Pooch

Meet Pooch. 

He was given to Colin one Christmas by Uncle Opie and Aunt Angela.  Colin and Joel bring their "friends" with them when we go visit people and Pooch came along when we went to visit Ant Ant.   Pooch was accidentally left so Ant Ant started taking Pooch on adventures.  And texting us the pictures.  So far Pooch has been to Ant Ant's work, Dollywood, Virginia Tech twice, a football game, and much more. We all rush to the phone when we get another Pooch sighting. He even snuck in for a football game last weekend.  The hokies are his favorite team - smart dog!  I think Ant Ant is going to make a book for the boys this Christmas of Pooch's Adventures.  I can't wait. 

Today Colin had a minor surgery to remove a skin tag he was born with.  Its ironic in some ways that we went to a plastic surgeon when he was 3 months and decided we would wait until he was older and they wouldn't have to put him under - since its basically two cuts.  We didn't feel it was necessary to take the risks for something that simple.  But then we just did it to our 6 year old.  He wanted to take it off but he needed to be put under because they weren't sure if there would be more they had to remove once they started (and it turned out he had some extra cartilage that needed to be removed as well so its a good thing he was asleep when they did it)

But Pooch came with us to the doctors.  And it was a great distraction.  Colin was excited that this time we were the ones sending the pictures. 

The nurses were great.  They gave Pooch his own hospital tag and Colin said when they took him back to the operating room they gave Pooch his own breathing mask and then made Pooch laugh and laugh with the "laughing gas" they gave him. Colin did great. Poor kid has been to a lot of doctors this past year.  With his asthma he is used to getting lots of tests done while we are waiting in another room.  Back in early March they thought he might have cystic fibrosis since his chest xrays were so bad but thankfully all those tests came back negative. His lungs have been much better with his medication - we've even gone down to a lower dose on one. (and a random story - I got the call about his xrays one day while I was in Target with the boys. I was surprisingly calm for being 37 weeks pregnant and learning my son might have CF but the boys did walk out of there with a new Lego set and a box of cookies.  I had tears streaming down my face the minute we walked out the doors and was pushing a car with two happy boys excited about their new toys and never noticed their mommy crying. Norah's due date was march 20. We had a really important doctors apt for Colin march 21 that we couldn't reschedule. God worked it all out and she was born the 19th and we came home the 20th)  But after all his tests this year it was no problem for him to just walk down the hall without us to the operating room. 

I can't imagine what it would be like if it was a life threatening procedure.  I kept thinking about my friend Abbey who has spent a lot of her sons lives in the hospital with them.  It was so hard seeing him in that hospital bed.  Colin was excited to ride in a wheelchair.  He's been asking me to get him one for over a year so he can be wheeled around.  (I know he doesn't look excited but he had just woken up and was feeling dizzy.  And then threw up in his barf bag on the way home)

I thought it was really sweet of the nurse to put Pooch right next to Colin so it would be the first thing he saw when he woke up.  We did have one scare tonight- Colin was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and I heard a thump and ran to the bathroom.  He was laying on the ground not moving and I screamed to Brent that Colin had fainted.  Brent ran to the bathroom and then Colin started smiling.  Apparently he was pretending to be bone-less and wanted to see what it felt to not have any bones in his body.  Silly boy. Mommy's heart can't take much more of those experiments. 

I am not sure what adventure Pooch will have next but hopefully Pooch will stay out of the hospital for a long long time.  And thank you Pooch for helping Colin not be so scared.