Progress Report

It's been just over two months since Ben's last surgery, and so far everything is still going alright. The leads haven't moved, though one of them isn't hitting as well as it used to. But he's still getting good coverage from the other, so it's hard to say what's going on. We saw his pain doctor on Tuesday, and even he is dumbfounded as to why he still hurts. It's not as bad as it used to be. Instead of his pain being up around 8-9 like it used to be, it's now more around a 5 (or 6 when it's bad). So definatly better that what it used to be, but still not completely pain free. We decided to try another procedure, which will be done on the 18th. I can't remember the exact name of it. It was kinda long and complicated. But basically the doctor is going to go in and burn the ends of the nerves so they stop sending the pain signals. It's a riskier procedure, but the doctor has done it several times and feels comfortable doing it. So I should probably be more concerned than I am, but meh, it's just another procedure. He's had a million done before. This one's not much different. So that's where we are with the pain. He's still hurting, and we're still trying to make it stop. We FINALLY got the med board started. YAY! Now it's just a hurry up and wait thing. We are still waiting to hear when his first appointment with his med board doctor will be, but once that happens things are going to get super busy. The first part is all doctor appointments. At the first appointment we'll go in and go over all his aches and pains with the doctor. So we'll talk about his stomach pains, his back pains, his kidney stones, his carpal tunnel, and every other little thing that bothers him. And then the doctor puts in referals to get all those different problems checked out if needed. We have 100 days to get all those appointments done. So the next 3 months-ish will be full of doctor apointments. And that will include VA appointments too. Then once all those are done, they send all their findings and paperwork to Fort Lewis. They come up with whatever they decide, then send it out to the VA headquarters in Seattle and the VA decides what their rating will be. The VA sends it back to Fort Lewis, who then sends it back to us in Hawaii. When things are running smoothly, that part takes about 120 days. Things aren't going smoothly right now, and it's taking over 200 days. But once we get the results/ratings back, we can either agree with their decisions, or if we don't agree we can appeal and have them look at it again. Once we get results that we are happy with though, we will have no more than 90 days left in the Army. So it's a very long and confusing process. Luckily we have our liason person who will help and guide us through each step. But it's looking like it will be about a year before we are done with it all. Could be shorter, could be longer. We'll just have to wait and see. At least things are started though. And we can say this is finally the beginning of the end. :)

Finished Product

I finally finished my quilt! It was been a work in progress for quite a while. I started gathering the fabric while Ben was deployed (all the way back in 2008). And then I just kept putting it off. I'd work on it a little bit, and then put it off again. I finally finished it though! It's nothing too special. Just blocks sewn together, and tied with multi-colored yarn. I used a king size sheet for the back. I didn't have a frame or anything to tie it on so there are wrinkles and uneven spots, and by no means is it perfect. But I love it. It's big enough that we don't have to steal the covers from each other at night, and Kaylin loves the bright colors and grabbing the yarn. It was pretty easy and really didn't take that long once I sat down and did it. It was just a matter of finding the motivation to sit down and do it. But it's done now! And perhaps I'll do another one of these days....

Final Surgery?!

Ben had his surgery last Friday, January 27th. I meant to update this sooner, but things have been a little crazy. We had to be up at the hospital at 530 am. Yuck! He was the first case, which was nice. But like everything else when it comes to his medical care, nothing can go as planned. The plan was to just go in, move the leads back down into place, and be done. Hahaha! They spent an hour just trying to get the leads, which they couldn't. So they ended up taking the whole unit out (leads and battery pack), replacing one of the leads, and then putting them all back in. So what was supposed to be an hour surgery, actually ended up being three hours. The good news is he didn't stop breathing this time! But he was in a lot more pain. They gave him about double the local anesthetic they usually use and he was still hurting. On the upside though, because he wasn't so out of it, they were able to get the leads in a really good spot. As the doctor was saying at his follow up appointment the other day, he has a very small window where he gets the coverage he needs. Even a tiny bit higher or lower, he doesn't get the same relief. So they got the leads positioned, and he's getting great coverage now. The pain isn't completely gone, but it's better than it was even after the last surgery. He's still hurting, but most of the pain is just the post-op pain right now. We are now working on getting him off the narcotics. He's been taking dilaudid and morphine since before Christmas, so we are slowly cutting back on them. No one wants to be on that stuff anyway, and in the long run they can actually make the pain worse because the body just needs more of it. So we are getting away from those, and then we'll start working on getting him off all the other pills he's on. He takes like 7 different pills right now. It's going to be a long slow process because some of them have some nasty withdrawal side effects, but we'll do what it takes.
So all in all things are starting to look up a little bit. The big thing now is just making sure he takes it easy for the next little while and takes the time to heal so the leads don't move again. We are looking at starting the whole med board process in March. We could probably start it a bit sooner, but we're going to wait a little bit so that we can take some leave and go home for a bit. Because once the process starts, we won't be able to take leave. And it's definitely time for a vacation. And as long as the commander approves Ben's leave, we'll be home for about 3 weeks in March. Yay!

4 1/2 Month Stats

Kaylin had her 4 month appointment this past week. She's getting big! She is in the 50th percentile for her weight at 14 lbs 6 oz, and in the 87th percentile for her height at 26"! Holy cow! I can't believe how big she is getting. It's just crazy!

Some of the things she's up to at 4 months...

She is starting to sit up on her own. She does pretty good with a little support, but is still kinda wobbly when she tries sitting by herself.

She's getting better with tummy time. It's cute when she gets mad though. She'll put her face down on the bed or whatever she's laying on and just scream at it. We're still working on rolling over though. She'll get over on her side then scoot her bum and legs over then roll back onto her back. And ta da! She's facing a different way!

