Tuesday, May 31, 2011

It's Garden Time

Do you garden? Do you love it?! I do.

We're finishing up all our planting and I can't wait to reap the benefits of our garden this year. Last year we didn't plant much, unsure how well it would do. This year we are/have branched out.

We've planted:

  • Tomatoes (several varieties, including cherry ones) The girls LOVE cherry tomatoes
  • Cucumbers (Hoping to make pickles with excess!)
  • Zucchini
  • Squash (Yellow)
  • Bell Peppers
  • Okra
  • Broccoli
  • Caulifleeuer
  • Watermelon
  • Cantelope
  • Chives
  • Grapes
  • Strawberries
Tomato Plants growing Tall.

Broccoli, chives, and peppers

Broccoli (or Cauliflower)

The girl's FLOWER bed. Petunias, Marigolds, and the other end has strawberries.


cucumbers, squash, zuchhini



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Playing the waiting game....

My SIL was due yesterday with my very first (spoiled) nephew. But as a typical Humphry boy, he's being TROUBLE already and has decided to make us all wait it out.

She has been dilated to 3, and 75% effaced for a while now. Having contractions too. But NO baby. No real labor.


She has her 40 week appt. today and we are hoping for some good news that he's coming soon. Her dr. won't let her go over a week overdue, so they'll be scheduling an induction date today as well.


If you feel like it, say a prayer that Ethan arrives (on his own) soon.







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Saturday, May 28, 2011

So yesterday.....

We took Little Miss Calleigh to Children's for her Pulmo Lab tests. Anyone who knows Calleigh, knows our Respiratory issues with her. And also knows her weight gain issues.

So our Pediatrician, whom I love, wanted to have a few tests done, just to rule out some problems.


Yesterday was the first part of those tests. The Sweat Chloride test is done to diagnose Cystic Fibrosis.

They use a machine to coax the glands to produce sweat. Then they tape a plastic cover over some gauze to collect the sweat and leavae it all bandaged up for 30 minutes. After that the sweat is analyzed.

Miss Calleigh did not appreciate the bandage at all, but did fine with the rest.


We also had some bloodwork done to check Thyroid functions.


Miss Calleigh in the Ergo while we awaited sweat collection






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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wordless Wednesday -- new 'Do

Check out Isabella's new do -- she started the job, we finished it. Not too bad (Thankfully)












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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

It wasn't all Dr visits and Hospitals

while in Boston, we also took her out for a good time. And New experiences!

For the first time ever, she got to

  • Ride a Train (SUBWAY)
  • Ride a Ferry
  • Fly (well okay, she did that before, but she was 10 months old and doesn't remember)
  • Try Lobster (she didn't like it)
  • Ride a Public Transportation Bus (and get lost doing so, Thanks Daddy!) 

She also got to
Cross over the bridge to get to the Navy Shipyard

See the USS Constitution

Look out at the water from the USS Constitiution

See the Harbor Seals Playing outside the Aquarium

Ferry Ride -- She loved it!

Touch a starfish

Watch sea turtles pushing eachother around

Touch Rays

And Sharks

And Climb Super Duper High


We visited USS Constituion Museum & the real Ship , New England Aquarium, Boston Children's Museum and Boston Museum of Science


I'll be posting more pictures of our adventures in the days to come.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Boston news!!!

As you all know, we flew to Boston last week to get a 2nd opinion on Caity's condition. Boston Children's is ranked #1 in the country for Uro and Kidney issues.




Heads up, there is some TMI going on her regarding UROLOGY issues. If pee-talk makes you squeamish, you might not want to read the entire thing.

Let's start with the facts. Caitlyn has the following:

A genetic anomaly known as
Mega Ureter


Grade 5 (the worst)
VUR

AND a non-nuerologically caused
Neurogenic Bladder


None of this is really new news to us. But it lines out the facts of her conditions.



while in Boston we had further Urodynamics testing which did reveal some amazing news to us!

1. There is no sphincter dysfunction. This means great things!

2. Her bladder, though abnormally shaped, stretched to capacity, lack of elasticity, is functioning NORMALLY!

3. She does have weak bladder contractions when urinating. This means that her bladder is doing what it needs to be doing, but it is weak. (This will be come important later in the report)



Some very awesome, and interesting news was that upon our first meeting with Dr. Retik, he told us that he has seen MANY children with Caity's issues. EXACTLY the same types of problems. We knew before that VUR is not rare, and neurogenic bladders generally are not either(except in Caity's case), BUT The whole combo of these issues and how drastically they have affected Caity we were told by Arkansas Children's was rare and something they'd never seen before. Dr. Retik told us that he has seen it often and coincidentally it was all in girls. He has also HELPED many of those children. *PRAISE*


After discussing things with Dr. Retik for about 30-45 minutes, we were led downstairs to a different section of the hospital to do the Urodynamics testing. To say that they do things differently in boston, would be an understatement. Urodynamics included what we are used to, a technician and a nurse But ALSO a neuro specialist and a uro specialist. This was great because while the test was being performed they were evaluating BOTH neurological and Urological responses. They asked us questions and told us thigns as the test progressed. Afterwards we met in an exam room, where they did a physical exam AND showed us the printed results of the urodynamics. AWESOME! As I stated above we got good news from the test.

After that, we got to leave the hospital for the rest of the afternoon. (Here's where I'll sneak in the mention that Hubby got us lost in Boston. he got us on the wrong bus!)


Then on Tuesday morning we met with Dr. Retik again. He was full of cheer, hope, and good news.

#1 -- He agreed taht the urodynamics went excellent with great news. He had been worried that there was a) sphincter dysfunction, and b) that her bladder was not functioning properly.


#2 -- He said her 13% of kidney function was salvageable and WORTH saving! And we discussed surgery to reimplant her ureter!!!! (Surgery is scheduled for July, more on that in a bit)

#3 -- The most fantastic to hear. He thinks that after the surgery to repair the reflux, given time to heal and retrain herself, that her bladder will be able to empty itself AND we will be able to quit catheterization.


SO, we left feeling very very relieved. We will go back for her surgery in late July, and be in boston for two weeks. After that, we'll just kinda let her heal and work on retraining her bladder.







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I am working

Very hard to catch up here. Lots of posts coming, including the BIG BOSTON UPDATE post. So if you are waiting for that info, I'll have it up later today.

If you would continue to pray for our girl, we would appreciate it muchly. She still has a long road ahead of her, even with our good news.






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Wordless Wednesday! -- Dresses I made the girls!

Finished these over the weekend.  Can you guess who's is whose?



















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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

"Mom, I love this girl"

Caitlyn was playing with her sisters last night and had sat down, and Calleigh climbed in to her lap to give her a hug. She looked up at me and said "Mom, I love this girl"

Yeah. I love that girl too.




And this girl.




And this girl.





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