Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 83

2005-06-07 17:30 (John) I'll leave it to Kristen to talk about the rest of the day, but here's what Dr. Vito Forte, the so-called "lumps and bumps" specialist at the ENT Clinic at Sick Kids had to say. Jamie has an inflamed lymph node in his cheek. It's one that is usually associated with dental infections, not upper respiratory infections. Given his history, it's unlikely that it's something serious (like cancer or an autoimmune disorder) because in that case he should have gotten worse over the last year, whereas it comes and goes. There's only one node that is large enough to cause concern, and even it isn't so bad that Dr. Forte would care, except that it's been periodically enlarging over such a long period of time.

If Jamie hadn't had a course of antibiotics a few months ago, Dr. Forte would have recommended one just to see if it cleared things up. Instead, he ordered general blood work (CBC count and blood stain) and will see Jamie again in six weeks. If the lymph node gives Jamie a lot of trouble, the next step would be a needle biopsy to see what's going on inside, and then possible the surgical removal of the lymph node. We'd like to avoid both if possible, because of the need for general anaesthesia, and the risk of partial facial paralysis if the marginal branch of the facial nerve is injured.

Apart from the obvious stress, it was a pleasant outing, as Jamie was on his best behaviour, and everyone at the Hospital for Sick Children is professionally dedicated to a positive experience for their patients.

2005-06-07 22:06 (Kristen) For the first time in almost a week, Jamie slept in until almost 9:00. He was awake earlier in the morning, nursing and being cheerful, but I was able to convince him that resting a little longer would be a nice idea. He 's been so tired in the mornings lately, and the extra sleep did seem to make a difference to his overall mood. He played with Mio, and then went to see Ross and Daniel for lunch. In the afternoon, we went to the doctor, and Jamie was fantastic. The doctor's office has a play house, and Jamie loves playhouses. He would go inside, shut the door, and then lean out the window for a kiss. Then he would come to the door for another kiss. He gives his wet little kisses with a tiny "smack!" sound. Adorable.

He fell asleep in the lab waiting room within minutes of being put in front of a large tv (note to self: soporific effect of tv in otherwise interesting environment), and so was in the deepest part of his early sleep (his nap was two and a half hours overdue at this point) when the nurse called us in for his blood test. She was quite dubious about taking blood (a prick to the finger) while he was asleep, because she had done this once with spectacularly bad results. However, when John picked him up out of the stroller and Jamie didn't stir, she laughed and agreed that he was in a deep enough sleep that he wouldn't waken. John held Jamie so that he wouldn't pass out by seeing the blood taken, while I confess that I had a little squidgy moment myself watching my little son possibly being hurt. However, all went well and Jamie was put back into his stroller without incident. They really are very good at 'Sick Kids'.

He slept for an hour and a half (he isn't enjoying the heat, and has a heat rash all around his neck and shoulders), then woke up. We had dinner, and Jamie (having snacked) grabbed Gary and Ayami for a walk and some play. Ayami came back from a month's trip to Japan last night, and Jamie was very happy to see her for the first time since her return at lunch. Ayami came back with two Japanese kids' books that Jamie, John, and I had a great time reading at the doctor's office. We all went for another walk later on (sans John, who had to work), and then Jamie and I stayed outside for a bit before going in. He is getting better at brushing his teeth, and is getting the idea of making the brushing motion on his own. He was very good about John cutting a little more of his hair in the bathroom, and even pointed out a few bits that needed a little more taken off. We're being very conservative about how much is taken off so that we don't make any horrific mistakes and antagonize Jamie's fans. It took him a little while to go to sleep once we put him (very tired boy) to bed early, but he's sleeping deeply now.

(John) A late update: Jamie woke up and started chewing on his fingers, a good sign that he's in dental pain. We've given him a bit of Tempra to help him sleep, and will cross our fingers.

