So much cuteness in one little body!

These were some jammies that my Peanut got for her birthday and hasn't worn yet. They just got put away and somehow she's never worn them. They are the softest, most snuggliest jammies ever! All I wanna do is sit on the couch with her and cuddle. She would love to do that all day long in front of the TV. Of course, it doesn't help the laundry get done or the bathrooms get cleaned. ;)



And one of our Christmas tree. My Monkey boy is 9 this year and he has decided that this is the last year this tree is acceptable. It is simply too girly for him. So I have promised him a real tree next year. This one will so go up I'm sure, I just love it! :)




Speaking of Monkey, here's a picture of him getting two awards at school on Friday! He is such a great student, he makes me so proud! And for the record it was pajama day at school. He doesn't normally go quite that casual! LOL

Blenderized diet update

So Connie asked me when I went back to using a blenderized diet for Peanut, and I realized that I never posted about it. :) When she had a bad virus this summer and ended up in the hospital, we switched her back to full Neocate Infant with Polycose. Unfortunately, with that diet came intractable diarrea! It was a mess. So even though the nutrionalist wanted her on the formula only diet for a while, the GI over-rode that decision and said to start back her blenderized diet. Quite a convert - he was completely opposed to it in the beginning. :)

So she is back on blenderized food. She does still get some Neocate with Polycose overnight for 12 hours, but during the day she gets three boluses of food. Her diet has to be strictly measured and weighed though. She has hypoglycemia issues and a metabolic disorder, so we have to be serious about it. She gets 5 ounces of fruit, 2.5 ounces of veggie, 1.5 ounces of meat, 100 cc's of Pedialyte, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1 tsp polycose, and 3 tbsp of rice cereal. It can only be Beechnut rice cereal, because she is soy and dairy intolerant and that is the only brand that is soy/dairy free. Some days this mixture is made from jarred baby food, some days it is made from fresh food. It depends on my busyness. :)

So there you have it! I switch up her veggies and fruit every day. Normally we use green beans, peas, carrots, squash, bananas, apples, pears, and peaches. I use jarred baby meat most of the time, because it's easiest. She does GREAT on a blenderized diet. Her nails and hair have never grown so fast, and so healthy. She is much happier, her BM's are more controllable, and life is good. YAY!

G-tube Change

Obviously not everyone who reads my blog has a disabled child, so I thought I would share something with you all. :) I had to change Peanut's g-tube today. It has a little valve on the inside called an anti-reflux valve. It is supposed to prevent anything from coming out of the tube when you unhook it from the feeding extension. It doesn't last very long, and pretty soon the g-tube leaks every time you open it. My understanding is that Peanut's lasts even less long than normal due to the amount of retching she does. I don't know if that's true or not, but we never make it even 3 months before it's leaking like crazy.

Here's the new button. I fill it with water before inserting it to make sure it doesn't have a leak. Then I take the water out, put it in her stomach, and refill the water balloon.



Here's her stoma after I took out the old g-tube. It doesn't look bad! Some kids have horrible granulation issues around it, but Peanut's has always looked great. KNOCK ON WOOD! :) In the photos there is a darkish ring around the stoma (hole), which I don't see when I look at her in person. I guess it's just toughed skin a bit from having the g-tube twirling on it all the time.




Here's a side-by-side of her new and old g-tube. Ick, huh! The old one looks so nasty when it is taken out. Peanut's looks worse than some kids, because she gets a blenderized diet. She gets a lot of orange and green veggies, so they tend to discolor it more quickly than normal.



The first time I ever changed a g-tube at home on my own, my husband passed out. Needless to say, he doesn't do "ick" well. :) Now we are pros! No fainting, no icked outness, just pull it out and pop a new one in. This little piece of rubber is the only way my Peanut gets nourishment. Isn't it amazing!

Change of plans

So, we're not going to get me a new van. A loan for that would be about $600 a month, which is twice as much as I want to spend. We would be really tight at $300. Twice that and we would be eating nothing but potatos. LOL

We're going to repair my husband's car after all. $1700 to get the transmission rebuilt, and we can do the other repairs next month or the month after. It sure stinks to have to put out this much money during Christmas!

This morning I took hubby to work, and dropped him off. A coworker has a spare car he is going to borrow until we get his repaired. Isn't that nice of his coworker! :) I dropped him off at work and headed home, only to notice that my check engine light was on. Seriously??! I about had a mental flip-out.

I drove straight to the mechanic, who plugged into their computer thingy. And yes, that is the technical term. The computer thingy indicated that the problem was my husband. LOL When he pumped gas for me last night, he didn't click the gas cap on tight. It triggers your check engine light! Who knew. ;) That is the SECOND time he has done that to me. Last time my check engine light came on, it was the same thing ... also the morning after my husband pumped gas for me. Silly boy!

The car thing is not ideal, but at least we have a rational, affordable solution. I will just keep dreaming about a wheelchair accessible van I suppose!

I take the dog back tomorrow afternoon to get her drains removed. Ick. I sure hope they stitch this shut finally. It's gross.

In some good news, I finally found a new pediatrician for the kids. I really love our pediatrician, but he is 30-45 minutes away. His urgent care is the same building. This is not ideal when something happens after hours. I don't have time to be driving all over! So I talked to everyone I know and got repeat recommendations for one doctor TWO BLOCKS FROM HOME! :) And one of those recommendations came from another special needs mom. Yay! So I have to go to the insurance place tomorrow and fill out a form, and change. I am sad to leave our pediatrician, it's the only one Peanut has had. I will definately have to write him a long sweet letter. I feel like a jerk for leaving him!

