I know I have been absent. Let me just begin by saying that life is complete MADNESS right now. The holidays, birthdays, new births, etc. We are just SUPER busy...not in a bad way though! :-)
We will be leaving around 4am tomorrow morning to drive to St. Louis to be with my cousin, Leslie, and her hubby, John, as they welcome there new baby girl, Kelsey Lynn, to the world! I am super excited to say the least :-) Most of you know that I am the oldest of 4 kids and in saying that, Les, has always sort of been like my "big sis". I am so blessed to not only have a cousin whom I love, but also one that I have found to be one of my few soul mates as well :-)
My computer has bit the dust again and I am trying to hold out until friday to purchase a new one so that is another reason for the absence when it comes to blogging! (It's way hard to do on a cell phone, people!!)
Until I am up and running again I will probably be absent...sooo...until then you can keep up with our family MADNESS on facebook if you like :-)
Hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving! I know that this last year has been full of up's and down's for my family like never before, BUT I have to say that it has also been one of the most "blessing filled" years I have ever experienced! God is soo Good!
Gobble! Gobble! (from Eli :-) )
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
6 Months Post Op...
Last Tuesday Preston had his 6 month post op check up w/ Dr. G. We left early and he endured an ultrasound and also a CT Scan and more bloodwork before we actually saw Dr. G. He was an angel!! I should have never expected anything less then that though...with everything this child has been through he has always been an absolute joy! I still jump and cringe everytime a needle comes towards me, but it's like he is looking at the nurse saying, " Ok, cool..just stick me!" as he smiles and flirts...lol.
So, back to the appointment. Dr. G was VERY impressed w/ how well his scar looked. For those of you that have never seen it it is AMAZING to see what he has come from to now what it looks like. As he grows it will most likely move down his neck and eventually end up on his chest. The incision was MUCH bigger then we had originally thought before the surgery so we are very happy that it has healed so well. It goes from right underneath his left ear and wraps all the way around his neck to about the middle of the right side of his neck...since he is a chubby bunny though you hardly ever see it! Lol.
When Dr. G removed the mass we were well aware that a small amount of it was not able to be removed...this part was attached to the jugular vein and that is just not an area anyone wants to mess with..especially on the small neck of a 3 wk old!! We knew that it would grow and in the future he will most likely be faced with other surgeries, but we are confident that will be even farther in the future now. Dr. G told us that the part of the mass that was left behind had only had 5% growth in 6 months!!!!! This was GREAT!!! He had prepared us for at least 20% growth so we were thrilled that it was better then he had thought! We don't really have to start talking about surgery options until the mass is about 65% growth or affecting his airway..whichever happens first. We will continue to see him every 3 months to monitor this.
The only other news was P's swallowing issues. P now has 6 teeth and at this point most kids will start eating thicker foods such as mashed potatoes, sucking and swallowing on cheerios or gerber puffs, etc. While P wants things like that BADLY we have not been able to get him to successfully swallow anything past Stage 2 baby foods w/o choking. During his surgery his vocal box (which plays a big part in swallow reflexes) was slightly damaged and just sort of pushed around. Dr. G feels this is why he is having problems swallowing thicker substances and hopefully with some more time will resolve itself. If not we will be seeing a Speech Pathologist for some more swallow studies and therapy. Right after surgery we worked with a Pathologist at Vandy b/c he had issues even swallowing breast milk and the therapist was such an awesome lady...we hope we will be able to see her again if we must.
Overall P is just growing like a weed! His thyroid (or half of!) seems to be doing a much better job at functioning as I have seen a huge change in his appetite and weight gain. He was gaining VERY fast there for a few months but the steriods they are using to try and kick start the thyroid seem to be working, in my opinion. We will do more blood work after christmas to make sure. Also, he is still infection free as far as his kidneys go. No UTI's since like Mid August so that is GREAT! He is still on Bactrim daily, but is getting sooo much slicker in trying to REFUSE the meds..lol. As long as we don't get any break through UTI's before Jan. we can wait until then to see the Urologist again for more testing.
I am going to post below a "tumor timeline" of what P's neck looked like at 6 days old, 3 wks old, the night before surgery, and then 2 days after surgery, and one month post op, and NOW! It's such a roller coaster of emotions to see the pictures now. Those feelings are still fresh and I can still feel all the crazy emotions we went through in each of these pictures. I just continue to Thank God for his blessings and even though P may face more obstacles in his future he has a future...and a VERY bright one at that! :-)
You can't see his neck here, but had to share this...This was right before we were discharged...I feel like he is holding on for dear life saying "Get me outta here, daddy!" He is almost 5 wks here.
So, back to the appointment. Dr. G was VERY impressed w/ how well his scar looked. For those of you that have never seen it it is AMAZING to see what he has come from to now what it looks like. As he grows it will most likely move down his neck and eventually end up on his chest. The incision was MUCH bigger then we had originally thought before the surgery so we are very happy that it has healed so well. It goes from right underneath his left ear and wraps all the way around his neck to about the middle of the right side of his neck...since he is a chubby bunny though you hardly ever see it! Lol.
When Dr. G removed the mass we were well aware that a small amount of it was not able to be removed...this part was attached to the jugular vein and that is just not an area anyone wants to mess with..especially on the small neck of a 3 wk old!! We knew that it would grow and in the future he will most likely be faced with other surgeries, but we are confident that will be even farther in the future now. Dr. G told us that the part of the mass that was left behind had only had 5% growth in 6 months!!!!! This was GREAT!!! He had prepared us for at least 20% growth so we were thrilled that it was better then he had thought! We don't really have to start talking about surgery options until the mass is about 65% growth or affecting his airway..whichever happens first. We will continue to see him every 3 months to monitor this.
