Labwork for me...

My results just came in the mail. Not good and he scolded me on paper saying that it didn't even look like I was taking my medication. Some of it I have been, some of it I haven't as he was the one that told me if I wasn't taking birth control it would cause cause birth defects. We're not actively trying, but we're open to God's will and so I've been working with some natural supplements to try to improve my lab results. Anyway, my blood sugars came back very poor. I am not going to argue with that. With everything going on, I haven't been monitoring them as closely as I should be, I haven't been taking my insulin on a daily basis as I should have. Half the time I go in the kitchen intending to take my medication, the kids will all start asking for things left and right and after a couple of requests (demands), having to monitor behaviors and so forth, I've forgotten to take my medication and eat myself. I do eventually take my pills, but I forget to check my sugars and if I don't know what they are, I don't usually take my insulin. A few weeks ago, we reinstated our family membership up at the YMCA. I told Andy that I NEED to get myself back on track. I'm tired of being scared to go to the doctor because I don't want to get yelled at. I need to get my health back on track.

My thyroid levels are still extremely poor. He said it didn't look like I've even been taking my medication. I have been. My TSH is at a 26.6. They want to see it between 0.5-5.1. After I had Melina, I tested at a 73, and then later I was in the high 20s. They readjusted my meds and I'm still at a 26.6. This is with taking meds almost daily. I still feel tired all of the time, so I knew it wouldn't come back right. This is one reason why I called to get the labwork done. I'm just upset that he doesn't think I'm taking my meds as I am.

My blood sugars came back poor. My A1C should have been a 7 (what diabetics aim for...otherwise the norm is about 5-6 for the average person). I'm at a 9.7. My average blood sugar is a 232. I should be around 120.

My cholesterol came back high. My cholesterol came back at 263 (they want you around 200). My Triglycerides came back at 166 and they want you around 150. My HDL came back at 50 and they want you at 39. My calculated LDL was 180 and they want you around 100 and my risk ratio LDL/HDL was 3.60 and they want you around 3.22. This is the area where he wants me on meds and I won't take them because we're not using birth control. I am taking fish oil and trying to watch what I am eating...increasing fiber, eating more fruits and veggies to try to combat this.

The doctor wanted me to come in and talk about all of this with him. All I could think about was the last time I went in and how he scolded me and I walked out of there wanting to cry. Last time, I told him that I thought I needed to be on a long-acting insulin..he told me that I already was. When I got home, Andy was looking at the insulin pen that he gave me and said that it was different. Sure enough when we compared what he gave me at that visit as to what I had been taking...I was right...the one I had been taking had no long-acting in it at all. I called back to let them know, but my blood sugars have still been yucky. I still question whether if I went back on the insulin that I took while I was pregnant if they'd normalize. I wish my OB could be my primary care, but that office doesn't do that like I've had in the past. Anyway, I wrote him a letter regarding my lab work, my plan of action, what meds I've been taking, what supplements I've been taking, the reasons for not taking my cholesterol meds, and asking for my dosage on my thyroid medication to be upped and called in to the pharmacy and that I redo all of my labwork in 6 weeks. If theres no improvement, I'll go in to see him. We'll see what he has to say.

God is answering our prayers for Melina

She went from this...



to our happy girl...


and I just got the call from the nurse...her tests came back normal. I'm so glad that she is feeling better and that her tests came out well. PTL!

Labwork

Since the kids had Vacation Bible School this week, I jumped at the chance to finally go get my labwork done without having to tote all the kids with me. I had to go in for labwork and Melina needed a urine re-check. I know the doctor isn't going to be happy with how my blood sugars have been, but I am working on them. I'm going to ask him to do a recheck in 6 weeks so that I can show him that. With all the stress of Melina having pneumonia and so forth, I've put myself on the backburner. God revealed to me one day that I can't be any help to anyone else if I don't take care of myself too. So, babysteps forward. I will get there! I did it before, I can do it again.

I asked for a hat and a urine cup to bring home for Melina. I got her an apple juice box since she's finally figured out how to do the straw and sat her on the potty. I thought if I could get her distracted enough with the juice box and eating a cookie, that I'd have enough time to get her to go. That's how we got her last urine specimen. Anyway, I sat her down on the floor to grab something and no sooner did I turn my back I heard the splatter. She had peed on the floor. We tried again, but she was really wanting down. THey had just checked her urine at Children's on the 14th, so I called the doctor back to see if we could just use that one to schedule her renal ultrasound with the VCUG. They said that was fine. Thank goodness!

