It's been a long, long day. We started our morning early by doing a service project with our FIAR group. (More on that later.) We gots lots of hugs and encouragment there and several friends even brought things for Daniel to have during his appointment.
This one was a huge hit - thank you Savanna!
We left early, went by Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then home. I should clarify that this was Joshua, Christopher, Daniel and I. The other children stayed with a friend at the service project to continue helping and to have a potluck lunch. After giving Joshua his shot, Daniel and I headed to Duke.
We arrived a little before 12:30. It was after 5pm when we left. It was a long, long afternoon. We spent some time waiting - and more time in tests.
We met first with the doctor who was very, very nice! I explained about Daniel's sensory issues, being sure that it would come up. She thanked me for letting her know, but I still wondered if it would make a difference. She could not have been nicer or more patient. She did a number of visual tests on him including checking to see how he viewed colors. (He is colorblind.) After testing and collecting information, we went to a different room.
The next series of tests was looking at his peripheral (sp) vision. He had to press a buzzer whenever he saw the light. It didn't look good from my perspective. The doctor told me later that this test was worthless in terms of information as she could see in her tests that his vision was better than it showed up in this test. That was good to hear. All I could think was that he had already lost some of his vision.
Next came the drops. It was awful. He screamed and cried. I had to help hold him down while he was on my lap. He was distraught over this. :-(
We waited for the drops to take effect and then were back to see the dr. She looked at his eyes and asked if he had had the drops. His eyes weren't dilated. She had to do the drops again. :-( Again, not fun! More waiting. Looking at his eyes some more.
Another room for testing. I'm not even sure what this machine was doing. Some sort of imaging. He was looking at a blinking or moving green light. He had to be still. He is never still unless he is sleeping. It was hard too. After trying for awhile, the technician brought in someone else to take the pictures.
One more room for the last of the tests. In this one, she took a picture of his optic nerve. He screamed when the light went off. It hurt him. I know it makes no sense to other people his extreme sensitivities to things. It is real though and it makes me hurt for him. And then he had to do this a second time. He was again very upset and difficult to manage.
Back again to meet with the doctor. She pulled up the images of his optic nerve. There is no clearly defined area (as there should be). Also the nerves running to the nerve were showing signs of pressure. She showed me a normal eye so that I could see the difference. She said that this indicated that there was pressure behind the eye. What is behind the eye to cause pressure? The brain.
She said that the next step was another MRI (for a different series of scans than had been done last year). She said that she felt comfortable that there are no tumors! Praise God. She said this was based on last year's MRI. I wasn't sure if things could change in a year, but I'll just accept this as good news. She wants to find out what is causing the pressure on his eyes.
The next words just made my eyes tear up. She said that she also wanted Daniel to have a spinal tap. I know she could read my face and I didn't know what to say. Of course I want to know if there is something there, but all I could think of was the pain that I know this causes people with typical sensory needs and then to multiply what that would be for our sweet boy.
As we were talking about what could be causing the presseure and what each would mean for Daniel, the doctor said she wanted to do one more test. It's after 5 at this point and we head back to her office. Daniel is not cooperative at all. I am not surprised. It is a non-invasive test though basically just "massaging his eyelids" with a tool that helps her to look at his eye (looked like an ultrasound). I offer an incentive for cooperating and we convince him that he can do this while sitting on my lap. As she scans his eyes, she sees calcification behind one of the eyes.
She said this could be the cause of the pressure. She said that instead of going forward with the MRI and spinal tap, that we'll just wait 3-4 months and come back for a repeat of the tests. While I don't like the idea of another day like this, I'll take it over the other options! If things stay the same, there may be no action needed at that time. It does sound like this is something that will continue to be monitored though over his life.
If we see changes - in vision or having headaches, this could indicate other problems. The only risk she told me of related to this calcification was a type of stroke. She also said it was a fairly common type of stroke and shouldn't be a worry. (It seemed like this was something in adulthood too.)
