Recovering at home

Our Buddy was in the hospital for a few days this week.He was ill on Sat and Sun with tummy pain.By early Sunday afternoon all his other symptoms started.By 6 pm I called the Dr and they said to bring him to the ER as he was not keeping anything down.
Once in the ER they were finding it very difficult to rouse him so they did blood work and started IV fluids.
They found that he was very dehydrated from the blood work.He was admitted Sunday night and we were there until Tuesday afternoon.They also discovered that he got a bacteria in his intestine from all the antibiotics he has taken so he was started on a different IV antibiotic as well.

He will continue that antibiotic at home.He is still having fevers and tummy pain but other wise doing very well.
We want to thank everyone for your concern,kind words and prayers while he was in the hospital.Thank you Br Valez for the encouragement too.

Fun in the snow...

The boys have really been wanting it to snow so they can get all bundled up and play in it.Well this past weekend we had some snow enough to play in.

Our neighbor has been ill so Mark very kindly went and shovelled her driveway for her.

Another thing they have been wanting to do is play in the playground in the snow.
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Broc loves eating the snow too.

Hopefully the next post will be full of more answers and news about Broc.

We have our date....

The last time I posted I said that Broc was having a CT Scan done of his legs.We found out that his legs did not grow anymore which is great news as that means that he is stable.On the other hand our poor guy has been having a lot of pain especially on days that he has gym class in pre-school and even when him and Mark are running around too much.
His vascualr issues are really starting to effect his quality of life.He is also rolling his left ankle really badly and toe walking on his right foot.
We have also made some visits to the chiropracter as his back keeps going out of alignment and is causing him lower back pain.Who would have thought that a 4 yr old would complain of lower back pain.
With all those factors in play his Drs have decided that his Ilio-femoral Bypass Surgery will be on June 14th. He will be admitted on teh 13th to start all the preparations. He will be seeing the ped. surgeon on the 12th to look at his hernia that he has too.She will be fixing that too while he is under for the bypass surgery.
We asked too if they could remove his tonsils(that have regrown) while he is under too but they declined and said it was too risky.

We all decided that June would be a good month as it would give him time to finish pre-school and plenty of time to heal before he starts Kindergarten.

We will be seeing the Immuno Dr today again as Broc has been ill since I last posted with either strep or some virus.We are on a serious mission to get Broc healthy so that his body will be in the best shape to handle his surgery.

We have also brought his cardiac appt forward a month to make sure that his heart is doing well before surgery.
We are hoping to post some pictures of fun in the snow soon.Our weather has been truly wonderful but not for long.

Thank you everyone for your support and love.

January is Birth Defects Awareness Month.

January is Birth Defects Awareness Month - focusing this year on Congenital Heart Defects, the most prevalent birth defect. http://www.nbdpn.org/bdpm2012.php

 As 2012 starts, please remember that every day, 110 babies are born in the U.S. with Congenital Heart Defects. And each day, 11 of them will die as infants from their condition. Here are the facts. Know more. Do more. Congenital heart defects are structural abnormalities of the heart that are present at birth; Congenital heart defects range in severity, and some critical heart defects can cause severe and life-threatening symptoms which require intervention within the first days of life

40,000 infants are born with congenital heart disease each year in the United States.

1 in 100 babies born will have a congenital heart defect.

CHDs are most prevalent birth defect and the leading cause of death for infants born with a birth defect (despite survival rates now over 90% for affected children).

This year approximately 4,000 babies each year will not live to see their first birthday because of Congenital Heart Defects.

The occurrence rate for CHD is ten times that of the next nearest identified disease routinely screened for.

Fewer than half of CHD cases are diagnosed prenatally – and the number dips to 25% or lower in rural and underserved areas.

Many babies born with a heart defect can appear healthy at first and can be sent home with their families before their heart defect is detected. A major cause of infant mortality as a result of congenital heart disease is that some babies affected are not detected as having heart disease in the newborn nursery. These babies are at risk for having serious complications within the first few days or weeks of life and often require emergency care.

Despite advances in prenatal diagnosis of heart defects it is estimated that more than 30% of infants with heart defects leave the hospital or birthing facility undiagnosed. Detection of Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) after discharge from the nursery is associated with significantly higher rates of CCHD-related morbidity and even death. It has been estimated that at least 280 infants with an unrecognized critical heart defects are discharged each year from newborn nurseries in the United States.

Pulse oximetry is a simple, non-invasive test that estimates the percentage of hemoglobin in blood that is saturated with oxygen; when performed on newborns in delivery centers at approximately 24 hours of age, is reliably effective at detecting a majority critical, life-threatening congenital heart defects which otherwise go undetected by current screening methods.

Pulse oximetry screening of newborns has been recently recommended by the Unites States Department of Health and Humans Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Diseases in Newborns and Children; and recently adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for inclusion in the Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP), and has also been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.

At present, only New Jersey and Indiana screen all newborns for heart defects. The majority of U.S. hospitals do not yet screen newborns with pulse oximetry - although nearly all newborn nurseries have a capability. New mothers can ask for pulse oximetry screening for babies at 24 hours of age or older, before discharge from the hospital.

Winter Vacation........

Well Winter vacation didn't start off very well for us.
School was done on Friday and  by Sunday Broc came out in a rash.Then a fever and then a sore throat.We took him in to the ped and he was dx with Strep throat and Scarlet fever.Apparently Scarlet Fever is a very bad reaction to strep throat.Poor buddy was not well for at least a week. Then while he still had that he got another virus.His body was knocked down hard. Then to top that off Mark got a stomach virus of some sort. Needless to say our vacation from school was not a lot of fun.
Fortunately they were both well enough in the last few days so we were able to take them to the Childrens Museum in Indianapolis. Truly amazing we went to Indy for a non-medical reason.For FUN!!!

Broc had heard that they were having an exhibit about frogs.His favorite animal. He has about 6 or 7 stuffed ones.His favorite are the red eyed tree frogs.
Here are a few/many of the pics we had to take of the frogs and the other things we saw there.

 

 Daddy and Mark wanted to see if they could be Bumble Bee.

I will leave you with some pics from Sat.It was a little chilly but warm enough to play a game of football outside for a little while.