I Need Inspiration

I love to paint for a hobby when I am bored and have some extra time. I usually have at least one project in my mind or that I am working on. Since I had Sterling almost 8 months ago I haven't painted anything and it is driving me insane. Having him has eaten up all my spare time and the tiredness has taken all my inspiration (the very little I had). When I was pregnant at 6 months I got Kidney stones and my doctor put me on sick leave from work, so I had nothing but time for 3 months before the craziness began...I started a million projects for Sterling's room to make it a little more interesting and original and to keep me busy so I didn't have to think about being so sick. Here is some of the stuff I did for his room. I got a white dresser as a hand me down and I painted it to add some life to it.

Then I painted a series of 6 animals for his room because I couldn't find any artwork in the size and type that I wanted.

We got this rocking horse from a garage sale for $5 but it didn't match his safari/jungle theme so I repainted it and put new yarn into it to make it look like a zebra.

At any rate I have started to make deals with Trevor that if he watches the little guy for an hour or two then I will give him that same amount of time to do whatever he wants without child watching obligations. It usually works out pretty good but I usually end up spending all my time in the hot tub falling asleep. I decided that I am going to start painting for my free time some new super large abstract or something visually pleasing to fill the wall space that is pretty bare in our house. But I have come upon a dilemma...I can't seem to think of anything to paint. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to think up anything to paint! Has anyone ever just had a major mental block that keeps them from doing the things they love? I think summer just needs to come so I can get outside and get a new perspective and ideas. Anyways, just wanted to share my blockage in hopes someone will have a really good idea that I can steal from them.

-Alauna

What an Adventure of Sorts!

So we are back from the hospital and things went better than everyone planned.  We are pretty happy with the way that everything turned out.  You can't even really tell that the little dude had a pretty big surgery.  This is a picture of him less that 24 hours after his surgery, just him being his typical cute self.

Sterling had his vp shunt surgery at 9:15 am on March 24, 2009 and he was released from the hospital at 12 pm on March 25, 2009.  We had anticipated that he would be in there for at least 2-7 days.  The doctor told me it is pretty rare for someone so young to be released so early after this type of surgery.  The surgery took 1 hour and then he was in recovery for 2 hours until they found an open hospital bed.  He was pretty cute when they brought him into his hospital room.  He was holding this little red baby rattle that they had given him straight out and staring at it intently for a few minutes.  He wasn't even moving because he was so out of it from all the drugs that they have given him but he wouldn't let go of that rattle.  The neurosurgeon told us that they decided to put a magnetic valve in his head.  The valve is what controls the flow of fluid from his brain to his tummy.  By using a magnetic valve they are able to change the flow setting without performing another surgery.  They use these little magnetic tools (as shown below the valve picture) on the outside his head to program the flow of fluid.  There are 5 settings and right now he is on the lowest flow so that he does not get headaches from the sudden pressure change in his head.  Apparently, these magnetic valves are super super expensive and are rarely used, so Sterling is pretty lucky that they decided to use this type of valve on him.  This is what the valve in his head looks like.  
The valve is 4 cm long by 1.5 cm wide and 0.5 cm high, so you can clearly see the valve under his skin.  This is the incision from his first shunt surgery.  It is about 1 inch long and curved into a half circle.
Here you can kind of see the tube from the valve.  It goes from the back of his head, down the side of his neck and then through his chest into his tummy.  You can see the tube most of the way and feel it pretty well.
This is his tummy scar from his shunt surgery.  They make an incision here so that they can feed it from his brain into his tummy easily.  This incision is about 1 and 1/2 inches wide.
This is and MRI scan of people with and without Hydrocephalus.  The first picture is a brain with Hydrocephalus and the second is a picture of a normal brain.  As you can see, it starts compressing the brain pretty tightly into the skull.
So the little guy is a trooper and he obviously has someone looking out for him.  I just can't believe how he always pulls through surgeries as if nothing has even happened.  Minus some itching.  He can't stop itching his head incision.  Last night we heard him making some weird noises so we went into his bedroom.  There was blood on his pj's, in his ears, all over his face and bed.  He had managed to pull his bandage off and then then start scratching his stitches.  He then proceeded to rub his blood all over anything that he could get his little hands on.  

Thanks for all the prayers and help with the little guy.  We are super lucky that we have such a cute little boy and that he doesn't have it worse.  We have heard of many people in the SBHASA that have had way worse situations and health problems with their kids including more hospital visits and way more surgeries.  

-Alauna

This Morning the Devil Confronted Me...In Snow Form

I was stupid. I did a very dumb thing and got excited that winter was over. I thought I had good reason. It was the first day of spring a couple days ago and the last two days were really really nice. And then I wake up to this (our little hatchback turned into a minivan):

About 9.5 inches and still coming down. Yeah I know, thats about as cool as Steven Harper wearing a dress. Ok that would actually be pretty cool to see, but you get my point. I swear I could hit someone...the weather man would do. On the positive side its not that cold only about -5 celsius right now. And maybe since we are getting so much now we wont get the usual dump in May. Who knows, the weather forecast in Calgary seems to be as reliable as a Delorean. 

While it was warm yesterday, we made a scooter board for Sterling. I took a piece of pine and cut down to about 18x11 inches and threw some castors on it. Launa got some padding and sewed a cover for it and we screwed and eyelet into the end of it so we could attatch a rope. Basically, it makes it easy for him to cruise around since he can't move is legs. 