Josiah's 4-year Well Check

He's 41 lbs (81%) and 41 1/2 inches (65%). The doctor asked if he was still in therapy and I said he's still in OT to work on motor skills and behaviors. We went over his milestones and he seems to be right on target. Physically, he runs all over, climbs, jumps, can get himself dressed and undressed, can do buttons and zippers...still not doing great with scissors but it just takes practice. Socially and emotionally, he has a hard time understanding other people's viewpoints and feelings sometimes, he loves to play and pretend, he's getting very argumentative and bossy, he's having a hard time with understanding lying and the truth (we know that's normal around this age), he is defiant and copies all that he sees and hears. Language skills...he talks and talks and talks. His favorite question to ask is "why?" He is calling names and is silly. He likes to tell stories. We are working on learning his phone number.

He loves to brush his teeth and take baths. We are still working on getting him back to being potty trained without having accidents. He regressed back in March when I went into the hospital and we haven't been able to get him back to being 100% potty trained yet. We have a sticker chart and for each day he is dry all day, he gets a sticker. For every 5 stickers he gets to go to the treasure chest. He's about 50/50. He loves to eat...sometimes I think we're going to be in trouble as he gets older. lol. No sooner do we finish one meal, than he's already saying he's hungry again and wanting to know what the next snack/meal is going to be and when. My goodness can he eat a lot when he wants to. He's really not a picky eater either which is nice. :-) I think his favorite food are cheeseburgers right now. He loves pizza too!

We're still working on safety too..this child has NO fear and is constantly having to be reminded of eveyrthing. He loves to read and to play with his cars and dinosaurs. He also likes his Spiderman toys and is always talking about what his superhero powers are. He thinks he can fly and make things change colors. ;-)

He got his 4-year shots and really wasn't too happy about it, but he didn't cry that bad. He's all set to start preschool this fall.

Melina's 2-month well-child check

I took Melina in for her 2-month well check. She's 9 lbs even (52%) and 21 inches long (66%). I'm so proud of how well she's growing. Of course, she got her first round of immunizations which she wasn't too happy about. She started to really smile at us over the past couple of days and she started to coo yesterday. She is such a precious little baby, we are so very blessed!

Incision check

Had to go in to have my incision checked out today since I got out of the hospital. My incision is really red, so I have to go back and have him look at it again next week to make sure an infection doesn't develop. All I know is that I am really sore. :-(

Not very organized...

So, we had a meeting for the girls the week before last and something came up that they wanted us to have tested at the doctor's for the girls and their brother. I called on Friday to tell the doctor and they told me to come in this morning. I wasn't quite sure how they were going to test for it, finger stick, blood draw, or urine test. Anyway, I got in there and the waiting room was FULL. Sick little people all over, one boy was coughing over the toys and I really didn't want my littles over by him. Then, he started throwing up in the waste basket. Me and another Mom were just shaking our heads. They could have moved him back to a room to get him out of there so that he wasn't passing germs to anyone else as far as I'm concerned. We wound up sitting in the waiting room for an hour. Then, we finally get called back and they ask me what I need again and I explain it all again. I asked the med asst how they were going to test for it, and asked if they were just going to do a finger stick. She said that wouldn't give them an accurate picture and that the nurse practitioner would have to write a script and send us over to the hospital. They leave me in the room for another 15 minutes and Baby T got put in time out and was screaming at me just when they decided to come in. The NP asks again what I need and I tell her. She says she'll write me a script and if I go over to the hospital right then, she'll get the results later today. I'm so glad that I waited all this time and that we've been exposed to all these germs by this time. But, I'm still trying to be patient and so I take the scripts for the lab work and I head over to the hospital with the kids. I just didn't feel that her office was all that organized today. I should have gone home for Josiah's pill, but I figured that it wouldn't take that long. We get signed in and battle with the kids to be quiet and to sit still and we sit and sit and sit. Finally, the lab calls us back. By this point, Josiah was threw listening and was dancing around everywhere and could NOT sit still. The lab tech tells him to stand up against the wall, not to touch anything, and to keep his hands folded. Yeah, I'm trying to keep the girls still to do their blood draws and he's trying to get into the biohazard pail, the drawers, whatever he can touch. Finally, we get done and she says "I need urine samples." I told her that Baby T is not potty-trained and Little E had just gone potty not that long before. I take them all into the bathroom and Little E can't go, Josiah is turning the light on and off and trying to grab the containers off the counter. I try Baby T and of course she has no idea of what to do and so I just hold it there for a few minutes and nothing. Finally, I had had enough and I told the girls we were done. I came out and told the lab lady that they couldn't go. She wanted them to sit in the waiting room and drink something and then try in a bit. I told her "no, I'm taking them home. If something is wacky with their bloodwork, we'll do this, but if not, we're not worrying about it." I brought the specimen cups home with me in case we need to do them, but I decided that we all had enough waiting and I needed to get Little E to school and Josiah needed his meds. Just walking to the car was a process. He wanted to bolt out into the parking lot, he was trying to run down the halls, he was yelling at everyone. And of course when I was trying to redirect him, he was trying to throw his fits. He is a happy little guy and I'm glad of that, but he is a handful and a half when he's not on his meds. I wound up having to carry him out to the car so he wouldn't try running off on me. We got Little E to school and on the way out, both him and Baby T were throwing fits because they couldn't go to school too. One lady that was walking out with me looked at me and said "you have SO much patience, I would have lost it by now." I just smiled and said thank you. We got home and I got Baby T down for a nap and Josiah got his meds and he is still one very high-strung little boy. I have to wake up Baby T shortly so we can go get the girls from school and then I have conferences for Deidra. I'm hoping that the littles will cooperate while we are up there.

