We Finally Have Results...good and not so good

Well, the pediatrician called on Tuesday (the day after Adalynn's VCUG and Renal Ultrasound) with part of the results. The good news is that the Renal ultrasound was fine. It showed no abnormalities of the kidneys. The results of the VCUG were not back, so I called again on Wednesday, gave them a break on Thursday, and finally called again today. The doctor's office still did not have them. I waited on the phone as the nurse called the hospital and had the results faxed over. Our regular doctor was off for the day, so one of the other pediatricians called us back. She said that the results are abnormal and another test is needed. It was very obvious during the first series of tests that Adalynn is not emptying her bladder all the way. It also appeared as though urine was refluxing back into her vagina (not her kidneys as they originally thought). This could be caused by something called a bladder/vaginal fistula. In other words, the bladder and vagina are attached and they aren't supposed to be.

Adalynn will undergo another test sometime next week to determine if she has this condition. From what I've read so far, it is very rare, but easily fixed. It also doesn't seem to be related to her cleft, but we will discuss this with the doctor more in depth when he gets back into the office since it could be.

Adalynn does go on Tuesday (9-4) for her pre-op for her lip/gum-line repair. We are not sure if the new findings will cause a delay in her first surgery or not. We also plan on contacting the geneticist at Scottish Rite to see if there is a possibility of the fistula also being considered a mid-line abnormality and related to the cleft. We will keep you posted. Please keep Adalynn and the rest of our family in your prayers. As you can see from the pictures, as horrible as all of this sounds, she isn't affected by the least.

On another note, please pray for my buddy Ryan. He is in the hospital again, fighting a fever after chemo. Keep his mom, Missy, in your prayers also, as she has just started chemo herself, after recently being diagnosed with breast cancer. Check out our favorite links for their site. And keep praying for a cure to all cancers!

What A Week!!!!

I am not sure if we could have had anything else added to our week. It was so full with planned and unplanned things.

I spent a lot of time at school this week helping prepare my long-term sub for my leave. I am scheduled to be off work until November11 (Adalynn will be 5 months old). The lady covering my leave is a retired teacher and spent 19 years in 3rd grade at another school in our county. I feel blessed knowing that my classroom is in such good hands. I just need to relax and not worry about it. It is hard not to be in control of something I feel is mine.

On Tuesday, the fire department made a visit to our house. The smoke alarm upstairs kept going off. I checked for smoke and could not find anything, but called anyways. It was soooo hot upstairs and the boys were starting to get worried. I think it must have been a slow day in Oconee County though. Four volunteer fire fighters came out in their personal vehicles and then four fire trucks came with sirens on! I even told the 911 dispatcher that I couldn't see any flames or any smoke. At one point Camden said "mommy, my heart...mommy it is on the outside" because his heart was beating so hard. They searched that attic and all the closets upstairs, but found nothing. Well, almost nothing, there was a dead squirrel in the attic.

On Wednesday, Camden started preschool at Mars Hill Preschool Academy, which just opened in our church. He was very excited about taking his lunch bag to school and carrying his Diego backpack. We all loaded up in the car to take him to school. When we arrived, he wanted us to just drop him off at the door. We decided to walk him, much to his dismay. He grabbed hold of his teacher's hand and walked away. We had to remind him to tell us bye! He is such a big boy.

Adalynn also had her 2 month check-up on Wednesday (a couple of weeks late due to her stint in the hospital). She looks great. She is in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. She weighs 10 lbs. 5 oz. and is 23 1/2 inches long. She did get 3 shots and an oral vaccine for Rotavirus and was not happy about it, but quickly got over it.

On Wednesday evening, when we were getting ready to go to church for dinner, the Trailblazer wouldn't start. All it did was click. Fortunately our friends Allison and Michael were here and we piled into their cars (they had two here). We went to church, ate, and then John messed with the truck when we got back. Thank goodness it was just the battery.

Thursday was open house at Bethlehem and I got to meet all of my families. I think I am going to have a really good class this year. They all seem really sweet and understanding of me being off. I can't believe I am not going back. I think that hardest part of it, is that Broderick is going to be there. He met his teacher (definitely not for the first time) on Thursday. On Thursday evening, we had a pretty yucky thunderstorm and lightening hit close to the house, knocking out the power. The temperature rose fairly quickly in our house and after the power company told us it was a wide spread outage, and trucks weren't even out yet, we decided to go over to the Tadda's and crash on their floor. Well, at 11:00 p.m. the boys were still awake. The next day was Broderick's first day of kindergarten. John decided to attempt to call home knowing that if the answering machine picked up, power had been restored. Thank goodness, it had. Camden fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Broderick shortly after we got home. Needless to say no one got a good nights sleep.

