Playing Catch up- Take 2

So last time , we talked about how Fishing Pole kept me busy with his surgeries.. And is still keeping me busy while he's still on restrictions..

I'm going to try to summarize because we can all tell by now that I am no good at sticking to a plan or this post would have been up last week!

The week following Fishing Pole's surgery was a busy busy week.   On Monday, Dimples had an appt with a Psych to confirm all of our thoughts/fear (pediatrician, us parents, & his teacher).  Dimples was diagnosed with Autism.  Techinically, Asperger's syndrome but as "they" are soon to be doing away with that term and just incorporating it all under the Autism Spectrum Disorder umbrella, we'll just say high functioning Autism.   In the future, I may refer to it either way.   :sigh:.  This is a diagnosis that we've felt was coming for years now.  He has so many classic autistic symptoms, I'm surprised it took this long to get it.   FYI- if you want to incorporate an autism dx into your IEP (currently has a speech IEP), the school (at least ours) states that they do not recognize a doctor's diagnosis of Autism..  WTF?  I can feel a new fight coming on..

On Wednesday, Southern Darlin' had an MRI scheduled for her Brain.. Just to recheck the cysts we'd found there the previous year.   With some great Momma conning, I was able to get them to fit Dimples in for his MRI at the same time (to check for tethered spinal cord).  I do love our Children's hospital in that they always try to accommodate if they can.

Since both kids were being sedated, Daddy Chaos took off work and came along. We split up , I went with Dimples, Daddy went with Southern Darlin'.   In reality, Dimples went back a few minutes prior to Southern Darlin' so I was able to be with each of them as they drifted off to sleep.  Our hospital uses general anesthesia for MRIs vs iv sedation.   Probably a good thing since Southern Darlin' was getting a brain & full spine MRI which lasted 4.5hours.  ugh.

S.D. still doped up from the MRI :)

Dimples making a silly face.. Showing off Ducky Monkey's gown that the nurses made..

Both kiddos did great and then we were off to Southern Darlin's neurosurgery appt.  I LOVE our neurosurgeon.  She did both of Fishing Pole's back surgeries and is very personable.

Good news- Southern Darlin originally had 2 small cysts in her brain.. The smallest one has disappeared completely! Woohoo!  The other one, the one we worried more about, has shrunk just a teeny tiny bit.  Woohoo!!  The Dr was thrilled to pieces!!!  We are free from MRI's for a few years now, she does want to recheck again during puberty to make sure nothing starts growing.   Awesome appointment!!

Since we were there, the Dr asked how Fishing Pole was doing (remember this is 1 week post surgery) and I mentioned that Dimples just had his MRI done to check for tethered cord as well.. She immediately said, let me just go check on that for you..  She came back a few minutes later and we just turned our appointment into one for Dimples as well.   Yes, he most definitely had tethered cord as well.  ugh.   We knew this was probably coming but it's still not fun.   Our Dr is amazing (have I mentioned that yet) and we went right into discussing surgery options ect.  She decided since Fishing Pole had retethered and she had to go higher up for the second surgery, she would like to just go at the higher spot to start with for Dimples and hope that he wouldn't retether..   We walked out to schedule surgery..

Imagine our surprise when she had room the FOLLOWING week!!  Egads!!  We opted to go ahead and get it done. Hoping that the sooner it was done, the less likely chance he'd have of long term issues like FIshing Pole..

Surgery went well for Dimples.  He is most definitely NOT his brother when it comes to surgery/pain.  While Fishing Pole had to be repeatedly told to calm down, walk carefully, ect.. Dimples had us carry him everywhere for about a week.  He was only in the hospital 2 days, thank goodness .. Immediately upon waking up from surgery , he wanted to GO HOME..He does not do well with strange people & places.. :(   Hello Autism, thank you so much... 


It's been several weeks since the boys both had surgeries.  While they are still on restrictions, they are doing better every day.   We have noticed a decline in Dimples at school. His teacher described him as "delayed" thinking he was on pain meds that were fogging his mind but alas, he's been off all meds for a while.. :sigh:


On a completely happier note..  We celebrated birthdays of 2 of the 3 boys!   Fishing Pole turned 8!! and  Attitude King turned 16!!!   It's hard to imagine that they have both grown so much!  Makes a Momma a bit sad seeing all her kiddos growing up :(

Stop growing already !!