Grayson in Rare Form!

I have always said that Grayson is one funny child that makes me laugh. He is truly ingenious in the way he looks at the world. So the first picture is of Grayson in a paper box. I was cleaning out some stuff and actually set the box in the den for the cats to play with until I threw it out. I walked in to get him for dinner and this was how I saw Grayson. (Remember that he is small for his age...)


The second picture is us going out to dinner on Wednesday night. I was craving guacamole...so we were going to the Mexican restaurant around the corner. While we were deciding on where to go, Grayson went through a give-away box where I collect stuff to donate and found this little bag with gingerbread men on it. It now belongs to him and he was going to use it to carry his blankie with him...just like Mommy carries her purse. Let's just say that it was an interesting situation to go out in public with a four year old boy and his "purse". At some point I remember mentioning that it might have been better to have to buy him a Barbie. There was some show years ago where the dad struggled with the notion that his son wanted a Barbie doll for Christmas. Darned if I can remember which show it was...Friends perhaps?


The last picture is in the car on the way home from the Mexican restaurant. Suddenly Nathan yells from the back seat to look at Grayson, so Randy turns to see and bursts into laughter. I had to slow down the car and turn to look. Here is what we found:


Will he be the first comedian in space?

Full-Time Glasses for Nathan

Nathan and I had our eyes checked today for our yearly eye exams. It seems that Nathan did a HUGE leap this year in his lack of vision. I noticed it a few weeks ago that he was squinting when looking far away. Last year, they took him off of full-time glasses to just wearing them when he needed to see up close, like in class to read and write. It seems that his vision has changed drastically in the other direction. So instead of being farsighted, he is now way nearsighted. His eyes went from seeing fine to being almost as bad as mine. Good grief! My prescription didn't change at all, so I just got my glasses cleaned and tightened. Nathan's will have to be redone on July first, because that is the start point for the insurance to allow us to do that. Fun. For now he will just have to wait. Here is what he will look like in his "new" glasses. He will even have them transition...meaning they will turn into sunglasses when he gets in the sun. I feel that this is so important since we had the "blond fundus" scare. Apparently his retina is very, very pale and they were afraid that it was indicative of vision issues (way more critical than just needing glasses). We took him to be evaluated and the ophthalmologist said he should be fine. I hope we don't have to revisit that issue in light of the new drastic change in vision. We'll see how he does with the glasses. I suppose that it is one MORE thing to talk to the pediatrician about.

Jen's Birthday celebration

So, Friday was my birthday. I like to tell people that I am 25 with many years of experience. I think it works quite nicely rather than admitting that I am old. Okay so I am not old exactly, except that my body thinks I am. Hee hee. We went out to a restaurant, which is what our group does. We choose a restaurant and make everyone go there. It is fun trying new places. Everyone has different tastes in food, so we get to go to neat and various restaurants during the year. Last year was fun at the Mediterranean place we went for my birthday. There was dancing and fun for everyone. :-) This year I chose an Italian place downtown. The place was lovely and new. The menu was a little weird with so many different types of menus. My veal was very good and the service was great. The kids were treated well, though I got the feeling that they were an unusual occurance there. There were twelve of us total at this huge round table. I really liked the round table as opposed to the long rectangular tables we have had in the past. You get to see everyone and talk to anyone at the table. I got some great gifts and had fun conversation. Thanks to everyone for making my birthday grand.

Grayson's Headaches

We went for a follow-up visit yesterday to the neurologist. Grayson has had headaches since he was two. Back then he would get them two to three times a day every day. We did a CT-scan, where everything looked normal. Then we did an MRI, where again they found nothing abnormal. So, there is no explanation as to why he was suffering from the headaches. Then there was the huge recall of all the Thomas toys. Grayson had 13 of the items so we worried that the lead might be the cause. His lead levels were tested while it was a 3 (where 10 is the lowest number for concern) it was not high enough to cause the doctors any alarm. So still no answer as to why he was having them. He was doing really well taking the Verapamil (as a liquid) until recently. He started complaining lately that his head was hurting almost every day. So the last time we went the doctor talked about cutting back the medicine. Needless to say that that will not be happening. He is also concerned that Grayson is so small (he still only weighs 32 pounds). So he is now on another medicine to help increase his appetite called Periactin. If you read the paperwork that goes with it, it says that it can be used for people with eating disorders. As far as I know, if you have a headache, you don't want to eat...especially when the headaches make you nauseous. Ugh. We hope that the second medicine will get Grayson's appetite up and help him gain weight. We still have him on whole milk to help with that as well. We go for his wellness visit in July, so we will talk with the pediatrician about this and MORE when we go.

