"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

School has started... and so have the illnesses!

Connie's first day of PK4 was Aug. 17th. When we went to meet the teacher night he was especially excited about the pretend play area and making pizza. Since starting he's talked about the workbench and bowling. He seems to like his new teachers (all 4 of them). He's also attending Assumption's Preschool program in addition to the three mornings a week he goes to United Services. That transition was a bit rocky at first, due mainly to the fact that my classroom is connected to his classroom and he had some trouble understanding the boundary that first day. Since then he's done fine. It's a long day for him, but he seems to be outgrowing naps anyway.

Last Friday he wasn't acting himself and looked very sick. He had four immunizations on Thursday so we thought he was just having a reaction to the shots (after we panicked and thought it might be heart related... it's a reflex, can't help it!). We sent in a pacemaker tracing just to be sure and it looked fine. Saturday morning he woke up feeling great. Same for Sunday. Monday he went to school and seemed okay but at soccer practice was he barely participated at all. Early Tuesday morning (1:30am) Greg heard him wheezing loudly so he ran in to find him sitting up in bed struggling to breathe. He woke me up to get Connie a breathing treatment going while he called 911. By the time the EMT's got there, he was stabilizing but they felt he needed to be seen and they suspected croup. They were right. He was diagnosed with croup and given a dose of racimic epi and monitored for a few hours. He slept a lot on Tuesday but was ready to go back to school today. This afternoon when he got off the bus the driver said his teacher told her that he'd been complaining of a headache but still participated in activities. Mookie has been home sick from school herself these past two days with headache, sore throat and barky cough as well. I guess they both have a similar virus. Now tonight Karsten started up with a low-grade fever. I'm so afraid this is going to be a very long winter if it's already starting!

In better news, we are on the heels of a couple of big milestones at our house. Last Saturday and Sunday (8/27 & 8/28) were the anniversaries of his two open heart surgeries. His mitral repair and ablation was 8/27/09 and his big repair, the Rastelli-Senning double switch, was 8/28/07. Can you believe we've been on this journey for over four years?! Seems like 10 sometimes, but other times it feels like just yesterday. We took the family to Connie's favorite place on Saturday, Brunswick Zone. He played skee ball to his little heart's content. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa George's house for a cookie cake and ice cream. He topped off the fun by watching some DVR'd episodes of Max & Ruby at their house. Saturday was fun, but Sunday was divine-literally. He started the morning at 8am mass where he received the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (they do it every six months and it just happened to fall on the anniversary this year!). Then we went to the 1st Annual Children's Heart Foundation Heart Walk around Creve Coeur Lake and ran into some of the SLCH staff. Charlotte talked to us about camp next year. It's so unbelievable to me that next summer he'll be old enough to go to heart camp, Camp Rhythm, as a mini-camper. Those events really made the day special and memorable.

1 comment:

Annie Whitelaw said...

It's been four years that I have been keeping up with Conway and I still love to read the updates with how wonderful he is doing! I remember reading the blog in the beginning on the surgeries and seeing his pictures and I could not be happier to see how grown-up he is getting. Thank you for still continuing to let us "strangers" in on your lives and I will be saying a prayer tonight for the family to have a healthy winter!