Busy Days

It's been a very busy couple of weeks around here! I arrived back from Portland late last Tuesday after a 2.5 hour flight turned into a 4-hour flight thanks to thunderstorms and tornadoes. I had a wonderful time in Portland, but it was so nice to be back home and I think the boys may have missed me just a teeny tiny bit! (: The meeting went great and we've received a lot of positive feedback on the agenda, location, logistics, etc. So, a little bit of the pressure has been lifted and I'm now ready to move on with summer activities and fun.

Aunt Megan arrived Sunday evening and stayed with us until yesterday morning. We all enjoyed her company very much. The boys kept her busy with books, trucks, and trains...she can build quite impressive train tracks on the Thomas table. I took Monday off, so we hung around with the little guys most of the day and then took them to Meadow Music at Chautauqua. A local children's musician puts on concerts every Monday evening through the summer, so we packed a picnic and joined in the fun. The boys loved it and even saw a few friends from school. I worked part of the day on Tuesday, and then Megan and I drove to Denver for afternoon tea at the Brown Palace, a beautiful historic hotel in downtown. It was so fun and we enjoyed some good sister time together.

Justin has one more week of his seminar and teaching responsibilities and then his quarter is finally finished. The boys will switch to a M-W-F schedule at school beginning June 7 to give him some much-needed study time throughout the summer. Justin met with his committee this week to outline the last 12-18 months of his time in the PhD program. He's definitely got his work cut out for him, but I think they're behind him with the timeline and understand our present circumstances with Jacoby. They did switch things around for his comprehensive exams, so he'll only be doing two this fall instead of three (the third exam will happen in the winter). They'd like him to tackle Clement of Alexandria for his Greek exegetical exam to "really show his stuff"...apparently it's some of the toughest Greek around. It says a lot that they think he can master it for an exam. The graduate school in Denver also asked him back to teach Greek in the fall again and told him to just plan on teaching for them until we leave the area. So, it's nice to have that to count on once again.

Jacoby has been scheduled to have his ACTH test and MRI on June 18. It will be another long day of fasting, but I'm glad we can get it done at one time. I also got a call from the Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Diseases Program at Children's Hospital in Denver. They want to schedule a full GI work-up for Jacoby, so I expect that to happen sometime in June as well. Morgan has been having a lot of trouble with even the tiniest amount of egg in any kind of food, even things he's eaten multiple times in the past, so I've been working with the school to come up with a plan to keep him safe. He goes back to the allergist at the end of June to follow up on this new heightened sensitivity to egg...anyone figured out our theme for the month of June?

We're going to a birthday party this weekend at the children's museum which should be lots of fun. Jacoby is so excited that he gets to have a cupcake for the party--I made a batch for the freezer to have on hand for special occasions. He has just about mastered all aspects of pottying now. We're still working on being able to take clothes on and off by ourselves, and it can be quite funny when he waltzes out and the pants haven't quite made it over his little hiney. He's also very much into "having privacy" when going potty now. Morgan doesn't get this at all and gets frustrated when he can't visit Jacoby during potty time. They're both keeping us very busy with all of their energy, curiosity, and constant activity. We were supposed to go to a U2 concert in a couple of weeks but it's been postponed to 2011 since Bono had to have back surgery. We're kind of bummed but hopefully it will still work out for us to see them next summer.

I think that catches everyone up on our news. Have a great Memorial weekend!

Jacoby's Latest News

Warning: Long post ahead...

We finally have some news about Jacoby and what our next steps are going to be with him. I spoke with the endocrinologist Friday evening, and the results from Jacoby's growth hormone stimulation test indicate a growth hormone deficiency. Normal is a 10, and Jacoby's numbers ranged from 2-5. His IGF-1 level was also low again, which is what triggered this whole process in the first place. The doctor was so happy that our pediatrician had jumped on this because even though Jacoby isn't short, for the height of his parents he should be in the 75-90%-tile instead of the 25%. He said that most boys in Jacoby's circumstances don't get caught until they're between 5 and 7 years of age. So, that's good news that we're catching this early and the doctor felt like Jacoby will be right where he needs to be by the time he enters kindergarten.

So as far as next steps go, before Jacoby starts hormone treatment for the deficiency he has to go through more testing. He'll be doing a ACTH stimulation test (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003696.htm) which is done very similarly to the GHS test we did earlier. He'll also be getting an MRI of his brain (under sedation). Both of these will tell us if there are other hormone issues going on and/or if there is something else wrong with his pituatary gland. There's more information about the hormone therapy here: http://www.humatrope.com/index.jsp and http://www.magicfoundation.org/www.

