Oral Surgery

At the beginning of the month James had surgery to remove his remaining baby teeth. Like a lot of things that involve James, this wasn’t something we took lightly. There is a certain amount of risk with any surgery, no matter how big or small. Because James doesn’t have a suck/swallow reflex, we thought that the risk of one of his baby teeth falling out and getting stuck in his throat outweighed the potential risks of surgery.

Fortunately, the surgery went without a hitch. The original plan was to remove eleven teeth. When the doctor spoke to us before surgery, he said he may not remove all eleven, but wouldn’t know for sure until he got in there.

 

 

 

Stacy usually gets a little teary before they wheel him away for surgery but this time she managed to hold the tears back. That was until we could hear him start talking in his own little language as they were wheeling him down the hall. Then the tears started flowing. “He’ll be okay dear. He’s in good hands.”

The surgery was scheduled for 1:15 pm, but they were running behind schedule and they didn’t take him back until about 2:30. Stacy and I were starving so we went upstairs to grab some lunch in the cafeteria. Stacy had worn a black tank top that she sewed a big purple ribbon on for epilepsy awareness. As we were waiting for the elevator, we learned that a purple ribbon is also used to raise awareness for domestic violence, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

 

 

Surgery was only supposed to last about an hour, but it ended up being closer to two, and then it was off to recovery. Poor little dude.

 

 

 

 

The tooth fairy normally leaves $1 for one of James’ teeth. Is there an upcharge for teeth that were surgically removed, you know, to account for the additional pain and suffering?

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures from the morning after surgery.

 

 

 

We could tell that he had some pain and discomfort after the surgery, even with the pain meds, but overall, he did pretty good. Stacy said that James handled it better than I would have. Yeah, probably.

We had a follow-up with the oral surgeon two weeks after the surgery and he said everything looked good. It just may take a little bit longer than normal to heal because James is a mouth breather.

 

New Dishwasher

James and I tackled another father and son project a few weeks ago. I went to run the dishwasher and it wouldn’t start. Checked the circuit breaker to make sure it wasn’t tripped, and it wasn’t. It had to be about twenty years old, and the buttons had been a little finicky lately so I assumed that the control panel was a culprit.

After looking to see what our local home improvement stores had available, looking over reviews, and checking Consumer Reports, I went out to Menards and picked up a Whirlpool. We didn’t need anything fancy, just a basic dishwasher to wash our dishes. After I got it home, I enlisted James’ help to get it installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we got it installed and all hooked up, we gave it a test run. Guess what? It had a leak! Are you kidding me?! It turned out that there was a small crack in the drain tube. So, what do I do now? Do I disconnect the dishwasher, pull it out, box it up, take it back to Menards, get another one, and start the installation all over again? Do I contact Whirlpool for a replacement drain tube and not have a dishwasher for however long it takes to get the tube delivered? I didn’t like either one of those options. I was able to get the tube off, took it to Menards, found one that was the same size, put it on, and no leaks! We have used it a few times over the past couple of weeks and it’s been working great. Thanks James for the assist.

 

Family Photos

As if raising a medically complicated child isn’t stressful enough. The dishwasher broke on a Saturday, and by the time I did my research and got the new dishwasher home, it was too late in the day to install it. We had our annual family pictures scheduled for Sunday afternoon, so the plan was to get it installed Sunday morning before our pictures. If it hadn’t been for that leak in the drain tube, we would have been done with plenty of time to spare before pictures. I didn’t want to leave the project unfinished and come back to it later, so I rushed to the store for the replacement tube and then raced back home to put it on.

Then I had to quickly take a shower. Not that you’d be able to smell me through the pictures, but I felt like I just needed to freshen up a bit before the pictures. Unfortunately, it rained in the morning and the grass was still wet so we couldn’t take too many outdoor pictures. We still got plenty of good ones, though. Here are a few of the better ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Stuff

James’ 4th Grade photo is framed and hanging up on the wall outside of his bedroom.

 

 

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month and Stacy will be doing another fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago. Keep your eye open for the link on the Fans of James Facebook page.