I know this seems cut and dried. I'm worn-out. Daniel fell asleep before we were a few miles from Duke. It was a very draining day for both of us.
In the midst of it all, I find that I have reason to be thankful. I'm thankful that there is no cause to believe there is a tumor. I'm thankful that he will not have to have a spinal tap. I'm thankful that for now, we can just wait and see how things progress. I'm thankful that he has no other symptoms causing concern like headaches or vision issues. I'm thankful for an incredibly kind doctor and staff. VERY kind and compassionate! I'm thankful we didnt have to wait a month for answers! I wish I had all of this in writing. I wonder if I'm forgetting something or mixing things up. It's a lot to take in. She did give me a number and said I could call if I had questions.
I'm thankful for our little boy. I'm thankful for all he adds to our days and our lives. While we don't have all the answers, things for now look pretty good. We'll just wait and see how things look in 3-4 months and try not to worry about it until then.
Thank you for praying for us. It means a lot to all of us.
With love
Leslie
On Thursday of this week, Daniel will be going to the Duke Eye Center to meet with a neuro opthamologist. We have been told that he will be there for 3 hours of testing, though I don't know what any of the tests will be. I do know that his eyes will be dilated and that is really about it.
I think 3 hours of testing could be hard for anyone. I know that having your eyes dilated is no fun. For our sweet little boy with sensory processing issues though, it is all magnified and compounded. It's going to be a hard day for him. I'm going to be taking things with me to try to help, but it's hard to plan for something when you really have no idea what is going on. (If anyone has suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.)
For those who may have missed an earlier post on this, Daniel has "prominent optic nerve pallor". This was seen at his last routine eye appt in Oct. She has referred us to a specialist to see if there is something going on. I've googled a little bit to find out more of what we are dealing with. Pallor is also sometimes called "atrophy". It also appears a little more worrisome that it is in just one eye.
I have to be honest - I'm scared. I try not to think about it much and that is helpful. (The Scarlet O'Hara method of dealing with things.) There are times though when I have to face it. I'm not trying to borrow trouble and thus try not to think on the "what ifs". I still find that I am fearful of what the future my hold for our little boy. Scared that there will be something. Scared that it will be another something "big". Again though, I don't dwell on it.
I know God is holding our little boy. I know He loves us. I know He is with us. It is really all I can hold on to right now.
I've been told that it may take a month to get the results back. I'm really hoping that is not the case! I would love to know more on Thursday. I really just want to hear that he is fine.
Thank you for praying once again for our family.
With love,
Leslie
P.S. I've been trying last night and again today to post pictures and am having troubles with photobucket. Not sure what is going on there, but am hoping it is fixed soon. If not, I may be posting somewhere else and will certainly update here.
We spent Thanksgiving in the mountains with my parents and my sister's family. We had a wonderful time together. This is the first time we've all been together since this summer. We spent a week together at the beach just before Joshua was diagnosed with diabetes.
As I look through my pictures, I realize that there were a lot of things I didn't get pictures of this year! I should have taken more pictures. Oh well.
We enjoyed a traditional meal with lots of yummy foods. The table was beautifully decorated.
Rebecca added a new piece to the decorations this year in placecards. She made these very cute turkeys for each person! Didn't she do a great job?
We had a nice selection of pies for dessert (the only food I got a picture of this year). Rebecca made 5 different pies for us to choose from. She also calculated the carbs on each of the pies too!
We had a relaxing time while we were there. We played games.
The girls did some knitting.
We enjoyed a play that Rebecca wrote for Thanksgiving (which was really cute!).
We read books, talked and did some organizing. Roger took some of our children to a Christmas parade and they enjoyed getting some candy. It was fun to just spend time with family.
Eliana got an early birthday present. A stuffed animal that sings Happy Birthday. It's mouth moves and so does the animal. Eliana loves it! She quickly learned how to make it sing and has been having a great time with it. (And thankfully we didn't have to listen to it all the way home either.)
