and we are a go for surgery…

The hospital called and let us know that not only are we a go for the surgery, but that it will be at 7am instead of 10am tommorrow. That means that John has to be at the hospital at 5am- and up at 4am! Not liking that much and it kinda threw a wrench in the whole plan for the day. But now it’s straightened out and John’s parents are driving him to the hospital at 4:30am. My mom is coming around 7am and then I am leaving for the hospital to wait and visit. My mom will be taking care of the boys all day including all school drop offs, pick ups and stuff. So if you are keeping a good thought for John, keep a good one for my mom too! She’s gonna need it.

John dosen’t seem particularly nervous about tommorrow, but I am (it’s that Jew worrying gene- can’t escape it). I keep reminding myself that this surgery is cake compared to the last back/neck surgery he had where they removed the disc, fused his spine with bone from his hip. That area was a lot more dangerous to work in and this time they are not fusing or anything. They are just supposed to remove the bulging part of the disc to get it off the nerves- which is what is causing all the pain. I just hope it works as well as last time (he had no more pain as soon as waking from surgery- incision pain, but no neck,back, radiating down the arm pain) and that the recovery is as fast as they are saying it should be. If you are the praying type, please send one up for us tommorrow. Thanks.

Today was totally nuts, trying to get everything settled before tommorrow. But it’s almost all done (just a few more to-do’s on the list before I can go to bed).

Timmy had his psychological evaluation today and it was very interesting. The psychologist said she sees some indications of low muscle tone (ummm…hello Jack & Patrick) and he definitely needs help with articulation. She asked if he was always this happy and easy going- yup! His vocabulary was in the 99th %tile (that we knew!), and his general IQ was on the very high end of average. His self-care skills were in the average range. She did see some things that warrant an OT (occupational therapy for fine motor skills) evaluation too. So, this all really means nothing except that we now proceed to the next steps: Speech evaluation on Friday and OT evaluation on Saturday. It’s kinda good that she wants him evaluated for both as if you are trying to qualify for one service, you need a 33% deficit in that area, but if you are trying to qualify for two services, you only need a 24% deficit. And she’s going to leave it up to the OT to see if he needs a PT (physical therapy for gross motor skills) evaluation too. I am so hoping he qualifies and can get the services NOW to get this done. The only issue (well, other than getting approval for services) is going to be the scheduling of appointments. They are so busy at this facility. When I went with the boys we started PT and OT at 7:30am 2x a week. *(and yes, we did make it on time every time even at that hour!). Obviously, I can’t do that now so I don’t know when they will be able to fit us in. One step at a time though.

Here are two of Timmy from today-one in the laundry basket (don’t ask) with his new Buzz Lightyear trains from Uncle Nelson. I know there are far more pix of him than of the boys, but he’s with me all day and they are at school so he gets stuck being my subject. Better on the focus here. Still practicing. And I think I’m bringing the camera to the hospital tommorrow, too!