There is a lot to be said for bedside manner

...now if only 'our' neurologist had some! (and yes I said 'our' but I am using the term loosely)
Dennis and I had wonderful second opinion phone call last night with Dr. B from Winnipeg. He  helped us to understand what all might be the reasoning behind the sudden "you are being transferred to pediatrics' call we got yesterday.
Dr. B said that it could be that Dr. Y got a slap on the wrist from the EMU clinic for whatever the full reasoning was and is stepping us backwards to ped's because if when they send us to another clinic it will possibly be Dr. Y that we deal with (the epileptologist). Now we also learned that the reasons behind seeing Dr.Y are because Sam not only has epilepsy BUT he also has a brain injury (no kidding!?) so it complicates things a bit. Dr. B told us that he has met with Dr. Y before and has found him to be kurt and brusque so THAT was not our imagination (It could stem from personality to the fact that it is more of a social style from his native land of Russia.)

Anyway, we found out the answers to many MANY questions that have NEVER been answered for us in 3 years! This lovely doctor called us at 9.30 at night from his home, gave us  his home number and told us to keep him in the loop. If we can find out the name of the ped neuro. that we are going to be seeing he can try to pull a few strings and see about getting us fast tracked with them... but he said he honestly figures that we will be hearing from someone in the next week or so. (please pray for this!)

So basically after our initial phone call yesterday at 8.30am-ish, we went from wondering what the heck!? until 9.30pm last night where we were smiling and saying "ok, we get it. Still am not impressed with Dr.Y but we will live with this for now..." A lot can be said for bedside manner! You would think that they should teach bedside manner in 'doctor school' and you have to stick with the course until you get at least 80% or better in it. Just think of the stress from patients, families, friends, co-workers and everyone that could be elevated if ALL doctors would take 5 minutes to actually explain WHY they are doing something instead of acting as if they are God.

So yesterday was not a great day and it was not all related to Dr.Y...

Sam didnt start with a good morning (thank you topomax). Since this med was 'up'd' to 2 pills a day there has been a NOTICEABLE change in Sam's demeanor, so much so that I have been worrying about him. All this medicine, epilepsy and lack of quality of life I think are taking a toll on Sammi. He has been depressed and quiet, withdrawn and sullen. Major (more than before topomax) mood swings... it had been a very tough 5 days on the double dosage... so when I told Dr.Y he said to stop taking it. YAY!!! It is not working for him so get him off it! SO i spent time already this morning on the phone with the neuro psych trying to get our time with them arranged -- hopefully hear about it this afternoon!

 I spent most of the morning yesterday, til 2.45 on the phone with various people, doctors, answering machines, etc., so when I went to town for football I was intending to go to curves to work out. Then I was going for coffee with a friend. But for that to happen I had to 1.) be relaxed to work out and b.) leave the house by 2pm... neither was happening so there was no workout for me.
I had also intended to have a green tea when I met up with my friend.... but I had a large English Toffee with 1/4 coffee instead...sigh

Then I went to football where I met with Sam who was in a foul mood (again....still -- **cough** topomax) and was informed by him that he was NOT going to be involved with football next year if this is what it was going to be (here is the quality of life I was speaking about earlier)... basically him watching the team practice and then standing on the side lines during games -- but being sure to be included when the coaches and teacher were yelling at the boys.(I dont blame him) He is supposed to be earning a credit by helping with stats and doing what he is able to do to help with the team (throwing with quarterback, practicing snaps with centre, catching for kick off or kick returns, etc) but they coaches tend to miss this part of his marks...

I sure hope that things start to settle down for Sam and for us soon... I am tired and have a permanent headache and sore back/shoulders....

You're not going to believe this...

Yes that is Samuel...

yes he is in a hospital... again

Yes it is an xray machine

No he is not there due to a seizure.

Well it is a funny story.... 

no not funny HaHa...

Funny as in OMGosh seriously!?

So here is the story:

Tuesday night we were at football practice (yes Sam is still participating with the team-- he is helping with training and where ever else he can) He was playing catch with the quarterback -- who broke his arm this summer in 2 places). Sam jumped up to catch a pass and he came down on a 1X1square inch pipe that is on the inside of the school track and he rolled on his ankle. Immediately Sam ankle swelled and it looked like a golf ball was under the skin of his ankle.  Another mom and I walked with Sam over to the hospital (ironically another player on the team was at the practice who had some crutches that Sam used).  By the time we were done with xrays and were seeing our doctor (we were lucky he was on call) the golf ball had grown to a tennis ball...

The doctor looked at the xrays and put Sams leg in a 1/2 cast. Sam had to use the crutches for a day and then use them only to help him put weight on the foot. If he was not able to put his full weight on it by Friday (which was yesterday) then we needed to go back to the doctor because it might be fractured. If he was able to put weight on it I was remove the 1/2 cast and rewrap the ankle with a tensor bandage. These are all the lovely colours of his ankle once we removed the cast....

It was not fractured!! YAY!

ahhhhh.....**sigh**

Hear that!? yep... quiet, peace and quiet -- well almost. After almost 2 weeks of having kids at my side (sickness the week before March Break and then the actual March Break) my house is finally my own domain again!  Well, almost... Dennis is home and will be from now on. He has applied for a leave of absence at the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and will be working for my mom on the farm here (here being our house) on the cow calf operation. He doesn't officially start until after the 9th of April, but  he had some time off coming to him for work so he took it.  We will be spending time this week doing yard work, getting sheep ready for spring and hopefully a few finishing touches with the house renos.

Dennis being home now more will mean a new learning curve for us all again. He will be here in the morning with the kids as they get ready for school, he will be home (or at least near by) when they get home from school. He has already informed me that if it can be worked out he will drive the kids to the bus in the mornings for me(sigh... this is why I ♥ him!)  The kids are all fairly excited about this.

This also means that maybe my mornings with sam will not be as ARRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH as there will be 2 of us to work with him! The last 2 weeks have been so draining for me. (when I think how tired both physically and emotionally for me I can't imagine how they are for Sam) He has been fairly sick with first the flu for 4.5 days and then it turned to a cold into his chest. So he was clingy, a bit whiney and just over all in a bit of a regressed state. Even tho we work hard to keep the kids in a routine over the holidays, it is still not our usual routine and it seems to stress him out after a few days. So I am very happy that today is back to school!!!!

This will be the first week for Sam to go ALL 5 days this week too. He will go Mon-Fri and then next week he will take the Wed. off in hopes of getting him back into full-time school. We are supposed to try it (crossing our fingers here) and if it is needed for a day off we will just take it-- but it will have to be a good reason to take a day before next Wed. Sam's inspiration for 5 day school week is football season. He has to be back to full-time before the spring league starts so he can play. (our rules not the school). He has been working out to work toward this and as soon as the weather co-operates he and Josh will be out running with Dennis in the mornings or after school to start training.

I have been busy trying to get the TBI conference 'out there' in the public but it seems that (I hate to say this) if it isn't cancer related people just aren't interested! No matter the information and statistics that you give people they just don't care. I had given my info for the conference to our local papers but neither of them have run the PSA's that I have seen!  I will be contacting them today to see what they are planning to do with them-- as there may be people wanting to REGISTER for this conference and need to know about it BEFORE it is over!  I am getting to a point where it feels like I need to be more aggressive about this, but I worry that if I get to 'forward' I will get emotional about it all and then look like an idiot as I try to advocate for something while crying my heart out...