The One With October's Friday Photo Dump

October started out with us watching Conference...

 

 

Going to the library...

(and buying some classics... yes!)

 

 

Playing lots of speech therapy games on the iPad...

(Paige is in speech therapy & rocking it, btw!)

 

 

Going for some walks in our cool wagon...

 

 

Painting our nails with Aunt Brittany & Grandma Jaleen...

 

 

Finding a new buddy to watch for daddy to come home...

 

 

Stealing daddy's wallet a time or two...

 

 

And of course lots & lots of pumpkin & Halloween fun...

 

 

PS: Z still crawls more often than not, but she's walking!!! 

The One About Apraxia: Where We Are Now

This post is inspired by this post by one of my favorite bloggers.  For Paige's full apraxia story in one post, click here.

Paige is now done with Hippotherapy (speech therapy on horses) for the summer.  It was so much fun for her & I noticed it helping her in many ways.  Even if the actual therapy session didn't help her, just how much she loved telling people about it would have helped more than I could have expected.  I loved watching her, too.  I'm so grateful to the people at Resolution Horse Co. that provided that free service & for a friend online telling me about it.  It came at a time that she & I both really needed it.

Because of it's high cost, Paige has gone without speech therapy since January (besides her horse therapy).  She gets some speech therapy in preschool, which I am so grateful for, but it's so minimal compared to the help that she really needs because of the seriousness of Apraxia.   For months I felt so guilty that I didn't have her in therapy.  I saw on an Apraxia Facebook group that many of the parents were taking the summer off for speech therapy.  That gave me a little feeling of relief that Paige was just "taking a break".  Rick & I came across a little bit of money & found a cheaper (& it appears just as good) speech therapist in our area to work with Paige.  The speech therapist has been referred to as the "Apraxia Whisperer" to me by someone I know.  We are excited to be working with her.

Paige was previously "pre-diagnosed" with Apraxia when she was 2 because most speech therapists say you can't officially diagnose them until they are about 3.  At Paige's first appointment with her new speech therapist, the speech therapist did an initial evaluation.  I was slightly nervous for the results, even though she had been pre-diagnosed.  

After she worked with Paige, she told me that she would consider Paige someone with a "classic Apraxia" case.  I asked her how severe she thought it was & she said it was right in the middle of extreme & mild.  I always assumed it was more on the mild side.  

She also said that Paige does have some dyspraxia, which is basically Apraxia for her whole body (as far as I understand it right now...).

I don't know why, but I was surprised at the relief I felt (which I also felt with her pre-diagnosis, only this time I knew more of what Apraxia is).  Although Paige has a long & rough road ahead of her, I'm so glad we have this officially diagnosed & that we have someone working with her again... for now.

Below is a video I took a couple of weeks ago (before we found the books I talk about below) of Paige reading Harold & the Purple Crayon.

Thanks to someone on an Apraxia FB group, we learned about these awesome Speech Box books.  I got them from the library & we instantly noticed a huge difference in her speech.  It was such a big difference that we bought the whole set.  Reading them is now a part of her night time chores she does each night with Rick.

I love that we are seeing improvement in Paige & that other people are noticing it, too.  I'm so proud of her.  She often says things that surprise me & it makes me smile.  At this point, Paige basically tries to say anything & everything.  She loves to repeat us & it's been fun to hear her do that.  This is a huge advantage for her.  Occasionally she'll get sad when I can't understand what she's trying to say, so when that happens we'll stop, say a prayer asking for help understanding each other & then I always instantly know what she's saying.  It's been a kind of fun & neat tradition that we've started.  Even though this journey has been hard, it's been special to us in a way I don't think I could ever explain.  It's our story... & no one else's.  It's one we care about & one our emotions are all tangled up in.

For those of you who don't know, Apraxia is basically a disconnect from Paige's brain to her body (but mostly her mouth).  It is exhausting for us as parents trying to help her & to encourage her to speak all day every day, but I can't even imagine how exhausting it must be for her!

