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MAX'S JOURNAL
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SUPPOSEDLY A YEAR OLD
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Nov 22, 2009 08:28pm (EST)
Max's original due date was Nov 23, 2008. So, our little boy became a year old, adjusted. Max's grandma throw a traditional Korean 1st birthday party for Max, with a table full of traditional Korean food. Max, Max's dad and I all dressed up in traditional Korean outfit (called Han Bok) and took a family photo.
Max was sited in front of a table on which a stethoscope, money, pens, and books are displayed. Max was allowed to pick whatever he wanted. In Korean culture, it is thought that the first object the birthday baby picks predicts what the baby will become. Stethoscope predicts to be a doctor, money a wealthy entrepreneur, pens and books to be a scholar. Max's grandma was delighted that Max picked the Stethoscope first. Then, Max wanted to grab a pen, but grandma hushed him away to money. As experienced with both Max's mom and dad who have a PhD and work in Academia, Grandma thinks that being a scholar is not such a glorious thing. I figure.
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Max's dad at the party table said with some weight to each word, "it was a long journey to get here". It pretty much sums up how I feel about Max become a year old, happy as ever. And, if I did not say it before, I am also grateful for all of you who have been there for us, cared for Max, and prayed for our family. Yes it was a long road to get here, but I know we were not alone. Thank you all and I hope that we can continue our journey with Max further, along with the warm hearts of yours.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (6) | Permalink
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HALLOWEEN
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Nov 01, 2009 08:43pm (EST)
Max's Korean grandma is here and she has been taking care of Max so that we can keep him inside until he gets vaccinated for H1N1 and for RSV. Max had a cold one after another for more than a month, but with grandma's care he is finally better. He still has a runny stuffy nose here and there, but coughing and chest congestion followed by violent throw up are pretty much gone. He is having so much fun with grandma and does not seem to miss his little friends at his day care yet.
I think there is some truth in an old Korean saying, "kids grow big after being sick". Max all of sudden started drinking water out of cup. I am talking about a small regular paper cup, not a sippy cup. He takes food out of spoon and self feeds rice puffs and biter biscuits. He says "Mamma, baba, dada, kaykay, Umma (mommy in korean)", makes other weird sounds and babbles nonstop. In addition, he rolls and pivots like nobody's business, which he knew how to do but rarely did. He goes down to 'all four-hands and knees' position and rocks his bottom back and forth. He is not crawling yet but is trying pretty consistently. He holds onto furniture and loves to stand. He is not pulling himself up to stand yet. We finally realize that we don't need to worry about his development. He has his own schedule and we just need to help him out when he needs.
We did not dress him specially for Halloween as we were not going to take him out for trick or treat. On Halloween night, there was a big rainstorm and nobody came and knock on our door either. We put a pumpkin shirt on Max and pretended that he was the most precious jolly pumpkin that we ever had. I uploaded Max the pumpkin picture.
Max's dad and I were tricked on Halloween evening and had a big fight on a seemingly tiny little thing. Must be the wicked mood in the air. When we woke up the next day, we could not even understand what we were fighting for.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (6) | Permalink
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FIRST SNOW AND DREADFUL FLU SEASON
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Oct 16, 2009 05:51pm (EST)
It snowed yesterday. I took a picture of our backyard this morning. The dreadful flu season is officially here.
Max has regained his appetite up to 50% level of what it used to be, once we stopped anitbiotic. Knowing how quickly things can go downhill, I am just grateful for whatever amount he takes. Max is still having cough spells, early in the morning and late at night. Once it starts, it lasts for a couple of hours. He squeeze out wet and rough coughs from the bottom of his chest and his face turns bright red. It is really hard to watch as nothing seems to help once the cough starts. It only stops after he coughs out handful of mucous and there is nothing to come out. In a way, I don't blame him for not wanting to eat. His throat must be really sore after days of coughing streak.
All the viral flu test came back negative. So it was not viral pneumonia. Dr suspected that he had a little cold somewhere and his airway just flared up. I asked him whether sending him to daycare would expose him to more germ or make him sick more frequently. Dr said, 'No, you guys might be bring germs from work and the day care has only handful number of kids'. You see, Max never ever got sick or had caught a cold until the middle of August. A week after we sent him to daycare, we saw a snorty nose for the first time. After that every other weeks, he would have a cold. His daycare charge nurse telling me, "none of other kids are sick. Max is the only one gets sick all the time", really really did not help my feelings either. Well, none of them are 25 weeker with chronic lung disease requiring 7 months of hospital stay.