We also met with the allergist this week, and as far as I'm concerned the food allergy situation continues to be a huge black hole that continues to get bigger and bigger. We are no closer to figuring out what's going on in Jacoby's system to be causing all of these allergies and sensitivities than we were when we started in December! Sorry for the rant, but sheesh some answers would be nice! Anyways, our next step with this is to see a gastroenterologist specializing in EE (eosinophilic esophagitis--you'll all receive a spelling test later) to determine if Jacoby needs an endoscopy. We're also supposed to see a nutritionist. Both of these will be at Children's Hospital in Denver. I won't even go into the list of food restrictions we're on now, but we still maintain a pretty normal menu despite our limited choices. He's definitely feeling better and has really come out of his shell at school. So, the mystery remains in the world of food allergies with this kid. I think most of our summer is going to be devoted to appointments with specialists, tests, and hopefully, treatment. That's the latest on this journey.

I'm writing this from beautiful Portland, OR. I love the northwest--the water, how green everything is, the warmth and the fact that it's not going to snow while I'm here since it apparently does year-round now in Colorado, the friendly people. I'm finally starting to feel like a somewhat "normal" (loosely defined here) person after battling an awful sinus infection this week while trying to finish up all the meeting details. We're looking forward to a good meeting, and I'll be a very happy camper if it all goes well and the months of planning come together.

The boys treated me to a wonderful Mother's Day last weekend. Justin made breakfast and dinner, and we enjoyed a picnic up in the mountains. I've become a huge fan of homemade cards from my little artists. The boys were enjoying themselves when I left this afternoon. They're excited for a visit from Aunt Megan on Monday. They're busy and into everything--there's not a single sacred space in the house and I'm amazed at what they get into and find! Morgan is busy learning his animal sounds and is just as cute as can be. Jacoby has entered the "trying 3s" and is intent on testing rules, boundaries, requests, etc. He's still very sweet and playful and is becoming more and more independent.

Watching the bunny in the yard

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

The Unexpected...

When I became a mom, I didn’t expect:

To love my boys so much

To love Justin more because of how he loves and cares for our boys

To learn that joy and heartache mingle together in parenthood

To miss my boys so much when I’m away from them

To have to memorize all the different kinds of trucks and tractors or else face correction by my 3-year old

To actually seek out construction zones, railroad crossings, and garbage transfer/recycling stations simply for the delight it brings to my boys

To see siblings love and care for each other from the very beginning

To absolutely love it when my boys laugh and sing

To genuinely appreciate drive-thru pharmacies and drive-thru Starbucks

To consider 7 am “sleeping in”

The laundry. The sheer, unfathomable amount of laundry small people can generate.

To have Baby, Other Pooh, Pooh Bear Blanket, Elmo, and Blankie become family members too

To feel how overwhelming the task of growing these little people into strong men of character would be each day

To learn how quickly people under 3’1’’ can rule your world, schedule, time, thoughts, prayers, life, resources, and habits

To never remember what life was like before February 23, 2007 (what did I do with myself and all of that time?!)

To have my vocabulary, which was once centered on pre-marital therapy, reconciliation, family systems theory, conflict resolution, effective communication, and having the DSM-IV memorized, center instead on poopy, goober, booger, ouchie, bonk-bonk, no-thank-you, time-out, one-more-bite-please, you’re-such-a-good-boy, be-nice-to-your-brother, sit-on-your-bottom, you’re-about-to-have-a consequence, and I-don’t-respond-to-whining

How hard I would laugh when Jacoby started calling us “Honey”

That the perfect evening out with Justin would turn into the perfect evening in: a pan of brownies and Netflix

To have motherhood be the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve ever done

To love my boys (even the big one) so much

Quick Update

Justin told me the other night that he checked our blog to find out what was happening in our family and found that it hadn't been updated in awhile! (: So, just a quick post to catch up since we've been bustling about over the past week or so. Justin and Jacoby are on a bus/train adventure this morning down to DU to check out a book sale. Jacoby was very excited when he left!

We went to a fun birthday party last weekend for one of our little friends who turned one. It was fun to get out and have some play time with friends. The boys have been busy playing outside and both are enjoying the outside activities at school like walking to the park and playing on the new playground. I always find Jacoby playing in the dirt when I pick him up. He and a little girl in his class have become inseparable--they sit together during circle time, play outside together, nap together. It's very cute. Morgan has become very interested in books, so he packs them around and crawls into our laps whenever he gets a chance. His vocabulary is growing each day.

