Flanagan Clan

The other day we were all seated at the dinner table and I looked at Patrick and told him, “Patrick, in a few months we’re going to have a very big change in this house”. He looked at me and said, “Yeah, a DIAPER change!”

Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, Patrick kept on saying the word “yogurt” over and over. I looked at him and told him to stop saying it. “Why, Mama? Is it a bad word?”. I replied that it wasn’t, but I didn’t want him to say it anymore. “Oh”, he said, “so it’s a GOOD word!”.

And, the fun of preschool drama… Today he was telling me that he doesn’t like one of the girls in his class. “Yes, mama”, he said, “Tasha likes Keagan better than me, but I like Kennedy. She’s nice”. Oh boy…

I got a call from Dr. Gandhi’s nurse this morning- it looks like Ethan will be having surgery on March 12th. I asked if there was any other day, since this was the day that my ultrasound was scheduled, but they said that this was the best day that would work with the doctor’s schedule. So… I called up Dr. Eun’s office to reschedule the ultrasound. I tried to see if I could do it earlier than the 12th, but the only opening was on the 5th, which they said was too early because the doctor likes me to be at least 20 weeks and I don’t hit that milestone until the 8th. Rarr. So, now the ultrasound is scheduled for a week later, on the 19th, at 8:40 AM. At least it’s a morning appointment, but the bad news was that I was hoping to get the u/s in before my parents left for Bangladesh, but they’ll will be leaving on the 13th of March. Oh well, I’m a little disappointed that I had to reschedule the u/s for a later date, but I really didn’t want to have to worry about ultrasounds and Ethan having surgery on the same day. It was too much for me to handle! So, there it is…

I took Ethan to see Dr. Gandhi today to find out more about the hernia. Well, he definitely has one on the same side as before. The doctor said that this only happens in about 1% of all cases where the first surgery doesn’t correct the problem and they have to redo it. He further mentioned that of all people that it wouldn’t take the first time, it had to be the grandson of his friend, Kenneth Feucht. What can I say, Ethan is not your typical baby :o)

So, the doctor said that the nurse will be calling me by the end of this week to schedule surgery in two weeks from now. That second week of March is turning out to be a real busy week… between a surgery, an ultrasound and a regular OB appointment, we’re going to be spending more than our fair share of time in the presence of medical professionals!

I got back from the doctors tonight with some bad news… Ethan needs another hernia surgery. Some of you may remember how he had an inguinal hernia when he was about 4 months old, which he had surgery to repair. Back in October I had noticed that his scrotum was looking rather enlarged again and we saw one of the doctors in my pediatrician’s practice. After a good poking and prodding, he said it looked fine. In November we saw my pediatrician for Ethan’s 1 year, and I mentioned it again. He also took a good look and said it looked fine. I would like to mention that both times he was seen, there was very little swelling (which figures… it always works that way, right?) Well, 4 months have passed and I have watched it slowly get worse. Finally, last night it was so huge after church that I was determined to get a third opinion. After 4 months of watching it, I knew that it was biggest at night and in the morning the swelling was very minimal. So, I figured my best chance of getting him to see the doctor during peak swelling was if we went during the evening convenience care hours, sometime between 5-10 PM. So, we got there around 6 PM and ended up seeing doctor around 7. During the time we were waiting, I allowed Ethan to get fussy, another thing that I knew would make him swell up more. So, by the time we saw the doctor he was mad as a hornet and the swelling was as big, if not bigger, than last night. The doctor was able to see the hernia right away, pushed it back in, and told me that it’s a large hole. This is actually good, because if it was a small hole there would be more concern about his intestines getting stuck, which could be serious and even fatal if it went unnoticed. So, tomorrow I get to call the pediatric urologist, who happens to be a good friend of my dad’s. We’re probably looking at surgery sometime within the next month or so. Oh joy…

All I can say though is that I’m glad it was finally caught, and that I am vindicated in being a worrywart of a mommy! I’m glad that I trusted my instincts that something wasn’t right :o)

Well, being the super organized person that I am, have still yet to send out Christmas cards. At this point, it’s going to be St. Patrick’s Day cards instead. So, since I cannot get on the ball this winter with our holiday cards, I thought I’d post our family Christmas picture now, in case we don’t make the St. Patrick’s Cards either…

and here’s the entire family:

I also have a picture of the boys with the grandparents, but I didn’t get around to scanning that one into the computer :o)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!