2005-06-08 23:00 (Kristen) The Canadian National Scrabble Championships, run by our own John Chew III starts tomorrow, and we spent the bulk of today running around getting ready for the deluge. Jamie slept much better after we gave him the Tempra, and stayed in bed until 9:00 (after waking around sunrise, of course, and having a long nurse). He was delighted, as always, to see Mio, and played with her, and with Gary and Ayami for a short time. We ate lunch and headed down to the Great Hall, where the tournament is going to be, for setup. It was past Jamie's nap time when we put him into the car and John asked me to find some driving tunes. Almost instantly the car was filled with the sounds of Freddie Mercury singing "I see a little silhouett-o of a man, Scaramouche! Scaramouche! Will you do the fandango?" It was a boisterous car until Jamie closed his eyes and fell asleep just as the song finished and faded out "Any way the wind blowwwws..." Much fun.

Jamie has not been having a great time with the heat, and has a moderate to severe case of heat rash. The Great Hall is air conditioned, and kept Jamie cool, but there was too much noise as we set up, and so Jamie woke up after only an hour of napping. He was good enough for the rest of our stay there, and Mio stayed to help us (she'll be helping us all through the tournament). However, he was pretty tired by the time dinner came around, and we ate at John's parents' place. Sherrie and Gregg had arriced from the States to help with the tournament, and ate with us there. Jamie enjoyed eating lichee fruits very much, and has a new Favourite Fruit. Then it was home, and Jamie insisted on visiting Gary and Ayami. He was a little too tired, however, and so we gave him a bath and put him to bed much earlier than usual. We're getting up much earlier than usual tomorrow, and so that's not a bad thing. Wish us luck tomorrow!

I should mention that Jamie had a great time with the drawing paper that I bought him a few days ago and with his crayons. He sure knows what they are for! He also knows which one is the blue one, which seems to be his favourite colour.

2005-06-09 22:32 (Kristen) I was up at 7:00 this morning while Jamie slept, which wasn't as bad as it was for John, who had to be at the CITY-TV studio at 7:00 to do a spot on Breakfast Television. He only got two and a half hours of sleep last night, Mio was here at 7:30, and we headed down to the CNSC site with Sherrie and Gregg. Jamie was asleep when we put him into the car, and didn't wake up until we got to the tournament site at 8:30. I had to run some errands for John, and so left him there with Mio, John (who had just arrived) and his Scrabble friends. When I got back, he and Mio had spent time playing, and then left to spend quality outdoor time at Trinity Bellwoods Park nearby.

I was helping out with the tournament, so I didn't see much of Jamie during the day. I did see him at lunch, where he sat on Ayami's lap and on John's lap too, eating. John let him drink ginger ale for the first time, and of course it is now Jamie's favourite thing. Sigh. Then he and Mio vanished for Jamie's afternoon walk, and didn't show up again until 6:00 or so, having spent the rest of the day at the park. Jamie likes where the tournament is being held, because it is on the 501 streetcar route, and he loves the streetcars.

He clearly said "dakko" today, which means "pick me up." His pronounciation is getting much better. He was exhausted by the time we went home, and dislikes being told to hush when he is being loud and piercing with his voice. He chirps "no!" and keeps doing it. In Goodnight Moon, when the old lady whispers 'hush,' he sayd "no!" Arrrggh. I'll figure out a way to get around this. In the meantime, singing to him seems to calm him down enough that he'll stop. He came home, ate a huge dinner after bathing with John, and is now asleep.

2005-06-10 24:28 (Kristen) I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Jamie today, as John and I continued to work at the Canadian Nationals as Mio looked after Jamie. He woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares, we think, and he was very clingy all night. I don't know if it was because of the time we spent apart, or because of the teething. He is still chewing his fingers, and this last tooth seems to be causing him more discomfort than usual.

(John) I got to play Pictionary with Jamie on one of my frequent breaks. I drew a few crayon pictures in his book, and he correctly identified key (kagi), cat (meow) and car (buubuu).

