On a Roll

Tucker has had several positive appointments, yay!! I have been hesitant to post about them, and my big plan that he won't miss anymore school before the Christmas holidays; I don't want to jinx him! We went to the dentist on Tuesday. This dentist is very good with special needs kids, so we drive out to BR to see him, at the same hospital where Tucker spent the first 8 1/2 months in the NICU. This is not my favorite place, but this dentist is great, so it's worth it. Every other time, they have put him in a little room, but this time there were procedures going on and he ended up in the big, multi patient area. This was not good, as Tucker needs a confined space. He tried to run around for awhile unti I gave him some very firm words and warnings. The dentist has a big covered wagon in the waiting room, so I promised him that he could play in it once the dentist was done. He was very well-behaved for the teeth cleaning and the fluoride treatment. As soon as that was done, he jumped up and said "wagon, wagon," which led to another round of warnings until the dentist checked him out. The dentist said he looks really good; his constant teeth grinding is taking its toll, but he has baby teeth, and the damage isn't too bad. Tucker was very patient while I paid our bill (there was a problem with the receipt printer, so it took a while) and then he was very happy to play on the wagon. I actually had to drag him out of there after; I told him he was making me feel pretty bad, when he would rather hang out in the dentist's office than go home with his mom! Yesterday Tucker spent the whole day at school, then he and I played outside for over an hour once he got off of the bus. He had a blast playing with Buck (our big dog), running around the yard. I was so cold, but Tucker didn't even seem to notice. We went inside, and I fed him. He fell asleep and slept for two hours. We went to see Dr. Thomas today (the lung doctor who has followed Tucker since he was 2 months old). It was a routine follow-up, we were seeing Dr T every 4 months, but now they have moved it out to every 6 months (yay!). Dr T said he looks good, he is really past the lung issues; he will continue to see Dr T for sleep and behavior issues. He was okay with us giving Tucker the melatonin, but he would like to try weaning him off in about 6 months. He asked me how Tucker's behavior has been; he asked me straight out if I can control Tucker. I told him Tucker's behavior was pretty hard to take last week, but once he got back into his routine at school he has been much better. One kind of big change is that Dr T told us to stop the twice daily Albuterol neb treatments. Tucker has had these treatments since he came home from the NICU, they are ingrained into his routine. He wakes up asking for two things: "teetment" and "ride da bus." At night, if Chris and I forget the second treatment, Tucker reminds us! Tucker's other doctors have been asking why Tucker still has so many lung meds if his lungs are better? I figured it was to be on the safe side, so I guess today Dr T decided he longer needs that. He will still have one puff of the Flovent inhaler each night before bed. He will still have the Albuterol prescription for us to use as needed. I have a feeling that Tucker will "need" his treatment as least once a day for a while. Someone suggested I just put water into his nebulizer; I may try that! They also weighed Tucker and measured him. He seems to have gained 2 pounds in 3 weeks. People have been commenting that he looks and feels bigger. I definitely can't carry him for more than a few minutes any more. The nurse tech asked, "what has he been eating? Or, maybe I should ask, what is he NOT eating?" I had to laugh at that, I told her he would love to not eat anything. He is 39 1/4 inches tall. Chris is very concerned with Tucker's height because he wants him to be tall enough for the big rides at Disney! The big roller coasters require a height of 44 inches, so I think Chris will just have to give that up, unless Tucker has some insane growth spurt this month. There are plenty of other rides Tucker is tall enough for, but we all know he is a thrill-seeker. I hope the other rides are good enough for him. Today I picked Tucker up from school before naptime so that I wouldn't have to interrupt the whole class's nap; so this left us with an hour of free time before his appointment. Sarah and I took Tucker to see Santa at the mall. Tucker doesn't show any big interest in Santa. I have a tacky dancing Santa that I put out each year (my Paw Paw Charles gave it to me, and I don't have the heart to get rid of it!). We took it out Tuesday night and Tucker loves it. But as for the real, in-person Santa...he is not too excited. He was very excited to go to the mall, though, since the carousel is there. I told him that he had to see Santa before he could ride the carousel. He waited very patiently while a group of giggling teenagers took their picture with Santa. I told Tucker to ask Santa for a firetruck and a dump truck (because that's what he's getting, lol), but he didn't say a single word to Santa. Santa didn't seem to mind, and we got a good picture of them when Sarah said, "want to ride the horse?" Tucker's face lit up, and he said "ride da tey-gah" and "ride da horse." Here is his picture:

