Thursday, September 25, 2008

Fun!!!

We had a great time in Denver! Caden did great on the plane on the way there. He watched his DVDs and ate raisinettes and didn't even care about the noise or his ears popping.
Daddy and Caden. The flight attendant let us move to the back of the plane to have more space. How nice!

We went to the Rockies game the night we got in, and Caden made it up on the Jumbotron! We got a picture, he's in the upper right hand corner. The guy next to my sister won the fan appreciation prize (of course the next seat over!) and so Pam, my step-mom, scooted her way over so Caden could get in on the big screen love. :) It was so cute.



At the Rockies game-in his new outfit.


We spent some time in a small town outside of Colorado Springs, near Pike's Peak. We had a great time there too. Walked a lot, and I got really tired, but it's good for you. :)


Caden's new shirt.


Riding the helicopter was a favorite. He just giggled and giggled.


The fountain sprayed water all over him and he loved it! He's obsessed with water and ice. :)


The cutest little cow ever!


I figured I'd give you something to laugh at. :)


Eating his first chicken leg ever!





Pushing buttons at Grandpa's work.
I hope you all enjoyed the pictures! We had a great time, and I can't wait to get back out there again. Except next time it will be with two kids! Ack!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Denver... here we come!!!

We are leaving for Denver on Saturday afternoon. I am so excited! I haven't seen my brother and my dad in months, and I haven't seen my sister since Christmas! She'll be amazed with Caden. I'm being the mom that makes a list of everything to take. Is that bad??? I've been working on it for about a week now. Paul makes fun of me. I'm a list person, that's all. :)

I hope he remembers everyone from last time. We bought him a portable DVD player, and got some DVDs for the flight. Thankfully, it's only a little over an hour. I hope he's occupied. I won't be able to do much with him (sitting on my lap), cause of the belly and all. It's supposed to be nice out, so maybe he can look out the window too... no clouds. I need to remember something for him to chew on, so his ears don't hurt. Hmmm... I'll put that on my list. :) Still adding things, and I'm sure I'll forget something anyway. I always do. We're trying to do everything carry-on. We'll see how that goes. lol I got some space bags to try to fit more stuff. I've secretly always wanted space bags, so it kills two birds. :) If any of you have suggestions other than books and dvds, let me know!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Oh my goodness!




I've never won anything before... let alone a blog award! This is so exciting! Amy, Kaden and Angel Ava's mommy, has awarded me this award. :)

Okay, so it's my understanding that with my acceptance of this award, I must complete a few tasks.

1) Think of at least 5 bloggers that you believe to be “Brainy Bloggers”

2) Post it on your blog for all to see! Let them know you’ve awarded them by email, twitter, etc or via a comment on their blog!

3) Share some linky love and link back to both the person who awarded you. http://www.kadenboeckman.blogspot.com/

4) Come back to the Brainy Blog Headquarters to sign our Mr. Linky and then pass it on! I would like to pass this award onto the following brainy blogs:

1.) Charlotte's Mommy at http://www.charlottesjourneyhome.blogspot.com/ (Charlotte)

2.) Caralee at http://www.sydneybaker.blogspot.com/ (Sydney)

3.) Cindy at http://www.russcindyg.blogspot.com/ (Dylan and siblings)

4.) Melissa at http://www.momoftwolittleones.blogspot.com/ ( Morris Family)

5.) Sara at http://www.botmafamily.blogspot.com/ (Zach)

I could only pick five blog friends to pass the award onto, but that doesn't mean that I don't love reading up on all of you. In fact, I check up on all of you regularly. :) Don't let that creep you out. :) Thank you Amy, for thinking of us.

