Appointment

There is good news and then there is GOOD NEWS. You know what I mean? James' appointment with the orthopedic surgeon was very anti-climactic. He said the lateral curve is not bad enough to even be called scoliosis. He said that the appearance of vertebral wedging was a disc that somewhat dips down into the next vertebra. (That has a name, but of course I don't remember what it is.) The other anterior-posterior curve is not really one after all. He said that it is well within normal. After examining James' back he thought that his back pain is muscular and inflammatory. We have orders for a physical therapist to work on that. It wasn't until we were on the way home that my slow processor kicked in and "got it." I was all of the sudden very happy. And James was too. Thank God for sure!!

A Jason Picture

Joseph took this picture with a cell phone. I thought it was wonderful, even though a bit fuzzy. Today, for the first time, Jason scooted. Unfortunately, he was only inches from a cabinet and had to be moved before he had a chance to get very far. It won't be long before he's very mobile. (Although, after surgery his arms will be splinted at the elbows. I told my mom today that maybe he'll learn how to scoot on his backside!)

Tomorrow (Mon. - 29th) is James' orthopedic appointment. I am so glad that it's finally here. I am anxious to hear an assessment of his situation, as well as an official diagnosis, so we can get on with investigating and deciding the best treatment. I will likely write tomorrow night to tell about the appointment.

Rambling

It's been a while since I have posted anything new so I thought I'd just think out loud a bit.


Jason's surgery is less than two weeks away! That is if he stays well. We have been passing a bug, which I think he already had. If so, it was mild for him. Well, sort of. He did not get super sick, but he still has a bit of a runny nose (and yes, absolutely, it is quite interesting with a cleft through the nasal floor.) Tonight he was fussy and rubbing, rubbing at his right ear. That makes me so nervous. I need to remember to call and make an appointment with the ENT. If we can get him in before surgery we will know if we possibly need to add tubes to his surgery.

James and Joshua (and John) played ping pong tonight. James actually had a tournament game which he handily won 4 games to 0. All three of them got to play with the best players on the ladder. They had a good time playing doubles and observing a whole new way to play. The number one guy is very, very good and plays with a different style than James or Joshua has ever tried to defend. They found it rather an uphill battle. But it was a good experience.

The fires in California have really captured my attention. I guess since it's much closer to home than a wildfire has ever been it just seems more real. Our landlord actually lives in San Diego county. I heard from her tonight and she is okay as is her house. But they are dealing with a lot of smoke, soot and ash. It is hard to imagine the almost 800 square miles that have been devastated. That is a huge area. I hope it will soon be over.

A frustrating thing happened to Jacob this week. He was riding his beloved pocket bike when one of the (rough and mean) neighbor boys stepped in his path to tell him that he better quit riding it on his (the boy's) part of the street because it's annoying. He told him that if he didn't stop he would beat him up. Supposedly, he has already beat up another neighbor's son, which Jacob knew prior to his encounter this week. As a result, Jacob is scared to death. He won't ride his bike at all now, and runs to hide when the boy or his brother are around. I am just so "mom sad." John assured Jacob that he would always be outside while he is riding, but still he will not ride. I don't know what we'll do. John may go talk to the boy's father. He may take him somewhere else to ride. Or both. I just want my good as gold boy to be left to his joy.

Twenty-four days from tomorrow Michael, Elizabeth and Haelley plan to be here. I am not waiting patiently, but with jitters and longing.

Joseph has been sicker than anyone else. He has had a really bad cough. He still, on this third day since getting sick, looks pale and ashen. If he is not better next week, I guess we'll be taking him to the doctor (who should soon just move in with us as familiar as he's becoming with us.)

We are having a singing at our house tomorrow night. I am very excited. It sounds like we'll have a good sized group. I will have to take pictures to put here for you all to see.

Well, that's enough, I suppose. Have a wonderful weekend!

New trick and other stuff

If you look through the blog you notice that Jason appears more heavily than the other children. I guess that's how it is with babies. They change so quickly. I hope you're not bored with Jason info. For me it's just so exciting. Maybe you can placate me - a little?

Jason is now sitting. I mean he is really sitting all by himself. He went from not even showing signs of being able to sit to doing it for several minutes at a time in just three or four days. He sits so well that he even will right himself when starting to fall over. Of course, his little bitty size makes it so cute! Again, I have a video, but I cannot put it here - at least not yet. You will have to imagine his balancing act while looking at the still photos.