He is so adorable:) Once we got the picture he grabbed both of our hands and we went to the elevator. Tucker was the only kid riding the carousel, and we let him ride twice (as usual). He was very good when it was time to get off (a huge improvement in behavior from last week!). He was fine until I told him we were going to the doctor's office. Then he started crying and screaming, but I really couldn't blame him. He cried the whole way there, but then he was very happy and well-behaved at Dr T's office. Of course it helped that we had his PreK video from last year's class on the laptop, he loves watching videos of himself. Hopefully the good streak continues; Tucker has an appointment with the Endocrinologist (blood sugar doctor) right before Christmas, but until then we are hoping for his normal school routine.

Three Appointments and a Haircut

Our busy week continued with an eye doctor appointment Friday, a dentist appointment Monday, then an ENT appointment yesterday (Tuesday). We had a pretty relaxing weekend, but on Sunday we really stressed Tucker out with a haircut! Tucker was so well-behaved for the doctors, who knew the haircut would be the worst?? Tucker has always hated haircuts, so we have been letting him grow his hair longer between each one. This time, his hair looked very Justin Bieber-ish, what a cutie:) For those who don't know our family, it is full of so many girls! And right now, most of them have Justin Bieber-fever! Gina got a CD for Easter, and a poster of Justin Bieber came with it, so it's on Mom's fridge. Then last week we stayed with the Poches in Lake Charles, and they have the same poster on their fridge! Chris asked, "geez, is this guy everywhere?" So we finally decided it was too much hair! And on Sunday Aunt Alexis cut it for us. He squirmed and squealed! Uncle Andrew had to hold him down, I don't know why Chris gave him that mean job! After about 30 minutes, and a few breaks, they were done. After that he would not sit still for a picture! So I will have to get a good one and post it. So as for the doctor's appointments: Eye doctor: Tucker had mild ROP due to his prematurity, but it regressed without any treatment. He had bad strabismus (eye crossing from weak muscles) until he was 2, which is when the eye doctor fixed it with laser surgery. Anatomy-wise, his eyes are fine. The problem is that he has such a hard time looking at what he is doing! It seems like a very bad attention problem, but his teacher and therapists really think it is a vision problem. His teacher is writing his IEP this week, and every person keeps telling her, "If he would just LOOK at what he is doing!"....fill in the blanks. Even his PT at school called me today, saying that she thinks he could "graduate" from the PT program, but he does not look at what he is doing, so he seems too unsteady at times. So anyways, the eye doctor looked at Tucker for quite a while on Friday, she just watched him walk around the room. Tucker watched Mickey Mouse on Chris's phone, he watched a part of Nemo on the doctor's TV, and he played with different toys we had brought. The doctor said that his head tilting and eye squinting is very inconsistent, and if it was a vision problem it would be very consistent. Also, when it is something Tucker WANTS to look at, like Mickey, he pays great attention and looks right at it.......So, as Chris said, cross another one of Tucker's medical excuses off of the list!! Unfortunately, it may not be that simple! There is a type of therapy that's available, its vision therapy that helps the eyes to work together. This is for kids whose eyes seem totally fine, but they just can't see words and things the way they should. This is very controversial, eye doctors apparently do not believe in this therapy one bit. So we will see about that, I guess. We have been hearing about this type of therapy for a long time, but lately it just seems to be such a huge problem, so we may be starting that up soon. Dentist: Tucker has been to