SURGERY UPDATE

I have had several e-mails and calls and just wanted to take a moment to update on my blog how the surgery went.

We got there at 7:30 AM and were called back for her surgery quickly at 7:45. The staff at the surgical center was incredible and made Mikayla as comfortable as possible. I can't say enough about this place and if you live by me and your child needs something like this, contact me because they were awesome! The anesthesiologist came back with the nurses and talked to us about what they would do. They gave her an oral medication right away while they were taking her vitals to help her calm down and make her sleepy. He played with her, earned her trust quickly, he asked her if he could hold her, she held out her arms to him, and down the hallway and off to surgery they went. Mommy wanted to cry. Big Brother yelled after him "don't hurt my sister!" And then off to the waiting room we went. We were called back to get her at 8:05 AM. She was crying, disoriented and I hate to say this, but she looked drunk. She couldn't hold her head up and didn't want to be held but couldn't stand at all. She was totally confused and upset and very hard to calm down.

At his point the anesthesiologist and DR came back to tell us they had a hard time putting her under. ROFL. She fought it and so they had to give her a little "extra" because she was putting up a fight. That's my girl and I wasn't surprised to hear that at all. However, that made a more difficult time for her coming out I think. Everyone was wonderful and after she took a drink and they re-checked her, we were able to come. Her DR was awesome and even called us tonight at home to check on her!

Once we got home she was very fussy and falling all over the place. We had to put her in the pack-and-play because she was a danger to herself. I held her off as long as possible for a nap but caved at 11:00 AM. She slept until 2:15 or so and has been OK all afternoon. Not great, still cranky, but doing OK. Her DR said she had a lot of fluid in her ears and that this was really the way we had to go for her. They suctioned most of it out but she will still have drainage. It has been a LONG day. Kris and Alec went to see Tony Stewart's car up at Home Depot this afternoon and now they are out fishing:-) I will post pictures later of Alec and the car. And yes, we are Nascar fans, and yes, Tony Stewart is our man.

Thanks for your prayers and you can read the post below for more information on to why we ended up where we did today:-)

I'm BACK and Mikayla's Surgery is TOMORROW!

I apologize, we are here, we have just had a lot of things going on and I haven’t had the time, or the computer actually, to blog.

When we came back from Florida in May Mikayla had an ear infection. She still had it at her birthday party and it never went away. After four unsuccessful rounds of antibiotics we had to resort to giving her shots. We had to take her to her pediatrician everyday for a week for them to give her shots to finally clear up the infection. It was horrific and Mikayla did NOT do well. Our pediatrician wanted us to get in to see an ENT ASAP because there was so much fluid built up behind her ears. THANKFULLY we have connections in that one of my awesome friends Nikki’s husband works for a wonderful ENT office about 30 minutes from my house. He was able to get us RIGHT in and we are forever thankful to him and to her for asking him to help us. So after weeks of medications, shots, and PAIN, Mikayla goes in tomorrow morning bright and early at 7:30 AM for Tube Surgery. Kris took the day off work and will be going with me. Please pray that it goes well and that she is OK.

We also had to go to a specialist at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland because of Mikayla’s never-ending yeast infections and diaper rash. We had to take pictures of her at the “height” of one of her infections and it was so awful they kept the picture to use in their training! I obviously am NOT going to post it on my blog but please trust me when I say it is the most painful thing you would ever see. When it gets bad, like it does all the time, it spreads all the way down to the middle of her inner-thighs. We now have her on a treatment regimen that is very intense and full of multiple creams and ointments that are steroid-based. She has been on them now for two weeks and it is STILL not fully clear. They are worried that she has a rare skin disorder because of some other characteristics that she displays and if this is NOT fully cleared in two weeks we will be looking at a skin biopsy. Please, please pray for Mikayla. She has been through a lot since coming home and she really hates the doctors at this point. The past three weeks we have been to doctor offices over 12 times. That’s insane.

She is still doing great at her school. Her therapies are really helping to improve things. We are still having terrible trouble with her pulling her hair out and some major feeding issues still. Her OT has been working endlessly with us on those issues and we are desperately trying to divert her when it comes to the hair-pulling as she has now pulled out ½ the hair on the top of her head. We were also approved for a grant through our MRDD so we will be able to purchase various adaptive items to help her, including a weighted vest which she desperately needs.

I was under a great deal of stress because it turned out I needed to take one of my Praxis tests earlier then they originally told me. I found out two weeks before the test and crammed like a wild woman. Kris and the kids dropped me off yesterday to take it at The University of Akron. I think I did OK. It was 60 multiple choice and 6 essays and I had two hours to complete it. If I would have had 30 more minutes I would have felt MUCH better. I felt rushed. But I think I did fine. I will get my results in 4 weeks. Pray I pass because I really don’t want to take it againJ
My computer broke about two weeks ago and my dad had to take it and get it fixed for us. THANKS DAD! We picked it up today and obviously, since I am on it now, it is working GREAT. It had to have a new power box put in it. It probably died because I am on the computer too much. ROFL.

Today we went to Mansfield to see my Aunt Chris and Uncle Dan who are up from Florida and my Aunt Zell who was up here as wellJ We had a great afternoon visiting and hanging out. We don’t get to get together often at ALL so this was a wonderful, wonderful day.

