Christmas 2011 Part 2

A few videos:

Christmas 2011

This year we had a wonderful Christmas in the Quinn household.  Kim was working once again, but fortunately Christmas fell on a Sunday when she doesn't work.  Evan would get 5 times more than he needed due to the generosity of his family.  And Santa was able to get everything he needed in time, and even got 6 hours of sleep on Christmas Eve. What was extra special this year was the welcome visit of Uncle Matt, who arrived by train Christmas Eve.  We celebrated Christmas Eve nostalgia with a little B&B before Santa made his appearance.  It was great to have some of my family here for the holiday.  This will probably be the last year for awhile that Evan sleeps soundly through the night, too.  Next year, he's likely to be restless with anticipation.

Christmas Cookies

The holiday festivities continued with our decision to make sugar cookies and decorate them.

Evan's 2nd Birthday

Evan's second birthday was December 8, 2011. For his party, we kept it a little smaller this year and held it at Kid City, a children's play-place where all of the rooms have different interactive areas: a kitchen/diner with all sorts of plastic food, a rubber fish processing plant, complete with conveyors, and so much more.  For his actual birthday, with it being a weeknight, we just had him open his numerous gifts send from abroad.  He has been enjoying them ever since.  We filmed some of it.

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year fell on November 5 in Wethersfield, CT. On October 29, an unusually early Nor'easter dropped about 6" of extremely wet, heavy, snow on all of the leaf-bearing trees. Over 800,000 people were without power for days, some over a week.

With a 60-degree house after only 12 hours, we located an available hotel room 40 miles south and settled in for a few days. We were fortunate and got our power back after 65 hours, nearly twice as long as the August power outage.

Our town recommended that trick-or-treating be postponed until daylight hours only on Saturday, 11/5. We had at least a hundred kids clean us out by 5:00.

For the first time in 3 years, all of the pumpkins were finished before the first kids arrived, and despite the daylight, we did get several compliments on them. Had they been lit, we could've sold tickets.

Pumpkin Picking Field Trip

Evan's daycare planned a field trip to Riverview Farms in Glastonbury on October 18 to pick pumpkins and pet animals. Daddy arrived late to chase the tractor down the muddy path and climb onto the still moving hay cart. Evan enjoyed the pumpkins, at least.

Evan Invades Maryland Again

Columbus Day weekend brought an extended weekend to the Quinn family, so we elected to spend it traveling south.

Evan's New Girlfriend

Went to the Hebron Harvest Fair for the first time in 3-4 years. Met up with friends Glenn and Melissa and their daughter, Emmalin, who was born just 3 days after Evan in the same hospital.

Evan's First Day at Preschool

I thought it would come later, but we realized Evan needed more exposure to kids his age, so Jenn and I searched the surrounding neighborhoods for viable candidates. We decided on Foundations for Learning in Glastonbury, CT, a 5-minute drive from work. Not the most extravagant, not the most expensive, but it offered what we needed and preferred, plus we had a personal recommendation.

Armed with his Toy Story lunch box and backpack (which is large enough for an adult, so not shown), we headed out on a rainy Wednesday morning. His teacher, Stephanie, greeted us, stocked his diapers and change of clothes, then introduced us to his classmates, Christian and Matthew. Christian is younger, with bright, blue eyes. Matthew is blond with brown eyes, and he appears to have some Asian ethnicity in his blood, but his teacher said no (she's mistaken, imo).

Evan quickly adjusted to his new surroundings, attracting the attention of some of the older kids who share a divided space with his 1-2 year old class. He was well-behaved all day, ate all of his food, and even napped for 40 minutes (about 1/5 of what he usually has at home). I was so nervous that he would get really upset that we left him there, or that he would not treat his classmates well. Fortunately, those fears were not realized. He waved goodbye to us, and did not appear upset that we were leaving. He'll go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, so he'll think this is an everyday event until Friday; then he'll be confused.

