This boy is good!

THIS BOY????

Is good! I know, I know. I'm very sorry that I left ya'll hanging on the post titled A Little Anxious from awhile back. I was a little anxious about Ethan's last appt. at Children's Hospital. Then, my sister said she had several people ask about how E's appt. went and that I really needed to update my readers. Yes, all three of you! HA Anyway, so it went like this. Bear with me here, this one will be long. So, this appt. was a big appt. for E. He was set to have a regular ultrasound to check the position of his ureterocele (the duplicate ureter he has inside his bladder) and to make sure that it wasn't anywhere close to his prostate like it had been before. Then, he was scheduled to have a VCUG test done. This is the big one... A VCUG test (I don't remember exactly what that stands for) but it's a test they can do to test for urine reflux. This is what E had when he was in the womb that eventually killed off the upper part of his left kidney. We were hoping and praying the test showed that he had NO reflux! That would be the best news ever! Now, to do this test, they have to insert a catheter and then make dye flow through until it fills up his bladder. While all of this is happening, they take about a million x-rays to see exactly where the dye goes and if it goes back up to the kidneys or just stays in the bladder like it's supposed to, or if he urinates it out. ok, still with me here? Well, the last time he had this test done, E was about 6 weeks old or so, and was still small enough that we could just kind of handle him and make him do whatever we needed him to do in order to get the x-rays we needed. This time? Not so much. Ethan had his own idea of how things should go, and our ideas and his didn't match up. Not in the least bit. So, first they strap him down to this board thing that can rotate in all directions. They strap him down so he won't be trying to pull on the catheter and won't be squirmy and all the other things he can't be doing during this test. So, they finally get him strapped down. Richard and I are in the room with him and he isn't liking it one bit (as you can imagine!) Then, they start with the catheter. First time....too big. Have to try again. Get it in and then being the x-ray process. First picture they see it's not all the way in the bladder. Have to start back over with a smaller size catheter. Finally, get it in AND all the way into the bladder as it should be. By this time, a good 30 minutes has passed and Ethan has cried so much and sweated so much, his face is as red as a sonic straw. I'm not kiddin'! Finally, done with the test. They unstrap him, he finally calms down (once we get out of the room and away from the Dr's) and we go get something to eat and try to calm down. We had a couple hours to kill before our clinic appt. with the Dr. During this time, E became super fussy. Just moaning around, crying a little, wasn't urinating like I thought he should, just...fussy. He was acting the same way he did, back when he had such trouble with that ureterocele when it covered his prostate and he wasn't able to pee! Oh no! Pleeeeease don't let it be the same situation again! PLEASE! So, we finally get to clinic. Dr.C asks us how things are going. I tell him about E not urinating since the procedure, how he's being fussy, etc. Dr assures us that he's just sore and swollen from the earlier procedure and that he's more than likely just holding his urine until he HAS to let it go because well, it hurts him. Dr says he should be back good to do within about 24 hours or so. So, our fears are relieved and sure enough, by the next day Ethan was doing ok and not fussing like he was the day before. Best part of the day? We got the news that Ethan had NO reflux! AND...he got to come off of the medicine he had been on since birth! Praise God! I'm sorry this post is so long in coming, but all is good with E and we don't have to go back to Little Rock until November. YEA!

A year ago....

a year ago at this time, we were back at Children's Hospital, unsure of what Ethan's future might hold. Desparately trying to figure out what went wrong with his surgery. Praying to God that he would be ok. Thank you God, for answered prayers!

operation....make a mess!

I do it! I do it! ravaoli anyone?

family shoot

Back last month we had a family photoshoot done. This was the first time we've had any real pictures taken since Ethan's been born, so it was good to have. Boys could have cooperated more, but that IS our family right now. Two boys...who don't always cooperate. Here are a few from the day:

Jump Zone

So, I know I've taken a big, huge blogging break. Not really meaning to, but man, it's been busy.

I'll start with this: Back about a month or so ago, Jackson and I trekked up to NW Arkansas and met up with Christel and Braden to go to Jump Zone. Now this is a pretty neat place with all kinds of blow up inflatable jumpy things, so the boys had a heck of a time. Then, we had lunch and said our goodbyes for another few months. It took us a long time to get together this time around, so I'm glad we finally made it happen and hope we can do it again sometime soon without waiting so long.