The House of Doo

The House of Doo

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Answers to Prayers!

My last blog was full of worry, no doubt.  This one isn't!  Yay!  I took Colt to the doctor on Friday to have his ears rechecked and they were, indeed, full of fluid.  We saw Dr. Friddell, who is not our usual pediatrician but he is my next pick, when Dr. Smith isn't available.  Honestly, every time we see him, I find myself wondering why we don't always see him.  He is amazing.  He is so patient with me and with Colt.  He sits down in the other "parent" chair and talks on my level.  Recently, Colt has become obsessed with doctor's and their instruments (future Dr. Doolittle?), so the entire time, Colt is crawling (seriously!) all over Dr. Friddell, trying to put the end of the stethoscope up his shirt.  Dr. Friddell didn't even flinch, talking to me the whole time, never missing a beat, and absentmindedly rubbing Colt's back as he spoke.  Love him.  Sorry, just wanted to throw that out there.  I don't often have nothing but praises for a doctor, so when I do, I share!  ;)  ANYWAY....  Colt's ears were full of fluid, which could have been what was causing him to not be able to speak/hear the way he normally does.  The fluid isn't infected, so that's good.  Since he's had two back-to-back infections, he is sending us to the ENT who did his tubes to see what he thinks.  The appointment is in 4 weeks because he said that will give the fluid time to go away, or he will get another infection between now and then.  If he does, we'll definitely need tubes again.  If not, he may not need them just yet.  So, I am glad we went.  Dr. Friddell also suggested giving Colt Zyrtec along with his Singulair everyday to see if that will help "dry him out" and hopefully prevent more infections.  Funny, I take Zyrtec and Singulair every single day too and can't live without the two together.  Since we have started that with Colt, we've been out quite and bit and so far, not the first runny nose.  I am hopeful!  :)  Thank you all for letting me vent my worries and frustrations with Colt and his speech on here.  Most importantly, thank you all for the prayers. 

Colt also said a new word this weekend - "Tuh-kah!"  (Tucker.)  He LOVES Tucker.  So, that exceeded our prayers!  :) 
 
 Colt got to ride on Uncle Jody's tractor. :)


We got some serious house cleaning in this weekend too.  I spent all day over there on Sunday, and Ryan joined me in the evening when he got off of work.  Summer is here, Ryan has worked the past 9 days straight!  That doesn't make for much productivity on the house.  However, we managed this weekend.  We rented a heavy-duty carpet cleaner from Home Depot and I cleaned my guts out.  That sucker is HEAVY.  Anyway, the carpet looks amazing.  Late that night, Ryan cleaned the carpet in the finished basement, so not much left to do!  We also got the house painted and it looks great.  I am in love with the living room/hallway/stairway/kitchen/dining room color.  The two upstairs bathrooms are supposed to be gray and I am not going to lie, they're looking a bit lavender.  Ha.  Maybe once we get some stuff in there, they will look more gray.  I hope.  :)  I also finished painting our bedroom furniture.  It is painted a very light gray with a coral "accent piece" bedside table.  I am waiting to see how I like it once everything is in there.  It may be repainted.  ;)  We are hoping to be able to start moving this week. I am full of excitement and dread at the same time.  Bah. 

I love this color!

Colt's room is finished!  I can't wait to get his furniture in here! 

Also, one major thing is about to happen for Colt!  (Bear with me, I am a sloppy, anxious mess.)  Next week, a week from today, he starts a Mother's Day Out program at a church in East Ridge.  It is two days a week, half a day, but it will be the first time he's been away from someone in our family.  I mean, he stays in the nursery and stuff at church, but someone in our family is always in the building, you know?  I know he will do fine and he'll probably love it, but I am so nervous.  I think it will be a good "warm-up" for when he starts preschool in late October.  He needs the structure and the rules and the interaction with the other kids.  So.  Pray for me.  I am a mess. 


