Well, Matthew and Rebecca had FUN, FUN, FUN at their Godparents house over the weekend on Maryland's Eastern Shore. We ended up spending the whole day at Ocean City, MD and the kids got to see the ocean and sand. Matthew got to see it through virgin eyes and was just astounded by sand and the shops and people and, and, and, THE RIDES!!!!!!!! Oh yes, we had to get tickets and let the kids ride the rides!
Rebecca is our little dare devil! She will try anything and she did on Saturday. Even the ferris wheel for the younger kids. SHE LOVED IT! She laughed and giggled and yelled and did everything momma use to do when she got on those rides!
Matthew? Well, let's start out slower here. Remember he's NEVER been on anything like these before. We started with the BIG Carousel. (for everyone) He loved it, and so did Becca, but after about 6 or 7 go arounds, Matthew looks at me, (I'm in the middle of two horses that Becca and Matthew are riding) and says, NO NO, Momma, NO NO. He starts to get off the horse! *AHHHHHH* As short as I am, 5'4, if you can picture me going UP and DOWN with the horse that he is riding trying to keep him on the horse so he doesn't fall off and telling Becca to hold on......Glad that the Carousel stopped a little bit after that.
THEN, we moved to the mini ferris wheel, inside, where the younger kids can go on and they are totally enclosed. Both of them LOVED that. Then they did a smaller nothing just go round, and round ride of cars.
THEN, we headed outside.........OH BOY! BIG RIDES EVERYWHERE! Becca said, "Momma, I wanna go on THAT!" (she's pointing to the HUGE roller coaster ride) And what do you think Momma said? Ha! I told her you aren't tall enough yet. (I got away with that alot because of the height requirements!) Whew! Anyway, they then went to the BALLOON ride! Ha......Becca LOVED IT! Matthew? Was hanging on for dear life and about to bust out crying before the ride ended. (The lady saw he wasn't a happy camper, I think.)
After a few minutes, we went to the tea cups and Momma went with Matthew and Aunt Sue went with Becca. Matthew liked the tea cups! Becca wanted to turn more and go faster! *oy*
From there, we were running outta tickets, so we found one last inside ride to do and the lady there was SOOOOOOOOO cool! She let the kids have an extra ride she loved seeing Becca and Matthew having fun. It was the ride that goes straight for a little bit and then WHIPS you around the corners. Matthew was hugging Becca and then at another point, Becca was hugging Matthew. It was so cute!!!! We do have pictures but you'll have to wait for them! ;o)
Ki
Important dates:
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Never a dull moment for us........
Well, Rebecca and Matthew are doing well at daycare and at home. Nothing new to report on them. This time it's MOM's turn for something unusual.
Being a diabetic, everyone always told me in my diabetic education classes that if you get a wound anywhere on your body, to make sure it starts healing up ASAP! Well, apparently I hurt my finger (right index finger) on Saturday and never thought again about it. **I slammed it in the cabinet while putting away some glass dishes.** It didn't hurt, it wasn't red, nothing.
FAST FORWARD to Monday morning......
I wake up, my hand or rather my index finger on my right hand is throbbing so I look down to see what is going on and lo and behold, I have an infection that is already warm and a little bit big. Ok, I put antibiotic goo on it and cover it up and go to work. Around 2pm, I ended up going to the nurse at our work because it's HUGE! I'm talking HUGE and getting bigger, but what was worrying me was that the "heat" was going down my finger. (along with the throbbing) She said to "get to my doc".
Tuesday, I give in, go to the doc and he says I most likely bruised it inside and that the infection is part of it. So..........short end of it? I'm on 2000mg of Keflex antibiotics and he splinted it to keep the infection from traveling! Yep, 2000!!!!! My finger is already down in size though. It doesn't hurt as bad, but it's still nasty! A little purple, a little red, a little white (as in pure white from infection still in there).........nice, huh?! I know most diabetics can lose their fingers/toes easily, but this was darn too close!!! And from a squish in the cabinet? Wow.....
