Missing

As you may or may not know I have two little brothers, K and M, that I've been very close to my entire life (there is only a 3 year 5 month difference between me and M with K in the middle). They are both members of the military, K in the National Guard and M in the Air Force. This is the first Christmas that neither of my brothers were able to come home for. See K is currently serving a tour in Afghanistan and M is stationed in Missouri. M has missed the last few Christmases because he doesn't get leave this time of year but K has been home so this year without both of them is really hitting me pretty hard. I'm blessed to have my son, husband and parents near by but it feels odd without them here causing trouble at the Christmas celebrations. What I wouldn't give to have them home...

And then...

Come Monday morning my lifelong best friend will be moving to North Carolina with her husband. My cousin has been my best friend for as long as I can remember even when she was living with her dad across the country. People use to think she was our little sister because she was always with me and my brothers and I guess I always felt like she was my sister so to be losing the local connection with her is hard for me too. I know this won't be an easy move for her and her hubby so I hope for nothing but the best for them and that all their dreams come true.

I really shouldn't be so down this holiday season since I'm blessed to have a loving family, great friends and so much to be happy about but just thinking about my brothers and cousin makes me a little bummed.

Leaps and bounds

It's now been almost 2 weeks since Lex's tubes were placed and his vocabulary and babbling has grown. I never tired of hearing him "talk" even if it doesn't make any sense. He floored Nate the other day. Nate asked Lex where I was while they were waiting for me to pick them up at the daycare and Lex turned, pointed out the window and said "out there". He has also spontaneously said car in the past few days.

Tonight was our last night at Interact through one of the local colleges and they said they were surprised by how much babble is coming out of Lex now and that you can tell the tubes helped a lot.

Our next step is to get that hearing test done in early January and go from there, but now I have very little doubt that my son can hear.

They're in

Lex got his tubes in without complication this morning. He was very mad at me for not giving him anything to eat or drink but when he did get to eat and got some juice he was very happy. He honestly doesn't seem like he had surgery today, other than us pissing him off to put the ear drops in he's his normal self. He and I are still staying home tomorrow just in case tonight is rough but overall the day has gone well.

I was amazed at how fast everything went. His surgery nurse came and got him, Lex waved bye and me and my mother in law went down to wait in the family waiting room. I watched one "article" on the Dr's and the surgeon appeared. He said Lex did great, there was more fluid behind his right eardrum than his left but he had high hopes that when the inflammation goes down Lex will be able to hear. We have a follow up appointment in one month to test his hearing and see the ENT and hopefully they'll clear us with the exception of checking on his tubes down the road.

Nervous

Today we took Lex to have a follow up hearing test since the last time Nate brought him he had fluid behind his ear drums. Today they tested to see if there was fluid and it didn't appear that there was, however, his hearing was still not up to par. So tomorrow I get to bring him in to see an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor. The main reason was to have someone who really knows what they are looking at when it comes to Lex's ears and throat (he has a slightly runny nose right now so there won't be much peeking up there) and to make sure there really is no fluid back there. If she doesn't think there is fluid the next step is a sedated hearing test to see what the nerves are doing. This makes me nervous but so does him still having fluid back there. I have lots of scar tissue in my right ear due to the amount of fluid that builds up there because of my allergies, not to mention the number of ear infections I've had. If he has fluid still the typical next step is another round of antibiotics and then an ear check and possibly doing that again. Or it could mean tubes. I'm not comfortable with my two year old being sedated, it's perfectly fine for me, I've had several surgeries and know what to expect from recovery to healing. I know I shouldn't get ahead of myself and worry as it won't do me any good but my brain is in overdrive due to my insomnia. Hopefully when I see my doc tomorrow I'll have a little help with that.

**Update**
Lex is scheduled to have tubes placed on Monday in hopes that by draining the fluid he'll hear better. We'll have a follow up hearing test in one month when we see his ENT again. If his hearing isn't improved he'll have a sedated hearing test. At least now we have a plan.