Family Health Update : the good, the bad, and the ugly!

As usual, my family's health issues have kept me hopping over the past few weeks.  Here's the summary...

The good news is that Owen has been cleared by neurology.  This is great news for us.  For those who didn't know, Owen had a number of (what we thought) were seizures.  Trust me!  They looked like seizures.  I'm not altogether convinced that the first one he had in August while on vacation in Vancouver wasn't a seizure, but there were mitigating factors at the time.  The theory is that he's actually fainting, but that the lack of blood to the head makes him mimic seizure-like activity (ie-convulsing/stiffening).  This can be really scary to see, but it's better than the original diagnosis of epilepsy.   Owen is learning to recognize the signs when he's feeling faint and sit or lie down.  He comes by this honestly as both I, my mother, and sister are all fainters.  The bad news is that blood seems to be a big trigger for him, so unless something changes, we can rule out a medical profession for him :S

Felix's lip is healing beautifully (see previous post for info).  I'm actually amazed at how quickly it's healed.  He went to the dentist for an x-ray as they though he may have damaged the big front tooth coming in behind the baby tooth.  Everything looks good.  He chipped his upper, front, right tooth, and his bottom teeth are a little loose, but he, thankfully, didn't do any permanent damage.  At the end of the day we were pretty lucky.  Considering he landed smack on his face, it could have been much worse....

As for Mr. Emmett, he certainly gave us a scare this week.  He'd been running a temp for a number of days, so we went in to see our pediatrician.  She heard fluid in his lungs and sent us for an xray at CHEO as she suspected pneumonia.  The radiologist sent her a report the next day that said he had "pulmonary edema".  That means that they essentially though he was in a bit of congestive heart failure (not totally out of the realm of possibilities considering his cardiac history).  The office was, unfortunately very cryptic when talking to me, but I knew what they were thinking which led to some sleepless nights.  Our pediatrician followed up with Emmett's cardiologist who got another radiologist's opinion.  The second opinion was that "while his lungs are wetter than previous xrays, its more in line with a viral infection".   So essentially, they scared the sh¤} out of me, but it's likely just a cold!  We're keeping an eye on him, but he seems to be on the mend.

Both Dave and I have been battling something I can only describe as gastro-like.  I brought the new year in at home in bed.  Luckily Dave was able to get out to a friends house, so the evening wasn't a total bust.

So I guess that's the low-down on our health status.  Let's hope for a less eventful year!

Round Three??

So...here we are again...I'm a horrible blogger!  I want to be better, so I'm going to officially put my new years resolutions out there.  Maybe, by making it public, I'll actually follow through with a few.

So here they are:

1.  Obviously!  Blog more than once a year.  I'm aiming for twice a month, but we'll see how it goes :S
2.  Get healthy.  That may seem like a cliche as far as new years resolutions go, but I was really on a role before all of Owen's seizure stuff (that'll be a whole other post on its own!)  I need to get back too it, because I was feeling really good...
3.  I have very little control over this one, but I would really like to make less CHEO trips this year.  We're seriously considered frequent flyers in emerg at this point :S
4.  Organize my home.  That's a tall order, but any little bit will help.
5.  Finish my Critical Care Certificate at Algonquin.

I feel confident that I can knock a few of those off (or partially off) my list this year.  Hopefully I'll have a positive report in a years time...

I think Felix, however, felt pressure to get one more CHEO visit in before the new year.  He fell out of bed last night and must have fallen directly on his face.  He split his lower lip wide open!  Even I, with my medical background, had a hard time looking at it.  After a 4 hour trip to emerg in the middle of the night, Felix is ending the year with a bang (bwa-haha), and three stitches in his lip.  He was very brave, and they were able to do it without sedation.  He's on a soft diet until we can get him in to see the dentist as he has a "contusion" on his front, right tooth.  He's definitely enjoying his popsicle binge though!

 Felix before his stitches...and right after throwing up all over some lady's shoes :S

Felix with his stitched, swollen lips.  Can't take his eyes off his video game...