Anyway, Roy gets to wash dishes and get his hands WET for awhile! YEAH! YEAH! *doing the cabbage patch* Hey, anytime I don't have to wash dishes is a good day to me!
KI
Being a diabetic, everyone always told me in my diabetic education classes that if you get a wound anywhere on your body, to make sure it starts healing up ASAP! Well, apparently I hurt my finger (right index finger) on Saturday and never thought again about it. **I slammed it in the cabinet while putting away some glass dishes.** It didn't hurt, it wasn't red, nothing.
FAST FORWARD to Monday morning......
I wake up, my hand or rather my index finger on my right hand is throbbing so I look down to see what is going on and lo and behold, I have an infection that is already warm and a little bit big. Ok, I put antibiotic goo on it and cover it up and go to work. Around 2pm, I ended up going to the nurse at our work because it's HUGE! I'm talking HUGE and getting bigger, but what was worrying me was that the "heat" was going down my finger. (along with the throbbing) She said to "get to my doc".
Tuesday, I give in, go to the doc and he says I most likely bruised it inside and that the infection is part of it. So..........short end of it? I'm on 2000mg of Keflex antibiotics and he splinted it to keep the infection from traveling! Yep, 2000!!!!! My finger is already down in size though. It doesn't hurt as bad, but it's still nasty! A little purple, a little red, a little white (as in pure white from infection still in there).........nice, huh?! I know most diabetics can lose their fingers/toes easily, but this was darn too close!!! And from a squish in the cabinet? Wow.....
Anyway, Roy gets to wash dishes and get his hands WET for awhile! YEAH! YEAH! *doing the cabbage patch* Hey, anytime I don't have to wash dishes is a good day to me!
KI
Friday, May 04, 2007
Scary...........
Today I stayed home with Rebecca because she was coughing and had a fever last night into this morning and just would not sleep. She "tossed her dinner" last night because she was coughing so bad. Once she would get her breath, it would start all over again. Well, this morning, as soon as her pediatrician's office opened up, I was on the phone with them trying to get an appointment for ANY time possible. Lucky thing I did.
Rebecca went to the office at 1pm, and we were there early. Rebecca's breathing just sounded weird and was so "tight". Nothing was working over-the-counter wise. As soon as the doctor heard her breathing, she immediately called for a nebulizer treatment to be started on Rebecca and a strep test was given to her. IT WAS POSITIVE, by the way. In came the nurse with a dinosaur head mask, tubing and the nebulizer machine itself for Rebecca. After about 10 minutes of breathing in the smokiness of Albuterol, Rebecca's breathing was 100% improved!!!! In a matter of minutes! So, I was told either Rebecca has the beginnings of Asthma or she has allergies and asthma. *oh boy* After 3 prescriptions later, one nebulizer machine, she's back on the mend. We did have to go to the hospital, but it was worth it!
I tell you, this happened back in January (or February) at the Urgent Care, but this came on so quickly! It's kinda scary because you never know when Rebecca is just coughing to be coughing or something more to it. Being her mom, I tend to allow her time to try and get rid of things by herself before intervention with meds, but today was a "mom's intuition" thing. I'm glad the Lord gave it to me!!!
She's had 2 treatments so far and we are ready, tonight, if she needs more. We have 25 vials if need be! *God I hope we don't use them all tonight!* Suppose to be every 4 hours, but we were given instructions for use of them for more severe stuff.
Hopefully, this too will pass.
From the mommy files
Rebecca went to the office at 1pm, and we were there early. Rebecca's breathing just sounded weird and was so "tight". Nothing was working over-the-counter wise. As soon as the doctor heard her breathing, she immediately called for a nebulizer treatment to be started on Rebecca and a strep test was given to her. IT WAS POSITIVE, by the way. In came the nurse with a dinosaur head mask, tubing and the nebulizer machine itself for Rebecca. After about 10 minutes of breathing in the smokiness of Albuterol, Rebecca's breathing was 100% improved!!!! In a matter of minutes! So, I was told either Rebecca has the beginnings of Asthma or she has allergies and asthma. *oh boy* After 3 prescriptions later, one nebulizer machine, she's back on the mend. We did have to go to the hospital, but it was worth it!
