SOLD!!

What with my parents visiting, and my mackerdoodle’s UTI and resulting tests, this particular piece of exciting news fell by the wayside.

I am so excited to announce that Jonathan sold his very first painting a few weeks ago! The cool part is that he sold it to one of our former youth group kids, who is now 23 and owns his own house. More precisely, we sold it to his mother, as a gift for him.

Anyway, a former youth member now owns a Jonathan original and Jonathan has now sold one of his canvases. Hooray!

Some of you were having a hard time with the Java on the heap of canvas website, so I’ve uploaded all of the images to Flickr. You can visit them here, for free (no registration required Aunty Lily).

 

Well Baby

The follow-up appointment today went just as I suspected it would.  Mackerdoodle’s kidneys were pronounced healthy and it was determined that no further tests were needed unless another UTI showed up.

They combined this visit with her 9 month well baby visit, and declared her healthy on those fronts as well.  There were no shots this time around, just a finger prick to test her hemoglobin - which was healthy.

After having her finger pricked (which was not her favorite moment of the morning) mackerdoodle received her first  band-aid.  She looked at her finger, and then tried to shake off the strange pink coating.  When the nurse said, “All finished here.” my baby girl held out her hand and shook it again, as if to say, “I think you left something behind.”  So there’s nothing wrong with her intelligence, either.

 

Peek-A-Boo

 

Break My Heart For Good News

This afternoon our mackerdoodle had a battery of tests. The first - an ultrasound - only disturbed my girl insofar as they wanted her to lie down. As it was not nap time, she was not lying on her own bed, and she wasn’t nursing, she considered it completely unacceptable to be lying down. Once she was permitted to sit up, she very calmly allowed them to probe any part of her skin they wanted to.

In x-ray, however, we had a different situation.

The VCUG began with a catheter, which she handled very well. It looked as if she understood that this was a big deal, and she put her brave face on. They then filled her bladder with a clear liquid in order to determine if her urine is backwashing into her kidneys. Good News: it’s not.

Then they removed the catheter to test if she is completely voiding her bladder. No news on that front, as she became angry at being forced to lie down once more on her back for no purpose, and cried so hard that every part of her tensed up, and not one drop escaped the little bladder.   She cried and cried and cried while we waited for her to pee, and there was NOTHING I could do about it.   The result was an “inconclusive” on the bladder issue.

We have a follow-up appointment on Thursday, and I expect the pediatrician to suspend further testing unless the mackerdoodle gets another UTI. At least, that’s what I hope will happen, and I’m praying we’ll never have another reason to have that test repeated.

 

Welcome to Summer

Well, we’re finished with school for three months, and here’s what summer has looked like for us so far:

• after a huge rain storm Saturday evening, we woke up Sunday morning with a shower in our laundry room.  Jonathan and my Dad spent Sunday afternoon and plan to spend all day Monday fixing this brand new leak.
• While macerdoodle is responding well to her anti-biotics, we have a renal ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.  I just can’t imagine that’s going to be such a great “day at the beach” type of day.
• For some unknown reason, our front doorknob has stopped working.  This is a bizarre event that has no explanation.  It would be easy to fix.  If we weren’t trying to fix a leak.

So summer can’t do anything but get better.  I can’t wait.

 

Not Exactly A Windex Commercial

I was sitting in my kitchen writing a blog about Mother’s Day, when I heard a thump, looked up and saw this:

The little guy/gal sat on my window ledge, periodically trying to fly through my windows, until my Dad and my Husband removed the widow screen and chased him off.

Poor little bird.  He’s flown home with a story of pain and woe to share with his family.

 

What’s Been Going On?

Just a quick peek into what our week has looked like:

Hanging out with Papa.

“”Stop me if you’ve heard this one, Nana.   Three little pigs walk into a bar . . .”

Hanging out with Nana.

Discovering her inner pirate.

So who has time to blog, with so much going on?

 

I Think We’re Done Here

School is over for the summer on Friday.  So of course, all the students quit paying attention last Wednesday.  Also, the teachers have really stopped trying to teach and we are just in “control them until Friday” mode.  Because, let’s be honest, we’re just as excited about summer break as they are.

Not helping my concentration and commitment levels is the fact that my mackerdoodle’s Nana and Papa (my Mom and Dad) have come all the way from Northern B.C. just to see her.  Fortunately, they are fine with visiting with us when she’s napping, or down for the evening.

