31 days of Down syndrome Awareness

I was not planning to blog for Down syndrome awareness month this year but after giving it some thought and having my mom give me a guilt trip here we are.  For those of you that are new to this for the past 8 years I have blogged each day during the month of October in honor of Riley.  To share a little of our story and to bring awareness to the fact that people with Down syndrome are more a like than they are different.   Riley doesn't get to give back that extra chromosome when life gets to busy or just decide not to deal with Down syndrome so I guess I can step up my game and share his story.  

 If nothing else I promise some funny Riley stories. He provides great laughs.  While there are lots of times he makes me shake my head and pull out my hair this kid is my world.  He brings so much laughter and love to our family.  

Year 9 here we go.....

Riley just had an check up with his ENT.  Just a year ago we made the decision to take the tubes out of his years and see if they were host to the staph infections he was getting in his ears each month.  A year later and I can tell you that yes, yes they were the host to some nasty germs.  In the year since we removed the tubes he hasn't had a single ear infection.  The holes in his ears have closed and he hasn't had issues with fluid on his ears or infection.  HUGE IMPROVEMENT!!!   

I have had to learn to just smile and pretend that I don't mind the entire room staring at us when I go places with Riley.   The child has friends every where we go.  As we checked in to the ENT office the nurse was out front.  She yells across the room, "Riley...  my boyfriend you came to see me!"  They of course have to discuss which animals he has brought with him because she knows he always has 2 with him. Riley  introduces himself and the animals, hand shakes included, to all of the front office staff.   Once we head back to with the audiologist of course the animals had to have hearing tests as well.  Riley was such a big kid in the hearing booth.  

After the hearing test we moved to the actual Dr. visit.  The nurse happily agreed to take the bears blood pressure and the Dr scoped out the bears and frogs ears.    The the Dr. and I were talking and Riley proceeds to kick back in the exam chair and throw his legs over the arm of the chair.  He looks at the Dr and says "massage me".  Of course the Dr. rubbed his legs for him.  He chuckles and says "we are a full services ENT office".   

We said good bye to our new friends out front and headed home with directions not to come back for a year unless something significant changes.