I tell you, this happened back in January (or February) at the Urgent Care, but this came on so quickly! It's kinda scary because you never know when Rebecca is just coughing to be coughing or something more to it. Being her mom, I tend to allow her time to try and get rid of things by herself before intervention with meds, but today was a "mom's intuition" thing. I'm glad the Lord gave it to me!!!
She's had 2 treatments so far and we are ready, tonight, if she needs more. We have 25 vials if need be! *God I hope we don't use them all tonight!* Suppose to be every 4 hours, but we were given instructions for use of them for more severe stuff.
Hopefully, this too will pass.
From the mommy files
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
What a LOOOONNNNNGGGGGG day!!!!!!
Ok, let's give the run down. Hang tight.
We went to the Craniofacial department and it was packed (so many kids need help in this area, it's unreal! *kinda sad*). We waited for awhile and our name was called. We got a red folder with a routing slip on it and OFF WE WENT. We had to go all over the hospital to find the folks we needed to see. Thank goodness most of them were on the first floor, but GOODNESS! They may be on the first floor, but do you know how HUGE this hospital is?!?!?! Needless to say, the welcome desk helped us with just about every room we needed to go to. (Thank you Lord for those wonderful ladies!)
First up? Dentistry and Oral Maxio whatever.....(forgot who they were) Anyway, we were taken right in. Poor Matthew, I knew this was going to be a "good" one! He was half alseep when they wanted to "poke" around at his teeth and see what was going on. (oh yeah, side note, momma gave him animal crackers about an hour earlier, NOTE TO SELF, don't do that again because they STICK TO YOUR TEETH/GUMS! *duh*) Needless to say, we were told that Matthew's gums/teeth needed some help and to find a pediatric dentist pretty quickly. (already have one in Hughesville, MD) Matthew's cleft part of his mouth, the teeth are growing in sideways *north to south instead of west to east like us* which is normal for "cleft kids". (cleft kids is NOT a derogatory remark, it's the truth and this is what the team calls folks like Matthew, so if I can get over it, YOU CAN TOO! ;o) We were told there is lots to do but mainly when Matthew gets his adult teeth in. So we have a while before that happens.
Second up? Hearing/Speech. OH BOY! This is where it gets interesting. Matthew had a standard hearing test in a sound proof room with him on my lap and daddy in there too. He heard NOTHING. Daddy heard almost nothing and momma? I heard the lady twice and that was about it. VERY INTERESTING! So, the audiologist decided to give Matthew a pressure test on his ear drums. Right ear? Good. Left? Um, not so good. Okay. Next? Matthew was given a test they do on newborns (because he couldn't grasp the concept of one of the hearing tests). He can hear out of both ears, but they couldn't tell us if there was any hearing loss. Good news, yet, huh? He can hear. Just won't know how much for a while. He'll be evaluated in 6 months again.
SPEECH? The man was really nice. BUT.........Matthew was TIGHT LIPPED and wouldn't say a THING to him! OH mommy was not happy and was afraid of this. Yep, it happened. Nice......the speech dude asked us lots of questions about Matthew and he was graded a fair rating for what we told him Matthew could/couldn't do/say. (will be evaluated again in 6 months)
Third up? ENT.........HA! Matthew was running on NO SLEEP, hardly any lunch (just a hot dog) and mom and dad were SPENT! The ENT told us that Matthew's throat looked good, his nose was ok except for the flattened part of his nose from the cleft, which we know and it will be corrected and his ears? Well, they looked good but we were told that over 80% of cleft kids need tubes in their ears at some point because of the eustationary (sp?) tubes from the ear to the throat are shortened in cleft kids and that fluid builds on the ears alot. (already has with matthew when we got him) Otherwise, come back in 6 months for another evaluation)
So.........then we go back to the Craniofacial dept. and they review what was written down and we see two more docs including the doc we saw in the first place the first time we went to Children's. Dr. Murthy. VERY NICE man! The other dude we saw, forgot his name, told us not to do anything until Matthew is like 7 or 8. Dr. Murthy said NO, not to wait that long because the tissue in Matthew's mouth will become more rigid and less to work with.
