Saturday, October 29, 2011

Happy Oxygeniversary!

I was trying to come up with an appropriate title to mark the one year anniversary since Lochlan no longer needed to have additional oxygen to help him breathe. (October 29th - Grandpa Bud's birthday!)

One year.

It seems so long ago and yet not all at the same time. I can still remember the struggle to carry around an oxygen tank and be limited in what we could do or where we could go. Little things that you take for granted such as carrying them around to go get something from a different room, giving him a bath, or going to the store.We couldn't do those things without lugging around the oxygen tank which was very awkward. Or worrying that his nose prongs were going to come out and we wouldn't notice right away. Or worse - they'd come out overnight and he'd just slip quietly away. There were a few times as Lochlan got stronger and older that he did pop the prongs out of his nose. Luckily, we were able to put them back in almost immediately and he was fine.

The prongs would get clogged with mucus if he had a cold and needed to be changed frequently. Which was not an easy feat either. I can still hear his cries as we tried to gently take the tape off his cheeks. No matter how slowly you tried to take it off, it still seemed like we were ripping it off. Poor thing!

Lochlan has come a long way. We all have.

These days he is fighting a cold. Last night was a bit brutal. He woke up around 9pm. (which he has done for the past few nights) I gave him some Tylenol since he wouldn't settle and seemed uncomfortable. It took us almost 2 hours to get him back to sleep. Rob went to try to get a filter for the humidifier. (why I hadn't bought one before now is beyond me!) The store didn't have any so he came back with a brand new humidifier! Bless him!! That did the trick. A few sips of water and some more snuggles and Ventolin and Lochlan settled back in for the night! I was worried that it was going to be a rough overnight too but thankfully he slept through until 7:30am!  He seemed to be feeling much better this morning and was less congested/snotty. Hopefully he is on the mend. I've had a bit of a scratchy throat the past 3 or 4 days. I keep gargling and taking vitamins in hopes that it doesn't amount to anything. Abby has a bit of a nasty cough too. But it's pretty sporatic.

This past Monday, Lochlan had an eye appointment with Dr. Arthur. He said that his left eye is a bit slower to react to light... or something....just not as strong as his right. He's not doing anything yet, but will see him again in 6 months for a full exam. Praying it gets stronger! No more surgery please. Although I think it would probably be covering his eye with a patch or baby glasses. But I don't know. I wasn't at the appointment so I'm just guessing what would have to be done to help - if anything at all!

My iPod is full so I need to transfer and delete phone and videos. Yikes!!! I wish I'd done that all along! It's a bit daunting when you have 3, 360 files to deal with! Most of them are already uploaded to Facebook or the computer but I want to back them up to DVD or USB. So unfortunately I won't be able to take any pics or videos for a bit. MUST GET ON THAT TRANSFER!!!! Holidays are coming  - FAST!!

Anyway, I think that is all for now. Happy Halloween everyone! Have a SPOOK-TACULAR weekend!

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