Thanksgiving was nice. Tim's mom and brother came in for a few days. It had been a while since we saw them last so it was nice to catch up. The last time they saw Casey was shortly after her last surgery. At that time she was a puny 28 pounds. I am pretty sure she has passed or is really close to the 50 pound mark now. She has grown a LOT since Grandma Barnes last saw her.
Casey is still having a lot of tummy issues, and we still deal with bad days, or bad mornings, so we just laid low over the holiday. The pool was still being repaired, but Casey did get to swing some. Her grandma got us a nice heater for the patio as a house warming gift so that Casey can swing all year now. We have used it quite a bit.
On Thanksgiving some of my family came in for the day to join us for dinner. Everything was delicious. I LOVE Thanksgiving food. Casey did great on Thanksgiving. She was having a pretty good day and was able to sit in her wheelchair at the table with the rest of us. It's not often we can pull that off, so it was really nice to have her at the table. She even chatted a little off and on.
Tim finished the table just in time to use it for Thanksgiving dinner. It came out BEAUTIFUL!!!! He really does have a gift. I am pretty lucky to have such a talented husband. He entered the table in a contest for wood working. Be sure to check it out, and vote for him. You do have to register for the site to vote, but it's free and easy and they don't spam members. He loaded some great pictures of the table as well.
You can find his contest entry here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Trestle-table-with-floating-arched-stretcher/
On Thanksgiving evening I got a text from one of Casey's nurses that we miss dearly. She and her family moved to Houston (her family is there) and we really hated to see them leave. They visit Austin from time to time. They were in town for the holiday and she came over with her kids (you may remember her daughter from previous post- she and Casey were BFFs). After they moved she had a son, so we had not even met the baby yet. Casey was so excited to see her Maritza and Makayla. We all miss them and it was really nice to catch up. A great surprise ending to a nice Thanksgiving.
The following Friday we decorated the tree. Casey LOVES Christmas lights so we usually get the tree up as soon as we can after Thanksgiving. We set it up so that she could watch and direct us from the catch near the tree by using a mirror in her line of site. It worked really well. There were a few ornaments she had very specific ideas about and let us know if we put them in the wrong spot.
We tried to get a few family/group pictures around the tree after getting it decorated. Casey was not interested in getting dressed at all. They came out okay, but we still need to get a better family shot (with clothes on) for the holiday.
Grandma Barnes and Uncle Larry went back to Indiana the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Grandma Barnes has been having some health issues of her own, and was actually in the hospital shortly before coming out, and ended up back in the hospital soon after getting back home. Hopefully she is getting some rest now and recuperating well.
Soon after wrapping up Thanksgiving celebrations I got a really nasty bug and was down for a few days. Just as I was able to get out of bed Casey's nurses ended up getting sick as well. It was a long week. Usually the week after Thanksgiving I get a huge leap on shopping, decorating, baking, cards, etc. I accomplished NOTHING that week. I was pretty happy to be feeling back to my usual self after a full week and did my best to make up some time last week. I had to give up on a few things. I don't think we are sending cards out this Christmas. Poor Tim has had to eat a lot of take out and left overs recently too. I feel like after this weekend I am okay on time again. I should be able to get back to my normal schedule (at least for a few days).
We have a few labs and follow up appointments coming up with Casey's tummy issues. We really hope to at least have a good plan if not a resolution by 2015. We'll let you all know as we get more specific details to share.
We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We should be able to get another tummy update posted before Christmas. Hopefully that one will have some direction and answers.