Short end of it? We wait to hear from the "team". We should know something in about 30 days. If Dr. Murthy gets his way, (which I'm hoping for), Matthew's fistula and nose, and lip will be repaired/nipped/tucked and NO MORE FOOD OR LIQUIDS will come out of his nose FOREVER!!!!!!!!! YES! Trust me, seeing rice come out of Matt's nose is GROSS enough. *but we're getting use to it* Once this happens, Matthew will have stints on his little arms for a FULL 2 WEEKS, DRINK ALL OF HIS MEALS via the blender!!!! and be a BEAR for 2 solid weeks after surgery! Oh boy! Momma will have fun with him!!! I'm looking forward to it actually! Just so my boy will have normal eating/drinking capacities like you and I.
Ok, this is long enough, so I'll end it now.
We went to the Craniofacial department and it was packed (so many kids need help in this area, it's unreal! *kinda sad*). We waited for awhile and our name was called. We got a red folder with a routing slip on it and OFF WE WENT. We had to go all over the hospital to find the folks we needed to see. Thank goodness most of them were on the first floor, but GOODNESS! They may be on the first floor, but do you know how HUGE this hospital is?!?!?! Needless to say, the welcome desk helped us with just about every room we needed to go to. (Thank you Lord for those wonderful ladies!)
First up? Dentistry and Oral Maxio whatever.....(forgot who they were) Anyway, we were taken right in. Poor Matthew, I knew this was going to be a "good" one! He was half alseep when they wanted to "poke" around at his teeth and see what was going on. (oh yeah, side note, momma gave him animal crackers about an hour earlier, NOTE TO SELF, don't do that again because they STICK TO YOUR TEETH/GUMS! *duh*) Needless to say, we were told that Matthew's gums/teeth needed some help and to find a pediatric dentist pretty quickly. (already have one in Hughesville, MD) Matthew's cleft part of his mouth, the teeth are growing in sideways *north to south instead of west to east like us* which is normal for "cleft kids". (cleft kids is NOT a derogatory remark, it's the truth and this is what the team calls folks like Matthew, so if I can get over it, YOU CAN TOO! ;o) We were told there is lots to do but mainly when Matthew gets his adult teeth in. So we have a while before that happens.
Second up? Hearing/Speech. OH BOY! This is where it gets interesting. Matthew had a standard hearing test in a sound proof room with him on my lap and daddy in there too. He heard NOTHING. Daddy heard almost nothing and momma? I heard the lady twice and that was about it. VERY INTERESTING! So, the audiologist decided to give Matthew a pressure test on his ear drums. Right ear? Good. Left? Um, not so good. Okay. Next? Matthew was given a test they do on newborns (because he couldn't grasp the concept of one of the hearing tests). He can hear out of both ears, but they couldn't tell us if there was any hearing loss. Good news, yet, huh? He can hear. Just won't know how much for a while. He'll be evaluated in 6 months again.
