too exhausted to write.

 

things are ok.

 

Found a house in WA, hope seller accepts our offer

 

House in NC goes on market Monday, my 30th birthday

 

HOLY CRAP I'M TURNING 30.  And some of my eyebrows are coming in grey.  Great.

 

New bamboo floors were installed today, they look good.  Workers will be back tomorrow to finish the trim and reinstall appliances and downstairs potty.  Will only have taken 4 days, pretty good.

 

Workers will be back in our backyard again tomorrow, they are also finishing then.  They totally regraded it, addressed drainage issues, and after 5 dumptrucks full of dirt, quite a bit of the yard is level now.  Fresh sod was also laid.  Looks like paradise and I hate to leave it.  Hopefully it helps sell the house faster and for more money because it cost us a small fortune to do.  Will only have taken them 3 days, sweet!

 

Home inspection is Friday morning, which is also when Shawn gets back from WA.  He worked there this week, getting to know his new team, etc.

 

Today is my mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Mom.  Sorry we didn't get to eat your cake today.  We'll have it for breakfast tomorrow, mmmkay? 

 

OK head hurts, eyes are crossed from fatigue and general anxiety.

 

WIth all the suffering and natural disasters and injustice in the world, it doesn't feel right to ask you all to pray for us.  But if you could send good luck vibes our way, I would really appreciate it. 

 

Hugs, Jen

I've moved on to the dessert course of my pity party, so it's almost over.  And this part isn't so bad because hey!  DESSERT.  LOL

 

Knees aren't hurting so much today, I got braces and they helped tremendously.  My elbows hurt now too though.  My deep dark fear is that everything is going to go blurry then fade out, and next thing I know I'm waking up on the set of House and Hugh Laurie is going to be staring at me in that considering manner of his.  Hey, at least it's not lupis, right?  It's never lupis.

 

 

Har dee Har Har

 

Wesley threw up this evening at bedtime.  He has been sleeping on his "Pie dur man", (the Spiderman foam flip couch that my mom gave him) on the floor next to my bed since the surgery.  So he's laying there, kind of goofing off because it is bed time and that riles him up and next thing we know he is crying and flapping his arms yelling about how he threw up on Pie Dur Man and Head-doh (his pillow with the THomas the tank engine pillow case) and Bunny (his security blanket).  Then he is crawling towards the door leading out to the hallway, presumably to find me, when he stops, sits half upright and throws up again, twice, all over himself (at least he missed the cast) and the carpet.

 

Tonight at dinner was the first time he has at a fairly substantial amount of solid food since the surgery, he had Sweet and Sour Chicken, thankfully without the red sweet and sour sauce.  More I think about it, I ought to just say that he had "chinese chicken nuggets".  I wonder if the food was too much for his system?  The chicken and his last sippy cup of milk came up.  To be honest, it put me off of Chinese food, don't think I'll be eating that again for a while.  The carpet cleaned up very well and he has since kept down this last dose of medicine and some sprite.  He is sleeping fitfully.  Our washer and dryer are very quick, Bunny and Head-doh are already washed, dried, and returned to Wesley's loving embrace.

 

OK it is crazy late and I have a busy day tomorrow.

 

Ta Ta For Now!  Wish me luck at the knee doctor tomorrow.  They feel better, so I'm hoping it was just some random reaction to stress or something?  A girl can hope, you know, even if it is completely delusional.  :P

 

Hugs, Jen

 

Today is the sixth birthday of my neice, Emma.  Happy birthday, big girl!  We love you and wish we could spend your special day with you!  :)

 

Here is a picture of the birthday girl with Wesley in the wagon from our April 2008 trip to Cincinnati:

 

We're home, I'm pooped, Wes is in low grade pain at the moment... thanks to child's vicoden! LOL  He was amazing before, during, and after surgery.  No one could ask more out of him, he was honestly amazing.

 

I'll write more later, but right now I'm done.  I need a few hours on the couch with my latest Nora Roberts. 

 

Hugs!

 

Jen

 Wesley and I are leaving for the hospital in about an hour for his ATTT surgery.  I'm a little nervous, especially about the anesthesia.  They put him under for the TAL procedure about a year and a half ago and he did fine, so I am trying to keep that in mind.

 

He is still sleeping right now, which is unheard of for him.  Wes is a morning person.  I am letting him sleep because he can't have anything to eat and the less time he is awake to realize that, the less begging and crying we will all have to endure.  :)   He can have milk until 11am, and milk is his all time favorite food stuff anyways, so he should be ok.

