Choices

Did you ever have a time when a choice isn't so clear? When the answer isn't black and white, when either choice will leave you in the same spot just a different path? Last week we were once again faced with this kind of choice. Neither choice was a bad choice or the wrong choice. Both will lead us to what we can only hope are answers. But one choice is sooner then the other choice. I was told to go with my gut, follow my heart, faith, Einny, meeny, mitty mo or experience all of those are great but in the end its not a choice being right or wrong.

Choices are hard when you need to choice between A, B, C or X, Y, Z but either way the outcome is the same. How do you honestly pick when you understand the outcome to be the same. We have been faced with this once before. When Tyler got sick and we knew that he needed a Gtube placed we were faced with having it done by a surgeon who knew what Tyler's insides looked like because of his first surgery or a surgeon who knew nothing about him. Plan A required us to have to stay in Washington longer then we had planned to be able to have the tube placed. Plan B had us move first and have the tube placed about a month latter then Plan A. At the time Tyler was some what stable. We chose plan B not that either plan was perfect not that either plan was bad or wrong, just that we felt plan B was slightly better for our needs at that point. Looking back on it now would I have done it differently? yes I would have! Why to be honest I really don't know that its one reason but many little ones. Yes Tyler was stable when we chose to take plan B. But we didn't know how long plan B would take and how things would go with a new surgeon, new ped and new GI dr. In the end plan A would have been better, or at least I think it would have been. But you see in the end both plans would have eneded with the same result the same answers. Neither plan was wrong or different really.

So in the end you pick a plan and go for it, pray its the right one. Hope that it works the way it should. Pray that God is leading you to the right plan even if the plans lead to the same answer.

Breath.....

Well that was one crazy 1.5wks, and I feel like I can finally breath again! 2wks ago Tyler got hurt playing outside. Long story short I took him to walk-in at our ped's Tue morning, DX Gtube site infection and a hurt foot. We had Xrays done and after almost 2days nothing was seen on the Xrays. Yet Tyler refused to bear weight on his left foot. We placed a call for an appt with Ortho. Friday afternoon we meet with Ortho and he was still not willing to bear weight (he'd stand but that was about it). What we know is that Tyler did "something" to his foot/heal. What he did is still unknowen, Dr. P said that he could send him for more Xrays and/or an MRI but felt that the results wouldn't have changed his treatment plan. Tyler was placed in a BRIGHT neon green cast (yes his choice!!) for 3wks.

Next was Kiley's turn at Ortho, her appt was on Monday. We took Xrays and yes her one bone is still broken, its been 14wks since she broke it. She will be seen in about 1 month to reXray and see how its healing. At that point if its healed we will plan on rod removal in 2-3 months, sometime over the summer. On Wed we had Brycen's ADHD check. All is well with him med's are doing what they should be doing. We added in another med (one he has been on before) for after school. He goes back in 2 months for another recheck.

On Friday Michaela got to be picked on, she had a Pulmo appt. Her appt went well, her lung function is back up to normal. She seems to be doing fine and using her albuterol very little. The plan is to keep her on the med's she is on and recheck her in Aug.

With all of this and the boys therapy on Tue and Thur I was driving to downtown everyday. Its 45minutes one way, and I hope that we don't have to make any trips anytime soon other then therapy! I feel like that crazy week is over I can now breath.

Wordless Wednesday Let's Go Fly a Kite

Short but sweet

This past weekend I took our oldest, Michaela, to visit family and friends in Iowa. Yep that snow riden state, one of the many who have gotten more snow then they know what to do with. So Friday early afternoon we boarded our plane and off we went to find the snow!!! Our flight was uneventful and as soon as Michaela could see snow she couldn't stop talking about it. After waiting for our bag we step outside into the wintery weather and what does Michaela do first? The only thing any child would do, throw a snowball!

On Sat Michaela spent most of the day planning outside in the snow! My BIL (Mike) took his girls and Michaela sleding. They had a blast spent about an hour before Lily was getting cold. Once they got some fule into them (Lunch) they went back outside to play some more. This time the felt a snowman was in order. Now that is one tall snowman, its believed to be 6.5feet tall. For Michaela I think this had to have been the best part of the trip. Don't get me wrong she loved seeing everyone and spending time with them. But she is an Iowa girl, loves the winter and snow. If it was her choice we'd live where she could play in the snow and ski all year!! After all this playing we were lucky enough to have dinner with our good friends Michael and Emma (of course their mom too Sara). The kids had fun talking playing with cell phones and of course drawing. We have missed this family so much as our kids are just months differnt in ages.

