9-11 REMEMBERED 20 YEARS LATER

 For me.  For my kids.  May we never forget.  

Click HERE for article about Flight 93 heroes

HOPING FOR MORE IMPROVEMENT

 

Jonah's 3 month urology follow-up appointment did not go as we hoped.  Jonah's kidney is about the same size it was at the 4-23-21 ultrasound in the ER. Meaning still too big 😔 

Today's ultrasound of the bladder showed Jonah is still not voiding as efficiently as he should.  

Some new techniques to try and get him to pee more.  Return in 3 months for another ultrasound.

Trying to think positive- at least things didn't get worse...

NOT ANY EASIER

 

 We thought maybe the third time bringing one of our kids to college would be easier.

It wasn’t, it was just as hard😕

We are really going to miss this girl…

A LIFE WELL-LIVED

 

I came across the following obituary yesterday.  I do not know this person or family, but because the individual had Down syndrome it caught my attention.  

This is a beautiful life story of this amazing woman and her family.  

It seems she loved many and many loved her.  She enjoyed life and those around her enjoyed life with her.  

She leaves a legacy of love, happiness, and  the gift of blessing others during her time here on earth.  

I'm sure the family will miss her dearly, and I am sure they are grateful for every moment they got to spend with this incredible individual.  

EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS!

https://www.sheboyganpress.com/obituaries/wis331682

NO MORE DORA THE EXPLORER

Way back in Fall 2015, Stephen bought my brother's Ford Explorer.  Since Stephen didn't have his license yet, Abigail got to drive it for the first few months. 

The kids nicknamed her "Dora the Explorer."  

The above photo is the kids on the first day of school in 2015.  

When Lydia got her driver's license, she bought Dora from Stephen.  The legacy continued....

 

But the photo above is from yesterday when we all said our goodbyes to faithful Dora.  

Her last drive will be to the junk yard.  

Funny how our dog Tucker is still facing backwards for the photo...

This is why Dora's time has come to an end.  She is almost rusting through on the bottom plus her brakes are almost non-existent.  Since the spring, Lydia has only been able to drive her around town, nothing over 25 mph.

Yesterday's family photo with Dora the Explorer

End of that adventure.  

New adventures start this week: 

Abigail headed back Sunday to Minnesota for her job, Stephen returns to school in Minnesota on Wednesday, Ben and Jonah start middle school on Wednesday, and we bring Lydia for her 1st year at UW LaCrosse on Friday.  

Oh where did all the years go...?

MORE CRAZY THAN LAZY!

 

Coming home from our all-family 4 night camping trip, we had a week to regroup, and then Andrew and I took the little boys on a 3 night camping trip.  Then from there sending Stephen off on a 8 day trip to Colorado with college friends, starting to get Lydia ready to bring to college, continuing to work with the boys on their bike-riding skills, preparing for another 4 night camping trip this week, and just all around trying to do as many summer things as we can before school starts for the boys on 9-1.  

All this activity means we are definitely having a more crazy (but fun) than lazy end to our summer! 

Peninsula State Park- Beautiful and so much to do!

Boys biked with us for 5.5 miles.  They did great! 

Best bonding experience with Ben.  He's been very cuddly and sweet to me since our 2 hour bike ride together...hmmm?

1st time mini-golfing for the boys.  Ben was super-competitive, aka cheating the whole way thru.    

Jonah was very distracted by all the sights and sounds.

Kid in a candy store- for the 1st time in his life.  Ben thought he was in heaven!

Jonah, not the candy lover, appreciated the stuffed animals and toys also for sale in the shop.

This week, Ben after a busy day of physical and speech therapy appointments,  

takes a snooze on the way home.  

How he can sleep sitting like a pretzel is beyond me!

SO MANY QUESTIONS

 

Jonah has been diagnosed 

with Lyme's disease. 

 

So many questions come to mind:

1. Can't this poor kid ever catch a break?  He just keeps getting "things" that make him feel lousy.

2. Where/How did he get this?  Yes we do go camping, but we are very careful about checking the boys every night before bed for ticks.  On 6-15, I did pull a tick off of Jonah, but doctors are telling me that probably wasn't the tick that caused this if we pulled it off easily.  I do remember I had to give a slight tug to remove it, but there didn't appear to be any bite on him at the time.  So this probably means we missed a tick on him which led to this.  This is frustrating and scary to me because we were trying to be so careful and diligent.  

3. Will this just be a straightforward case of treating with 21 day antibiotics and that's the end of it?  The doctors seem to think there will be no lingering issues since they feel it was diagnosed in the early stage.  I'm praying there are no long-term issues for Jonah- as I said above, this kid needs to catch a break.

Just a point of interest:  When I brought Jonah in on 6-28 for his 2nd urine culture, I did mention to that 2nd doctor that I had pulled a tick off of Jonah on 6-16.  To me, the timing lined up with this possibly being Lymes along with the symptoms of fever, headache, and vomiting.  The doctor dismissed my suggestion of testing for Lymes (and it may have been too early for accuracy in all reality).

Then when the bulls-eye rash appeared on 7-9, we returned to the original doctor from 6-24.  This time I strongly communicated my suspicions of Lyme's disease because of this rash and the symptom of neck pain that had developed since 6-28.  This 1st doctor agreed with my suspicions and ordered the Lyme's test.  She also proactively started Jonah on the 21 day antibiotics used for Lymes.

A few days later the 2nd doctor called to check up on Jonah and made the comment to me that this was a great catch by doctor #1 to suspect and test for Lymes.  WHAT?  I think Dr. Mom was the one to first put that idea in motion!  

Oh well, I kept my mouth shut and didn't defend myself.  Like I said, testing for Lymes back on 6-28 might have caused an unreliable test result because it was too early.  So in the end, it all worked out and the Lymes disease got treated in the early stage which is what is most important.  

It's just interesting to me, how much I can continue to doubt my "Dr. Mom" instincts even after all the rodeos little Jonah has been through.  I just knew something wasn't right when Jonah was so strongly complaining of head and neck pain.  Jonah has a high pain tolerance so for him to complain of anything hurting means it must really hurt!  Also in 10 plus years, Jonah has never mentioned his head or neck hurting so I knew this wasn't just a common complaint of his.  And finally, Jonah has a hard time staying on task for most things so the idea of him being able to fake/pretend/exaggerate head and neck pain for over 2 weeks is very unlikely.  There is no way he would remember to keep pretending that long.    

Hopefully, we can get this Lymes disease cleared up along with Jonah's left kidney getting back to normal, and then Jonah can be done with anything medical for a long time!

That is my prayer!