Sunday, May 24, 2009
Update on us..
Well, its been awhile, I finally have a second so I am going to attempt to update on us. (before somebody comes to tattle-tale, or whine to me, what is it with whining and tattling lately??)
Anyway, Logan and Faith are better. Once again Thank God for antibiotics! Haleigh managed to (so far) avoid getting the strep bug. Yay!!!
We also got Logans labs done for his graves stuff. They are looking good, and so far his liver his holding up to the nasty med ok, so Praise God!!
I am done, with the exception of one day when I have to teach a bunch of kids cpr, with EVERYTHING until the middle of august!!!! YAY!!!
Now for the Beck update. We got the brace, and it going ok. The first three days were HORRIBLE, even with the heavy duty muscle relaxer and narcotic pain killer. But she is slowly adjusting to it, and is able to sleep in it much better, (all though it is still with the help of a vicodin and flexoril) But she is only having to take the pain killer at night, but is still on the muscle relaxer (per docs orders). Clothing is a different story, shirts are ok, (we knew we had to increase that so we shopped ahead of time) but unfortunately only two of her ENTIRE wardrobe of bottoms (jeans, pants, capris, shorts, etc) fit. We went shopping and got a some shorts, but jeans are horrible, if we find ones that fit around her "new" waist they look horrible everywhere else. Thank god its summer so we dont have to worry about it for awhile, but frankly I'm at a loss as to what to do. Heat is going to be an issue as well, it hasnt even got really hot (by our NM standards) yet and when she takes it off midday to switch shirts they are just soaking wet with perspiration. Again, i am at a loss as to what to do there as well. Emotionally she is doing ok, slowly but surely settling into her new "normal"
Now for the surgeons visit update. I REALLY like him, as does Beck. He really went into what Scheuremanns Disease is, and what it is not (like just bad posture) and took time to actually talk to Beck. They took some high resolution xrays and he was able to measure the curve in her upper back (thoracic spine) from vertebrae T5 to vertebrae T12 it measured 62 degrees. Normal is under 10 degrees. The curver in her lumbar spine is 28 degress. He also said that he found the reason for her increasing bad back pain, its not just muscular as we had thought. He said there were 3 areas in her thoracic spine where the vertebrae are so damage and broken down, the disc material is starting to herniate into the vertebrae. The presence of these areas, which are called schmorls nodes, and the severity of the curve GREATLY increase her chances of having to have surgery. He said that he really didnt want to have to do it, as it would affect her life forever, but he was really leaning towards needing to. He said that because of where her curves are, he would have to fuse from T5 (high upper back area) to L3 or 4 (middle of lower back) which would almost eliminate any forward bending. forever.
They also took films out of the brace, and in brace. It showed a good lumbar correction, but a very poor correction (59 degrees in brace) in the thoracic spine, which is where the big problem is. Dr Bosch said that he was "fairly disheartened" about this, but because of what we just talked about with the surgery, he would be willing to give it 6 months to see if it will improve at all. After that "we will look at our options" He also increased her pt from 1 time to 3 times a week (which is at a hospital 15 miles away from our house, yuck!) in an effort to help things along.
So, theres the update, not very good news, but we are still believing in miracles, and praying lots! As one of my coworkers said, "Look at Faith, if anybody can pull of miracles, its your family!"
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Spring Break!
Sorry for the absence. Busy busy.. Anyway, we are on Spring Break, everybody is doing well!! (Knock on wood!) Here is a pic of Logan being silly while we were at the zoo the other day. Enjoy!
Happy Spring!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Strep...
As several of you know (the facebook addicts that is) Faith had to go to the doctors rather emergently today. She seemed fine this morning, and I took her to school like usual, I hadnt even taught a full two classes when my cell rang and I noticed it was daycare. It was her teacher saying that they believed she had aspirated because she was having a really hard time breathing, but not her usual wheezing. Needless to say I went directly over (she goes to daycare on campus with me) and sure enough she was struggling to breathe. But not like her usual way she does when she aspirates or has pneumonia. She also was having a very harsh croupy sounding cough too. So I hurried her off to the docs and they got us right in (Once again, I am thanking God for our pediatrician!) He took a look at her, and looked in her mouth and said OH my goodness look at her tonsils!!! Sure enough, her tonsils are swollen enough that they are swollen together in the back of her throat! They cultured it and it quickly came back Strep.
So the good news is, it doesnt appear to be any aspiration.
The bad news is she has strep. The difficulty breathing and harsh cough is from the upper airway and tonsil swelling. This could be a horrible thing if the swelling continues as it could swell her airway off completely!! Especially given that she has kind of "weird" upper airway anatomy anyway, any swelling is a very bad thing.
So for now, we are at home, I am keeping a close eye on her sats, and airway and if anything changes I call the doc and meet him at the ER. We are also nebbing with some albuterol and a bunch of sterile water every couple of hours. The thought there is that the cool mist will help with swelling. We also got her started on antibiotics.
If we can just make it thru the next 24-36 hours, the swelling should start to go down.
Anyway,, if you are of the praying persuasion, please pray for Faith.
Also,,, I can update via facebook on my phone much easier and faster than here so if anything does happen I will probably update there initially.
Sigh... its going to be a looong night.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
A thought to start off the new year with....
After some teenage girl drama that I cant go into (because, trust me, if my daughter found out I posted about it here, there would be WAAAAYYY more teenage girl drama) I was thinking about what it is like having a teenager in the house.
Its.way.different.
Just about the time you think you have parenting figured out, your oldest becomes a teenager.
Everything.Then.Changes.
Anyway,,, I digress, back to my thought..
As I was thinking about the teenager in the house deal it hit me.
I have 3 more kids after her.
Thats 3 more teenagers.
Thats when I did some math.
And became despondent, depressed, perhaps even briefly suicidal.
Even if every one of them moves out when they turn 18 (which I am fairly sure wont happen) We will have a teenager in the house for the next 15 years.
13 of those years will be occupied by a teenage girl.
Oh.My.
Not that teenagers are all bad, and as far as being a teenager goes, Beck has turned out pretty good.
But.Still......The.Drama.
Oh.My.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Ummm... Merry Christmas???
Perhaps a better title, one more appropriate for the date would be Happy New Year!!!
Ok, so I am a bit late on the Merry Christmas sentiments. But its the thought that counts right?
Well,, on the Mommys Busy Farm, a Merry Christmas was had by all. Most important of all was the fact that there was No Sickness!!!! Yay!!!! So far (fervently knocking on wood) things have been very good on the sickness (or lack thereof) front. Faith is doing amazing, and Logan is following very closely behind. We are having some scuffles trying to get his blood levels lined out with his Graves disease but its coming along slowly. Symptom wise he is doing very well! The other "healthy" girls are doing well also. Beck is getting braces on the 14th so that will be a huge adjustment,, more that what she thinks, I suspect.
Here is a pic of them by the Christmas tree. I cant believe how big they are all getting. Where does the time go???
I hope that everybody had a wonderful blessed Christmas, and if I dont get back here before the 1st,,, Happy New year!!!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
SSSShhhhhh!!!! I'm supposed to be starting Thankgiving dinner!! Instead,,, I wanted to drop in here and quickly wish everybody a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
You all mean so much to me. Both the people that I know and love in "real life" and the people that I know and love "virtually". You guys have been here through some really bad times, and been here to celebrate the good times. For that I am so thankful. I hope you all have great food, great family time, and a great holiday season.
Now... I had better sneak back into the kitchen and act like I was doing something productive!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
