Sick

This week. did not go as planned, but that is the story of my life. I am such a planner and always get upset when things don't go as planned. Having kids has definitely made me become more flexible with plans, but it still bothers me at times.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a sore throat and the boys woke up coughing and snotty. When Ben got home that afternoon he also was not feeling 100%. By Wednesday all four of us were feeling pretty miserable with bad colds. So the boys and I did not make it to playgroup because we were all sick. On Wednesday night I was awake most of the night because the boys continually took turns waking up throughout the night. As always, Ben slept through it all but that is fine because I knew he had to get up and go to work. Thursday morning Ben woke up feeling even worse as did the boys and I. Ben thought about staying home from work, but he had to get to the CIA for a job that had been scheduled so off he went. I ended up calling the pediatrician and making an appointment for the boys to be seen at 10am. We bundled up and headed out the door. The pediatrician looked the boys over and came to the conclusion that they both had a bad cold. She said Ryder had one lung that sound "junky" so we should use the nebulizer to help loosen it all up and hopefully allow Ryder to cough it out. I was told if he needed it more than every 4 hours or if he didn't improve then she would prescribe him oral steroids, but she didn't want to start them yet. So we headed back home and the boys took a 4 hour nap. I knew they did not feel well at all!

Friday morning Ben woke up not feeling well still so he decided to use a sick day and stay home from work. The boys woke up with faces covered in snot and Ryder was having a productive cough (which is actually good because it means he was clearing out the junk from his lung). We went out this morning to run a quick errand and then spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. The boys took a nap again today. Tonight the boys were definitely acting like they feel better. They spent most of the evening running around the living room doing flips and rolls with each other and just cracking up about it. I am also feeling better than earlier in the week, but still battling the annoying lingering effects of a cold (stuffy nose, tired, etc). Ben seems to be feeling better as well.

I am happy to say that we did not get hit by a horrible storm which has been predicted for Wednesday- Friday. This morning we did have about one inch of snow and the wind was really scary. Harford County closed schools today mainly because of the wind and bus safety. It continued to snow on and off throughout most of the day, but we probably only got a total of 2 inches. It was blown around so much that it is hard to tell. I think our winds were sustained at 35mph and gusts up to 60mph is what I saw on TV earlier. Tonight it has calmed down again and hopefully we will not see anymore snow this winter! I am scared to look at the forecast so I really am not sure what the upcoming weather looks like.

I am hesitant to write this, but here I go. Tonight I did receive an e-mail from the genetic counselor who works with Ryder geneticist. She said they have received the results of Ryder's MRI from Monday. The good news is his myelination is age-appropriate and there is no sign of volume loss. But they did find non-specific periventricular white matter lesions on his brain in the MRI. The genetic counselor explained these lesions are usually caused by infection or an ischemic event (lack of blood flow to the brain such as stroke). In the e-mail she told me she will be talking to the geneticist at the beginning of the week and will get back to me with more information and recommendations. So, I really don't know exactly what this all means. Of course the first thing I did was look online for information about this type of lesion and I did find lots of things about them. There are so many things that this could be so I am not even going to start mentioning possibilities yet. Once I get the call at the beginning of the week with more information then I will make another post to keep everyone updated. I want to explain the reason I said I am hesitant to post this is because I really just don't know what exactly this all means or what I will find out this week, but I wanted to keep everyone updated about all of Ryder's testing. Ryder has his therapy class on Monday (missed for the last month from testing and weather cancellations) and then he has his opthamology appointment at Hopkins in the afternoon.