 

I'll update when we get back home.  Please cross your fingers for our little guy that it all goes quickly and without a hitch.

 

Hugs!

 

I belong to a Yahoo! Group called No Surgery for Club Foot.  It is a group of parents who's children have or are currently going through club foot correction using the Ponseti Method.  A parent wrote today asking for input on a doctor that was recommended to her.  That doctor happens to be the one that Wesley sees, so I wrote her back.  After I sent it, I realized that I had pretty much wrote the update for Wesleys treatment from today in it, so I decided to paste the entire thing in my blog so that I don't have to rewrite it. 

 

Who me?  Lazy?  No way!  I'm just uber effecient!  LOL

 

Here goes:

 

We just got back from seeing Dr. Frick this morning!  :)
 
My son has right club foot.  He does not have spina bifida, so I can't answer that part of it, but I will tell you what I do know.
 
He is a very good doctor.  Case in point: Today's visit. 
 
My 3 year old son was scheduled for a cast change yesterday (he is in the pre-ATTT surgery serial casting phase) and we couldn't make it because my husband had a dental emergency (abscess formed in a tooth that has recently had a root canal).  Dr. Frick does surgeries on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he was totally booked on Wednesday.  A quick call to his nurse, Grant, and we were worked in between his morning and afternoon surgery today.  He is very flexible and he really likes kids.  That is the most important thing, I think.  He actually LIKES the age group he works with.  That has not been my experience with some of the other orthopaedic surgeons we've seen.
 
Dr. Ponseti gave Dr. Frick GLOWING praise as well.
 
Dr. Frick takes club foot treatment seriously and he keeps up on the techniques.  He was enthusiastic when I told him I was taking my son to Iowa to get a 2nd opinion from Dr. Ponseti.  Our doctor before Dr. Frick seemed hostile and insulted when I broached the subject of a 2nd opinion.  He even called to wish us luck before we left and called after we returned to see how it went.  The personal touch meant a lot to us and helped me to feel we had finally found the right doctor for our son.
 
Dr. Frick uses the Ponseti-Mitchell brace.  He did not prescribe physical therapy for my son, but our pediatrician did and Dr. Frick has been cooperative with it (even though it is not a standard club foot treatment), and he has worked in a friendly and timely fashion with our physical therapist when it comes to prescribing AFOs, shoe inserts, etc. for Wes.
 
My husband is being relocated due to his job in a few weeks, we are moving clear across the country to Seattle!  Wes will still have his post-operative cast on.  When I called the doctor office to see how this would affect my son's treatment, they were so reassuring that my worries were just gone.  Dr. Frick is a personal friend of the doctor out in Seattle (Dr. Mosca), in fact, he told me today that he learned the ATTT surgery technique from Dr. Mosca.  He said he would call Dr. Mosca to tell him about Wesley's case (his foot was made worse by the first two doctors that treated him, so his case isn't as straightforward as it could have been).  He is also sending us out there with a letter authorizing cast removal within the appropriate date range and will make sure that Dr. Mosca has all of Wesley's records.  Dr. Frick's face lit up when he talked about Dr. Mosca, he even told me that it is Dr. Mosca doing the surgery in the ATTT pictures in the clubfoot book on global-help.org - here's a link to it in case you don't already have it:
http://www.global-help.org/publications/books/help_cfponseti.pdf

One more link: doctor reviews on another group member's club foot web site: http://www.six-feet.com/ponseti-doctor-list.html  My review of Dr. Frick is the first one on the "A" list.
 
OK that is enough about me!  I'm not sure where you are located, but if you can manage to see Dr. Frick, I think you will be in wonderful, capable hands.
 
Best of luck!
 
Jen

Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn't know this. It's easy to check out, if you don't believe it.  Be sure and show it to your kids. They need a little history lesson on what's what and it doesn't matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are Facts!!!

Our Social Security

 

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program He promised:

 

1.) That participation in the Program would be Completely voluntary,

 

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual Incomes into the Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants put into the independent 'Trust Fund' rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees;would never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month - and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the m oney we paid to the Federal government to 'put away' -- you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent 'Trust Fund' and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.

 

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

 

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with, Al Gore casting the 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants can move into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!!!!

Then, after VIOLATING the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away! huh??

And the worst part about it is UNINFORMED citizens believe it!

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will evolve.

 

Or maybe not; as President Reagan said, “some Democrats are awfully sure of what isn't so."

Actions speak louder than bumper stickers.

AND one more thing:  ---CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT FOR  ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!

Remember:

"A Government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong  enough to take away everything you have."

-Thomas Jefferson