Hemachromatosis update

Randy's doctor called last night at 9:30! He must have been on-call at the hospital or something. What a really nice guy, by the way. Anyway, he was calling to update Randy on the results of the genetic test they ran in the hospital. Apparently has has two of the markers for the disease. I included a link in a previous post, so if you are interested in checking out the information please scroll back a week or so. I will need to delve a little further with that information because it may be important. Grayson has suffered from migraines since he was two and a half or so. Daily headaches. He has been on the maximum dosage of the Verapamil for about a year. We have never been able to figure out why he has had them. Perhaps he needs to have the genetic test done also to see if he might have this same issue. Before I get all up in arms about anything though I want to talk to Randy's doctor again and find out specifics of which markers where etc. I looked up the information on the juvenile version of the hemachromatosis, but there is really not much mention of brain issues or headaches. So for now we will wait and see.

Randy GI Update

Well, Randy went back to the GI specialist yesterday. The doctor said he looked well and to keep taking the medications he prescribed. He is still not allowed any "strenuous" activity for at least another week. No heavy lifting still for a while too. He forgot to ask about the diet...sure wish I could have gone with him. So we are still doing the low residue/low fiber diet for now until he talks to the doctor again. He is scheduled for the second endoscopy for the end of July (about 6 weeks from now) for the biopsy of the "cells" he saw last week. He ran some more blood tests. I will be interested to know what comes from them. No word yet on the genetics test that was run and no idea how long it should take to get the results. I detest non-specifics.

Both of the boys are scheduled for their yearly check-ups in early July. I am anxious to talk to the pediatrician about several issues that have been accumulating, but not pressing enough to make a specific appointment for. I worry about Grayson's hearing and his lack of weight-gain. I worry about Nathan's GI issues, which could be related to his urinary issues as well. All of these items can be addressed with the doctor at that time. There are plenty more appointments to be made. I like to do as much of the medical things as I can during the summer where there are no time limits or scheduling conflicts. Eye check-ups for vision, yearly physicals to get the boys ready for school, my retina issue (more on that later), allergy issues for all of us, and dermatology issues for Randy and I.

I am too young to be this old!

Nathan UTI update

It has been a hectic week. With everything that happened on Friday, I didn't get to mention about Nathan's doctor appointment. Last December, the week before Christmas, Nathan got his second Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). This condition is quite common in girls over-all, but not so in boys over the age of a year old. Apparently the percentage of boys that get one after the age of 5 is two hundredths of a percent...so for him to get a second one is even more rare. So they put him on antibiotics for three weeks. We went back for the check up to find that he still had the infection. So we had to take a second dose of antibiotics, but this time it was every 6 hours. We worked out a schedule that would least conflict with daily life: 7 AM, 1 PM, 7 PM, 1 AM. The most difficult one was the 1 AM simply because it was too late to stay up and too early to get up to for me. I usually am up by 5:30 every morning. Half the time, Nathan wouldn't remember getting the middle of the night dose and argue with Randy that he didn't get it. The worst part was that he had to eat or drink milk with it...so by all sense and purpose he should have awakened during that, but he didn't.

After three weeks, he was clear again. But now we were on to other stuff: the doctor wanted some tests run. Week one we went to the children's hospital to have blood drawn for all kinds of tests. Week two we went to have a renal ultrasound to check for visual defects in the kidneys and bladder. Week three we went to have a VCUG where they checked the function of the urinary tract with camera. Let's just say that January into February were hectic! They found that he had a few markers on the blood tests that might indicate some issues. The ultrasound was neat because Nathan got to see what his kidneys looked like along with his bladder. The technician was really cool because she also showed him his liver and his stomach while she was doing it. A real-live anatomy lesson! She told me that everything looked normal. Hallelujah! The VCUG was not a lot of fun. It involved a catheter, lots of liquid, and a traumatized 9 year old. The ureter was fine along with the valves. They did remark that the child had the biggest bladder they had seen in a long time...it took a whole bottle and a quarter of the solution to get the auto valve to finally open. This probably means that the child holds it too long on a daily basis. Which could be part of his problem.

