Bishop kids cheer

The kids did this cute pep talk just before going to to play lazer tag.  They were all on a team together.  And they won :)

Charity & Sam swim 4/2015

Charity and Sam Swimming

I took Charity and Sam swimming this morning while the other kids were in school and they were just so doggone cute!

Sam and his goggles were killing me.

I got them a little frozen yogurt first.

Charity brought her mermaid doll that she loves.

That grin is the best.

Andy's 13th Birthday

 

So we decided to change Andy's birthday legally to June 4th when we adopted him because Ethiopia had just assigned him a random day for his birthday and we wanted a day that would bear significance.  Also, if we pushed it back a couple of months it would make him closer to a year younger than Eden instead of 9 months younger, but be 2 years behind her in school.  Plus, we held him back a school year, so it would appear a bit better.  Anyhow, after adopting him, we worked on the legal date change for a while, but it just wasn't working out.  There were various issues with it.  But we had already decided that was what we were going to do, had told our family that June 4th was going to be his birthday, and we had put June 4th as his birthday on the Church records.  About a year later, our lawyer told us that the date change was just not going to work due to some international immigration issues.  But we decided we would still go with our plan anyhow, even if it weren't the legal date.  And we would use the legal date only where it was absolutely legally necessary.  Well, this past Summer our Bishop made us change his birthday to April 17, the assigned Ethiopian one.  Long story, but we had to.  So at that point, we just bagged our whole idea and decided to just embrace the April 17th date.  

So this was our first year that we were going to use that date.  Andy was so excited!  We were too.  Well, unfortunately, the day before his birthday Charity was hospitalized.  And she was in the hospital for 4 days.  I felt really bad for him because we really wanted it to be great for him.  This was after all, only the 4th time this kid would get to be recognized on his birthday his entire life.  Well, the first night when Charity was sick, I did take Andy out on a date.  He had planned to do that anyhow for his birthday.  We went to eat and did a quick shopping trip and to the movies.  We saw the movie Mall Cop 2 that he wanted to see.  And I loved watching him laugh so hard through it. We had a good time.  

But on his birthday, Steve and I were totally absent.  It was the scariest day we had with Charity and just couldn't be there.  Fortunately, we had a bunch of Steve's family in town and they worked hard to make his day special and I really appreciated that!  They had cake and sang to him and gave him gifts.  

Since Charity got back from the hospital, we have been trying to make up for his bday even more.  I went and got him a cell phone.  That is what he had wanted for his birthday.  So he pooled all his birthday money together and I pitched in and went and got it today.  I also had him plan tonight's family dinner.  We had nachos, apple pie and ice cream.  All what he loves.  And we sang to him again.  He was pretty happy about that.

We sure love Andy and take so much pride in all the progress and growth he has had the last four years.  He is a great kid.  And we are proud of his special gifts and talents.  We love his kind heart and how sweet he is to his little brother Sam.  We love his strength and athleticism.  He is a remarkable boy.  He is so loved by us. 

Charity Getting Well

Charity has been home today and back to her old self!  It is shocking how quickly she got really sick and quickly she got much better.  We are so glad she pulled out of it!

Charity Sick Part 2

After running more tests, the doctors were certain Charity has pancreatitis.  It is extremely rare for a child, especially a young one, to get pancreatitis.  It usually happens only to children who have had some kind of stomach trauma, like a car accident.  There are a handful of other reasons someone could get pancreatitis. But the doctors have narrowed it down to two possibilities in Charity's case.  One:  some kind of virus shook her body up enough to make it happen.  Two:  she has a genetic mutation that predisposes her to pancreatitis.  Both of these possibilites happen quite rarely.  My mom and sister both have chronic pancreatitis, so I am leaning toward the genetic theory.  Plus, all the rest of the family hasn't been sick with a virus.  In order to find out if it is the genetic mutation, we would have to get genetic testing done.  This possibly may not be covered by insurance and it is very expensive.  Like $4000.  We weren't able to get insurance to approve it, so we didn't have it done.  But we hope to in the future.

Her last half of her stay at the hospital showed big improvements for her.  She had periods of pain, nausea, and diarrhea, but was improving overall.  Her bloodwork improved so much, which was a great releif.  The hospital staff spoiled her.  They brought in toys and crafts and movies for her. 

She was spoiled by family too.  Tim, Brenda and Jesse came and saw her, as well as my Uncle Mark.  Charity and Jesse played in the playroom for a bit.  Tim and Brenda brought Charity a baby doll and bag of chips.

My brother Sherod and his family had a bag of stuffed animals and balloons delivered.  

Some of our kids and Janice and Kamber came by.  They brought flowers and a teddy bear.

Charity wanted her dolls and stuffed animals lined up on her bed.

She had some times where she felt great.    And that was so great and fun to see.

Playing with daddy and her dolly.  

Sometimes she felt pretty awful.  The Butlers all came to see her too.  Charity loves Blythe so much.

And someone brought in a great dog for her to play with.

Snuggling with Cessie.

