Wednesday, June 30, 2010

the saga continues...

We followed up with the pediatric neurosurgeon yesterday. He's sending Jimmy for an MRI, and on the prescription for it, it actually says "needs anesthesia because he cannot lie still." (Jim and I are so proud, lol!)

The mri is so that they can get a baseline image of the cyst. They'll compare each yearly scan to this original one. He doesn't suspect that it is causing or will cause any problems, but it's there, so it needs to be monitored. He described it as being "rather not large." So in English, that means it's not small. I'll settle for medium I guess. There is slight compression on his brain - but nothing significant at all.

Basically, we wait and see. These cysts can shrink, grow, or stay the same. If it were to grow, and cause problems, then they would consider shunting or draining it. In the meantime, it's not life threatening.

Then on to yesterday - Jim took the kids to see Toy Story 3. On the way in, the escalator wasn't working, so they had to walk up the escalator. Jimmy took one step, and it was a mis-step, and ended up with a decent cut on his shin. Security came, cleaned him up and suggested that perhaps it needed a butterfly or so, but Jimmy wanted to see the movie, so they bandaged him up and headed into in to see it...

When they got home and I got to see it, I thought perhaps that I should throw him in the car and take him to the ER for stitches. I checked with my neighbor (mother of 2 boys) to see what she thought - she agreed with me. When I got the othe ER, I really thought they were going to call Child Protective Services or something - This made 3 ER trips in the last 3 months (2 of which were yesterday and last week!) Thank goodness for witnesses -lol!

Anyway, 5 stitches is what it came down to... Never a dull moment. He's in good spirits - but exhausted since we didn't get home until after 1 a.m.

This morning, it was off to the Endocrinologist for his Juvenile Diabetes 3 month appointment. Everything looks good - The Doctor was pleased with his progress and that he tests his own blood and knows what to do when he feels "low." They feel that we're doing everything right and he's on track. So that's at least some positive news - things are looking up!!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Believe it or not...

Believe it or not, Juvenile Diabetes is on hold at the moment -- no, we can't ever forget about it, but we just found out something else...

Jimmy stopped an aluminum bat in motion with his head today. Blood, ambulance, the whole 9 yards. He never passed out or got sick, but since he has JD, they whisked us away in the ambulance to our home away from home - Hackensack University Medical Center.

After the wound was cleaned up, and stiches were not out of the question, the ER doctor felt that a CAT scan was necessary because of a "divot" where the laceration was. "Dr. Alex" wanted to rule out a skull fracture - can we say, take a deep breath??????

So, after 5 hours in the ER, they were able to rule out any obvious neurological signs, the CAT scan determined no fracture, and stitches were not needed. Good news, right?

Well, maybe the blow to the head happened for a reason - They found an "arachnoid cyst" on Jimmy's brain that is about 6 cm by 2cm long. Usually, these cysts go undetected until symptoms occur (dizziness, loss of balance, headaches, and possibly seizures). Now we know.

Are you kidding me ? This beautiful little boy did not need this. Hasn't he got enough to deal with?

So, it's off to the Pediatric Neuro-surgeon as soon as we can get an appointment.

It's not life threatening. Hopefully something that simply has to be monitored and treated when and if symptoms arise.

On the JD front... Jimmy had his lowest low on Father's day - He came out of my sister's pool and was hungry. So, as usual, he tested himself while I was getting his snack ready. "Hey Mom! I'm a 40." I think the pool makes him low and he can't feel it - I have to check that out, too.

It's after midnight on Tuesday, but actually this all happened on Monday. Because of the blow to the head, they want me to wake him up every few hours. I'm going to go kiss both of my precious children good night.

Thanks to those of you who helped me out today!
Peace,
June

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tonight's support group meeting was good.

Learned a lot - and there's a blood glucose meter that has a light on it - which is a huge deal for us since we have no flash lights in the house (Jimmy successfully dismantles all of them - even if they are hidden he finds them, or we forgot where they are...) and we have to turn on the light in the upstairs hallway - which can disturb Jenna, Shortstop, and whichever one of us (me or Jim) is still sleeping - and even with that light on, we still might not be able to see the blood droplet coming from his finger, or read the meter, so we'll have to turn his night stand light on - which will make him cringe in his sleep since he's so light sensitive - so, pray that my insurance will cover this new meter & test strips...
Turns out that Blue Cross Blue Sheild didn't get the "freestyle" meter contract - which is why we have the accu-check (which was perfectly fine honestly until we found out that the "freestyle" has a light - and uses less blood, and can check on more than just the fingertips!!!)

So anyway, we have 3 new math problems to do out of our minimum of 6 in our day since Jimmy has entered this "honeymoon phase." I only had to give him 4 insulin shots out of the last 2 days - since his pancreas has woken up and kicked into sputtering mode. Wish me luck with the guess work. I'm less afraid of the highs than I am of the lows!!! The lows are pretty scary.

We met a 5 year old girl at the suport group today who was diagnosed in May - just about the same age and diagnosis date as Jimmy - who is actually A WHOLE INCH TALLER THAN JIMMY!!!!! Woohoo!! Someone else who is "short for a fourth grader" as we say about Jimmy!!!! She, too, starts Kindergarten in September. She actually started the pump yesterday - so say a prayer that we can have success with the pump when we begin, too. We go on the 30th - but not sure if it's waterproof in which case we wait until September - but I'd really like to start asap so we can be on top of it for a couple of months before he enters Kindergarten!!!

On a lighter note, we had a fundraiser at school today - it was one school vs. the other in a softball game in the hopes to raise money for a student who lost a battle with a disease a few years ago. Jimmy was invited to sit on a blanket to watch the game with a friend, so he took off his shoes... Well, everyone wanted to know where his shoes were. He evidently was running around visiting other kids, the "jungle gym", the bathrooms, the water fountain, the give-away table, the food table, the sidelines, etc... WITHOUT SHOES!!! Hope colleagues don't think I'm a bad mom!!! Good luck to his kindergarten teacher!!!

In addition to Sunday's low (a 47...), we had one low today - I had to cut the line to ask for a soda (and I had to buy now-pay later- luckily, they let me!!!) He wasn't too low, but luckily,I got it, and he perked right up in his filthy socks!!! lol!!!

Ok, enough for now - I'm going to read a bit (thanks for the JD book, Julie - it's riviting), and go to sleep (maybe)...
Peace,
June