Like I've said before, Paige is a trooper.  She's amazing.  She's always been so patient with herself & others with this trial she has been given.  She's handled it with such a great attitude & she's for sure taught me more than I ever expected to learn from a 3 year old.  I love her so much for that.  

The One With My Early Christmas Present

For those of you who don't know, Paige has been pre-diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech.  One of the symptoms of this, is that they can lose sounds they once said perfectly.  Each time this has happened for Paige, it has been a red flag for me to get her more help.  It has been hard on her & hard on me.  I get very emotional when it happens, I just feel so bad for her.  She has lost both her B & P sounds, which are some of the most basic sounds to make. 

Each night when Rick lays her down for bed he talks with her & gets her to practice saying different things.  Kind of an unofficial mini speech therapy session.  They both seem to love it.  Last night, Rick told me to come in her room, so I did.  She then said her P sound perfectly!  It for sure made me tear up.  A few minutes later, he called me in again & she said the B sound! 

I know that anything is possible, and there's a chance she could loose them again, or loose new sounds (there are lots of ups & downs with Apraxia), but I am so thrilled & proud of her!  She has worked so hard for months & been so patient.  I could tell she was proud of herself too.  I honestly could not think of a better Christmas present from or for her.  We are excited to show it off to all of our family this weekend.  It made me the happiest mom ever. 

Great job, Paige!!  You are amazing!

The One With November's Friday Photo Dump

November is ending!  I didn't get quite as many pictures as I usually do, because I have been... well, 8 months pregnant.  :)  I've been contracting pretty regularly for over a month now, so we spent as much time as possible resting, but we tried to squeeze in some fun things too.  

This month, we found out just how much Paige likes to play hide and go seek...

Throughout my whole pregnancy, Paige has loved to listen to the baby's heart beat, so I finally got a few pictures of it...

I haven't been the best at documenting my belly growth this time around, but I figured we better get at least one more in before the big day.  I'm officially bigger than I was with Paige, although, I haven't gained as much weight with this one as I did with Paige (funny, especially since I ate healthier & exercised with Paige's pregnancy)....

35 weeks

Every one has one of these pictures, so I figured I needed one too...

Paige has been especially obsessed with reading this month.  Although, she always has to have 10 books at a time (notice the pile on grandpa's lap)...

We ate lots of yummy food & enjoyed being with lots of family for Thanksgiving.  We also shopped online a lot (wahoo!) to get as ready as possible for Christmas before the baby comes.  Because I have been contracting for months & Rick would be going out of town the next week, I passed on Black Friday shopping.  It was a pretty big heart breaker for me, but I didn't want to risk anything quite yet.  Because of that, Rick agreed that we could put up Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  It sure was fun with Paige this year, I think it will keep getting more fun each year, too.

Paige also somehow knows the difference between Christmas music & non-Christmas music.  This month she asks for "more ho ho music" when she gets in the car every time.  How can you say no to that, even if it is before Thanksgiving?

Paige has been going to speech therapy usually 3 times per week & she's been making good progress.  We are so excited about it.  She even said a 4 word sentence all on her own (without us prompting her).   She's also started trying to count on her own.  I'm so so proud of her!

Our baby girl #2 will be here so soon!  We are so excited to meet her (& for mommy's contractions to finally stop).... :)  What do you think, another bald baby??

The One About Apraxia

In one of my previous updates on Paige, I mentioned that her speech therapist thinks she has something called Childhood Apraxia of Speech.  That speech therapist is one offered through DDI Vantage (which we love) & they don't test for it, so she recommended I get another opinion & tested as soon as possible.  As soon as Paige lost her second sound, I immediately knew that this was not normal & I needed to work harder to get some sort of diagnosis or more help for her (just like when she lost her first sound).  So, I followed the first speech therapist's advice & looked into someone who our insurance covers & would be well suited to help Paige.  I was so lucky to find Maria at Wasatch Speech & Language Center who specializes in neurological speech problems, which includes Apraxia (and even better, they are super close!).

