Wednesday, November 09, 2005

good reviews

For all of the regular blog visitors, I'm sorry about the delay. Would you believe I actually typed an entry and saved it as a draft but somehow lost it!!

Ethan has been pretty good. He hasn't had a hospital admission since September. Our biggest stay at home for quite some time. He is still waiting for grommets and a look at his ears etc. I don't think it should be much longer. He is still snotty but no discharge from his ear at the moment!

We are waiting for the final word about early education and kinder but we are 99.9% sure he will do kinder Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and early education Wednesday and Friday. I have started increasing his creche hours to help him cope with a busier week in preparation for next year.

His communication skills are improving slowly. He is definitely a lot louder and has become quite a little boy. He is pretty cheeky at times and a lot more active. He is slowly moving from trains to cars and trucks but Thomas is still always near by! He has also started playing with other kids rather than parallel play.

Ethan had a respiratory appointment yesterday. All is good. David is happy with his progress. He doesn't need to see us for at least 6 months. We are to continue with the current plan until we get a good winter out of him so at least one more year of the honey thick fluids (lets hope next winter is better!). The asthma management and chest physio also remains the same. He did diagnose bronchitis while we were there. We have increased his ventolin to help with this and if Ethan develops a temperature he needs antibiotics but otherwise he is coping well.

Ethan has also had his oncology appointment. He had the usual scans, (chest xrays, bloods, and ultrasounds) All is good. Peter is happy with all of the results. Ethan was pretty cheeky with Peter. At one point he was swinging from him!

Ethan was pretty happy to be back there. He is so confident walking around Monash. It is amazing the difference in confidence. When we there we caught up with a lot of nurses. Ethan had plenty of hugs and kisses for his girlfriend Kate, he was quite disappointed to find she wasn't working in the day unit but happy to see her on the ward. We have also said goodbye to Carly. Carly has shared the journey with us. She is the one nurse who has seen Ethan's fight from the first day on the cardiac ward at RCH (7west). It was nice to see a familiar face when we first started going to Monash especially one who had been so involved in his cardiac care. Her role at Monash was not on the ward but the time she allocated to us and her support was amazing. It was very sad saying goodbye but we will see each other again! THANKS CARLY.