Not Strep

So Ethan's slowly getting better. We finally (last Thursday I initiated the call) heard back from the peds. office and it turns out the other strep test was also negative. I think it's just another cold/runny nose. Since the ped. was so wishy-washy about whether or not to cotinue all 10 days of the Amoxicillin after we found out the result of the 2nd strep test and since it didn't seem to be making any difference, we decided to d/c the Amoxicillin ourselves. Ethan's sleep schedule was getting thrown off by us forgetting to wait a whole 12 hours and we decided sleep was more important than an antibiotic that wasn't working. Sleep seems to be the best medicine right now. Ethan's been sleeping his normal 11-12 hours again at night and adding an extra hour or two to his afternoon nap time (4 hours instead of 2-3)!

Strep?

Ethan had a rough night on Sunday - we put him to bed at regular time but 5 hour later, after lots of crying, coughing, holding his throat, runny nose, Tylenol, and Benadryl, we finally got him to fall asleep. When he woke up Monday morning, he was a little rested but still feeling pretty miserable and just had that "sick look". So I called the pediatrician and got him in for early afternoon (during nap time). Having known that he was exposed to strep last week, I was able to talk the doc into running a strep test. The rapid test came back negative and we should know the other test result by Wed. (tomorrow). The doc (which by the way was the best one we've seen yet in that office!) did say that Ethan's throat looked red and swollen but no puss so he didn't think the other test would come back positive but went ahead and prescribed Amoxicillin just in case. You know these heart babies - you can't take any chances and he's definitely got some kind of illness - and the doc kept repeating that it doesn't look like a viral bug so he still recommended us finishing the full 10 days of the antibiotic even if the test does end up negative tomorrow.

Soooo, we're just laying low today, trying to let Ethan catch up on rest since he didn't sleep well Sunday night and didn't get a nap yesterday. He did sleep all night long last night though, so that was good. So if you get the chance, keep us in your prayers this week that this bug will not last long and that Ethan can get to feeling better soon.

Also, please keep our other heart buddies in your prayers - especially baby Stellan who had to have surgery this morning to try to fix his rapid heart rate (SVT). I haven't posted about Stellan before as he's one of our newest heart friends but I'll add his link on the right with our other heart friends. And also remember to keep princess Lindsay and Sofia in your prayers as they have both been waiting multiple months for a new heart - both at University of Michigan (U of M).

Family Update

Well it's been a pretty uneventful past couple of weeks here in the Miles' household. Ethan is continuing to do well physically and stay very active like all the other kids his age. He babbles all the time but still doesn't say much that we can understand so we're continuing to work on vocabulary and adding more sign language for him. Below is a list of what he knows so far:

WORDS:

* Da-Da

* Ma-Ma

* Ba-Ba (for bye-bye)

* Nuh-Nuh (for night-night)

* Guh-Go or Ma-Mo (for Elmo)

* Hoo-Hoo (for dirty "poo-poo" diaper)

* Bah (for ball)

* Mimi (for Julie's mom)

* Bop-Pop (or Pop-Pop for Julie's Dad)

* Ca-Ca (for Aunt Jessica and for chocolate!)

* Bo-Bo (for Uncle Brandon)

* Be-Be (for baby)

* Ah Gun (all done/all gone)

* Nana (for banana)

SIGNS:

* more (accompanied by saying "m-m-m")

* milk

* all done/finished (accompanied by "ah gun" for all gone)

and we're working on learning please, thank you, help, hurt, juice & water this month

Ethan can also point to various body parts and knows the sounds for several animals. He loves the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" - both usually get him giggling or at least distract him from crying if he's upset.

In other news, all 3 of us have had some kind of cold/sinus/allergy problem on and off since around Valentine's day. Just as soon as we think we're on the mend from one sickness, we get sick all over again. Dan's been feeling the worst and finally went to the doctor last Monday (3/30). His doctor said he's got Pertussis (whooping cough) and quite possibly also RSV - scary!

Fortunately, I think Ethan's received enough doses of the DTaP vaccine (P being for Pertussis) that I don't have to worry about him contracting it but I am still being very careful about Ethan's exposure to RSV. This is the big respiratory virus that can be life-threatening (if left untreated) to preemies and young babies (mainly under 6 months old) who have other heart/lung issues.

In case you don't remember or just found our story, RSV is the same virus that we had to safeguard against last winter by having Ethan get monthly antibody shots from Oct.-April. Due to several factors this year: 1) Ethan's older, 2) he doesn't have his next surgery any time soon, and 3) his 2nd heart surgery/hospital stay was significantly cheaper than those shots, we opted to pass on those shots this time around.

Well sorry for the long update. For making it to the end of this post, here's some pictures I took the other day!

Mimi & Pop-Pop with their 2 grandchildren!

Enjoy a home-made chocolate chip cookie!

Still eating and making a mess!