Thursday, May 23, 2013

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Today I come to you a little upset and scared.  Yesterday, we had Colt's speech therapy just like normal.  When his speech therapist brought him out afterward, she said that he hadn't done very well.  Usually, she comes out smiling and talking about how proud of him she is.  I was thinking that he just hadn't cooperated with her, but that wasn't the case.  She said it was almost as if he was having some problems hearing.  She said he had tried very hard, but it was as if the words weren't coming anymore.  The things he did try to say were very jumbled and very unclear, as if he had forgotten how to say them or how to enunciate them.  She seemed a little worried, but she also said the whole time he was in therapy, he was covering his ears. She wasn't sure if they hurt or if he wasn't hearing.  He has had his hearing tested a few times and has passed without question every time.  He has had an ear infection, but he has been on antibiotics for over a week.  The hurting should be long gone by now.  Either way, hurting doesn't explain him not being able to talk.  I tried all day yesterday to get him to say words that he has been saying for a couple of weeks and I got nothing.  Last night, Ryan and I sat down with him and some little toys that are brightly colored.  We tried desperately to get him to say the colors he has been saying for a while and the only word we got was "blue."  I am so afraid he is reversing in his progress.  This has happened before with him.  When he was somewhere around a year old, he would say "mama," "dada," "nana," and "yum."  Then suddenly, he couldn't say any of them and it lasted until just recently when he started again.  That was over a year!  Even now, when he says "dada" it isn't with a "d" sound, when it once was.  It wasn't even a letter sound that I can pinpoint.  Now suddenly, it is a definite "g" sound.  Very strange.  So, needless to say, I am so afraid.  I ask that you keep him in your prayers if you would.  I hate asking over and over for your prayers, but you know, I honestly don't know what else to do. 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

A Good Weekend.

It is hard to update about such petty things when so many people in Oklahoma are still searching for their loved ones and their children.  I cannot begin to imagine the sheer terror those poor parents must feel as they wait for news.  God bless those people. 

I did want to share a little about our weekend though.  I know many of you have joined me in praying for my stepdad, Allen, and his cancer journey.  He found out around Valentine's Day of 2012 that he had pancreatic cancer.  He had surgery, removing 90% of his pancreas. The pancreas is what secretes insulin, so with so much of the pancreas removed, he had to begin taking insulin through a shot.  It took a long time after that to get his insulin somewhat regulated, so that was hard on his body but then on top of that, he was going through chemo treatments.  He was pronounced cancer-free!  Then, this year two days after Valentine's Day, he found out the cancer was back.  It is still technically "pancreatic cancer," even though he doesn't have much of his pancreas left.  It is in the cavity left where the pancreas once was.  It is Stage 4 - very bad news.  His doctor didn't give him much hope, saying he only had a year to live.  Apparently, (I didn't know this) chemo doesn't normally help with pancreatic cancer.  (I am not really sure why they did it the first time if it doesn't help?)   The doctor can't do surgery because of how it is spread in his body, and they can't do radiation because of it's proximity to his intestines.  They decided to do chemo again, basically doing it until the end.  It didn't look good.  He had 4 treatments of chemo.  Then, about 3 weeks ago, Allen had an MRI just to check the state of the cancer.  It had shrunk to about half of it's original size!  Obviously, the chemo is doing something!  They will do 4 more rounds of chemo and then do another MRI.  Again, I pray that God will give Allen a miracle.  I believe it is still possible.  :)   

Anyway, mom and Allen came to see us on Saturday evening.  We haven't gotten to see them since before Christmas!  Allen is feeling really good and he still has his hair!  He didn't lose it the first time he had chemo treatments either.  Funny how that happens.  He looks great, feels pretty good, and seems to be in good spirits.  They came to our house for a bit, we drove to the new house and showed it to them, then went to dinner at Chop House.  Mom and Allen love to go there when they come to town.  They stayed in a hotel Saturday night and we got to see them again Sunday morning for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  It was so good to see them.  Colt LOVED Allen.  He doesn't see them enough for me to feel like he should know them, but it always seems like he does.  I got a few pictures of Colt all snuggled up with Allen, but most of them are blurry. :(  I will share a couple of the good ones that I did get. 

