Mama's little helper.

On Friday, Carly helped me clean. She LOVES to help clean. I give her a Pledge Wipe and she's off to dusting. One of her favorite things to do. Well, to my surprise, she continued on with the dusting early this Saturday morning! She moved from end table to end table.

Toy to toy. Doll bed to doll stroller. She was on a roll!

Bedhead and all. Carly was on a cleaning spree this morning.

She is, without a doubt, Mama's little helper!

Wordless Wednesday...'er not!

Okay, so it's not such a Wordless Wednesday. Can you guess what kind of week I'm having??????? You don't need to think too hard. It's pretty self explanatory!

&

Ahhhh, such a great combination. Coke and chocolate. Dove, it is my new favorite!

Yep, it's that time of the month.........again! I get more sick of it each and every month. Not to mention, another week of H3ll concerning the school and Carly. There's no doubt about it, I've got my work cut out for me. We head back for part 2 of our IEP mtg., on Nov 16. Ugh! That's about all I can say..Ugh!

Carly is finally back to school. I sent her on Monday. She should be fairly well covered for the Swine flu. Plus, the Swine flu has slowed way down at her school. Of course, I'll pull her out again if and when it kicks back up. The swine flu that is!

We take Carly to have her second H1N1 shot sometime after Nov 24. That's going to be here before we know it. I'm so glad we kept her home for the last couple of weeks. I found out that her class, which has 18 kids, was down to 8 kids for 2 straight weeks. Not to mention many teachers and students from other grades were out sick as well. Some still are.

We were suppose to be heading to Ann Arbor tomorrow, but we canceled. I will not knowingly take her into a hospital that is full to the brim with the Swine flu. No way, no how. Both cardio and oncology were in agreement with this. Oncology was satisfied that her pediatrician just did a physical exam on Carly in mid October. However, we do need to have labs drawn within a few days. We could use a few prayers for good labs. I'm fairly comfortable that we will have decent results. Cardiology says we can go in 6 months, or bring her in whenever I'm comfortable. I'm sure I'll take her before 6 months!

Ashleigh was home over the weekend. Carly was THRILLED! As she always is whenever "sissy" is around. Last Thursday night, while Carly was lying in bed, we had a little conversation. It went like this:

me: Carly, sissy is coming home tomorrow night.

C: Yeeeeaaaahhh! (used her words)

me: What are you and sissy going to do?

C: taps her chin and says, hmmmm. Then continues with all this: books, (used her words). (She signed all of the following without skipping a beat), ~ eat cake, cookies, drink juice. Play blocks, puzzles, games, color, write. Play outside, swing, slide, climb.

She responded with continuous signing. She didn't pause to think about it. She just let it flow. Now..can anyone tell me, does my daughter communicate??? I believe she does. Yes, she does use some words, and her words are quite clear, but she mainly signs. Signing is her thing. Matter of fact, I've been putting a list of her signs together for the stupid school. So far I'm up to 457 all learned in the last 2 years. And I'm still working on list! Can anyone explain to me, why in the world the school does not see this?????? They are denying Carly her native language. Signing. That's the way I look at.

Yes, she kept Ashleigh quite busy over the weekend!

Nothing much else going on around here. Just the normal. Researching laws and regulations that the schools are suppose to follow regarding special needs kids. Gathering tons of information. Chatting with advocates and attorneys. Preparing for the upcoming IEP.

So much for the whole Wordless Wednesday theme!!

Have a great week everyone. I'll try to get back into the swing of things. I promise!

Noah Biorkman.

Noah Biorkman.

Noah is 5 years old. He is one of our fellow patients at The University of Michigan's Pediatric Cancer Center. Noah is a very sick little boy. His family is grieving. Even before losing this precious little boy to an unthinkable disease. His family is grieving.

