Roller coasters

The last time I was on a roller coaster was almost exactly 4 years ago. Pete and I had just finished packing up and getting rid of some of the items from the nursery that we had completed for the baby boy we were supposed to adopt. We decided that we needed to get out and do something fun, something silly, something different. We headed to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, not too far from where we lived in San Diego. If you've never been there, it's a rather dirty place, so I wouldn't recommend it! Why we didn't just drive a little farther to Disneyland, I'm not sure. Perhaps because the happiness and perfect-ness of Disney might just have been too much for us at the time. So we headed off to Magic Mountain for a day of rides, games, and junk food. Again, considering how dirty this place was made me a little nervous to ride some of the massive roller coasters for which the theme park is known, but ride roller coasters we did! I'm not really an adventurous person, but something about a fast, high, winding roller coaster just makes me laugh and cry at the same time. We made the most of our day and, I believe, rode every roller coaster in the park. I just love roller coasters...the literal kind, that is.

Emotional roller coasters, on the other hand, I could do without. Our "unexpected journey" continues to be the up-and-down ride of our lives. Here's the latest on our little Luke...
He was supposed to have surgery this morning: a sedated ABR (brainstem response test for hearing) and adenoids removed. The audiologists have tried non-sedated ABR 4 times, all of which came back as "failed." The sedated ABR is a much more intensive test which lasts a couple of hours and should give us a much clearer idea of what issues might exist with Luke's hearing.  Our ENT doctor said from the very beginning that Luke would for sure need his adenoids and tonsils removed and feels doing his adenoids now, though not ideal to do it this young, will help his breathing issues significantly. This was originally scheduled as an outpatient surgery, but anesthesia wants it to be inpatient due to Luke's past history with anesthesia/oxygen support, so it has been rescheduled to April 28th. Hopefully we can still go home the same day, however.  They also wanted to give him a little more time to be sure he has fully recovered from the RSV/bronchiolitis before going under anesthesia again.

We are still trying to get the Hirschsprung's disease under control as well. Unfortunately, after doing so well for quite some time, Luke has not passed a stool on his own for well over a month now. (I just know one day Luke will not be happy with me for sharing too much information about his bowel movements here!) We were at Children's for our monthly follow-up and Dr. Reynolds was concerned with what she saw, which were loops of bowel protruding from his abdomen. We had weaned down to irrigation once a day, but are now back up to twice a day which seems to help his overall comfort. We will see her again on the 27th, at which time she will likely schedule a procedure where she will stretch the internal sphincter muscle and inject it with a steroid to keep the muscle from further tightening. We're really hopeful that this will help his discomfort and abdomen distention. It will likely be a procedure that Luke will need to have done on a regular basis for years to come.

In addition, Luke will see the cardiologist for a repeat echocardiogram in a few weeks and will begin seeing the pediatric ophthalmologist in a few weeks as well. Otherwise, he continues to progress well in therapies, though we have yet to make it an entire session without him passing out cold, snoring and all. We joke that it's his coping mechanism whenever he sees the therapist show up because he almost instantly starts covering his eyes with his hands as if to say...no therapy today, I'm too tired! The nutrition therapist is very happy with his growth and the fact that he is eating his cereal and veggies like a champ. She's helping us closely monitor his diet now that he's on solid foods as it's a tricky balance with the Hirschsprung's/tummy issues. On another positive note, Luke's recent thyroid panel (which needs to be checked every 6 months) came back normal. Phew! He needs a break somewhere.

Even though our "roller coaster" of life continues to have its ups and downs, we know that we are going to come out stronger because of it and, as a result, so will Luke, Olivia, and Jackson. I guess if you don't have those twists and turns, those ups and downs, then how can you grow? How can you learn? We don't need the roller coasters of Magic Mountain. After all, what they say is true...life is an adventure!