Last Day of Spring Break

After visiting Grams B, we ended up doing random fun things the rest of the day.  We took Grandpa to Schnucks to pick up a few things. The kids were thrilled to find out they got a free cookie.  Then, we went to Grandpa’s house, and Grandma was home.  Aunt Allie came over with Happy Meals for the kids.  She’d been in Las Vegas for a week and missed the kids.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching basketball, doing yard work, and playing “Red light, Green light”.  Grandpa grilled and we ate dinner before heading home to meet Daddy. I took a mile walk around the neighborhood while Daddy gave baths.  It was definitely the best day of Spring Break for me…especially since Brian let me sleep in this morning!

Visiting Grams B

Brian had to work again today.  The kids and I decided to pick up Grandpa and go visit Grams B.  We hadn’t been able to see her for a while because the kids haven’t stayed healthy long enough.  I’m hoping with the warmer weather coming, we will stay healthy and make more frequent visits!

Happy Birthday, Felix!

Yesterday, we celebrated our godson, Felix’s, 1st birthday!  He had a monster theme and everything was so cute!  I honestly can’t believe he is one already!  The kids picked out a little people garden stand for him.  They had a lot of fun playing and we had a nice time visiting with everyone.  We were able to stay for a while because the kids were so well behaved.  Happy birthday, Felix!  We love you!

Hail Mary

Lately, I find myself praying the “Hail Mary” when I’m stressed, upset, sad, or just because.  After all, she is the ultimate mother.  She went through far more with her son than I will ever have to experience with my kids.  If she can do all of that, surely I can survive this life.  When I pray to her, I think of my grandma.  I can feel myself calm down and a peace come over me.  This really helps me during the kids’ bedtime!

I’ve been struggling lately.  Struggling with so many things.  Like many others, I’m a wife, mother, daughter, friend, and teacher.  I have so many roles and I seem to take on more and more.  I want to do it all and if I commit to something, I don’t want to fail.  I want to do it to the best of my ability. 

Life’s been weighing me down.  I haven’t been able to fully bounce back from my grandmother’s death and all of the kids’ health issues (especially Gavin) have been non stop.  We can’t catch a break! I realize I just have to say no.  I have to streamline and declutter my life. We had to back out of World Wide Marriage Encounter and I recently have had to come to terms with the fact that there is no way I can run the River Run in May.  I simply don’t have the time to train properly and it is not worth an injury.  This is both a sad and freeing  decision. 

I honestly don’t think people understand how difficult it can be to have three children, one of which has special needs.  The money, stress, and time spent is crazy, and his condition isn’t as bad as some kids.  We are constantly told that we can’t get help for him because we both work and he is smart.  Something is wrong with the system if you have to be dumb and poor to get help. 

Often people have good intentions, but when they question decisions made by us or doctors or claim they know more about a situation, it is like a slap in the face.  Brian and I spend countless hours researching, meeting with people, and on the phone trying to make the best decisions about his care.  We don’t take anything lightly. 

I’m gaining weight, exhausted, overwhelmed, and stressed out to the max.  I’ve got to regain control.  This is not a pity party of one, its my life.  I’m blessed in so many ways and try to thank God each and every day for those blessings.   As I’ve done so many times before, all I can do is put my big girl pants on and plug through one day at a time.  I just may have to say a lot of “Hail Marys”!

Girl Time with Aunt Katie

The girls spent their time in Sturgis.  Macie and Grammie did a sewing project and they went to church with Grammie on Wednesday night.  During the day Wednesday, Aunt Katie watched them at her house while Pops and Grammie went to the doctor.  They went to workout, to the store, made cookies, did projects and so much more!  The girls had so much fun.  Thanks Grammie, Pops, and Aunt Katie for helping with the girls while we were gone!

Riley Trip ~ Dr. Contreras

We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel.  Then, we hung out for a while until it was time to go to Gavin’s appointment.  She was running behind and his appointment took longer than we expected.  While we were waiting in the lobby, Gavin took some pictures on my phone (see below).  We may have another budding photographer on our hands!