Right now we are on a one year watch. He has to go back every three months for a UTI check with a urine test. He passed this time! Yahoo! If he comes up another UTI we will have to do the last test which is not one the doctor wants to do unless she has to do it and that is one where they check the function of the kidneys by using a contrast dye. She does not want to have to put him through that unless absolutely necessary. Nathan appreciates that I am sure. So for now we are thankful he is doing fine.

Swim lessons: week two

We went today for the beginning of the second week of swim lessons. Both of the boys are doing wonderfully! I am so pleased to see Nathan being unafraid of the water. The first video is of Nathan swimming...using arms and everything! The second video is of Grayson floating on his back and kicking with the instructor. Please ignore the audio from the lady sitting next to me...she was telling us about getting a flat tire in the heat. :-)

Nathan swimming

I have to say that I will be glad when the lessons are over, because I am exhausted! They make the parents sit upstairs on bleachers...in a huge warehouse...in 100 degree heat...with not much ventilation. I sweat profusely for the entire hour and a half that I am there. It is really hard to see from up there and of course heat rises so all the parents just sit and swelter. Thank goodness it is not August...though this heat wave makes me feel like it is. Pray for rain!


Grayson floats and kicks

Randy's Home (Sunday)

I brought Randy home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. The first thing he wanted was to go and take a shower! He is on light activity (no lifting of anything over 10 pounds) so that means no picking up Grayson or the cats (those fat cats!) or groceries or stuff like that. I reminded him that pushing and pulling heavy objects would not be good either, case in point: the lawnmower. He is supposed to stay out of the heat, at least until he sees the gastro-enterologist again on Thursday. I insisted that he stay home to continue resting today. I would rather he take it slow than overdo and have to go back to the hospital again. He agreed with me on that at least.

They put him on a low residue/low fiber diet. There are many items on the list that he loves to eat. Hopefully this is only until the doctor sees him again on Thursday. He can't have carbonated drinks...for those of you that know him well, you will understand how difficult that is for him! He has had to drink tea in the mornings to get his caffeine fix. It is funny because his regular doc had told him to cut down on carbs like pasta and breads, and here he is being limited to many of those things. We haven't had white bread in our house since...well, ever.

Things are good now that he is home. At least I can sleep again.

Day Two in the hospital

This morning we showed up to the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) very similar to the ICU in the amount of supervision each patient gets. The nurse was very nice to let the three of us in the room and close the door. We had to be very, very quiet...no not hunting rabbits...trying not to get kicked out! He was feeling better, but still perplexed as to what happened with everything last night. They didn't do the procedure until late, I didn't leave until I talked to the doctor about 7:15 and Randy was still knocked out from the drugs. He opened his eyes when I kissed him goodbye and told him I loved him. He repeated it to me and then over and over again. I said something to the doctor and turned back around and he was out cold again. It was a little bit humorous. Needless to say, when he came to he was alone in the CCU with no idea where anyone was or what happened. I told him a little on the phone last night, but told him that the doctor would tell him more in the morning.

And yet, the doctor didn't really tell him much other than he needed to come back to see him in 6 weeks. After seeing Randy again tonight, without the boys in tow (thanks again Walt), we were able to talk like two humans. He is feeling so much better. He has been walking around with all this stuff going on in his esophagus and didn't even know it until Friday morning. I hope once things calm down and we get back to normal again we will be ready to deal with the next phase of this mess. It seems the doctor found some abnormal cells, he called the Barretts syndrome, that he will need to biopsy using another endoscope in about 6 weeks. Once he does that we will know what we are dealing with. He also mentioned that Randy has a fairly large iron-store in his liver. That can be indicative of a genetic disease that they are now running the test for. In looking it up, I have come across the name: hemachromatosis. I have no idea what it will mean for him.

I am telling you, if we were as lucky in the lottery as we are in medical issues, we would be rich. Crazy, stinkin' rich!

What a Day!

Well it seems that Randy was tired of not starring in his own family blog...so he cooked up a scheme to become the headline news! Just kidding about that though he is in the hospital for a few days. Apparently he was feeling badly very early in the morning, having to get up several times. He went into work only to call me around 9:30 to say he was coming home and had made a doctor's appointment for 11:30. Nathan had an appointment as well (a story for another day) at the same which put me leaving right before him. We had just gotten in the car, and I had time to pull all the leads off of me from the heart monitor, when the phone rang. I picked it up to find the nurse from Randy's doctor's office. She told me I had to come right now and that I had a very sick husband. I had to tell her that I was about 20 minutes away, but I would be there as soon as I could. Oh the thoughts racing through my head: It's 12:30...Nathan and I have not eaten...I have to go to the cardiologist to return the monitor by 5:00 today or else!...I am twenty minutes away from a situation that I have no idea about. Needless to say, I was stressed.

