Hello again....

I wanted to let you know that Krissy had a good first day at her new school yesterday.  She was very excited to go from the time she got up.  Her bus buddy Kris, parks her car at our house about 7:25, then rides to/from school with Krissy.  I think it was a good sign that Kristin was quite eager to be going back again today.

Larry, Jamie, Kristin and I were able to visit Pathways Community School on Tuesday afternoon.  There weren't any kids there at 4pm (contributing to the nice peaceful environment we experienced!) and that ended up being a great opportunity for Kris and us to be able to stroll thru the building.  They have such a nice set up with a great sensory room, lots of different options for activities, a cute little cafeteria and a beautiful gym area (formerly the Gresham Roller Rink for any of you older folks like me who skated there as kids).  There isn't any outdoor play option, which I am grateful for.  Her class has 10 kids and 12 staff.  She gets to go to the gym 3 times a day (2 informal times, 1 PE) where they have 'bikes', scooters and all sorts of fun things to do.  We came away feeling very comfortable with the environment and seeing how much more suited to Kristin's need it is, rather than a large regular school.  

A very wonderful thing about Christmas vacation that we saw was how well she did here at home (the meltdown Saturday night at bedtime was the only one in about 3 weeks ).  As you know we were waiting for an appointment with the MD to see about getting some medication for her.   We are much more content now to delay and hopefully avoid going there if having her in an environment where she's happy and not overwhelmed (with hundreds of students around and frequent transitions with class/location changes), takes care of much of the behavior issues they were seeing at her former school.  Thanks for continuing to pray for her as she transitions and hopefully settles into a happy routine at Pathways.  

The picture is a collage poster Krissy and I worked on this week.  She loves printing LOTS of pictures off of the computer.  We're thankful that her funding provides ink and paper!

Oh yes, a headache update.  I almost forgot because I don't have one.  Yesterday I got into a chiropractor that I've gone to before who's been very helpful.  I had tried to get in over the Christmas holidays, but he was out.  ANYWAY.....I told him it feels like my neck is somehow very involved with these headaches.  He seemed genuinely amazed at how bad my neck was. They did some electrical stim therapy on my neck and then he adjusted it.  I felt so much better and still do.  Wish I had started there 4 weeks ago..... I am scheduled to go back tomorrow and want to make sure I'm where I need to be...he's not the kind who keeps you coming back unneccessarily, but as off as things were, he wanted me back once more this week.  I will keep my appt with the neurologist in 2 weeks to follow up on the MRI even if the headaches are completely resolved.  

I kept Benjamin home from school today.  He sounded like he was borderline croupy this morning before he got up.   I couldn't send him off to school that way....and I have now heard nothing since he got up.  He's happily playing (hookie!!) with his toys in the living room. Sorry Merrie....maybe tomorrow~

More news before long, no doubt~ Janelle

Hi,

Just a brief note to let you know that Krissy seems pretty much back to herself today (the reason why this needs to be brief!) She is up and around, VERY active and apparently happy to be well into her 3rd week of vacation.  We sure appreciate your prayers for her transition into her new school this week (Wednesday, first day). I'm hoping to go and visit tomorrow to scope out the safety aspects and hopefully identify any potential (knowing Kristin) weak points. 

For those of you wondering about my MRI, I don't have a definitive answer.  I got one of those Saturday morning phone calls from the doctor saying "it's preeeeettttty much normal" but went on to read some observations that he doesn't know the significance of or if it's nothing.  So that along with of the atypical migraines that I continue to have (this is over 3 weeks now and almost daily) he's referred me to a neurologist.  I may be wrong, but I think whatever questions he has about the MRI are probably incidental and not related to the headaches. I have an appt in 2-3 weeks.  I don't have a brain tumor, which he definitely reassured me about, so that's good news.  Thanks for your prayers as I try and cope with these somewhat debilitating headaches and keep up with the home front.  Larry has been wonderful in helping alot and I think it was very nice of the Lord to smite him with a cold so that he couldn't go to work (enough to keep him from working with the babies but not feeling bad) during part of this physically difficult time for me :o) We have alot of fun in our home, but the activity level is certainly enough to keep 2 adults from ever getting bored, so for him to be awake and alert has certainly lightened my load. 

As Winnie the Pooh would say, "it's a very blustery day out" here in Gresham.  Hope you are safe and warm and dry!

Love janelle

Thanks for praying for Krissy...she definitely hasn't been herself today.  I think this is probably pretty normal for post concussion, but she's been quieter and lying down alot, curled up on the sofa.  I told her we'd go to the doctor tomorrow if she's not feeling better. She says her head and stomach are sick and we believe her.  I so hope that a lesson will be learned for her in this.

