Scoliosis

I took Amanda to see an orthopedic doctor today and he diagnosed her with scoliosis. She has been referred to a pediatric back specialist at The Texas Back Institute. Treatment is recommended for any curve to the spine over 20 to 25 degrees and Amanda is at 34 degrees. The picture above is Amanda's back x-ray and you can clearly see the curve. Her right shoulder is also much higher than her left shoulder. Treatment options vary anywhere from just keeping an eye on it to make sure the curve doesn't worsen which entails monthly visits to a specialist, wearing a back brace 24 hours a day, wearing a back brace at night only or surgery.

Weight Watchers

Johnathon attended his very first Weight Watchers meeting tonight and he really enjoyed it. He said the meeting is a support group with an educational and training aspect tied in with it. He has all of his weight loss goals in place and is set to go. He will be attending a weekly meeting every Thursday evening. He can't wait to talk to grandma and tell her all about it.

Go Johnathon!

Happy but injured husband

John started his by having his shoulder looked at and it sounds like it may be a rotator cuff injury. If the pain continues he needs to get an MRI and possible surgery.

When he got home we went car shopping and test drove a few Porches and found the perfect one. It's really cool and he is such a loving husband he bought an automatic so I can drive it too! :)

Well, it isn't very pretty!

The back door is dented in the middle and creased at the bottom so he didn't just get the bumper. > : ' (

Really Bad Timing

John was on his way home from work this morning and as he was approaching a light near our house a Suburban rear ended him causing him to subsequently hit the car in front of him. Luckily, there weren't any injuries other than some soreness John is experiencing in his neck and back. He is really bummed out because his lease is due and he was going to get his new car tomorrow and now we are stuck dealing with insurance companies. I did speak to the Porsche dealership and they said there won't be any penalties for turning the car in late but he will need to make an additional car payment which our insurance agent said we can try to collect from the driver at fault. The guy that hit John said his foot slipped off the break and he was actually driving a rental car because his car is in the shop from a previous accident.... not good.  The young man in front of John still had in-transits on his new truck. John has damage to the back of his vehicle and some to the front but it did fair better than back.

 Hopefully, our day will get better!

Kids and their slang

Okay, so I learned an interesting fact today from my daughter, that daughter being Amanda. Timothy made a post on Facebook today saying the movie he saw last night was the shit. When reading it I assumed that meant the movie was really good but before I made a comment I wanted to be sure so, while driving to mall I asked Amanda. She explained to me how it works. If you say the movie is shit it means the movie was bad, but if you say the movie was the shit it means the movie was good.

I think they need a class on this.

Lazy Day

We really didn't do much today.... it was a very lazy day.  We did have a nice family dinner. We had spaghetti with meatballs and sausage. Johnathon made a yummy chocolate cake for dessert. He has become quite the baker!

I watched Pineapple Express with Johnathon and Amanda. The first time I watched this movie I watched it with John and we concluded that Seth Rogen and James Franco must have actually been high. Parts of the movie are pretty funny. Seth Rogen is a Process Server who really really likes weed. He witnesses a murder, and the bad guys are able to track him and his drug dealer, James Franco, thanks to a particular strain of weed. Things get complicated and the two of them end up in the middle of a drug war.

Tomorrow it's back to our daily routine.

A day with my girls

I spent the day with all four of my girls shopping at North Park Mall in Dallas today. I really don't venture out into Dallas much but Amanda loves this mall because she loves Lush and Delia's and these two stores aren't in our local mall. We didn't make it into Lush today because we had some crazy little ones that were much more interested in getting balloons at Build-A-Bear. Amanda did get some jeans and a couple of t-shirts in Delia's for school. She also picked out some interesting zebra jeans....sometimes I just have to smile and go with it. We had lunch at The Corner Bakery and Kathy's sister, Alex, joined us for awhile before she went swimming with some friends. Oh and I must not forget the Gelato, although I am sure it is not quite as good as what grandma and grandpa can get in Italy.

 Johnathon and Timothy spent the afternoon together. They went to see The Predator which had mixed reviews. Johnathon really liked it and Timothy said it was okay but he got a little bored near the end. They both enjoyed their time together and I am glad to see them spend time with each other.

Flowers make me smile!

John is back on nights for the next week and this morning when he got home from work he had left me a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk. It was such a nice way to start my day. They have a lovely aroma and are my favorite color... PINK! I love you, honey!

When John woke up this afternoon we took Lainie to the park and let her play for awhile. She loves playing outside but hates the bugs! Actually, she is very particular about a lot of things. She did let me put pig tails in her hair today for the very first time. She looked so cute and it really showed off her big blue eyes. I'm amazed that she actually left them in!

Mom is Coming Home!