When I arrived at the doctor's office, I found an ambulance and a fire rescue truck blocking the driveway. I parked the car, left Nathan sitting there just in case it wasn't a good scene and ran in yelling, "All that is not for my husband is it?" To be told to come on back with a nod. Such excitement! I walk in to find him as white as a ghost with 3 fantastic EMT guys standing around him, the doctor, the nurse, and the PA. It was quite a scene to behold in the exam room that is 8 by 8 feet in total. Apparently just after the PA coming in and starting the meeting, Randy decided he needed to regurgitate. He made it to the bathroom and threw up blood, supposedly a LOT of it. He called for help several times. When they came in to find the scene as it was, holey pandemonium ensued.

We met him at the hospital (Nathan still with me, but now fed because we ate in the car on the way there...thank goodness for drive-thrus!). We spent about 6 hours in the ER, and I have to say that Nathan was an angel. He only said he was thirsty one time the entire time. Again, thank goodness for Nintendo DS! He was so enthralled in his Zelda game that time for him just seemed to fly by.

They finally came to get him to do the endoscope. It turns out that he has several ulcers and bleeding vein that they put a clip on. The doctor chose to use epinephrin rather than cauterize because it makes the lining thin enough tear easier. He put Randy in the ICU so he could be monitored closely overnight. Hopefully, he will moved to a regular room tomorrow with the possibility of getting out Sunday. He was really out of it tonight after the procedure so I didn't really get to talk to him. He called about 9:30 from his room. He sounded groggy, but okay. I felt much better after talking to him. I told him he might come home Sunday and his response was, "Well, there goes my weekend." Goober. I guess he thought he would have to go to work on Monday. I told him that he probably would not be coming home from the hospital on Sunday to go straight back to work the next day. He just said oh. He is a funny guy.

Went to the Cardiologist today

So many of you know, and some of you don't, I have a heart condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse. I am sure I have had it all my life, but was diagnosed after Nathan was born. I guess the stress of the pregnancy made it more pronounced. I had palpitations, racing heart rate (actually 90 was my resting rate at the time), I was hot all the time, and barely slept. Not only that but I was losing so much weight that it was scary! When I couldn't fit into a size zero, because it was too BIG, I knew something was awry. I take medicine to slow the heart down and normalize the heart beating. The valve just doesn't close completely sometimes and causes the heart to want to work harder is what I figure to be the case. Anyway, lately I have been having a few more episodes than usual with a racing heart rate so my cardiologist has put me on a 24-hour monitor to see what all is happening. If nothing happens then she wants to put me on 30-day monitor instead. Keeping fingers crossed that they see something in the next 24 hours that gives indication as to what is going on. It could just be the stress of having been sick all these weeks with the Fifths disease, or it could be the stress from the death in the family, or maybe even the stress of moving to a new work building. Who knows? Any or all of it could do it I suppose. Right now I feel like a spy or something with all the leads everywhere and the main box in my pocket. Pretty weird. Later I might have Randy take a picture of it to put on the blog.

Busy Day!

I have been playing catch-up with the posts since we were so busy Sunday and Monday. It seems as though there is much to share today.


Today was the first day of swimming lessons for both of the boys. I scheduled at the Dynamo swim center since we have a difficult coordinating them any other way. I am so relieved that Nathan is finally learning to swim and to not be afraid of the water. Grayson, on the other hand, has no fear whatsoever. It can be trying at times because the child will just jump in without a care in the world. They had a blast in New Orleans: they got to go on a boat ride with Auntie Elizabeth (and daddy, Uncle Corey, Mel, and Uncle Kyle). They got to swim in Lake Pontchartrain amongst the algae and fun stuff. They had a blast! Grayson with his go, go, go attitude kept yelling for Elizabeth to "Go FASTER!" Again, no fear. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Leni had a pool that they could not wait to swim in. Each time Nathan got in the pool he became more confident. So happy to see that. I wondered why Grayson kept licking the water...come to find out from Ronny that the water is salt water rather than chlorine. No wonder!


On another note, as we were driving home yesterday we noticed that there was a space center in Mississippi. Interesting. I never heard of it before so I went online to check it out: the Stennis Space Center. Apparently they are getting ready to put a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) up into space. They are offering for people to have their name go into space with the orbiter. I put all of our names on their list. You should do it too...though you can only sign up until June 28th of this year, so hurry! Go here to sign up.

