Day at the Hospital and a Bad Cold

Monday, April 22nd:

Josh went to work while Theo and I made the long trip to the OSF St Francis Children's Hospital in Peoria. 

Up first was blood work. We are hoping to graduate from St Judes this month. Since January 2020 Theo had to get his blood work done, under go an abdominal ultrasound, and get a physical exam every three months to check for tumors. When he turned four he graduated from getting his blood work done, but he still had to go in every three months for the ultrasound and physical exam. This is very standard for kids who are diagnosed with hemihypertrophy (hemihyperplasia).

Theo's doctor thought it would be a good idea to check his blood one last time before he graduates. 

I warned the nurses that Theo was a hard stick and the best place to get him was his hand. They listened and got out a vein finder device. They found a good vein and she got him in just one poke!

After the bloodwork we went to St Judes to see Dr. Kumar. We chatted for a few minutes and then she examined Theo. She said as long as his blood work and ultrasound results are good he will officially be done with his exams. She did say that if we wanted to check in yearly for a physical exam and visit we were more than welcome to do that. We will be back at the hospital on April 29th for hopefully Theo's last abdominal ultrasound! 

After St Judes we went to see Theo's new GI Specialist, Dr. Ullah. As we were walking through the hospital a group of nurses asked if they could give Theo a balloon. Of course! One of the nurses gave Theo the balloon and then told me she recognized Theo. Yeeeaaaah, we come here a lot 😬

Dr. Ullah and I went over Theo's history and medications. He then asked how he was doing and if I had any concerns. I told him Theo was doing really well and Dr. M left us in really good shape before she left. He said he wasn't going to change anything if Theo was doing well. I thanked him for that! He said to come back in 6-8 months unless something else comes up.

Rest of the Week:

The next morning I started getting Theo ready for school, but he was cough A LOT. I decided to keep him home so we could focus on respiratory therapy.

Unfortunately Theo and I both caught a nasty virus and we had to cancel all of our activities for the rest of the week. Theo was so mucousy that he was having GI issues and was constantly gagging on his post nasal drip. This virus reminded me a lot of Metapneumovirus (HMPV), which is what he had this time last year. Back then we didn't have "The Vest" and our other tools, which is likely why Theo ended up being intubated in the PICU (well, that and the Clobazam 🤦‍♀️). We weren't going to let that happen again!

Josh found skyr at the local grocery! It's delicious!

Theo and I stayed home all week and tried not to get cabin fever. By the weekend Theo was feeling much better. He starting crawling around and playing with his toys which is a good sign.

Josh's sister got married this week! Congrats to Jessi and Sam! ❤️

The Lakers were on the brink of getting swept by Denver, again, but they pulled out a win and forced a Game 5! Will they be the first team to ever come back from being down 3-0?! Probably not, but we can hope!

And poor Theo woke up with a bloody nose Sunday morning. We set up a humidifier in his room at the beginning of the week, but I guess all those boogies just dried up his nose too much.