Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Catching up, Again! First half of 2013

Well, okay. So I haven't written in um, 7 months! Does anyone read this? I wouldn't hang around for one post a year! But I write for myself and to remember, so that's okay.  So..2013 so far..

January 2013

Medical / Health - Sadie had a great visit with her nephrologist and we were given an "all clear" to continue on our merry way for another year.  She continues to do great and other than a slight little issue that takes 1 little pill, she has normal kidney function and she's healthy and growing well.

Hannah got braces this month, and a palate expander. She was very excited about it!

Just for Fun - We had a mini snow day. It's so rare that we took full advantage of it.

February / Early March

Medical / Health - Hannah and Sadie both came down with a strep-like virus, though both had negative strep tests.  Sadie's followed a typical course though: get sick, go to dr., get antibiotic, get well, go on with having fun.  Hannah wasn't so lucky. She began an off-again, on-again illness. She'd get well, go off antibioitcs, come down with something again, repeat. That pretty much lasted for February and March.


Just for Fun -Despite the on-again, off-again sickness, Hannah managed to have some fun and "be well" during times too. She competed with her dance team at a couple dance competitions and her solo won first overall for her division for the state dance championship. Sadie meanwhile was quite proud to run in her first Mercedes Kids Marathon event.  And we all enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year with friends. Finally, we spent a fun weekend in Mobile at the end of Spring Break for competition and fun with our dance friends.  Other than the competition, we also explored the battleship, visited the beach, and participated in two impromptu St. Patrick's Day parades. Lots of fun for everyone. :)





Late March / April

Good news is Hannah finally seemed to shake whatever viruses she was fighting. Bad news is she came down with something new. HSP - Henoch Schonlien Purpura. It's an autoimmune disease that caused her to have a weird rash (purpura) all over her legs, joint pain (fairly severe at times), tiredness, and occasional headaches.  It can also cause other things such as severe stomach pains but Hannah was lucky on that count as she never had that.  It resolves on it's own and kids typically fully recover just fine. But there is a small chance of kidney problems. So because of that, Hannah had a visit with Sadie's nephrologist and also had to get weekly labwork for 6 weeks at her pediatrician's office.  The whole ordeal lasted about 8 weeks, with it getting progressively milder as time went on. The first week she could barely walk and was in a lot of pain. But after that, she would have occasional days that she had joint pain and other days that she had no pain at all.  Slowly the "no pain" days outnumbered the others.

The first week of this HSP had Hannah quite sad because she missed her class's trip to 4H camp. (But it was made up to her in May when she got to go with another class).  But despite all her health issues during this time, she continued to dance when she could and went on to win 2 more competitions with her solos.

  

Sadie meanwhile started soccer season and as always had a blast!



May
Hannah continued to have flare-ups of the HSP, but by this point she was in the "pretty mild" stage. She was no longer having any pain..just a few spots of rash here and there with many days of nothing in between. We could see the end in sight, and she pretty much ended for good about the time school got out.

And we had some good news medically too. Hannah had a tympanoplasty on her left ear in Feb. 2012 to repair a hole in that eardrum (she still has a hole in her right). Well, ever since then, she'd been battling fluid in that ear again and her ENT was ready to put a tube in it. Normally tubes are not a big deal. Hannah had them for 3 years when she was younger. But this time it's different because it would be a tube in an eardrum that already has scar tissue from a  repair. The danger is that the more scar tissue, the more problems it can have long term. But the other side is that Hannah was testing with mild hearing loss. At one point it even dipped to moderate loss in that ear because of the fluid.  She misspelled a couple spelling words in her school notebook simply because she heard the word wrong.  So while her grades remained good, it was starting to affect her. So finally her ENT said he'd give her 6 more weeks to resolve it on her own.  But if it continued to affect her hearing, he would recommend going ahead with the tube, even though he didn't really *want to*. That was late March. But when we went back in May, her hearing was perfectly normal.  So for now, she remains tube-free in her ears.

The girls continued their dance / tumbling classes and were adorable in the end of year recital! And Sadie continued to be a soccer star for May.  And the great folks at Hannah's school worked it out where she could go to 4H camp afterall, just with another class. And thankfully, Hannah had friends in some of the other classes going, so she was very comfortable with that and she ended up having a great time! It's "the thing" of 4th grade so I'm so glad she got the opportunity to go.

 
We also celebrated a lot in May.
Sadie's Family Forever / Gotcha Day (5 years with this sweetheart!)



Mother's Day

Hannah's Family Forever / Gotcha Day (7 years with this amazing girl!)



My Birthday.  My dad came down and built the girls a swingset and me a shed.  We love them!

 

And that brings us to June, which pretty much starts summer fun. I think Summer will need a separate post. So stay tuned. :)



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