Crab, Crab, Whine, Whine...

Crab, Crab, Whine, Whine, that's the sound of the kids screamin' in the house (to the tune of that's the sound of the men workin' on the train). What a day it has been with the kids today and I am so proud of myself...I didn't even yell once.

The kids got up bright and early this morning, Baby T wasn't even up 15 minutes before she got put back to bed because she couldn't stop her crying. Little E was in time out right off the bat too as she refuses to listen and follow directions. Josiah has been squeeling and crying over everything. I knew it was that they were overtired from us being gone over the weekend. I got Baby T up to go to the store really quick as we were out of garbage bags and she only had one pull-up left and we needed milk and juice. Little E starts throwing a fit about having to get her shoes on to go to the store. I pick her and her shoes up and deposit her in the van and she starts SCREAMING! Baby T in turn starts crying very loudly and Josiah starts crying (sympathy cries??). I pull out of the driveway and Josiah is asleep. Yup, that's what I thought. We drive the 2 minutes to Wal-mart and get out and I grab the stuff we need and we run it home. I told the kids I was going to run the groceries in, grab the papers that I needed for Baby T's appt and then we were going to take Baby T to the doctor. The whole way to the doctor's appt Baby T is SCREAMING because she wants to tell me how and where to go when I'm driving. I get to the doctor's office and the door is locked. They don't open til 10 and her appt was at 10. They start fussing again and Josiah will not quit messing with the door. They finally open the door and call us back and Josiah gets mad about something and then gets mad when I go to pick him up and he flings his shoes off his feet. Baby T is screaming because I let go of her hand and Little E is yelling "I don't WANT to go back there...I'm not done playing out here." I finally get them back there and they need to weigh Baby T and she literally starts screaming and jumping up and down over having to stand on the scale. At this point, I considered ripping out my hair. I stood her on the scale and they got her weight and we get our room. She starts SCREAMING because we're going in a room. The other kids start playing. Little E decides all the toys are hers and she doesn't want to share and she's acting up because she's refusing to share and I'm making her do it. Finally, I get her to come sit on the chair next to me and I had Baby T on my lap. Deidra is playing with Josiah and they are stacking the stacking rings up high. Little E sticks her foot out ever so slyly and proceeds to knock it over just to be mean. Josiah starts crying and hollering. So, I sit Baby T down in the chair and have Little E come sit on my lap and she starts screaming at the top of her lungs "you're hurting me, you're making my leg bleed." Now for the record...she was sitting on my lap, I wasn't forcing her to sit there or anything and she made me put my arms loosely around her so she'd feel more secure...she waasn't being forced to sit on my lap in any way...I wasn't holding her down. And her leg wasn't bleeding. At this point the doctor decided to walk in...Josiah is still hollering about his toys being knocked down, Baby T is hollering because she's no longer on my lap and I have her sitting in the chair next to me, and Little E is hollering because her leg is supposedly bleeding, which it wasn't. The doctor says to me "wow, what is going on in here...I wasn't sure I should even enter with all the noise going on in here." How embarrassing!! Baby T proceeds to throw a fit when the doctor has to look at her mouth and I had to hold her head so she'd quit moving. We both kept telling her that nobody was going to hurt her. We talked for a few minutes and she says "well, I think you're right that she's tongue-tied...she's pretty tight and her tongue won't even go to the roof of her mouth." She is referring us to an ENT to let him decide if she needs to be clipped or not. We go to leave and the kids want suckers...well, I wasn't rewarding them for acting that way so yet more temper tantrums happen out in the waiting room. I had to get Deidra to get Josiah for me so that I could pick up Baby T and get Little E's hand and get them out to the car. She has been such a big helper lately...I don't know what I'm going to do when she has to go back to school in another couple of weeks.

