This past few weeks has gone by very quickly. My father as most of you know came down with pneumonia again over Thanksgiving vacation and is still in the hospital as I'm writing this. He is expected to come home later this week. However during a trip to the emergency room at the begining of November they noticed some abnormal readings during routine blood tests they ran on him. Over the course of the past few weeks and more tests they are suspecting he may have bone marrow failure or leukemia. We are in the process of setting him up a consultation with a hematologist for more tests. He will either be going to the Portland VA medical center for these or to St. Mary's Cancer center in Walla Walla Washington. Our past history with leukemia makes this all the more scary as my mother died of it almost 20 years ago. Depending on the type he has will tell us the speed at which it's forming. My dad isn't going to accept that it's cancer until he's officialy diagnosed. He just keeps saying he hopes the tests they do next will prove them wrong. (So please if you'd like to call him to wish him well, don't start saying your sorry for his illness as that may not go over well with him at this time, just wish him well and talk about the normal parts of life) Taking it one day at a time sounds good in theory but it has been more one moment at a time. Sometimes our moments are in a single second when your whole life is jolted and you sit wide awake.
During the past couple of weeks Miss Eva has been showing some familiar signs of asthma that Keagan had at that age. Coughing attacks during the night, hers so violent she's vomiting. We visited with her doctor who wants her to try some antibiotics just to rule out any infectious cause and then she will start an inhaler. At least her medication list will be smaller than Keagan's was at that age. And at this point we're old pros at asthma signs symptoms and treatment!
During a parent teacher conference with Annika's teacher this fall it was brought to my attention that the school feels Annika may need speach therapy for a short period. She has been mispronouncing certain sounds for a while but I passed it off as normal with her losing teeth and everything. Now though she is misspelling these words the way she's pronouncing them so in the near future that is another activity, speech therapy, she will be involved in.
Xander's illness hasn't changed much, we had a period of a few days recently that he was so uncomfortable. I think he might not have drank all of his medicine in his juice one morning and I hadn't noticed, maybe I thought his sister spilled hers or something. There isn't anything I can do for him when he gets that way, rub his back and belly or give him a warm bath is all. Otherwise he's growing and just as mean as always to his twin. He makes her cry and then yells "No No" to her trying to get her to quiet down so he doesn't get in trouble.
Keagan is growing up so fast, he shows signs of honesty and patience more each day. His tantrums are less, he calms down quicker when he has them, and he's such a good big brother. He is just begining to learn words at school and start to read them but he's having a hard time putting the sounds together. This is just something that will come with practice, good thing he loves to show his big sister what he's learning at school and they play school together working on his flashcards he brings home!
We will take pictures soon, probably not family pictures right now like everyone would like to see. It just isn't a good time for us to make it out of town for them and with our lives changing each day so quickly I have no confidence when we will get them taken. However I try to snap the candid moments and share them. Today we are going to ride the "Santa Train" in minam with Santa Clause! For one can of food each we get a free train ride and a visit with the big guy himself. It's snowing outside right now, we had no hot water for days but it's working again. I have a lot to be thankful for today and that's what helps is taking just a second to remember that and then jumping back in my life.
May you all stay warm, healthy, and happy this winter~
No comments:
Post a Comment