My family did a fast for Paige last month, and ever since then she has been doing awesome.  She did lose her second sound, but overall, the other sounds were coming much more naturally to her & in the past week she's even added a few words (approximations, but we're thrilled).  I even felt silly taking her into the speech therapist because she was improving so much.  The only reason why I still did was because it just isn't normal for children to lose words & sounds & not get them back for months and then some.

We went for our appointment with Maria & she confirmed that it's not ideal to officially test for apraxia this young, but since she has worked with so many children with apraxia, she said that it is 'highly likely that Paige has apraxia'.  It was kind of comforting in a way, because every single weird thing about her speech & medical journey I would share, Maria had worked with other children who had gone through the same thing... this wasn't a 'weird' thing to her.

This & this website will both explain much better than I will, but basically apraxia is a neurological speech disorder where she understands without any problems, but her brain has a hard time connecting to her muscles (especially her mouth) and telling it how to move & make the correct sounds.  This is something that takes many years for the child to learn how to control with the help of intense speech therapy & constant practice at home.

Although, this diagnosis isn't ideal, I am so relieved to be as close as we are with a diagnosis (as far as I am concerned it may as well be our diagnosis).  I am relieved because now I finally feel we are on the right path on how to get her the best help possible.  We've spent over a year trying to find our answers, each time finding a tiny piece to the puzzle, but leaving us with more questions than answers.  This time, though, I feel like we've taken a giant leap in the right direction & boy, is it a relief.

I am so, extremely proud of Paige.  Through this whole process (doctor visits, having a hard time communicating, etc.), she has been the most patient & persistent person.  I would never be able to share in words how well she's done with this hard trial placed in her way.  She's been so amazing through this all, and it makes me so proud and humbled to be her mom.  She's a great example to me.  I'm one lucky lady!

The One With An Update On Paige

A friend of mine mentioned to me last month that I haven't posted anything about Paige & her adventures with her doctors lately.  Honestly we haven't had much of anything new happen, until lately.

**Consider this your warning... it's a long post**  :)

Just in case you're not in the loop, Paige's pediatrician has been watching several things about Paige since she was born (an odd and small head shape, her eye problems/ptosis, her delay in speech, etc.), so she suggested we see a geneticist.  We were seeing a geneticist, who did several tests, but none of them came out with results to give us any answers. Only one test came back with something not normal & it was an ultrasound.  We found out that she has a bicornate uterus (a split uterus), a partial fallopian tube & they couldn't tell if she had ovaries or not.  They said unless we do an MRI on her uterus & ovaries, we'll have to wait until she's a teenager to find out more information about that.  Although I am SO grateful to find that out so early, it didn't answer any of our questions.  Basically we stumped the geneticist. :)

Paige has always been on track for all developmental milestones except for speech.  She's a very smart girl, she knows about 60 signs & everyone is always so impressed with how much she understands.  We've been working with a speech therapist for about 9 months now, but haven't seen the normal amount of improvement in that time frame. 

I know that Paige will eventually catch up with her speech, but I've also known for a long time that something was just off.  Besides speech therapy & working with Paige to talk all day every day, we haven't seen any other specialists lately.  We honestly didn't know where to go from there... until about a month ago.

We were driving home one Sunday night & Paige was trying to say one of the maybe 5 or 6 words she knows & she couldn't.  She started to cry and sign please (because she wanted help).  Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but I broke down.  I cried too, but didn't let her see.  It broke my heart.  She's stopped being able to say words before, but never to this extent of feeling sad that she couldn't do it.  By the way, she hasn't been able to say that word (or even the 'b' sound) since.

The next morning I called Paige's speech therapist & her pediatrician to see where we can go from here.  Like I said, it might have been the hormones from being pregnant, but I just knew we had to try to do more at this point.  Her speech therapist suggested she might have early signs of childhood apraxia of speech, but they can't test for it until the child is 3 or 4.  Her pediatrician & speech therapist both suggested we go see a neurologist.

Although the neurologist is booked out more than 2 months, they were able to get us in the same week we called because of a cancellation (this has happened before & I can't help but feel like it's meant to be).