I'll plan to post again tomorrow and let you know how she's feeling.  She has a couple more days of vacation, probably a good thing.  I wouldn't want to try and send her feeling like she does.

David and Jamie return to Mt Hood Community College tomorrow to start winter term.  They both are on a Mon-Wed-Fri schedule this term (thank you!) which should make transportation a little easier on mom.  David is very willing to begin driving them, and it probably won't be long before that can happen.

Anne has worked hard over Christmas break on her school work and is doing a good job.  Her regular session begins again tomorrow, and Benjamin also returns to school (I hope!!)

Rest well,

Janelle

Happy New Year

Warmest Greetings in this brand new year~

Our blog seems to be event (or is it 'crisis'?) driven.  I realize we've had a pretty peaceful Christmas holiday if you've not heard from us for quite awhile.  We had a really nice Christmas with family here.  We had both Grandma's here for cinnamon rolls and our Christmas morning festivities.  Later in the day Larry's sister Linda, and her husband Ray came and we enjoyed dinner and time together.  Krissy had a great time.  Linda and Ray had snagged a 3' tall musical Goofy at their neighbor's garage sale....that was a huge hit with Krissy.  We have been battling the effects of cold weather chapped lips and skin for Krissy (explanation for why she looks like she does in the photos).  Thankfully Rick Phipps, our friend and local dermatologist was able to see her on the 23rd, the last day he was in the office for the year, and gave us some medication to help.  If only we could talk her into not rubbing it off....

We got to have a brief visit with our friends, the Deffinbaugh's yesterday morning when they were in town.  Krissy was very excited to see them again.  I guess we had done our quota of days without drama, so last night it was our turn.  Krissy had a pretty good day, but was showing some signs of agitation.  As per our usual routine, our faithful sitter Cindy was here with Kris & Benjamin while we went to church.  When we got home, she said that Krissy had really escalated shortly before bedtime.  She had gotten her to her room where Krissy proceeded to scream and bang on the door.  When we arrived home, she had quieted down considerably.  After Cindy left, we heard Krissy crying, and then more screaming, so I figured she was just 'over the top' upset still.  Jamie went down and I sent one of the pills we use, maybe once a month or so. It's a blood pressure pill that the Dr. gave us for when she's really upset, to just calm her down some.  Jamie gave that to her, but came up and said that Krissy was saying her head hurt and some of what she was saying wasn't making sense (different from her baseline).  I went down and saw that her forhead was very red and immediately realized that she must have been butting the door with her head....it's not too unusual for her to bang on it if she's upset, and we'd have no way of knowing if she was using her head or hands or feet.  Anyway, we were very concerned at the apparent horrific headache she had...she was crying and asking us to squeeze her head.  Larry helped get her ready and Jamie and I headed to Doernbecher (Children's Hospital) with her.  I was concerned that she may have really done some damage.  They were so nice to us...the triage nurse has a niece with autism about the same age and was just so caring.  The ER was nearly empty (who would've thought on a Saturday holiday weekend night??) and we didn't even get a chance to sit down in the waiting room before they took us back.  By this time the Clonidine had kicked in and she was very sleepy.  I felt badly for 'muddying the waters'  by having given that to her, but I did it before realizing she had a head injury.  And the great thing was, the MD was quite happy about it, because she was sedated enough to do the CT scan without starting an IV to give her sedation.  I would never have dreamed that Krissy could hold still for this....she was awake, but just very compliant with what I asked her to do.  She in fact started to get the giggles at one point.  I think she thought the 'donut machine' was pretty neat.  They said she did perfect for the scan and finaly after an hour + wait, we learned that it was negative and were able to bring her home.  They said she had a concussion and went over the usual instructions.  She zonked for the trip home and slept well thru the night.   Thank you Lord.  

Benjamin is doing well, (we're) hoping for school tomorrow.  His ostomy is functioning really well right now, so we'll see what the surgeon says this week.  

We were so encouraged last evening when Jamie was baptized and gave her testimony during the evening service.  This was something she had wanted to do for some time and they invited people, if the Lord was leading them in this step, to come.  So she did.  Very special time for us.

