 | | |
| | |
|
Spaces home  The Lowry's Ukrainian Ad...PhotosProfileFriendsMore |  Tools   |
|
The Lowry's Ukrainian AdventureMay 29 Six Months HomeSix months home. It does feel like a big milestone although its just another day. It's crazy to think about all the changes in our family over those months.
Eric's two foot surgeries went well. No complications. Not too much pain. It sounds weird but it already seems routine to go into the hospital for surgery. Wednesday he will go under anesthesia for the fifth time in less than two months. The best part is that Eric is happy with his newly turned feet and is excited to be able to walk again soon. We don't have any specific time-frame for the future. That includes when his casts will come off from his foot surgeries or the long-term treatment of his hips, knees etc. It's going to be a long process and each surgery will be something that we will consider the benefits versus complication and pain. We know that Eric will thrive regardless of how much function he gains or how many obstacles he faces. He's also doing well in school. He loves going to school and everyone there loves him. He's learned so much in six months it's amazing.
For everyone that continues to check for updates on the blog, I just wanted to let you know that this will be the last entry. The main reason is that we have moved on from the "adoption" phase. We are now just living the nice, quiet family life without too much excitement to write about. For family and friends who still check here if you would like to receive updates and pictures send me an email at shannlow04@yahoo.com. I think you can tell from the latest batch of photos that Eric is doing well and has a great future ahead.
Thanks so much for checking on us throughout our journey. We have been so blessed and appreciate all of your support and prayers.
Love from the Lowrys,
Shannon, Dave, Eric, and Owen
Before and after photos. What do you think is this the same boy? Click on the pictures to see the larger version.
April 23 Surgery SuccessEverything went great with Eric's surgery. It lasted around 3 hours and the surgeon was very happy with the results. We haven't seen his foot with the cast off, but you can tell just by looking at the cast that the foot was turned. He'll be getting the second foot done either this Tuesday or in a few weeks. The surgeon won't decide until she sees how well the first foot healed.
Eric is doing great. He isn't complaining very much about pain. The best part is that he is excited and happy about the results.
Thanks for checking on us! March 29 Happy Birthday EricOur big boy is six. Wow! He is doing great and had a wonderful birthday. He loved every second of it and really was a joy. It was amazing seeing his first real birthday celebration and how much he enjoyed it. It was one of the best days we've had since coming home from Ukraine. We are so proud of Eric, how strong he is, how smart he is, and what a wonderful personality. Truly a blessing.
We have a definite date for our first surgery. April 18th they will be performing muscle release surgery on one foot. If that goes well they will be doing the second foot the following week. We are nervous but also very excited to be moving forward and getting Eric to a better place. Each week when they change his casts they will be doing so in the surgery room under anesthesia. It will be a long couple of months after the surgery but we are confident that it will work out for the best.
Thanks for thinking of us. I will write a post with a full surgery update sometime soon after surgery.
Love,
The Lowrys March 03 Three months homeThree months home and life is so different. We’ve settled into a nice routine and everyone seems to have come through the major adjustments. It just feels on a regular basis that life is normal. Not something I would have said three months ago.
As you can see in the pictures Eric has his first set of casts. We weren’t expecting to get casts until after surgery but the Doctor decided he wanted to try to get some correction prior to surgery. The casts are big, heavy and uncomfortable. Eric is definitely not happy but managing well. His whole life has been about making it through tough situations so he is well prepared. We don’t know the answer to how long he will wear the casts. Most likely until surgery but we don’t have a surgery date yet. We go back every week to have the old casts removed and new casts put on. They slightly change the cast position each week to try to gradually mold the legs and feet closer and closer to a normal position. This may not even provide much results due to Eric’s age and severity of malformation but its worth a try.
We finally were able to get the MRI at the hospital with Eric under full sedation. He has some major ability to resist sedation. At the hospital they gave him gas at first and once he fell asleep they put in the IV. Well he was under with the gas, but as soon as they tried to put in the IV he woke up. It’s almost freaky like someone waking from the dead. They did not find anything noticeable on the MRI which is good news. However, we will be seeing a neurologist in 2 months to get his opinion on possible nerve damage and the cause. We also may see a geneticist who would test for a genetic cause that could tie all his malformations together. None of this is urgent but would be important to know in case there are implications for his future.