Ashlea

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

More Medication

Caden just went to the doctor with Dad. They had to take xrays, cause he has been breathing pretty hard for a couple of days. He has been teething for a few weeks, and he has all four of his pointy teeth coming in. You can see them all, and he is slobbering and his nose is running and he had a 99.4 temp last Friday. That's really low, so I figured it was related to teething. I think it was, cause he hasn't had a fever since. At least it wasn't high enough for me to want to check it. He started with a little cough on Saturday, and a really runny nose, but it was watery-clear, so again, no infection or anything. I thought that while he was sleeping, his nose was draining down his throat and congesting him. Well, Sunday was about the same, but not any worse.

Monday I was at work, and Paul called to say that Caden had a hard time falling asleep for nap. He was kinda cranky all day. (Caden, not Paul :) ) Well, by the time I got home from work last night, he was having very labored breathing and not really too much of a runny nose. He didn't have a fever or feel warm unless he was crying, which doesn't count in my book.

So, we gave him a breathing treatment of a safer form of albuterol that we had left over from when his lung collapsed a few months ago. That helped sooo much. We put him to bed, and he slept fine until about 2:00. He woke up, so we brought him into our room, and he was coughing a bit (it sounded horrible) and unless he was in a deep sleep, he was having very labored breathing. Paul called this morning to make an appointment with our pediatrician, and they tried to get him at 1:30. Paul told them who Caden was and his "issues" and they were able to squeeze him in at 9:30. Go figure. At least we get VIP status somewhere... and where better?

His sats were 96... YAY!!! Well, they then gave him a breathing treatment and took an xray. The first one didn't take, so they had to put him in that horrid xray contraption again. He got really mad and started thrashing. He busted his lip and was bleeding all over the xray machine. The nurse said that no one had ever done that before. Of course not. Caden's job is to do all the "firsts".

He has a little area of (not pneumonia) infiltrate in his right upper lobe. Same place he had it when he was in the hospital. So Paul's at Walgreen's as I type this. He's getting a broad-spectrum antibiotic, Xopenex (albuterol), Mucomyst (same as in May), and some other steroid that Paul didn't know how to spell. The Dr. said that his lungs don't look nearly as bad as they did in May, so that's great news. I'm so glad we decided to take him in when we did. Paul said he was in a great mood this morning. That always happens. We are nipping it in the bud, and I am happy about that. Any hint of anything and I freak out, but that's okay. We are going to Denver on the 20th. Go figure! Every time we go out of town, he gets some lung issue. At least the insurance company purchased the nebulizer last time, so we don't have to rent one. When we gave him that treatment last night, he had the mask pressed all the way to his face, and he didn't even cry. It was like he knew it was going to help him. He's such a sweetie. I can't wait till he can talk to me, and tell me what hurts, or that he can't breathe. But then again, I'll be wishing that he couldn't talk yet. :)

We are supposed to carry on for 4-5 days, and call the doctor with an update. I think we finally found a doctor that agrees with us, and takes us as seriously as we should be taken. I like him a lot, and am very comfortable with his treatment plan. That always helps. He knows that we don't call unless we really feel we need to, so I think that helps.

On a more positive note, Caden now tries to sing his ABC's. If you start singing it, he'll start dancing and he'll sing it himself. None of the letters are right, but he has the melody down, and you can definitely tell what he's singing. It's very cute.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Opinions please...

I've been thinking a lot lately about something. I feel like being pregnant with this baby, things are being done right this time. As far as checking the organs and stuff. I feel like with Caden, things were just overlooked. Like they did the sonograms too fast and checked him too fast and all that. A while ago, my mom was saying that we should consult a lawyer for medical malpractice. Let me tell you a short story, with the major details, and you tell me if you think it's worth a shot or not. My goal is not to get a bunch of money, or to be able to retire at age 25. My aunt said that we don't want another baby to have a missed diagnosis, or to pass away because of something that I could have prevented. I just don't know. It's kind of an ethical question.