Seriously ...

I took the dog to the vet this morning, and had a friend take me to pick her up this afternoon. Remember, my husband has to take my van to work because his car is dead. So we pick up the dog and she has the infamous white cone of stupidity on so she can't get her paws at the drain in the top of her head.

Oh, did I mention that when a dog gets drains, they don't get the little grenade ends like humans do? So when stuff drains out of the drain, it just drains? How gross is that?? He said they don't use dangling drains because there's no way to keep them safely attached. Hell freaking ICK!! So the dog will live in her kennel still, with no house roaming allowed. I have to take her back on Wednesday for the drains to be removed, and I just pray that they are stitching the stupid wound shut at that point so this can all be over!

In other oh-my-hell news .... I am the PTO President. Nothing new. That means that I am in charge of most events. Such as our holiday store for the students. You know the one, where your kid takes five or ten dollars and buys a bunch of junky crap that gets wrapped up and given to you with love. ;) So I booked with a lady named Darlene at Fun Novelty. Emails went back and forth, contracts were signed. Product was delivered Thursday, our store will be set up this week and run all next week. Except that then I get a call from Darlene at Fun Services saying I signed up and it will be delivered tomorrow. I explained that it was already delivered and there must be a mistake. She points out what a moron I am and that Darlene at Fun Novelty and Darlene at Fun Services are two different people at two different companies. And that I owe her $200 to cancel, which was in the contract I signed. CRAP! Did I really do this? What are the chances that there are Darlenes at Fun Services and Fun Novelty? The only way it could have been MORE confusing was if one was Fun Services Co. and one was Fun Services Inc. I royally screwed up. Trying to email my way out of this $200 fee. It was an honest mistake. :(

In our car news, we are trying to get financed for a new minivan for me, with a wheelchair ramp and lockdown for Peanut inside. Hopefully we can get approved, hubby will drive my van, and we'll live on spagetti and mac & cheese while we make car payments. And I am only sorta joking!

A series of unfortunate events

So you read about our dog Hannah's nasty head wound and abcess. I have tried nightly to clean it but honestly it just looks worse. This morning it started bleeding and wouldn't stop. I threw her kennel in the car and we went off to the vet. He cleaned it a bit in the office and got the bleeding stopped. He said it's definately still infected inside. Monday morning at 7am I drop Hannah off to get the wound opened a bit more and cleaned out from the inside. He thinks there will be a drain in the opening for a while afterward. I guess since my daughter doesn't have any weird medical things going on right now, someone had to! And this will be a minimum of $150. Ugh!

Yesterday my dear husband's car died on the way to work. His transmission is shot, it needs to be rebuilt. To the tune of $1700. Oh and his fuel line, bearings, and tie rods all need to be replaced, which we've known for a little while. All together, about $3000. Ugh!

My minivan's rear brakes are squeeling. The van has a wheelchair lift on the outside rear, like one of those old people's scooter racks. It doesn't have a ramp or interior lock. Luckily a friend is taking pity on my and her husband and brother are going to replace my brakes tomorrow for me. Phew!

We have to decide what to do about our vehicles. We were approved for a $20,000 loan only. So we either get my husband a new car, or get me one and he drives my van. I would really REALLY like a van with a ramp and wheelchair lockdown inside. My back is such a wreck and my right hand is useless due to previous surgeries and a number of cycsts and growths on it. I'm researching to see if there's ANY chance of finding an adapted vehicle for under $20k. It's not looking to good! I don't want to buy an old old old one, because then we'll just end up replacing it again. It needs to last a while.

Oh, and you know it's the holidays right? And that we do Hannukah and Christmas, because we have family of both religions? I am about 3/4 done shopping but now ... too many other expenses. Ugh! I hate that this is the first year the kids are not going to get all the things I want them to have. Not that we ever go really overboard, but it's nice for them to feel spoiled. Did I mention, UGH!

In unrelated issues, my back problems are a million times worse lately. If I sit in a chair for more than five minutes, it is exrutiating to stand up. I can't get comfortable in bed anymore, no matter how I lay my back hurts. And if I sleep in the recliner, the nerves that are pinched in my upper leg hurt. So I am in a world of misery.

So .... ugh overall! I wish we all lived in a little neighborhood where we could help each other and watch each other's kids and drink coffee together!

Medical crisis - but not Peanut!

We have a little Boston Terrier that loves to attack our other two dogs, who are double her size. Last December I had to take her to the emergency vet at 11pm because she had her eye bitten. It was out of socket and there was a big gash above it.

Wednesday night, her head was bleeding. There was a big cut on it, but it stopped bleeding when I put pressure on it. I cleaned it up, and decided it was okay to heal on it's own. Yesterday (Thursday) I brought Peanut home from therapy and Hannah (the little trouble maker) ran up to me. Where the cut on her head is, was covered in ooze. Holy grossness! I tried cleaning it up but every time I touched her head, more pus came out.

I took her to the emergency vet and he said that she didn't get bit on Wednesday, she got bit previously. It made an abcess, and Wednesday it opened. That was the blood we saw. He wanted to do emergency surgery (just to be safe) for $800-1200. Uhm, no. So he instructed me how to open it and clean it every day for five days, gave her antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, and called it a day.

It took me and my husband, a muzzle, and a lot of swearing. I got it cleaned out last night. I am covered in scratches. I look like I was in a cat fight!!

Stupid dog. Honestly, if it's not one thing in this house it's another!