Strep Throat

Strep throat is no friend of the Johnsons'.  Apparently the awesome playroom I shared pictures of Tripp playing in sent a little friend home with us..  Tuesday evening Tripp started running a low grade fever and by Wednesday evening it was a nice 102.8.  So we called and got him in with the pediatrician the following morning and we he woke up that morning, no fever. Typical, right?! Well about an hour after Josh got home with him, the fever came back.  So I called the ped. to let her know and we started him on an antibiotic that afternoon.  Late that night, his fever spiked to 103.  I went to rock him in the living room and he vomited like the exorcist.. he scared the mess out of me and Josh b/c we have never seen him like this before.  It was pretty much awful.  Luckily, his body reacts to Tylenol fairly quickly.  So we gave him a dose after rinsing him off in a luke warm bath.  It came down about 30 min later..  So we all went to bed.. and the next morning, the fever reared its ugly head again at 103.3 and again, vomiting came with it.  During all this, his fluid intake has been minimal so at this point we're starting to worry about him getting dehydrated.  So we went back to the ped office to try to check his urine. While we were there, she checked him all over again and this time his throat was red. So she did a rapid stress test and it came back positive... it was faint, but that was because he had received 2 doses of his antibiotic.  Thank goodness it was positive b/c it saved the poor guy from having to get cathed.  So we decided to leave him on the antibiotic so it covered the strep and whatever else his li'l body was fighting off.   He hasn't run a fever since Friday night, but he's still being pretty picky about what/when he was wants to eat or drink.  Rice cereal, yogurt, and gerber fruit puffs are the only things on his menu right now.  He went back for a re-check today and everything is looking good!  However, he got spoiled having me or Daddy home for 4 days in a row and pouted with his sitter most of the day.  He wouldn't take his snack or drink from her, but if she sat it on the table or carpet and walked away.. he would go straight to it.  If his little attitude continues to grow with him, we are in for some serious trouble when he becomes a hormonal moody teenager! :o(  But thank the Lord, he's bouncing back pretty quickly from this! 

Tubes

Tripp got tubes placed in his ears this morning at Wolfson's Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville.  So far, this is the quickest surgical procedure he has had. I think Josh and I were in the waiting room for maybe 15-20 minutes before they came to take us back to the recovery area.  Tripp did really well! Since the procedure was so quick, he was only under for a short period. He didn't have to get an IV or be intubated, so recovery was smooth unlike other times.  It was nice to see him awake when they brought him back and not still groggy, thrashing, crying & desatting.  I'm so glad we went ahead with this and didn't wait any longer.  Dr. Sprecher said there was fluid in both ears and it was thick like glue. :o(   We follow up with him in a month and Tripp will have a hearing test done that day.  We can already tell a difference b/c he's reacting to really loud noises slightly different now and has been babbling non stop since we got him home! :o)    Thanks for checking in on him and for all the prayers that are lifted up for him!   Here are some pictures of him playing in the waiting room this morning! 

Forgot something!!

Guess I could've given you a weight and height update, huh?!?!


Ready...?     His weight is up to 21lbs 9oz and he is 31.25in tall!!!   He's growing out of 12mth clothing and into 18mth clothing.  Carter's here I come!! LOL  I LOVE there clothes!! I seriously could blow a large sum of money in there in one day!  And I would never hear the end of it from the hubby bc Tripp would have clothes and we wouldn't...hahahahah...

Appt updates.. several..

Things have been pretty hectic in the Johnson household as of late.  Since Tripp started walking about 2 months ago we have been chasing him nonstop! :o)  He's also had several appointments as well.. so I'm just going to list them out.

- Orthopedics:  We took him to see Dr. Mazur at Nemours for a 6 mth follow up with new xrays of his spine.  The first set didn't look too hot because they took them with Tripp laying down, which is how we normally do it. Once Dr. Mazur came in and saw that Tripp was walking, we had to do a new series with him standing up.  These came back and looked much much better! There was hardly any curve where the misformed vertebra were.  While Tripp has been growing bigger so have the vertebra and we got a new diagnosis for him. Instead of having "hemivetbra", basically the vertebra are broken halves that grow independent of each other and have a good chance requiring surgery, Tripp has "butterfly vertbra".  Butterfly vertrebra are completely intact but basically look like a butterfly and these almost never require surgery!  How awesome is that?! But if for some reason Tripp's did cause a curvature in his back, surgery is the only option because of the location of the misformed verterbrae.  They are in the upper thoracic are of his spine.  We are going back in March to meet with a spinal surgeon to get established so he can monitor Tripp's spine as he grows to make sure his spinal chord isn't being pinched.  

