Catching up...Part I ~ No surgery, BFF, DUI victim & junior high

Life...

It hasn't been busy so much as it has been FULL.

There is a difference.

To me anyway.

To me, being "busy" implies that you have too much going on and not enough time to enjoy what it is you're doing.

We have had a lot going on, but not TOO much and I've definitely been enjoying every minute of it.

So what has been going on?

Well, my last update was at the beginning of August and now we're knocking on October's door...so there is much to talk about. Hence the "Part I".

Summer came and went without too much excitement.

There was the impending tube surgery for Jude's ears at the end of August, but our prayers were answered and his ears finally let go of the fluid they had been hanging onto for months and months. So the surgery was cancelled! We will now keep an eye on the situation during cold & flu season and just continue to pray that he grows out of this.

The summer consisted of a lot of hanging out and goofing around.

We also had a nice visit from Scott, my best friend since 9th grade AND the kids' Godfather.

He had just come back from a 2 week mission trip to Kenya and I was eager to hear all about it.

He was also eager to spend time with the kids.

He is loving the "boy" time he gets with Jude as well.

Well, I guess we had one little moment of excitement this summer when someone drove over our mailbox.

Terry happened to be running on the treadmill in the garage when it happened and saw the whole thing.

The worst part was that the driver never stopped...yet left ALL of his side mirror and some other debris on our driveway.

Since Terry saw the car, I made him hunt the guy down and when he did locate the car he attempted to talk to the guy about it.

Well, it wasn't even his car...he was just visiting a relative in the neighborhood and had borrowed it

AND he didn't even seem to realize he had hit anything.

I'm thinking that if I did this to a mailbox
and left parts of my car behind 
and had shattered part of my windshield
and likely banged the door up enough so that it couldn't be opened properly...
...I would probably know that I had hit something.

So yeah, we're pretty sure that he was under the influence of something.

Called the sheriff...nothing could be done since the guy wasn't on the road anymore.

So we still have a temporary mailbox up for now until Terry and his dad can rebuild the original.

The end of August also brought the beginning of school for Cecilia.

She is now a 6th grader.

She seems to be enjoying junior high.

It definitely has been an adjustment, but she is adapting well and loves the opportunity to make new friends.

The worst part of the year so far?

Having P.E. 1st period.

Yuck.

But her first progress report came home last week and she has A's in all her classes thus far...actually, four 100's, a 96 and a 97. Not too shabby!

She is now wishing that she had taken pre-AP (honors) for all of her core classes instead of just science and language arts. The regular math and social studies classes are really too slow for her, but she plans on loading them all on next year.

Glad she's up for the challenge!

Well, I think I'll stop here for today.

To be continued....

Ear fluid update? Need opinions!

I just wanted to throw a quick question out there for anyone who may read this (whether I know you or not!) and have been through this before.
Backstory in case you haven't read the past few posts...
My 2 yr old has had fluid behind his eardrums and we are set to have tubes put in on the 27th.
But the doctor gave us some Nasonex spray to hopefully help the ears drain on their own.
He will check them again on the 23rd to see if the spray has helped.

We started the Nasonex on August 5th and yesterday (5 days later) I noticed that Jude's voice was hoarse.
It got worse as the day went on. Otherwise he seemed fine. No runny nose or anything.
I started wondering if maybe his ears were draining into his throat, causing the irritation.
Then last night he woke up repeatedly crying. You could tell that something was draining, as he kept swallowing and coughing occasionally.

So here's my question...has anyone ever had this issue and been prescribed a nose spray to help?
And if the ears did drain on their own, do my son's "symptoms" sound similar to your experience?

I'm keeping an eye on him because both of my kids are prone to sinus issues and I really don't want him to get sick on top of the ear problems.
I guess I'm just praying that the ears ARE draining and that this means he won't have to have surgery...at least not at this time.

Thanks for any and all comments and opinions!

Take care,

Doctor visit update...

Just wanted to update those that are interested in how our doctor appointments went yesterday.

My appointment went well enough. The doctor (who was very nice, by the way) put me back on the thyroid medication and will be checking up on how it's going in a month.
Since I was there for a complete physical, she also had my full bloodwork done.