We come home and I feed the kids their lunch as Baby T had a speech appt coming up and then all the littles had occupational therapy. Baby T refuses to eat and sits and cries and cries until I put her up in her room to calm down. Little E and Josiah ate just fine but then they wanted other stuff and they didn't want to listen when I said no and all I kept hearing was "but, we like it." Well, just because we like something doesn't mean that we're always going to get it right when we want it. Little E starts acting up and she gets a time out and no sooner is she up in her room, she's back out "I'm ready to listen." I told her that I would let her know when it was time for her to come out and that she needed to go back in her room. I get Josiah napping on the couch and I let Little E out finally (it took a few times before she'd actually stay in her room and finish her time out wihtout trying to tell me what she was going to do). She wakes Josiah up on purpose which got her put back in her room and Josiah is crying over everything again and yelling "I'm tired." Then, they decide that it doesn't matter that they've just eaten lunch, they want a snack. They don't like "no" for an answer and more drama entails. They all got put in time out until they calmed down.

The speech therapist arrives and Baby T goes in with her. Little E keeps trying to go in there and she's making excuse after excuse to get in there. "I have to go potty." I just need to get a book." Everytime I had to redirect her out of there and the few times she refused to listen, she wound up in her room. I thought at one point she fell asleep...WRONG! Nope, she had opened her door ever so quietly and went into Deidra's room and made a MESS. So, she had to clean it up which she didn't like. Speech is done and the occupational therapist arrives. Josiah had fallen back asleep on the couch. So, we decided that Little E would go first today. Little E was so defiant for her at first and refusing to listen, that the OT took her outside to have her run around and do some jumping to see if that would help get some energy burned off so that she could focus. She still wound up in time out for not following directions and refusing what she was asking of her. Then, it was Baby T's turn...Baby T loves it when it's her turn usually...nope today she promptly threw a fit...jumping up and down in front of me and screaming her little head off. The OT wound up taking her by the hand and telling her that she needed to make good choices and that she needed to do her therapy. She eventually calmed down. The whole time Baby T is in OT, Little E is trying to push my buttons...she'd get in time out and by the time I'd come downstairs she was at the gate "I'm ready to listen, I'm coming down." It was a battle, but I kept a blank slate. She'd get out of time out and no sooner than she was back downstairs, she'd get defiant and wind up right back in time out and she'd say "are you mad at me now?" with a grin on her face. The OT says to me "she thinks getting in trouble is totally a game and it's almost like it's her goal to make everyone mad at her." I nodded as that's pretty much how it is. If I can get nose to nose with her and explain things and ask for eye contact, sometimes she takes me seriously...other times it does no good. The behavioral doctor says to keep doing what we're doing...she's acting out as she's confused and along with her ADD this is just how she is. Then, it's Josiah's turn and I had him go in and use the potty first and he decided "I don't WANT to wash my hands" and he starts kicking and screaming when I pick him up and wash his hands for him. He had pee on his hands, so I wasn't letting him off the hook. He comes out and promptly says "I don't WANT to play" and he always loves his time in OT as well. She makes him sit in time out until he can apologize for acting so ugly to me. He refused to say anything. He sat there a good 10 minutes with a total scowl on his face before he finally said "sorry." She did his therapy and she told me "I just don't know how you do it sometimes."

