Home sweet home

My mom and dad are home! I talked with my dad earlier this morning and then again around 1:30pm and they were getting close to home when I talked to him early this afternoon. I know both my mom and dad are very happy to be home and will be happy to sleep in their own beds, shower in their own shower, etc...

My mom's youngest sister Beth is a teacher in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and drove down this weekend to stay (I think for a week) to help my mom and dad with caring for my mom now that she is out of the hospital. THANK YOU Aunt Beth!!! I haven't talked to them since they arrived home, but I am guessing they might both need a good nap :)

In other news... I took Whitney to a new pediatric otolaryngologist today after learning in April that Whitney had fluid behind both ear drums and mild hearing loss in both ears (we already knew she was not hearing correctly, but an ABR exam confirmed the hearing loss in both ears.) I was very disappointed (to put it mildly) in the doctor that Anne had seen since she was a baby and who performed surgery on Anne 2X to place tubes in her ears. Today was the soonest appt we could get after going to the Indiana School for the Deaf in April, but it was worth the wait! Whitney's new doctor (and her nurse) were WONDERFUL and cared enough to address the issues relating to Whitney's heart, breathing, hearing, etc... Whitney does still have fluid in her ears and needs tubes (as I tried to talk with the previous doctor about when we saw her in March). The doctor told us that tubes like the ones Anne had are too big for Whitney's tiny ear canals, she will need special tubes that she called tiny tabs. In addition, while they are performing this surgery, the doctor plans to do a scope and look closely at Whitney's adenoids and tonsils. She will contact our pulmonologist prior to surgery to find out if there is anything specific he would like to have checked while she is under. She also said she would be in contact with our cardiologist to make sure we have a pedicatric anesthesiologist who would know any precautions to take given Whitney's heart condition. She normally performs this surgery at a surgery center, but she wants to make sure all precautions are taken, and plans to schedule this surgery at the St. Vincent Children's Hospital, so in case there would be any complications, we would be in a hospital rather than a surgery center. She performs surgery on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so now I am just waiting for someone to call to schedule (hopefully soon!) I am thankful now that the other doctor did not do a thorough exam to find out that Whitney did indeed have fluid (that was not visible simply by looking in her ears) that would require tubes, because it seems that by the way she examined Whitney in the office visit, she would not have taken all of the precautions and steps that are going to be taken now to place tubes in Whitney's ears to hopefully help her hear properly.

One other thing - I cut Whitney's mohawk yesterday. I know it needed to be done, but it broke my heart to cut the only hair she was born with... but it just kept growing and now that all of the hair on her head has come in, she is a bleach blonde and the "mohawk" was a darker strawberry blonde color... it looked a little strange having these long dark pieces mixed in with this short, fuzzy white-blonde hair. I will try to post pictures soon.

Thank you to everyone for your care and concern for my mom, she has made it through the toughest part and now just needs to get stronger every day. Hopefully my dad can survive all of the stress of being home and trying to catch up with all of the clients who have waited for him and work that has piled up while he was busy going back and forth to Chicago and Indianapolis for doctor appts and the surgery this past week.