ADD and A.C.T.S. prayer

Hi my name is Aaron and I have ADD.

You don't have to read my blog long or spend much time with me to know that. I've been taught to live with it. Sometimes I'm organized and focused.....other times....not so much. I actually believe there are time that my ADD helps me. There are times where the way my brain works allows me to picture things, or multi-task differently. It's cool. I always talk about working at the taxi office and dispatching. We had a board, just a blank board, with little sticky notes on them that showed all the cars by number, and then all the calls. When other dispatchers saw a board with information, my brain saw a map of the area that we serviced. I could see visually where each call was picking up and dropping off. I moved cars around so that there was the least amount of dead driving. My boss who ran the company couldn't understand why I would line calls up that way and would make $.25 bets with me that I couldn't clear the board. He never won.

All that said, I've always struggled with "quiet time" with Jesus. My brain just bounces around. I'm good if I'm reading but just sitting still or just being in prayer is always problematic. I used to really beat myself up about it. There I was attempting to be in God's presence and I was thinking about doing the laundry or getting the oil changed. On some level I came to the peace that God's word says that he knows me intimately. If that's true then he knows my ADD brain too. I almost saw God chuckling when we were hanging out and I got distracted....like, "Well there goes Aaron again."

A couple months ago a pastor friend of mine posted something about hoping God didn't get frustrated with his ADD brain. His former youth pastor (and a Geneva alum) who I casually knew posted this great link. It's about praying through the ACTS prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) when you have ADD. The long and short of the article is that, I can't give up and throw in the towel....but rather re-structure this prayer for my ADD brain so that it makes sense.

Before I drop the link on you, I want to say this: 1. I don't feel that I need to use the ACTS model regularly, but the articles principles go beyond this. 2. For me the article was freeing in a lot of ways. It got me thinking about how to spend quality time with Jesus in ways that will work better for me. It's partially about Jesus knowing my ADD brain, but it's also about me knowing my ADD brain and setting myself up for success rather than distraction.

Here's the link. Even if you don't have ADD it's a really good read. Help a friend with ADD!

More Tobiah Health Stuff

So last time I posted about Tobiah I mentioned that he and I would be traveling last Thursday to Wexford (north or Pittsburgh) for another doctors visit and a separate test. Well we did.

I'm pretty sure that I mentioned awhile ago that he had lost a lot of the hair on the top of his head due to a weird rash that went mis-diagnosed for awhile. Lots of hair has grown back but not full and thick in some areas. The Children's dermatologist was our first visit and they just prescribed a mild steroid lotion for his hair to stimulate some growth there. Cool. So in theory we might see the big bushy flowy hair he had as a little baby.

The second stop for the day was not a fun stop. This is a test that he's had about 4 other times before this. (I'm going to try to not get into too much detail here....but I'm not sure how) Basically Tobiah has had urinary reflux, so it's backing up into his kidney which can cause infection and scaring. To test the reflux you can imagine some not fun things that they have to do. He knew right away when we got in the room, that fun things were not going to happen....he remembered. As a dad, it is not cool to have to hold your son down while he cries and looks up at you with those "why are you letting them do this to me?" eyes.

So pretty much every time we've been there this cute little lady Indian doctor (for clarity cute here doesn't mean attractive, but just cute) does the test and as soon as she walks in and looks at Tobiah she says, "Hey I remember you! You're the one with the big eyes!" Then she looks at me and says, "Hey I remember you too!" (As if I wouldn't be accompanying him.... ANYWAY....so we had the test run a couple months ago to see how it was going. It wasn't good. I could clearly see on the monitor that he had reflux. At the time I casually said, "Yeah I can see a little reflux there." To which I was quickly corrected by said doctor "No it's not a little, it's a lot. That's not good." So at that time Tobiah was what's called a Grade 4. I have no idea what that means, but it's not good.

So we schedule a procedure for the end of July. Basically we had to have the test done one more time as a kind of pre-op to check things out. So we run the test, Tobiah is yelling at me. I'm watching the monitor......ok....I see the dye.......I see his bladder.......I'm not seeing much else though.....but what do I know.

So test is over. Doctor looks at me and says, "You're not having the procedure are you?" "Well yes we have it scheduled for the end of July. This is the pre-op." She then says, "No you don't understand. I barely see anything. He's barely a Grade 1 at this point. I wouldn't do the procedure if I were you."

GOD ROCKS SO HARD!!!!!!!

So after almost two years of having this test done, no change, but in the past couple months...from Grade 4 to Grade 1. We still have to technically meet with our Urologist (who is out of the country until just before the procedure is schedule). But basically we're going to be holding off on this bad boy!