I really liked the neurologist & he suggested we do an MRI of her brain & some basic genetic testing if our insurance would cover it.  Her pediatrician suggested that we do an MRI of her uterus & ovaries at the same time, if we have to do one on her brain, so we don't have to wait as long to find answers about that issue.

Up until the night before I was all for the MRI.  For some reason, that Sunday night, as I put her down to go to sleep, I became a mess.  I was getting very anxious & nervous about the whole thing.  I just kept hoping that she would be okay and not scared, I guess.

The morning of, we all woke up before the sun rose... much earlier than any of us have woken up for who knows how long.  I could tell that Paige was confused as we walked out to our car as to why the sun wasn't out yet.  Our appointment was at 6am, so that meant that Rick could come with us until he had to be to work by 8 (he doesn't have paid time off until he's worked there for one year).  I cannot tell you how glad I was to have him there for that first half.  They did the typical things, checked her height, weight, lungs, etc.  They gave her a blanket to take home & they even let her pick out a prize after they poked her for her IV.  Rick held her while they poked her & he told me later that she was signing 'all done' after they poked her, and she made it clear that she was ready to go home at that point.

Paige & I were so glad to have daddy there with us.

I don't know if it was because I was pregnant, the lack of sleep, because she is older, or because of the risk of what they would tell us afterword, but I was still a ball of nerves.  I was more anxious then, than I was with any of her surgeries.  I don't know why, it seems so silly, but I was.  I even began to feel so guilty for wanting her to have the MRI.  I was also nervous that the sedation would have side effects that would delay her even more, like the anesthesia did.

The MRI took much longer than they told me it would, and as I waited I tried to keep busy & wrapped myself in her new blanket that someone took so much time to crochet.  I felt like the blanket comforted me much more than it did Paige.

Paige, of course, did great.  They said it took longer because her cute little body is so tiny & they had a hard time getting a good shot of her pelvis.  When they took me back to her she was super loopy (much more loopy than with the anesthesia... her head was bobbling & all), but happy (much happier than with the anesthesia).  It was so good to see her.  My eyes began to water as I saw her in the tech's (for probably the 10th time that morning), but I quickly pushed it back as I took her into my arms.  She began talking & signing, almost more than normal (in a funny drunk sort of way), so I am taking that as a good sign that the sedation hopefully won't delay her speech.

She slept for most of the day after we got home

She was so loopy the 2 times she did wake up.  It was so cute!

Although, I haven't heard back from her pediatrician, I did get a call from her neurologist.  He said that her MRI is 'not entirely normal', but that it still doesn't look too bad.  I guess in the back part of her brain (where we process info), has less tissue than normal on both sides.  He says because of that we know it's not from an injury, but that it must have just developed that way.  He says he doesn't have a specific diagnosis for this, but we are still on track to doing some general genetic testing to see if that gives us any answers.  He also said that they "think" they saw 2 ovaries, although, they are higher than normal.  So, I think that's good news... :)

Once again we don't have very many answers, but at least we are trying.  I feel like I have to keep 'fighting' for my sweet girl to find answers to the best way we can help her.  I am, so glad, though, for such good doctors & how well Primary Children's Medical Center handles things.

The One With Paige's Ultrasound

Once again updates are easiest put here for family & friends.

Paige had another doctor's appointment this morning as per her geneticist's request.  This appointment was for an ultrasound on her (not me!)  ;) .  I've been debating all morning whether I should post about this appointment today, or wait until she has more (unrelated) tests done next week, but I decided no one likes a big long post (oops, like her last update :) ) with no pictures, so I would break them up.

To sum up the ultrasound from this morning (I'll spare you all of the details), we don't have as many answers as I was hoping for.  In fact, we have a lot more questions now.  I don't have an update on her ovaries (relating to BPE), but they did find out that her uterus is split into two sections.  I don't think this is related to her BPE.  From what I gather it does not mean she's not fertile (assuming her ovaries are okay), but she will likely will have a hard time getting pregnant & maybe even staying pregnant.  I am so glad that we could find this out now, instead of if & when she tried to get pregnant when she's older.