After a week in the hospital my mom finally gets to come home. The doctors have been having a difficult time getting her blood levels regulated to prevent future clotting. They finally think they are in the right range but she will have to continue to follow up weekly with her doctor. She is still having some pain in her right lung but the scope of her lungs looked pretty good so it will just take some time for the area in her upper lung to heal. She will also have to continue with daily breathing treatments.

Welcome home mom!

Pump Training

Amanda just switched over to a new pump which also has a 24 hour monitoring system that is available. We had our initial pump training last week and the continuous glucose training today. It's pretty cool how the two systems communicate with each other.

The new pump system, is an integrated system, and incorporates features including predictive alerts that warn us of oncoming lows or highs so we can take needed steps sooner to gain greater control of Amanda's blood glucose levels. With the new pump and the integrated continued glucose monitoring technology, the new pump will give us extra peace of mind...especially at night. 

Continuous Glucose Monitoring 

Predictive Alerts: Predictive Alerts can be set to warn us up to 30 minutes before Amanda's low or high glucose limits are reached.  

Rate of Change Alerts - Notify us when Amanda's glucose levels are changing rapidly for different times of day or night. 

Time Trend Graphs - 3, 6, 12 and 24 hour graphs give us a clear picture of Amanda's glucose levels over time. This has software so John can print the graphs so we can see trends and make needed changes. Her doctors really like this feature.

Finger-sticks are like watching only a few scenes of a movie and the continuous glucose monitoring is like watching the entire movie. We get the full story.

A finger-stick can only tell us what Amanda's glucose level is at that moment. A high or low that happens between finger-sticks can easily be missed.

With the new system, we will always know what Amanda's glucose level is, which way it's heading, and how fast she is heading there. And, as she approaches her glucose limits, we will be warned in plenty of time to take care of it.

We will not use the 24 hour monitoring all the time, as it requires two sites in her abdomen and since she is so lean we need to utilize the space for her pump site. She can wear it once a month for a week, so we can make needed adjustments to her insulin therapy. It's  addicting looking to see what her glucose levels are all the time. It's really too bad she can't wear it all the time...maybe when she starts driving. That gives us time plump her up a little!

Potty Training 2nd Attempt!

Day One:

I sat in the bathroom with Lainie for a long time.....we read, we talked, we giggled and no potty.  Lainie insisted she didn't need to go so we talked about about how she would tell mommy if she needed to go so she could keep her pretty panties clean and dry. With her incredibly big smile she agreed. So you would think after having potty trained 5 other children I wouldn't have fallen for this. This is how it went for the duration of the day. She would potty in her pants and she would come get me and show me where the puddle was so I could clean it up and put fresh dry panties on, with the same discussion each time. No success on day one.

Day two:

I sat in the bathroom with Lainie and again we read, we talked, we giggled and no potty. With the same big smile she agreed she would tell mommy if she had to go potty. Well, she did a little better this time she now sits on her potty stool to go but does it with her pants on. On the bright-side I didn't have any puddles to clean but I did have to change her pants each time and we had our same little talk that she needs to tell mommy before she gets her pants wet.

I am hoping on day three we will have better results.

Our weekend

We didn't do anything too exciting this weekend but it was great having John home for a change. He worked 15 out of the last 17 days and was in need of a break! 

We were able to squeeze a couple of movies in. We watched Green Zone with Matt Damon and The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. 

Green Zone:

On a quest to find weapons of mass destruction, Matt Damon's character, Officer  Miller begins to question why none of the locations are coming up with the dangerous weapons in question. As he grows more and more suspicious, he runs into a CIA op and a reporter, all looking for the truth as to why we went to war. Officer Miller finds himself in the middle of a deadly game of survival and doing what is right. 

Book of Eli:

Anarchy rules, with murder and rape seen as routine events.  When Carnegie learns that Eli possesses a Bible, he means to win him over to his cause or kill him -- whatever it takes to gain control of that book. Both men see the Bible as the key to social regeneration. A voice has commanded Eli to take the Bible west, where it will be the foundation of a new Earth. Carnegie sees the book as a means of controlling people and their loyalties.

Yesterday, John did a lot of much needed pruning.  Our lawn service only does the pruning twice a year but John likes to do it once a month because it seems to grow so fast. The yard looks really nice and I don't even miss all the plants that John pulled and threw away. Now that the plants have all matured there just isn't enough room.

We grilled steaks and had mushrooms, fried zucchini, new potatoes, fresh green beans and Italian Sweet bread. We attempted to walk off dinner and walk up to Walgreens to get a Red Box movie but I wimped out about 3/4 of the way there due to the EXTREME heat so we settled on the park.

Quiet....but nice.

Welcome to my new blog!

I am not sure how this blog experience will work for me but I thought I would give it a try. So far it seems a bit confusing since I have very limited computer skills. This is my second attempt at finding a blog site I like and seems somewhat user friendly.