Olivia's Audiologist Appointment

Olivia had an audiology appointment today.

She's been notoriously bad for saying "What?" constantly when we spoke to her, but we chalked that up to her personality and simply not paying attention, or even selective hearing (all you parents know what I mean!).

And it definitely is still partly that. She is still Olivia after all. But during regular Kindergarten screenings in the fall, some red flags went up. She has problems in the screening on Nov 18 in her right ear only, and on Dec 8 in both ears. We received a notification that she needed to see an audiologist for further screening.

That appointment was today and she failed the screening test. Today's test indicated that she has normal hearing in her left ear (she heard 5 out 5 of the tests) but possible hearing loss in her right ear (she heard only 1 out of the 5 tests) and middle ear problems in both ears. The audiologist indicated that right now what she is likely experiencing is similar to having plugged ears on an airplane - something an adult would complain about, but children are highly unlikely to.

At this point we need to schedule an appointment with her regular doctor for treatment of her middle ear difficulties and wait for a referral to Audiology for a complete hearing test/full audiological evaluation which will likely take a couple of months.

In the meantime, we need to advise her teachers to speak on her "good side" to make things easier for everyone involved. And I certainly need to remember this myself too!

The audiologist suggested that at this point things could go either way and that she could not predict which way they would go. She said that we may be able to simply clear up the middle ear difficulties and things would be fine, or there may be further steps necessary to address the hearing loss.

In each of her tests the results have been progressively worse, though all screenings have taken place during winter (ie cold season) which can impact results as well.

There is some history of hearing loss in Nathan's extended family which is making me less than optimistic about future test results.

However, I am thankful that it is not a more serious problem. Hearing loss is certainly not life threatening, and would be my "loss of choice" if I was forced to choose (I, personally, would rather lose my hearing than my sight, for example).

That being said, we are still praying that her middle ear difficulties will be healed and her hearing completely restored, but that God would be glorified no matter the outcome - and humbly ask for your prayers as well. Thank you.

Update on Stellan

Thank you for praying for Stellan. The surgery was described by the surgeon as "making a good play when being dealt an awful hand". The next few days will be important ones and many more decisions about his future care/meds/surgery will need to be made. Stellan is still in Intensive Care but is now awake and doing well. Please continue to pray.

Georgia has gone to meet Jesus

6 month old Georgia took her last breath at around 11:30 this morning. Please pray for her parents, Kristen & Mike and her sisters, Calla & Maya.

Pray for Stellan's surgery Tuesday morning

Please pray for Stellan, his family and the medical staff as they are scheduled to have surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 8:30am Boston time. There seem to be some complications arising tonight as his heart has been back in SVT for awhile now - not sure what that means exactly for the surgery. See MckMama's blog for more information.

Thank you for praying.

Please pray for Georgia and her family

Please pray for a family who is going through a tremendous loss right now. They have 3 girls and their youngest daughter Georgia (6 months) was recently diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and was given only weeks to live. She almost died on Easter weekend, but recovered and is still holding on. They are enjoying every day with her that they possibly can. Please pray for Mike & Kristen, and their daughters Calla, Maya and Georgia. You can find their blog here.

Praying for Stellan

A few months back I recommended a few blogs that I like to read and My Charming Kids was one of them. After being diagnosed with a serious heart problem at 20 weeks pregnant, Stellan was born miraculously completely healthy! He is now 5 months old. 2 weeks ago his heart went back into SVT (SupraVentricular Tachycardia) which is very rapid heartbeat along with the electric pulse beginning in the wrong part of the heart. His condition has gradually started to improve, but they really need prayer. You can click on the button at the top left of my blog, or on the link above to read more about Stellan's story.

Urgent Prayer Request!!!

Nathan's sister Deena and her husband Chris live out west. We just received word that their best friend Bucky was killed in a head on collision today. His wife Leah is expecting their first child in about 6 weeks. Chris is a first responder and he was the first one at the scene. Please pray for them all during this difficult time. Thank you.

Edited to add further details...
Bucky was driving on a gravel road in his truck. A semitruck was driving towards him, stirring up clouds of dust. A farmer was driving behind the semi and decided to pass the semi even though he couldn't see due to all the dust. The semi driver and Bucky waved to each other as they drove by each other - which must have been nanoseconds before the farmer hit Bucky head on. The farmer died the same day as Bucky's funeral.

Everyone's prayers are really helping! Leah is really strong right now. Continue to pray for her as other people begin to go back to their normal lives, while she has to struggle to adjust to a new "normal". Everything looks good with the baby/pregnancy.