What did he do all day? According to his Daily Progress Report, he:
-Played in the house, with air planes, with blocks, and spent some time "reading" to himself (he mumbles while looking at the pages, he's read to every night before bed).
-Learned numbers 1-10 on his fingers and words that start with "B."
-Learned colors, shapes, ABC's, and sang songs.
-Played with beans at the sensory table
-Kicked balls, pushed toys, and ran around.

When he was picked up, he was visibly tired from not napping, and didn't protest leaving. He lasted all night until his normal bedtime...we'll see when he wakes up tomorrow morning.

Some requisite photos of the event:



Looking forward to accelerated development from this new experience, not to mention bad habits and lots of runny noses and colds (he's been sick 3-4 times in 21 mos. at home). Most importantly, I hope he has fun. We have entered a new phase in parenthood; letting society help raise him with us. It is the first of many scary adventures for us.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder

You're probably thinking I miss my wife, Jenn, who has been in Germany since Saturday night. That's true, I do. But what I've missed more since 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning is ELECTRICITY! Hurricane Irene nailed CT with a direct hit, and although I've seen much higher winds and more rain before, this is the longest I've gone without power since I moved here 11 years ago. Two years ago, Jenn and I returned from our Alaskan honeymoon to find our neighborhood devastated by a tornado. We came from a luxury cruise line to no power, but it was for only a day. Hurricane Irene took power from us for 37 hours, and it was a struggle. Maybe without a 20-month-old, it would have been much easier. Returning from a 2-week vacation, we didn't have any food in the fridge, leftovers, etc, anyway. We still lost all of our frozen food, which we did again this time. This time, it seemed more difficult to deal with. But I am a survivor.

Day of Evan

Today was the Day of Evan. We started by going to the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT. Yes, as in "Mystic Pizza" Mystic. Then, a stop for ice cream, sidewalk chalk art with Miss Nancy, then soccer in the park (previous post). I'm expecting him to sleep until noon tomorrow.

Weather was perfect, 82 degrees, sunny, with low humidity...in the middle of August, no less. We took advantage.

Our budding Beckham

Today, I decided to bring Evan and a soccer ball to the park, just to see if he enjoyed kicking it around.

Evan - Master of the Sliding Board

Some more videos before Evan disappears to New Hampshire tomorrow for a few days. These are Evan on the sliding boards at the school playground down the street; also featuring my neighbor, Nancy, and her daughter, Taylor.

Evan's basketball prowess

Because Jenn is traveling again, it's incumbent upon me to post some more videos of Evan. These were taken this week at my neighbor's house. The others in the videos are my neighbor's sister Candy, and my neighbor's boyfriend, Juan.
Evan Dunks

Evan's Perfect Shooting Form

Lock your doors

The neighborhood is not safe. Evan has demonstrated the ability to open a closed door with a round doorknob. Bathroom doors now need to be locked to prevent unauthorized access. Life will never be the same.

Evan the climber

Evan waited until Jenn went to India again before demonstrating his newly developed skill of climbing on a chair.

My story

To document what happened to me in 2010, I typed up a brief history of events:

In mid-August, I developed what I thought was a routine stomach flu. Couldn't keep anything down one morning, so I called in sick and stayed home. Typically, I'd be fine the next day, with regained appetite. Instead, more of the same...even water wasn't staying down. On the third day (a Saturday), I called my doctor and made an emergency office visit that my neighbor drove me to. Jenn was in Europe on her first business trip since Evan was born, so she had no idea I was sick. Fortunately, my mother-in-law lives with us and takes care of Evan, and she was a godsend to also take care of me when I got sick.

Doctor was of little help. I felt very weak from not eating, and all he advised was to drink some Gatorade and Pediasure. I choked it down and went to a hospital on Monday for an IV...my wife's boss picked me up and drove me. There I got an IV and they discharged me. They originally thought I was drunk or on drugs, but they couldn't find anything.