Please say a prayer for my sweet grandpa. They found a mass in his colon this past Thursday and will be operating tomorrow. I am praying that it will be “nothing” and that he will recover quickly. But I will appreciate your prayers for him and for my dad, who left after our picnic today to head down to be his with family. They live two hours south of my mom and dads in Southern Ohio.

So as you can see we have been up to a lot…none of it real good! I am hoping for an EASY rest of the summer….we deserve it at this point for SURE.

I have no idea why this is blue underlined...sorry about that...but I am too tired to figure it out!

Kisses for Grandma
She LOVES corn
Daddy's Dude
I like this pic:-)
My family!
~Smiles~
Kayla and her Aunt Chris

Spinning on Papa's computer chair
Alec with his "grabber-nabber"
Alec and Kalya chasing each other

Here she comes!

Off she goes!

She looks so big here:-(

Sweet Little Girl
Alec...almost SIX!
Mikayla's turn by the Soy Beans
Awwww....
Mom and Dad

Kris, me, and Aunt Chris
HAIL STORM!
It was WILD!
Close up!
She wore this last weekend when we went to have lunch with my mom and dad:-)

We went to the ENT this day
Book anyone?
This was the day we went to the specialist in Cleveland...she crashed

Visit with CHRISTIAN!
Hanging out:-)
Mikayla wanted to take Libby for a ride!
No fear at all
Christian trying to take Mikayla for a ride

SPEED RACER ALEC
He is obsessed with Speed Racer. That's his B-Day party theme!
One shoe on, one shoe off, hiding because she saw the camera. This was a "shot day"
Reading
You can tell she doesn't feel well here...keep us in your prayers tomorrow...or likely when you read this ...TODAY!

Happy 4th of July EVERYONE!!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful July 4th today! It's such a special day to us for so many reasons, one of which being that we are so proud that our daughter was able to become a citizen in this wonderful country where so many people dream of coming!

We celebrated the day by heading up to the first annual Red, White and ZOO at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo today. It was so much fun and the kids just loved it. It was so neat to see everyone celebrating there and all the children and families decked out in red, white, and blue. Just a really, really neat day. We were able to do so many fun things there today and with the weather in the 70's, it was just the perfect day for an outing to the zoo. Before we headed to Cleveland we stopped at Friendly's for lunch and then made the hour trip north for a fun-filled, festive, Fourth of July day! LOL.

We got home at about 7 PM and of course Alec was DYING to see the fireworks. I knew that one of us would take him, but with Mikayla's sensory issues I wasn't too sure about her. Not to mention they didn't start until 10PM and Mikayla is asleep no later then 8 pm each night. We kept her up and by the time we left here to head downtown she was in total meltdown mode. LOL. Oh well...we were going. We didn't take her last year and it was time she witnessed her first firework display. She was OK when we got down there and parked and then they started...and OH MY did she ever LOVE it. She totally got all excited saying WOWEE, WOWEE, BOOM BOOM BOOM. She was clapping and pointing and jibber-jabbering away. She loved it. Alec of course thought it was the greatest thing ever and told Mikalya "see honey, your big brother knows the cool things to do, I knew you would like this. Just stick with me Mikayla and I will teach you all the cool and fun things like this to do." He said it so innocently and sweetly.

All in all, this was one of the BEST days I have ever had. We just had a total blast today and the kids were in great spirits all day. It was a wonderful, amazing day...I hope and pray yours was the same!

They had this set up at the entrance of the Zoo for pictures...all flowers. Pretty cool!
Off we go on the train ride!
Alec, map in hand, on the train
Kisses for daddy
Checking everything out
Looking at the Kangaroos

Coming back in to the station:-)
OK this was SO cool. You buy little cups of nectar and then you go into this bird sanctuary where there are about 25 beautiful birds who will just fly right up on your hand and drink the nectar. It was AWESOME!
Alec would barely move...he was a little freaked out by it.
Can you tell here? He looks like "DAD HELP ME!"
Mikayla has no fear....here she is feeding one of them

She loved it!
Alec making his penny into a souvenir
Waiting for the "TOUCH" exhibit where you touch the rays and sharks
Here is Kris and Alec in the TOUCH exhibit
Mikayla checking out the Flamingos

Mommy and Alec
Isn't he pretty? Or she? Who knows!
Mikayla HAD to have this Polar Bear in one of the shops. She never let go of it all day and had to take it to bed with her too. It is soooooooo soft!
And here is a real one!
Sorry...don't know what this is. LOL.

Grizzly Bear
My two amazing, smart, beautiful kids:-)
Riding on daddy's shoulders. WOW...doesn't he look HUGE up there?
Mikayla LOVED sitting on this Elephant
Oh NO I am NOT getting off of this thing mom!

Nope...going to have to pry me off!
Slide time for Alec!
Slide time for Kayla!
They had this set up for today too! Pretty cool! You can't see it real well but it says

July 04, 2008

Cleveland

Zoo

Wish someone could have taken one of ALL of us:-( But Kayla and I still look good! HAH!

Mommy and Alec
In the van waiting for the fireworks to start
She didn't know WHAT was going on while we were waiting!
This is a good picture:-)
Me and my kiddo's

Here they GOOO!
Alec the cameraman!
She was totally fascinated by them
Pretty!
Way past bedtime...she fell asleep before we were out of the parking lot!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!