My Thomas

My youngest son is Thomas, we call him Tommy. He is 9 & in the 4th grade. When Tommy was born, he had some breathing issues & had to be in the hospital for 3 extra days under an oxygen hood and hooked up to all kinds of tubes and med’s until he was healthy enough to come home. He was born just about 2 ½ weeks early & weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces. He seemed so teeny tiny to me, I guess because Josh was quite a bit bigger.

All was going well until he was nearly 5 months old & started having breathing problems again along with a nasty cough. The doctors told me that he had RSV & admitted him to the hospital right away. (RSV is kind of like pneumonia) We were in the hospital for 7 days that first time. One thing that scared me was that the chances of a child having asthma go way up if they have had RSV. Well, he was eventually diagnosed with asthma a couple of months after that & a few more trips to the hospital. He spent a lot of time that first year in doctor’s offices & the hospital. Right before his first birthday my mom brought him one of those little push behind walkers & he learned to walk in the hallways of the hospital. It was a proud moment for sure & even the nurses were watching!

He still has a lot of trouble with the asthma; he has not been out for Halloween for the last 3 years because he’s been sick. We really are keeping our fingers crossed this year that he’ll be able to go & have some fun. He wants to be a Jedi.

I do have to say though, when he turned 6, his doctors figured he was old enough to start taking a med called Advair (the purple disc puffer) and it changed our lives. We could tell an improvement right away & since he’s started on that, it has limited our trips to the ER to once or twice a year instead of once every month or two. Praise God! (Pajama party day at school)

But Tommy doesn’t let too much slow him down. He LOVES being outside. He would rather be out playing or riding his bike or “hunting” (he’s constantly pretending to be on the hunt for a big deer) than watching a TV show or playing a game any day. He likes to do whatever dad is doing too! His dad hunts, a LOT, so that is why he loves it so much. When career day is going on at their school, he gets up in the morning & puts on his hunting clothes & puts his little plastic bow on his shoulder & proudly tells everyone that he’s going to be a hunter when he grows up and he’s going to have a farm with horses! I just wish my husband could make money from hunting! We’d have it made!!

Well, that is a little about my kiddos! I love you boys!!!!