 Colt and his Pappy :)
 Friddie, Pappy, and Colt :)

I think I mentioned in my last blog that Colt has another ear infection.  The second one in less than 3 weeks.  I am hoping we aren't on the road to a second round of tubes.  Blah.  Anyway, the doctor gave him a stronger antibiotic than last time, but boy oh boy, it has torn his stomach up.  I'll spare you the gross parts and skip to the part where he has the worst diaper rash I have EVER seen.  No amount of diaper rash cream helps.  He wouldn't let you change his diaper and screamed every time you even mentioned diaper change time.  The skin was broken, so I finally put some Neosporin on it and decided to try Aquaphor.  It is a "healing ointment" and has kind of a vaseline consistency to it.  It was by no means a magic fix, but it has helped the most.  It took about 3 days, but he finally isn't crying when you change him.  Also, giving Colt probiotics has helped his tummy a bit.  We skipped church because I knew they would never be able to change him in the nursery and honestly, I couldn't stand the thought of someone else seeing how terrible it looked.  We have three more doses of antibiotics, so hopefully it's almost over.  The poor kid was miserable! 
Not looking too miserable, huh?  ;)

Update on our house situation:  We lined up a painter to finish painting the rooms we didn't want to attempt like the living room with it's high ceilings and angles, etc.  He will be there Wednesday and Thursday.  I am excited to see how it looks when it no longer looks like someone else's house.  Ryan got to do some cleaning on Sunday while I stayed home with Colt.  There is still more to do, but it's getting closer.  Slowly.  Very slowly.  We are going to try to move sooner than we thought, because we're hoping the "old" house will sell without all of our stuff in it.  Please God, send a buyer.  We need to be down to only one house. 

 We ate Cracker Barrel twice on Sunday.  ;)  Colt loves playing checkers with Granddad.

 He is also a recent fan of Chick-Fil-A's ice cream cones. ;)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Catch-up!

I missed my original blogging day on Tuesday!  It was a busy day and I just didn't have a chance.  I hadn't been at work in a week, so the papers were piled up everywhere imaginable.  It was also my grandmother's birthday, so my grandfather and I went to lunch and to the cemetary.  Also, Colt had been snotty and pulling his ear, so I took him to the doctor...  Ear infection, imagine that.  :/  Sigh.  I hate giving him antibiotics so often.  I am looking into other ways to help fight this, but I just don't know what to do yet.  Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

A lot has happened since I last posted that seemed "blog-worthy" but now, looking back on it, nothing is really jumping out at me. 

We did celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday.  It was a very busy day with no time for resting or anything relaxing, which is what I really wanted.  There was a lot of family time, which was nice, but it's exhausting.  I was really wanting to go to the Chattanooga Market because I STILL HAVEN'T BEEN THIS YEAR.  That is a sad thing.  I wanted to go before the weather got so miserably hot.  Oh well.  Mother's Day ended with a major emotional breakdown and I am glad it's over.  I don't do "holidays" well.  Bah humbug and all that. 

Monday was our last My Smart Hands signing class.  Colt graduated!  We have learned over 165 signs to help us communicate.  Some of them are more fun than helpful, but we definitely did learn some that will help.  In class, Colt just wanted to play with the fun toys Adele had and seemed like he wasn't really paying any attention.  Then, we'd get home and he'd pull out some crazy sign that I had no idea he even learned!  He signs whenever the dogs bark or when he's looking for them, he signs when someone sneezes, he signs when he sees the trees, he signs when he wants to play ball, he signs when he wants a drink - milk, specifically, he signs when he is hungry, he signs when he sees a big truck, he signs when he wants cheese on his spaghetti, he signs when he hears music, or when he wants to read.  I could go on and on.  I love it and I am so very proud of him. 

