Time for a break!

I wish I could just call a time out!! This past year has been ridiculous. People always say God does not give you more than you can handle, but I can defiantly say he is testing me now! I am not sure how much I agree with that saying, but I do not know does give special kids to special families!

It has been so long since I wrote and I have been terrible at it. I am not even sure where to start.

So Zak's surgery went well but about 3 weeks after surgery he started to bang his head again and this time worse. We went through all the test and everything looked good with his shunt. No clue so we put him on some neurological pain meds and are going to be seeing another doctor in November. Then randomly when we change his diaper his testicle doubled in size! That was a bit of a scare. We went in to find out he has a hydrocele (an accumulation of clear fluid in the most internal of membranes. We are told it is painless). It is possible that since his shunt is draining the fluid into his belly that is where it is going. If this continues for 4-6 months he will need to have surgery to fix it.

As for Callie, well things seemed to be going well until we felt a lump on the side of her head. We thought it was her shunt and took her to the ER. They told us it was fine. When we followed up 2 days latter our wonderful amazing Pediatrician told us she too thinks it is Fluid from her shunt. I truly wish I could clone her and carry her around with us. It would save us so much time and energy! We go to our favorite clinic on Friday - Gillette! I also wish I could clone some of those doctors or just move the clinic closer to us! Along with that issue she has had loose stool for 3 weeks and all of the tests have come back negative. We are still pending one more and if this is negative we will probably have to start testing for GI issues and food allergies. Just another thing to add to our list of many.

Needless to say - Please say some prayers for some healthy kids and lots of answers! It has just been a strange year.

We do have some good news - Both kids are in school and loving it. Zak now rides the bus with his nurse. He seems to be doing fine on it. He is in the same classroom as last year with the same great staff! I think he really enjoys the routine and seeing his friends. We are told he is now in 3rd grade, however I am in denial because I still think he is in 2nd. When he is in the same class from kindergarten to 5th it becomes hard to separate the years. I keep asking parents that have 8 year olds what grade their kids are in and it never changes. How do they grow up so quickly?
Callie is actually going to school this year too. By the sounds of it she is adapting, but the hardest part will be to keep her sitting still as we all know how much she likes to move.

As for me - many of you may not know. I took a new position with the company that I work for in May. I truly thought it was time for a change and I was very excited about the new opportunity. I did like what I was doing, but it was time for something new. It has been a big adjustment and a challenge. Mainly just the learning. I went from something I knew very well to learning a whole new job. I am now implementing archive software for our company.  I absolutely love what I do now and could not ask for a better department. I am getting used to the adjustment and brain drain that I come home with. They are all very understanding of our family as well so that has been helpful. I feel very blessed to have a new journey.

I don't think this nearly covers it all, however I really do need to start going to bed at a decent time so I am going to need to call it a day. I will try my hardest to update this over the weekend when we know what is going on with Callie. If you are ever looking for an update and I don't post one feel free to send us an e-mail too cateeters@charter.net