His mother was told the absolute most devastating news. Noah was dying. Noah would not live to see another Christmas. The one Holiday that nearly every single child in the world looks forward to. Noah's mom decided to throw together an early Christmas for Noah. One filled with family and love. Complete with a Christmas tree, decorations and presents.

Noah's mom asked for cards to be mailed to their little boy. Christmas cards, upon the request of Noah! Paul actually heard this request on the radio just the other night. He mentioned to me that Brandon Inge, of the Detroit Tigers was involved. I knew immediately who Paul was talking about. Brandon Inge and his wife are HUGE supporters of UofM's Pediatric Cancer Center. I knew exactly who he was talking about. I quickly jumped online to Noah's carepage. One I've followed for a long time. I realized then that I had not been getting Noah's updates (along with a whole slew of others) and so I began to read. I began to cry. This sweet little boy is losing his battle. Not fair. Not fair at all.

Please hop on over to Noah's carepage and read the latest from his mom. This outpouring of love and support for this family is going way over the lines. Way too much for his family to deal with at this time. All mom asks for is, Christmas cards sent to her son.

Please keep this wonderful family in your prayers. They are hurting, but yet, trying to put smiles on their faces and make a magical moment for their dying son.

Update.

My mom went for her appt with nephrology yesterday. She was suppose to have an ultra sound done of her kidneys. The doc said this would tell them the loss of function and if it were both or just one kidney. He suspected both, due to the results of her previous tests.

Imagine her surprise when she walked in to his office yesterday and he told her, "no need for the ultra sound, you're A-okay"! She was shocked and very happy. This specialist did another work up on her 2 weeks ago. All her levels that were very concerning (blood levels) are all NORMAL now!!! He is not concerned at all. Says she may have had a UTI going on and that may have thrown everything off. Safe to say, my 71 year old mother was doing the happy dance!


This picture is nearly 2 years old. It was taken Christmas of 2007! Sadly, my mom and I are usually snapping the pictures, so we have very few of ourselves! Which tells me, I need to snap more pictures of my parents. My mom in particular!

Thanks for your prayers. Mom's words last night were, "prayers work"!

Fall Fun!

Fabulous Frenzy, of Fall Fun!!

Fascination!

20 years ago today.

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, Bradley Paul George

It just doesn't seem possible. I can not believe that twenty years ago today, I was holding our brand new baby boy in my arms. This was our very first 'family photo'. Family of 4! Not sure, but I'm willing to bet that Ashleigh (who never, ever stopped talking, still hasn't) made a comment about her new baby brother..that's likely why Paul and I are looking at her. Being this took place 20 years ago, I just can't remember what exactly was taking place during this snapshot!

Brad was our largest baby. He weighed in whopping 8lb 8.8oz and was 22" long. Poor baby had to be delivered via the vacuum extractor. Yes. It was as scary as it sounds. It's a suction device that is placed on the baby's head. Mom pushes, the extractor suctions the baby out.

Within 24 hours we learned, due to the vacuum extractor, our baby had a very badly broken collar bone. Poor little guy. He was in sooo much pain. I know many doctors claim newborns don't' feel pain. I beg to differ. And personally, those doctors have no business being doctors! But, that's just my opinion. Anyway, this little guy felt the pain. It was gut wrenching. Funny as this sounds, I was very thankful it was his collar bone that was broken. I read an article in Parents Magazine very shortly after his birth. The article was all about the dangers involved with using vacuum extractors. My heart sank as I began to read the article. I learned that many babies were dying due to broken necks after this type of delivery. So yes, I was thankful our baby had a broken collar bone.

Looking at our new baby, we couldn't imagine how he would be as he grew up. We wondered about his personality. Who he would look like. Who he would act like, behavior wise...of course, on bad days, he's his dad's son 100%. LOL! His looks, well those come from his dad too. Matter of fact, all of our kids look like their dad. :o)

Here we are 20 years later. Brad has grown into a nice young man. He has had his share of hard times in these 20 years. Hard times that a person of 20 years should not have ever had to endure. At least not so much, so soon, in such a short span. But, I believe that is called, life. Sometimes life goes along just hunky dory. Other times, not so much.

