Fall is here!

Hello friends and family!

Well, it has been quite the crazy month with tons of things going on and good and bad news as well. On September 14th, Daniel had his adenoids and tonsils removed. He had been snoring since the day he was born and was quickly given the nickname "Darth Vader" by Bryan! Yes, it's mean, but totally true! It never got better and we decided to check out the adenoids with the doctor. In the mean time, when we went to the beach in August, we heard him sleeping and breathing at night and it appeared he was having some apnea issues. Once the doctor checked him out, she found his adenoids were HUGE and advised that they really should come out. He was a trooper, even though he HATED having to be there and we struggled to get him to calm down before surgery. He was screaming and kicking and fighting and wanted to leave. Needless to say, the Anesthesiologist gave him a drink of something that made him calm down and act like a little boy high on drugs! He was hilarious and had me and Bryan laughing until we cried! He had to have a liquid or mushy food diet for 10-14 days and is finally back on to regular food. I never thought my kids would refuse ice cream or popcicles, but a week of them and they were tired of that stuff!

In the mean time, Cameron has started physical therapy once a week for his toe-walking. He also has braces that he wears that force him to walk flat-footed. We have excercises he does and we encourage him to carry heavy things that force him to walk flat on his feet. He does well with his braces, and we encourage him like crazy! He has also recently started talking even more! When we took him to his P.T. appointment by him self, he didn't stop talking! Without brother around to talk for him, he is quite the little jabberjaws! I love it!

Daniel recently started asking to use the potty!!! WOOOOHOOO!!!! Very exciting news! More pull-ups being used and less diapers! Can't wait to quit using diapers! What a saving that will be! I don't even want to know how much we have spent on diapers in the last 3 years! Probably enough to buy a new car! HA HA HA!!!

Bad news that we received was on August 12th, my Grandma was taken to ER because she was having symptoms of a stroke. After many tests later, it was determined that she has small cell lung cancer and it has spread to her brain and her adrenal gland. Unfortunately it is in stage 4. She wants to fight it and radiation and chemo will help extend her life, so she did 15 days of radiation. She completed it on September 17th and was scheduled to start chemo on Sept. 22nd. The really bad part came on Sept. 19th. Early in the morning around 3:30am, she had horrible stomach pains. My Grandpa took her to ER and she was admitted. After some more tests, it turned out she had Diverticulitis which is an infection of the colon and it was leaking into her body. She was going into septic shock and her blood pressure had fallen to 60 over 32 at one point. The Dr.'s needed to do emergency surgery. During surgery, we almost lost her. The Dr's had to shock her twice to bring her back. They weren't sure she would survive. She went to ICU to recover and was taken off sedation meds on Wed. Sept 23rd. She finally woke up on Saturday Sept. 26th. She has finally been moved out of ICU to a regular room and will be going to a Rehab Center in the next few days to regain her strength. She is such a fighter and I couldn't be more proud of her! She should start chemo once she is recovered.

The good news is that when Grandma got her cancer diagnosis, it was decided that Bryan, myself and my sister and her boyfriend, would join my parents and grandparents on a cruise to Mexico! We are still planning on going, however, it has been postponed. We were supposed to leave on the 9th of October, but Grandma won't be ready by then. We are hoping to leave a few weeks later. This will give her time to recover. Can't wait to enjoy this special family vacation together! It will be the first cruise for me and Bryan and I'm looking forward to the time we get to spend together! We haven't been on a major vacation anywhere since our honeymoon 10 years ago to Disney World!

I hope that you and your family are doing well! Sorry that this post is so long! I need to do updates more often! Have a great day!

Jen