He didn't want his picture taken!

I'll skip ahead to my ArtsyU class last night.  It was the highlight of my week.  I love painting so much.  I wish I could afford to go more often.  I usually go only when I have a LivingSocial deal, but I have been asking them to put a particular painting on the schedule for a few months and it was finally on for last night. I could not pass it up.  I had planned to go alone but my dear friend, Lauren, got to come too.  I am so glad!  We had a great time.  Here is my finished painting.


I feel silly even complaining about anything, because I realize I am very blessed, BUT (you knew it was coming!) I am stressing out in a bad way.  It just seems like there are all these little tiny things that are piling up and that pile is getting awfully big.  First of all, there is the house(s) situation.  I desperately want ours to sell and I want to be able to work on the new house but we don't have the time or money we need to do it.  Not with two houses, anyway.  On top of that, we have recently gotten over $3,000 in medical bills just from Colt's MRI a couple of months ago.  Thank the Lord for insurance!  (sarcasm?)  The new house is disgustingly dirty.  I swear, the former owners did not know how to clean and there's no way we can move in until it gets a GOOD top to bottom scrub down.  Another thing on the list is Colt starting Preschool through the Babies Can't Wait program.  Well, technically, he isn't going through them but they are the ones helping us set it all up.  Long story short, he will be tested by the county and if he qualifies, he will go to special ed preschool.  He will most likely qualify based on his lack of speech.  This is a blessing in a way, as he will continue to get speech therapy but it will be in a classroom setting and in a more structured setting that will help to prepare him for school.  He can start the day he turns 3.  Where he goes is still up for debate.  I only know where he won't go.  ;)  Another thing stressing me out - my car is leaking oil.  I am hoping it is nothing big, but we will see.  See?  Nothing major, just little things bothering me way more than they should.  

I have a bunch of pictures to unload on you, so don't say I didn't warn you.  ;)

 Someone loves to fingerpaint!

 Mr. Cool.

 Love this precious face.

 And this one.  ;)

 I wanted a sweet Mother's Day picture.  This is what I got.  Story of my life.

 Gah, I love this!

 He was making his new "ooo" sound.

Beautiful, dirty face.


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I'm at a loss...

For a title to this blog.  :/  Sorry.

Well, we survived the yard sale.  It turned into a garage sale, seeing as it monsooned all morning, but hey, the show must go on.  And it did.  I did okay I guess.  We made about half of what I had hoped, but with the unrelenting rain, I will take it.  It definitely wasn't a waste of time.  Unfortunately, I have lots of good stuff left and I am not sure what to do with it.  I would like to sell it, because I was hoping to make enough money to have the rest of our house painted and like I said, we're only halfway there.  Any suggestions on how to go about that?  The Facebook online yard sales?  Craigslist?  I don't want to do the consignment sales because I don't want to tag stuff.  It took me too long to go through it all and lay it out, I am at the lazy stage now.  Maybe group them by size and sell them in lots?  I think that sounds like the easiest way.  A big shout out to my friend, Lindsey, for sitting with me in my cold garage for hours.  Thank you, friend.  I owe you big. 

We had a house showing on Friday evening and the guy said our lot wasn't deep enough.  Funny, we have one of the deepest lots in the neighborhood.  Unless he wanted to put in a football field, I don't know how it wasn't deep enough.  Sigh.  Then we got a call Sunday afternoon for another showing.  I had just put Colt down for a nap, so I cleaned up really quick and Ryan mowed the yard (even though it was really too wet) and about 5 minutes after I woke Colt up (that was ugly!), they called and canceled.  They are supposed to reschedule this week but boy, was I upset.  I hate to wake Colt up and that day he needed a nap more than ever.  He was so ill.  I am hoping they indeed do reschedule. 

Yesterday, my stepdad had his MRI to see if the chemo is shrinking his cancer at all.  I don't know any results yet.  I'll update when I find out. 

