Woohoo!!

Good news finally!! Will is gaining weight again. The most he has ever weighed is 21 lbs. 10 oz. and today he was back up to 21 lbs. 5 oz. I am so happy!!!!
We are going to switch him to continuous feeds though versus the bolus ones. His reflux has gotten worse and the thought is that if he is fed over a longer period of time, meaning his food goes into his feeding tube slower, then it should help his reflux. We need to do everything we can to manage that because we want to hold off as long as possible on him having another surgery on his trachea to insert steroid shots in it to keep the edema (swelling) down.
We should be getting the pump and other equipment by Monday or Tuesday depending on if the medical supply place has it in stock or not. They are usually pretty good about getting us the things we need in a timely manner.
I am also test driving a Honda Odyssey today. They let me bring it home and we bring it back in tomorrow morning. So far I really like it. Getting Will in and out is a breeze. It has a ton of room and is loaded (leather heated seats, DVD player, automatic doors etc). Matt and I will go in on Monday to talk numbers to see if it will work out. I hope so!
We are meeting Joanne and Lindsay tomorrow in Mackinac City for lunch and to bring Joanne back up here with us for about a month. I am so excited to have her stay with us for awhile. I have the BEST mother in law in the entire world. Will is going to get spoiled rotten for sure. I have been showing pictures of Joanne (Nana) and my Mom (Oma) and trying to teach him their names. Yesterday it finally clicked and he calls the pictures Na and Ma. I hope he realizes that Na and Ma are people not just pictures lol. I am excited to see if he calls them that tomorrow.
I can't wait for our fun filled weekend!!

What a Week

Will went to his appointment today with his Pediatrician. He has lost weight again since last week again. To keep it short and sweet, I am having a rough time with this right now, he has until Wednesday to keep food down and gain some weight before we have to take him to DeVos again and have him admitted. There they will probably try to talk us into having the Nissen surgery done that I wrote about previously. I DO NOT want him to have that done though. There are a couple of other options I want to try first. One is having a G-J feeding tube instead of the G-tube he currently has. The G-J tube goes directly into the intestines instead of the stomach. The other option is to put him on a continuous feed instead of the bolus feeds he does now. That would mean he would be hooked to a pump at night that would very slowly put formula directly into him. Because it would be VERY slow, it is probable that he would keep it down. They also have these special backpacks that kids can wear that have their pumps in them so that they can be fed throughout the day as well.
I want to know that we have exhausted every other option before turning to the Nissen surgery. I have talked to other parents of children who have had it done, and most do not recommend it. It is a dangerous surgery, and even more dangerous to have it reversed if it doesn't work out. One of the things that I have learned throughout all of this with Will is to trust my instincts. Right now, my Momma instincts are telling me that this isn't the best choice for us at this time.
That is all I have for today. I am just trying to get through this latest stuff for now. It is really starting to wear me down. :::exits blog repeating, "it could always be worse, it could always be worse.":::

Tough Week

This has been a tough week so far. Will has been sick and was in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday. The perpetual question is; was it just the flu or an EE flare up? I think he is having an EE flare up. He is throwing up constantly, but no other symptoms. He acts fine other than throwing up, no diarrhea, no fever etc. He is on Zofran right now and he is still throwing up, just not quite as much as before. He has lost a pound and he is only tolerating Pedialite right now. So frustrating. We just got him up to the 10th percentile for his weight and now he is plummeting again even with having a feeding tube.
I think the next step is going to be to do a surgery called a Nissen fundoplication. It is where the upper part of the stomach is wrapped around the lower part of the esophagas and stiched into place. It is done so that the patient no longer is able to throw up. More information can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_fundoplication
I am really hoping to avoid this surgery. I don't know why, but it really scares me. They talked about Will having it done back in November when he had his feeding tube put in, but Matt and I were not ready to take that drastic of a step yet.
Please pray that Will is not going to need this done. I feel like I am reaching my wits end this week with all of his medical problems. EE, GERD, sub-glottic stenosis. When will it get easier? When will this start to feel normal? Does it ever?
I will try to update more later, right now we are playing it by ear. I am suppose to call his G.I. doctor today to update him, but I am honestly scared to because I don't want him to tell me that we need to head back down to Grand Rapids for another surgery this week. Will is 17 months and he has already had six surgeries and he has been sedated eight times. ::sigh::

Good Times!

We are all off to a great start for the weekend! Yesterday Will and I went to the Dome in Marquette so I could get my excercising in. I walked for about four miles while William napped in his stroller. Then we borrowed a ball and went out onto the football field and messed around. He loved the turf and kept trying to pick at it. Oh, and he has a new word to add to his vocabulary...ball!

