Audrey's eye doctor appointment

Yesterday was Audrey's eye doc appointment with Dr. Hoffman. It went pretty well, all things considered. He said that the inflammation in her eyes is looking good. But he started her on another eye drop called Acular. It's kind of like the eye drop version of naproxen / Aleve. He's trying to get her off the steroid eye drops. I asked how long she would be on these, and he said it may be long term. He also didn't say anything about doing her Remicade differently, so I guess we're still doing that monthly until further notice. The bad news is that her eyes are crossing again, so she is scheduled for strabismus surgery on January 29. It's a simple outpatient surgery where the eye doc goes in and tightens up the muscles around her eyes. The first time she had it done, she was fairly young, so we were one of the early cases. This time I don't think we'll be so lucky - we were told by the surgery scheduler to plan on early afternoon. That's going to stink with a hungry girl.

Now that Audrey is on so many different medications, I figured I needed to start a medications list for her. It's really sad and depressing to look at it - she's on 6 different medications for her arthritis and the side effects from it. And she's 5.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. The only thing Audrey is asking for by name is a Hannah Montana guitar, which we got for her. I hope she likes it. Okay, I take that back - she's also asked for a unicorn and a pony. Neither of which she is getting.....

Bryce is doing okay. His speech is coming along slowly, but it's coming along. Yesterday his Primary teacher said that he said the word "Sabbath" perfectly clear. That's great, because we really haven't worked on s all that much. He does say the word "nice" very clearly.

Gene started his new job last night, and while he's disappointed to not be working as a respiratory therapist, in the economy we're just grateful that he has a job, even if it's not doing what he wants. We got this information on the insurance today, and I don't think we'll pick it up - there's a $4000 deductible per family and a $7000 out of pocket max, and after the deductible it only pays 80/20. For the cost, we think it would be smarter to just have him pick up some of the flex spending. We're still thinking about vision insurance and dental insurance, but we have time to think about that. I just don't think that the health insurance is a good option for us to get - my insurance is wonderful, but his would be primary. There's even a question of the children's hospital being in network, and I don't think I want to fight those battles.

I guess I should post how I'm doing. I'm doing pretty well. According to the scale this morning, I was 1.6 pounds away from my weight loss goal, so I'm really trying hard to get there before Saturday. I know it's a lot in just 2 days, but I'm so close! I feel great and have a lot more energy. Sometimes, especially with the holidays, I feel like I'm just running around trying to play catch up and get everything done. I'm playing the flute with the choir on Sunday, so I'm trying to practice for that, I'm trying to get to the gym, I've still got presents to wrap as well as a few stragglers left to buy, cookies to bake, a Sunday School lesson to prepare - when am I supposed to find the time for me????