A Meeting at the School

I had the appointment at the school with Nathan's teacher, the school counsellor, and the school district psychologist. It was rather enlightening.

Nathan's big skills are in non-verbal, hands on areas and his verbal areas are seriously lacking. To average out his scores, he fits into the average for his age but if you look at them separately...WOW, what a difference.

Some of what was said wasn't a surprise, I already knew that he was a hands on, impulsive type of kid and his language skills are lacking. Basing her opinion on her education and experience, the psychologist can reasonably say that Nathan has a language based learning disability.

At this point, all we can do is modify some of his stuff to make it more fun, more creative, and more visual. The earlier grades can be modified in such a way but later on there may be some trouble doing that. This is great information to be passed on to his Grade One teacher so she can "understand his unique set of skills and weaknesses".

The psychologist recommends further and repeated audiology testing. Although his last test was clear and there doesn't appear to be any more hearing loss, his history of ear infections and fluid causing mild hearing loss could repeat itself. She also recommends he be tested for a Central Auditory Processing Disorder. That can't be done until he's at least 7. The psychologist said that he can wait until later fall to do that since there will be a some big changes right after he turns 7; the baby is due that month and he'll be starting Grade One.

All in all, the meeting went well. It confirmed some of my suspicions and let me know that no one is at fault. Neither the school nor us the parents are failing Nathan. We now have some ideas on how to help Nathan succeed and that is what my goal was. I didn't want him "labeled" but I wanted an understanding of why he was struggling. Now I have some ideas and I can proceed with helping him in a more visual, creative way.

On another slightly different topic, Nicholas was getting a little restless during the meeting so he was taken down to Nathan's class room. Nathan just lit up when he saw Nic. Nicholas went in, sat next to Nathan on the mats and did whatever the big kids were doing. He even tried to play BINGO with the big kids. Nathan and another boy helped Nic with his BINGO card.

I asked Nic what he did in the class and he said, " I learned stuff!" He was so happy to be in school with Nathan. LOL Nic was so upset when I said that we had to leave to run errands and that Nathan was going to stay at the school. Nic wanted to stay at school with Nathan. I felt kind of bad for him since he was having so much fun but he's only 3 and a half and not ready for kindergarten. Although, he'd probably say that he was. LOL Poor kid.

Horrible Mommy Moment

Basing my opinion on the fact that Nicholas has one visible gall stone and potentially more that are not seen yet, I think I sent him into a gall bladder attack this week.

I made fried chicken one night and Nicholas ate half a breast. The following morning, he woke up complaining that his belly hurt then promptly had a technicolour yawn. He got sick a few more times over the space of 5 hours then was perfectly fine.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning since Nathan ate the other half of the chicken breast and wasn't sick at all the next day.

I called the GI clinic and they said to call back the next morning if he was still sick and they'd fax over another lab requisition. Since he was fine by then, I didn't do it.

A gall bladder attack may fit...greasy food then belly pain and vomiting lasting less than 12 hours. Oh, the questions I'll have at the next appointment.

Parasite #3

I had my first OB appointment last Monday. It was a short and sweet visit. No big pile of paperwork since I had been a patient back in 2004. The only info that had changed was my work number.

My blood pressure was 140/70 which is consistant to what I've been sitting at all pregnancy. The baby's heartbeat was strong and it kept moving away from the doppler. Nathan was the same way, he hated the monitors. He'd skitter away until there was no room left then he started to kick or punch them away. Only my kids eh? LOL

Dr. Jiwa wants me back on the Metformin because it may help slow my weight gain and control any potential blood sugar issues. I've dodge the gestational diabetes bullet twice before but you never know what will happen this time. This pregnancy has been so easy on me so far that SOMETHING has to go wrong. LOL Yes, I'm a glass half empty type. LOL

She sent me for some more blood tests too. Mostly just to get a baseline so if something starts to spike we'll see it right away and be able to deal with it before it gets out of hand. I still have to do my 24hr urine collection and a blood test after that. Again it is only to get a baseline. It's all to do with my high blood pressure.

The OB has ordered my next ultrasound. Hopefully we'll get better images this time. So I'll be doing the pee-pee dance again on Tuesday.

So everything is going well for the time being on the baby front.

Nicholas's latest GI appointment

I took Nic into the GI clinic on April 10th. I ended up pretty disappointed.

After loads of waiting (go figure, it's a specialist's office) the doctor was only with us for a few minutes. She ordered more blood tests and another liver ultrasound. Apparently the first ultrasound wasn't totally clear because Nicholas was full of gas. I always knew he was a little stinker. LOL

Any way, he has ONE gall stone that may be the cause of all his troubles. The doctor wants another ultrasound to see if it has gotten bigger, smaller, moved, asexually reproduced, etc.

His liver was not enlarged at the latest appointment so he's OK for now. I asked about an MRI or a CT scan to maybe see the gall bladder and liver better and she said that he'd have to be sedated and she wants to avoid putting him under until they have to. He's already had anesthetic 3 times. She kind of wants to wait and see for a while longer. We're already scheduled for the next liver ultrasound and his next appointment and the blood tests were done that day.

I asked about doing the liver biopsy and she said that she'd have to consult with yet another doctor. She apparently has "learned from her mistakes". She has done liver biopsies then found out that another doctor needs in on the case and he'll need samples too so they have to redo the biopsy. So, we're gonna wait on that one for a little while longer too. She needs to see the new liver ultrasound and the blood test results before she does anything else.

I left the appointment very disappointed. I know they have to do tests to get a diagnosis but hasn't he had enough tests already?

Ultrasound for Baby #3

I made the appointment, drank the GALLONS of water required, then tried to lay still as an evil sadist of an ultrasound tech ran a cold gelled wand across my belly.

OK, so she wasn't much of a sadist, she let me get up twice during the exam to make my bladder gladder. LOL I was so bloody full! LOL

I had my suspicions that this baby wasn't as old as I hoped. With 40-45 day cycles I can't see me ovulating at the same time as a "normal" woman with a 28 day cycle. It was pretty close though; I had it calculated at 18 weeks 3 days and the tech said 18 weeks 1 day. Not too bad. However, I can see the dates still changing because she could only get one measurement to make her guesstimate with.

The baby was laying in a weird position so getting all the appropriate measurements and views was next to impossible. Saying that, I'll have to go in for another ultrasound in the near future to get further info.

However, even though the baby was in a weird position, we could still see the heart beating (just couldn't get the info the radiologist needs) and we got quite a clear view of this not so shy baby's nether bits. We (Stephen, the boys and I) know what it is but because some family members do NOT want to know (and they occasionally read this blog) I cannot spill the beans here. Head to motherhood.ca or eventually I'll say it on Facebook. Or ask me via email...Or you can call me...Or text even! LOL

All in all, there were 2 arms, 2 legs, a heartbeat, 2 heads (KIDDING) and lots of movement. Yes Hope and Carol, there was only 1 baby in there. TOLD YA! LOL