Tonsils out, tubes in. and Dr. Hickey

Well I guess it's the no news is good news when it comes to my blogging! Not that this is particularly "bad" news, but Kellan is going to have surgery Jan. 4 to have tubes in his ears and get his tonsils and adenoids out. This came about fairly quickly when his ear drum ruptured Tues night/Wed am, only 12 or so hours after seeing the doctor and getting the all clear on his ears. Granted, his ear canals are very small, so it makes it very difficult to see in there real well, but his doctor is very good with him, and if she saw no fluid or infection, I'm sure there wasn't any. That night, however, Kellan woke up at 11:45 screaming and crying. Now, he never cries, let alone screams, so we knew something was wrong. The next morning he had dried, crusty stuff all over his right ear, so I figured that's what had happened. We took him back to the doctor and she agreed, and said it was definetly red and infected. Her office called the ENT we chose and they were able to get Kellan in the next day (she can be up to a 2 month wait to see!) Dr. Kennedy is generally known in Billings to be the Special Needs ENT, and I've never heard a bad thing about her. Justin flies her frequently and also really likes her, and she already knew about Kellan because of this. She did not disappoint me. I liked her before she even came in the room! So Kellan definetly needs tubes (she said his ear drum did rupture and the other has fluid in it) but doesn't necessarily "need" his tonsils and adenoids out. But since all the other kids have had to have theirs out, she said there's about an 80% chance Kellan will at some point, and my feeling is that if he's going to have to undergo general anesthesia for the tubes, she might as well take the tonsils and adenoids while she's at it! They do better when they are younger anyway. He will have to stay over one night in the hospital, just because of the Down syndrome.
Other than all that, Kellan is doing very well. He has his first 2 teeth. I took Kellan to see a pediatrician in Denver at the Sie Center for Down syndrome at Denver Children's, Dr. Hickey, who has sort of specialized in Down syndrome for the past 22 years, and also has an adult son with Down's. It was a great visit, very reassuring. He and his nurse practitioner spend about 1 1/2 hours with us, playing with Kellan, going over his records, talking to me, assessing him. He didn't have any life-changing information or advice, just reassuring from someone who has seen hundreds of babies and children with Ds. He did start Kellan on prevacid for his spitting up, which he had still been doing tons of. Within a week of starting it we noticed a difference. He hardly ever spits up anymore, where he had been at least 8-10 times per day, and significant amounts each time. His appetite has also increased, we are feeding him about double what we were just a few weeks ago!
Kellan started speech therapy in October, and goes weekly to a wonderful therapist named Vicki. She has taught him so many things, it seems like he does something new every time he goes. He is very good at playing peek-a-boo, loves to clap, and imitates sounds. We are working on teaching him signs, "more" and "eat" being the first two. He also loves to give kisses, big open mouthed ones that if you're not careful, he'll slip you a little tongue!! Physically, Kellan is almost sitting up by himself. He stood for about 20 seconds at PT the other day, which is great because his little legs are like noodles! He rolls and scoots around on his back to get where he wants to go, despite the therapists trying to get him to get around on his tummy and learning to crawl. I'm thinking that's not going to happen! None of our kids learned to crawl, until after they walked anyway!
Kellan is ready for his 2nd Christmas. He has already tried opening a few gifts under the tree, and I suspect he will prefer the paper over any toys he may get! His brother and sisters are very excited for Christmas, and I'm sure they will teach him well the art of opening presents!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!