(Kristen) We went with Gary and Ayami down to the tournament site, and Jamie spent a good part of the day playing with Mio in the park. It was horribly hot and they stayed in the shade, but Jamie was pretty hot. Mio was very good at keeping him cool with a wet cloth, and his heat rash is healing. We all ate lunch together, and then he went off to play again until 5:00, when he came back and needed some mummy time. We played together with Mio, Ayami, and Gary until they left, and then headed over to Ban Vanipha with Sherrie, Gregg, Adam, and Pat for a very yummy dinner. Jamie enjoyed the meal too, but liked learning about streetlights more, and dragged me and then John out in alternation to look at the streetcars on Dundas. He is pretty good about traffic, and is very nervous of cars in the street, but not as streetwise yet as I would wish.

I should mention that he had fun playing with balloons and the giant Scrabble tile racks at the tournament site. Who knew that the racks made such good seats? We got home around 10:00, which was an hour past Jamie's bedtime, and he was very tired. Despite that, it took until 11:30 or later to get him to sleep, as his teeth are still hurting him a good deal.

2005-06-11 22:51 (Kristen) We are all just too tired to move, but happy with each other and the event now that the fifth Canadian National Championship is over. Our friend Adam Logan won the event (he also won the first), and we're very happy. Jamie was very well behaved through it all, despite provocation, heat, and a disrupted routine. It was thanks to people like Gary and Ayami, Mio, and others that Jamie had such a good time and was able to sail through the weekend surrounded by people that cared for him. That said, he is very clingy with me, as we didn't see a lot of each other, and I have promised him a Mom and Jamie day tomorrow, as John will be in Mississauga for the CNSC Late Bird tournament.

I can't remember much today, other than he was crabby in the morning, which was fixed by a three-hour-long nap this afternoon. He can still be distracted from yelling in the car by singing him songs. Mio is wonderful with him, and very tired. He was also very tired, and fell asleep in the bath around 9:30. I moved him out but woke him, and managed to rock him to sleep while sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark. He has woken up twice in less than an hour, and I think that his teeth are still hurting him. If he wakes up again, I'll give him some Tempra.

2005-06-12 22:02 (Kristen) Mio did a fabulous job of keeping Jamie cool over the past few days, as I realized today. His heat rash is almost entirely gone, despite the fact that the weather has only become soupier. He was up quite early this morning, and so was able to see his father off to yet another Scrabble tournament, this one in Port Credit. This was the CNSC Late Bird, and Jamie and I decided that it would be a good day to stay home and be quiet together.

He was hard to feed today, possibly because of the hot weather. The house is cool, but only in comparison to the outside. He ran around in the morning, having an early morning visit with Sam, Ben, and Luke, and went with me to get some groceries at the Big Carrot. It was Daniel's birthday party today (his birthday was the day after John's) and so Jamie and I went over for lunch (pizza and sushi), where he enjoyed eating grapes and cheezies. It was pretty chaotic with twelve twelve-year-olds running about, but we didn't get out of there until close to 2:00. Jamie was exhausted, and slept for close to three hours. I was exhausted, and fell asleep at the Second Cup too. I came home with a sleeping boy, and he was in a lovely mood when he woke up finally.

John came home around 6:30, after Sherrie and I spent some time playing with Jamie and the train set, and we set out for dinner at Allen's on the Danforth. We had a lovely, if hot, meal on the patio, and Jamie was very happy to eat all the condiments (I've never seen anyone put ketchup on tomatoes before), including a fabulous dill-pickle relish, with his sweet potato fries. He played ring-around-the-rosie with me, and ran over to the TTC station to watch the streetcars. We came home, put him into the bath by 9:00, and he was asleep by 10:00, with his little arms around my neck and without nursing for the second time in two days. Three days the charm.

2005-06-13 23:00 (John) Kristen will write in detail about the day we spent trying to get back to normal after the CNSC, and Jamie's continuing efforts to cut another molar, and maybe even the remnants of a tropical storm that are trying to wash away the muggy miasma of the last several days. What I wanted to say quickly though was that a few days after teaching Jamie the colours of the stoplight (mainly red, "aka", which comes out something like "gaga" with variable voicing, and green, "ao", which is pronounced accurately but always with heightened drama), he has successfully generalized to other objects that come in various colours such as stacking cups and the fish on my "Think Different" T-shirt. He's a clever boy.

* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk.

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