Friday, February 27, 2009

Operation "Save the Tube" update

Cam has continued to do really well taking the ear drops, although we've been doing the drops 2x/day, not 3x as the doc prescribed. Logistics! :) We won't know about the tube until we see the ENT after we return from Kauai, but are hoping for the best (of course!). Cam is feeling much, much better and we think he knows something is up because the dogs are gone and there are suitcases everywhere!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Operation "Save the Tube"

Going well so far; turns out Cam likes to have the front of his ear massaged. He giggles because he can hear the antibiotic ear drops squishing around in there. Its only been a couple of days, but we haven't seen anything come out, but it would be easy to miss the tube if it were to fall out. Please think good thoughts for the tube to stay in his ear :) Have a great weekend, everyone!!

ps
finally got a chance to update the blog; there are at least 8 new entries. Sorry for the delay - turns out my new FaceBook addiction is taking time away from blogging about the Ding Dong :)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Cam and the Froggie Tent - part duex


Is it more fun to play *in* the tent, or *under* it? ;)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Visit with ENT

We saw Dr. Malotte this afternoon. He confirmed the tube is blocked but that so far its still in place, although the infection is pushing on Cam's ear drum, so its possible for the tube to come out. We are hoping and praying that doesn't happen because it means another potential surgery for Cam if he starts getting ear infections every few weeks again.

In a small percentage of cases, the hole from the tube doesn't close up (95%+ of the time it does within a few days of the tube popping out), so we wouldn't have to do a surgery until Cam was older, and then we'd have to go in to actually close up the hole. Fun stuff!!

Dr. M prescribed some antibiotic ear drops we need to put in 3x/day - we have to lay Cam on his side, put in the drops and then massage the front of his ear for 60 seconds....we'll see how that goes! :) Cam's been so great about taking his antibiotic (10ml via a spoon dropper, which he willingly sips from, woohoo!!), we've got high hopes he'll do well with this. We'll follow Dr. M's instructions to the letter in the hope that we'll save the tube. (Save the Tube - it sounds like a non-profit group, lol!)

So, that's the update. Cam is feeling better and tonight is 48hrs on the antibiotic, so he should sleep better tonight than he has. That will improve things tremendously - he's never been a kid that has handled being tired well :)

Hope you all are healthy and germ-less!

ps
we're bummed we didn't get to go down and see the Amgen Tour of California bike race - the leg today ended here in Paso. The only cool thing to happen here since we moved here and right as they were coming into town, we were sitting down in Dr. M's office in SLO. We were bummed to miss Lance and Floyd (we saw their buses on our way home), but Cam's health is more important. We'll see it next year, if we're still living in Paso :)


Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Ear infection post tubes :(

Cam had a rough weekend, sleep-wise. It capped off last night, however - he was up every 45 minutes just inconsolable. He's had a runny nose and cough; we both thought it was the bronchiolitis again, so called the doc first thing Tuesday morning.

When we saw her, after doing a quick lung check, she checked Cam's ears. Turns out that the tube in his left ear is blocked and has caused an ear infection. The right tube is still in place and doing its job. Cam wasn't particularly cooperative while she was trying to check his ears, so she's not sure what is blocking the tube.

She put Cam on the amoxicillin for 10 days and advised us to go see the ENT doc to see what can be done about the blocked tube. We're hoping this doesn't mean any additional surgery but will have to wait to find out until we see the ENT doc on Thursday (we're so happy they are able to squeeze us in!). Luckily this is early in the ear infection and hopefully Cam will feel a lot better in a couple of days when the inflammation goes down.

Dr. Nave doesn't think this is going to impact our trip to Hawaii next weekend, but of course, we want Cam to feel as good as possible for the travelling we're about to do. Fingers crossed the amoxicillin does its job quickly!

More on Thursday…

Monday, February 16, 2009

Happy outside kid!

We've had a bunch of rain this past week and finally got a clear afternoon, although it was overcast and cold, that didn't deter us from playing outside. Cam was *thrilled* to get to play in his beloved wagon, although it did require a bit of drying out :)

Trip to Grandpa and Grandma's in Anaheim!

We had promised to go visit Grandpa and Grandma in Anaheim right at the first of the New Year, but various illnesses have kept us from following through. We finally got a weekend where everyone was healthy (well, so we thought), found out Dick and Janice were going to be home, and decided to go for it. At the very least, we hoped it would give us an idea of how Cam might travel on our trip to Kauai in a few weeks.

Cam did GREAT in the car. He only took a 35 minute nap, but luckily we had brought the dvd player from Evelyn, played a couple of Mr. Rogers dvds for him and before we knew it (and before any major meltdowns!) we were in Anaheim! The drive was about 4 hours, and the last time we made it Cam was napping a LOT more. We're thinking that the new bigger carseat (Britax Marathon, worth the $$$) and turning the carseat around a couple of months ago have made a HUGE difference.

Cam adjusted to the new environment and didn't torture Patches (he loves to chase Grams cat, Bonnie). He'd had a little cough and runny nose for a while but it seemed to kick into overdrive once we got to Anaheim. He slept ok overnight and took an ok nap, but definitely was off. On Sunday morning after breakfast, we all bundled up and went to play at the park a few blocks away - lots of swings, slides and rides. We all had fun and Cam burned a bit of energy off, always a good thing.

Probably the highlight of our trip was the Kevin and I got to go shopping - just the two of us - for the upcoming wedding. Grandpa and Grandma offered to babysit, and since Cam had been having so much fun, we decided to see how it went. They all had a great time and no one had any meltdowns :) It was a short visit to a nearby mall, but it marked the first time Cam's been babysit - ever. We'll see about finding a local babysitter and maybe mommy and daddy will go out to dinner together sometime soon :)

We had a great time visiting with Grandpa and Grandma! Thank you for having us down and we can't wait to do it again!

ps
we'll ask Grandma about sending us some of the photos they took while we visited - we traveled light and didn't bring our camera for the trip. We won't do that again - we missed too many Kodak moments.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Chef Boyardee-to-Be

We had a bunch of apples that were just begging to be turned into an apple pie. Since it was a rainy, icky day, it seemed like a fun thing to do.

Cam was a big help; he climbed up on the stepstool and helped to stir the apples to mix them in with the cinanamon, nutmeg and sugar. Won't be too long now before we can get him helping with making dinner for the family!

ps
don't you just love Cam's "Blue Steel" Zoolander look in the photo on the right? Our boy will be a model! JK!

Friday, February 6, 2009

I think I found my new room

Cam decided that he wants to take over Chance's crate as his new room.

Chance was not amused :)


Thursday, February 5, 2009

Hello. How cute am I?

Cam-a-lam-a-ding-dong hamming it up for the camera :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Cam got his first drum today


Something tells me this won't be the last drum he gets :) He loves how loud it is but also that the "beater" it comes with can be used on other stuff - we'll be hoarse soon telling him to only use it on the drum :)

You have to turn up the volume *really* loudly to appreciate just how loud this darn thing is (Kevin's idea, after Cam loved playing with cousin Loretta's drum over the holidays) - take how loud that is and multiply by 10. I need cotton balls for my ears :)

ps
you can hear Charlie nervously drinking water in the background :)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cam kicking like "Little Bad Bunny"


We love "Bunnytown" in this houseold and when Cam started kicking balls like Little Bad Bunny, we had to get it on video. Enjoy!

ps
Mr. Keogh - we think Cam is going to be GREAT at soccer in another year or so! :)