Please also pray for Bucky's parents. This is the 2nd child that they have lost - they had a 4 yr old son who died of pneumonia years ago. They have 2 girls left. I cannot imagine going through that once, nevermind twice.

Please continue to pray for all those affected by this tragedy. Thank you.

Surgery Update

Edited again: Dr confirmed that there is no infection. There may be some blood that got into a muscle causing a charlie horse effect in my jaw (fun fun!). And also, recovery is simply slower because I'm a mom and can't quit that job! I'm likely clenching my jaw unconsciously and simply overusing it (talking & smiling to my babes!). He recommended resting it as much as possible and using a heating pad to help relax the muscle. Unfortunately, no extra prescription for the pain.

But I think it might possibly be getting slightly better - we'll see how tomorrow goes. Thanks for all your thoughts/prayers!

My recovery is going very slowly. The pain is only marginally better today than it was at the beginning - so it's been 6 days now already. I feel like I'm going to be in pain forever! Of course, I know that it will gradually improve, but it's so hard to stay positive when you can feel so little improvement. I'm also hoping I don't find out that you become immune to Advil & Tylenol after 7 days or something :)

Edited to add: I called my dr to see if he could give me something else for the pain. Since I'm still having this much pain, he wants me to come in today to see him to make sure nothing's wrong. Please pray that everything's ok, and that he can give me someone else for the pain that'll work better. My appointment's at 2.

Wisdom Teeth Surgery

Today I'm going to get all 4 impacted wisdom teeth surgically removed. Fun times.

Please pray that it goes well and that I'm miraculously pain free tonight! :)

Surgery's at 10:30 am and I'm really thirsty right now.

Fetal Assessment

So, on Monday I went for another fetal assessment due to concerns about the baby's kidneys. And the tests all indicate that everything is now completely normal! Praise the Lord - what an answer to prayer! Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us.

And I even got pictures - check it out.

Our baby's face! Can you see it?
Looks just like our other babies did.
Can you tell gender from a face?



Here's a hand - and the other part is a foot but the baby's kicking so it's hard to see that one.

Ultrasound results

So my dr called me with my ultrasound results this morning.

The results are still the same - there is a minor dilation in the kidney opening. She said I should not be concerned. That the majority of the time this will still become normal at some point during the pregnancy or even early on after birth. She said they will do a fetal assessment around 32 weeks, and possibly another one afterwards, in order to get a frame of reference as to the size of the opening so they can monitor if it's improving or not. If it is still there at the last fetal assessment they will do an ultrasound on the baby within the first 2 months. If it is still present at that time a minor surgical operation would have to be performed to fix it.

The fact that they wrote "minor" on the results is apparently significant. She is confident that the opening will become normal and is not expecting surgery to be necessary. Of course, she cannot guarantee anything, but that is her expectation.

I would appreciate your continued prayers that our baby would be healed so that the surgery would be unnecessary.

Thank you!!

Still waiting

I don't think I mentioned this in any previous posts but I had to go in for a 2nd ultrasound due to a "potential" problem with the baby's kidneys. The opening is apparently dilated more than it should be, but it also apparently a very common problem at 20weeks gestation (at the time of my 1st ultrasound). My dr said that with all her other patients that have had the same "problem", it has cleared up, or registered as normal at the 2nd ultrasound. She said that even in a worse case scenario where it didn't not clear up, it would require a minor surgical procedure after birth and the problem would be fixed - so not a permanent condition or anything. She said if it was her own ultrasound she wouldn't be concerned, that they just wanted to do the 2nd ultrasound as a precaution basically.

So, I wasn't really worried, until I remembered that kidney problems do run in our family to some degree. My sister Andrea had a kidney operation as a baby, and one of my cousin's babies just recently had one as well. So, this has made me slightly nervous awaiting my test results.

I had the ultrasound on Thursday, but my doctor only works Tuesdays and Thursdays so I figured I wouldn't get the results until today. Well, today has come and gone and still no results. I called my dr and she was going to call me when she got the results. She didn't call, so at 4:30 I tried again. They said they hadn't gotten the results in yet. So I called the hospital and they said they did send the results. So I called my dr back and the receptionist double checked and saw that they had come in now and she would get the dr to call me back. Well, that didn't happen. So, I guess now I'm stuck waiting till Thursday. But I think I'll try calling the office tomorrow to see if a different dr can tell me the results - this is just such a long wait!

I haven't been too stressed about it, I just don't like the not knowing.

I know I'll for sure find out Thursday - cause I have a dr appointment then.

Have patience, have patience...... sigh, not one of my virtues unfortunately.