Today

So, as you can only imagine, we're exhausted.  But Jakey is a trooper.  He woke up two days ago and asked me, "Daddy, you gonna fix my ear?"  Talk about crushing!!  What do you say to that?  Well of course I tell him yes.  Then he says, "Is mommy gonna fix my ear?" And of course I tell him yes.  So then I ask him, "Jake, do you want us to fix your ear?"  He thinks for a minute, then says, "Uh, No."

Well we're still gonna try our best to fix his ear even if he doesn't want us to.  LOL.  So here we are 4 days into this nightmare and we try to ask ourselves, "what can we do to ease the pain that we have in our heart?"  And it came to me.  We need to continue to remind ourselves that this could have been sooooo much worse.  When the ENT doctor was asking us if Jake had any milky discharge come out of his ear, or was he having problems with balance, had he seized?  We were joyously answering, "No!"  It had never occurred to us that the damage could have been that extensive or that severe.  So, everyday we remind ourselves that we are very blessed and very fortunate that we didn't walk in and find Jakey lying on the floor seizing, or worse, brain damaged.

And another thing to be grateful for that I forgot to mention:  They tested his hearing passed the middle ear to determine if there was any nerve damage and based on what they could tell so far, there appeared to be none!!  So, we're back to the middle ear!  Alot has been done to repair middle ear injuries.  However, I refuse to read anything on the internet because all that does is create worries.  LOL.  I don't want to know statistics, procedures, odds, etc.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  I've attached a link to a song that I've been listening to.............on repeat for about 2 days now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2sZuJbxi8Y

A parent's worst nightmare

A lot of folks have caught wind of what has happened to our Jakey.  And instead of having to retell the story 30 different times, I thought it best that I just update our blog site............the site that hasn't been touched in months.

A CliffsNote Version.  I'm not going to go into all the gory details of what happened because that's neither here nor there.  The point of the matter is that another child at the home pushed an antenna into Jake's ear and ruptured his eardrum.  We rushed him to the ER and they basically told us to wait until Monday to see the ENT.  We went to the ENT on Monday and they confirmed our worst fears.  Our child is deaf in his left ear.  The doctor's exact words were, "It's a ratted mess in there.  I can't really tell if the bone structures are where they need to be."  Not what a parent wants to hear coming from a doctor.

And so our nightmare begins.  We have our plan of action:  We wait two weeks to see if the ear starts to repair itself.  If there is improvement in his hearing, we will continue to assess the progress.  If there is no improvement, then we go in for exploratory surgery.  The hope then is to try and assess if any of the bones have shifted, cracked, etc.  If it has to be replaced or adjusted it will be done at that time.

Now this blog may come across as cold and matter-of-fact, but I really just wanted to get the details of Jake's situation out to the folks that are concerned.  I don't want to waste anyone's time talking to you about the emotional roller coaster that Annette and I have been forced to ride.............not to mention that the responsible parties have opted to wash their hands of their responsibility.  My only goal right now is to keep everyone posted on what Jake is going through and what the doctor's are recommending.

So, that being said, Jake is doing great.  I can't begin to explain to you how proud I am of him.  The kid shows more strength in his little finger than most men do in their entire bodies.  He's bouncing around, running around, playing around as if nothing has happened.  So I'm glad to know that this other deviant child has not broken his spirit.  Jakey will prevail.

Keep him in your prayers.  More later as things progress.

Trials of Being Left Handed

So I went to eat lunch with my friend Jason B who was in town for Christmas.  We went to Genghis Grill which is Jason's favorite place to eat.  If you're not familiar with how this dining experience works, you basically get to build your own meal.  You start at the meat end, work your way down through the vegetables and end with a sauce/dressing.  Well they have about 10-12 different sauces to baste your meal in so they provide you with little plastic tasting spoons at that particular station.  There are two cups holding spoons...........one on the left, and one on the right.  Of course, being left handed, it made perfect sense to grab for the spoons on the left.  I sampled the spicy sauce and opted to combine it with the garlic one.  Hmmmm, where to place my used spoon.  That was the question now.  Well, I took a closer look and realized the reason for the two spoon cups.  The one on the right was for the clean spoons; the one on the left was for the used.  I had used an already used spoon for my sampling!!!  Talk about a stomach churner.  The trials of being left handed.

By they way, Jake is going through a funny stage right now.  He's flip-flopped his dominant hand.  What he used to do with his right hand (eat, write, etc.), he's now doing with his left.  Is this normal?  We don't tell him anything because we'll let him do what comes naturally to him.  But I was just curious if that was something that could change..........favoring the opposite hand as a child got older.

Morning Person

Every morning I wake up with a song in my head.  I don't know why, and I really don't even know how it gets there............it just does.  So, that being said, for as long as I can remember, I'll either sing it out loud in the shower or just hum it as I'm walking around the house getting ready for work.  Well, I guess I never realized how annoying it could be to those non-morning folks, like my wifey. We've been married for 6 years now and without having to remind any of you, the newness eventually wears off.  Can you believe that out of nowhere, one morning, Annette is at the sink while I'm showering and she stops what she's doing to interrupt my morning concert to tell me, "Do you have to sing a song every time you wake up?".  Wow, talk about taken aback.  She was annoyed by my chipper ritual.  Needless to say, from then on, I have turned down my morning vocals to a less than audible level when she walks in the bathroom.  Sometimes I forget, but she quickly reminds me with the eyes.  Yeah, you know the eyes.........the ones that say, "Stop!!  Or Face The Wrath!!".  Anyway, to all you morning people, this morning's song was "Let it Be".  I've attached a link that makes me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z6wP8eAb-8

Ayden Dancing to Diego

Everyday at 6:30pm, the boys get to watch their favorite show Diego.  Ayden breaks it down everytime!  I never remember to record his gyrations but the day before yesterday, I did!!  If you listen carefully you can even hear him trying to chime in when the song says Diego.  And at the end, he's a little ahead of the prompt, but he's trying to yell, "Go Diego Go".  Makes me laugh out loud.

Hope this brings a smile to your face like it does Annette and me.  Feels like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital.  Now he thinks he's sooooo independent........even tells you "No" when you ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do.  Time flies.

Our first entry

So, we've opted to go with a new blogging site to keep family/friends posted on what goes on in the Garcia household in lieu of the cumbersome site we previously used.  This seems to be a little more streamline so we'll give it whirl and go from there!