I hate having my blood drawn these days.

It's not that I'm scared of needles or anything, and the pain isn't usually too bad. It's really more about the frustration of the tech not being able to find a good vein and then get that vein to flow well enough.

I have 3 more holes in me today than I did yesterday morning.

Even though I always warn the techs that it's very hard to get blood from my arms, they almost always try anyway...and always fail.
Then they go into my hand and they don't always have the "butterfly" needles needed for that, so sometime they just have to use a small straight needle which is even more tricky.

Well it was cold in the dr.'s office and then again in the lab waiting room, so by the time she tried to get blood out of my hand, my veins weren't warm enough to get the blood flowing out...so the left hand failed.

So she had to get a heat pack to warm my right hand and was finally able to get the blood going.
But having the full blood screen done plus my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) meant filling 5 vials.

Took FOREVER.

But I'm less bruised today than I expected to be and I'm just grateful that she didn't try to put the needle in the TOP of my forearm like the last one did...moron.

So anyway, I guess I'll have more information to share on my health once we get the blood results back.

As far as Jude's appointment...well first off, I have to say that Dr. Albright's office and staff were excellent and the only trouble we had was with another child in the waiting room wanting Jude's toy.

Let me rephrase that...the child wanted the toy (identical to the toy lawn mower he has at home) that Jude has already claimed as his own, even though he wasn't actually playing with it at the time that the other child tried to use it.

Anyway, he had his hearing test first and behaved really well.

But his test didn't come out as good as we had hoped.

He tested at the low end of normal.

That means that as of right now, with the fluid still behind his eardrums, he is having mild hearing loss...like having water in your ears after the shower the doctor said.

And speaking of the doctor, he was so nice and was thorough and wonderful with Jude.

He said that the fluid behind Jude's eardrums isn't pus.

But leaving it there brings a higher chance of more ear infections and of course the limited hearing.

He told us that the fluid in the ears normally drains out through the nasal cavities.

So he gave us some Nasonex spray to hopefully help the fluid drain.

We go back on the 23rd to see if the spray has helped and if not, then surgery to put in tubes on the 27th.

Like Dr. Albright said, "We'll plan for the worst and hope for the best".

 I do hope Jude's ears clear up on their own.

I hate to think of having to put my 2 yr old through the process of going under general anesthesia.

Not to mention having to deprive him of any liquids or food until surgery.

That boy wakes up asking for milk!

So let's please keep praying for the best possible outcome with this.

I'm not overly worried, I just want to avoid having to put Jude through something like this at an age when I can't really explain to him what's going on.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Have a wonderful weekend!

For Dad...

You know you are blessed when although you live half an hour away from your parents and usually see them at least once a week, you still get bugged by your dad to update your blog more. =)

You see, being an only child has given me the greatest gift of having parents that are fully attentive to my needs, dreams and day to day boring activities.

But really, what more could I ask for? I am truly grateful that I have two wonderful parents who care what is going on in my life and are willing to drop everything in their lives to help me when needed and offer advice when it is sought. Yes, sometimes the advice does come unsolicited...but it is always sincere and full of good intention and wisdom.So while talking to my mom a bit ago about her surprise Elvis scarf that arrived in the mail for her birthday today (Happy Birthday Ma!), she mentioned that my dad was anxiously awaiting my next blog update. Well, this daddy's girl certainly doesn't want to disappoint. =)

So what's been going on? Well, lots.

There's been the usual occurances of Cecilia drawing and Jude wanting to do everything with Daddy...

(Can I add that this kid (20 months old now) has the most amazing vocabulary?? He also recognizes the entire upper case alphabet and most of the lower case!...Yes...he got his momma's brains...LOL!)

Cecilia also earned a spot in her school's spelling bee, but didn't place this year. We are very proud of her anyway. Below are the 5th grade contestants.


We also were very excited recently by the visit of Terry's sister, Leslie (who I was friends with BEFORE Terry came into my life), and our nephew Ryan. They live in NJ and are only able to come down for a visit a couple of times a year. And because Jude and Ryan are only a month apart in age, we always look forward to the visits to see how they will react to each other. This was the best visit yet in my opinion for the two because they got to really enjoy playing together...and we even got to take Ryan to his first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's!