SPEECH? The man was really nice. BUT.........Matthew was TIGHT LIPPED and wouldn't say a THING to him! OH mommy was not happy and was afraid of this. Yep, it happened. Nice......the speech dude asked us lots of questions about Matthew and he was graded a fair rating for what we told him Matthew could/couldn't do/say. (will be evaluated again in 6 months)
Third up? ENT.........HA! Matthew was running on NO SLEEP, hardly any lunch (just a hot dog) and mom and dad were SPENT! The ENT told us that Matthew's throat looked good, his nose was ok except for the flattened part of his nose from the cleft, which we know and it will be corrected and his ears? Well, they looked good but we were told that over 80% of cleft kids need tubes in their ears at some point because of the eustationary (sp?) tubes from the ear to the throat are shortened in cleft kids and that fluid builds on the ears alot. (already has with matthew when we got him) Otherwise, come back in 6 months for another evaluation)
So.........then we go back to the Craniofacial dept. and they review what was written down and we see two more docs including the doc we saw in the first place the first time we went to Children's. Dr. Murthy. VERY NICE man! The other dude we saw, forgot his name, told us not to do anything until Matthew is like 7 or 8. Dr. Murthy said NO, not to wait that long because the tissue in Matthew's mouth will become more rigid and less to work with.
Short end of it? We wait to hear from the "team". We should know something in about 30 days. If Dr. Murthy gets his way, (which I'm hoping for), Matthew's fistula and nose, and lip will be repaired/nipped/tucked and NO MORE FOOD OR LIQUIDS will come out of his nose FOREVER!!!!!!!!! YES! Trust me, seeing rice come out of Matt's nose is GROSS enough. *but we're getting use to it* Once this happens, Matthew will have stints on his little arms for a FULL 2 WEEKS, DRINK ALL OF HIS MEALS via the blender!!!! and be a BEAR for 2 solid weeks after surgery! Oh boy! Momma will have fun with him!!! I'm looking forward to it actually! Just so my boy will have normal eating/drinking capacities like you and I.
Ok, this is long enough, so I'll end it now.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tomorrow's the BIG day! (Go Matthew, Go Matthew!)
Yep, that's the sound of momma gearing herself up to take her son downtown again! Children's Hospital here we come. Early in the morning too. OH BOY! The Metro should be just PEACHY! *if you know DC in the morning with all the commuters, you know that was a JOKE!* :o)
Matthew's medicine for the Giardia is almost gone. Hopefully, please Lord, it's gone and will NEVER be in his system ever again! One thing I can definitely say is that the US of A has pretty good water. Matthew is so funny. He's taken this medicine before and he didn't mind taking it, but this time around? OH BOY does he NOT like the taste!!!! It's grape flavored too, but he doesn't care! He will fight ya tooth and nail NOT to put it in his mouth. But, you know mommy and daddy won't put up with that. Trust me, he gets it! ;o)
We have confirmation with all the docs we will see tomorrow for Matthew. Got that last Friday. I'm really hoping they help us with Matthew's speech and the fistula he has in his mouth. Matthew can speak english mind you, but it's so distorted. (lots of air intake from the fistula) I know, I'm a momma who wants to fix her child. So what's wrong with that?!?! Trust me, Matthew says I love you (and even ah ni for Wa Ai Ni *chinese for I love you*) but it's just alot of vowel sounds. We'll get there.
Pray for us, for tomorrow. I'm hoping for alot. (I'd love for Matthew to get a hearing test and for the speech pathologist to hear him try to speak! Things like that.....) We need to get the kids' eyes checked too. Goodness......lots to do.
I wanted to say THANK YOU to all the BTDT parents of cleft kids who have helped us along the way! You are so encouraging and helpful. Thank you so much. All your experiences and "coaching" is totally worth the effort! We'll probably still ask ya some things, but I know you'll be there for us! Thanks......
Ok, until you hear from us again.....we'll fill ya in from the appointment. Remember, it's an ALL DAY LONG appointment at Children's Hospital!