the dentist's office three times now. The first time was pretty bad, but the second time was fine. The dentist likes to just check his teeth and count them, and make sure nothing crazy is going on. Tucker has a high, skinny palette from being intibated so long, so we have major orthodontic work in Tuck's future, how fun! Well this time we did not get an appointment with his regular dentist, so we met one of the partners. We walked in and the hygeneist had all of the tools set out. I asked, "you are not using all of that, are you? He will freak out!" She explained to me that she was going to do a cleaning and give him fluoride. I can not overemphasize how much Tucker HATES brushing his teeth! Every morning it is a fight, when I say "time to brush your teeth" he starts gagging. He gags and fights me the whole time, and then gags for several minutes afterwards, until he gets every bit of toothpaste out of his mouth. His teacher sings a funny song at school about teeth brushing, she said Tucker loves it. I even tried singing that, and he still cries! So anyways I was pretty worried about getting a cleaning. I told Tucker the nurse was going to brush his teeth with her tools, and that he had to be a good boy and lay still. She let him play with the tools first, and feel the sensations on his fingers. When she put the brusher (I don't know what it's called!) in his mouth, he just laid there and let her polish every tooth. I was shocked. He was terrified of the sucker thing, though, so he jumped up at that point. Then she put some fluoride on a toothbrush and told him she had to brush his teeth again. He screamed "No!" at her, and I was so proud that he said "no!" He has started shaking his head for "no" lately, and he says "no no" sometimes, but this is the first time he said it so clearly:) So I smiled to myself, but told him "yes! you are doing what the nurse asks." So he sat down and let her brush his teeth with the fluoride. The dentist came in after that and looked at his teeth. He whimpered through this, probably wondering when all of these people would get their hands out of his mouth:( They had asked me if Tucker had any major changes over the last 6 months. I replied, "none that I can think of"..... The dentist looked at his throat, and she said that having his tonsils out was kind of a big deal. I failed to mention that Tuck got his tonsils and adenoids out three weeks ago, not to mention getting his trach out in the last 6 months! So now you see why Mom usually comes with us! She would have waited for me to answer the dentist's questions, then said "actually, he did have a few recent procedures....remember, Leigh?" ENT and Audiologist: On Tuesday Tucker saw the ENT for a follow-up on the tonsil and adenoid removal. She said he is looking great, and she may not have to do anything to him anymore! So that was exciting, since she has put Tuck in the hospital three times in the last 6 months. She did have to adjust his right ear tube, though, because it was trying to dig into his skin. She did that in the office with a long needle, it looked pretty scary! The nurse held Tucker's face, and I held his arms. We told him he had to be good, and then he would get a prize. He cried a little, but stayed pretty still. When she got the tube back in, he screamed pretty loud! I was kind of happy, though, because she said that part hurt, and I was glad that he actually felt and responded to the pain. He has such a high pain tolerance that he usually ignores things like that. The dr said that Tucker was one of the best behaved kids for that procedure. He got off of the exam table and said "bye." It was so cute! He did not even hug the doctor, and this is one of his favorite docs. So I guess she is not his favorite anymore, but that's okay since we will not be going back for 6 months, yay:) We went to the audiologist's office today to get Tucker some new custom ear molds so that his ears don't get wet in the tub. That was a breeze, it barely took ten minutes. Afterwards I took Tucker to Target and finally got him a prize! He got the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse movie, Minnie's Bowtique. The 3 movies he already has are pretty worn out, they are skipping and it is kind of boring (for Chris and me) to watch the same ones over and over! Tucker also got a BIG bag of chips, what we call the "Bag of Bags". It is one of those variety pack bags, with 22 small bags of chips, Fritos being his favorite. He held onto that bag like he thought it was going to run away! So tomorrow we are going to relax! Then on Friday we have his IEP meeting, and we will meet his new teacher for next year, wish us luck!