Food and Family Fun

Cooking food for a soft diet can be a challenge. I try to serve a variety of nutritious foods, but this has put a crimp on our meal routine. The Mickey Mouse pancakes that Kim suggested were a huge hit. Micah did a happy dance around the kitchen at the sight of these. Micah has also enjoyed push-up's ice cream, or as he calls them, "Pull-Ups."
Poor long-suffering Libby.Lia, the stray cat who has been hanging around our place. We started feeding her and now she keeps coming back every day

I heartily endorse this pudding!

Just a quick update as we relax on a Friday afternoon. Micah was able to go back to school starting Wednesday. He has been a good sport since he is required to miss phys ed and recess. He spends these times with his speech therapist so I think it's not too bad. He is starting to tire of the soft diet (as are the rest of us)! You can only eat so much macaroni and cheese, pasta, pudding and popsicles. But again, he's being a pretty good sport about it.

Yesterday I spoke with the doctor's office about Micah's snoring and apnea. They put him back on the steroids to help with the swelling. Last night was a much better night's sleep. I hope after this round, the inflammation has gone down and he will continue to get his rest.

Micah is thrilled with the stray kitty that has decided that our garage is a great place to get out of the weather and that our golf cart is a cat bed. We've bought some cat food and I'm afraid the kitty may be hanging out more often at Casa De Ladman.

One Week Post Surgery

Well, one week after surgery and Micah seems to be doing great. At least during the daytime. While it's light, he's back to his cheerful and energetic self. But once tucked into bed, he reverts to that frightened boy we knew back in China and upon first coming home.

The procedure has resulted in a lot of snoring and periodic sleep apnea. We hope these are short-lived. He has been waking every few hours. And true to himself, any trauma in Micah's life plays out in his sleep. The last couple of nights he has been having terrible dreams that leave him crying hysterically. We finally get him calmed down and back to sleep only to have him wake 1-1/2 to 2 hours later with another nightmare. All he will say is that he is dreaming about the doctor. I hope this phase passes too!

Micah's speech sounds like he has a cold and is completely stuffed. We are hearing some good pressure consonants, but we're not sure if that's a result of the swelling or if it will last.

Hopefully, we'll get some sleep tonight and he can go back to school tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers.

Home sweet home!

We are home from the hospital! Hooray!

We reported to Scottish Rite just after 12:15. Micah was beyond anxious. They even sent a child life specialist to see if she could help, but she just shook her head. Finally, Micah got his Versed and things got a little better. But he was still so agitated that he fought off the goofiness that Versed usually brings. Finally they called him back to the OR. The procedure took about 40 minutes.

The doctor ended up doing a sphincter pharyngoplasty rather than the pharyngeal flap. They took a larger piece of muscle with resulted in a smaller hole that they usally leave. This could result in some breathing difficulties and snoring so we have to be on the lookout for that. I haven't actually looked in his mouth yet, so I'm not sure what it looks like.

He hated the nasal airway and was pretty mad until that finally came out after dinner time. We told him that if he drank lots he could go home the next day. He took a few sips of water and ate half a Popsicle before falling into a fitful sleep.

This morning, a brave, tough boy emerged. He made himself drink half a glass of apple juice and eat eggs, fruit and yogurt. This earned him the removal of the IV that plagued him overnight and an early discharge from the hospital.

We have already heard a few /b/ sounds that are very promising, though they could be the result of post-surgical swelling so we'll have to see what happens in the next six weeks.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We felt the love all around us through this whole process.

Mama Angst

We are counting down the days to Micah's surgery. On Tuesday, he will have surgery in an attempt to improve his speech. They will either do a pharyngeal flap or a sphincter pharyngoplasty. This surgery has been a tough call for me. The surgery to close his palate was a no-brainer. It had to be done. This one is harder to accept. It should improve his speech, but his speech has been steadily improving anyways. We finally decided that we have to trust the experts who are telling us that this is necessary.

We haven't really told Micah that the surgery will be happening. I guess he'll figure it out on Tuesday. He hates doctors and is adamant that he doesn't need surgery. I hope that this doesn't make him too angry and that he recovers quickly mentally as well as physically.

If you think about it, say a prayer for my baby and for me and Bruce on Tuesday.

Christmas Memories

A little late, but I'm finally posting pictures from our Christmas in Chicago. Micah had a wonderful Christmas and had fun visiting with family. Kurt's home is overflowing with animals. Libby enjoyed visiting her doggie cousins and quickly became one of the pack.
Micah was crazy for the cats. We would get regular status reports on the location of each cat.
Artsy shot of the Christmas tree before opening presents.
Santa brought Micah the Larry Boy jeans he wanted so desperately.
There were lots and lots of presents!

The adventures of Snowflake the Elf

This year, Snowflake returned to our house. Each evening he traveled to the North Pole to report to Santa on what he saw in our house. Then each morning he returned and got created some mischief in our house. One morning, Snowflake had a snowball fight and covered the floor with cotton ball snowballs!

One morning, he took mama's knitting needles and knit a few rows!
He stole Skittles....and yarn...
Hung from the chandelier.... and I think he drank the Dubbel (Belgian ale).Micah was a little worried that Snowflake wouldn't find us in Chicago. We left him a Google map and he managed to appear at Uncle Kurt's house!