Therapy is done and I'm trying to make some appts and I get a call from our agency that Little E's hearing/vision screening never got documented and her file got pulled for an audit. GREAT! So, they want to know if I can get something from the doctor. And she informs me that there is a mandatory training that we have to go to as our training hours for that specific course expire this month. She informs me the training is from 9-4 this Saturday. Josiah was supposed to have his end-of-season t-ball party on Saturday from 1-4. I ask her if there's a video we can watch and she says that we physically need to be at this one. So, I have to cancel the t-ball party. UGH! So, I run up to the doctor's office, deal with cranky staff, and get what I need. Run over to the agency to have Deidra run it in for me. My case worker came out apologizing about everything. I know she's just doing her job, so I'm not really mad at her. She still feels bad about it though.

I come home to make dinner and once again Baby T starts crying. I couldn't figure out why and she won't make an attempt to tell me. So, I give her a warning...you continue to cry and you're going in your room. I count to 3 and she's still crying and I pick her up and carry to her room. I make dinner, Andy gets home, I tell him to go get Baby T so she can eat. We sit her down in her high chair and she proceeds to start crying again. I told her to eat and she wouldn't do anything. I gave her 5-10 minutes and the whole time she was crying (no tears...just crying). I gave her a warning that if she continued to cry she was going to go to bed for the night. She kept it up so we put her to bed. The minute I closed her door, she really started wailing. I just don't know what to do about all of her little temper tantrums. I have her in play therapy to see what's going on...everybody tells me I'm doing the right thing...well, why isn't it working? Why is she still throwing so many fits and crying? Even one of Deidra's friends said that everytime she comes over lately, Baby T is crying about something. I feel bad...I've tried giving her more one-on-one attention, I've tried giving her more affection, I've tried giving her time-ins, nothing seems to work. The OT has tried to use some signs with her and that only aggravates her even more and the crying worsens.

Anyway, we finally got the kids down for the night. I'm going to spend some time in prayer for my little ones, wash the blanket for our bed that the cats horked all over, and then try to relax a bit. And awww, my hubby informed me that he missed being with his family today...it feels good to be missed! I think we are finally out of our slump. YEAH! And I am proud of myself that in all the craziness of today, I didn't yell or get upset at all. I just dealt with everything the best way that I could.

Little E's 4-year check...

I took Little E in to get her 4-year well check yesterday. Deidra had been bugging me that she wanted the neighbor to go with us. She couldn't understand why I kept telling her no. We get there and the kids are all into everything while I'm trying to check in, we finally get called into a room and they were all trying to turn off the lights, run up and down the hall, use the bathroom, screeching, I just had to laugh. Then they tried to test her hearing and vision...she hadn't a clue of what she was supposed to do no matter how many times we tried to explain it...finally we gave up, but the doctor thinks she's ok Then they had to give her shots and do her TB test that we had to do. I told them that she's a fighter. The nurse attempted the TB test while I held her and each time she'd manage to pull away and she was just screaming bloody murder. We had to get another nurse to come in and help and even with 3 of us, we couldn't get it done. Finally, they said they were just going to do her shots and we'd have to come back for her TB test. The doctor poked her head in and said "no, we're going to get her done now...I used to do pediatric ICU...we'll get it done." It took 5 people to hold her down and she was still managing to squirm. Our ears were all ringing when we were done. I told Andy when she goes back in another month for 2 more, he's taking her in there or he's at least going with me as he's stronger than I am to help hold her. We sign her up for pre-k next week and I just kept trying to explain that if she wanted to go to school, she'd have to get her shots. I even tried to hold her on my lap...nothing seemed to help. Poor thing!

Baby J came through his surgery ok...

Wppppppppppe had to have him at the surgery center at 6:30 in the morning to get his adenoids out. We signed some papers and waited for a few minutes before they were ready to bring him back. She took his vitals and then they gave him some "goofy juice" to calm him down. I felt bad that we were laughing at him, but he was a hoot. He was tilting his head and looking at his funny, his words were slurring together, and he was drooling everywhere. Andy took some pictures for his scrapbook page. It's too bad we didn't have him on video. Anyway, they carried him back to the OR around 7:30 and we were told it would take anywhere from 30-45 minutes and that we couldn't leave the building. I couldn't imagine actually leaving the building, but she said a lot of parents go out for breakfast. That wasn't even an idea that I had...anyway they come out to tell us that everything went well, but that the whole back of his nose was covered in green goo and so we got some antibiotics for him. They called us back a few minutes later saying that we could come back and see him although he wasn't awake yet. I walked up to that bed and it took everything that I had not to start crying. He was crying and I thought he was coughing, but he picked his head up to look at me and then went back to sleep. They got some more vitals and then they told me I could hold him and sit with him in the big chair. They told us recovery would last about an hour. We got settled in the big chair and he threw up some mucous. She brought him some apple juice and that came back up. The doctor came in to check his throat for bleeding and said that we could go home once he stopped throwing up. He'd be back to check on him after the next procedure. We got some more juice down him after he had a little nap and that came back up as well. The nurse gave him some anti-nausea meds and had us try to give him a little more juice. He threw that up as well. He took a nap and she came in and checked him and I told her that I could feel his chest just rattling and I didn't know if that could happen or if it needed to be checked. She asked me if he was like that before surgery and I said no. She listened to him and then she said she was going to give him some different anti-nausea meds but that it would make him very sleepy and once he fell asleep she was going to give him a breathing treatment. He never fell asleep and that shocked her and the doctor. He did his breathing treatment on my lap and he threw up again. The doctor told us that he didn't know why he was still having such a hard time, but that he was apparently just very sensitive to anesthesia. At this point, Baby J was becoming a bit more active and they all just thought he was absolutely adorable. The doctor couldn't understand how he could look like so good while he was feeling so miserable. I told him that I always have a hard time knowing when he's not feeling well as he acts completely normal...he'll be running around like normal and all of a sudden with throw up all over the place. He doesn't get sick much either and he has a high pain tolerance as well, so it's hard to tell when he's not feeling all that well. Anyway, they had me feed him a popsicle slush and see if that would stay down. He was getting mad because he was hungry and I would only give him a little at a time. He kept the popsicle down for a few minutes and he wanted more. They brought him in another one and he was able to eat that whole thing and then he started not looking so good and up everything came. They also discovered that his IV wasn't working and so they took his IV out. Then, we were all confused on whether he had even managed to get any anti-nausea meds. She had him sit there for awhile to let his tummy rest and the doctor said that once he could hold fluids down for at least 30 minutes that we could go home. He gave me a perscription for some Phenergan to help him at home. They gave him a sip of water and had him sit for 30 minutes. He kept that down and so they let us come home at 1:30 pm. They took one last set of vitals and he was so cute...the nurse wrote his vitals down on her hand so she could chart it later and he says to her "hey, you wrote on your hands...you only write on paper." We all just giggled.

He was crying that he was hungry once we got home so I gave him a tiny amt of apple juice and a little chicken noodle soup and up it came a few minutes later. Poor baby! He took a long nap and got up and I gave him some Phenergan to try to eat some dinner and he was finally able to keep some soup and juice down. He wanted to go back to sleep after that and he wound up sleeping until 7 this morning. He is not a sleeper either which tells me that he felt miserable yesterday! However, I went to bed at 8 myself last night and didn't wake up until he woke me up this morning. He is still acting tired and wants to cuddle a lot, but he has spurts where he wants to get up and play and he kept his saltines down this morning that he wanted. So, hopefully today will be more like normal. He is still sounding really croupy though. I'll let him smell some of the cool air this morning and see if that helps.

What a beautiful day...

It is absolutely gorgeous outside. I babysat this morning and we took the boys to the doctor this morning. Baby J had his 2-year physical (he's 33 lbs and 35 inches tall). He had to get a finger stick to check his hemoglobin and he never even cried. He was such a good patient. Baby D I just needed to make sure he was up-to-date on his immunizations. He just needed a DTAP shot and he was good to go. Went and got Wendy's for lunch and all the boys scarfed down their lunches. Put the boys down for a nap and did a scrapbook page. Then my caseworker called so I ran up to the agency really quick. We talked a bit about Baby J's mom and she's hoping that if there are enough inconveniences for her that she'll relinquish. I just think for someone that just made the statement that they were having issues being separated from her son and needed some therapy to deal with it (no sooner did she say they that they transferred her to another RTC program that was a whole lot closer...so she went from being 6 hours away to about 40 minutes from us)...anyway, I just thought that she would have taken advantage of the time I was willing to give her with him rather than being selfish and wanting what she wanted and since she couldn't take him to the fair, she just wanted me to come get him. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me anyway. She hadn't seen him since February, I guess I just would have thought that as long as she spent time with him it wouldn't have mattered where they went or what they did.

Andy ran and got the girls from school while I gave the boys a snack after they woke up. Then, when he got back with the girls, I ran up to Wal-mart to get some diapers, stuff for Deidra's field trip tomorrow as she needed a sack lunch, and got a few things that we were out of. Came home and had a snack myself and tried to declutter my countertops a bit. Now, I'm blogging while Andy is filing the bills away and I'm trying to keep Baby J out of things. Then, I'm off to get ready for our foster parent appreciation banquet tonight. It'll be fun to have a night out. I get so shy around a bunch of people that I don't know, but I'm slowly getting to know the other foster families, so hopefully it won't be too bad tonight. I really need to come out of my shell some more.

It's so beautiful outside that I may go take the boys for a quick walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the green grass and seeing all the flowers. They love to go down by our pond and see if they can see some duckies.

Soooo busy!

Wow! I have been on the go today. We had to get Deidra to school by 7:50. I had to bring D to his 2-year physical. I had 8 written down on the calendar, turns out they had it in the computer as being 9:15. We came home for a bit and I filled out all of his paperwork. Went back up there and they were in the process of rolling out a whole new system. Turns out that he's never had any immunizations other than the 1 you get in the hospital...so we started with 2 month shots today. He'll be going back every 6 weeks until he's all caught up. He had to get some bloodwork done today too and I felt so bad for him with all the pokes that he had to get. He's terrified of the doctor's anyway...2 1/2 hours later we left with some more prescriptions. Went to the pharmacy to get prices so I could go ask the agency for a check as he's got a couple that are pretty expensive and his medicaid number hasn't gone active yet. Ran to the agency, then back to the pharmacy, and then back to the agency again so I could give them the receipt. Wound up getting called into the caseworkers lunch as they had a couple questions before we go to court on the 4th and to let us know how impressed they are with us. That made me feel good. Turns out that there was also a visit scheduled today, but they didn't want D going because of the medical stuff that he has. I feel bad that he won't be able to see his family. Just got home to feed the boys their lunch and we have to leave shortly to go get Deidra from school. Andy just left for work...bless his heart for helping me out this morning with everything. I'm hoping that Deidra won't have homework tonight as I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on with the boys stuff. Not to mention, that we planned on starting to pack tonight as well for the move. I'm just feeling a lot of stress today... I do feel good about my instincts now with this foster care stuff...it's nice to know that my worries are also the doctors worries and that I didn't even have to voice those before she did. I'm always worried that I'm going to sound stupid since we're so new at this. Now, I'm off to see if I can find a sitter for the 4th so that we can go to the court hearing.

Worried

I went for my yearly pap smear at the end of July. They called today saying that it came back abnormal but it wasn't giving them a grade. My ob-gyn said that since I don't have a history of abnormal paps that I could just come back in a year and have the test repeated. I asked his nurse if that was really ok to do as I don't really want to take a chance. She said that a lot of times the tests are misread and the doctor was just chalking it up to that. I hung up with her and sat and thought about it. I don't think I feel comfortable waiting a year. We have a family history of ovarian and uterine cancer. I called the insurance company and asked them if they'd cover a repeat test and she was shocked that the doctor was willing to let it go for another year without finding out for sure what a 2nd test revealed. So, now I'm worrying that this really may be cancer or something pre-cancerous. But, it makes me mad that the doctor just blew it off like that. Unfortunately to have the 2nd test covered under insurance it has to be done by the same doctor, but if I still don't feel comfortable after that one, I'm switching offices.

Update: Well, the doctor himself called and said he won't do another test as he doesn't think I have to worry. So, I'll be calling my Mom's doctor that she goes to and having another test done there.

So many appointments...

So, yesterday Andy took a vacation day so we could go around and get all the appointments that we needed to get taken care of out of the way so that I could quit the depot. We had about 5 appts yesterday.

#1 I had my yearly appt with the ob-gyn. Talked to him about the problems with my cycle and the barely there periods and the 2-3 week thing where I'll bleed, pass a clot, bleeding stops for the day or two until I have another clot to pass. I cramp horribly during all of this sometimes. He said that I had 3 options since he felt that it was all due to my PCOS. I could choose to go back on the pill (not going to happen), go back on clomid (at $2k-$3k a cycle because insurance doesn't cover it not going to be an option), or do what I've been doing. Since it's not heavy bleeding I chose to do what I've been doing. He also said that my blood sugars, diet, and weight all are contributing factors and to continue to get back on my diet and see if the weight loss helps. To come back in a year or come back if I want to try fertility treatments again or if I manage to get pregnant on my own. I left feeling kinda mad, although I'm not sure why. The doctor's nice enough and he did congratulate us on becoming foster parents and hopes we get to adopt.

