Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cally's Scary Headache...



I called Cally the Bronx orator for a reason. He has the cutest little East Coast accent.  I was so surprised when he started school in October there was a huge concern this accent meant he had a cleft palette.  Say what?  We have gone through non-stop testing since than.  Just when I thought it had all had been put to rest in our second Cleft Palette Clinic with an endoscopy that showed a weak but not compromised palette; Chris decided to seek one more opinion because he has an odd shaped head.  That is when we got some devastating news.


It was freaky because we had the CT Scans and we are sitting there talking to the Pediatric maxillofacial surgeon show Cally his skulls and it is a light mood.  Than he tells us Callum has Craniostynostasis.  Seriously?  What is that?  Was my first reaction.  After he explained how it is a serious birth defect that requires brain surgery I felt crushed.  After having endured what I did last year I really felt like it wasn't a big deal because my kids didn't go through it.  Now feeling helpless to protect him and understanding what the surgeon was saying I was just really sad.

This happened 3 wks ago.  To deal and cope I called every friend Doc I had and really found out what this was all about.  I immediately set up a 2nd opinion at UMC with a pediatric neurosurgeon and prayed.  Well than that doctor gave me the happiest surprise.  He doesn't have Craniostynostasis but he has just a few after effects from being a premature infant and with speech therapy and time he will grow fully into his head and it will round out and the palette will close correctly.  


So where we are at now is that we are looking for a 3rd opinion.  These are two of the best pediatric surgeon's in the city and while I trust the neurosurgeon over the maxillofacial surgeon a little more I have enough worry to want to make sure that it is totally not any sort of cleft or weird suture brain problem or anything else.  The next week I will drive him up to Albuquerque and we will see another neurosurgeon from UNM.  I keep the prayers high for Callum and I'm hoping this will be the last doctor for him.  He is too sweet and too cute to have to go through something like these surgeries pose.

Graduation Day


Two weeks ago I went ahead and walked for the first time.  I never walked in Austin years ago.  At the time I was moving to Vegas and life was exciting.  I didn't feel like I had missed anything but I had missed something and so this time around it was nice to finish it with a little pomp and circumstance.


The best part was being with my kids that day.  They all were very proud of me.  Hopefully one day they will remember this day and know that education is something worth valuing in life.  If they don't remember hopefully in next few years I will be walking again for my MFA in Dramatic Writing and will really be done with school (well maybe).  We had a small party at Dion's Pizza with close friends and it was just a joyful night.   Oh and my dear sweet mother finally got to see me walk.  She was the first in the whole Puerto Rican Community to get a degree and my first generation for college as well.  Each of them taught me the importance of never stopping when it comes to learning.  I was happy I finally gave them a photo op, even if it was 10 yrs late ;)


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cally's Scary Headache...



I called Cally the Bronx orator for a reason. He has the cutest little East Coast accent.  I was so surprised when he started school in October there was a huge concern this accent meant he had a cleft palette.  Say what?  We have gone through non-stop testing since than.  Just when I thought it had all had been put to rest in our second Cleft Palette Clinic with an endoscopy that showed a weak but not compromised palette; Chris decided to seek one more opinion because he has an odd shaped head.  That is when we got some devastating news.


It was freaky because we had the CT Scans and we are sitting there talking to the Pediatric maxillofacial surgeon show Cally his skulls and it is a light mood.  Than he tells us Callum has Craniostynostasis.  Seriously?  What is that?  Was my first reaction.  After he explained how it is a serious birth defect that requires brain surgery I felt crushed.  After having endured what I did last year I really felt like it wasn't a big deal because my kids didn't go through it.  Now feeling helpless to protect him and understanding what the surgeon was saying I was just really sad.

This happened 3 wks ago.  To deal and cope I called every friend Doc I had and really found out what this was all about.  I immediately set up a 2nd opinion at UMC with a pediatric neurosurgeon and prayed.  Well than that doctor gave me the happiest surprise.  He doesn't have Craniostynostasis but he has just a few after effects from being a premature infant and with speech therapy and time he will grow fully into his head and it will round out and the palette will close correctly.  


So where we are at now is that we are looking for a 3rd opinion.  These are two of the best pediatric surgeon's in the city and while I trust the neurosurgeon over the maxillofacial surgeon a little more I have enough worry to want to make sure that it is totally not any sort of cleft or weird suture brain problem or anything else.  The next week I will drive him up to Albuquerque and we will see another neurosurgeon from UNM.  I keep the prayers high for Callum and I'm hoping this will be the last doctor for him.  He is too sweet and too cute to have to go through something like these surgeries pose.

Graduation Day


Two weeks ago I went ahead and walked for the first time.  I never walked in Austin years ago.  At the time I was moving to Vegas and life was exciting.  I didn't feel like I had missed anything but I had missed something and so this time around it was nice to finish it with a little pomp and circumstance.


The best part was being with my kids that day.  They all were very proud of me.  Hopefully one day they will remember this day and know that education is something worth valuing in life.  If they don't remember hopefully in next few years I will be walking again for my MFA in Dramatic Writing and will really be done with school (well maybe).  We had a small party at Dion's Pizza with close friends and it was just a joyful night.   Oh and my dear sweet mother finally got to see me walk.  She was the first in the whole Puerto Rican Community to get a degree and my first generation for college as well.  Each of them taught me the importance of never stopping when it comes to learning.  I was happy I finally gave them a photo op, even if it was 10 yrs late ;)