Brad still suffers with depression. Still is having a hard time finding his way in life. Certainly not what we had envisioned 20 years ago, for our new baby boy. All that being said. Brad has never given us any grief. He was a decent student all through school. Could have been much better (seriously, what mom doesn't say that?) if he had actually opened up a book to study, but he pulled off C's and passed each grade and graduated. High school is now behind him. His future is uncertain. That breaks my heart. He appears to be somewhat lost. Unsure which direction he needs to go. He lacks confidence in himself. Something that took place when he was hit with a severe case of Mono his senior year of high school. That was his breaking point. That's when depression took over his life. Some days, Brad does super. Other days, are awful.

Today, it's your 20th Birthday. Happy Birthday to you! May this year be the start of a whole new beginning.

IEP meeting, and updates.

So, today we had Carly's IEP. Nothing but a BIG waste of time. We have to continue the IEP next week. Not something I'm looking forward to at all. Nothing was accomplished in a 2 hour meeting. The only thing the 'team' wants to do is argue with me. I'm sooo very sick of this.

As for the legal part of it. I did have an attorney present at the meeting. I do feel this will likely go into a hearing. All because the stupid school will not meet Carly's needs.

I do have several other issues with the school that a judge would really frown upon. However, I don't want to get into too much of it right now. Lets just say, this school has stepped WAY over the line on many issues regarding Carly.

We could use a few prayers in the up and coming weeks. Prayers that all goes smoothly and we can avoid any court proceedings. But, like I said, I do feel we are headed to a hearing.

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Carly is still home from school. We pulled her out due to the confirmation of Swine flu at her school. She did get the shot on the 24th. However, it takes 14 days to start to do it's job. Hopefully, she will be back to school on the 10th.

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Update on Sarah, my aunt's niece. Her whole ordeal started on Oct 15. She is still in ICU. Still on the ventilator. She ran a temp of 104.8 (under arm temp) for one solid week. It is down now to 102.6. Sarah is still very critical. It doesn't look good for her. Please keep Sarah and her family in your prayers. She just turned 30, while in ICU.

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Family issues, other than Carly. My mom is having some health issues. It looks as if she is in kidney failure. To what extent? We don't yet know. For what reason? We don't yet know. She has an appt with a specialist and will be having an ultra sound to determine just how much failure she has. Also, to see if it's one or both kidneys. Last week she met with the same specialist and went over some test results that were done previously. He did confirm all of the tests point to kidney failure.

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My nerves are frazzled right now. Let's see, I have the school issues going on. I have my mother's health issues to worry about. Oh, and Carly has up and coming Cardiology and Oncology appt's on Nov 12. She will be having an Echo and the whole work up. I hate those
Echo's. They scare the crap out of me. I'm always such a wreck and just know they are going to tell me bad news. Then of course, there's Oncology. 'Nuff said!

Guess that's about it, plus my battery on my laptop is dying.

Halloween 2009

I realize I've been MIA. Many things going on. Things I have needed to wrap my brain around. Or, at the very least, try to wrap my brain around.

However, Halloween did come and go and we did par take! Carly carved her pumpkins. Well, Paul carved them. Carly 'gutted' them. ;) Carly wore her Halloween day attire and then dressed up as the sweetest 'lil black kitty cat ever! We took her out Trick-or-Treating around our town last night. Which she did enjoy. Especially when she spotted an entire family dressed up as, The Wizard of Oz! The dad was the Tin Man (very cool), mom was the Scarecrow, little daughter was Dorothy and toddler son was the Lion! Way too cute. Wish I'd a thought to snap a picture of them. Carly kept saying, "Oz, more Oz"! We all know that movie by heart around this house! Carly has watched it, no less than a million times! It's one of her all time favorites, for sure.

Click image to enlarge!