I am also posting a picture of him in his dismantled state - no tape, no appliance (or "Friend" as we've been calling it). You can see markedly how the cleft has narrowed. You can also see the annoying tape residue on his cheeks.

To state the obvious, Jason does some very normal things even though he has an abnormal situation. He is teething. The lower dentition should be completely normal, and shortly begin to appear. He has pretty puffy gums on the bottom and has been flowing saliva profusely from the mouth (as you can see in the pictures).

He's just an awful lot of fun, we all agree. Wish you could see him.

An inspiring thought...

The October 13th daily devotional, written by Gary Henry, had an excellent message. The following quote is great food for serious thought. It is so easy to be self absorbed and not even perceive it. If you are interested in Gary's daily devotionals, you can go to wordpoints.com and sign up to receive these daily emails.

Unfortunately, the concept of Christianity that has come to be
dominant in our day is one that runs in a different direction.
According to this concept, emotional pain relief is the basic,
overall concern of life in Christ. Offering health, wealth, and
complete emotional bliss, it promises to take away the deep ache of
our needy, broken souls and to do so rather quickly. The new gospel
is fundamentally about "feeling better." It is about us.

But the historic gospel is not first and foremost about feeling
better; it is about glorifying God through Christ and coming to be
like Him. Christ did not die for the mere betterment of our
feelings, and seeking God through Him is not mostly about pain
relief. It is about character transformation. And even more than
character transformation, it is about the glorification of God. Far
from eliminating the possibility of pain, the glorification of God
may require the suffering of pain, even to the point of death. 

More about James

The repeated lab was normal today! I am so grateful. We can cross one thing off the list!

James is going to see the doctor again on Thursday. He is going to listen to him again and we will do a chest x-ray. There is so much on my mind with this. There has to be a better way. (I always felt that way with Elizabeth who also struggles with extreme symptoms of allergies. We tried so many things without success. She is still miserable with overwhelming congestion at certain times of the year.) I really think allergy shots would help James. We did allergy testing in Indiana and James did take sub lingual drops (instead of shots), but over time he quit taking them no matter how much I hounded him. I suppose that we could do testing here and try again, but if he's not motivated it will be wasted effort.

His back is the biggest concern I have for him right now. I wish the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon wasn't so far off. (I suppose two weeks isn't that far away. It just seems that way right now.) If the pediatrician is right in suggesting possible Scheuermann's there is a difficult road ahead. And there will be difficult decisions to be made. There is so much controversy about this disease. Absolutely do chiropractics some say, avoid them others adamantly insist. Many have extensive surgery. That is scary because the risk of paralysis after surgery for Scheuermann's is greater than back surgery for other things. My heart is heavy for him.

It does appear that the norm is life long pain no matter which road you travel with Scheuermann's. I have read more than one story about people dependent on pain meds in order to function. James said tonight that he doesn't care what kind of treatment happens as long as it will relieve the pain. If it is Scheuermann's that is not likely to ever happen. And how do you tell a vibrant almost 16 year old that?

Maybe all this fretting is for nothing. Maybe he just has scoliosis, not Scheuermann's kyphosis. If so, I will be so grateful. If not, then we will learn even more about the sovereignty of God and just how important it is not to get so wrapped up in this world and our life in it. Always there will be good because that is the nature of God.

James

I keep debating about whether or not to give a James update. I remember being a teenager and not wanting my mom broadcasting my whole life to the world. I have decided to go ahead because he's got some big things going on. He has been sick for several weeks with a bad cough. Sadly, it appears to be the allergy driven stuff that he's been plagued with for many years. Initially he was better here than in the midwest, but that seems to be changing. We finally took him to the doctor who gave him a very relieving breathing treatment and prescribed a strong antibiotic, two inhalers and a drug to inhibit allergic reaction long term. He took the last of the antibiotic today and doesn't appear to be any better.=( I guess we will go back if he isn't well soon.

Also, he had a series of spine x-rays recently. They revealed scoliosis. He has two curves, one thoracic and one lumbar and two or three misshapen vertebrae. (Vertebrae should be rectangular - or the same height at all places. James has some triangular - wedge-like - vertebrae.) These things are possibly due to Scheuermann's kyphosis. He will see an orthopedic surgeon on October 29.

He had some minor, routine lab work done too. It came back with some questionable results. We are going to repeat that Monday to see how it compares. It could be nothing, but it could be another issue for him too.

