Feelin' Fine

Hannah spent the day singing and drawing, her two favorite activities. She showed no real signs of illness today, which still amazes me. I did just have to wake her up to give her the meds because I am dingy and out of practice. She took them just fine, albeit groggily. :) She has preschool tomorrow and since she missed it on Monday, and had to leave early and abruptly on Wednesday, she is very excited to go.

Expect the Unexpected

Still smiling even though it's been a long day!

This week began normally, but has taken a few major twists and turns. As you might know, Hannah has eosinophilic disease. Hers presents in her esophagus, which means that when these white blood cells get out of control, they eat her esophagus. We've had it under control for over 2 years, but it seems the disease is rearing its ugly head once again. After 3 days of vomiting (just in the middle of the night, so we were suspicious pretty soon that it was acid reflux, a side effect of eosinophilia) she started having acute diarrhea. So off to the children's hospital we went, as she was looking dehydrated, lethargic, her eyes were slow to respond and they were puffy. It was seriously a breath of fresh air to have doctors know all about eosinophilic disease and not have to explain what it is! I can see why Primary Children's is ranked one of the top ten children's hospitals. Despite the unpleasantness of having to be there at all, the staff made it so bearable and showered Hannah with gifts and love. (she accepted the gifts cheerfully, but she's less willing to accept "love" from strangers.) :) In all we were there for 8 hours, mostly because she needed IV fluids and meds. They gave her IV Prevacid, an acid reducer, and Zophran, an anti-nausea med. You wouldn't believe the difference in her by the time we left! The blood test results show that her eosinophil count is double what it should be, so we will be going in to see a pediatric GI doctor hopefully within the week. She'll likely be having an endoscopy soon, and I'm not sure if they'll test her entire GI tract or just her esophagus. Steroids are usually the treatment, but for some reason antihistamines seem to help also. So, for the time being we are giving her Prevacid solutabs and liquid Zyrtec. When we are able to physically see the damage to her GI tract (on the endoscopy scan), then the doctors will decide whether she needs the steroid treatment. She will also be seeing an allergist within the week to test for more food and environmental allergies. (she's been through that twice before, hopefully she has forgotten!) :)

All that being said, thank you so much for your love and prayers. We know God is taking care of every detail in Hannah's life. She was very brave today. She immediately told Gramma that she didn't even cry when she got her IV. (which is amazing, because she had already had 2 pokes from blood draws!)

October Fun

Here are some pictures from October, not including the Hopekids event. CR started a blog for HK so instead of duplicating, I'll just link to that website. Michael and Joanna took a lot more pics of their visit, and I thought Michael uploaded them to my computer, but I can't find them. I'll post those later.

Things are going pretty well. We are feeling the economic crunch, but we are also trusting God to get us through this time. We are loving the fall weather, and the first snowfall was amazing! It snowed all day on the 11th and the kids made snow forts, snowmen, and had snowball fights. We did have to rummage through many boxes to find our snow gear (purchased end-of-season last year!) but once the kids were outfitted they were on their way. A few days later the snow had all melted, but they eagerly await the next storm! It was especially fun to have the Torlas here visiting from AZ. To see all those desert kids out there in the snow was great. We'll be heading to Bear Lake soon for another HK event. The kids are really hoping there is still snow up there. As long as we don't have to drive in it for 3 hours, then it sounds great to me, too.


Hope all is well with all of you!

Insomnia

Well, frustration from not having posted for awhile will now be alleviated and replaced with eye strain and exhaustion, as I am having one of my normal bouts with insomnia. It happens about once or twice a month, and after 3 or so years of this, I'm pretty used to it.

I didn't get a chance to post yet about our HopeKids event. It was on Sept. 27 and it was at Classic Family Fun Center (or something of that sort). It was a great success- over 100 attendees, 40+ volunteers, donations of time, money, energy, and a generous discount on pizza from a local restaurant. We had the whole place to ourselves for the majority of the morning and it was so much fun to see families connecting, kids laughing, and people serving. I'll post pictures soon. Please be in prayer for our second event, a weekend camping trip in a couple of weeks. Cabins were donated, as were meals, snacks, and again, time and money. Despite desperate times economically, people are still willing to give and serve and that is so encouraging!

This past week our good friends Michael and Joanna and their 3 kids (Jessica, James and Christopher) came up for a visit and boy, were they a sight for sore eyes! The children picked right up where they left off as if those 3 months had never passed. We enjoyed every minute of their stay. We spent Friday afternoon (Lindsay's 11th birthday!) at Antelope Island (for those of you non-Utahns, that is an island in the Great Salt Lake). The causeway is right off the road near our home so it was only about a 20 minute drive. The weather was chilly, but we had a wonderful time. Friday night Joanna, Amy and I were able to tour ye ol' Bountiful so Joanna could see where I grew up. We also went to dinner at Robintino's-mmmmm. Saturday was supposed to be spent touring SLC, the temple grounds, Fort Douglas Museum, etc...but instead we played in the snow! It started snowing early Saturday and didn't really stop until Sunday night. We had a record-breaking amount of snow. We had about 5 inches at our house and after we dug out all the Lands End boxes from last year (no stickers inside telling us not to eat them- I guess sometime in the last year that need came about...) the kids headed outside in all their gear and had a blast. Sunday, after church, we celebrated Nathan's 10th birthday and Amy's 40th birthday and then the kids spent even more time in the snow. Michael and Joanna left late that afternoon, and we were sad to see them go. It was a wonderful week, and now I'm yawning, just thinking about how busy it was! :)
We also were gifted with an afternoon touring the LDS cannery, dairy, and bakery in downtown SLC where they make all the food for welfare recipients and for charity. What an amazing operation. My neighbor is the overseer of all those operations and he graciously offered to take us on the tour. He even arranged for a large van to tote 3/4 of us together! All but Joanna, Lindsay and I were also able to tour the Kaysville LDS grainery and see flour and cake mix being made. Lindsay had an earache so we took off after the first tour. The kids all had a great time and learned a thing or two, also! This same wonderful neighbor had us over for a bbq (before it snowed!) and allowed the kids to pick melons and veggies from his huge garden. The next day we had a wonderful feast of stew made with his fresh veggies. Watermelon from his garden was dessert- it was delicious! Almost makes me want a garden...almost. I need to learn a thing or two about it, first.
Well, my eyes are actually getting heavy so I'll go to bed now. I'll post the pictures tomorrow.