I don't have much of an update on the medical side of things. The endocrinologist has been out of town, so I won't hear from him until Monday about Jacoby's growth test results. And our appointment with the allergist got pushed back until the 12th this coming week. Jacoby had to have more lab work done last week, and he's definitely becoming a pro at it. They didn't even have to hold his arm this time. Morgan was not happy that they took his brother back and made him cry, so they eventually had to let Justin and Morgan back to see us because Morgan was upset! We heard back on the lab results that Jacoby's eosinophil count has dropped significantly, which is great news and means that the stricter diet is helping him. We do have a new list of things to avoid, but I'll have more info on all of that next week after we meet with the allergist. We had two scares within the past week when Morgan broke out in hives and a rash from skin contact with eggs or food that had eggs in it. Very scary...his teachers have decided to eliminate eggs from their menus since most of the kids don't like them anyway.

Justin is busy working on his dissertation proposal. He attended a dissertation defense last week and learned a lot about that process. He's also busy with his teaching assistant assignment but most of it is online. Work is super busy for me with our board meeting only one week away--yikes! I'll be working some this weekend. Our health benefits are going to be changing quite a bit at work due to budget constraints and being hit with a huge rate increase, so the meetings and conversations around all of this have not been pleasant nor are they good for my mental health. I'm pretty much a useless committee member because I just can't separate myself from my own circumstances that are going on with Jacoby. Everything we've read about growth hormone includes all of the positive aspects of using it for treatment but also includes how expensive it is and how unlikely it is to be covered by health insurance. So, between health insurance and all of the allergy stuff, don't be surprised if I'm checked into a funny farm within the next few weeks.

That's about all from our neck of the woods!

So Proud...

Jacoby had his growth hormone stimulation test this week. I'm very happy to report that he did exceptionally well throughout the entire ordeal. Getting the IV was the most stressful, especially when they couldn't get it on the first try. But once that was taken care of, Jacoby turned our small lab room into a place of his own with trucks, books, and videos. He carried on throughout the hours with hardly any complaint, retained a good sense of humor, stood by himself to have an xray of his hand, delighted his nurse and was very helpful to her when she visited every 30 minutes to draw blood from his special "button". I couldn't have wished it to go any better and both Justin and I were very proud of him. Once the four hours were finally up, Jacoby ate lunch there (and proceeded to eat all afternoon) and then fell asleep as soon as we started our trek back home. We were all worn out by the end of the day, but so thankful and relieved to have this behind us.

We won't have any results for another 10-14 days, but what we did find out is that he doesn't seem to have any blood sugar issues. His last lab results indicated low blood sugar, and a lot of factors could have played into this, but they wanted to check to make sure he was keeping normal blood sugar levels and he was! Next steps will be to have blood work done on April 29 and then a follow up appointment with the allergist on May 6.

The boys are doing great! Morgan's main project these days is figuring out how to eat with utensils...and sheesh it's a messy process! But he is so determined and actually getting quite good at it. Jacoby has begun the "But why, Mommy?" questions...I was thinking I might have another year or two before this started. He's also completely enamored with a new special garbage truck that Grandpa Michael gave him last weekend, complete with garbage bins that he has filled with all sorts of things.

Justin is busy working on his dissertation proposal. I'm trying to get him to send it out to everyone, well not everyone, but our families at least so they can see what he's going to be writing on because I think it's quite interesting. His TA responsibilities are keeping him really busy too.

We really had a good time with Grandmanette and Grandpa Michael last weekend. We enjoyed beautiful, sunny weather while they were here. The boys loved their company, and Jacoby was thrilled to be able to try out Grandpa's new iPad. Aunt Linda arrived on Tuesday from Arizona in her great big motorhome, so we've been enjoying her company in the evenings. Jacoby keeps her busy with books and trucks. Morgan is pretending to be shy and have stranger fear.

I'm trying to keep my head above water--I can't believe how much time and energy the medical stuff takes! I'm so far behind with things at home, not to mention the board meeting coming up in less than a month...insert reminder to breathe here. So I just keep trekking along. I had jury duty for a few hours this week and then thankfully got excused. We were very saddened at work when we got news last week that the spouse of a colleague passed away after a long fight with cancer, so several of us attended his memorial service. I also received a call from the manager of all of the Boulder Medical Center labs wanting to hear more about our unpleasant experience with Jacoby's first blood draw, so I had a very good conversation with her. We're looking forward to trying out a different lab next week that might be slightly more kid-friendly.

The boys' school did a lot of special things this week in honor of Earth Day yesterday, planting a new tree out by the new playground, learning how things grow and how we can take care of the earth. In Jacoby's class, they asked each child what they wanted to do to take care of our environment and Jacoby told his class that he was going to keep using his water bottle for drinking! I think we're going to plant some strawberries this weekend to continue the conversation.

Have a great weekend everyone!