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween. I will be back, or maybe I should say, I will try to be back to blogging in the coming week. I have lots going on with the school and plan to fill you all in.

Swine Flu.

No, Carly doesn't have the swine flu. Yet. I'm doing my very best to keep her from getting it. We're staying home. A lot!

On Saturday, Paul and I took Carly to the local health dept., to get her H1N1 shot. We stood in line, in the windy, rainy, cold morning weather, for 1 hr & 15 minutes. Seemed kind of silly to be standing outside in that kind of weather trying to protect her from getting this awful flu. She did receive the shot. Like always, she did just fine. Climbed up on Paul's lap, stuck her arm out and then said "duh" as she always does after getting poked. The nurse got a kick out of that!

From there, we stopped at a store. Ashleigh was home for the weekend and requested a home cooked meal! I needed to pick up just a couple of things to make what she had requested; chicken fried chicken. I had Paul keep a very unhappy little girl in the car. Trying to avoid any unnecessary germs.

We finally got home and all was going well. I was happy that Carly had no signs of the after effects that can go along with the flu shot. Carly played and followed Ashleigh around all night. Finally giving in to sleep about 11:30. I put her to bed and headed to bed myself. I had a hard time sleeping, due to many school issues that are going on right now. I had just fallen asleep when I heard her cough/gag. I knew what was coming. Carly gags just before she vomits. I flew out of bed and grabbed her...Carly does not do well with vomiting. It completely freaks her out. I looked at the clock, it was 1am.

I got her up. Cleaned her up. Then, it happened again. And again. And again. Right up till 5:30am. Every time she would finally fall back to sleep, I would lay her down and within 20 minutes, she was up vomiting all over the place. At 5:30, I yelled for Paul to get up, I needed some help. I wanted to find the "What you need to know" sheet from the health department regarding the side effects. I couldn't find the stupid paper anywhere. I even went outside to the car looking for it. So, I headed to the computer. It took FOREVER to get online...my computer was running so slowly. I finally did find a sight that did confirm my thinking. I had thought that maybe Carly were having dizzy spells last night. Especially when I would lie her down and she would quickly vomit. Dizziness is a side effect of the shot. Right along with vomiting. Although these side effects are not common. Leave it to Carly to pull out all the stops!

She is much better today. Thank goodness. Paul actually stayed up with her at 5:30 so I could finally get some sleep. At about 7, he brought her in to lay down with me. He said she had been doing really well. Drinking, playing and even slept a little on the couch. She climbed in bed with me and slept until 8:30. She hasn't had much of an appetite, but has eaten a some jello and is drinking. Which is what I really worry about.

Unfortunately, Carly will require another H1N1 shot in 28 days. Due to her age and her underdeveloped immune system, (which all kids have, not just her) she is required to receive a booster shot. Boy do I ever dread that.

Due to the many confirmed cases of H1N1 at Carly's school, Paul and I have decided to pull her out for a couple of weeks. I can't see putting her in harms way. There are just too many complications that go along with this flu. I did call Cardiology last week, after finding out about confirmed cases at her school. I was told quite frankly, that Carly could suffer some severe complications due to this flu. Severe to the point of ICU and breathing tubes. So...that sealed the deal. Carly is out of school until this vaccine has time to kick in. That's 12-14 days.

Needless to say, we will be sticking close to home. Carly has an upcoming appt., at UofM. She has cardiology and oncology. I will be calling both places before the appt's. I will NOT be taking her into any infested areas. We may just have to reschedule both of those appts.

I still do not regret getting her this shot. I'm terrified of the swine flu. My aunt's niece, who is in her 20's. Is in very bad shape right now with complications of the swine flu. She is in ICU on a ventilator. Very scary stuff. This young gal doesn't have any underlying health issues..to my knowledge. Her name is Sarah, please say a prayer for her and her family. She is not well.

My lil punkin...

....with all of her pumpkins!