I felt better after the IV, but I also felt like I was having a nervous breakdown. I was overwhelmed by the "magnitude" of activities that my life (or anyone's) entailed. My PCP called me when he heard I'd visited the on-call doc over the weekend. He said to call 911 if I felt the need. I didn't. But for some reason, I insisted on packing a bag for the hospital just in case. I found myself extremely anxious and nervous about everything. I couldn't even go to sleep because I kept panicking that I was going to forget something. At ~11:00 p.m. I woke up, nervous again, and Kim got up to prepare me some rice soup...the only thing I could keep down. But then I picked up the phone and called 911. Almost involuntarily. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital. Kim and Evan followed in a car.

Long story short, the doctor questioned me and didn't want me to leave. I called Jenn and explained the situation. She told the doctor not to let me go home. To this day, she hasn't explained what I had done to convince her of this. They admitted me to the psych ward and put me on schizophrenia medication. For a day, I was thought to be mentally unstable. Thankfully, the doctors correctly diagnosed me with a medical condition, and admitted me to the hospital. Jenn cut her trip short and found me as I was being transported back over to the hospital. I was never so happy to see her.

I was there for two weeks, it felt like a month. They performed every test known to man on me, and thankfully I only remember half of it. Matthew came up from Manhattan. Even my Dad visited for a weekend. My condition degenerated. I lost 25 lbs and doctors thought I wasn't going to make it. I lost my sense of balance, couldn't walk straight, eyes shifted involuntarily, still wouldn't eat, was nauseous continually, I couldn't perform basic cognitive functions like drawing a clock face or subtracting by sevens. I knew who I was but had no concept of time. Testing initially focused on toxicology - exposure to dangerous materials. That, infectious diseases, many of which I hadn't heard of, cancer, too...they all came up negative.

My family argued with me to eat, and it was like a punishment. My brain told me I wasn't hungry. A B12 shot and an IV hookup helped turn me around enough that I could be discharged from the hospital. That, and they'd tested me for everything already. They did conclude that my brain activity was down, based on an EEG they performed. I checked into a rehab facility, a place where most people are in their 80's. I still had large pockets of time that I couldn't account for, and still had trouble eating.

Jenn became frustrated with me and my lack of progress. I also had an attitude at times (go figure). I had periods of dementia where I did things I cannot remember, and I was sent to the psych ward at the hospital several times.

At the end of September, I had an awakening, a turning point. I could then account for every minute of the day, every day. I regained my appetite. I started attending my physical therapy sessions fully (apparently, I was only good for 5-10 minutes for weeks - no recollection of that).

I started regaining my balance and didn't need to use a walker anymore. I was aware of visiting doctors that my wife took me to. Some of them I was seeing for the third time, and finally I could actually respond to them myself - Jenn had to act of my behalf before then.

I was sent back to the the psych ward ER for almost 2 weeks when the rehab facility decided they didn't want to treat me anymore. I was a prisoner. Most of the people in there were drunks or drug addicts, and all I had to look forward to was when the meal trays were sent down. I slept a lot.

One of the doctors who had seen me in August, and was instrumental in diagnosing me as non-psychotic, found out I was back in the psych ward and was furious. He got his boss involved and lobbied for the hospital to treat me itself. I was given an IVIg transfusion that supercharges your immune system. The theory was that I had an auto-immune condition where my body was attacking itself, trying to fight something that wasn't there anymore. The treatment accelerated my recovery, and almost overnight, I made significant gains in test scores of these neuro-psych tests they kept giving me. By the 3rd week in October, I left the hospital for the last time and returned home for the first time since August. I had the IVIg treatment two more times, 4 weeks apart, at home. Each time, I got progressively better, and more testing showed that I was much better than when they had tested me in August. I was back to above-average in brain functionality. I went back to work on 1/31, and next week I'll return to full-time status.

I spent some of my time at home reading my hospital discharge report so I understood everything they tested me for, but Matthew did so much for me. He lived with me in the hospital for a week. He researched the rehab facility and scoped it out with Jenn. He was tethered to his iPhone and his laptop, and he spent every waking moment researching what I might have had. He constantly talked to the doctors and Jenn...he kept them thinking about possibilities, treatments, new tests, etc. He came back up to get me out of the psych ward. I am forever indebted to him.