Sat night we had another girls night, ok so I admit we had some guys there too but to me its still a girls night! I loved seeing everyone and wished more could have joined us (next time girls you know who you are!!).

Me, Alisa and Michelle

Jeremy and I

Mandi, Angie, Me and Amber

You can never go anywhere and not meet 2 guys like this!

Sunday for lunch I went out with family (yes Angie you are family too!!) We had a great lunch despit some of us not getting much sleep.

Aunt Amber, Me, Kolby, Michaela, Mike and Angie

Uncle Travis, Michaela and Uncle Tim

On Sunday we had a birthday party for Maya who will trun 7yrs this month. We went to dinner to celebrate. And then it was back to my SIL's house to watch the super bowl, you didn't think I'd miss all of the game now do you?

Before leaving Iowa on Monday Michaela just had to write her name in snow. I am sure I will hear her asking again and again when she can go back.

Going to the airport to head home

Thank you again to all my family and friends! You truely do make my visits so much fun. I can't wait till I am able to visit again. Hoping to make it another short but sweet visit!

Our 2009 Letter to all of you

Hello Family and Friends,

What a year 2009 has been, its been good, bad and everything in between. This year has brought some great experiences and some not so fun.

Michaela is now 11yrs old and growing fast, when does it slow down again? She Graduated 5th grade in May, and she was able to get straight A's once again. She played her last season of soccer in the spring, she may play again. The summer brought a new experience, I was willing to leave the girls home while the boys had therapy. Most days it went well other times I was ready to pull my hair out. I always came back to a clean house still standing 2 girls still alive and a dog who had been well taken care of, what more can a mom ask for?! Michaela entered the world of Middle school in the fall. She has teachers that she loves and teachers she could live without. Michaela is once again maintaining straight A's and doing well in all her classes. She tried out for Volleyball but didn't make the team. She has many new friends and still sees many of her old friends. She now has a cell phone and I don't think there is a day that goes by that she doesn't get at least 10 text messages.

Kiley is now 10yrs old and doing well. She will graduate 5th grade in the spring and then I will have 2 middle schooler.....CRAZY!!! Kiley is still Ice Skating, she passed her Pre-Juvenile moves in the field in Nov. She also had new experiences on the ice, she has skated a couples number with one of her BFF's and did a jump and spin with another BFF. This summer just as she almost landed her Axel she broke her left forearm. What an experience that was! She got her cast off the end of Aug and started skating right away. in Nov she officially landed her Axel, mostly 2 footing it but its where they all start! Sadly this is where her enjoyment stopped, she re-broke her left forearm early Dec. This time she really did a good job, after trying for over 30minutes to set it in the ER they said she may need pins/rods. A few days latter we saw ortho only to confirmed what we thought. Kiley was in the OR the next day getting 2 rods placed, these will remain in place for 3-5months.

Brycen is now 8yrs old and a busy little man! He is in 2nd grade, most days he does ok but he is struggling. He played soccer in the spring. He did enjoy it but didn't want to play again. I guess organized sports are just not his thing. Brycen was discharged from our private speech therapy this summer, but still goes for OT. As he gets older many of his differences show. He likes swimming but not water slides, he does not like new or the unknown things. He did find out after a lot of talking that he did like the tea cups, but refused to drive a car. Brycen is currently being followed by an Endocrinologist and he seems to be growing well with his bone age well off his real age. That just means he will grow latter then most boys his age. Tyler is now 4yrs old and what a joy he has been. He currently is getting ST and OT his PT left the clinic and we have yet to find a new one. Tyler continues to grow slowly and throw many many curve balls!!! We have a new GI dr whom seems to want to find an answer to all that is going on with Tyler. The first part of the year was pretty uneventful, other then the lack of growth and that is nothing new in Tyler's world. We had our first bad Gtube experience. At some point his Gtube came partly out, we have no idea how long it was like this. I pulled the water out and replaced the tube, thinking I had it in I tried to give Tyler a little water, nothing. I tried to see if I could get anything out of his gtube again nothing. This landed us for a long night in the ER to check for placement. We placed a new Gtube and waited for Xray to make sure the tube was in the right spot. Once we got that done we were able to restart feeds and go home. The second part of the year has brought many new questions, and many downs for us. Tyler was admitted to APH in Sept for unstable blood sugars, he was in the 30's and even with a bolus of sugar he dropped again into the 30's. He now has a new specialist added to his list, Endocrinologist. We are still looking into why he drops when he is sick. Blood work has been run and yes a test did come back really off, like 4x's normal. Tyler then got sick again in Nov over Thanksgiving, he was dx with H1N1 one day and then a few days latter also had croup with wheezing. We can only hope that 2010, will be a much better year for Tyler. We hope and pray that his group of wonderful Dr's can come up with a plan and an answer to Tyler.

