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????

Welcome!

I've created this blog to keep family and friends updated on us. I "think" I've decided that it's easier than trying to do individual e-mails when you have a large family. Well, it's not that our immediate family is large - but when you add the in-laws, it's huge.

Tomorrow we have Audrey's Remicade infusion up at Primary's. I finally told her today that we were going up there tomorrow for her "long poke". She wasn't too happy, but I think it'd be easier to live with her like that for one day rather than if we had told her earlier in the week. She missed school yesterday. Juliette said that she just wasn't acting like herself, and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Little Miss does not nap, because, "she's almost 6 now". Yeah, she'll be 6 in about 6 MONTHS! Why do they want to grow up so fast? She was complaining that her knees hurt, but I can't see any swelling. She's actually been complaining about her knees for a while, so I don't know what to do. We'll see her new rheumy in a month or so, so maybe he'll investigate a bit further.

Bryce is still doing well. He crawled in our bed last night sometime, I don't know when. All I know is that I kept getting kicked and shoved to the edge of the bed. I finally gave up and shoved him back into the middle. He's quite the talker now - too bad you can't understand but a little bit of what he's saying.

We're really excited that Gene FINALLY found a job. It's been a long 7 months of unemployment. And while it isn't the ideal job that he wants, it's a step in the right direction because he will be working as a respiratory therapist when they need him. And as soon as they get one more patient, they will bring him on full-time. I'm also very glad that benefits will pick up in 30 days from the date of hire. It's been a huge strain on me trying to carry the entire load. I'm starting to sleep better, which is nice. Except for the waking up at 4:00 in the morning, like I did this morning!