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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.