Dori's nugget, part 2

Dr Hermann, the pediatric surgeon, ordered an MRI and later a CAT scan for Dorian's growing lump issue. When we arrived to Medical City we couldn't do the MRI because the anesthesiologist (Dr. Kampine) told us Dori was too high of a risk to intubate & sedate during the procedure due to his major heart problems and constricted airways, so we did a CAT scan instead.

We could only get one shot at keeping him perfectly still for the images to capture. After going through ALL the verses of "Wheels on the Bus" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" Chris and I were able to keep him entertained enough to do it without any setbacks.

Through the CAT scan Dr. Hermann found Dorian has abnormalities in his bone structure in his skull, a hole in his skull that is letting brain matter &/or cerebral fluid pop out of the hole. He told us this is beyond his expertise so now he has referred us onto a pediatric neurologist who can take a look at Dori's head and figure out what next steps should be (Dr. Sacco).

The good thing, Dori doesn't act like it hurts when you touch it so he's not in pain, but it may be causing him headaches from that pressure point. The anesthesiologist and his colleague (another doc he called in on her day off) were very candid about the permanent risks of putting Dori to sleep, and the possibility of cardiac failure if intubated through his narrow airways. Dr. Kampine is hands down the best pediatric anesthesiologist in Dallas... coming from a dad who literally wrote the book on anesthesiology (his doctor dad was a professor in med school to aspiring anesthesiologists) so we fully trust his concerns. Hopefully we'll get into see the neuro guy asap, don't know how far out since these guys calendars get booked pretty far out.

Just like in any profession, you are going to encounter people that are really "good" at what they do and people who are just average. We've been very best to be connected to very very good doctors throughout this process so that makes things alot easier when you have full confidence in their medical opinion.

Ben and Alex have been entertaining the babies much to their delight. Dori laughs out loud with Ben's antics, and Wynnie flaps his arms and kicks alot when Alex comes over to play. Wynnie figured out that as long as he doesn't cry, he can hang out as long as he wants to in our bed while they watch cartoons.

Just 3 short days til the babies turn 2 years old!! We are so proud of them!

October 2010

This is the best... Wynnie is world's best snuggle bug

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner~~

Kept telling Alex "smile like you're NOT pooping" and this was the best I could get

Dori pondering over the Husker stats with Chris... hmmm....

I'm so proud of all my boys! Ben and Alex are really taking an interest in reading. Report cards came home and Ben showed us his ribbon for making honor roll. We jumped up and down and gave him a big hug and Alex was really quiet. We could tell he was sad, so we said "That's ok Alex, we'll get it next time right?" Then he walked on over to Ben, patted him on the back and said "Congratulations Ben." It was so sincere I almost cried! Then Chris took Alex's backpack, turned it upside down and shook it, out fell Alex's honor roll ribbon. When Alex saw his ribbon he lit up! He was so excited he started screaming "I made the honor roll! I made it!" and he took the ribbon and hugged it. I almost cried again! It was so awesome!

The Colts (Ben and Alex's flag football team) continue to be undefeated and next weekend they will play for the city championship. Chris has fun coaching them and they are on a team with alot of sweet kids.

The babies are so full of personality. When Dori gets mad at his nurses he screams "ay ya ya ya yaaiiiiieeee" over and over again until they give him what he wants. It's so funny because I haven't noticed him doing that to Chris or I yet, only the nurses. He just started doing that 2 nights ago. He's connected with his Latin side, speaking his mind in Spanish of course. :)

Wynn loves people! Today 2 neighbor girls came over to look at our halloween decorations and Wynnie was smiling and cooing and trying to touch their faces the whole time the little girls were here. It was so cute. In the background, Dori just kept saying "Hi! Hi!! HIII!!!!".

During our parent/teacher conference at school, Ben's teacher told us how proud Ben is of his baby brothers. She said he talks about them all the time. Then Alex's teacher told us how caring Alex is towards his classmates and what a sweet boy he is. It made us so proud! It's a good thing they don't see them when they are trying to scratch each other's eyes out at home over their DS's. ha ha!

The Au Pair agency got Aury matched with 3 other families (one in Chicago, one in California, and one in Pittsburg) but she turned them all down because she didn't want to leave Dallas. So instead, the agency sent her back to Colombia. In the meantime, Anna helped me all the way from the Ukraine to help me interview an au pair candidate that we were veeerrry interested in named Viktoria. Viktoria was born in Russia but her parents and her immigrated to Germany many years ago. She is a certified "caretaker" (not a nurse, but a certified care provider) and has experience with special needs kids. Anna wrote her a letter about our family and about the babies, and then Viktoria's mom called Anna to ask her honest opinion about her life with us and the demands of working for a family with 4 kids. Anna helped seal the deal, Viktoria accepted and hopefully we'll have her by Thanksgiving here in our home. We're so relieved!

Chris and I decided to take a last minute getaway to Las Vegas with our friends the Sundells. It was the 1st time we were both away from all 4 boys at the same time. We were gone for 3 days, but it was a nice little break from reality and relaxing to spend time with good friends. Marcia stayed at our house and took care of all 4 boys, and our friends the Mazurs helped entertain Ben and Alex by taking them to the state fair when they had Monday off from school while we were gone. I went to the Wynn casino to buy Wynnie a shirt and Chris a hat that say "Wynn" on it, and while I was there I thought "I'll play a little roulette in honor of Wynnie". Well I won't use this blog time to brag about how I was the HUGE winner (turning $40 into nearly $900) because this is not the forum for that, but I'll just put it out there in case anyone wondered. I think it was Wynnie's divine influence over my chips that day. hee hee hee!

Anyhow, the babies will get new tubes in their ears in November right before Thanksgiving, so hopefully that'll help with Wynn's ear drainage and discomfort problems. Today was a fun day with all the boys and I wanted to express how much love they give us by just being themselves. I took some time to video the babies playing with each other and talking to me today. We need to do more of that. We are truly blessed, and looking forward to the end of the month (babies' 2nd birthday and our MPS Society fundraiser party). If you are interested in donating, please contact me!