Read more about the article An update on the mass in Gavin’s forearm
Gavin / My thoughts

An update on the mass in Gavin’s forearm

I'm a fucking mess today. It's not one particular thing either. It's everything as a whole and it's stirring up my depression. I'm getting stuck in repeditive thinking and that's not a good thing for me. My anxiety is through the roof. Anyway, Gavin's appointment went well in the sense that he did well and the staff was amazing. I was able to see the mass on the screen as she scanned it with the ultrasound. I sketched a rough picture of one of the images I saw and it is a little worrisome. The mass is sitting right up against what I think is his cephalic vein. It appears to be a separate object and not a ballooning of the vessel wall itself. What I did see that has…

5 Comments
October 11, 2018
Read more about the article Dear God, I’m not sure how much more I can take right now
Akron Children's Hospital / Cardiology / Gavin / My thoughts

Dear God, I’m not sure how much more I can take right now

It's been a rough week and yesterday, we lost our 3rd pet to cancer in less than a year. The kids are devastated and everyone's a mess. We did manage to get the boys to school but not without a great deal of effort, which pretty much drained us of anything even resembling energy before the day even began. With that in mind, you can probably understand why we're so stressed out about Gavin's appointment today. Gavin has a solid mass on his right forearm and it's concerning enough that his doctor sent him for an ultrasound, which is being done in about an hour. We scheduled this about a week or so ago and it's been a long wait. The mass in his forearm isn't a lymph node and…

3 Comments
October 11, 2018
Read more about the article It’s been an incredibly long and heartbreaking day
Autism Parenting Heartbreak / Family Pets / Ferrets / My thoughts / Zane

It’s been an incredibly long and heartbreaking day

I'm going to keep this super quick because I'm exhausted and if I can get the kids to fall asleep, I'm going straight to bed. It's been a really long day, full of tears and heartache. Yesterday I shared about a very difficult decision we might be having to make in regards to Zane, one of the boys service ferrets. You can check this link for the background. We took Zane back to the vet this morning and our worst fears were realized. Zane's back legs were now almost completely paralyzed and it was progressing quickly. He was much worse off this morning, then he was the night before. The vet explained that there were three possibilities. Unfortunately, all three possibilities involved tumors and none of them resulted in a…

3 Comments
October 10, 2018
Read more about the article My wife and I have a very difficult #Autism parenting decision to make
Autism Parenting Insight / Family Pets / Ferrets / My thoughts / Zane

My wife and I have a very difficult #Autism parenting decision to make

Lizze and I may have a difficult decision to make in the morning. As you know, our ferret Zane has been very sick. Over the last week or so, he seemed to doing better and we were all quite relieved by that. Unfortunately, we're noticing that his back legs now seem to be partially paralyzed, which indicates possible neurological problems. I spoke with the vet last night and he's going to see Zane at 10am. We will try and figure out what we need to do but any of the tests that would need to be done would likely be in the hundreds of dollars and there's just no feasible way for us to pull that off. Anyway, the vet is going to advise us if it's either something that…

5 Comments
October 10, 2018
Read more about the article Some things are just more important
My thoughts

Some things are just more important

I was supposed to go walking this afternoon, before picking the kids up from school. I stopped by the hospital to check on my grandpa and spend maybe 15 minutes before heading out. I was just there last night and I knew I didn't have a lot of but wanted to stop in and see how he was doing. Two and a half hours went by really fast. Rather than walking, I sat and listened to stories from his time in the service. He needed my time more than the track did. I did manage to sneak out after dropping the kids off at home but even if I hadn't been able to, it was still time well spent. ☺

0 Comments
October 9, 2018
Read more about the article Thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated today
Akron Children's Hospital / Elliott / My thoughts / Psychiatry

Thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated today

Today is going to be a very big day for us as we're finally getting Elliott into the psychiatrist at Akron Children's Hospital. You may recall that the appointment was the first week of November but they moved it up due to a cancelation and Elliott's need. I haven't talked about Elliott's struggles too much because I'm trying to navigate invisible boundaries. The truth is, Elliott's miserable. As time goes on, it's getting worse instead of better. Elliott is struggling with depression and quite possibly bipolar disorder as well. We're going to get a better idea of what's going on and figure out how we can best go about finding him relief. We have some last minute paper work we need to collect from the school before going. We will…

3 Comments
October 8, 2018
Read more about the article It’s been a largely positive morning
My thoughts

It’s been a largely positive morning

Elliott and Emmett got off to a really good start this morning. They even helped with giving Zane his antibiotics. Lizze holds Zane, Elliott bribes Zane with fur-vita and Emmett squirts the meds in the back of his throat so he can't spit it out. The rest of the time, Lizze holds Zane and I give the medication. It's working pretty well and Zane seems to be getting better. ☺ We took the boys to school this morning and stopped by the park to walk. Lizze was able to do about 3/4 of a mile and we headed home. I'm going back out later to do my walk. Lizze is working through a tremendous amount of pain and walking or any physical movement doesn't come easy. I'm so proud of…

0 Comments
October 8, 2018
Read more about the article I have good news and bad news
Gavin / My thoughts

I have good news and bad news

It's Monday and while Monday's are no one's favorite day of the week, it's a fresh new start for me after a rough weekend. ☺ I want to begin the week with some good news. It's actually a good news/bad news kinda thing. Gavin has been struggling with weight gain for most of his life. At 18 years of age, he has been down to 117 lbs within the last few months. It's obviously concerning and no one really has any idea why he's not able to gain weight. His gastroenterologist prescribed Boost Shakes. He drinks one with every meal, meaning 3 times a day. He's been drinking them for the last 3 weeks and when he weighed himself this morning, he was up to 129.2 lbs. That up from…

4 Comments
October 8, 2018