I am your new bicycle

For some reason I find this very funny:

http://alan.isyournewbicycle.com

I put all of my photos from November, December, and February on Flickr.

Sam had his 6 month check-up yesterday. His chubby legs look asymmetrical The pediatrician wanted to make sure there was not a problem so Sam had an X-ray.

He was fine.

Closeted

Sunday Joni cleared all of the stuff out of the closet in the master bedroom, painted the walls, and I put in the closet organizer.

I am impressed by how versatile the kit is. It is meant to configure a 5 to 8 foot closet. The configuration I made almost doubles the mount of hanging clothes space, with (2) 3-foot bars for shirts and blouses, and a 20 inch bar for full-length items. I was also able to fit in some 16 inch shelves.

The ceiling in the closet slopes down on one side. I could still run a shelf most of the way to the other side.

If I do another closet, I will probably skip the kit and custom design it. The kit only has shelves up to 3 feet long; I could have used a couple 4-1/2 foot long shelves to continue the run for the rods, carrying the shelf run into the stack of 16 inch shelves.

The sagging bar, sagging shelf, and doors will be tossed. I will replace the doors with bi-fold doors to maximize the size of the open area.

I put more photos up on Flickr - check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/noresponse/sets/. The tags feature is pretty cool - I started organizing photos according to who is in them. The larger the size of the tag, the more often it occurs in the photos.

Flickr'ing

Da_Boyz_01
Originally uploaded by noresponse

I am experimenting with Flickr as a solution for posting photos. I put a set of photos from last week up on my new Flickr account.

Let me know how this works out.

If this does not link the photo, here is the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24053870@N04/sets/

Photo Sets

Lunar Eclipse

Here are some photos from last night's total lunar eclipse.

Henry and I drove over to the park just before 9:00 PM. I opened the aptly named Moon Roof and took some photos over the course of an hour.

Note how the moon turns orange and red as it is eclipsed.

Henry was up for about 10 minutes and then crashed. Fortunately Diane was home when I called and we stared at the moon from 1,000 miles apart.

Speaking of Diane, a plug for her blog Between the Meetings. Check out her very active Weight Watchers groups.

Before and After Pictures

Here are some photos from Wednesday. The first group are the pre-op pictures taken in the prep room outside of the procedure area in interventional radiology.

The surgeon has marked his cheek in some of the later pictures. This was the initial treatment area. Using floroscopy, they could map the interaction of the cysts and then sclerose each candidate.

After the procedure, he recounted between 6 and 8 separate areas he treated.





A good shot of those lips that send the girls swooning:







OMG - what else can you say?





Here are the post-procedure pictures taken Wednesday evening:









We took the bandage off Thursday. He is more swollen than usual and his cheek has reddened. We were told to expect that the malformation would swell larger than usual. The results of the sclerotherapy will take a few weeks to manifest. Thursday was also Sam's half birthday and Valentine's day.

Today he looks similar to Thursday, but I think the color in cheek looks more natural. He seems to be experiencing less discomfort too.

Back Home

We are back home from Sam's sclerotherapy procedure. Everything has gone better than expected so far.

He had his MRI early Tuesday morning. He was in good spirits right even as he left with the anestesthiologist (my spelling).

We came into the recovery area about an hour later and he had just arrived. He was agitated and hungry but otherwise was fine. It took about an hour for him to calm down.

We drove back in to Childrens in the snow and freezing rain Wednesday. There was about 5 inches of snow from an overnight storm.

He went into the OR right on time at 9:00, after the pre-op meetings with a nurse practictioner, the anesthiologist (same as Tuesday), and Dr Alomeri and his team. They took some "before" photos. We also took photos - I will post them later.

Sam came out of the OR and into recovery around 12:30. He was asleep when we were admitted to recovery. He had been awake and received some morphine for the pain from the doxycycline, and went back to sleep after the pain killer. He started opening his eyes about an hour later.

He was in much better spirits coming out of the procedure than he was with the MRI the day before. The breathing tube had been removed before he was brought into recovery, so they decided to keep him for observation for 4 hours instead of admitting him for an overnight stay. All went well, so we were told we could take him home after 3:30.

He has a gauze bandage on his cheek and the side of his neck. We will clean and change the dressing today, but if it looks good it will be removed Friday.

We got a prescription for codeine with Tylenol for pain. We gave him a dose yesterday and he slept well in the evening and again at night. He seems to be back on his regular feeding schedule, as he was up around 1:30 AM!

Jim and Ellie dropped by with Henry around 6:30. They took Henry home with them for another overnight. He likes to sleep in the bed with us and Sam. Better to give Sam a quiet night to recover!

Will post photos and more updates when I can.

Next Week = Big Week

Overdue for a blog posting, yes? We have not been able to find the camera, so we don't have any recent photos. But for those of you who have joined us on Skype, you have had plenty of live video, singing, and even some verse.

Next week is Sam's procedure week. Here is our schedule:

- - -
Tuesday morning Sam is scheduled for an MRI at Children's. He will have to have anesthesia to keep him from moving while the scan is being done. After the MRI, the surgeon in the radiological procedure group will examine the MRI in preparation for the procedure. The MRI will also give a baseline image of his facial and neck physiology prior to the start of the sclerotherapy courses.

Wednesday morning Sam will be anesthetized again for the first sclerotherapy procedure. He will have a breathing tube inserted.

The procedure will likely take 2 to 4 hours. We will be in the O.R.
waiting area. After and hour or so, we should get an update from a
nurse liaison.

He will move to ICU after the procedure and be monitored to make sure the swelling from the procedure does not close off his airway or constrict any vessels. He will stay overnight. The breathing tube will be removed when the swelling has normalized and his throat is clear.


Thursday he is scheduled to be released if all goes according to plan. Happy Valentine's Day!
- - -

Here is the profile for the surgeon who will be doing the procedure, Dr. Amad Alomari.


When we go home, Sam will probably have Tylenol prescribed for discomfort, but otherwise should not require any post-procedure medications.

We will have a follow up visit with the otolaryngologist some weeks after the procedure to make sure the changes in his lymphatic malformation have not had an adverse effect on his physiology.

Moving forward, we anticipate having a few more sclerotherapy procedures to complete the closure of all of the large cysts. The additional procedures are likely to be scheduled in intervals of about 3 months. We have been told to anticipate 4 or more procedures, as that is typical for malformations similar to Sam's.

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