Surgery postponed

What was supposed to be our travel day to Boston instead started with a 5 a.m. phone call from Boston saying Quinn's doctor had a family emergency and had to leave town, so he needed to reschedule our surgery. Great sadness for the doctor, of course, but honestly we were relieved for the delay. My bronchitis has ramped up to a pretty nasty level and Quinn continues to cough in his sleep, making us fear he's getting it, too. Now even Tom is feeling sick.

Traveling the way I felt would have been nightmarish and I seriously doubt I would have been allowed in the hospital with this cough. I am on antibiotics, but still...

So we have a new date of May 20, and a new set of plane tickets with less convenient times, including a 2:15 a.m. arrival back home after surgery. But at least we didn't have to travel sick.

Surgery and the sniffles

Quinn's shoulder surgery is scheduled for Thursday, April 29 at Boston Children's Hospital. We've been planning it for so long and now it's just about here. Seeing as how it took us months to schedule the surgery, and how we have to travel across the country for it, and how they can't operate on a sick child, we've been doing all we can to keep Quinn healthy. No play areas. Lots of hand-washing. No physical therapy at the regular, grimy place.

So, of course, I started getting sick on Thursday. I've been taking Zicam every four hours - yes, I actually would rather lose my sense of smell than be sick - and drinking tea with Airborne pretty much constantly. I have managed to keep the sore throat and cold at bay, but when I woke up this morning it was pretty clear bronchitis (which I get a lot and can identify immediately upon arrival) was moving it. It's Saturday and my doc is out of town, so I zipped over to the CVS Minute Clinic - turns out, contrary to their advertising, the nurse practitioners are pretty much not allowed to prescribe antibiotics except in very rare, very serious situations. So off to urgent care I went - and luckily managed to find the one location in town that had almost no wait.

Now I'm waiting for the Zithromax to work and trying my best not to touch Quinn. Very confusing to the poor boy, I'm sure. Our fingers are crossed that he stays healthy!

Third time's a charm!

At last, we have a successful hearing test!

After two nightmarish failures, I got a good recommendation of an audiologist who deals with a lot of kids and is very patient. I called for an appointment and was told the first one was in June, but as I was booking it someone canceled and we were invited in immediately! As advertised, the woman -- an adoptive mom from way back, by the way -- was awesome. She let Quinn play with puzzles in the sound booth, did the test without closing the doors (which freaked him out last time) and really, really took her time.

He cried a little and was clearly scared during the test, but didn't lose it. He sat on my lap and would look one way if the bunny in one corner of the booth made a noise, and look the other way if the kitty in the other corner made a noise. He responded appropriately when she asked over the microphone (veeerrrrry softly), "Quinn, where is your nose?" etc.

So he passed!

Next up is the entrance exam for public pre-school for kids with developmental delays and disabilities. I'm not entirely sure I want him to go (a topic for another post), but at least we'll have the option.

Hooray for brave little Quinn!

Ballooooooon boy

Can you guess what word Quinn is saying??

Well, that didn't work either

Today Tom took Quinn to the sound-proof booth for his hearing test. He was fine for the first beep, then buried his face in the crook of his arm and wailed in terror until the audiologist finally pulled the plug on the test session.

This must be bringing up some bad memory or fear in him, and we're really stumped about what to do. He is being honestly traumatized by this, and and the worst part is that NO ONE BELIEVES HE HAS A HEARING PROBLEM! It's just that the school district will not proceed with testing him for pre-school until he has a successful hearing test.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? We sure could use them!

NOW you tell me...

Quinn is being tested to see if he qualifies for a public pre-school program for kids with developmental delays and disabilities. First he has to get his hearing tested so today we traipsed down to see an audiologist at our local school district. The minute I saw the probe she wanted to stick in Quinn's ear I knew this was going to be a bad scene. And it was. He started crying the second she touched it to his ear and grew increasingly upset until he hit a state of full-on hysteria. I tried distracting him, holding him during the test, taking a break, and nothing helped.

When the sweetest-keeled kid I've ever met looked over from his happy play break and let out a blood-curdling scream when he spotted the probe in the waiting audiologist's hand, she sighed and said she was just going to have to refer him to a local hospital. I asked why - did they intend to sedate him? "No," she said. "They have a fun sound booth over there where kids can hear sounds bounce off the walls rather than have to hear them inside their ear." Whaaaaaat? Why did no one even mention that was an option? We could have saved the poor child a truly traumatic experience.

I'm new to the public school thing, but this sure taught me a lesson. I need to ask questions before submitting Quinn to these mandatory tests. What are our options? Is there a gentler version of this test available? I know almost nothing about his early months but I do know something in his makeup or something in his past makes him easy to scare in instances like this. It's up to me to sniff those out in advance and try to prevent them. Lesson learned.

Suddenly afraid of the dark

Since coming home in November 2008, Quinn has insisted on total darkness to sleep. His two worst nights were at the White Swan, until we realized that a little lamp under the bedside table was keeping him awake, and out first night in Tucson, until we turned off the night light in his room.

But suddenly, inexplicably, he's scared of the dark. He was crying after I put him down the other night, which is HIGHLY unusual for him, and when I went into his room he was pointing at the tiny light on his baby monitor camera. After a few minutes I plugged in the old, abandoned night light and he laid right down and went to sleep. Every night since, if I turn on the night light he goes right to sleep; if I forget he cries.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? Any ideas on what might cause such a sudden switch?

Renaming the 'rents

First Quinn renamed the dogs, then he moved on to all four grandparents. Now it's our turn. At least for this phase, the grown-ups formerly known as Mama and Baba are called Mimi and Bobby.