The weekend following Les and Ryan's bittersweet return to Jersey, I was able to attend a girls' getaway with some ladies from church. We had a great time despite the cold weather, but I did get out for a bit and take some pictures. The location of our retreat was a ranch which not only contained the usual cows and horses, but also some exotic animals. Unfortunately the weather kept me from venturing far enough out to get pics of the exotics, but I did check out the VERY old cemetary on the grounds and some of the horses and their donkey friends.

Let's see...last week took us to see the doctor a couple of times.

First, on Monday, my dear graceful Jude attempted to bust his lip, yet again. This time he wasn't so successful. You'd think that would be a good thing, but instead his bottom teeth punched a hole right through the area under his lip. That's right...a hole on the inside AND the outside. Of course when I first picked him up I assumed it was the usual busted lip, but once I saw the cut on the outside...I pretty much freaked out. All at once before my eyes flashed a scene of painful shots and stitches and all kinds of uncomfortableness for my baby. We then spend 10 minutes debating on whether this warranted a trip to the ER or not. In the end we decided to take him to a nearby emergency care center where we were informed that it wasn't bad at all and he would require no stitches. What a relief! He now is almost completely healed. Thank the Lord that it wasn't worse!

Wednesday was then my day to head to the hospital. For the past few months I have been suffering from menorrhagia. Let's just say that when the gyno nurse asks when my last period was, I want to slap her because as I've told the rest of them...let's say um...about September 1st until January 1st. I know it's their protocol to automatically ask that...but please, can we at least check the records and see WHY the patient is there before we ask these questions? Anyway, when they did an ultrasound and biopsy in November it was discovered that I had many polyps in my uterus which was the cause for the bleeding. My options were to have an endometrial ablation and tie my tubes or have a hysterectomy. Since the recovery time for a hysterectomy can be a month, I chose the ablation. I do have a toddler to take care of! The tube tying (tubal ligation) was necessary to prevent pregnancy since after the ablation, it would be impossible for an embryo to attach and/or grow without that endometrial lining. So that's what I had done on the 3rd. Recovery hasn't been too bad and Terry was here until yesterday to do all the lifting and such until I could. I had to see the doctor yesterday though because my bellybutton incision is infected. But it's already looking better.

So no more grandbabies for my parents, but I've made 2 very beautiful and remarkable children. I have so much to be proud of.

So, yes, a lot has been going on, and maybe that was the reason for the delay in my blogging. I do apologize though to those who actually look forward to the updates. I will try to blog a bit more often so that my blogs don't end up being these novel-length monstrosities!

Thanks for reading...thanks for caring.

Growing!

Kiddos had check-ups this morning. Both are growing so much!

Cecilia had been behind in growth. She was only in the 15th percentile for her age. The doctor had been concerned...until today that is! Cecilia is now 4' 8.5" (50th percentile) and weighs 70 lbs (25th percentile). YAY! The doc says to keep on giving her lots of dairy so as to get as much height in as possible. Of course I get a bit irritated when she says in front of Cecilia that she can have ice cream, milkshakes, pizza, etc. to boost her height and weight. My child would live off of that stuff if I let her. I don't want her to get into a bad habit of eating now and then find out one day that a grown-up metabolism can't keep up with that type of diet.

As far as Jude goes, his growth these days is not nearly as drastic as it was during the first year obviously, but he is doing well. He now weighs 23 lbs. 10 oz. and is 31.75" long. About average for both. His head size is what is so surprising. His head measures 19.75" right now. That's at least 95th percentile. The doctor says that he just has a lot of room for his big brain. Haha!

She says both of the kids look great and is very pleased. Unfortunately both of them got shots today. Cecilia is a big girl now, so no tears for her. Jude on the other hand got quite upset but settled down pretty quickly. He also left with a super cool spiderman sticker to help ease the pain. =)

Good doctor's visits are always nice for the simple fact that it is a temporary reassurance that, as a mother, I am doing my job...at least regarding their health.

Have a wonderful weekend!