A Trip To ER

At this time last night, we were preparing ourselves for a long wait in the ER.  

Earlier in the night, Brady was brushing Joseph's teeth when one

of his teeth came loose and made its way to who-knows where.  We spent more than

an hour at home poking in his mouth, and looking for the tooth and in the process

loosening the other tooth that we were expecting to fall out first.  That tooth Brady was

able to save; the other one was still a no-show.  I was okay with just letting nature take

its course and maybe just find the tooth the following day or in the days ahead during

 a cough assist session.  In fact, I've read of other SMA kids finding a loosened tooth

days after the incident.  But then, Joseph said that he thought that he swallowed the

 tooth and it was now in his lung.  And then he started having some breathing difficulty

and his O2 sat dipped down.  He made a decision for us to take him to ER.   And so

we presented to ER with a boy satting at 100% on a half litter of oxygen,  
in no apparent distress.  I didn't think they would take us seriously or even bring
us in quickly, but they did.   The chest x-ray didn't show the tooth,
and the ER doctor said  that the x-ray was taken high enough to show the jaws
 and there was no tooth seen on x-ray.  Brady and I have always trusted Joseph
when it comes to his health and what he tells us,

so we asked if they could take another x-ray of just the face and his abdomen

in case he really swallowed it.  Later on, the doctor came back and reported that

 he saw the tooth somewhere up in the throat.  He called for an ENT doctor.  

Brady and I resigned ourselves to the possibility of waiting until 8AM before the ENT doctor would show up.  Joseph was sleeping with just the oxygen on and satting at 100% and in no distress.  But the ENT guy showed eventually.  Poked and dug and suctioned inside Joseph's mouth.  He used a scope to look around and even went in Joseph's nose a couple of times because he could not visualize the tooth.  Then he asked for an intubation kit.  What the heck?  But he was only interested in this:



Magill forceps

After a long while, and with much gagging and protests from Joseph,

the forceps finally found the tooth.

This tooth is worth thousands of dollars!

                Thank God that we were able to sleep in our own beds by 5AM.

Easter 2011

"We adore you, Jesus,

for by Your death on the Cross

You have redeemed the world."

Joseph had a wonderful Easter filled with eggs, new clothes, candies and even money!  The way I celebrated Easter with my family decades ago in the Philippines was very different from how I celebrate it now with Joseph, Brady and his family.  Looking back now and remembering how I did not particularly enjoy sitting through the long church service for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday and Easter Sunday, I still wish that Joseph would get to experience Easter the way I did when I was his age.  Easter, when I was growing up, was steeped in religion and tradition.  Anyway, this was how Joseph celebrated Easter:



"What is Wrong With This Milk?"

There's not much to update on.  Joseph is now getting more interested in playing on his Ipod and spends 30% of the time playing with it and 70% on his computer, instead of 100% of his time on the computer.  This is a short video he made with Talking Tom.  It's all his idea and when you watch it, please remember that he is a guy-in-training so that there's a couple of things that may not be publicly acceptable.                 

                     

Anniversary (And Joseph's Worst Day Ever)

For our ninth year anniversary, I took a half-day off at work for Joseph's doctor's appointment.  The doctor had to be in surgery and so the appointment was canceled.  Since we're in Alex already, Home Depot then Logan's Roadhouse seemed to be the order of the day.





Knock-out roses for $24.99 a pot.  Pretty, but too expensive!



Joseph and Mommy waiting for the food.
Can you guess who took the picture?



Joseph with sweet potato fry in his mouth,
with lots of butter, of course.

                              We came home with minutes to spare before American Idol.



They're not sleeping. 
They just couldn't stand the contestant that was on.
And I'm not saying which one it was.

After the show, it was shower time for Joseph.  He wanted to play on the Ipod first and was told "no" which prompted him to say, "Today is my worst day ever!"  And I thought we had a pretty good day today.

                               Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
                                                    for his compassions never fail.
                                They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
                                                              (Lamentations 3:22-23)


Such powerful words, and true, too.  Case in point, I had a bad day at work yesterday and then drove home in a storm.  Brady said it was just a little squall line, and I said that I must have driven the length of the squall because it poured and it was windy the whole drive home.  And for the most part of last night, my mind remained stormy.

And then today, the weather was perfect in all its springtime glory.

Work was a breeze.  I had a nice lunch date with Brady.  And finished my paperwork at work, allowing me to have a quiet evening with Joseph.  So, while Brady and Austin ate supper at one of the neighbors', Joseph played on his computer while I played games on Neopet to earn him some neopoints.  We even managed to review his lessons today while he was playing.  And I watched "Eat, Love and Pray" again.  Now it's time to sleep.  I'm the last one awake as usual.  Brady and I will celebrate our 9th year anniversary tomorrow...by taking Joseph to a doctor's appointment to have his g-tube replaced.  We'll try to squeeze in some fun while we are out and about and then make it home in time for the American Idol.