When you're pregnant, you are supposed to have a sono around 18 weeks. This time, I was 17 weeks, 6 days. One day, no big deal (they checked the heart well). With Caden, I was 18 weeks, exactly, according to the date on the sono pics I kept, cross referenced with pregnancy calendars that show days and weeks of pregnancy. They didn't catch it with Caden, which we all know. When he was born, we were at the Birth Care Center, associated with Wesley Hospital. The pediatricians that checked him at birth said that everything was fine. They checked everything, listened to his heart, and everything was fine. The first doctor to check him was a male resident. Then the attending came in, and I remember it distinctly, because Caden was holding his head up, and she made a comment about how "is he a day old, or two months old?" and was laughing. She checked him too. Nothing.

When he was born, he was too fat to get circumcised, so we had to take him on Dec 15, at about 3 weeks old to get it done. They supposedly listened to him then, and heard nothing. It was not our regular pediatrician that did that, but a man (the attending pediatrician was a female). We weren't in the room when they snipped him, so I don't know if they checked him or not. They should have, if they didn't.

We took him in for his 6 week checkup, some time at the beginning of January 2007. Paul's mom went with me, and a female resident listened to him, saying that he sounded fine. The female attending came in a checked his hips like they do, and I remember her listening to his heart. Nothing.

From the time he was born to when he got diagnosed, he had labored breathing. To the point that he was "shrugging" with each breath. His nose was flaring and his head would bob. Well, now I know that that's a sign of heart defects, affecting the lungs. In the first two weeks of his life, he went from 9 lbs, 12 oz down to 8 lbs, 9oz (or very close to that). We had a nurse come to the house to check him when he was two weeks old, and she didn't detect anything either (that's how I know how much he lost). She said it was normal to lose a little bit of weight. Well, that's over a pound, and at the time, that was 12% of his birth weight. I don't know if that should have been a red flag or not.

He got diagnosed on a Monday (at 8 weeks old), cause over the weekend, he developed a terrible cough. Turns out it was heart failure, and his lungs were saturated, so he couldn't breathe. Well, He had an appointment scheduled for that Thursday, but I called and they were able to get him in that day. When we got to the pediatrician, the nurse checked (for the first time ever) his O2 sats. They were 74. She checked it like 3 times, and when the same female attending as last time came in, she listened to him, got a worried look, and left. They admitted us, so we went across the street to the hospital. We were there, getting treated for bronchitis, and a different resident (wow, I know) was just passing some time and asked if he could listen to him for a sec. He's the first one that ever heard the murmur. He was officially-and correctly-diagnosed later that night.

My thing is this-if someone would have caught his heart defect and he would have had surgery at two or three, even four weeks of life, then his lungs wouldn't have had a chance to get so diseased (why they thought it was bronchitis). He had his first crisis at the beginning of March because his lungs couldn't handle the increased (corrected) blood flow. If he never would have had the chance to go into heart failure at 8 weeks, then his lungs may not have diseased at all, therefore no crash, no ripping the patch back open, no heart cath, no second surgery, no resuscitation, no ECMO... yada yada yada. And who knows if his future surgeries and recoveries will be more difficult as a result of that???

What do you think? I think there's a statute of limitations, but I'm not sure what it is. I should look it up. I mean, is it even worth a consultation? My OB did everything he was supposed to, but did the sono tech screw up? Should she be held accountable? Which resident? There were 2-3 and I don't remember their names. We could find out, I'm sure. Should it be the attending, who was overseeing the residents? I just don't know. I feel like I wouldn't have had as much emotional stuff this past year and a half (and in the future) if he wouldn't have had all those complications.

I mean, who's to say he wouldn't have had any complications anyway? Maybe he would have, but maybe not. Not to mention the enormous medical bills (which have been paid for by insurance mostly). He shouldn't ever meet his lifetime maximum of 5 million, but he's already over 1 million. What if he gets a job somewhere when he's older, and that's their insurance and he can't get it cause he's over the maximum? I know, I'm projecting way too far out there, but I'm just asking.

Thanks for you input. I'm really not looking for a get-rich-quick thing. That's part of the reason I haven't done anything yet.

Thanks guys,

Ashlea