If You Need Me, I'll Be in the Bathroom

Seriously, if you need me...I think you will be able to find me for the next few weeks sitting on my bathroom floor, waiting for someone to use the potty. If I'm not there, I'll be scrubbing up wet spots off the hardwood floor or carpet. Perhaps you might even find me doing a load of wash! Yes, my friends, I am a potty training mom!

I'm talking like I was here all day dealing with the potty training...and I wasn't! My wonderful mother in law was on duty today as we started Eli off on the potty training adventure! Brady, Cara, and I were in Rochester at appointments, so I thought Eli might enjoy some quiet time and a more relaxed setting to get going (no pun intended).

Eli is a different sort of child than Cara. He has thoughts, many thoughts, that seem to come and go from his little head on a whim. He's up, he's down, he's running around...the phrase I hear myself saying to him over and over is "Focus buddy!" Grandma reported that after sitting on the potty early this morning waiting for the pee to come for close to 30 minutes, Eli promptly stood up from the potty and peed all over the floor. He did have several successes today, so I'm celebrating that and moving on! Cara did a great job while we were out today, but had a few accidents at home, go figure.

Before I go any further, I need to have a minute of honesty here! For the past day or two I've had a pit in my stomach and I feel that familiar enemy gnawing at me. Fear. Ever since Brady told me that his back hurt my mind has been spinning with worry. I'm not sleeping well and I'm just unsettled. He was up last night around midnight just kind of whimpering. He never is up during the night, so I was alarmed. I came down, sat on the floor beside his bed, and just held him. He was never able to tell me what was wrong, but he just wanted to be held. As I laid my hand on his back and prayed, I just asked God to spare him from pain. I asked God to continue to allow my mother's intuition to give me insight and for God to use my worry for good and for it not to overtake me. That's a tall order, but God has done this for me before and I know He can do it again. Brady seems fine other than these two little instances, but a subtle twinge of worry is all a cancer-mom needs to be on red alert!

After Brady's PT appointment this morning, we headed over to Strong for Cara's eye appointment. During the vision part of her exam, she struggled more than ever to use just her left eye (the one she turns away from using) to see things at a distance of about 10 feet. I was covering her right eye and could feel her wanting to turn that left eye away and try to use her right eye. The doctor and I had a long discussion about the cause of this problem, why the surgery in October didn't work, and what we will do next:

1. Cara was born with a weak muscle behind her right eye (the good eye). This muscle imbalance caused that eye to float up and out slightly. I never noticed this, but he documented this at her first two visits before the surgery.
2. An eye imbalance can cause a person to have a sort of double vision. In order to correct this, a child learns to tilt and turn their head in order to only use one eye. Cara chose her right eye.
3. By continually choosing to use her right eye for distance vision, she was thereby weakening the vision in her left eye.
4. In October the surgery attempted to clip the muscle behind the right eye in an effort to weaken it, making it more in balance with the left eye.
5. Sometimes after the surgery, the muscle will heal and reattach itself to the eyeball, making a repeat surgery necessary. This is the doctor's theory for why Cara continues to tilt her head.

So, the next step is to try patching her right eye. She will wear an adhesive patch over her right eye two hours a day. Hopefully this will help train that lazy left eye to become stronger and improve the vision in that eye. We will go back to the doctor in August and if things haven't improved we will consider repeating the operation. I'm still not sure how patching will improve the muscle behind the eye if has reattached itself, but I'm trusting the expert here.

Potty training, cancer/back pain worry, and eye patching! Good times over here at my house. Tomorrow it is just me, my 4 kids, and our problems:) It's a good thing that I just adore these 4 kids so very much. It's also a good thing that I realize in the world of problems, I'm blessed to be dealing with these!