The Norman Nest

 Well folks, we're two days after surgery and I would have to say we are doing better than I would have expected.  Tuesday and Wednesday the whole family was riding the emotional wave of a three year old post major surgery.  Sounds fun, right? :)  As of today though I would say 80% of the time Nathan is doing exceptionally well.  The 20% of the time he's in pain or frustrated with the casts are really, really hard but like the title of this post says - 80/20 is definitely winning.  As always, coming out of anesthesia Tuesday was rough.  At one point Jonny, myself and three nurses were trying to control "Wild Man" (nurses nick-name) and he still managed to pull out his IV!  Strong willed, three year olds coming out of surgery are a force to be reckoned with for sure. During surgery he ended up having his adenoids taken out as well.  Not an uncommon procedure at all (Apert or not) and especially with his mid-face fusions and fun airways this will hopefully just crea

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, April 18th Nathan will have his 10th surgery. Considering where we have been and what lies ahead this surgery is neither major nor minor - just a good ole' fashioned Apert Syndrome Tune-Up.  He'll be having his 3rd (or 4th?!) round of tubes put in his hears to help address some hearing loss.  He is also having work done on his big toes.  They've been growing 90 degrees in the wrong direction - so tomorrow they will break them and put a pin in each of his big toes to help steer the direction of their growth. Tomorrow's surgery is at Medical City, Dallas and it *should* be an outpatient procedure.  Nathan will be coming home with a short cast on each leg and hopefully lots of meds for pain and sleeeeeep! He is on the up swing of a cold...  I wish surgery was two or three days from now from a respiratory perspective but since it's not my hope is that surgery will progress as scheduled and there won't be any unforeseen complicati

Hello Friends and Family! 2017 is starting out in full swing for getting Nathan settled into some new routines of care and we want to make sure to keep everyone updated on the significant things happening. In January he was re-evaluated for Physical, Occupational and Speech services and as he is still showing delays in each area he will be continuing to receive each of those therapies weekly.  PT and OT have already begun and we are still waiting on Speech to be approved/processed through insurance.  Please join us in praying for that to move along quickly as that is probably his most significant delay and the one that most drastically effects his social interactions at this time. Valentine's Date Night (Feb 14th) Nathan is having a sleep study done.  If you've been following his story for a while, you may recall that he has these on an annual/bi-annual basis.  The sleep study, MRI's and eye exams are three of the main factors used to determine the amount of p