You can see too in the pictures that he has glasses which he needs mostly for astigmatism. He likes wearing them which is great. I can see a long childhood of broken glasses in his future but what can you do. He already broke the tip that goes behind his ear and he’s only had them for a few weeks.
Eric lost his second tooth and this time totally understood the concept of the tooth fairy. He was so happy to get the money. Even before he lost the tooth he would tell you about what happens when you loose a tooth. It was the cutest storytelling with a lot of acting out the story and hand gestures. He truly is so animated in story telling I think we have a young actor on our hands.
He is doing great in school too. The teachers all say he is really smart which of course we already know. He still has a lot to learn to pass kindergarten but he is learning everyday. He now can write his name. Doesn’t sound that great for an almost six year old but it is a major accomplishment. In the beginning he could barely write due to lack of practice. His scribbles looked very close to Owen’s. He also had no concept of letters even in Russian. So to learn how to write (which includes understanding orientation of up,down,across etc) he has to learn English, he has to understand letters, and finally he has to remember how the four letters in his name are formed. Pretty impressive for just a few months. There are a lot of kindergarten level skills that he is no where near accomplishing but each one he does conquer is just amazing. You really don’t think about all the steps of development that closely if the child has a normal progression over the years but to see all these concepts come together in a few months is awesome.
I think Owen is going to be ready for kindergarten soon too. He really is learning so much more because of all the work we are doing with Eric. Owen wants to join in all the learning sessions and even does homework every night when Eric does his. When we want to ask Eric questions like what letter is this or what color is this we have to hide it from Owen or else he will answer first and Eric will just copy him.
We’ve been having really great weekends with trips to the beach, park, zoo etc. It’s such a nice time of year in Florida and the boys love every second of our weekend adventures. With Eric’s casts we have to think of some less wet and dirty activities to keep us busy.
People seem to want to know what Eric/Yarik’s name is. He is Eric now at school and most of the time at home. We use Yarik as a nickname. Eric adjusted very easily to the change because it sounds so similar, which is the main reason we chose Eric in the first place. I call him Eric Yaroslav sometimes and he laughs. He’s probably hearing it like Yarik Yaroslav which would be like Dave David.
Well thanks for checking on us. Check back in the next few weeks for more pictures. I bought some really cute St. Patrick’s Day hats for the boys. And of course Eric’s birthday is on the 28th. I promise more pictures by the 31st.
Love, Shannon, Dave, Eric and Owen January 23 Winter fun Florida styleIt’s only two days away from Yarik’s 2 month anniversary as a US citizen. It’s been an amazing two months. Not easy, but still wonderful. We really are blessed.
The bad news…still no MRI. How frustrating! For the second attempt we got up at 3AM and stayed up until 10:30 when they gave him the sedative. He fell asleep really fast but then woke up as soon as he was in the MRI machine. We could not get him back to sleep after that. The people there weren’t any help at all. Instead of offering suggestions the one guy was asking me questions like is he hyper on a regular basis and is he mentally slow. Thanks guy, did I mention I woke up at 3AM, you might want to stop making the dumb comments. Not the best day ever. Now we are delayed for his appointments at the urologist and Shriner’s. The next step is to go to the hospital where they will put him all the way under to do the MRI. I don’t have any idea yet when that appointment will be.
Eric has shown such amazing progress in the past few weeks. His language comprehension is amazing. We can explain so much to him now. He understood when we told him he is going to school, Mommy is going to leave, and then pick him up after lunch. One funny conversation was when I tried to explain to him why Owen got to take cold medicine and he didn’t. I said Owen is sick and Eric is not sick. When Eric is sick he will get to take medicine. Eric says no Eric five Owen two. I tried for a long time to explain the difference between sick and six with no luck. So eventually I had to explain Owen has a cold Eric does not have a cold. He probably thinks he will have a cold and take medicine when he turns six. His eating has made great progress too. He is starting to like more American food and even chewing faster. It used to take him 5 minutes to chew one piece of meat and now it only takes 2.5 minutes. The reason he couldn’t chew meat is because they are given mushy food in the orphanages and just don’t learn how to chew. I’m actually amazed how much faster he is at chewing in only 2 months.