So do I really want to go to school in the mornings?  Not really, and neither do my students.  As far as this school year is concerned, were all done.  We’re just waiting for the calendar to catch up.

 

Congratulations, You Win . . . Bupkiss

Several weeks ago I was doing my grocery shopping at a local Wal Mart not far from my home.  As I left, with my cart full of bags, and my mackerdoodle happily chewing my car keys, I was politely accosted by a ripped gentleman in a yellow t-shirt.

“How would you like to enter to win a year’s membership at Gold’s Gym?”

Here is where I should tell you that normally I am VERY good at saying “No thank you” politely but firmly.  The key is to have a very good reason for saying no, while continuing to move away from the marketer.  Here I was stuck in both counts, because I would LOVE to have a gym membership and because my beautiful, but unaware daughter dropped my keys at that very moment, forcing me to halt my resolved walk.

And then, I was shamelessly hustled by a very well built, muscular man.    This is what he said to me:

“You have a beautiful daughter!  She has great eyes.  It looks like you’ve done well dropping those baby pounds.  Just a little toning and you’ll feel up to those toddler years.  Let me sign you up girl, what do you have to lose?”

And before I knew it, I was giving him my name, and phone number and my husband’s name and phone number.  Then I promptly forgot all about it, and went on with my pudgy, untoned life.

Tuesday evening I got a phone call from Gold’s Gym telling me that I had won a $100 gift certificate and 3 free sessions with a personal trainer.  Sweet right?  I was a little guarded, but scheduled an appointment to tour the facility, thinking that $100 had to get me SOMETHING!

But turns out, not so much.  Gold’s Gym has an annual fee AND a monthly fee.   What I won was the choice of giving Gold’s Gym $50.00 per month or $60.00 per month.  Or I could ride the exercise bike at home for free.

So if a well built, muscular man from Gold’s Gym asks you if you would like to enter to win something, tell him “No thank you.” firmly but politely.  And DON’T DROP YOUR CAR KEYS.

 

An Interesting Morning

On Wednesday evening, my mackerdoodle began running a fever.  She wasn’t really irritable, just listless and hot.  The thermometer said 102 degrees, so I called pediatrics after hours.  She wasn’t vomiting, so they said “Tylenol every 4 hours.  It should run its course.”

Thursday around 3, when the fever had not, in fact, run OUT of anything, and had, if anything, deepened, I called the pediatrician.  After some discussion, the nurse said “well, bring her in first thing tomorrow, and we’ll check her ears.”  As an infant, and young child I had chronic ear infections because of collapsed eustachian tubes.  I had tubes placed in my ears, which fixed the problem, but from the time the nurse said “check her ears. . .” I began to pray that my daughter had not inherited my defective ears.

Last night the poor little girl woke up every two hours or so crying inconsolably.  I had to sit her up, rock her and then nurse her back to sleep.  At each waking I murmured the prayer “Lord, please don’t let her have my ears.  Please spare her my ears.”

This morning the PA did a standard exam, asked me the standard questions, then looked into the mac ears.  They were fine.

“That’s great news!” I said.

The P. A. looked at my quizzically and said “Not really.  We don’t know what’s causing her fever.”  Oh, yeah, right.  The fever.

Have you ever tried to collect a urine sample from an infant?  It is no small feat!  A small bag was glued to her, and I was told to “try to make her pee.”

Juice?  Not interested.  Nursing?  No thank you  - for the first time in her life.  Finally, after 30 minutes, I realized that the thing guaranteed to produce urine was to stand her in the bath tub.  I put her bare feet in the hand washing sink, and within minutes we had enough tinkle to diagnose a urinary tract infection.

It was at this point that God showed me how narrow my prayers had been.  An ear infection would have meant a scrip for antibiotics, and out the door.  A UTI meant a catheterization to collect enough urine for a culture.  It means general antibiotics until the culture can diagnose what she really needs.  It means a renal ultrasound next week, and possibly blood work to determine the cause of the UTI.  While it is most likely that it resulted from an “intermingling” of waste in her diaper, UTIs can indicate kidney problems, blockages, and other bigger issues.

I’m trusting the Lord to handle all of those things over the next few days.  I’m learning my lesson.  I’m not going to try to second guess God’s plans.  I’m just going to ask Him to heal and comfort my daughter.