Good and Bad Changes

Tucker is a creature of habit, but this week has brought several changes, both good and bad. We went to the endocrinologist on Wednesday, and we got the results I had expected. Tucker's blood sugar is normal almost all of the time, and the doctor suspects that the few times it is too high were due to his mitochondrial disorder. He said he is not ready to change his diet or give him meds since his sugar is only high about once a week. I also told him that the few times it was high, each day had been a particularly long day for Tucker, so we weren't going to push him that hard anymore. The doctor said we could go from checking his sugar 3 times each day down to 4 times each week (yay!!!!), and if I notice any upward trends to call him ASAP and we would make a new plan. As for now, we made a follow-up for late December and we are keeping things the same. At that appointment he will check his A1C again and re-assess. So that was as close to good news as we've gotten in a long time! He said Tucker definitely has the potential to get Type 2 Diabetes, but he's not there now. Another change is that a new kid joined his class. Tucker has been SUPER tired when he gets home from school. On Monday he has OT, well he got off the bus at 330 pretty much crying "night night". I told him we had to go to therapy to see Mrs. Terri; usually he lights up and says "Te-ee, Te-ee" but this time he pretty much screamed bloody murder the whole way there. I had to carry him from the car to the building, then when Mrs. Terri wasn't in the waiting room Tucker flipped out. I told him he had to wait just a few minutes; he tried to play with the blocks, but some other kid wouldn't let him have any:/ I suggested to the kid that he share....he refused, and his mother didn't help me out at all.....so Tucker went all out crazy right there in the waiting room, and I decided we were quitting therapy....I'm kidding! sort of;) Once Mrs. Terri had him in the back room he was all smiles, but he was still exhausted. He again cried the whole way home, took a quick bath, then crashed in his bed. On Tuesday and Wednesday I took him off of the bus at 330 and pretty much rocked him in the recliner until 530 when Chris got home. Then Tucker had a few hours of playtime before he took his bath and went to bed around 9. Yesterday (Thursday) I met with Mrs. Amy, Tucker's teacher, and the first thing she said was that they got a new student. Well, that alone explained a lot! Tucker doesn't like change, and so this new student put a dent in his little routine. Mrs. Amy then explained that this child is too loud for Tucker....my goodness, Tucker and his preferences, lol. She said by Thursday Tucker was really getting used to the new kid and being much nicer, except at naptime. This little boy doesn't rest, and I guess he is kind of loud....so the other 4 kids in the class go to sleep regardless....but not Tucker. While the teacher and aides try to help the other little boy go to sleep and get used to his new classroom routine, Tucker shouts at him: "shhhh, night night!" The little boy continues to not sleep, so Tucker continues to boss at him....So Tucker gets no rest. The teachers have tried several techniques, but today they tried putting headphones on Tucker. His note today said "did not rest" so I am assuming they did not work....I am hoping the other little boy gets used to the classroom soon! Mrs. Amy totally understands how important it is for Tucker to rest, so they are really working on that for me. It is so funny, Tucker sleeps in the reading corner all by himself! He doesn't even lay on his mat; he sits on the beanbag chairs. On Monday the other kids joined the class, so I am sure that was rough on him as well. As of last week, Mrs. Amy said he is adjusting well to the classroom, and he is even sitting at lunch and licking all of his food:) For the first time today, he even got an "excellent" behavior rating! I may have to email the teacher and double-check on that one:) Another change-For the first time in Tucker's life, he is having trouble pooping...yes that is gross to talk about, but the poor kid is having a very rough time going! :( It hurts to watch him really, so I am going to switch one of his cans of Pediasure at school for the kind with fiber. He is usually on a blended diet at home and then gets 2 cans of pediasure at school; maybe his belly doesn't like the introduction of Pediasure, or maybe his belly has just been tired this week. At least we got an explanation for his lethargy Thursday night. On Thursday night after Tucker's bath I was rocking him (again!), it was about 630 and he was in A MOOD. Chris worked late, so I just decided to rock Tucker as long as it took to calm him down. By 7pm he was asleep. As I was rocking him, I noticed the nastiest smell! It smelled like really nasty feet, but it was coming from Tucker's ears:/ I went to the bathroom, and checked his custom-made ear plugs (he has custom-made ear plugs to block out water from his ear tubes when he bathes). They smelled exactly the same. So I assumed some water had gotten stuck in his ear and made the smell. Well about 30 minutes later the ear plugs smelled fine, and so did Tucker's right ear. His left ear, though, was still pretty gross! I called my mom, she told me to call Tucker's pediatrician in the morning since he had no fever. So the next morning I called, and the dr called in some ear drops. After a weekend of drops and Ibuprofen, as well as lots and lots of rocking chair time, Tucker is back to his "old" self. I asked my mom today "Where is my lazy Tucker when I need him?" lol, I was very worried about him last week, but man, he can wear me out during the few hours he is home at night! Tucker went to the eye doctor today (the last of his dr appointments for a few months hopefully!!), and there are really no changes with his eyes. She dilated his eyes and checked for pressure in his skull (his skull sutures fused too early, so if his brain is trying to grow, the skull won't let it, which could lead to increased pressure). No pressure! So that's good and bad news....good because there's no pressure in there, bad because his brain is not even trying to grow....sad, really, since his brain pretty much hasn't grown in two years, getting closer to three. We have the annual follow-up with the neurosurgeon over Thanksgiving break, I have a feeling he will just check him out and leave him status quo since his brain is not growing. The eye dr is one of the specialists that has followed Tucker from the NICU on out, so she always likes to get the health updates on him. When I told her he was diagnosed with mitochondrial disorder, and the mito doc suspects it has nothing to do with the prematurity, just two totally different problems, she asked, "wow, you guys ever think of playing the lotto?" I smiled and said "maybe in that case the odds would work in our favor!" Tucker's friend Wes is in for some big changes as well, he is going to join Tucker's class sometime this week, and he became a big brother today! Lauren and Kirby had their baby girl today, it was an exciting day. I had to leave before Kate was born to run home and get Tucker for his appointment, but Chris and I plan to go up to the hospital tomorrow. I won the baby pool, I guessed that it woudl be a girl, and that she would weigh 7 pounds, 3 ounces, which she did. I am still not sure exactly what I won! :) Tucker saw Kate's picture on my phone and said "baby" and tried to kiss her:) We found out last week that Chris's sister is having a girl in February, so Tucker will add another girl cousin to his long list! Maybe my sisters will have boys one day to help him even it out:) Or maybe Tucker just won't notice that his little cousin is a girl; he has a strict "no girls allowed" policy for his clubhouses and tents....seriously, I don't know where he gets this stuff!! I just re-read this post and realized it's all over the place and rambling, I need to post more often, then maybe I wouldn't try to sum up a whole week in a very short post. I will have to work on that.