Ok prayer warriors....next step is his heart. He's fine the way he is but he has some heart defects. We go for that test in Aug/Sept.....get on this!!!!!!!

Tobiah's Test

The Back Story: Most of you (all 2 of my readers) know that Tobiah has been doing speech therapy since last fall. To clarify...we know lots of kids don't start talking until later...but Tobiah was grunting at best. He understood language and could follow directions, but couldn't verbalize anything, not mommy or daddy or anything. Through the process we've seen huge growth in his ability to process words and attempt them through verbalization and signing.

As part of that the therapist asked us to get his hearing tested as that could impact his speech. We had him tested 3 different times. The first two times were very inconclusive. He was so young and little he just fidgeted and played instead of responding. The third time they were pretty sure that he had hearing loss in both ears.

Now because of his age the test still wasn't very conclusive. There was no way to tell how much hearing loss or at what frequencies. The only way to tell was a special test at Children's Hospital. They put the child to sleep, hook little sensors to his head and then pump sound into his ears and test brain activity. If he's hearing the sounds, his brain will respond. If not......not.

Flash forward to last week: We were schedule for the test on Friday. To be honest I was a little nervous. I know it wasn't surgery, but I just get jumpy with anesthesia. So we had to be there at 6:30am. (Thank you mom and dad for living 20 minutes outside the city so we can stay at your house in times like this!) The three of us got up early and made the trek into the city (Corban got to spend the morning with Grandma and PaPa).

The people at Children's are top notch...can't say enough good about them. The lady running the test came and introduced herself to us, as well as the anesthetist. They gave him some medicine that would make him drowsy before they actually gave him anesthesia. It was hilarious. He was shaking his head around. His tongue was flopping outside his mouth drooling on me. Pretty funny stuff.

The told us the test should take between an hour and hour and a half. So we went and got settled into the waiting room which was packed with parents. Good thing I had ear plugs in my computer bag or my ADD would not have let me read my book. So all of a sudden the lady who had been running the test is standing next to us and motions for us to come in the back. I looked at my cell phone....under a half hour had gone by.....I was like "What?"

These are her words (as best as I can remember them) "The only reason I would be out here this early is that the test is over. His hearing is totally fine. I can't find anything wrong."

Now to be honest I had my doubts that he had hearing loss going into this test. I've whispered to him and he's answered, I've called from other rooms of our big house and he's answered...so I was skeptical. But when the professionals tell you there's hearing loss you think, OK wonder at what level. So to hear that he's fine.....God is Good!

You know as I type this I'm realizing that this might be one of the first times that a doctor has told us that he's "fine". Normally it's something like "we need to put him on this medicine" or "we found a little problem". We weren't really sure what to do with "fine".

So we stick with speech therapy. We work harder. We inch closer and closer toward "healthy."

Prayers appreciated this Thursday 6/17 as Tobiah and I travel back south for a doctors appointment and another "pretty uncomfortable" test for two other completely unrelated things. THANKS!

Heart update: Tobiah update

Let's start by reminding you about the previous scan of Tobiah's heart. Back in November they found that he had a couple problems with his heart. The biggest problem was a small hole just below one of his valves. The other problem (and much less serious) was an extra artery that should've closed shortly after his birth....but is still fully functioning.

At the time, we were told that if this hole didn't close by February we were looking at open heart surgery for Tobiah. Obviously we weren't incredibly excited y the prospect of open heart surgery.

Sooooo...this today was our appointment for the follow-up scan. The pediatric cardiologist is in Erie, which is a little more than an hour away. I checked the weather, because we've been getting some snow the last two days. Erie had a severe weather advisory. They got about 5 inches last night and they were expecting another 6 today. Not very exciting knowing you're driving into that.

The worst of the drive was actually on our end. Once we hit the highway (about 1/2 hour) we were golden. EXCEPT...about 2 minutes into the highway section of the drive, I realized I had no windshield fluid and I couldn't see out my windshield. So we had to get off the highway, take a 4 mile detour to an auto garage to buy windshielf fluid, and then back again. We made it on time.

Here's the long and short of it: I tried desperately to hold him down and hold him still so the doctor could do the scan properly (sort of an exercise in futility for the most part). The doctor turned to me and said, "I see no change here." My heart sunk to my belly. HOWEVER.....he also said that at this point he doesn't think anything needs done. The hole is really small. There is very little blood going through it. He also he found another small problem as well....but nothing they can do anything about. Basically he just wants to keep an eye on things. We go back in 6 months to see if there is a change.