Bourbon Street: French Quarters

After the gathering, Randy and his brothers, Mel, and I were sitting outside and I suggested that we get out. Perhaps Michelle will watch the boys so we can de-stress. I made Randy ask her and she said yes! Our trip started with using the new GPS that Corey had. I have never used one before. While it was convenient, it was also a huge pain! I couldn't help but make jokes the whole way because the voice was a woman. They were able to make her so she had an English accent, but I would have preferred a male voice. I piped up that she nagged and I did not like that! I also decided that I should design one for some company that would change accents based on your location...just for fun...so when you are in New Orleans it would be Cajun. If you were in the hood it would have a rough accent like "Yo homegirl, lean left! And hey while you're going through this part of town, you might want to have your gun ready!" I thought it would be hilarious!

We got there and parked in the deck and walked to the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville. It was so very, very hot! I cannot get over just how humid it gets down there...usually at 100 percent humidity it rains where we live, not in New Orleans! It was weird to be able to walk down the street with a beverage, everywhere I have been there were open container laws. Mel got all dressed up and looked really great; where I looked like a granny in my capris and long shirt. She had people slinging beads at her all night, it was jarring the first few times we got hit in the head with them. Mel is a fabulous girl and she and I hit it off famously...which is a great thing if we become sister-in-laws one day. We went to Pat O's for a beverage; a hurricane to be exact. It was pretty good. I have been told that you can't go to New Orleans and not have a hurricane at Pat O's. We went to a country bar where Corey rode the bull. It was so much fun seeing him get thrown off!



It was a good night for most of us. By the end of the night Kyle was pretty sick of the rest of us. We were loud and obnoxious, okay it was really just Mel and I being loud and obnoxious. But we let off some steam and some stress. Randy got a shirt out of the evening, long story...perhaps for another time. Mel and Corey got a shot glass for Mel's grandmother. We all got some beads and beverage. The night did what it was meant to do, and created some good memories for us. I enjoyed the French Quarter much more so than I would have at other times of the year since I am not much for large crowds. Lots and lots of walking and heat, but I enjoyed myself!

The Memorial

Sunday was the memorial for Ronald Joiner (Randy's Dad). It was amazing. The hostess was Sandy and her husband of course. The setting was beautiful and the service went really well. Most of the folks there I had never met, though there were a few that I briefly remember from the wedding almost 6 years ago; many that I remember names from sending holiday cards. It was great to put faces with names after so long! It was a nice setup with a wonderful picture of Ronald that Michelle had enlarged and a really fine box for his ashes.



Sandy and the rest of the gang made all the food and preparations. Uncle Percy made a huge pot of Jambalaya, which Randy has talked about for years. I pitched in by creating a collage of pictures to hang up and a slideshow DVD of the ones that didn't get hung up. I felt pretty useful in a time when I needed to be busy. Sandy handled everything with grace and style. I aspire to be like her! The boys did very well (they stayed in the playroom watching movies and playing with all the toys Sandy had for her grandchildren). I gave Nathan the option of being out with us but he chose not to be. It was around breakfast time when Nathan asked me where pops was. I showed him the box with his ashes and told him he was in there. He looked at the box, then looked at me, then looked at the box again and hesitated. I could sense he wanted to ask me something so I asked him instead. "Do you want to look inside the box?" Of course he has always been very curious...which is why I knew that was what he wanted. So I carefully opened the box so he could look at them. His only reaction was to say, "Oh, I thought the ashes would be black." At that point Grayson walked over to see what we were doing and asked what was in the box. I told him calmly that they were Pops' ashes. He said oh and that was it. I closed and locked the box only to have Grayson try to pry it open again. At that point I told him it would be best not to touch the box and ushered him away. I have such curious boys!

I came to the realization during the service, while hearing all the stories, that Grayson could be a mini Ronald. He is four and already flirts obnoxiously with the ladies. We cannot get through a meal without the raising of the eyebrows and the winks. We are in so much trouble! He is also smart as a whip! He has already started reading and will gladly tell everyone that he can read. In the car last week he announced that he wants to be an astronaut and wants to go into space in a space suit. He was very detailed about it for sure. Nathan wants to be a paleontologist, which I think would be wonderful. It is one of the things I would like to do in my lifetime: to go on a dinosaur dig. Maybe he will take me along on one of his expeditions.