The Day Before School

Today is the last day of summer vacation for the girls. Tomorrow they'll start 6th and 3rd grades. Their outfits have been chosen, bookbags have been packed. They are really looking forward to it. Then, this happens.

Yep. Erin broke one of her fingers.  So we spent the morning in the ER getting that taken care of. No gym or recess for a week. She'll have to wear the cast for 6 weeks. How did it happen? Well, Alvin shut the lid to the toybox on her finger. Broke it clean in the middle part of her pinky finger. It was black and blue and swollen within minutes. So, needless to say, she's going to be missing out on a lot over the next few weeks. However, she'll be the center of attention in class. I'm sure of that.

Speech Evaluation

Today was Alvin's speech evaluation for private speech services. It was long and brutal. Well, to me anyway. He seemed like he was having fun the whole time. About halfway through the eval, the SLP (speech language pathologist) brought the OT (occupational therapist) in to observe the eval. After doing some minor evals of her own, and some talking between the two of them, they feel confident that Alvin has Global Dyspraxia aka Developmental Dyspraxia. In other words, it's not just his speech that is being misinturpreted, but everything. They said that the dyspraxia would cause the low tone, drooling, motor control issues, and some of the sensory issues, if not all of them. So, yeah. Next stop is to see the neurodevelopmental pediatrician. How much of this is NF, and how much isn't, we don't know. Wonderful. Ugh. I'll get a full write up of the evaluations in the mail sometime in the next few days, so look for those once I get them. Anyway, some pics from today. They are pretty boring though, so you can skip them if you want.

 Spontaneous speech evaluation. The SLP was sitting behind that two way mirror and listening to him babble to himself while playing.

The articulation evaluation. She'd say something and he was supposed to repeat it back. Supposed to being the operative phrase.

Erin's surgery

As most of you already know, Erin went in for minor surgery today to remove her tonsils/adenoids. It went wonderfully. She sailed through the anesthesia, surgery and recovery. She's spent most of the day sleeping, which I'm grateful for. It means she's not hurting. Luckily, they sent us home with narcotic pain relievers, so she'll get to spend the next few days doped. Hopefully she wont hurt too much.

Erin in the recovery room

uggh part 2

Around 6pm last night, Alvin started screaming bloody murder. I went into his room where he was taking a nap, and found him with his legs drawn up to his belly, his face beet red, and he just shrieking. I checked his diaper, and it was full of blood. So, I rushed him to the ER in New London. They took an X-ray and an Ultrasound, but found nothing definate. They transfered us to Yale Children's Hosptial, where they did another Ultrasound. They think that a tiny part of his small intestine might have slipped into his large intestine, but due to all the impacted fecal material, they cant be sure. So, Alvin was given an enema to remove the fecal material. He is home right now on a provisional basis. Once his bowels are clear, we have to go in for another ultrasound.