Charity Sick

We got back from Texas Tuesday morning.  Soon after, Charity was complaining of her tummy hurting.  She didn't seem too upset and so I wasn't really concerned.  I figured she was coming down with a tummy bug.  

But on Thursday morning when she awoke still crying about her tummy hurting, with more vigor, I figured this was no bug and I better get her in to a doctor.  So I took her to the Instacare.  The doctor at the Instacare thought she had appendicitis and told me to go directly to Riverton Hospital.  

At Riverton, the doctor agreed that it looked like a classic case of appendicitis and ordered some blood tests, a urine test, and an ultrasound.  

The blood tests came back with some numbers that didn't look good.  Her wbc was at 24.  (Normal is about 15.)  Her blood pressure was elevated, heart rate not the best, and her LDH was also elevated.  (Not the cholesterol LDH, it's a different chemical in her body.  Sorry, I am not a doctor, so I may be explaining things inaccurately.)  Her urine also had blood and crystals in it.  And finally, to their surprise, her appendix looked just fine in the ultrasound.  So they determined she likely had kidney stones and ordered another ultrasound.  

That ultrasound came back with what appeared to be a couple of kidney stones in her right kidney and some blood and debris buildup in her bladder.  They also said it looked like there might be a nodule in her bladder and that was very concerning.  So they had her get her bladder flushed out and have another ultrsound of her bladder.  I was freaking out at this point.  Bladder cancer was on the radar.

Fortunately, her third ultrasound came back good!  Her bladder flushed out well and it was not a nodule.  We were extremely relieved.  So their next diagnosis was that she probably had already passed some stones and that had been the cause of an infection in her bladder.  And because of her blood numbers and continued pain, she had more stones yet to pass.  This wasn't a fun thing for her to have for sure.  But we were extremely relieved!

So they told me I could take her home for the night and as long as things don't seem to get worse, she would be ok.  We would just need to wait it out for her remaining stones to pass, manage her infection and her pain.  But they said to come back to the ER the next day for a re-evaluation.  Also, to get in with a pediatric urologist in a week.  

So the next morning I called the pediatric urologist who had reviewed her case.  We got our appointment, but in the meantime, he ordered me to get this test called a KUB to get a more accurate diagnosis of kidney stones.  

So I took Charity back to the hospital and we got the KUB test and checked back into the ER.  She was feeling pretty cruddy.

And here is where things started to get even stickier.  The KUB test came back totally clear.  Her repeated blood tests came back very concerning.  The two most concerning numbers were again, her wbc and her ldh.  Her wbc which was up to 24 the prior day, was now 40!  Her ldh was now well over 400.  A normal number would be 40.  The doctor was alarmed by these numbers.  There was still blood in her urine and her blood pressure and heart rates were still a little abnormal.  At this point he thought that maybe she did have appendicitis, but that it had already ruptured and that would be an emergency situation.  So he immediately ordered a catscan.  At this point Charity was beyond miserable.  They gave her some morphine and about a half hour later she looked much better.  Like this even:

They gave her a cute doll to color.

I wanted to include these cute notes the kids made for Charity.  Her siblings have been concerned.

The one above is from Eden, below I am unsure.  Probably Hana or Becca.

These are from Celeste, Andy and Jonah.

So unfortunately, the catscan did not have any answers.  It came back pretty clear.  Which is good, but also more disconcerting.  The doctors were stumped and felt that she was very sick, but were not sure what it was.  So they decided we better get her up to Primary Children's Hospital where they have access to a lot of pediatric specialists and more specialized tests.

They wanted her to go by ambulance, but they let me ride with her in the back.  She was very scared.  So to calm her down, I pulled out the camera and kept saying how cool it was that she got to ride in an ambulance and that I would take photos to send to the kids because they would be so jealous.  That seemed to do the trick.

And she finally got some sleep after a very long, difficult day.

So that is where we are at today.  We have seen 6 doctors so far.  They seem to be working in teams of three to collaborate.  They are very caring and seem to be quite competent.  She had a long night.  They poked and prodded her until midnight and she was so tired that she was crying and begging and pleading for them to leave her alone.  Then when she got to sleep, she was doing a lot of moaning and groaning and saying "ouch" in her sleep.  It was tough for me.  I was really worried.  So I laid with her and held her most of the night.  Steve is here too.  He managed to sleep.

They have all kinds of movies, games, toys, crafts and great resources here that she likes.  It cheers her up.

They have ordered some more tests this morning, but want to get her a little sedated first.  So we are waiting on that.  

We hope for answers soon.

Just talking about the weather

Utah had it's warmest Winter on record.  It was so nice.  But just a few days ago we had a terrible storm.  It was super windy, with gusts up to 50mph.  Many homes were damaged.  Fortunately, we only lost parts of our fencing.  

When the wind let down, the snow came piling in.  Not a fun couple of days.

Kids while we were away

Janice watched the kids while we were in Texas.  Bless her heart!  She sent me these photos of the kids while we were away.