Celebrating Inchstones: Animal House

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Animal House

I'm not really an animal person. I guess I've had pets all my life they've just been the outside kind that you feed and pet but are pretty low maintenance! Unfortunately for me, we live in a drop off alley! I'm not sure why folks decide to leave random animals on our road but they do! Many times we feed the stray and call rabies control to get them. Some we do get spade or neutered and keep. Most recently we had 3 dogs that had been rescued by us at various times. One sweet girl got old and died. And just this spring a male was killed by other strays who weren't fixed so they bred and pack hunted! Gracie was the one who found the gruesome scene! Good times!

With a heartbroken Gracie and lone female dog left, we went on a search for a house dog! I had to be pretty picky about what dog we got because I have allergies, no desire to clean dog hair off furniture and Asa couldn't handle a loud dog. A vet knew a breeder who had a 1 year old male yorkie left and she only wanted enough to pay his shot fees!

Well, Zander has turned out to be Anna's shadow instead of Gracies!! Anna loves it and Gracie seems ok about it too. But then today....

We pulled up to church and someone had left a small, male well behaved dog! Gracie was in love and even though I don't love animals I'm not cruel so we brought him home, put him in crate and gave him water. Ok that's what I did! Gracie day dreamed about what she'd name him and where he'd sleep! She even got my dad to give him a bath!!

So I guess we now have 2 indoor dogs, one for Anna and one for Gracie. Unless of course someone else claims him!!

As if that's not crazy enough when I came in from church tonight Gracie and Cade were crawling around under the deck and in the over grown flower bed chasing 2 kittens! Apparently our Tom cat found a friend before we got him fixed!! The kittens only seem interested in our food and trash!

So, if anyone needs any pets you know where to go now!!!

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Asa's story

Asa is the 4th and youngest in this family. We thought he'd come into this world and our lives would flow right along as it had the other 3 times we brought babies into this world.

We were wrong! After a normal pregnancy and delivery, Asa had to be sent to the NICU because he wasn't sucking, blood sugar dropping, floppy muscles, exaggerated startle reflex and jaundice.

He stayed 5 days were he learned to suck and eat enough to come home. He began nursing well but would scream in pain 30 minutes after each feeding. He had so much mucus and drooled so much. He had a terrible rash on his face. He wasn't making eye contact and was not hitting any milestones.

I kept taking him to the pediatrician but got nowhere until his 2 month checkup when he had only gained one pound since birth. That earned him an appt with a pediatric GI and a change to Neocate formula. Odd gasping spells and eye rolling got him into a pediatric neurologist before the GI appt. The neurologist (he was actually the head of the pediatric neurology dept) personally walked us over to the GI clinic and sat us in an exam room. That kinda makes you worry! That is when we really got the ball rolling. Asa was 3 months old.

At 4 months he was admitted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. He stayed 8 days and had a NG tube inserted so we could feed him directly into his stomach. He kept this for 2 months. Also during this time he had an EEG, CT scan, MRI, upper GI endoscopy with biopsy, flex sig, numerous blood tests, a genetics consult, and an ophthalmology consult and many other pokes and prods! So began our relationship with specialist!!

After 2 months on the NG tube, we removed it and tried to get Asa to eat enough to gain weight. He did OK for a little while but by 9 months old, he was fighting each feeding and not gaining weight despite being on Neocate formula at 30cal/oz. The decision was made to have a G-tube put in. The G-tube is a feeding tube that is inserted directly into Asa's belly. He can eat orally but won't so he gets feed into his belly.

Since he was going to have to be sedated for the surgery, it was agreed he should have a muscle biopsy at the same time. By 9 months he had finally began making eye contact. He smiled some but not very social. He was still very hypotonic (floppy) and didn't even have head control. Something was obviously going on with his muscles. All of his brain scans had been normal.

In Nov. 2008, when Asa was 13 months old, we found out the results of the muscle biopsy. Yes, it took 3+ months to get all of the results! He was diagnosed with Mitochondrial Myopathy. He is deficient in Complex IV for all of you medical junkies out there.

What this means is that his cells can't make enough energy to fuel his body....specifically for him, his muscles and GI system, that we know of. If his body has to burn energy to fight off infection, or a stress, then he looses energy in another system. Mito is a progressive disease with no treatment or cure. We try to keep him as healthy and happy as possible. We use the feeding tube to keep him feed so he doesn't have to struggle there. He takes numerous supplements and vitamins in the hope that they will keep him cells healthier. We check his eyes, hearing, heart, kidneys, liver, brain and lots of blood work yearly. Mito can affect any system so it is important to have baseline and watch for changes. He has a GI, neuro, geneticist, optometrist, ophthalmologist, cardiologist, developmental ped, regular ped and a mito specialist.

He gets OT, PT, speech/feeding and a home teacher weekly. He has some sensory issues with touch, sound, taste and texture. This plays into almost all areas of our lives! He is still very hypotonic but gained head control at just over a year (right after we started supplements!). He learned to sit when placed in a sitting position at 18 months. He still can't get into sitting alone. He learned to bottom scoot at just over 2. He does not crawl or walk.

He knows the signs for "moma", "daddy", "more" and "all done". He can show them when prompted but we are still waiting for him to initiate. He waves "bye-bye" and points all the time now. He loves to take a bath and water in general. He has a contagious laugh and can flash the most flirty grin ever!

We learned, with Asa, not take the small things for granted. Each smile, sound, word, bite or even trouble!! You just never know when they might not be so easy to come by or even if you'll have them at all!