On Friday, Broderick started kindergarten. He also walked away without saying bye. I am glad my boys are independent and self-sufficient, but they still need to tell their momma bye. He said he was a little shy and nervous at first, but very excited. He loved lunch, art, recess, and rest time. I think he is going to really enjoy it.

Our week was rounded out today with a photographer coming over to our house to take pictures. It seems like she did a really good job. The boys seemed to enjoy her, and even though Adalynn fell asleep mid-shoot, I still think she got some good shots.

Next week should semi-return to normal. I think the only big excitement this week will be Adalynn's voiding cystourethrogram. During the voiding cystourethrogram they will fill Adalynn's bladder with dye and x-ray her as it goes through her urinary tract. They are looking to make sure that the dye doesn't travel back up (renal reflux). We'll keep you posted on her results. Hopefully that will be our only excitement, but with 3 kids, a dog, and John trying to get research done, that is highly unlikely.

first hospital stay

Well, she did it...had her first ever hospital stay. It was NOT fun. Adalynn began running a fever yesterday morning and was just not herself. She fussed and cried all morning. I called the doctor and took her in for an appointment at 11 a.m. I was assuming that she probably had an ear infection since she had no other symptoms. Well, after checking her ears, her lungs, and her throat, he said he wasn't sure what was wrong and to just watch her. If her temp got above 102, then we needed to call back. Well, when John got home from the office that evening, he took it and it was 102.1. She was miserable.

We called the on-call nurse and she paged the doctor (not our regular doctor) and she wanted us to take her to the ER. Our friends, the Taddas, came and got the boys and off we went. We arrived about 6:30 and finally made it back to a room at 7:30. They drew blood and inserted a catheter to check her urine. By 10:00 we found out she had a urinary tract infection. They called the doctor on-call back, and she wanted us to be admitted. We made it upstairs around 11:30. They put in an IV (on the third try) and started IV antibiotics around 1:30 a.m. It was a long night. Adalynn finally crashed-I think she wore herself out by letting the nurses know how bad they were hurting her.

Our regular pediatrician came by this morning and said we were fine to go home and just start oral antibiotics. We are going to see a urologist and they will do an ultrasound to check her kidneys and then some x-rays to check the function of her bladder. Hopefully this will be done next week as well as her 2 month check-up (which had to be rescheduled). She is sleeping now, still running a fever and a little bit fussy. This visit was so hard, I can't imagine what her surgery will be like next month.

On a positive note, she is now past the 10 lb. mark. She weighed 10 lbs. and 5 oz. yesterday. She weighs a lot less than the boys did at this age, but she is gaining fine and the doctor is happy about that.

I AM NORMAL!!

Well, I just wanted to let you all know that after lots of blood work and a CT scan-they have decided I am normal. There is nothing wrong with me that they can find as of now. About 50% of the time the cause of Uveitis is unknown and the doctor thinks that is the case with mine. I go to a opthamologist in 2 weeks and if he thinks differently. If so, than my regular doctor will do more extensive testing. But as of now, contrary to what many believe, I am completely normal.

I just had to post a picture of Adalynn taken a couple of days ago smiling her "wide smile". She is such a happy baby, smiling, laughing, and cooing all the time. God has blessed us with an amazing little girl (and two beautiful boys).

Summer Fun

It is hard to believe that the end of summer is rapidly approaching. Most schools around here have already started back, or will be starting back this week. Broderick is lucky, he has a couple more weeks before he will start kindergarten. It is hard to believe that our little boy is going to be in kindergarten. He is already nervous about it, but we know he will be fine.

We are trying to make the most of the last couple of weeks and with the sweltering heat, swimming has been refreshing. We are so lucky to have so many friends that are willing to have us over to their house and/or share their pool memberships. Adalynn has now been in the pool two times. She loves it. Well, she doesn't hate it. She actually had very little reaction to being in the water. We know she enjoys showers and baths, but we were afraid the coolness of pool water would upset her. Nothing, nada, no reaction at all. She just hung out in our arms and briefly on a raft.

Broderick finally got the okay from the ENT for swimming as long as he is wearing ear plugs. He does great with his life jacket on, but hasn't quite got the concept of swimming yet. Camden loved the diving board and went off of it too many times to count.

It is hard to believe Adalynn will be 2 months this week. Time has flown by and her surgery looms ever closer. I found myself looking at her the other day just wondering what she is going to look like. Like we have said countless times before, she is perfect the way she is and we love her so much. It is hard to imagine her being any different. She is our Perfect Beauty.