Our Week In Review....

I'm about as impressed as Ben looks.

It really and truly has been one of "those" weeks. To be fair it has been more than a week but my patients and sanity have been tested none the less.

It all started with Victoria coming home with a NASTY cold. It lasted for about a week, but her throat was so sore she could hardly swallow. Harry was the next to get sick. He was worse than his sister with a high fever and refusing to eat or drink. After the cold seemed to start letting up the poor kid ended up with chicken pox! He (and I ) were miserable! He would bring me the tube of anti itch cream and say "mama fix it." Oh how I wish I could have.

Once Harry was well on the mend, Ben ended up with the cold. PRS and a cold is never a good mix. Even though Ben has had his jaw corrected he still gets pretty sick with any normal childhood thing. His cold and fever held on for days. He refused to eat, he wouldn't drink and even getting his medications in him were a challenge. He was having trouble breathing and went back to sleeping on his front for a few days.

As I am sure you are all aware Ben has struggled with his weight gain. We hit another plateau in the summer and really struggled to snap him out of it. Finally between August and the first of November he was back where he needed to be. This illness however had his weight drop back below what it was in the end of August. I am so frustrated! Despite syringe feeds and to ups with water and Pedialyte he struggles. I feel like I should be doing more but have no idea what.

He was miserable for days, the Saturday things went from bad to worse. He awoke screaming. He started holding his ear and we were off to the ER. Unfortunately it was too late, his ear drum had perforated. This is common in cleft and PRS kids due to the inability for fluid build up to drain. The doctor assured me that there was nothing more I could have done, but I still feel like dirt over it. The doctor told us that depending on where the perforation was it is most likely a good thing as it will make him more comfortable and give the antibiotics a chance to work. The bad news is he could not see the perforation. This means more follow up with Dr. Hong at the IWK, and keeping our fingers crossed it won't affect his long term hearing. Again frustrated.

Things are looking up and we are almost a week into the antibiotic. He still isn't himself but is doing better at least.

Lets hope this week is a better one!