The official diagnosis is encephalopathy, which is a medical term for "brain isn't working right." Mostly my frontal lobe was affected. I'm about 98% now, just occasional pockets of anxiety and frustration. I've been back to the gym to regain the physical strength I had lost, which was significant. Work has been relatively easy, and I'm ready to get back to full-time status. But it's scary to think that I almost died, and that my brain, of all things, was what failed me. It's all I have, and what made me good at what I do. Fortunately, I expect to recover 100% and continue on my career path. My team welcomed me back, and I've been overwhelmed by the support of family, friends, and coworkers. I appreciate so much more what I had and what I have now. I didn't know that so many people, especially co-workers, cared about my welfare.

I don't know if it's ignorance or stupidity, but I'm not worried about this happening again. If it did, I would immediately recognize the symptoms, and I'd know which doctors to call. We know the treatment that helps the most, too. If it happened again, then yes, I would forever be scared that my life would never return to normal. For now, I feel it was too rare, too obscure, too much of a mystery that something like that can happen again. According to one neurologist, who we met to obtain a second opinion, these types of issues are usually a one-time occurrence. It's either fatal, or the body learns to minimize the symptoms (at the time, he made no promise that I'd recover 100%) and never returns. He could be wrong, but I can't live in fear. I have to move on. My return to full-time status at work on Monday essentially signifies the end of my recovery. It is ironic that Jenn is on another business trip, this time in India, so it's as if we've come full-circle. She'll return and I'll be fine, and the 6 months prior never happened, it would seem.

Evan made me a liar

Ok, so I showed the Evan Scoot and stated that it would be a few days before Evan started walking. Well, Evan made me a liar. Because he walked TODAY, February 11, 2011! He liked walking so much, he wore himself out doing it. Not only can he walk and talk at the same time, he can stand from a kneeling position without using his hands, and he can clap while standing. And here is the video of this epic achievement.

The Evan Scoot

Evan isn't walking yet, but he will any day now. He can take a few steps without support, and can easily walk holding someone's hand. In the interest of preservation, we documented his currently preferred method of getting around, what we call "the scoot." Soon, this will be a thing of the past, and he can find another way to put holes in the knees of his pants.

The Evan Waggle

It took awhile, but Kim finally caught the waggle on film, and now it is a permanent part of American History. He seems to do this only to the Alphabet song. Watch carefully after all of the letters are sung.

More Evan

Jenn is in India right now...her first trip away from home since I've recovered, and her first trip since my illness (she was in Europe when I was hospitalized). We've captured some of Evan's signature moves and I wanted to share them with everyone, including Jenn. This first one is from December...Evan is not shy about showing fatigue.


This second video is from December as well, and it shows him walking his zebra walker toy...thingy.


More videos to come soon.

Christmas 2010 in Connecticut

For the second year in a row, Evan spent Christmas in Connecticut. We want him to grow up experiencing Christmas morning like I always did, in his own house. Evan was much better at unwrapping presents; he opened one of Daddy's two days before Christmas. Next year, it will be much tougher because he may grasp the concept of Santa and receiving presents before the big day. Despite missing our own families and traditions, we had an excellent Christmas. We went a little overboard with the gifts this year, but we had a lot to be thankful for since we were a fully-functioning family once again.

Evan's First Birthday

You only turn 1 year old once (pun intended), and Evan had several parties, in Baltimore and in Hartford. Jenn invited her friends from work and their families; we had nearly 50 guests. Needless to say, Evan made out like a bandit thanks to the generosity of our guests. He didn't even understand the concept of birthdays or gifts yet. It took three nights to get him to open all of his presents, but it was a good warm-up for Christmas.

Evan's First Halloween

Posted the pumpkins months ago, but I never showed off Evan in his first Halloween costume. It was extremely tempting to dress him up as Megatron, and Yoda was actually a strong possibility, but we'll wait until he's old enough to wear makeup.