From what the radiologist says there's nothing they will do for her now regarding her split uterus.  I guess it's something they deal with as they get older, but I'm waiting to hear back from her pediatrician (who asked me to call her after each test... she's great!), and not expecting... but hoping for a call from her geneticist for more information.  Otherwise, we will go on with other tests and meet up with the geneticist again in June. 

I feel like we take one step forward and two steps backwards sometimes.  Although it is frustrating to keep getting these weird, random results, I am so glad for them.  I feel like we are slowly getting to where we need to be with all of this.

***UPDATE  The geneticist called me this morning (Tuesday) & said they don't know for sure if the object they originally thought was an ovary on her left side is actually an ovary.  She might not have any ovaries, so she is sending us to another specialist (because of this and many other things they found on the ultrasound).  They might not be able to get all of the info pieced together until Paige is a teenager, though.  Her pediatrician says the odds are not in her favor to be able to have kids.  As usual, I will update on here as we get more info.

The One With A Trip To The Geneticist

Two weeks ago, I spoke with a nurse at Paige's pediatric office.  She suggested I come in to see Dr. Sandvig (Paige's pediatrician).  I followed orders & went in the next day.  It turns out that what the nurse suggested we come in for was really not a big deal at all, but little did we know it was still an important visit with her doctor.  

Dr. Sandvig is a great doctor.  I have loved her & felt very comfortable with her as our pediatrician.  She has suggested we see many specialists for Paige.  Some of the specialist visits ended up in surgeries & others ended up with a conversation saying that everything looks good for Paige.  I have appreciated her doctor being aware that we should just check on some of these things, and not just over look them and assume they are fine.  

Back to the visit with Dr. Sandvig earlier this month... she has always watched Paige closely on many things, especially with the shape of her head.  Paige has a head shape that is more oval than normal, but doesn't look much different than other heads to the untrained eye.  She looked at it again, and we discussed the previous CT we had on it when Paige was less than 1 year old.  That CT looked good according to the plastic surgeon, so we were happy at the time.  Dr. Sandvig then asked about how Paige's speech was coming along.  I told her is was super slow, but that we were making some progress.  She then suggested we see a geneticist to see if there is any linking factor between Paige's eyes, head shape & lack of speech.  

I called the genetics office & although they normally were booked out until May, they must have had a cancellation because we were able to get into the office in 2 weeks.  The thought crossed my mind that it was meant to be that way, although I really didn't think that they would find anything.  While we were up that way, we scheduled and appointment to get Paige's hearing checked again for the same day.  

Yesterday was the day we went up to the U.  The geneticist was a very nice & thorough lady.  I had no idea what to expect from the genetics appointment.  A nurse came in & asked a ton of questions about Paige's health, and the history of our families.  Then the geneticist came in & asked more questions & examined Paige. She looked at everything from the shape of her hand & fingers to the size of her feet.  She then took her team in the other room for 10 min or so to discuss their findings.  She came back in and said she thinks that Paige might have 2 syndromes.  It sounds like the easier one to diagnose is called Blepharophimosis, Ptosis, Epicanthus Inversus Syndrome (AKA BPE).  There are 2 types of this syndrome.  Type II pretty much just affects the her eyes (we already knew she had the ptosis part, so that wasn't a huge surprise), but Type I affects her eyes & is linked with female infertility (random, I know).  We obviously have to do much more testing to find out which type she has.  Her geneticist also thinks she might have one other syndrome (that may or may not connect her head shape, her speech delay, her balance, and a couple of other things), but from what I understand she doesn't know how to label/what to call that syndrome.  She is going to take Paige's case to a board review meeting to see if anyone else can think of what it is called.  Meanwhile we will get more testing on her head shape as well.  

My first reaction was something like, 'something is wrong with my child?!', but the more I thought about it, the more I realized, she really is perfect.  God made her this way for a reason & she is perfect to me, even if her eyes are droopier than normal.  