Matt's momma
Matthew's medicine for the Giardia is almost gone. Hopefully, please Lord, it's gone and will NEVER be in his system ever again! One thing I can definitely say is that the US of A has pretty good water. Matthew is so funny. He's taken this medicine before and he didn't mind taking it, but this time around? OH BOY does he NOT like the taste!!!! It's grape flavored too, but he doesn't care! He will fight ya tooth and nail NOT to put it in his mouth. But, you know mommy and daddy won't put up with that. Trust me, he gets it! ;o)
We have confirmation with all the docs we will see tomorrow for Matthew. Got that last Friday. I'm really hoping they help us with Matthew's speech and the fistula he has in his mouth. Matthew can speak english mind you, but it's so distorted. (lots of air intake from the fistula) I know, I'm a momma who wants to fix her child. So what's wrong with that?!?! Trust me, Matthew says I love you (and even ah ni for Wa Ai Ni *chinese for I love you*) but it's just alot of vowel sounds. We'll get there.
Pray for us, for tomorrow. I'm hoping for alot. (I'd love for Matthew to get a hearing test and for the speech pathologist to hear him try to speak! Things like that.....) We need to get the kids' eyes checked too. Goodness......lots to do.
I wanted to say THANK YOU to all the BTDT parents of cleft kids who have helped us along the way! You are so encouraging and helpful. Thank you so much. All your experiences and "coaching" is totally worth the effort! We'll probably still ask ya some things, but I know you'll be there for us! Thanks......
Ok, until you hear from us again.....we'll fill ya in from the appointment. Remember, it's an ALL DAY LONG appointment at Children's Hospital!
Matt's momma
Monday, April 23, 2007
Here we go again!
Just took Matthew to the doctor for more shots today and ended up coming home with another prescription! Yep, you got it. Giardia is still there. Why won't those little boogers GO AWAY!??!?!?! Stronger med...hopefully grape flavored for Matthew's sake.
Other than that, 2 more shots. Pretty much a clean bill of health and now we wait for next Tuesday! Children's Hospital, here we come! It's the Craniofacial team visit. I pray they give Matthew speech! He needs it. We are trying to help him, but I can honestly say, this is beyond us. He just can't get the vowels and sounds right. I know it's the fistula. You can hear it. Extra air passing in ALL of his words.
Keep us in your prayers. Next Tuesday will be an ALL DAY event going to about 8 different doctors, all in one swoop! Should be interesting. Also pray that this "Giardia" will GO AWAY forever!!! God knows no one should have to drink bad water......like Matthew had to.
Matt's Mom
Other than that, 2 more shots. Pretty much a clean bill of health and now we wait for next Tuesday! Children's Hospital, here we come! It's the Craniofacial team visit. I pray they give Matthew speech! He needs it. We are trying to help him, but I can honestly say, this is beyond us. He just can't get the vowels and sounds right. I know it's the fistula. You can hear it. Extra air passing in ALL of his words.
Keep us in your prayers. Next Tuesday will be an ALL DAY event going to about 8 different doctors, all in one swoop! Should be interesting. Also pray that this "Giardia" will GO AWAY forever!!! God knows no one should have to drink bad water......like Matthew had to.
Matt's Mom
Friday, April 20, 2007
Awwwww...........
This morning when I went to go into my van to drive off to work at 5:15am, some bunny took it upon themselves to put the first thing that Matthew has done in daycare on my seat. It was a flower who had lots of scribble of different colors all over it. It also had my Matthew's name on the middle of it. (Thank you some BUNNY) ;o)
I think that has made my day, today!!! After a rough start to the first work week after China, I'm already ready for another vacation! Literally! I miss my boy! It was fun to be home with him and do things with him and play and dance around until we were dizzy and literally fell down. LOL.........ah the good ole days already. (sad)
I hope I find much more of those little flowers or anything that my kids do on the front seat of my van! That was a real treat.
Mommy
I think that has made my day, today!!! After a rough start to the first work week after China, I'm already ready for another vacation! Literally! I miss my boy! It was fun to be home with him and do things with him and play and dance around until we were dizzy and literally fell down. LOL.........ah the good ole days already. (sad)
I hope I find much more of those little flowers or anything that my kids do on the front seat of my van! That was a real treat.
Mommy
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