Fish Breath!

Ha... I'm sure you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about! I watched Jenny McCarthy on The Doctor's last week. It was an episode devoted to Autism and ways to "cure" your child of it's symptoms. One of the things she talked about was Cod Liver Oil and how her son Evan lost his language skills, but after 4 days on Cod Liver Oil, his language more than doubled. So I looked this stuff up on the internet and read about ALL the benefits of Cod Liver Oil. It is packed with Vitamins A & D, and contains high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids (DHA & EPA, which benefit your eyes, development of the brain, heart, digestive system, etc). It helps boost energy levels and improve your overall mood (used for depression), promotes cognitive function, helps you sleep better, improves immune system, builds strong skeletal system...LOTS and LOTS of benefits. I read where it has helped other kids with their language skills so I thought, why not give it a try?

I bought it in liquid form and orange flavored for kids but it's still AWFUL... fishy with a hint of orange. However, Noah didn't seem to mind, he actually drank it right up, which I was totally surprised about. The only downside is his breath was pretty rough afterwards... I gave him juice AND brushed his teeth. I kept thinking I was smelling the stuff afterwards... hopefully it won't make him smell fishy!!

Mitochondrial What?!

In eliminating causes for Noah's delays, our Neurologist, Dr. Valero, has told us the next step is testing for mitochondrial diseases. I remembered the term from biology and that it had to do with cells but that's all I knew. So of course, I researched it to find out exactly WHAT we are looking for. The mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cells...(ring a bell?) Mitochondria convert oxygen and food into energy. When there is a upset in this process, there is an energy crisis (lack of energy in the child/fatique), and the cells cannot function normally. As a result, the incompletely burned food might accumulate as poison inside the body. Depending on which cells of the body are affected, you can have problems with muscle weakness/dev. delay, heart, lung, gastrointestinal, vision, & hearing problems, etc etc.... a very long list. Symptoms can vary from mild to life threatening. And this is genetic so, if Noah were to have it, there's a very high chance all of our children would have it.

So we got a call from Dr. Valero's nurse informing us that Noah's blood work came back negative for mito diseases (YAY!!!), however, we still have to proceed with the muscle biopsy (BOO!!!). I requested for Dr. V to call me b/c I had been under the impression the biopsy was no longer necessary... he explained to me that the blood test only lets us know about SOME mito diseases and the muscle biopsy will let us know about the rest. Noah's biopsy is scheduled for June 4 at Children's Hospital. It's a day surgery; they'll put Noah to sleep and will make an incision in his thigh and remove a portion of his muscle. They will then run tests on the muscle and actually plan on freezing some of it for any future testing that they might need to run. The incision should be pretty small (maybe an inch or two long?) and the muscle will be sore for several days to a week. We have an appointment next week with the doctor that will do the biopsy so I should know more then.

I HATE that Noah has to go through yet another surgery, even though it is minor. I was really hoping that we would be able to avoid this, but I trust that Dr. Valero is making the right decisions for Noah. I honestly feel like he doesn't have a mito disease. When I've researched it online, it talks about kids with this will regress in their development and Noah has never taken steps backwards in development. Also, he doesn't have any of the symptoms except for delays... no problems with vision, hearing, heart, lungs, etc. However, even though I feel like the outcome will be fine, it still makes me slightly nervous because there's always the possibility. But I just trust that it's all in God's hands and he will continue to take care of Noah. Please pray for Noah's biopsy results as well as the actual surgery.

Yay for a Good Report!

Noah was sent to an eye doctor a year ago because when you have low muscle tone, it affects vision and the muscles in the eyes too. He had an eye that would wander slightly so we went to a pediatric opthamologist in Huntsville. She was ready to put him in glasses immediately for far-sightedness, at one year old. All children are born far-sighted but it improves over the first several months following birth. But she said Noah's was worse than what is normal for a 1 year old. To be honest, we didn't like her, she was VERY unpersonable, so we went to Alabama Opthamology in B'ham to see Dr. Hein and get a second opinion. Turns out, putting Noah in glasses would have helped his vision but WORSENED his wandering eye. Dr. Hein wanted to keep on eye on it because he felt it would correct itself. Well after a year, it has. His vision is way better and the eye doesn't wander anymore. So we don't have to follow up with him for 2 years! It was great having a doctor tell us, "we'll just see ya'll in 2 years!" That was definitely a first.

I'm sure some of ya'll are probably wandering about the picture of Noah's incision and WHY it's zig-zagged so I thought I would explain... they zig zag it on each side of the head b/c the hair on the sides of our hair grows down, so the hair lays down, over the incision. If they were to have done a straight line, you would be able to see it through his hair b/c hair doesn't grow on his scar. But with a zig-zag incision, the hair covers it up! It's straight across the top of his head, because hair on the top grows forward, therefore it lays over it. Pretty neat, huh?

After 3 Months Wait...

I finally got my curtains! I ordered them in January and have been anxiously awaiting their completion. It was completely worth the wait as I'm SO happy with them and the way they look. I absolutely recommend Linda Hogan with All Strings Attached because she does a fantastic job and is reasonably priced.

Birthday Boy

Noah's 2nd birthday was this past Thursday. Noah and I slept in late (9ish) and had pancakes for breakfast. Jamie took the afternoon off so we all went to the park. This little girl (probably around 4 years old) kept coming up to Noah and trying to touch him. I crawled up in the gymset with Noah and kept taking him down the slide. While we were in the top of the thing, the girl came up there and started touching him again, she then proceeds to hug him.. okay no big deal, I can handle a hug. Then, next thing I know, the girl has planted a kiss right on my child's mouth! I yelled, "no no no don't kiss him!" and Jamie says, "okay, I think it's time for us to go somewhere else!" I mean, hello ... swine flu! I know this kind of thing can happen at wee care or in the nursery at church and I would never know... but it still freaked me out that this possibly germy little girl just kissed my child. After the park, we went to my parent's house because mom cooked dinner and had bought Noah a cake. It was a good day, all day, different family members would call and sing happy birthday to Noah over the phone and he would just smile the biggest smile!

We had his birthday party on Saturday, 5/2 for our family at our house. Thankfully, we'd planned on it being small and indoors because it rained all day long. My mom and I decided to make Noah's cake this year, a Monkey on top of a sheet cake (which it will probably be the only time we do it). I got up at 6 and we began the cake shortly after that and didn't finish it until 2pm. It took A LONG TIME to decorate because the icing kept softening and we would have to refridgerate it to harden it back up. But it turned out really cute and it was delicious! For some reason when Noah woke up from his nap, at 4:45 (everyone got there at 5) he was kind of fussy, but to his credit, he is on an antibiotic for yucky congestion. When he got up, he had some crazy bedhead and my mom and I laughed, well, it apparently hurt his feelings because he started crying! He was so sensitive after that and anytime anyone would talk to him, he would pucker up. My dad (Noah's Poppa and his favorite person!) pretty much held him the whole time to keep him happy. He settled down soon after everyone arrived but was kind of bashful. He's not really big on large crowds of people. We had BBQ sandwishes and cake and then Noah opened presents. We had a good time celebrating and it was nice getting our families together.