Back Again!

So much for keeping up with the blog.  Sorry guys!

The boys are doing great in school and still love going, hope it stays that way for another 15 or more years!

Gavin and Owen had their first swim lessons at the YMCA and are getting used to the water.  Owen is in a higher class than Gavin because he is much more comfortable in the water than Gavin.  But Gavin is making progress!  I thought that on the first class poor Gavin's teacher was going to go home with bruises on her arms from his fingers digging into her arms :)  He's not holding on as tight anymore.

Gavin and Owen are also playing soccer on Saturday mornings.  They love running after the ball, can't say that they get to kick it often :)

Rees is going to start swim lessons again tomorrow.  It's been a year or more since he has had a lesson and he is very excited!  Now he will have karate on Mondays, swim on Thursdays, and soccer on Saturdays.  Lots of taxi driving for mom, but I love watching them have fun with other kids their age!

Rees tested for his Tiger Belt

On the medical front:  Gavin had his tonsils and adenoids out on Feb. 2nd. He did great with the surgery and got to come home the next day.  He has been oxygen free ever since!  I'm pretty sure the surgery "cured" his sleep apnea, I don't think we are going to torture him with another sleep study to confirm. 

This is the oxygen we were able to finally get rid of!  Hopefully, the feeding pump goes next!

Gavin the night after his surgery, we were released the next day

Post-op appt.  He is doing great and we don't need to see the ENT again unless there is a problem

Today we met with Gavin's orthopedic surgeon to have his yearly check-up.  The x-ray showed that the bone in his hip still isn't growing at the rate we would like it to grow.  Some of this slow growth is because he had such poor nutrition for a long time.  But now that he is well nourished we hoped it would speed up the growth.  This has not been the case.  At the top of the femur (where the thigh bone goes into the hip socket) there is also a little bit of necrosis (where the bone has died).  I asked the dr. what we need to do, and he said "keep him moving".  This is not a problem!  My little man hardly ever sits still :)  I also asked about surgery, and he said not right now but he can't rule it out in the future.

Then he checked out his leg length and there is still a small discrepancy between the length of his right and left leg (right is a little longer), but this is from the hip issues.  He also compared the muscle mass in both legs and both arms.  There is also still a discrepancy in the right and left side.  His left side is still a little weaker :(  This is a result of his Cerebral Palsy.  The dr. seems to think this will eventually even out a little more, but we do need to keep an eye on his muscles to make sure they don't tighten up on the left side.

So we follow up in 6 months (instead of a year :( )  But I'd rather keep an eye on it and get all of this taken care of while he is still in preschool. 

That's all I have for now!  Look for another post in the next few days about our boys, the March for Babies is right around the corner and we are still a little ways from our goal.  Every dollar counts...please consider making a donation to our team www.marchforbabies.org/jmkennedy

Update and Snow

Another update on Gavin and all of the fun things happening in our house lately....

We went to see the pulminologist last week and got the final results of his sleep study.  He had 153 episodes of obstructive sleep apnea (basically he stopped breathing), the average healthy person has 3 episodes a night.  Wow!  Needless to say he will be having his tonsils and adenoids removed on February 2nd.  After surgery he will have to stay the night so they can monitor his breathing post anesthesia.  Bob has already taken off so I will get to sleep in my own bed for the night :)  I did the whole last hospital stay so he will get this one.  If he has to stay more than one night than I will be on duty.  Fingers crossed it is only one night!

 I have also scheduled allergy testing for Gavin on March 1st.  I just want to find out if there are any triggers we should know about for his breathing.  I also want to make sure there are no food allergies before we start pushing him with the feeding clinic.

On another note, Rees went to the eye doctors (yes, I do have 2 other kids!) today.  He did a great job!  It helps that we also have a great eye doctor.  I am happy to report that he has great vision and does not need glasses.  Hopefully my kids will get Bob's eyesight and not mine!  

All 3 boys will begin soccer again on Saturday!  They are so excited.  I was able to get them on the same team they played with last session so they will hopefully know some of the kids.  Plus I really liked both of their coaches!  If anyone wants to come watch please let me know and I'll give you the times.  Unfortunately there is an hour or two between their games on most Saturdays. 

We have also had a little snow and ice in our area lately.  I have a few pictures, but just realized I don't have any pictures of Rees.  I'll have to get them off of Bob's phone.

We go for our Pre-Op appointment next week and then surgery the following week.  I'll update new information as I get it.  I will also hopefully have some fun pictures of soccer on Saturday.

Bob put the boys to work shoveling the snow!  (Owen in red, Gavin in green)

Gavin liked to use his hands to get the snow on his shovel!

Gavin throwing snowballs at Bob

Quick Update

Just thought I'd give a quick Gavin update.  We saw the ENT doctor last week and we set a date to have his adenoids and tonsils removed on Feb. 2nd.   Once the final results of the sleep study come back we will know for sure if the surgery is necessary but we wanted to have a date while we waited because he is supposed to go to a feeding clinic the first week of March.  If we waited to make the appt. when the final results came back then he wouldn't be healed enough to be seen at the feeding clinic and we have been waiting 3 months to get in there. 