Eric had his first trip to the dentist and he does not need any work. What a miracle. I can’t believe it. Usually children his age from the orphanages need extensive work. I even increased my dental insurance coverage in anticipation of major dental expense. Knowing now how Eric reacts to sedation it is even more a blessing, because they would need to use some major sedation to get him to sit still. He loved getting pictures of his teeth and getting a new toothbrush.
He also had his first trip to the beach. It was a beautiful day. The water was too cold to swim, but Eric still sat in it. Both of the boys had major fun playing in the sand. The cold water thing is so weird. It’s normal in Ukraine to use cold water, even for a bath. Eric prefers cold water. He hates, hates even slightly warm water. When we were at the beach Owen had a normal reaction to the cold water…yell and run away. Eric had no reaction, but if it had been warm he would have yelled and ran away. Its just one of those weird things, I would never have thought that a person could get so used to cold water they would prefer it.
You probably noticed how bad Eric’s lips are in the pictures. He has had chronic cold sores since we got home. The doctor said they are increased by hot weather, sun, and stress. Eric’s in big trouble, poor guy. The amount of sun he’s seen in the last two months is probably about two years worth in Ukraine, and it’s only going to get worse as we move into a Florida summer. And the amount of stress he’s under. He’s never going to get rid of those things.
I had to include the pictures of Owen sleeping in the middle of his messy room. Now that he is in a toddler bed he can move about freely. You can see the results. I had his monitor on full volume and did not hear a thing. I remember when Owen was a baby and all the talk was about “sleeping through the night”. What a joke! Yes, a baby starts sleeping longer on a regular basis. But then comes teething, throwing things out of the crib and crying to get them back repeated several times in one night, being able to pull to a stand on the crib rail but not being able to sit back down on his own, being sick and waking up all night from coughing, being able to climb out of the crib, and now of course being in a toddler bed with freedom to get in and out whenever he wants. Since he’s been in the toddler bed we’ve woken in the middle of the night to his cries to find him stuck under the bed and stuck behind the rocking chair. The best one only lasted a week. He started pooping in the middle of the night. I would be woken up at 1AM every night by Owen’s shouts of “Mama I caca, Mama I caca”. So far we haven’t had any sleeping issues with Eric, maybe five years old is when they truly start sleeping through the night. Don’t tell that to any new Moms because they might go insane if they knew.
So both my boys go to school now. Eric is doing great and very excited about school. I think the program is perfect for him. I’m nervous about his behavior, but hopefully he learns quickly what is acceptable at school. From our observations he is very smart so hopefully he doesn’t show signs of any major learning disabilities. By the way the school has uniforms of teal or white polo shirt and khakis. That is why he is wearing the Lowry school shirt in the picture. I know people are thinking we are so excited that the school name is Lowry we are making him wear the school shirt everyday. Owen really wants to go to “wowie” i.e. Lowry school with Eric.
Hope everyone is having an awesome winter. If you are sick of the cold and snow you can come back to our website and see our beach pictures anytime.
Love, Shannon, Dave, Eric and Owen Wowie January 14 January UpdateOk, so I'm not a good blogger at home. Believe me our life is not that exciting on a daily basis. I am planning on updating at least once a month though, including pictures for family and friends that want to see them.
As you can probably guess things have been busy. We had a wonderful Christmas, Owen turned two, I worked a lot for the year-end, Grandparents came to visit, and Yarik lost his first tooth. Some other stuff happened too but I'm too tired these days to have a good memory.