-Opthamology:  At the beginning of January, Josh took Tripp for an eye exam. Much to our surprise, Tripp is still very far sighted.  His eyes had improved some but not enough.  Dr. Khuddus didn't want to put him in glasses again because he refuses to wear them. So we are going to wait a year, take him back next January for another exam and go from there. 

-ENT:  Tripp has been battling ear infections since the Fall, so he is getting tubes in his ears this coming Monday, Feb. 6th.  We'll follow up with the doctor a month later for a hearing test.  I'm hoping he'll start trying to say more words once he gets all of the fluid out of his ears.  He has a very limited vocabulary right now. Momma, Dad, Ba (bottle or ball), no, mine, stop, bye bye... I think that's about it.  And we talk and read to him alllllll the time. I have a feeling speech therapy will be in our future! :o)

-Ped Surgery:  This was a bittersweet appointment for me.  We took Tripp in for a 6 mth follow up for his esophageal atresia.  Since he has been doing so well and having no choking issues from a stricture in the scar tissue of his esophagus, Dr. Islam discharged us from the clinic!  This is really really great! But made me kind of sad because Dr. Islam has been his doctor since he was 3 weeks old.  He placed Tripp's g-tube at 3 weeks so he could get my breastmilk and thrive.  He fixed my baby's broken esophagus so that he could live a happy normal lifestyle!! And when Tripp had complications from the surgery, he's the one who would go by to check on him multiple times during the day and call in the middle of night to check on him.  I'll never be able to thank him enough for what he did for my son!  I looked forward to our visits with him so he could see how much progress Tripp was making!   I was also very sad because his fellow, Dr Dickey had moved away because she completed her fellowship.  She was actually the first person we met on the surgical team and we loved her too!  Dr. Islam was kind enough to take a picture of Tripp and text it to her! I hope it brightened her day! :o)

On the therapy forefront, we have our annual IFSP review coming up to see if Tripp still qualifies for his therapies.  I'm pretty sure he does b/c he's on a 12-14 mth level for most things.  His therapist did her review last week to get ready for it and there were a few things Tripp hadn't started doing yet.. Like, standing up without pulling up on something, crouching down to pick up toy and standing up without falling over, walking backwards..    Well, apparently Mr. Man heard the laundry list of things he wasn't doing and started doing all of them about 2 days later.. LOL  Unfortunately, she can't change her evaluation but she can add some additional notes to it. :o)

So, that's pretty much it..  I'll let y'all know how our ear tube adventure goes! :o)

Crainialfacial Annual Appt

Today was Tripp's annual appointment at the Crainialfacial Clinic and it went surprisingly well. I was nervous about how he would respond to 8 teams of dr's coming in to look at him and check his mouth out but he handled it like a rockstar! He fell asleep about 30 minutes after we got there, so he slept through 3 of the teams. And only the dentist looked in his mouth this time so I was nervous for nothing. :)  All of the dr's were very pleased with his progress. Developmentally for speech, he is at 12-14mth level which is right on track for his adjusted age.

Something interesting we found out is the Genetecist we saw back in February stated in his assessment that he would not classify Tripp as having VACTERL or VATER. The reason being that these associations typically involve renal and anal abnormalities and Tripp has neither of those! He also says the cause for Tripp's problems are unknown. So whatever the reason, God blessed us with unique fearless stubborn little boy who we wouldn't trade for the world!! :)

Fall Family Fun Day 2011

This past Saturday, we took Tripp to Roger's Farm in Alachua, FL.. Every Fall they set up a pumpkin match with a mini-carnival and corn mazes. With winter just around the corner, this is probably one of last outings together as a family until the spring. Enjoy the pictures :)

The boy hates sitting on grass, dirt and apparently hay..

He LOVED the pony ride!!

He was tired of pictures at this point..lol

August 2nd

Check out our ticker there to the right.. do you see it?  Adjusted age: 1 year, 2 days!  So I'm a little late, but Tuesday was my actual due date and the day Tripp should have at least been born near.  Surprisingly, this date didn't upset me this year.  I think I had more mixed feeling on his birthday than I did my due date.  Plus, with everything going on I haven't had much time to think about it. God takes care of us, even when we don't realize it. I'm so thankful for this precious miracle He blessed us with.  And my heart aches for those precious angels we met in the NICU that didn't make it home.. and also those I've never actually met, but know their stories.  Whenever I think about them, I hold Tripp a little longer and closer and say a quick prayer for those Momma's who will never get to have that.  I can't imagine the hole that must leave in your heart.  I don't know how I got to that  from where this post started, but its just something I wanted to say.  

He's a picture of our big boy!

Playing in cousin Kolby's Fire Truck :)