Happy Easter

Casey has been a busy girl since our last post. We met her eye doctor. We had to go to him so we could get a Texas form filled out in order to get her vision services started. He wasn't bad, but he did not compare to Dr. Bill back in LA. Since the eye doctor is a yearly appointment we will keep our original plan of getting her checkups with Dr. Bill while we are in California each year for stem cells. Any state thing we have to get this doctor will be fine, but we were not crazy about him. He pretty much said that everything we were already doing is right. He had nothing additional or new to offer. As far as his beside manner and our impression of his exposure to kids like Casey we were just not that impressed.

Last weekend one of my oldest friends came by with her family. I had not seen her in years. It was really nice to see them and catch up. Her family is growing so fast. Rachel is 14 in April, Avery is already in school, and little Owen was sitting up and full of personality. I have known Becky since early High School years. Somehow she had not even met Tim yet. Every time I have seen her in the past 7+ years for what ever reason Tim was never with me. Becky and her husband, Robert joked that they were starting to think I made Tim up :)

Jason and Elizabeth came by today. Elizabeth is just starting to show. We are so happy for them. They are going to have a little girl. No name yet. Casey was really good while they were here. She woke up when she heard them come in and she stayed awake most of the time. She got a little fussy right before they left, but she was hungry so as soon as we plugged her food back in she was back to being happy.It has been really nice being back in Austin where we can spend time with friends. Casey is meeting new people all the time.

We are starting to plan Casey's big 2nd birthday party. It is going to be lots of fun. Since Casey loves elephants I think we are going to have a Horton themed party. I think Casey will have a lot fun. So far a lot of friends and family will be able to come. Even Grandma Barnes is coming all the way from Indiana.

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up. We head to Houston on Friday to meet the last of Casey's doctors. We have a noon appointment with her ortho then plan on heading back to Austin. We are looking forward to meeting the new ortho. Saturday and Sunday we have to get as much done as possible to get ready for visitors and her party later in April. Monday Tim is doing a lunch presentation about his job and travels at my grandparents church. If Casey is up to it we will all go, if not it will just be Tim. Then on the 1st I have to get some more labs done before my surgery scheduled on the 2nd. I am not sure how long I will be on told not to do stuff so I have to get as much done for her party before the 2nd as possible.

I went to see the OB/GYN that did my emergency ectopic back in 2003. When I filled her in on all of the things that have been going on since she was shocked. I told her about the adhesions I have been dealing with since having Casey and that as much as I wanted to get them fixed timing just never worked out. She is getting me in to fix them and while she is in there she is going to tie off my remaining tube. She is actually going to destroy it she said. She said that it is not a good idea for me to get pregnant again. We agree with her (sadly) and know it is best to be sure that we don't put Casey or myself at any additional risk. Before I go in on the 2nd she sent me to GI to get some test run to be sure that the affects of the adhesions had not led to any other complications. Last week I had to go in for a colonoscopy. I was put under (thank goodness) and it was not that bad. I was sore for a couple of day after from where they were a little rough, but other than that it was fine. I have heard the tubal ligation is painful, but I expect it to be a lot like my appendectomy. I should be up and around pretty quick.

We will be pretty busy next weekend so I may not have a chance to post. If not I will post after I recover from my surgery. We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

More Teeth

When Casey was about 9 months old she started to get a few teeth. However, shortly after they started to grow she got really sick. Her teeth stopped growing and have been pretty slow to start back up since. We learned from some of her doctors that the body will starve the teeth and mouth first when it needs to feed any other part of the body. We had never heard that before, but we can see that it is very accurate.

We have all finally gotten over the bugs from earlier this year. Casey has been doing really well with getting used to the new house and the new routine. She has finally started to put on some weight and she is taking a little more food. Over the past week she has been getting really fussy from time to time and has been spiking fevers and having a ton of secretions and drool. The past few days were getting really bad. Friday afternoon I was holding her and finally saw what all the fuss is about. Out of no where he teeth have finally started moving again. One on bottom is almost completely out that wasn't there at all Thursday. She has about four others breaking through the gums as well. Now that we know why she has been so upset we have been walking around with teething pain reliever everywhere we go. It has made things so much easier. She still gets a little worked up, but she is doing good. As hard as it is on her, it is a very good thing.

She meets her eye doctor this week. Once we meet him we should be able to get her vision therapy restarted right away. I am looking forward to getting her VT going again. She was really responding to it before we moved.

The geek in me loves numbers. I was working on some of our taxes this weekend and I have been amazed at some of the interesting numbers I have come up with. Between the three of us we spent nearly 9 weeks in the hospital. Each of us had at least one stay. We had 201 appointments out of the house in 2007 and over 100 more therapies in the house for the year. We drove 1406 miles back and forth to Children's Hospital alone. When you add all of the other doctors and hospitals including 2 trips to Mexico we drove a total of 3836 miles for medical reasons. Those numbers are crazy. This year we will have even more in home therapy sessions. Once we get VT started Casey will have at least 5 therapies a week. We are hopeful that the miles and total appointments is much smaller this year.

On a separate note, my mom and John were married yesterday. Congratulations to them both. The wedding was in St Thomas and I am sure it was beautiful. I spoke with my mom a few hours again and she sounded very happy. We wish we could have been there and wish them happiness in their new marriage.

Weekly Update

We met Casey's ENT last week. He seems really good. Casey's tubes are in place so for now we don't need anything new from him. If/when she needs new tubes he would do it at Dell Children's Hospital so that is good. His staff seemed really good too. We got there and only waited a minute before being called back. It is so nice when doctors are on schedule or at least close.

We meet with Casey's eye doctor next week then ortho at the end of the month. That will be the entire team of doctors. It will be really nice to have all the initial meetings done finally.

Casey loves to watch UFC with her daddy. We had plans to go to some friends house on Saturday for this months fight. However, Casey started getting fussy early Saturday morning and spent most of the day crying and worked up. Shortly before noon she got a bit of a fever as well. We got the fever down but decided to keep her home to rest instead. Tim went with out us. Hopefully Casey will be able to see next months fight. She fell asleep around 7:PM that night after the drugs kicked in and pretty much slept until 6ish Sunday morning.

On Sunday Casey was feeling much better. She had a little friend come over, Anjali. Anjali is about 7 months younger than Casey. Casey loves when people come over to play. She watches and listens and has a good time. A lot of our friends here in Austin have little ones so Casey should have a lot of fun playing with all the kidos.

Casey's hair has really been growing. We can get it into a pony tail now. It is so cute. We can get it into pig tails too, but her hair is so fine that the pig tails fall out.

We are trying to get her room done this month so it will be all ready when family comes into town for her birthday in April. We have picked a day for the party, but I don't have any additional details yet.