Yarik's medical status is still the same. We went last week to get the MRI and he wouldn't fall asleep. It was scary when he was awake but sedated, but funny at the same time. He was totally acting like a very drunk person. So we are trying again next Wednedsday. They recommend letting him sleep only four hours the night before and even suggested taking him to Walmart and walking around at four in the morning. Should be an interesting group of people at Walmart that time of the day. If he doesn't fall asleep this next time we will have to get an MRI at the hospital where they will sedate him further. I hope it doesn't go that route. Also, we will be delayed in returning to Shriners if it doesn't work out next week.
Yarik still has not started school. Basically we wanted him to start after the holiday break because it didn't make sense to send him for 2 weeks and then have a 2 week vacation. That would have been possible if he didn't have special needs, however the neighborhood school just does not have the services he needs. They don't have any aides that could stay with him in the class or help him to the bathroom. Plus kindergarten classes are all in portables (trailers) without any wheelchair accessability. Now I'm sure that we could fight for them to hire the aide and get the wheelchair accesabiity, however there is a better option. There is a school not too far away that is a regular school but also is the center for physical disabilities. We went to look at it and I new right away it was perfect for Yarik. They have the aides, therapists, therapy equipment etc that he needs. They can integrate him into a regular class and they also have special classes just for disabled kids. The special classes have only 6-10 kids in each class and are open and have lots of great activities almost like a pre-school. So, we want him in this school and in order to get into this school, because it isn't his neighborhood school, we have to have a meeting with all the therapists and special ed admin type people. This meeting is scheduled for next week and hopefully he will start soon after. The best part of the special program...it is at Lowry Elementary. That's got to be the best school in Tampa right.
General life is pretty hectic. We've seen improvements in Yarik in many ways that you don't notice on a daily basis. For example when he first got back his eating was horrible, now it wasn't something to get worked up over but it could take its toll on a nice happy family dinner. He didn't want to eat American food (understandable) and he was constantly banging his utensils, chewing with his mouth wide wide open and making sure everyone got to see his food, kicking everyone under the table, putting food on the table instead of his plate...just a general free for all. I have to say that now he is very close to being a typical 5 year old boy at the table. Not perfect but not constantly disrupting the meal. Some of the annoying little things have slowed down but aren't completely gone yet. He still plays with the light switches but usually now its because he thinks the light should be on or off. In the beginning he could turn the same switch 100 times in a row if we let him. The hardest part has been getting him to listen to us. We are still far from good in that area, but making slow gains.
Right around Christmas when everyone was home together all day for two weeks, the impact of Yarik's arrival seemed to hit Owen head on. Some of it is just typical little brother stuff, some is the terrible twos, but a lot of it is from the sudden changes in the house. Luckily it hasn't transfered over to school yet, but at home he is aggressive and very jealous. No matter what Yarik is doing or playing Owen has to have it. On the plus side he likes spending time with Yarik and gets very concerned with what Yarik is doing. Of course Yarik eggs him on sometimes..this is the typical conversation on the way home from picking Owen up from school.
Owen: snack, oranges
Yarik: no apples,
Owen: no oranges,
Yarik: apples
Owen: oranges
Yarik: APPLES APPLES
Owen: ORANGES ORANGES
Mom breaks it up...
Owen: Dad home
Yarik: no Papa work
Owen: no home
Yarik: no work
Owen: PAPA HOME
Yarik: PAPA WORK
Ah aren't brothers just so cute.
So it's getting close to two months home. I don't feel like we are completely settled or adjusted, but we're getting there.
Thanks for checking on us!
Shannon, Dave, Eric and Owen
December 22 Have a Merry ChristmasI know everyone is waiting for an update about the Shriners appointment. We don't know much more than before because they want to get an MRI and they don't have one onsite. We have an appointment to get one in mid-January. They confirmed he has hip dysplasia and clubfoot, they also said he has dislocated knees which we didn't know previously. They aren't sure if his has arthrogryposis or if there is any spinal involvement. The spine looks normal on the x-ray and he has feeling in his legs and feet, but there could still be something going on with his spine that will show up on the MRI. They will defintely do surgery on his feet and knees. They aren't sure about his hips but that will be the last issue they will work on if necessary.
We are all doing well and excited about the holidays.
Merry Christmas!
Shannon
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Invite as friend