Does it ever end?

I was just telling a friend the other day that I thought life was slowing down a little for us and Carter. Memo to myself: don't ever think that life is slowing down because something will happen to speed it right back up.

We have had a busy couple of weeks. We met with the speech therapist who is working on his feeding issues and she is still very impressed by what she is seeing him doing. She said to go ahead and start grinding up real food that we eat and letting him try it because he is at an age where he wants to experiment with new textures and tastes. This has been going really well and he loves eating the good stuff. We have tried mashed "real" bananas, broccoli, potatoes and carrots and he is loving the new stuff. He even loves cheese puffs but doesn't really know what to do when a piece comes off and it is in his mouth.

He is loving the no oxygen during the day as well as his mother who loves dragging him all around without tubes. I mentioned in Relief Society during our grateful minute that I was grateful to have a cordless and wireless baby. Not many can appreciate that fully unless you have had a baby who requires oxygen and feeding pumps and all sorts of other medical equipment. Just the mere act of putting him in the car seat and walking out the door seems like a little miracle every day. I will never again take for granted the little things in life.

We also had his post op urology visit and I think I now hold the world's record for fastest appointment at PCMC. We walked into the urology dept at 1:00 for his appointment - sat down for two seconds - nurse called him back - asked how much he weighed - said Dr. would be right in - Dr. comes in right away - takes a look - everything looks wonderful - no follow up needed - shows us the prize box for Carter and Ashleigh to pick from - back to room - dress Carter - out in hallway at 1:12!! Twelve minutes - never have I had an appointment like that!! I wish we could be so lucky for other appointments. Of course it was a two hour round trip because of travel time and the visit to the cafeteria to get lunch for Ashleigh who was starving.

And now to the not so great news - this is what makes me wonder if it ever ends. So on Sunday the bottom of Carter's heart surgery scar started to turn red. I was watching it carefully and on Wednesday night noticed that a puss pocket had formed as well. I called the cardiologist early this morning and talked to the nurse who suggested that he needed to be seen today. OK - so I make an appointment in the afternoon. I take him up to his appointment because this is what his scar looks like now:

And the news is not good. I knew the news wasn't going to be good when the doctors and nurses who kept coming in to see him said they were going to go get someone else to look at it. We finally ended up seeing Dr. Hawkins who is a cardiothoracic surgeon. He came in and said it was a stitch abscess. However, his surgery was in August and he couldn't have a stitch abscess on a stitch that was no longer there. (They dissolve in two months) Therefore the only thing that could be causing the irritation is the wire that is holding his sternum together. He now has a staph infection. We have a few options - one was to cut the puss pocket right there and drain out the infection but Dr. Hawkins really didn't want to do that to poor little Carter - who by the way was oh so smiley to the doctors and nurses. (He even helped the nurse with the EKG by pulling off probes as she was putting them on and then smiling at her - now how can you get mad at that???) The next option was to put him on heavy antibiotics and come back in a week to see what it is doing. The third option is that he is going to have to go back in for surgery to open him back up and take the wire off his sternum. This obviously was not what we want to hear. We have got him on antibiotics with an appointment for next Wednesday. But they really warned us that if it gets any bigger, if he spikes a fever, if he becomes very irritable we have to call the on call surgeon. I am just numb - someone asked me how I can go through this - I don't even know. I take the punches as they come - I thought we would have a relatively easier year. I just want to know how much this little guy can go through. It just doesn't seem fair. I don't want him to have to have another surgery - we just had one a month ago. We'll keep this updated as we find out what is going to happen. Anyway that is what we did for a total of 5 hours today - but no worries it wasn't like I had anything else to do today - like perhaps laundry??

On a lighter note - because I could really use one - Parker dressed Carter up in his school uniform. I guess he thought that if he was wearing the uniform he could sneak him off to school - I don't think he'll pass (mostly because he can't walk and he doesn't know how to be quiet) but he sure looked cute and it was pretty funny!

And a huge shout out to Parker who earned his Arrow of Light in scouts!! Congratulations! You are awesome - now onward and upward to bigger and better things!! We are so proud of you!!