The only other news was P's swallowing issues. P now has 6 teeth and at this point most kids will start eating thicker foods such as mashed potatoes, sucking and swallowing on cheerios or gerber puffs, etc. While P wants things like that BADLY we have not been able to get him to successfully swallow anything past Stage 2 baby foods w/o choking. During his surgery his vocal box (which plays a big part in swallow reflexes) was slightly damaged and just sort of pushed around. Dr. G feels this is why he is having problems swallowing thicker substances and hopefully with some more time will resolve itself. If not we will be seeing a Speech Pathologist for some more swallow studies and therapy. Right after surgery we worked with a Pathologist at Vandy b/c he had issues even swallowing breast milk and the therapist was such an awesome lady...we hope we will be able to see her again if we must.
Overall P is just growing like a weed! His thyroid (or half of!) seems to be doing a much better job at functioning as I have seen a huge change in his appetite and weight gain. He was gaining VERY fast there for a few months but the steriods they are using to try and kick start the thyroid seem to be working, in my opinion. We will do more blood work after christmas to make sure. Also, he is still infection free as far as his kidneys go. No UTI's since like Mid August so that is GREAT! He is still on Bactrim daily, but is getting sooo much slicker in trying to REFUSE the meds..lol. As long as we don't get any break through UTI's before Jan. we can wait until then to see the Urologist again for more testing.
I am going to post below a "tumor timeline" of what P's neck looked like at 6 days old, 3 wks old, the night before surgery, and then 2 days after surgery, and one month post op, and NOW! It's such a roller coaster of emotions to see the pictures now. Those feelings are still fresh and I can still feel all the crazy emotions we went through in each of these pictures. I just continue to Thank God for his blessings and even though P may face more obstacles in his future he has a future...and a VERY bright one at that! :-)
These are both at 6 days old(above...minutes before he started spitting up blood)
These 2 are from the night before surgery...we had planned on him being about 6 months but it began to affect his breathing and more than tripled in size in about 2 wks.
These were 2 days post surgery. He was doing so well, but still under medication.
You can't see his neck here, but had to share this...This was right before we were discharged...I feel like he is holding on for dear life saying "Get me outta here, daddy!" He is almost 5 wks here.
The picture on the left is ONE month post op and the pic on the Right is 6 months post op. (It's far away but just shows you how much better it looks!)
HEAL THE WOUND, BUT LEAVE THE SCAR. A REMINDER OF HOW MERCIFUL YOU ARE!!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Computer Troubles....
Well, I had TONS of updates that will just have to wait a bit longer...on thursday night my crazy laptop decided to go haywire!! I am praying endlessly that it has not crashed, but if it has my biggest prayer is that all of our info and pictures will be able to be saved. (I had not backed up in a month! stupid I KNOW!!!) So, until then I will be absent...but...I have LOTS of GOOD things coming!!! :-)
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Coming soon.....
I promise...we are alive....Life has been CRAZY and that's an understatement. Crazy, but good!:-) I hope to have time to post some update blogs this weekend...maybe. Until then hope everyone has a safe, and Happy Halloween! Lots of Pics coming soon!!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Not Me! Monday
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
So, I have been reading Not Me! Monday for awhile now on Mckmama's blog and decided it was time to join in :-) So, read, join, laugh, or just enjoy reading that I am in NO WAY a perfect mommy..lol!
Ok, I did not let my 3 year old eat his dinner while in the bath tub just in effort to not have another mess to clean up...not me! Oh, and I did not also feed P his dinner while he also sat in the bathtub...that's just crazy and in no way would I ever do that ;-)
I most certainly did not tell Eli that his trains were all broken down so that I would not have to make anymore endless tracks for them to ride on...never!
I did not let Eli eat PB&J for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Tuesday last week b/c he screamed for nothing but that....never would I do that....
I did not wash the SAME load of clothes 2 different times b/c I kept forgetting to place them in the dryer hours after they had been washed...NOT ME!
So...what did you do this week that other "perfect" mom's would gasp and be shocked at?!?! Lol....share with me or head over to MckMama's blog and tell her!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Gregory's Custom Automotive- Official Website!
Most of you know that about 3 months ago, Justin, went out on a leap of faith and went full time with his Custom business. It has been a WONDERFUL 3 months and the Lord has provided for us and plus some! Justin has had opportunities and doors open that have been amazing and it only seems to get better. I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished and what he will accomplish. A few blogs back I had mentioned some great news that we had coming up, but I have not been able to share it until we knew for sure it would happen. As of tomorrow, Justin and his brother Clint, will be owners of also Gregory Repair!! Gregory Repair has been Justin's dad's business for over 18 years and is a fully operating mechanic/machine shop. We will be buying this out and the guys will now be co-owners together. This is a huge door that has opened for our family and while it is a load of responsibility it is also FULL of opportunities and great things for our family years to come! So, Gregory Repair and Gregory's Custom Automotive will now be located right outside of Springfield, TN. (Justin recently changed his biz name so that people would not assume he only did graphics work!) Just today I got his official website up and running. It is still under construction and I have many testimonials and pictures to add, but it is up none the less. We look forward to sharing this journey with our family and friends and as always we know that God has this all in his hands. Only with him will all of this be successful! To him be the Glory!!
Click below to visit our new website and contact us for all your custom/automotive needs!
www.gregoryscustomautomotive.com
Click below to visit our new website and contact us for all your custom/automotive needs!
www.gregoryscustomautomotive.com
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