The good news is that she passed her hearing test.  I thought it was going to be opposite... I thought she would have come away from the geneticist with no problems & have hearing problems.  Silly me.  

Now that everything has sunk in a little bit, I realized that I have thought for many months that something just isn't right with her speech development.  People would tell me that she will catch up, and she probably will/would without help, but it just still didn't feel right to me.  I would often feel kind of sad about it (for lack of better word), but never knew how else to help her other than with the speech therapist.  Now, I think we are on the right path to getting her the best help possible.  

So, although we have more questions than answers now, I am so grateful for all of the doctors and specialists and nurses who have helped Paige & who know their stuff.  I thought this year we would make lots less trips up to Primary Children's Hospital than last year, but it looks like there will be more.  I am grateful for it, though.  Everyone up there is there to help & I am so grateful to have a place like that.  

PS- Paige was SO great at her big day of appointments.  She was extremely well behaved & cute as could be.  

Another One With An Update

Sorry for another boring post. People keep asking about Paige, and this is the best way to get the word out.

We had her follow up appointment with Dr. Hoffman yesterday. As of right now, it seems she won't need any more eye muscle surgeries which is probably the worst of all of the surgeries we've had to consider. We are very happy about that. We will, though, still need an eye lid lift surgery as of how things look right now. Her eyes are still tearing, after having the tear duct probe twice. I am not sure what we will do for that, though. We have another appointment in 4 weeks to just make sure everything is going as well as it seems. Dr. Hoffman has been really great to work with.

I also had an appointment this week, and it seems there is a high chance I will need surgery also.

What are the chances that all 3 of us need surgery within a few months of each other??

I have had 8 sinus infections within the past year and a half, so I finally decided enough is enough. I have loved my doctor, and we are trying to see if medicine will help enough that I will not need surgery, but she thinks surgery will be in the books for me. Honestly, I am happy to try anything, even if it means surgery. Most days it takes all I have to stay awake, and I just found out that is because of my chronic infections. I am so happy that there are options and that there is help out there for us.

Our insurance is up at the end of June (it lasted a year and a half this time...), so our goal is to have all of our surgeries done by then. We're close to meeting our out of pocket deductible :)

After going to both of our appointments this week I am very optimistic, even if it means surgeries, it will also mean that things will be better in the near future. I am so grateful for insurance & smart doctors!

The One Where She Had Her Surgery Already!

Last time I blogged, I said that Paige's surgery was scheduled for the end of April. Good news, they had a cancellation so they bumped us up to this past Monday. So, she had her first official surgery already.

This time, they redid the tear duct probe (this time with a bigger balloon... hoping that this time will be the last time) and an eye muscle surgery. They detached a muscle behind both eyes and reattached it, in hopes that it would help her to move her eyeballs up and down, and open her eye lid openings.

Her surgery was scheduled for 2:30 this time, so she was ready to eat and sleep by the time we were checking in and getting her checked out. The camera came in handy then, to distract her for a minute.




I think this picture sums up how she feels about her surgery...


The surgery was a pretty big deal. It took about an hour and a half (we were in the waiting room longer than most of the other parents). She, of course, really didn't like coming out of anesthesia, but eventually it wore off.


She has been doing so much better than I thought she would. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured it would take her a week or so to get to the point where she is today. Each day she looks better and better, and each day her eye openings open a tiny bit more too. She still has goopy and bloodshot eyes, but other than that, doesn't look all that different.

I took these pictures yesterday (one day after surgery)...


She's not super thrilled about life, but I sure was thrilled that she was doing so well.

This picture isn't a good picture at all of her, but I had to show it because I FINALLY got a picture where her teeth were peeking through! She never shows them (especially in pictures).


We have a follow up appointment at the end of the month to go over things with the doctor. There's a chance she will still need more surgeries (2 or more), but so far I am optimistic since her eye openings are opening this soon.

Thanks so much for the calls, texts, and messages again. We are so lucky to have such a great support system around us.

