20/20

Last Friday, Cayden had his one year follow-up visit with the opthamologist.  Preemies have something like a 20% chance that there will be some sort of early, profound vision problems, but this seems to be another bullet we have dodged.  He shows no signs of impaired vision or misalignment issues like lazy eye or cross eyes and Dr. Enzenauer says we are good to go for another year before we have to follow up with him.  Once again, we are so thankful.

For those that haven't heard, we've had some crazy, warm, dry, windy weather here in Denver.  March is usually our snowiest month and we haven't had a single flake all month.  Temperatures have been in the 70's most of the month and are supposed to climb into the mid-80s this weekend.  The wind has been absolutely insane many days this month as well, but we've been trying to get out every day to go for a walk and enjoy the sunshine.  That was our routine, at least, until a major forest fire broke out this past Monday afternoon in the foothills west of town.  Although we live on the far southeastern side of town, the smoke and ash from the fire has been a problem.  The first couple of days it was so bad, you couldn't walk to the mailbox and back without coming home smelling like you'd been sitting next to a campfire for hours.  There was an advisory posted warning people to stay indoors through Tuesday of this week, but I think that has been dropped.  They are still advising some people to not go outside: the very young, the very old, and anyone with cardiac or respiratory issues.

Because Cayden has chronic lung disease (albeit a mild case from what we were last told), I've been avoiding taking him outside since the fire started on Monday.  Today was such a beautiful day, and you couldn't see or smell any smoke in our neighborhood, so I was just dying to go out for a walk.  Just to be safe, I called Dr. Rosenberg's office to get their advice on the matter.  No joy - they said because of his issues, and especially because he had a bit of croup a couple weeks ago, he should not go outside until the fire is out. 

I really want to whine and cry and stomp my feet in cabin fever frustration, but when I think about what other people have lost because of this fire (EVERYTHING, their homes, their lives...), I get over myself.  It sucks to be cooped up inside when it's so nice out, but at least we still have our home to be cooped up in.