N catch up post!

I said I'd try an catch up on where the kids are at right now!
W sees the paed surgeon tomorrow so once I've had some thinking time after that appointment I'll do a W update.

So N's turn today!

We took him to see T's paed a few months back as she deals with a number of kids with ADHD and with N's growth issues, eating problems and the fact that these medications are strong, we thought an over all paediatric view wouldn’t go astray. So she’s scored another patient – and changed everything round on him. He switched from Ritalin to dexamphetamine which seems to control things better for him over the day with fewer peaks and troughs which were hard for everyone. It also doesn’t suppress his appetite anything like the Ritalin did! She also couldn’t believe no one had helped us with his sleep problems – often still awake at midnight and throwing tired little child tantrums around 3pm! So he is now on something to help control the hyperactivity in the evening too – and usually asleep around 9pm so we actually have our evenings back as he now stays in his room when he is awake!

As a result of all these changes he has gained around 500g a month for the past 3 or so months whereas before he’d gain a little, lose it, lose again, gain again, lose but be further ahead just etc – so it’d take him around 3 months to cement any kind of weight gain. He’s also grown a fair bit in height although he’s still small for his age but he is now in 5 year old sized clothes now! Just as well as T is in 3’s and growing…

His eating has improved but still slow and difficult and he’s still on all his supportive high calorie supplements so that’s another issue to bring up again with the paed.

N, of course, is still a total live wire and gives us a run for our money! His most recent highjinks was a quite serious fall – from a pile of cushions, inside, hitting part of the lounge suite…he’d piled them up on the arms of the chair and they’d toppled over and he managed to hit the back of his head, not too far from the end of his skull – any lower and it could have been really serious.

Heads bleed…a lot…and he was on carpet – but we got him onto the tiles quickly. When I stopped the bleeding and checked it out it looked to me like it was going to need medical attention – if for no other reason than he was very shaken and I was concerned about concussion. Of course it was a totally foul, wet, gale force winds, Wellington day and the police were warning that driving was dangerous.

I called the GP who said to take him to the local, small hospital offshoot – basically accidents are an After Hours attended by GPs. So we went…and waited…and waited…and waited – for 3 hours! When the nurse cleaned up the cut I was shocked – it’s over 2 cm long and almost the full thickness of his scalp. When she moved hair out of the cut, the sight was such I felt sick – and people who know me know that doesn’t happen easily!

So the doctor had to staple N’s head shut – 8 staples in all and we had the joy of having them removed a week later. The poor kid was clearly concussed – he barely moved or talked during our 3 hour weight, not even to fidget in his chair and trying to get through to the medical people how out of character this was for N was virtually impossible. He was still very pale, shaken and his concentration span was clearly affected the next day as well – but he was dynamite 2 days after the accident so we figured he was feeling much better!

New Zealand is in the grips of the Swine Flu pandemic, like much of the world. Some genius at the hospital has obviously never heard of infection control as they decided that the best place to seat those with flu-like symptoms was right next to the children’s play area. I cleaned their hands regularly with anti-microbial stuff and we seem to have dodged that bullet again despite there being 3 people come in while we were there, wearing masks but at least one discarded it on the floor!

So that’s been N’s latest event! As T wisely pointed out the next day “Mummy say no climb cushions. N do it. N hurt.” Maybe, just maybe, somewhere in their brains they might realise that Mummy knows a thing or two…nah, don’t delude yourself!

While we dodged the H1N1 virus risk at the hospital the kids have all been pretty sick in the last week and I suspect that we've finally fallen foul of the dreaded bug!

N was an absolute trooper when the doctor took the staples out - and earned a lunch at BK as a reward. He also got given his staples - and the staple remover to add to his collection of medical paraphernalia. He got given the staple gun, minus any extra staples, after they closed his head, and he's still got a lot of stuff after his reflux surgery.

So that's my fireball N updated! I'll be back in the days to come to update the other two.