In the meantime we have put Gavin back on his oxygen at night because he has dark circles under his eyes again from not getting a good night sleep.  With the oxygen I don't think he wakes as often and isn't as restless. 

We see the pulminologist tomorrow at 1:30 for a check up after being in the hospital.  He will hopefully also give his opinion on the surgery.  Bob and I are almost positive that the surgery is necessary in order to "fix" his sleep issues, but we also want as many opinions as possible :-)

Hopefully next time I will have some new pictures to share!

Sleep Study

Gavin had his sleep study last night!  They were able to get us in early thanks to a cancellation and my amazing brother for staying with the other 2 boys on very short notice.

It was a long night for both of us, but we both survived.  After they put electrodes all over his head, on his chest, and even some on his legs, they wrapped his head with gauze.  A friend of mine said it best when she said it looks like they belong on the burn unit :(  Once that was finished Gavin was so upset, between his sensory problems and just being a kid, he hated the whole process.  Then he was expected to go to sleep as if nothing was going on.  It took him about 30 minutes, but he did eventually fall asleep.  During the night he woke up several times crying that his head hurt, but he was able to settle down and go right back to sleep.

Then at 6am they came in to take everything off, which was even more traumatic than putting everything on :( Then off we went to go home, and my little trooper insisted on going to school today!

The final results of the study will not be back for 3-4 weeks, but thanks to the wonderful people in pulmonology and the nurse practitioner in the sleep lab, they were able to look over his test quickly to give me some of the information.  They found that he only dropped his oxygen levels twice during the night and he was able to bring it back up very quickly on his own.  So we no longer need to use the oxygen at night here at home!!!  YAY!!!  Gavin was VERY excited to hear this news!

I asked about obstruction, and she said she didn't look specifically for that because she knew I was mostly asking for the oxygen information, but she does remember reading that there were a couple of "events".  The "events" indicate obstruction, which would more than likely be his tonsils and adenoids.  We meet with ENT tomorrow, so I will discuss with him what he feels will be best for Gavin.  Tonsils and adenoids out, or stay?

Once I have more information I will update!  Sorry, no pictures of the sleep study.  (I did take one but it's on my phone.)

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning at the Kennedy House

Santa was here!  Looks like the Kennedy Boys were really good this year!

Here they are getting their first glimpse of the presents, but mom makes them stop for a picture

Gavin opens his most wanted gift first.  Thomas' Misty Island Rescue

Rees finally gets his own BeyBlades

Owen is so excited to get his Buzz Lightyear wings

Oh my gosh that's a lot of presents!!

And Rees got his iPod, just what he always wanted!

And now the boys will leave mommy's laptop alone :)  Thank you MomMom Lucy!

A group picture with cousin Kyleigh!  They are so cute in their matching pj's!

Then later in the day we headed to MomMom and PopPop's house to see what they got the boys.

On the way there I asked the boys if there was anything that they didn't get from Santa that they really wanted.  Gavin chimed in and told me he really wanted "kung khu zhu zhu pets" (his way of saying it!) and he didn't get them.

MomMom and PopPop must have heard that request because they got them every "kung khu zhu zhu pet" that was ever made :)  The look on Gavin's face says it all!

In this picture he is telling me what he got

They did such a good job taking turns while opening presents.  Rees was next...he got new snow boots

Gavin's turn

Owen's turn

Gavin again!  Each of the boys got their very own water bottles, just like the ones they always use at MomMom and PopPop's house.

And the best part about this Christmas was getting to spend a lot of time with Grammy!  She wasn't able to join us last year because she was still too sick, but this year she is doing great!!!

Post Christmas Fun

Our boys had an amazing Christmas!  They were spoiled by everyone and now have a ton of new toys and games to play with.  Tonight we spent time playing a lot of our new games with cousin Sandy.  Tomorrow we are going to get the missing piece we need to finish setting up their new computer from MomMom Lucy.  They have also had a blast playing with their new air hockey table from MomMom and PopPop.  They are all at such a fun age!  We can do so many things with them and they can do so many things by themselves too!

Just a quick update for those that are wondering about Gavin.  He is completely over his cold that landed him in the hospital just before Christmas.  He was officially diagnosed with asthma during our stay, which we kind of knew was coming eventually, but we didn't think it would be so sudden and severe.  During our stay he had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and we were able to compare it to a previous x-ray.  He still has a lot of disease in his lungs left over from being a preemie, but there is a small change for the better.

During our stay we also learned that Gavin has a very difficult time breathing at night.  We had a feeling this was an issue because his snoring has become progressively worse over the last 4 months.  But we didn't realize it was as bad as it was.  He would drop his oxygen levels to 88 or lower while sleeping (96 or above is where he should be).  So he now sleeps with oxygen at night to keep him from dropping his oxygen levels.  We have an appt. with ENT and Pulmonology, as well as, a sleep study coming up in the next 2 weeks.  We don't think his night time breathing has anything to do with his asthma, we are pretty sure he needs to have his tonsils and adenoids removed just like his big brother Rees.  We will find out for sure after the ENT appt. and sleep study.

I will keep everyone updated as I get information.  Life is never dull around the Kennedy house!  Gavin especially likes to keep us on our toes :)

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!  I promise to update the website more consistently in 2011!

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  

I promise to update the website more often in 2011!