Thanks Mom and Dad for having us up. We had a great time and appreciate your hospitality! We look forward to having you here sometime soon.
I have much for which I'm thankful and enjoy this holiday and the traditions that go with it.
Blessings,
Leslie
I found this great site that sells super cute t-shirts for ladies and girls with scripture on them! Wild Olive Tees is their name and you can find them at: www.wildolivetees.com They are having a give away for one of their shirts. Go check it out!
Check out this blog: http://mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com/mariemadeline_studio/2009/11/the-happy-scrappy-quilt-giveaway-again.html
They're giving away one of two quilts (one of which is the one pictured above)--go enter now!
My daughter and I hosted a Christmas Party for our American Girl Club Tuesday night. It was FUN having all the girls and their mom's over to our new house. It feels a little more like home now that we have had so many great friends here!
Here are my daughter and I all ready for the party to start!
Here are all the pretty girls as they arrived at the party.
To keep the girls busy while we were waiting for everyone to arrive we played a little game. I had pre-written name tags with the names of all the historical American Girls. (Addy, Felicity, Josefina, Julie, Kaya, Kirsten, Kit, Molly, Rebecca and Samantha.) As the girls came in I put a name tag on their back without them seeing it. Then they had to go to the other girls and ask them questions that could only be answered with Yes and No to try and figure out who they were. Since we are still working our way through the books I also made a poster with the name, year that the historical girls stories take place and one other piece of info about each girl.
Here is what my poster had on it.
- Addy 1864 Civil War
- Felicity 1774 Revolutionary War
- Josefina 1824 New Mexico
- Julie 1976 San Francisco
- Kaya 1764 Nez Perce
- Kirsten 1854 Pioneer
- Kit 1934 Great Depression
- Molly 1944 WWII
- Rebecca 1914 New Your City
- Samantha 1904 Industrial Revolution
Once we were all here I had another game for the girls. This was my daughters idea. (She said she played it at a birthday party in Las Vegas.) We had all the girls sit in a circle. I had wrapped 4 gifts with 8 to 12 layers on each gift. (Yes this took FOREVER! LOL) Mixed into the layers I also put 3 post-it notes per gift that said something like...Give to someone wearing pink. Give someone wearing glasses. etc. The game was played by unwrapping one layer of paper and then passing the gift to the right, unless there was a note telling them to pass it somewhere else. With 4 gifts for 18 girls everyone got to open a layer, or two. The 4 girls who took off the last layers got to keep the gifts. For the gifts I had gotten some neat American Girl Pop-up books at Borders and some American Girl stickers at Michaels.
Here they are just starting to open all the layers.
And here is the BIG pile of paper towards the end of the unwrapping!
After we cleaned up all the paper if was time to swap the ornaments we all had brought. I wanted to make this into a game too. Luckily I found this FUN idea online to swap gifts. What you do is write a story to be read aloud that has the words RIGHT and LEFT used over and over. Everyone sits in a circle and holds a gift. As they listen to the story they have to pass the gifts RIGHT and LEFT when they hear those words. Here is the story I made up:
Once upon a time there was a wonderful group of American girls who LEFT their homes every Tuesday night to go RIGHT to American Girl Club. The first time they LEFT their homes they LEFT on a beautiful warm Fall evening. After getting RIGHT to American Girl Club all the girls met each other and it was all RIGHT! Soon they got RIGHT to learning History together. They were happy that their mom’s where RIGHT there with them and had not LEFT them somewhere to learn History alone.
Week after week the girls LEFT their homes to get RIGHT together. Each week they got RIGHT to discussing the stories and they LEFT having learned a little more history. The crafts LEFT no one disappointed and the activities they did together were just RIGHT!
The club started with Samantha and went RIGHT to Kaya. Then they went RIGHT to Felicity and that LEFT Josefina. Next they will go RIGHT to Kirsten!
The best part of all is that the girls have friends to the LEFT and the RIGHT of them and both the mom’s and the girls have become the RIGHT kind of friends!
