Lots of fun

  We have been so busy this week!  That, coupled with my inability to get the computer to upload photos led to another long break without a post.  Graesen went to the urologist. She thinks that there is no way his pain is related to his surgery.  This weekend Graesen was miserable many times.  I sat by him in the car on the way to dinner with Evan's family one night.  He was screaming and I thought that he was just being a grumpy stinker.  Next thing I knew his legs were pulled up.  He was in pain!  More and more things hurt him now.  It's easy to forget for a while, because when Graesen is feeling good he is so much fun!  He is a very happy, very silly little boy who just happens to be in a whole lot of pain anytime he sits.  It is stressing me out so much.  I emailed Graesen's regular doctor to ask him about looking at Graesen's back.  The urologist asked me if anyone had, so I figured that maybe it is worth a shot.  Maybe the pain is not GI related at all...although he does have some significant GI problems.  Who knows?  The kid is a mystery.
  Now for the fun part.  I have pictures of the many fun things we did this week.  Graesen played in the snow for the first time, had his first hot chocolate, went sledding for the first time, celebrated Thanksgiving twice, got his hair cut by Evan's hair style/makeup artist cousin, picked out a Christmas tree, went to a friend's house to bake cookies, went out to dinner at Shoguns, celebrated an early Christmas with his Aunt McKenzie and Uncle Scott, and helped decorate our tree.  The kid is exhausted!  He performed so much and never slowed down :)

GI doctor appointment today

I have not posted in a while. Our internet has not been working very well. I can get on through the playstation, but not on the computer. So that means no pictures for now, since I can't upload them.
Graesen had another appointment with the GI doctor today. The medicine has not made a difference at all. In fact, Graesen's symptoms have gotten worse. He is in pain more frequently (not just while sitting in his high chair now), and it seems to be more intense. Last week he was in his stroller and was super uncomfortable. He was pulling his legs up to his stomach like he does when he is in pain, but then he got really really pale. His eyes got super dark, too, and he just looked awful. The doctor still has no idea what is going on. We are going to switch some medications again and are scheduling a pH probe test. Graesen will go to the hospital to have a probe inserted through his nose and down his throat. We will take him home with it and it will measure his acid levels in his esophagus for 24 hours. I have no idea how we will get Graesen to not rip it out. This test will tell us (hopefully) if reflux is the cause of Graesen's pain. He will have to go wtihout his meds for 5 days before the test, so it might be a little rough if reflux really is the main reason for his pain. We go back to the GI doctor at the beginning of January. If Graesen is still having symptoms at that point the doctor will hospitalize Graesen for two days. That way they can observe him and run tests while he is having on of his "attacks." Beyond that, if we find out that reflux is the main problem and cannot get it under control within 6 months the doctor says we will need to do surgery. I feel bad for Graesen that it is taking us so long to figure out what is hurting him. He is absolutely terrified of doctors and everything medical-related now. He starts sobbing the minute we walk in the room. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the urologist to see if there is any chance his pain is related to something from his surgery.

What we do when it's rainy outside

The past few days the weather has been gross.  It is hard to want to get out and do anything when it is so dark outside all the time.  Graesen, however, gets a little cranky if we don't provide some entertainment every once in a while.
One day we went to McDonalds just so Graesen could play in the play area. (yes I realize all the pictures are unedited and sideways.  The internet and computer are giving me trouble, and I am tired so I am giving up for the night.)

Graesen also worked on a little Christmas craft he will be giving as a gift.

Tonight Evan and I thought we would build a fort for Graesen to play in.  It didn't last long, because Graesen thought that the blankets could hold him up and attempted to climb on top of them.  Then we decided that we should put our tent up in the living room instead to make a fort.  We got the tent as a wedding present and hadn't used it yet.  We had no idea how big it is.  It takes up our whole living room!  We decided to just go with it and moved the furniture out of the living room.  We then got some gluten free pizza to eat for dinner and brought Phoebe over to join in the fun.  We ate pizza and watched Elf.  It was a big hit with everyone.  Granted, it can't stay up forever, but it was fun for tonight.

Graesen's doctor talked to the gi doctor and they decided to switch up Graesen's meds.  He is now on two different types of reflux meds (1 is a once a day med and the other is an every 8 hours med), and a med for people with IBS/stomach spasms (taken before every meal).  They are hoping this will provide some relief.  They said that no matter what we still have to visit the urologist next week (even if the meds totally work), because they are concerned there may be some issue from his surgery that we wouldn't want to miss.

A big reason I haven't written in a few days is that Graesen broke the laptop.  He pulled the cord, which made it fall off the table, which broke the power port.  We have to take it in to get fixed.  I can use the downstairs computer in the meantime, but it's just not as convenient so I tend to not get on the computer that often now.

Christmas pictures

Graesen's doctor's office was able to fit him in today.  The doctor checked Graesen out and said that he, too, has no idea what is causing Graesen's pain.  He referred us back to the urologist to see if there is some issue from Graesen's surgery.  He also told me he would call the urologist and the GI doctor to discuss what could be causing the pain and deteremine the best possible treatment plan for all his symptoms (including the reflux-which according to Graesen's records he has determined to be GERD, so it will likely be here to stay for a long time).  We go to the GI doctor again on the 23rd and the urologist on the 24th.  I swear all the money we pay in copays could probably cover Graesen's first year of college.

Now onto the Christmas pictures.  We had my mom take pictures of our little family today to be used for Christmas cards.  Graesen was pretty difficult (could be the lack of nap and the flu/immunizations we did while we were at the doctor,because why not get all the torturing done at once), but she still managed to get some good ones.  Molly and Phoebe came along, so we got some cute ones of them too.