Monday, December 16, 2013

ENT Does Not Mean Ent

Warning: Lord Of The Rings reference in title.  This post actually has nothing to do with Lord Of The Rings, it is merely the ramblings of a tired parent.

As if on cue, the night we heard from the sleep clinic Asher started gasping in his sleep and waking up crying in fear.  This has happened every night since.  So, when we called to set up our consultation session with the doctor in charge of the sleep clinic and they told us the first opening was in mid-February, we were understandably concerned.  After we explained to them what has been happening, they put us on the top of the 'Cancellation Wait List'.  So far, his appointment has been moved to mid-January.

The nurse at the sleep clinic made sure to tell us that Asher won't die in the night because of these gasping fits.  For some reason this was very reassuring to Adam and served to freak me out.  Not sure why the difference there.  Maybe it has something to do with Adam always being the one to see the worst case scenario right from the start and me being a bit on the optimistic side; he had already seen all the things that could happen in his own imagination while I was tripping blissfully along thinking it'll stop sometime soon.

Anyway, we've learned that if we can get into him as quickly as possible when we start hearing the gasping start, he won't cry and will fall right back to sleep.  It's a little hard to do at 3 or 4 in the morning when we're really groggy but we're getting it down to a science.  He also seems to be getting used to it and has been able, on occasion, to fall back asleep after an episode with little to no help from us.

Last week, when I was sitting in on Asher's speech therapy appointment I talked to the therapist about our concerns and what's been happening.  She recommended a local doc who also works at Children's, an ENT doctor who has seen a lot of the kids connected with the therapy office.  He can see Asher at the end of December.

The ENT appointment will just check the obstructive sleep apnea.  We still will need to get in to the sleep clinic to check his other apnea and the REM sleep he is missing out on.

That is all the update I have for now.  Caedmon continues to chug along and heal. His energy is back and he is as rambunctious as he can be with a full leg cast on. You can't keep that guy down for long.


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Sleeping Is Good

Yesterday we learned that Asher has mild forms of two different kinds of sleep apnea.  They are mild enough not to be troubling to the doctor.  What is of greater concern is that he is not able to get into and stay in deep sleep.  Asher seemed to want to confirm this by waking up and staying up for 3 hours last night.  There is some question as to whether the environment and condititions of the sleep study itself played a roll in the lack of REM but we have a consultation scheduled so we can get some questions answered and find out what we can do to help him SLEEP!  It is a really good thing, Asher, if only you would realize it!

Asher continues to make leaps in his development.  He is standing a lot more, signing more, making more varied sounds and curious about everything.  A few days ago he surprised us by climbing up into a kid chair and then standing up on top of it, holding on to the stair rail behind it.  Not safe, but it's nice to see him showing initiative in exploring. :-)

Today, he heard the noise of our neighbor's snow blower.  He got himself right up on that chair and started shouting hello to him and knocking on the window.  He was pretty proud of himself.  Now, how to keep Curious Asher from hurting himself in all his curiosity.


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Snow Therapy

Caedmon continues to heal.  He meets with his orthopedist tomorrow to get a hard cast.  His energy improves daily, as well as his appetite.  Each day he's commented less often about pain and last night was his first solid night of sleep.

A few days ago we celebrated Caedmon's birthday.  He wasn't sure he wanted to celebrate but finally decided presents would be okay.  He didn't care for the chocolate cake or the special dinner we made, poor, recovering body, but we scored big on a remote control car that can run into anything and keep going.  God bless the makers of that car, it keeps him happy for large chunks of time and I don't have to chase it down and fix it a million times a day. :-)  He's also been playing with legos, painting, setting up fights between Superman, Sullivan (from the Monsters movies), a babydoll and Christmas mooses and making me lists, mostly of E's, O's and C's, for shopping.

We've been figuring out how to go about our day with a less mobile boy.  It definitely slows our day down a bit and our regular routine has needed to be tweaked.  It has been a good mental stretch, getting creative with life.  One thing we could not miss, playing with snow.  Caedmon loves snow, especially throwing snowballs.  It snowed on his birthday, thank You, God, and this morning we woke up to even more.  So, after breakfast we wrapped his leg up in plastic, laid some towels down and brought the snow to him.  He made a snowman and threw lots of snowballs.  He loved it!