Thank you God for bringing these awesome girls and mom’s RIGHT together!
Now, all that is LEFT to do is open your gifts!
This was VERY fun and there were a lot of sweet giggles from the girls as they watched the gifts go around.
Next we got to EAT!!!
After eating we played one more game. Believe it or not I Googled "American Girl Bingo" and found free printable bingo cards! I printed them out and we used marshmallows as our markers. We played several rounds. I started out calling out the names of the American Girls. Then I did the years they lived. Then I did a basic fact about each. After each round the winners got a piece of candy. The girls had a lot of fun playing Bingo!
Here are the girls playing American Girl Bingo!
At the end of the night I had a little goody bag for each of them. I wanted to have a Swedish theme to the party since we are studying Kirsten next. So I went to IKEA and got the napkins, candles and little paper cones to use for the goody bags. In the cones each girl got 2 little Swedish straw ornaments, candy, and eraser and pencil.
You can see the cones in the picture below behind my daughter. (Doesn't she look cute in her new Christmas dress?)
After all the games and activities I had planned were over the girls wen in the family roomand played duck-duck-goose.
It was a very fun night and a great start to the Christmas season!
:^)
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
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Just wanted to share a little bit of how we celebrated our sweet girl's birthday. Roger took the day off from work as is his custom for their birthdays. (Isn't that a great tradition?!) Rebecca wanted to go to the park to picnic and play. We invited some friends and headed out to the park.
It was a chilly day, but still fun to hang out with friends. One sweet friend brought cupcakes (thank you Rebecca!).
The kids played capture the flag and tag. Fun games that can involve all who want to play. Of course there was a playground to play on as well.
We even got a family photo!
After several hours we went home. Rebecca and I then headed out again. We first went to Panera to get smoothies. Yum. Then we headed to a spa for pedicures. We were the last people in there for the day. It was fun to have some pampering.
Then home for dinner that Rebecca picked out. She also picked out Key Lime Pie for dessert.
Most of the rest of the evening was filled with packing and baking. Rebecca made 5 pies for Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving week-end with my family and I'll post more on that tomorrow.
Blessings
Leslie
CVS had a pretty good 3 days sale this week. I had $27 in ECB's and 2 other good coupons--$5 off $20 and $5 off $30.
This is how I did:
2 King Size packages of Peanut M&M's $1.59 each Earned $1.59 ECB and had a BOGO coupon
2 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste $2.88 each saved $1.01 on each with sale price, earned $4 ECB and had 2 $1 coupons
2 Colgate 360 toothbrushes $2.99 each saved $1.00 on each with sale price, earned $4 ECB and had one $1.00 coupon
1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion $7.99 Earned $7.99 ECB
2 Bic Soleil razors $6.99 each, saved $1.00 on each with sale price, earned $10 ECB and had 2 $2 coupons
1 Phillips universal remote (badly needed for the upstairs tv!) $6.99 Earned $6.99 ECB, saved $6.00 with sale price
1 Phillips in-ear headphones $6.99 Earned $6.99 ECB, saved $3.00 with sale price
2 bags of Hershey Kisses $3.49 each Saved $3.49 with BOGO sale, had $1.00 coupon
1 bottle CVS shampoo $5.99
14 lbs Kitty Litter $5.99
At full price, my order would have come to $85.92. AFTER my $5/$20 and $5/$30 coupons, my ECB's ($27) and my manufacturer's coupons, my total was:
$22.99
And I brought home $41.56 in ECB's! Not bad at all!
Thank God For Dirty Dishes
Thank God for dirty dishes; They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry, We're eating very well.
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn't want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence, God's been very good to us.
Author Unknown
My mom reminded me of this poem yesterday when I was less than enthusiastic about cleaning up the kitchen after Thanksgiving dinner. My paternal Grandmother has this hanging in her kitchen when I was a child. I think I will type it up and frame it for my kitchen too!Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin