Finally

Well, we finally heard from Vanderbilt. We will be seeing the Doctor that we were hoping to get in with. That's a plus.
We are headed to see him on September 21. Please continue to keep Ema in your prayers.
Side bar...Keep Hunter in your prayers. He is attempting to get the boys to sleep in their own Big Boy beds at night. Let me tell you what fun it is! We get to take turns sleeping on the floor with them at night until they fall asleep. Our backs are loving it!!! Just pray that they will be Big Boys really soon!!!
On a good note, we are having Ema dedicated at church soon. I'm really excited about that!

Cleaning & Keeping Busy

You know how there are certain things that you just can't control no matter how much you'd like to be able to (please read blog UAB Visit)??


I have found a way to control something in our newly, more chaotic world...I have become a maniac cleaner. Hunter and I are not the neatest people you have ever met, but I have decided to become the neatest person I can possibly be. For the love of Pete...I cleaned the grout in my shower for an hour!


Random thought for the day: My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are really good people. Hunter & I really hate that we don't live close to each other, and we don't get to see them very often. That was all to say that Jane shared something with me the other day that was awesome, and I just want to share it with anyone that reads this...

"Stay calmly conscious of Me today...no matter what. Remember that I go before you as well as with you into the day. Nothing takes Me by surprise. I will not allow circumstances to overwhelm you, so long as you look to Me. I will help you cope with whatever the moment presents. Collaborating with Me brings blessings that far outweigh all your troubles. Awareness of my presence contains joy that can endure all eventualities." Jude 24-25, II Corinthians 4:16-17.

Thanks, Jane!

UAB Visit

Well, we didn't really get the news we were hoping to hear from UAB. I've just been trying to take it all in right now, so it's taken me a little while to post anything.

Basically, her head circumference went from the 50th percentile to the 90th percentile in 2 months. While her head stayed within the range that the Doctor had given us, it still grew quite a bit. The CT Scan was apparently much more telling than her head circumference. Dr. Oakes had originally told us that she does not have hydrocephalus unless the fluid leaves the ventricles in her brain and goes to other places. From what I gathered (trust me, even with a degree IN medicine, this guys is a little hard to follow and his answers require translation), the fluid amount was only large in the fourth ventricle prior to this visit. Her CT scan showed increased fluid now in the first and second ventricles.
Saying all of this...he told us that we are at decision time. His recommendation was to return in three months with an MRI, and from what I could translate, plan on surgery soon after if her the fluid continues to increase. Our issue now...we have to change doctors. He was very kind in telling us which physician he would chose out of our options. He seemed to be confident in the other doctor's ability and experience. Unfortunately, this doctor may not be comfortable with waiting the three months, and he may tell us that she needs to have surgery now.

I am officially in shut-down mode. For now, it's the only way I know to keep myself together. Hunter is one amazing man who just keeps on trucking as well. God will get us through this and we both know that. We just had such hope after our last visit that she may never need a shunt. I know it may seem routine to all of these doctors, and everyone around us seems to blow it off since "the doctors know what they are doing." I just can't quite fathom my daughter being put to sleep much less having surgery. Sedating her for the MRI is scary enough!

Right now, we are waiting on our pediatrician to call with an appointment at Vanderbilt. More to come.

Preschool Orientation...Are you kidding me?

Well, this week has begun! I left work today to go to school with Hunter and the boys for preschool orientation. That's right, PRESCHOOL.
I hid my tears from Hunter b/c I knew he'd think I'm insane. Poor guy...all he wants to do is get away for a few hours once a week and get big boy things done and all I want is to make sure my kids are at home 24/7. But, since I hid my tears from him and was grumpy today, he just thinks I'm in a bad mood. They just can't possibly be old enough to go to school. During orientation the Director was talking about their syllabus for the year...Are you kidding me? I don't think I knew what a syllabus was until I was in undergrad!

Now that today is mostly behind us...we are heading to Birmingham tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers. We try not to think of Ema having anything wrong with her, but when this day approaches, you just can't forget.

Two of the THREE namesakes in her life are going with us. It will be Hunter, my mom, Uncle Mitch, Ema & Me. So, I'll keep you informed as soon as I know anything. It's going to be a long day.

Unbelievable

I will preface this story with...I am a nervous wreck. Next week is getting to me extremely early. I know crying and stressing and worrying, etc is not what will help us get through this, but I just can't seem to help it.

OK. I know I am a little stubborn and hard to deal with occasionally. Seriously though, today I experienced the most unbelievable 5 hours of my life.
I had 5 seperate tests run today. That was a little overwhelming in itself. I apprently made the mistake of being courteous and totally messed things up. The people that call and tell you what to do for prep told me not to eat or drink anything for 6 hours prior to coming. They didn't bother to tell me that for one of the tests I had to have a full bladder. Hmmmm...doesn't take rocket scientists to figure out that this cannot actually work. In my doctors' infinite wisdom, I had 4 tests scheduled at one facility and then two hours later had the fifth test scheduled at another facility which is about 20 minutes away. Not the best of ideas, but I guess they thought it would work. I decided when I was supposed to be there in 20 minutes, and I still had two tests to go, that I should call the second place and let them know. Fine. I did. They didn't let the radiology department know; therefore, my doctor accused me of rescheduling and told me they couldn't help me. Wow...I don't know what else there was for the day to get much worse. It took a lot longer to get better. Ultimately, my doctor ending up calling ME and asking me to talk to a hospital liason about how I was treated. I guess that makes me fell better???

So, maybe I am way too emotional right now.

4 more days.

Soccer Season

Well, soccer season is upon us! For those of you who follow me on here and aren't sure what that means...
Hunter is a referee AND he plays; SOOoooooo that means a whole lot less Hunter around the house past 4:30 or 5 pm. He refs middle school, high school, college and rec soccer. Yeah, I know, it overwhelms me thinking about all of that, too!
It's really awesome for him though, b/c it's his job outside of the house, and well, he really enjoys it. We miss him tons around the house, but it's only seasonal....so, we'll get through it.

Oh, by the way, my doctors have decided to work up the chest pain I had in the hospital after I had Ema b/c it happened in the middle of the night Monday night again. No one seems to have a clue, so I'm going tomorrow for a battery of test. Totally don't want to go, but Hunter said he would drag me down there if I tried to not go.

COUNTDOWN: 5 days until we go to UAB. Keep Emalinn in your prayers!

Back at it!

Well, I didn't get to finish doing any blogging while I was on vacation b/c my computer pooped out on us. We had internet service for just a few days and then we couldn't use it at all. Oh well...I guess it wasn't meant for us to be on the computer during VACATION.

An update on the vacation...the kids enjoyed it, but I think they are still too young to really like playing in the sand. Little Miss Ema just slept on the beach a lot. We made it through just fine, though!
We went out to eat a couple of times after my parents came down for dinner and it was really good. I had probably one of the best meals I have ever had at the Red Bar in Grayton Beach. Go there if you are ever near Seaside/Destin area.
We shopped at the outlets when it was raining. Coach was having an awesome sale!!!

Unfortunately, right in the middle of our vacation, United HealthCare managed to upset us. We were basically only approved to see Dr. Oakes (Ema's Neurosurgeon) one more time for what they call a "Closure visit." Please explain to me why. That's all I know to say! We are basically left to find someone else to take care of her after we've already established with him. Isn't that just awesome!
I'm filing an appeal with UHC, but I was informed by our pediatrician that appeal process is usually pretty dismal. How encouraging is that!??!!!
We'll see him next week and see what happens from there...
Keep us and this ridiculous insurance situation in your prayers.
If it doesn't work out, God has another plan for us.

Just an aside...42 1/2 cm (before 8/25/09) is the maximum we were not aiming to surpass on Emalinn's head circumference...the final measurement before we see him was 41 cm! THANK YOU, GOD!!!!

Good Morning, God!

Well, this blog should actuallly be dated for two days ago. I tried to send it from my cell phone multiple times and it didn't work...
So, I finally talked Hunter into leaving Sunday afternoon. It was a littly iffy whether or not the boys were going to do well or not. They were sooo good. We were really proud of them. Ema literally slept the entire time except when we stopped to feed her. We don't let the boys watch any TV except for one hour of Sesame Street, normally. On the way down though, we would have never made it without the DVD player.
8 hours and 6 or more stops later, we got here at midnight. Everyone was in bed by midnight and up and at 'em at like 6 am (Eastern time - We're really struggling with the time change. It's only one hour, but my cell phone won't change over for some reason, so I've been arguing with everyone about what time it actually is!).
The boys are having a blast at the beach. They didn't like the sand at first and mainly just sat on their chairs under the tent and ate their lunch taking it all in. They loved the ocean though!
Yesterday was a much more adventurous day for them. They played in the sand for a few hours; they wore their rings and floties and stayed in the ocean for quite a while.
It's absolutely beautiful here! I just can't describe how amazing God's creation is as I type this sitting on the back patio looking out over the beach and the grand ocean.
What a blessing it is to be enjoying such a wonderful part of it all!

SEEEEAAAASIIIIDDDDE

Well, I'm taking a break from packing for the kiddos and me. It sure is tough to get packed for 4 people. I don't mind it because I know we're heading off to the beach, but again, it doesn't make it any easier. Our friends, Kary & Ben, are already on their way down today.
My boss said I should be prepared to not have them as friends after we come back from this trip. I asked, don't you mean be prepared for them not to invite us again...she corrected me and said no, for them not to talk to us again. You see, they have no children. We are all staying in one house. Again, I repeat, they have no children. Kary did make me feel better and said they knew what they were getting into when they invited us. I'm still not so sure about that.
My parents are coming down in the middle of the week to join us and our friends. ALL IN ONE HOUSE!! Need I remind anyone that we have three children ages 2 and under!!!
Oh well, the rooms are all on opposite sides of the house. So, everyone can get away from us.
I'm so excited for the boys. They are really going to enjoy this! They've been talking about the beach for weeks now. They both proceeded to tell my parents that they have to stay here. What two year olds will say!!!!!!!
My next few updates will be from the beach. For those of you that don't know anything about it...Seaside is near Destin, but it's private. No hotels, motels or any chain restaurants. It's the quaint little town where The Truman Show was filmed. It really looks exactly like that. The house we stay in is 3 bedrooms w/ sunroom, patio and oh yeah, the backyard...THE BEACH! Please keep the jealousy to a minimum.

Last Day Until Vacation

I wish I had something profound to say on my blog today. I'm not a very profound writer anyways, but all that is on my mind is the fact that I'm leaving for Florida in a few days.
We have SOOOOO much packing to do. I'm not sure where to begin.
Even though I just got back to work from maternity leave, it just isn't a vacation, ya know?!
I'm so excited that I don't have to work for 10 days. We're going with friends to Florida. I'm not totally sure how welcome we will be after this year. We've done this trip three other times and have never had children...so here we go!
I wonder what the boys will think about the beach...hmmm??? I'll be sure and blog and post pictures while we're gone so that everyone can see my sweet babies at the beach.

Ok...I've set up blogging from my cell phone & am trying to make sure it works. Here goes!

Long time no blog!

We have been so busy, I haven't had enough time to blog. I've so missed it.



I was on call all weekend. Saturday we spent the day at the pool.



Sunday, Hunter and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We were so pumped for sushi at Hiroshi's. Babysitter in place, headed downtown, Chef's course here we come...............HIROSHI'S IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS!!
So disappointed. We headed to Sushi Nabe. While the food was excellent, no one really knew what a Chef's course was and it was twice the price for half the food. (Reminder, I said the food was excellent)
We made the best of it even though we were disappointed. We got away, which was really nice. We honestly still enjoy being alone with each other. It's so cool to still be in love after 10 1/2 years of being together.

Sidebar...We measure Ema's head circumference every Tuesday. We are 2 cm away from the upper limit that Dr. Oakes gave us. Please pray that it doesn't grow super fast over the next 2 1/2 weeks. We see him on the 25th and I don't want to have to make it any earlier!