He is pretty cute, he pretty much only turns in circles right now because he is trying to turn over and get off of his tummy. Persistence will surely bring good things here, he should be cruising in no time. Speedy Sterling Mcqueen. He has started speaking all sorts of gibberish including "dadada" but we are pretty sure it has nothing to do with me because we call me 'Papa'. 

-Trevor

Not so much...

I just ran 8km with Dana today on the bow pathway.  So this 10km thing seems a little more in my reach but still suckey.  That means I only have to gain 2 more km's in 2 months.  Doable, I think considering 2 months ago I got winded just walking around the neighborhood.  I thought that you only got winded easily while you were pregnant, it mysteriously continued right on through till recently.  I must admit that the whole last 6km I was thinking that it would be really nice to die right now and as we speak I literally cannot get up or sit down.  And it made it worse looking over at Dana who is looking all cheery and not at all winded in her happy jogging mode.  I know I can't complain seeing how she has been running a year and I just started working out 2 months ago after having my little guy and this is the first time I have really actually run (I usually sport the elliptical which is a deceiving piece of equipment.  I tells me that I go 8km on it in an hour and that is with resistance.  So I naturally thought that without resistance 8km would not be horrible, I WAS WRONG).  At any rate I am still pretty freakin' proud of my lazy self.

4 more days until shunt surgery...Not too stoked about this but must be done.  They finally called yesterday (Thursday) to tell me for sure Sterling's surgery was booked for the 24th after only calling them about 20 times and leaving several messages.  I really am not a freak about appointments considering it seems like I live at the Alberta Children's Hospital, but the neurosurgeon told me to make sure they called Monday to confirm this surgery.  Which didn't happen so much...I have nothing but good things to say about the ACH and all the doctor's and nurses.  They are so wonderful and helpful and we are becoming good friends with alot of the people there including his PT and OT.  Minus the receptionists.  Some of them are awful!!!!  His MRI was supposed to be scheduled 5 weeks earlier than it happened.  The neurosurgeon told me that this was important and needed to be done within 4 weeks because Sterling's head size has been increasing way too fast.  So the receptionist doesn't call within 3 weeks and I am getting increasingly concerned because I have to call Sterling's clinical nurse on a weekly basis about his head size measurements and she keeps asking me if they have called and she is worried because they haven't.  So I finally call them and they said his MRI was schedule for a few days from now but they had to cancel it because they had to get someone else in and now it is scheduled 5 weeks away from now.  I told the receptionist that Sterling's neurosurgeon explained that it must be done within 4 weeks and this is going to be 9 weeks from when he said that.  She told me that it wasn't important and it really didn't need to be done that fast and we then argued for 30 minutes about wether it was important or not.  I just don't understand what made her feel that she knew better than the neurosurgeon on when it needed to be done.  Consequently, now the fluid has collected in his neck from back-up in his brain and he needs surgery within 1 1/2 weeks from MRI results.  I just can't help but wonder if the fluid would have backed up so bad if she would have listened to the doctor and scheduled it when he told her too.  Like I said, ACH is an amazing hospital with great doctor's that I love so much.  He usually gets in with a week for any appointment that is important and needs to be taken care of.

This seems like the entry of negativity.  It must be the results of being totally wasted from my run.  At least I am sticking to that story.

-Alauna

The really bad ideas that i get...

Not much happening on the home front right now...Just waiting for the little midgets' surgery.  On an impulse after a particularly good workout (those are quite rare, every night when Dana calls me to workout I curse her name and wonder what made me thought that this was a good idea) I decided to sign up for the HSBC 10 km at the end of May.  I am now regretting this decision as it just sounds painful and not so much fun.  I am poor and determined not to waste money so we will see how this little experiment in running goes.  In the very least I can get rid of this fatness that Sterling so obliged in helping me gain....I hardly see that fairness in this situation.  It took no effort to put this weight on and I have been working out 5 times a week for 2 months straight and eating nothing (which sucks cause I have a massive sweet tooth) and I have only lost like 10 pounds.

Sterling now has learned to say 'Mama' and at first it was all sorts of cute and wonderful...Now it just makes me feel bad when he is calling 'Mama' and crying for me to pick him up.  Before he was crying it was easier for me to be more objective and not give into the little monkey.  Now I can't help but give into his little self when he is asking for me.  As most of you know he is really needy and always wants us to hold him.  Having him have to face his third surgery in 7 months I feel obligated to make him suffer the very least as possible.  Which has pretty much just screwed me over and made my life harder.

Corbin (Sterling's cousin that is 16 months old) and Sterling are just so freakin' cute together.  I went upstairs to talk to Ang and Corbin was sitting on the couch watching Cars, which is a pretty rad movie that even entertains me.  He looks up at Sterling at opens his arms to hold Sterling.  So I put Sterling in Corbin's arm and he takes Sterling and cuddles and pats his head and keeps rubbing his back.  He kept this up for 10 minutes before I had to take Sterling back downstairs to get ready to go out.  I swear he is so good with Sterling so that he can look over and help take care of Sterling....The other day he went and got Sterling a diaper, pj's and a blanket and a rag when he was laying on the floor.  He then proceeded, as best as a 16month old can to try and diaper him, wipe his face off and put pj's and a blankie on him.  I thought it was cute.

I will leave you with this rad vid of the little guy muscling his legs over for a roll.  It is apparently twice as hard for paraplegics to learn how to roll because they have to roll their legs without the help of them and use their trunk muscles for everything....It just makes me smile watching this.

-Alauna