#2 Andy had to go to the dentist. He has to go back to get a cavity filled and to get a chipped tooth fixed and then he'll get his teeth cleaned. They just did x-rays and checked out his teeth at this appointment.

#3 I had to go to the eye doctor since I need to get my Texas driver's license and couldn't pass their vision test with my left eye. My right eye tested at 20/30 vision which passes. He did my left eye and he said I have a significant stigmatism and my vision in that eye is only testing at 20/50. I got contacts. Let the eye doctor put them in for me with no problems. Then, they made me take them out by myself and put them back in. I got a massive headache later on, took Deidra to cheerleading practice...came home and went to take them out. I dug in my left eye thinking the whole time that it was hurting, couldn't get the contact out so I went to my right eye. That one came out with no problem, went to dig in my left eye again when all of a sudden it dawned on me...it must have fallen out. Made Andy check for me and he didn't see it either. I had to call and get another one today. Got them in today with no problems...but I keep moving them around to make sure that they're still in there. lol

#4 Andy went to the eye doctor too since it had been over a year. His eye glass perscription changed slightly...so we're both going to get glasses too.

#5 I had to go get my brother from his therapy appointment. He stayed to help and run errands with us all day. He likes bee bopping around with me all day and we laugh and laugh. We're bad influences for one another really, but boy we have too much fun.

Of course, we had to go check on the progress of the house a couple of times too. I always go over once in the morning and we go after Andy gets home in the evening too. My brother laughs at me, but where he has therapy is not even 2 minutes from the new house and our current house is only about 5 minutes away.

I think I'm turning my 2 week notice in at work this weekend. :-)

Baby J's 15 month well baby visit...

Baby J had his 15-month check this morning. He's in the 80th percentile for weight and height. He weighed in at 27 lbs and 2 oz. He's 30 1/2 " long. She said his eczema looks a ton better. He goes back to the dermatologist for a follow-up on the 1st (the clinic dermatologist is booked through the year so I have to drive him an hour away to go to his appt with a new doc...same clinic just different office area). The only concern that she had was she can't tell if both of his testicles have descended and so we have to take him in for an ultrasound on the 3rd of August. So, we may be possibly looking at surgery. I'm hoping that's not the case though. Guess we'll find out next week. Otherwise he's doing well. I noticed when she gave me a list of his milestones though...that we have a lot to work on. His therapy should be starting soon too...so that will help as well. He was also behind in immunizations so he got 4 shots today and they'll give him 3 more at his 18 month appointment. He took the first shot without even crying, when they gave him the 2nd one he cried and by the 3rd one he was really crying. Poor baby! We also discovered that he doesn't like band-aids. Those got torn off by him within a matter of a couple minutes. He just took them off and handed them to me. He's fussy and doesn't want to eat too much now, but he's doing good. We have a mandatory training to go to tonight at the agency...so I'm hoping he does ok for them when we're in the training.

Wow...

my week is quickly filling up fast. It looks like today may be my only free day. Jimmie has therapy twice a week and I tote him back and forth, we have a training at the agency, Baby J's CPS worker is coming out for a visit, Venus has to go to the vet (she's started scratching and scratching and is making cuts in her skin), I have to get my car in for an oil change, Baby J has his well-baby check up, and we are planning a day at the water park on Friday morning after I get my brother from therapy.

Next week is totally more of the same. I had a bunch of appointments to get taken care of as well so that I can quit the Depot. I had to get all of us into the dentist, Andy and I need to go to the eye doctor, and I'm overdue for my pap smear. I just for whatever reason am so terrified to go to the eye doctor to get my glasses or contacts...I haven't decided on what to get yet. But, I need them to get my Texas driver's license and my license expires in September on my birthday. Deidra also has her first cheerleading practice next week. I can't believe that just around the corner she'll be starting first grade either. Just a few weeks away and I plan on being out of the Depot by then.

Help us to sail smoothly through these appointments and that we can stay on task, Abba. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.