Catch us up on your news when you can.  Love, Janelle

Merry Christmas~Wow, I still am amazed that it's already Christmas Eve. I've been struggling with some bad headaches the past week and a half, so I think that's at least partly why I'm in a time warp. I'm better today at this time than I was yesterday, so I'm hoping that's a good sign. Larry, my mom and our older kids went to the Christmas service at church last night (I was in bed while Cindy watched the little kids). It was a wonderful service. We're expecting Larry's mom to arrive later this evening....she and my mom will be with us for our traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls tomorrow. Then Larry's sister Linda and her husband Ray will be arriving before our dinner at 2pm. We've thought back to how different last year was when we were snowed/ice'd in and no one could get anywhere, it seemed. We're happy to be able to be together this year

.Jamie asked Kristin to tell her 5 things about Christmas today...her answers were....Presents (are we surprised?), stockings, cinnamon rolls, Luke 2 and Happy Birthday Jesus!  I hope we can reverse the order down the road :o)

There haven't been many postings with her being out of school this past week. She's done really well. Missy a friend we've known for a number of years is home from college, so she was available to help us over the break.  Molly is on vacation, so we again appreciate God's provision.  We've mostly stayed at home, but Missy and I took Krissy for a hike this week and the fresh cold air was great for all of us as we walked by the lake and fed the ducks.  

We wish you all a safe and joyful Christmas as we remember the wonderful gift of Jesus,

Janelle

So....the little boy got a reprieve today.  He woke up with a cold, so his procedure was postponed (Dec 28th!)  No starving him after all today.  I hope we can get a morning slot...it's much easier to just delay his first meal than to make him go so long during his awake time without anything. I was able to get to the doctor today myself.  I have had quite a horrible headache since Monday and thought it must be a sinus infection.  I can't just stop everything and crawl into bed, but I know when I'm lying on the stairs between the family room and the kitchen that I really don't feel well.  Monday was the worst, but still today, I just wasn't doing great.  Thankfully they had an 11 am spot and it's very close to home, so I went in.  He didn't buy the sinus theory, but said some of the same nerves innervate the sinuses that are involved with migraines and he really thought that's what I had.  So he gave me my first ever shot of Imitrex.  Said it's pretty diagnostic because it will only affect true migraines....no other types of headaches.  And I am so much better.  I developed migraines during pregnancy and probably wasn't offered this medication because it's not used when you're pg.  However, I've continued to have problem headaches intermittently, so this is actually great news to find something that can send them packing so quickly.  I sound like an infomercial :o), but to get that relief without any loopy side effects is really nice.   I felt like it really helped before I even left his office, but then continued to improve the rest of the day.

Krissy did well at school today and didn't run even once!  We did some hip hip hooray's for her at the dinner table.  I heard from the district today that they have her scheduled to start at the new community school Jan 6th.  They said she would go to her current school the 4th and 5th, but we've decided we'll just keep her home those days.  Too many changes that week may throw her and I want this transition to be as smooth as possible.

We were very thankful today to have our sump pump replaced.  Larry just happened to notice last night that it was running erratically and with all the rain, we hated to risk yet another basement flood (the floor barely dried from last weeks, right?)  He set up a schedule before leaving for work.  Anne is our resident night owl, so she faithfully checked on the situation until about 3am.  I picked up the drill at 6 something until Larry got home.  He put a call out to our plumber and when he called back, he had a cancellation this afternoon and arrived about an hour later.... so no night watch duty tonight for anyone!  That last pump worked hard for over 9 years, so I think it was tired out. 

Hope your week is going well....Love, Janelle

 
Hello again~I just wanted you to know how today went. 9 of us gathered for Kristin's placement review meeting. I had a phone conference earlier this morning with the supervisor from MESD (Mult. Education Service District) and she had done some observation time in Kris's classroom yesterday. It was very settling for me to talk with her. Observations she made about Kristin were very insightful...she reminded me of Amanda, the behavior consultant that has been such a help to us. She said they love to have kids like Krissy in their program and they do their best work with them. Her leaning was not towards the regular public school setting but rather a small community school that is quite close to our home. The kids all have 1:1 help/instruction and special care is taken to getting to understand each individual child and developing a schedule around what will work best for them with their needs. They aren't looking at this so much as a permanent placement, but during this time of upheaval (be in hormones or ???) a place for Krissy to settle and stablize. I suggested that maybe getting her in a different enviromenent may do alot to settle her and perhaps we should hold off on medication until she has a chance to see how she'll do in her new school after Christmas. She thought that sounded like a reasonable idea as well, so I felt very settled going into the meeting. Everyone was in agreement that this sounded like the best option for Krissy at this time. The school has worked hard and we really appreciate their 'over and above' efforts to help her succeed.  We hope one day Krissy may be able to go back there and do well.  So....that's it for now....Benjamin has another procedure under sedation tomorrow...I think the worst part for him besides the mask that's very scary for him in the moment, is that he doesn't get to eat for 6 hrs. before.  He keeps trying to 'tell' people to feed him by handing them different bottle parts, but they just don't get it.  Poor little guy~