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Monday, February 28, 2011

hello tubes, goodbye adenoids!

i know, i know...i have been a deadbeat blogger these past few weeks. i'm sorry. i really do have a million excuses as to why, but it would probably just exhaust you to hear all about it. so, i am just going to keep on keeping on. ready...here we go.

our sweet boy has really hardly ever been sick. well, until now. around christmas time he had a double ear infection. of course we were on vacation and had to take him into an urgent care to get medication. after 10 days of antibiotics, i just assumed everything was fine. about a month later the poor thing woke up in misery. he had brown fluid draining from his eyes, nose and ears and was a total mess. it was the saddest sight, ever.


i always rush coen to the dr when he "seems" sick. and pretty much always, they do a quick exam and tell me he is fine. it is so much work to get a toddler to cooperate at the doctors office. not to mention, if he is really "fine" then we are risking him picking up some nasty germs just by being there. with that said, i decided to wait it out a day and see if he got better. needless to say, he did not. by nap time he was way worse and refusing to lay down. he was literally clawing at me as i placed him in his crib. so. super. fun. the verdict: two ears, miserably infect. the treatment: a 5 day dose of heavier antibiotics. after 5 days our little goopy guy, was still having drainage from his eyes and nose. our follow up appointment resulted in another round of meds, and yet still two infected ears. at the next follow up, our dr referred us to an ENT (ear nose throat) specialist. since we were moving in less than 2 weeks, we got right in. the ENT was fabulous. he sat down and really listened to us. coen even had his hearing tested, and that confirmed that he had fluid in his ears. dr. wilson explained to us that the reason coen's ears would not drain, was because his adenoids are enlarged and therefore his sinuses can't drain correctly, sending everything to his ears. to fix the ears he needed to place tubes in coen's ears, but to fix the drainage issue he needed to remove the adenoids. this way, when the tubes fall out (usually in 2-12 months) the problem won't reoccur. he made his case, closing with "i am extremely confident that he needs this surgery before he should fly". since we are moving to hawaii on march 5, we were sold. surgery was schedule for 4 days later.

coen was a rock star that morning. we had to wake him up super early and drag him to the hostpital. i was really anxious about the moment they needed to take him away from me. i just couldn't see that going well. when the nurse came to get him, she started pushing his crib down the hall and coen just giggled the whole way. wes and i peeked from around the corner until he was out of our sight. the surgery was really quick and dr wilson came out about 30 min later and let us know that we made the right descion. both ears were full of fluid, and his adenoids were huge. he also thinks his tonsils will need to be removed in the future. i had to laugh, with a head that size...of course everything in it is going to be big! when we finally got to be with him in recovery, he was still very very sleepy. sweet boy.


he was a complete mess waking up from the anesthesia. this was only the beginning. dr wilson told me to expect 5 days of "cranky". when he told me this i totally thought cranky was no big deal. i was soooo wrong. cranky is pretty big deal.

after a good nap, and some pain meds he finally perked up. we snuggled and talked about how the dr fixed his ears, AND lamby & nordy's ears too! please note: both lamby and nody also have hospital tags. um, cute.



we had to hang out till coen drank something. trying to tell a toddler to drink when they don't want to is a joke. we hung out for a long time. coen was pretty much over the whole experience and decided to try a take his iv out. i finally got him to take down some almond milk, and the nurse gave us the go ahead to take him home. of course he ripped off 3 bandaids, before the nurse just gave up. he did however tell her, "bye, have a good day." when we left. so polite.

once home he wanted scrambled eggs. over the next 2 days he ate something like 8 eggs. he also had his first popsicle and loooved it. he was very very cranky. and his voice was all funky and nasaly.


we had one day at home, then the packers came so we set up at shanny's house. 3 days after surgery the dr gave us the go ahead to start our road trip. we are visiting family through this week, and fly out the island on march 5th. the timing of all this was pure chaos. right now we are 5 days post surgery. today is the first day that i am optimistic that my sweet boy will come back. i think. he needed very little pain medicine today, and actually let me take a shower without being in complete hysteria. there. is. hope.

i love him.
i hate enlarged adenoids.
the end.


Monday, February 7, 2011

feathering the nest

okay, this post is a little out of the ordinary for me. but the truth is, coen is battling a nasty double ear infection (starting a second round of meds today), and i need something to take my mind off of that fussy, clingy, cutie pie boy...who just happens to be napping at the moment.

i am obsessed with decorating the new house. obsessed. i loose sleep over it. really. it is so exciting and overwhelming. i think the overwhelming thing is that i am so far out of my comfort zone. i always lean towards warm rustic colors; brown, red, green, orange. but for some reason this house is drawing me to a cool crisp pallet of blues, greens, and buttery yellow. perhaps is the spectacular views, or the whole idea of living on an island. who knows. BUT this is do know, this table started it all. i came across a woman that beautifully restores old furniture. when i saw this table, i think i screamed inside. she did an amazing job with it. the palette of the seats is what threw me into this decorating frenzy!



love love love it. i also bought a buffet from her, but i don't have a picture of it. i don't really even know what i am going to do with it yet. but we have one shot to ship stuff and have it included in our relocation, so i am not holding back. no way, no how (poor wes).