I would be grateful if you'd pray for him. I will let you know how things turn out over the next weeks.

Miss Haelley

I recently received these pictures of Haelley taken at five weeks. I just had to share. Isn't she adorable?! Along with these photos I got a Haelley hand print too! In forty days they will all be here, Lord willing. (I have asked Him more than once to please allow them to come.)

**That UK hat that you see I bought at the mall while Haelley was still the mysterious "Junior." I believe that the little shirt was purchased by Elizabeth quite a while before Haelley's appearance as well.

Jason update

Friday Jason saw the cardiologist......for the last time! His VSD is gone! It is perfect timing too because his surgery is one day short of four weeks away. Heart issues make surgeons and anesthesiologists kind of nervous.

Also, he saw the pediatrician yesterday for his four month check-up. It went well. His ears are still perfectly healthy! He is still a little bit, weighing only 11 pounds 8 ounces and measuring shy of 24 inches. That places him way at the bottom of the growth charts, but he is healthy, developmentally normal and growing at a steady pace.

Today we saw Jason's surgeon for a pre-op consultation. That went well too. The surgeon was pleased with the progress he's made with orthodontics, saying that his cleft went from very wide to mild. Yippee!! We now know that the first surgery will repair both the outside and inside of the lip and part of the nose. The gum line and palate will be corrected later - about 9 - 12 months. The first surgery, scheduled for November 6, will be outpatient, taking about 2 hours. He will be encouraged to eat normally immediately after surgery and will likely go home within hours. He will have splints on his arms to restrict elbow movement for ten days so that he cannot disturb the healing surgical site.

He is obviously four months old. He is very fun to watch and play with. He laughs and smiles easily. He likes to play all the normal baby games as well as with toys. He is rolling around and working very hard to scoot. He is teething which is a bit different in a baby with a cleft. He cannot bite down like "normal" babies so he chews on his finger at the back of his mouth. And he DROOLS constantly! Thankfully, he is very verbal. He talks a lot and makes many funny noises. I am very excited about that because I think he will be excited about speech. Perhaps that will prevent some speech problems down the road. These days are fun because four months is just a great age!

I have a video on my camera of him laughing. James and I tried to upload it to my blog without success. I wish I could have put it here for you all to see, but it's not happenin'. However, I thought it was time for another picture. Little guys change so fast...

Nancy funny

I gotta share a quote from Nancy. She and I were in the van together tonight. At one point she looked at me with that "I love you so much, Mom" look and said, "You're my mom."

I countered with, "No, you're my daughter."

To which she replied, "No, I'm the granddad."

What fun! Later she laughed in that "I'm about to be 30" tone and said, "I said I was the grandpa." I guess it took her a while to "get it."

Better!

Today has been a good day for me physically. I am so blessed!! Please thank God for me and with me! What a gift He has given me. My only complaint (which is too strong a word) today is some shortness of breath and lingering weakness and fatigue.

I did have to quit taking the antibiotic. It appears that Jason is allergic to it. He had GI symptoms yesterday and today developed a rash. Oh well. It will be useful knowledge going into surgery (5 weeks from today).

Thank you for praying for me, and please, please, please praise God. All the glory belongs to Him!

John and Cami

There is now (implying that there wasn't originally) a story behind this wonderful picture. Yep, I'm going to tell it...

When I was in Indiana in August we had a little party for John's graduation. I asked Jennifer B., who is a photo journalism major, to bring her camera and take pictures of John and of my children as a group. She took this picture of John and Cami that night.

I actually saw the picture for the first time when a friend forwarded (doesn't that word grate on your nerves?) an email with a link to Jennifer's pictures from that night. When I looked through them I took special notice of this one. I really like it - a lot. So I had this thought: post it on my blog! Great thought, don't you think? Execution came a bit harder than the thought.

Because the picture was on a commercial webpage (or whatever that is really called) I couldn't load it onto my blog. I tried everything my little brain (with no extra power this time) could think of. Nothing worked. Plan Y was......take a picture of it! So I did, and here is the blurry result. I didn't think it was too bad considering I took it of my computer screen.

I love these two people. One because he's my son and the other because she loves my son. An older (than me) mother once told me that she couldn't imagine not loving anyone her child loved. I understand that now. Cami is wonderful, and many things have endeared me to her, but the first was that she saw in my son someone worthy of her love. I agree. He's a special young man.