Tobiah is stronger and more active now than he was 3 months ago. He will be MUCH more active in 6 months. We're believing we're on the up swing of these health problems. I didn't hear the words "we need to do surgery" today. I am praising God for that. Not exactly a good report today, but not bad either. Thank you God for keeping us safe. Thank you for blessing us with two handsome boys. Thank you for modern medicine that can see inside my son with amazing detail to know that we don't need to cut him open! God is good ALL the time.

Tobiah health update/prayer

You may or may not remember.....but back in late October I posted telling you about Tobiah's hole in his heart. At the time the doctor didn't like the looks of it and gave us until January. If the hole didn't close they would need to do open heart surgery. Our appointment was schedule for next week....one week from today actually.

Tobiah however has constantly struggled with some breathing problems. He's constantly congested. He occasionally struggles for breath. We've been visiting the pediatrician every couple weeks. He's on several different breathing treatments. It's become silly. So last week the pediatrician referred us to two more doctors. Great. Just what I wanted.

Yesterday I took Tobiah to the ears nose throat guy here in town. For the record, I play hockey with him every Wed. night. Great guy. Even better doctor. After sticking a probe down Tobiah's nose to check things out (he LOVED that.....sarcasm) he feels that Tobiah has acid reflux. So he's like spitting up into his mouth or throat and the acid is hurting his throat/larnyx are enough that he's struggling to breath. So yet another prescription.

In the mean time we've had to push back our cardiologist appointment because Tobiah's breathing is so loud that they can't do a good read on him. That's frustrating because I just want that done. As a male, I just want things fixed. I look forward to the day when my biggest worry with Tobiah is that he hasn't picked up his toys when I've asked him to.

For as small as his little body is, he has a bundle of health issues going on. The joy is that, none of this affects his mood at all. He's a happy little boy. Yesterday at the doctor he asked, "so when he's really screaming does he have problems breathing?" I couldn't answer that question. Tobiah doesn't scream. He's a quiet little guy. Even with a weird thing down his nose, he was crying but not screaming. The assistant walked in about 15 seconds after it was done and asked the doctor if he was ready to do the nose thing......yeah we're done. "What? I didn't hear him. Usually kids cry for quite awhile afterward. Why is he done crying already?" Yeah that's just him.

Prayers are always appreciated...for Tobiah....and for us too.

Health Part 2 OR I heart Tobiah

Late last week, we got a call from our pediatrician. He said that when Tobiah went to the hospital for an X-ray that discovered his pneumonia, they also did an EKG. They didn't like the looks of it, and he was suggesting we go see a pediatric cardiologist.

I took Tobiah today to Erie for that appointment.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know it's safe to say our little man is not in complete health. Today we got another wrinkle. It appears that he has a couple small problems with his heart. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal and they would let him try and "grow out of it". It appears he has a small hole between two chambers of his heart. Because of the hole it looks like one of the flaps on his valve is possibly weakening.

Long and short: He wants to give it another couple months. We go see him again in late January. Unless something miraculous happens in that time, Tobiah will need open heart surgery.

I serve a God of miracles. I serve a God who gets things done. I believe in the power of prayer. In a way I feel needy because I feel I keep having to ask for more prayer....but at the same time, that's what the Body of Christ is suppose to be doing.

If you have a prayer list, we'd love to be on it. If you meet in a small group, we'd love for you to be praying over Tobiah. Even hours after seeing this doctor we're praying that THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE is going to be doing miracles in our little boys life. And even if he needs surgery God will use that as a means to minister to people. Your prayers are a blessing. Thanks.

Health

Over the past couple weeks we've taken Tobiah to a series of doctors and had a slew of tests. Ultimately we'd just like to see our little boy healthy. Long and short of it is this: he's not a very healthy little guy.

Without going into great detail (mainly because I have not idea what I'm talking about....as many times as it's explained to me)...we're working on it.

Yesterday we went to the pediatrician to find out he now has pneumonia as well. So last night in the middle of the night Marjorie believe Tobiah is struggling to breath so away to the ER they go. He's now on a bundle of anti-biotics and we go back to the pediatrician tomorrow.

The cool part (if there is a cool part about your son being constantly sick) is that you would never know that anything has happened to Tobiah. They get back from the hospital this morning have a breathing treatment, bloodwork and other tests and he's chipper and smiling and wants to play with me. He's a champ. He's definitely holding up better than Mari and I are.

So needless to say we would covet your prayers for our little boy.