The One With An Eye Update

Sheesh! The past 5 weeks have been a whirlwind.

We've basically had someone sick (or having an allergic reaction) the whole time, minus the 2 most important dates in those 5 weeks - Paige's 1st procedure & Paige's 1st birthday party! I can't believe how lucky we got that we were all healthy for those two important events.

I was able to take Paige to her followup appointment with Dr. Hoffman at Primary Children's this past week, and we scheduled procedure number two for the end of April. This one is a surgery on the muscles behind her eyes. They are too tight and the doctor will reattach them so they will be looser. Poor girl, I have been reading the papers they gave me and to be honest, I think it will be hard a hard one for all of us. The first procedure didn't work as well as we had hoped, but the doctor said they can give it a whirl again during this upcoming surgery. I'm so glad that we have Dr. Hoffman. He's been so great, and he really knows his stuff.

Paige has been getting more and more fun every day. She's learning things like, what a duck says, where her head is, where the light is, and a few other things. I love this age. She's been so much fun.

The One With One Down...

Paige is officially done with her first eye procedure! Yay! For those of you who wanted an update, this is for you.


She was such a trooper throughout the whole thing, and did so well with not eating and not taking a nap when she wanted. She was in heaven with all of the fun toys to play with.


It was a quick, 20 minute procedure called, 'exam under anesthesia & probe with possible balloon'. They un-clogged her tear ducts with the balloons, and did some brief testing on her actual eye balls. Her eye muscles are tight, and will need some surgery to loosen them up (so she can look up and down on her own, without making her whole head move up and down). Although, the doctor is now saying that there is a possibility that this could correct her low eyelids, and she might not need that surgery, but we will have to wait to find out for sure.

She was very very grumpy while coming out of the anesthesia, and has been sleeping almost constantly since we got home. My SIL was working that day and she was able to go into the beginning of surgery with her. and check up on us a few times, and all that jazz. It helped me that she was there, and knew who I should recommend.

Paige is such a sweetheart, and we are so happy that there is a way & people who can help her. Thanks for all of your texts, messages and calls of support! We have great family and friends.

The One With Some Big News

No! It's NOT what you are thinking! ;)

Unfortunately, we have several surgeries coming up in our little family, and several people have asked me to keep them updated. This is the easiest way to do it.

First, for Ricky... for those of you who don't know, he injured his knee in high school and has had 5 surgeries on it since. It works ok... meaning he can walk on it. But he can't run, play basketball, or several other things that he would love to do. He's very athletic and even played basketball in college, but had to stop because of his knee.

Well, it's been getting worse for quite a while now, so he decided to go see a new doctor. He will need to reposition his patella tendon (I think that's what it is...), which is a pretty big recovery time, but on top of that, they put him on the donor registry for cartilage as well. He will be on crutches for 2 months, but after 2 years it should be good enough to run a little bit, which is awesome. We could get the call any day now, or in a year. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm not good at this waiting game. There is a possibility of a second follow-up surgery for him, but we'll have to wait and see for that too.

As for Paige, we finally got into her ophthalmologist yesterday. That was a LONG time waiting! They are going to do a procedure on her in a few weeks to do 2 things - fix her tear ducts (she almost always has tears, but almost never cries) & test her eye ball. Apparently, her eye ball doesn't look up and down, she just moves her head up to look up. So, when they are doing the procedure, they'll check it out and see if she needs surgery to correct her poor eye ball. Then the final surgery (hopefully) will be to lift her eye lids. As you have probably noticed, her eye lids leave a tiny opening, and as I mentioned before, she looks up instead of using her eye lids. Her ped and I have been discussing her eye lid situation almost from the beginning. I think there's a pretty good chance she'll need a follow up surgery when she's 4, but we won't think about that until we have to. I am glad they can help her, and we are finally making progress as far as meeting with doctors, procedures, etc.

So, there's a possibility that we'll have up to 4 surgeries within the next few months to a year, or it could be just 2. Either way, I'm happy we have insurance and that there are things that doctors can do to help us.