Glasses

Sometime back in January I noticed Mason's right eye crossing, a lot. It started to get worse really quickly so I called his pediatrician and she referred him to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist Dr. Gordon Smith. He was very nice and is definitely good with kids. It was a very long appointment, at least 2 ours. They checked his eyes and then dilated them and checked them again. He did good and was just really bored by the end. The Doctor concluded that he has Accommodative Esotropia which is basically that he is farsighted which means he can't see near and because he is struggling so hard to see it causes his eye to turn inward to accommodate. He has a +6 in one eye and a +5.5 in the other which I guess is pretty high. I left the office feeling completely in shock. I had no idea that glasses would even be a possible solution. Once we got into the car I sat and cried for a few minutes just trying to take it all in. Having to accept that your 2.5 year old needs glasses is really hard especially when no one in your family has eye trouble.

I wanted a second opinion so I took him to my eye Dr. who treated and did surgery on my brother when he was little for Strabisimus. Dr. Cohn did all the same things that the other specialist did and came out with the same diagnosis with a slightly different prescription but the same none the less. He was given to information about Mason's previous visit to the other Dr. so when he said the same thing I finally had to accept that my little baby was going to be getting glasses.

Once I got online and went to a few stores I realized that he didn't have to have really ugly or dorky glasses. They actually make some pretty cute stuff for toddlers. We found a place in Newark that had a lot of toddler glasses and ordered a pair from them. During this whole time I decided that I would start wearing my glasses on a regular basis so he could see them and hopefully would like his own. When we got his glasses he took to them immediately, he wouldn't wear them all day at first but after a week or two he started asking for them and he just loves them.

Now when I look back at pictures of him without his glasses I find that he looks weird without them. It was a very trying experience but I am just so happy that he can see :)






<3 Krista

Camping!

Camping....I have to admit I was terrified to do this with my almost 3 year old, but I have to say I think he tolerated the whole experience better than I did :) We took a long weekend May 14-16 and went camping/boating at Lake Don Pedro. There was a total of 9 of us, wow. Me, Bobby, Mason, Danielle (Baby girl too! I guess that's 10!), Jon, Brian, April, Roman and Gary. Again, wow. We had 2 campsites side by side.

It was a long drive and it was hot when we got there but it was definitely fun. Mason did really well on the boat and actually fell asleep part of the time, but he did not like tubing, maybe next year. The first night was very uncomfortable, somehow Mason ended up on my bed inside my sleeping bag that is only meant for one person. He slept great after that I however did not sleep at all. The second night I decided that I would zip our two sleeping bags together and sleep on the big bed with him and Bobby slept on the twin :) We all slept much better that night.

Overall it was fun and I would have done it again but there was one little problem...




Yeah that's right, that's a bear. He was literally about 10 feet from our tent and you can see what he did to our food locker. FYI DO NOT bring chocolate and carmel covered popcorn camping if you don't want to see one if these. He ate all of it, I had opened it a few days earlier and had a handful. Oh yeah and a whole loaf of unopened bread.

So yeah, never camping again. At least not where there are bears.

Somehow the only pictures I took while we were camping were of the Bear, guess I was too preoccupied.

We told the rangers at the park about him and they said unfortunately they would have to capture him and euthanize him. Very sad but I can see how it would be dangerous, he was too comfortable with people and got too close

If your going to Lake Don Pedro, remember, there ARE Bears!


<3 Krista

Easter

So I know this is about 2 months late but I figure better late than never right?? Here are some pictures of our Easter, lots of eggs and lots of playing! Can't wait to have Baby Girl Lemos next Easter!

Setting up our egg coloring station

Coloring Eggs!















Making Easter cupcakes with Mommy















Loving his car that the Easter Bunny got him














Hunting Easter Eggs in our backyard



















Finding Eggs at Grandma's!














Helping Roman!















Making Easter Cake with Grandma
















<3 Krista

6 Week Post-Op

So I know it's June and my 6 week post-op was like 6 weeks ago but I just havn't had the time to get on here to blog.

I went to my 6 week post-op on April 29th and I was feeling perfect! The Dr. said everything looks great and was healing very nicely (it apparently takes quite a long time to heal completely). I have to say I am breathing soooo much better through my throat and my nose! I never even knew I couldn't breath well through my nose and now I can't imagine it being back that way it was. I am sleeping so much better and am not nearly as tired during the day as I normally was. My snoring is also completely gone, I couldn't snore even if I wanted to because most of my uvula is gone. I go back again at the end of July just to make sure everything is all the way healed.

Overall I would say if your sleep numbers are as bad as mine were or you just can't or don't want to tolerate a CPAP machine I would recommend this surgery. It was terribly painful but so far I think it's worth it. I was really nervous going into the surgery because of all the horror stories I heard from people online about complications or long term side effects but I have had none. I can eat everything, nothing feels weird, I don't gag, I don't drool (thank goodness!) and I don't get food up my nose. Definitely do your research on this surgery before you have it done. I think the key to not having the side effects was that I didn't have my Uvula all the way removed. I will have to say that Dr. Van Tassel was/is an amazing Dr. and would recommend anyone getting this surgery to consult him first.

Thanks to everyone who helped me through this and good luck to anyone who is having this surgery!

<3 Krista