Colt and I went to our third signing class yesterday.  It is going well, I think.  Colt doesn't pay any attention in class unless we're singing but once we get home, he throws out all kinds of signs!  Crazy kid.  The teacher, Adele, gave us a sheet with a listing of all the signs we know and we're at around 120 signs!  I am so proud!  Some of his new favorites are "sneeze," "read," "meatball," "cheese," and "friend."  We have a cd of the songs we sing in the car and when he wants to listen, he signs "friend" because his favorite song has that sign in it.  Ha.  We now know the signs to about 6 songs, two being "On Top of Spaghetti" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."  I just love it and love watching him sign.  It does this mama's heart good. :)

We don't have any new words this week, but we are hearing "green" quite a bit more often.  It's still not very clear and might not sound like "green" to someone else, but now he's using it along with "blue" and using it appropriately.  I know that's what he's saying.  :)  He has recently become fascinated by our dogs and chasing them around, particularly Lexie, our Cairn terrier.  He hides from her and jumps out at her, giggling all the while.  I love it.  Last night he was throwing her toy elephant for her.  He threw it a few good times, then got tired of it I guess because he ran over to the front door, unlocked it, opened it, threw the elephant outside, then closed the door and locked it back.  Ha!  Poor Lexie loves him, but she hates the chasing game.  She eventually gives up and cowers, waiting on him to hurt her.  He doesn't, but she's still afraid.  Poor dog.  Anyway, he's at a fun age.  I love watching him learn and develop his little personality.  These are fun times.  I hope I cherish them as much as I should. 

Other than all of that, I don't have much to update on.  You know I always include pictures, so please enjoy. 

Colt was chasing Lexie.  She is awaiting her fate. 
 
These eyes took some work to get them to look this good!

I love this boy and his squishy face!
 
Someone found his Mama's guitar.  He's a boy after my own heart.
 
A beautiful Sunday morning after a few days of rain.
 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Prayer Request

Welcome Friday!  I am thankful for the weekend, but nervous about getting our yard sale going tomorrow.  It's supposed to rain all day but I have managed to borrow two EZ-Up tents (Thanks, Jody and Randy!) and Ryan has to work.  So I will be working my yard sale alone.  I only see disaster coming from this.  My sweet friend, Lindsey, who lives in the neighborhood will be coming by I know, so if I need help, I know she will.  That makes me feel a bit better.  Again, I have TONS of little boy clothes and I really want to get rid of them so if you need some or know someone, please send them my way.  Duckett Drive in Stanford Place.  ;)

I wanted to give a quick update/prayer request for my stepdad.  He had his third round of chemo last Thursday.  He is still doing the chemo treatments at the hospital in Atlanta, where he has to drive at least 45 minutes to get there.  Then, he's there for hours getting one round of chemo before he gets to go home with his chemo pump attached to him for 48 hours.  On Saturday, he drives that distance back to Atlanta to just be there a few minutes to have them remove it and send him home.  Days 5-7 after his chemo, he's been REALLY sick.  This week (Tuesday-Thursday of this week would have been days 5-7) he wasn't sick at all!  He's feeling good this week.  One of the nurse practitioners looked at Allen's blood work and said she didn't want to give them "false hope" but that his blood looked better.  He was supposed to have an MRI this past Monday, but it got rescheduled to this coming Monday.  Allen has worked over 30 years for Georgia Power and has a really great job that he loves, BUT he has had to use so many sick days that he's quickly running out of time.  I have two prayer requests for him.  First of all, I pray that the chemo is working and shrinking his cancer.  Honestly, I am praying for a miracle.  I know God still performs miracles every day and Allen really needs one.  I also pray that Georgia Power can come to some kind of agreement with him to let him do what he needs to do to get well without having to worry about his job.  That is not a kind of stress that he needs on top of his cancer.  So, if you'd join with me in lifting Allen up, I would really appreciate the help.  :)