I am torn. Knowing how much Max likes to be with other kids and how well he was doing with all the therapies given at the daycare, it is hard to consider to pull him out during the flu season. Everybody else is saying that it might not be the daycare causing him to catch germs so often. I don't know what to do.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (4) | Permalink
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UNNECESSARY TREATMENT
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Oct 12, 2009 02:51pm (EST)
So, I took Max to his ped. It turns out that he does not have much of ear infection and the antibiotic that a NP prescribed on Friday for supposedly ear infection is known to have adverse side effects such as killing taste buds, nausea, appetite suppression. I guess I have the right to be mad at the NP since she f*** up Max's feeding which was not the easiest thing to begin with. In addition, she missed the obvious crackling in his lung.
We took X-ray on Max's lung and his ped said he has mucous build up in his lung. Dr thinks that Max has some sort of viral infection and ordered tests for RSV and other flu causing virus. Max does not act sick right now, but he lost 10 oz over the weekend due to vomiting and refusal to eat. We were sent home with a nebulizer, xopanex, pulmicort and order to "PUSH" liquid intake. If we cannot get enough fluid by tomorrow, we will need to give him IV fluid and be possibly looking at hospital admission. His Dr and I am on the same page that we would avoid hospitalization as much as we can. So we will see.
Thanks for all the kind words. It means a lot.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (4) | Permalink
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SUDDEN REFUSAL OF BOTTLE
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Oct 11, 2009 04:54pm (EST)
Max has been sick with a cold for a couple of weeks now. On Friday, I took him to dr's office and found out that he had an ear infection. We started antibiotics on Friday night. When he woke up on Saturday morning, he decided to close his mouth shut toward any liquid. Cold or warm, in a bottle or in a cup, with mommy or daddy, pediasure or formula..It did not matter. So overnight his intake dropped from over 30 oz per day to 12 oz per day. Even that 12 oz, I could only feed him when he was falling asleep. I am just praying that I could get him to drink enough while he is sleeping so that he would not get dehydrated.
He occasionally did not want his bottle, but nonetheless he opened his mouth and tasted a bit, then stopped. Now, this refusal is something totally different. His mouth is fused shut. He pushes away and bangs away on bottle with all mighty heart.
Is it because we changed his formula to pediasure? Is it the antibiotic that made him nauseous? Or did we do enough of sneaking in bad tasting medicine into his bottle and made him abhor the bottle? I do not understand but am surely getting frustrated.
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Max is pretty sick. I think it hurts for him to suck on things and since his nose is so stuffed he can't breath while he is eating. He would not drink any juice, water, or different formula out of bottle. We gave him little bit of water out of cup and that's about it. We just have to find a way to give him antibiotics so that he can fight off the ear infection. I feel it was immature decision to go back to work and to have him go to daycare to be exposed to all the germs.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (5) | Permalink
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GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION
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Sep 29, 2009 06:45am (EST)
I have been trying forever to get ANY response from Max's pediatrician's office regarding the Synagis and flu shots that I requested long before October rolls over. When I initially asked those shots to be arranged at the beginning of October, His ped was super nice and he promptly requested his nurse to take care of it. Then weeks passed by without hearing anything. I called, called, and called. I have sent numerous messages to the Dr. office via phone or Dr's email account. Still Nothing, none, nada.
It is very typical for medical profession to remain silent ie no response when they don't have what the patient asked for yet or when the problem is too complicated for them to handle. The problem is that they do not understand that "No response" and "waiting" itself is what is even harsher on the patient or their family not the response itself that they have to deliver. If someone just could pick up the phone and tell, "sorry we had a problem here and there" or "sorry we don't have anything yet", then I could prepare for myself for what to do next and all the anxiety that I am having would be gone. Just say something!
The gravity of the situation involving sick childs does not feel the same from the medical profession's end as from the patients end. There is this big chasm between the two and I have to cross it for my child all the time.
Ahhhhhhh. I guess I will have to wait for a couple more days and if not, I will contact Max's pulmonologist or neurologist to find a way to get Synagis, cause they all agreed (including Max's ped) that it is vital for Max to get those shots.
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Posted by mcunnick | Comments: (5) | Permalink
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