Preschool: Fun and Germs

This week was week two of preschool for Owen. He is going for 3 hours five days a week. This milestone is huge for Owen. It was not too long ago that we were told that Owen's VCUR could not be resolved and other measures would need to be taken to save his kidneys. We were told that the only choice was to allow the reflux. The only way to do that without causing kidney damage and probably eventually failure was to augment his bladder with bowel. If that had been done, he would have had a permanent ostomy, and his bladder would need to be drained with a catheter every 2-3 hours for the rest of his life to prevent dangerous infection. This would obviously have needed to be done by us as his parents and when it came time for school an aide or perhaps even a nurse until he could be responsible for the task himself. Until his reflux was resolved amazingly and unexpectedly during his surgery in January 2010, I couldn't even think about what sending him to school would mean as far as his health. It was something that terrified me and made me so sad for the opportunities that he was likely to miss out on. Fast forward about a year and a half and Owen is in preschool every day at our church's preschool in a classroom with other typical children. It is nice to have him there because it is a familiar place. While his teacher is not a member of our church, the administrators are. As I have said too many times to count, our church family is wonderful beyond words. I love that Owen is lucky enough to have some of them in his life on a daily basis because of school. It is also comforting to know that I have friends there that are keeping an eye on him. He was medically cleared for daycare, preschool, any kind of program of that nature in June and it was some of the best news I had ever heard. The only thing that sets him apart from his classroom (other than his remaining leg length discrepancy and the fact that we need to watch vigilantly for signs of a UTI) is that he has not been allowed to potty train until recently. That being said, he still isn't the only child in his class that is not fully potty trained. Just the only one with a medical excuse. We were given permission to pursue potty training in July. Owen was interested and began asking to go potty occasionally. We also started taking him and reminding him more regularly. He was doing well and then had to have his ear surgery, which was a set back. As of now he is wearing Pull Ups to school and doing great using the potty at school. We are still working on training at home. Potty training for Owen is complicated because of how different his urinary tract was and still is.

Ok, I got off track. My point was that Owen is fitting in at preschool very well, and his medical history is not holding him back one bit. I am one very proud Mama. He loves his teacher, the chance to socialize is great for him and he looks forward to going to school. He has no problem with me leaving there. We are supposed to drive through the drop-off line in front of the sidewalk and one of the teachers takes Owen out of the car and walks him into school. Even the first day he didn't shed a tear, just said "bye Mom" and was on his way. This week he is working on his colors, which he knew before starting school, shapes and continuing to get accustomed to the school environment. One of my favorite things is seeing the craft that he has worked on each day. Today he worked on tracing circles and I was very impressed with how well he did. These activities and crafts are a concrete examples of how much he is learning and growing to be a big boy. It is amazing and thrilling to me. I think back to Carter starting preschool and doing all of these things, and can't believe we are now at that stage with Owen. His teacher and assistant teacher are both very nice. I am so glad that he is having fun and enjoying his time at school so much.

Now for the major downfall of preschool; the fact that the other kids each bring their own set of germs and generally share them more readily than they share toys. So many people told me the germ factor is not as bad with the second child, as they have developed a certain amount of immunities from all of the germs brought home from school by the first child. I don't know that I believe this. I picked Owen up about 45 minutes early today after receiving a call from the Parish Administrator, who just loves Owen and has been a great friend to our family, saying that he was not feeling well and looked just pitiful. Sure enough, even though he was fine this morning, he had a runny nose, nasaly voice, congestion, "sick eyes" and looks just plain miserable. He has picked up his first illness due to preschool germs. He doesn't have a fever and I think it is probably just a cold, but he will be visiting the pediatrician in the morning. I am concerned about a possible ear infection, especially in the ear that was just operated on. Better safe than sorry! He can go back to having fun at preschool next week!