eyes, ears, knees, and backs oh MY!

My mom is home but not for long. We thought she'd be ok to go to her house to recover but it's become apparent that she needs more care than she is able to get there with George working and what not. Austin and Hailey have been taking turns staying there with her but they can't do everything she needs, nor should they be expected to. So the decision has been made to move her here to our house. Easier said than done. We tried last night and she couldn't get down the stairs to get outside, finally after a while of trying she was exhausted and hurting and we figure we'd have to take some time to think of a plan B.

So tomorrow my sister is coming up and we are renting a wheelchair and making a make-shift ramp to get her out of the house. Let's hope it goes well!

We were able to get Nathan to the ophthamologist tomorrow and got pretty good news. He needs glasses, which we knew we were looking at anyway but the doctor doesn't think the vision loss is caused by the cataract itself, but rather is another issue of an eye that just didn't develop correctly. So he doesn't feel that removing the cataract would help at all, would just invite more potential for issues. We got a great deal on his glasses at $99 for two pair. He ended up needing the tiniest frames they had and we ordered one in gold and one in blue. We also paid a little extra for a 1 year warranty on each since we are quite certain with a 2 year old we will have one pair in the shop at all times.

I can see the new daily/hourly phrase in our house in a couple weeks when he gets them, it will be "Everybody look for Nate's glasses". Oy, what an adventure. The doctor said he has given up trying to predict which kids will keep them on fine and which won't, some kids notice that they see better and keep them on just fine and some (I suspect Nathan will be in this group, since he won't even keep a hat on) hate having something on their face and rip them off the second they are put on. I guess time will tell.

Monday Christian will go and get his hearing aids, he's still pretty ok with the prospect, even kind of excited it seems for his new equipment. I hope he keeps that confidence.

Another issue we are still dealing with (not sure If i've mentioned it here before) is Craig's back. He has 2 slipped discs in his lower lumbar part of his spine. Over the past few months he's been getting cortisone injections at the pain clinic as well as physical therapy and chiropractic care and of course near round the clock pain medications. Unfortunately these things are no longer helping and he's in worse shape than ever, in constant pain with limited mobility. So as I type he's at the doctor getting stronger pain meds and a referral to a spine specialist and we may be looking at back surgery in the very near future.

Even with all of this I can't help but realize how fortunate we are. We are financially comfortable, have never missed a payment on our mortgage, have health insurance, and are together and aside from some quirks, healthy and happy.