Mom is still working for kindercare, going on 15yrs. She enjoys taking Kiley to the ice rink and scrapbook when she gets a chance!

Chris is still working for Wells Fargo. This year has been a hard year with the economy but somehow Chris still does well and most months gets it done. This year Chris and a buddy, Bradd, took a trip to the windy city to watch the Bears VS Vikings game. Although our team lost (yes vikings fan all the way) Chris said it was an amazing game to watch and experience! He came back ready to tackle 2010!!!

As for me I am still a full time stay at home mom. Taking the kids to and from school, appts and playing with friends. The kids keep me on my toes and some days I don't know how it all works out but it always does! I was able to take a week in Nov and fly to see family and friends in Iowa. Even with a full week there just wasn't enough time to see everyone I wanted to. Thank you to all whom I was able to spend time with and to those of you who I wasn't I will be back for a weekend in Feb and would love to see some of you. It was so nice to be able to see and catch up with each and everyone of you!!!
I still can't believe today is it for 2009, glad to see it go and ready to see what 2010 has to hold! I hope this finds you all happy and healthy! We love you all and miss each and everyone of you! Thank you for being there for us. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's.


Hugs,

Chris, Amy, Linda,
Michaela, Kiley,

A year to remember........

Looking back over 2009 and all the things that happened. I am thankful for many things;

Split milk without this Tyler would be very sick. And yes I cried over split milk!!!

We are all thankful for friends, without them I may just go crazy!! Our friends (or extended family as we call many of them) have been there to help us when we needed the help the most! For that I am thankful for each and everyone of you!

Of course family where would we be without family?! Yes 2009 brought a roller coster of issues; some solved many that are not. But in the end we are all still truking forward. Looking forward to what 2010 has to bring us and yes that includes this roller coster ride we can't seem to get off of! My wish for each one of you health and happyness and most of all the joy in living each day to the fullest! Happy New Years to all!

What a crazy month......time to update!

The past month has been crazy!!! It all started Thanksgiving day. Tyler woke with a fever and all over just could tell he didn't feel go. With the fact that Michaela had just had a 24hour bug I was sure this is what we were dealing with. We switched Tyler to pedialite via Gtube and let him eat some. He of course didn't want much to eat, spending most of the day on the sofa. Friday morning I called our Ped since Tyler was still running a fever and his blood sugar that morning was 38. We did get his surgars to stablize and since our ped wasn't in the office we chose to wait it out. On Sat monring now going on 3 days of high fevers with little to no help from Motrin or Tylenol we thought it was best he be seen. Yes his blood sugar was low again but not "that" low. He was DX with H1N1 and we started Tamiflu, and a 2lb loss in just under a week. The rest of the weekend was spent snuggled on the sofa with him. On Monday he still wasn't right and now had that croupy cough and we could hear some wheezing. So back to the Dr's we went. We were able to see Dr T despite her not having any appts. Of course she was more then willing to see him knowing he needed to be seen. We added Albuterol via Nebulizer and Oral steriods to his med's. She also wanted to speak to Endo about his low sugars and if we could run the needed tests. Yes we have ended up waiting on the tests and the low sugars to just keep watching and doing what we are doing. I will say its times like these that I am more thankful for having a Gtube. We spent the rest of the week laying low and getting Tyler better.

On Thur, 1 wk after Thanksgiving, I was needing to get out. I took Brycen to get a hair cut. Those of you who understand SID (senssory intergration disorder) will understand when I say he was a willing particatpent, so when that happens we run with it!! After the hair cut we were on our way home with Michaela calls me saying that Kiley broke her arm AGAIN!! Yep same arm as she broke 4.5months earlier....sigh. I got home only to turn back around with Kiley to take her to AHP. This time she did a good job. The oncall resident Ortho tryed to set the bones in her left forarm. He wasn't that happy with the set but it would due till we could get into Ortho early next week. Kiley was sent home with codine and a white, red and green cast, Tis' the Season right!? We saw ortho on Monday and Kiley was set for surgery the next day. We knew that she would have at least 1 rod if not 2 placed. Both of the bones in her left forarm were completly broken. After surgery Kiley spent Wed and part of Thur in the hospital. Kiley was then able to return to school for the last 5 days before winter break. She has been doing well much better pain wise then this summer. She will remain in a cast for about 5wks and then will just have a brace. The rods will come out sometime in the next 3-5months. Sadly she will miss all of the compations for this year. We hope that she can make it back to the ice sometime before summer.

And then of course Christmas was upon us.............but thats another post!