We also got her one of the bouncy seat activity centers. She loves it! She can turn herself in it and has figured out what all the toys do. And it's all fun and games until she gets mad because she can't pull the toys off. Darn daddy putting them on right! She also loves the Boise State monkey that Grandma and Grandpa sent her for Christmas.

She loves anything she can put in her mouth. Her teeth haven't broken through yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

She has started showing a lot of interest in what mommy and daddy are eating and drinking. She loves trying to get mom's drink! We've started giving her rice cereal, maybe once every couple days. She loves it! She'll eat a little bit, but then get tired of it and want to nurse anyway. Not that I'm in a huge hurry to stop nursing. :)

She is sleeping through the night pretty well. She'll go down between 10 and 11, wake up to eat between 3 and 4 and fall right back asleep, then will usually sleep until between 8 and 9. Naps during the day can be a bit tricky. She'll take a couple half hour naps in the late morning and early afternoon, then usually a bit longer one in the afternoon. She's actually asleep right now, which is why I'm actually getting the chance to finish this. :)

She loves her puppies. She'll sit there screaming and crying, turn around and see Smokey and Misty and she'll be all smiles again. Before she was born I always worried about how the dogs would act around her (because they aren't huge fans of kids), and I still worry sometimes, but we've never had any issues. They let her pet them, and they give her kisses in return. They'll even lay on the floor next to her. Hopefully it stays that way as she gets bigger and moves around more...

We really can't go anywhere without someone telling us how cute, adorable, pretty, etc. she is. And it's all true! She is such a doll. Her smile and giggle makes me melt. As much as the screaming and crying stresses me out at times, she's still a sweetheart. I love that girl!

I Love This Little Girl!

Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics of my favorite little girl :)

Christmas and Other Stuff

I feel like such a slacker when it came to Christmas this year. It's usually my favorite holiday, but I was just having a hard time. We didn't get to go home like we were hoping, so I was really bummed about that. I didn't send out Christmas cards or gifts to friends like I have in the past. We didn't get our extended family's presents sent out until Christmas Eve. Money has been tight so we didn't do much in the way of gifts, which isn't a huge deal. We did get Kaylin a few toys, which she loves, mostly because I would have felt like a horrible mother if we hadn't gotten her anything for her first Christmas. Not that she'll remember it, but I will. I really didn't even take any pictures of her first Christmas. I snapped a few of her playing with the connecting rings we got her, but that's about it. We did go to church where they had a nice Christmas program. It was mostly music with a few scripture readings in between. It was nice though. And I did call and talk to my mom, which is always great. But overall, it was just a pretty quite holiday around our place.
Ben isn't doing so great. His pain is back up in the 8-9/10 range. We made a trip to the ER the week before Christmas. Not that they could do anything, but he needed something for the pain. All they did was give him some stronger pain meds then sent us home. We got in touch with his pain doctor a couple days later (he had been on leave back in the states), and were able to get in to see him. He increased some of his regular meds and then put him on dilaudid and morphine instead of the roxicet. It's really not helping. He still really hurts. He was supposed to have surgery this past Friday to fix his stimulator leads, but they had to cancel it and reschedule it for the 27th. I guess the case before him had stopped breathing after receiving propothol (like Ben did last time), but they were having trouble reviving this guy. I'm really starting to think the anesthesiologists here don't know what they are doing... So needless to say, he's still hurting. His dr is supposed to call tomorrow and we'll go see him sometime this week. Probably Wednesday, since that's when his follow up appointment was supposed to be. Hopefully we can figure something out. It shouldn't take this long to get him into surgery. By the time it happens, he'll have been in pain for over 2 months again. It's ridiculous! It's stupid how long it takes to get anything done. That's enough ranting though. As you can tell, it's a bit of a touchy subject right now. So other than hurting, he's doing alright.
Kaylin is doing good. I can't believe she'll be 4 months later this week. Her 4 month appt isn't until the 25th though, so I don't have any exact stats right now. But she is getting big, and is such a character. She's been sleeping great at night. Once or twice a week she'll wake up between 3 and 4, but other than that she's been sleeping a good 7-8 hours at night. Which is wonderful! She's been pretty moody lately. Crying and screaming a lot. I think it might be the teething. She drools every where and thinks everything has to go in her mouth. Or it could just be that I'm so worn out that it just feels like she cries a lot. So other than that, she's doing great. We still love her to pieces and her smile still melts my heart, even when she's driving me crazy.
As for me, I'm doing my best to hang in there. Some days are better than others. I really could just use a break from it all. Doesn't look like that will happen any time soon though. I've been working on my photography class. I finally got my first unit pictures taken and mailed in. I wasn't super happy with them, but I have to work with what I have. They highly recommend using a DSLR camera, and I just can't afford one yet. I've been working on selling what Mary Kay product I have left, but it's been kinda slow. But anyway, the first project is done and turned in. My goal is to finish the course by the end of the year. I don't plan on it taking that long, but that's what I'm working on. I also had to have an ingrown toenail removed. OUCH! It had gotten infected and just wasn't pretty. They ended up removing the whole toenail. That wasn't fun. There was one part of the toe that didn't want to numb up very well, so I still felt a little. But I did survive. And although it's ugly now, it is feeling better for the most part. Still a bit sensitive on the top where the nail used to be, but other than that it's alright. All in all though, I'm doing alright though. Really can't complain too much.
So that's the extent of the excitement around here. Which really isn't much right now. It's the same ol' same ol' day in and day out. Sometimes that's just how it goes though. :)

Family Pictures 2011

We had family pictures taken back before Christmas. I posted all of them on facebook, but wanted to put some of my favorites up here.

This one is my favorite!

Out of all the pictures we took, this is the only one she looked grumpy in.

I love her face in this one... Priceless!