Pumpkin Pickin'

We finally made it out to get pumpkins last night. We'd made one previous visit to the pumpkin patch, but Ben didn't really enjoy the experience so much. I think the skeletons and ghost pirates didn't agree with him.


Yesterday we waited for Cam to get done with work and then we went to a pumpkin patch by our house where there were just pumpkins. Ben found this to be much more agreeable.


He found a favorite pumpkin pretty quickly. We ended up getting 2 medium sized pumpkins and a small one for $6! I thought it was quite a deal.



There were also some tractors in the field for the kids to take pictures on. It was pretty cold out, but Ben was a trooper and was really mad when it was time to go.


And how cute is his coat? Thank you, Target.

We also set a date for Ben's surgery. He'll be going in next week. The doctor said he thinks he'll be in surgery for about 3 hours. Also, for those of you who have expressed concern because your kids also play in/eat dirt, this disease is extremely rare. The likelihood of your kid getting it is really minimal. In fact, our doctor emphasized how weird it was that Ben caught it. Anyway, I'll be glad to have this whole experience behind us. Hopefully Ben will be back on his feet in time to go trick-or-treating.

Blue Tooth and Visiting the Doc

Well, we finally got Ben to the ENT today. Turns out he has a rare strain of tuberculosis that affects the lymphatic system. It is not air borne and is found in organic matter. The doctor says he probably picked it up playing in the dirt, which is very believable since Ben loves playing in the dirt. I've not really been a germaphobe and figured he was just being a boy and it was helping boost his immune system. Silly me.

Anyway, none of our treatment options are very appealing. First, he could undergo a serious dose of triple antibiotics and remain under infectious disease surveillance for the next 6 months with only a 50-60% success rate. Not super encouraging.

Second, we could take no action and let his body work the infection out on its own. That means all the affected lymph nodes would fester, surface, and ooze out the infection. The process could take up to two years. As the doctor put it, most parents don't consider this option "socially acceptable." I would tend to agree.

Lastly, surgery. I figured this is where we'd end up. The ENT suspects that somewhere between 6-12 lymph nodes on the left side of Ben's face are affected so far. We're doing a CT scan tomorrow morning to confirm the number and location of the lymph nodes. Then we go in and take them out.

I guess when I thought about the possibility of excising the lymph nodes I figured it would be an easy, outpatient sort of thing. Not so. It's a 2-3 hour surgery and probably 2-3 day hospitalization. Leave it up to our kid to catch some crazy, third world disease.


Anyway, here's the blue tooth. Uncle Brent let Ben get a hold of a blue sucker, which Ben loved. He consumed the entire thing with glee and I think ate some of the paper stick too, before I got to it. It took quite a while to get all the blue cleaned up. So yeah, don't let your kid eat blue suckers. Or dirt.

** As an afterthought: In case anyone who reads this (or your kids) have been in contact with Ben recently, the doctor told us that he is not contagious. The bacteria is not airborne and cannot be transmitted by saliva, so don't worry. **

The people have spoken and . . .

It's a boy! Again! I realize the outcome of this election goes against the popular vote, but trust me, this is legit. Something about the electoral college.

Anyway, the baby looks healthy and is definitely a boy. He's measuring a little behind our first due date so I'm really hoping the doctor doesn't try to change my date. Every day counts when you're 9 months pregnant.

Here's a couple shots of this little guy for those of you enjoy attempting to decipher ultrasound pictures.


This one is of his little profile. He looks a little bit like a monkey baby. Here's to hoping the ultrasound tech caught him at a bad angle.


This one is actually my favorite. He was sticking his little bum up in the air and his legs are crossed. Again, it looks like he's got some monkey feet going on in there. I really hope I'm not gestating the missing link.

Cam is, of course, quite pleased that we'll be having boy number 2 and he has declared himself incapable of producing anything other than male offspring. Looks like I'll be outnumbered, but that's ok. For now.

A growing problem

About a month ago I noticed that the lymph node by Ben's left ear was swollen. Not wanting to be a "freaky" parent, I decided that he was probably just fighting something off and it would go away, so I held off on calling the doctor. Instead of going away it kept getting bigger. After a week or so we went into the doctor who prescribed Ben a course of antibiotics and said that he thought that would take care of the problem. Well, it didn't.

That lymph node has continued to grow for a while now and we're to the point where it's looking pretty nasty. Last week we went to Primary Children's to get an ultrasound of the big nasty and we did a ton of lab work. Ben completely freaked out and the experience was unpleasant for everyone involved, including, I'm sure, the 3 lab techs it took to hold him down during lab work and the 2 ultrasound techs who attempted (rather unsuccessfully) to restrain him during the ultrasound.

They had some kind of child specialist/social worker in the lab who initially tried to distract Ben with toys during the blood draws. When he started grabbing the toys and throwing them during his fit of rage, she began to I guess affirm his bad behavior.

"You're throwing things because you're angry Ben. Anger and frustration make us want to act out and this a very stressful situation for you."

Had it not also been a stressful situation for his mother, I probably would have had a hard time not laughing out loud. I mean reasoning with an 18-month-old is far from effective. Trust me, I've tried.

Anyway, good news is, it looks like this thing is benign. Bad news is, we still aren't sure what the problem is. Next week we are going to see a pediatric ENT and we're hoping he'll enlighten us. At this point I'm pretty sure we're probably going to have to surgically remove the lump, which is somewhat unnerving. But, we'll have to wait and see.

One thing about visiting Primary Children's is that it sure helps you put your problems into perspective. Some parents are dealing with much bigger issues and I'm sure ours will be resolved.


This picture is dark, blurry, and the room is a mess. But it's too cute not to share

Something to blog about

My blogging efforts have been minimal as of late. Although, in my defense, I've felt like crap for the last few months. However, things are looking up and our "BIG" ultrasound is a week from today. While we're mostly just hoping for a healthy baby, we also should be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. So in the spirit of the election season, I've added a poll to our blog and all 3 of you who still check this can make your voice heard by registering your--um--guess.

On a side note, my niece Jane has already called this one as a girl. So far she is 3 for 3 in baby predicting. If she gets this one right, I will suggest that her parents start making her services more widely available, for a nominal fee.

To my husband

In four years of marriage we have gone through:

3 big moves

2 houses (and countless house projects with more to come ;))

1.5 kids

1 law degree (and the bar--ugh!)

and (almost) 1 MBA.

Ah. It must be love. Happy anniversary babe.

Outrageous, Egregious, and Preposterous!

We found out that Leslie passed the bar today which was cool and a huge relief. I didn't have a relevant photo to use, but I hate when people post without photos of any kind so I had to do something quasi-relevant, and the first thing that came to my mind was Jackie Chiles... a Leslie favorite.
So here's to passing the Bar, and being done with Law School which is in and of itself outrageous, egregious, and preposterous!
-Cameron