During the appointment, we talked about some key things:

• MRI – the stomach scans didn’t show anything, which is good, but still doesn’t answer anything.  She said the rest of the MRI scans were still processing.
• Mirilax – we don’t think that the mirilax is helping the bleeding.  He has bleeding no matter what type of stool.  When she did a rectal exam, she agreed that his stool is plenty soft and that we could stop taking it on a regular basis.  She did give us a dessert recipe that included mineral oil that we may try at some point.
• Procedure – I’d read on another blog about a simple procedure that helped with rectal bleeding.  Problem is, I didn’t look up the name of the procedure. 
• After all of the discussions, we decided to go forward with the scope of the upper (endoscopy) and lower (colonoscopy) gi tract.  She wanted to do this a while back, but was afraid to put him to sleep.  Since he did so well with the MRI, we feel more confident going into this.  Yes, its another procedure, but it will possibly give us some answers.  We don’t know for sure when this is going to happen yet.  If he needs another procedure done, they may be able to do them at the same time.  Once we know the MRI results, we will know for sure!

On the way home, we ate at the Teppanyaki in Indy (which isn’t as good as the other ones we go to) and then headed home.  We dropped my mom off at her house and then were off to Sturgis to pick up the girls.  They ordered pizza and strombolis for us.  I was so ready to be home.  I’ve spent 25+ hours in the car this week and I didn’t get to see the beach!

Food on the front of a magazine!

Riley Trip ~ MRI

After countless phone calls, it was determined that we had to drive to Riley for the MRI Wednesday morning and we weren’t sure if they were even doing it or not due to the strep.  I’d taken the girls to Sturgis on Tuesday night.  We picked up my mom at 3:00am and were on our way.  The trip there went surprisingly fast and Gavin slept some.  Our first stop was to pick up Froggy.  Gavin was thrilled to be reunited with his long lost friend!  Next, we got checked in and waited to find out.  Thankfully, they agreed to do it!  Gavin was so brave.  He had the chance to have us go back with him until he was asleep.  He decided to go back on his own!  They were super impressed and said kids his age never do that.  I was so proud of him, but it was bittersweet for sure. 

The MRI was of the legs, spine, and they did some abdomen scans.  It was estimated to take 2.5 – 3 hours, but actually took close to 4 hours.  The time went pretty fast but I was so anxious about the waking up part.  Once he was done, they let us know, but it was still close to 30 minutes before we got to go back and be with him.  He was just waking up and super out of it.  Thankfully, his breathing was fine along with everything else.  He was thrilled to get some blue Gatorade and two blue cars.  He started getting a bit irritable and wanted all of the stuff off of him.  It was so funny because one minute he was wanting me to hold him, and the next he told me to move out of the way so the nurse could take his iv out.  We all started cracking up!

Once we were sent on our way, we headed to the hotel.  Gavin was starving and thirsty the rest of the day.  I had to pace him so he didn’t get sick.  Grammie sent some snacks and he was thrilled with his lunchbox of treats!  We stayed a Drury, so we didn’t leave the room except to eat.  Gavin was wobbly for a bit and I was worried about him.  It was nice to watch tv shows we don’t get to watch at home!  We were all in bed at a decent hour.

Spring Break Snow!

Baby Bottle

When I was cleaning out some clothes for Furrby, the kids found a random baby bottle.  They took turns being the baby and even made a baby car seat out of the pack and play!

Car Trays

Last Friday, the girls and I went to Big Lots to find some new trays for the car.  My friend, Tina, opened my eyes to these things and I can’t believe we didn’t have them before!  Monday night, Brian worked late, so I thought it would be fun to eat dinner on them in the living room!

Riley Trip ~ Dr. Loder

On Monday, Gavin had an appointment with Dr. Loder.  Brian couldn’t get off work, so my mom came with us.  We had a pretty easy trip.  The drives went well. Gavin had x-rays and as always he was super good.  He got a car and he was pretty happy about that.  After the x-rays, he saw Dr. Loder.  We found out that his leg discrepancy is still the same as it was back in September.  That was really good news.  It is still at 1.4 centimeters.  Dr. Loder ordered an MRI scan of the spine.  Unless something showed up with that or Gavin has some changes, we won’t go back to see Dr. Loder until next year!

Well…I thought everything was going  a little too smoothly.  We did have one problem.  We were probably 40 minutes or so out of Indy and Gavin asked for Froggy.  My heart stopped.  I realized we left him there.  I quickly called Brian and had him call the x-ray area.  Thank God, they found Froggy and agreed to hold him for us until we came back on Wednesday.  Gavin was upset, but happy he was found. So was I!

Daddy and Gavin Time

Brian stayed home with Gavin while we went to Annie’s.  Once his fever broke, they had a great time!  They went to Rural King, the zoo (where they rode the tram for the first time), IHOP, for a walk, and a million other places.  Plus, they finished his Lego fire truck and Gavin slept in his tent in his bedroom.  I sure did miss my boys, but glad they had so much bonding time!