Our Crazy Life

Life has been quite interesting lately.  On Oct. 8, Makayla was admitted at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for halo traction.  She is currently up to 13 lbs and the goal is 15 lbs.  She is scheduled for spinal fusion on Nov. 12.  I hope to document this excursion a bit more extensively over the next few weeks.  Please bare with me. 

When antibiotics fail...

Photo Credit

Makayla started showing symptoms of illness on Sunday.  On Monday she got worse.  We visited the ER three times in four days.  Today she went back to the doctor to have her ears checked.  Four days of oral antibiotics and one day of an antibiotic injection didn't phase her infected ear.  She has apparently grown a resistence to these meds.  So therefore she has been admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics.  Will this happen again when she gets her next ear infection?  Shew...I hope not.  But we definatly need to consult with the ENT to discuss the next steps.

A new opportunit​y, with some much needed accountabi​lity

I'm excited about a new opportunity. For a year or two I've been following Lisa's blog over at Warrior MAMA. Lisa has since taken on another blog Organize 365. Lisa is the mother of two children with special needs, runs a home based business, is a professional organizer, and writes these two blogs. Obviously, she has her plate full...so she has offered me the wonderful opportunity to work with her on Warrior MAMA.

All posts will be her original work.  I will be helping her sort through all the technical stuff, make it look all pretty, and schedule the post. I'm hoping this will help me to post more here.

I still want to keep this blog about motherhood, special needs, life, and faith, but I would also like to throw in a mix of home management ideas to help make life run smoothly.

-Felicia

Visit to Shriner's

We've known for quite a while that Makayla has scoliosis. After regularly visiting one orthopedist who just kept telling us we would follow it and monitor it, we had to go to another doctor. He was local, but not a peds specialist. He scared me to death. He referred us to Shriner's and we went last week.

We found out Makayla's back has gone from 80 degrees in August to 105 now.  It began to drastically increase after open heart surgery in August 2010.

The option is to put an extension rod in her back. She will have to have outpatient surgery every 6 months to extend it for the next 10 years or so, until she stops growing. The doctor also wants her to wear a halo for a month or two prior to the surgery. He would like her to be hospitalized the entire time:/

It can't be done at that Shriner's because she needs a Cardiologist and Pulminologist available, which they do not have at that facility. We would have to go to Shriner's in St. Louis or we can go to Vanderbilt since it is in our state. Still yet, that is 4 hours away. We are hoping the doctor will approve Home Health to monitor her at home instead. If not, we hope she can be transferred to the local Children's hospital until time for the procedure. Our last option, but not last resort is to move to the Nashville area (something we had already been considering before learning all of this information).

For now, we will wait to return to Shriner's next month. I will be working on getting the house market ready, "just in case." Some things on my to do list is:

•  Repaint every room except the girls room and the laundry room.
• Back splash in kitchen
• Handles on cabinets
• Finish roof (not me of course;)
• Clear out large lot behind the house (currently in progress by someone we hired)
• Paint the deck
• Paint iron screen doors
• Putting cabinets up in laundry room
• Put up door up in laundry room

I'm hoping these changes will help sell the house quickly and for a great price if we put it on the market. 

**Update-I might have the hubs convinced to stay, but we will still prepare just in case.