason while Mom & Ryan will go over to Carter's if he is up to having visitors. Then Friday we're heading to McCall since Chuck hasn't been up there in a good 10 years. We won't be up there all weekend - want to get back and enjoy some of our days off. We hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend!
September 7, 2009 - Our little fish had a blast at swimming lessons again on Wednesday and at this class we tried dunking them under. Ryan did much better than Mom thought he would. He gave a 'What the Hell' look afterwards but never cried. The unfortunate thing was a few minutes after the 2nd dunk at the end of class, Ryan threw up. It was really unfortunate in that for this class we were in the big pool that had the diving boards, slides, lanes and had a high school swim meet going on and once he threw up the whole pool had to be cleared for 30 minutes for them to shock the water. Oops. Mom wonders if she didn't blow in Ryan's face hard enough. 'Uncle' Chuck was with us and has now given Ryan the nickname Closer. We left pretty fast after he threw up. There is no class tonight due to the holiday so he'll have to wait to swim until Wednesday.
Thursday was that Oregon vs BSU game. Mom & Ryan had a nice time at Carter's house but Ryan was ready to go to bed after BSU's first drive so we headed home. The other boys had a nice time at the game. Friday we drove up to McCall to stay at Grandpa's place. We got up there just in time to drop Ryan off with Grandma Pam and head to the golf course. Grandpa, Mom, Dad & Chuck played Whitetail which is a very nice private course. We had a good time. We pretty much laid around the rest of the weekend - watching football and relaxing. We came back home Sunday afternoon and have just been relaxing the rest of the weekend.
On a sad note, we lost Mom's Uncle Glen on Saturday. This was Grandma Connie's younger brother. Grandma Connie has had a crappy month as while we were in Coulee we lost Grandma's nephew Bob (Mom's cousin) and a couple weeks ago Grandma Connie lost one of her best friends. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families!
September 20, 2009 - Things have been quiet at our house. Dad came down sick last weekend, we thought Ryan was coming down with it most of this week (he was finally feeling better by Thursday afternoon) and Mom came down with it Friday. Needless to say we haven't been doing much at our house and Ryan was out of swimming lessons this past week. Sadly this next week is our last week. We'll start him back up in the pool after RSV season is over. Ryan did have an eye appointment on Thursday and he is more farsighted than originally thought so he has to get new lenses. The doctor is pleased with how the eye patching has gone and has told us to stop. Yeah! We're seeing progress in Ryan's sitting up - when he is in his wagon or little red car - he sits in it much better (it has less support). We had him in his little pony walker today and he did really well in it too. Mom thought he had that 'I'm in control' look like he did when we put him in the pool with the floaty ring. The rest of the month is slated to be quiet.