We also had to stop by the mall so I could return some things. We didn't end up getting fancy for New Years Eve afterall so I couldn't justify keeping that little red satin number. Will liked playing in all of the cars that you can ride there. They are .75 cents each, he doesn't need to know that they are supposed to move right?! I am good with letting him think they are just there to sit in and get your picture taken!

Then,last night Matts friend Jay and his son Vinny came over for a play date and dinner. Vinny is only about 6 weeks younger than Will so it is nice to get them together. Matt made some yummy pasta and Jay brought garlic bread. It was a very nice dinner!

Vinny and Will had fun playing together in the playroom. Turns out, Vinny is quite the drummer! He also likes to give hugs while saying, "Awwwww". It is so cute!

It was a very good day yesterday and I am looking forward to a very good weekend. Especially tonight since I am meeting some girlfriends for some drinks. Yeah!!

I hope this works! My first attempt at a Blog Button!

Let me know if it works and grab one for yourself!

This is how we do...

walks that is. We must make quite a sight going through town this way, but what is a Mom to do. When you live here yes,

that's the sidewalk, and you a winter lover for a dog like this, then you do what you have to do. Right?! Anyway, Will and Myshka (our dog at the right) love it. Apparently I do to by the way, I am done 3.2 pounds! Woohoo!!! I have FINALLY broken my plateau. I am so excited by that and it makes me more motivated to keep it up. I have been using http://www.sparkpeople.com/ to track my food intake and my excercise. I think that it really helps.

So far Wills new medicine seems to be working. No more throwing up since Monday!! That makes me immensley excited. We are still trying to get rid of the granulation tissue that is around his g-tube right now. Last night was his third silver nitrate treatment. I feel so bad doing that to him. I know it hurts. The granulation hasn't gotten bigger since doing that, but I don't think it has gotten smaller either. Hmmmm

It is a nice beautiful sunny snowy day out, so I think we are about to embark on another walk as pictured above. Try not to be jealous!! :)

Last Week in Pictures

This is how you make a trip downstate to multiple doctor appointments fun and exciting! Hey, if you have to travel so far and so often with a 17 month old, you might as well make the most of it...

And we are back...

After a long week of travel last week, we are back home. It always takes me a few days to get back into the routine of being back home.
Will did awesome at his doctors appointments. He had them Tuesday and Wednesday. We switched around some medicines and I am crossing my fingers that they will work better. He has been throwing up a LOT lately. We are giving him through this next weekend to see if these will help before we try something else.
We got to spend sometime with my sisters while downstate as well. Jill's apartment is really nice. Jenn and Isabella (my niece) came to visit us there as well. It is so great to be able to see them regularly even though I live about 8 hours from them both. That is one good thing about having to make regular trips downstate for Williams doctors appointments.
Matt's Mom wasn't able to come back up with me this time. Lindsay (Matts sister) will bring her up on the 29th for a visit. I am looking forward to having her for sure! Like I have said before, she is a great Mother in law.
I will update with some pictures tomorrow of our trip. Will rode on two different carousels. He loved them, well until we had to get off that is. Have a great day everyone!

He WALKED!

We were at Walmart today waiting for Will to get his first big boy haircut, my batteries died so no pictures :( , but Will let go of my hand, stood there for a few seconds and then walked to Matt and I. It was so freaking exciting. He also did great with his first haircut. Ever since then Matt has been trying to get him to do it more. Will won't hold Matts hand anymore since he knows he will try to 'trick' him into walking some more. It was such a relief to know that he can walk afterall.

As promised, here are some pictures of what I did around the house last week. The first picture is of a coffee table that I had gotten at Goodwill for $9.00. It was stained, but it was chipped and had stains on it. I liked the shape of it though so I bought it and painted it bright white. I really am happy with how it turned out. It helps brighten up that area. This second picture is in the same room as the above coffee table. It is behind the papsan chair you can just barely see in the picture above. I found some shelves in the shed that I had bought at Goodwill awhile ago. I painted them the same white as the coffee table and with some picture frames from around the house, made a photo wall. It doesn't look crooked in real life like it does in the picture for some reason.

We also put up shelving in the bathroom for towels and other bathroom stuff. I will wait to picture that until we get the tile done and new doors in. We are waiting for our tax return to finish that room up. I also made some little chalkboards with chalkboard paint and some picture frames I had laying around. I put them on top of my kitchen cupboards.

So, all in all it was a busy week. Will and I are headed downstate in the morning, so I probably won't update much this week. Now I am off to see if Will will walk some more for us before bedtime!

New Years Eve!

We had a great New Years Eve party at our house last night. Our friends Kelly and Shawn came over. We had lots of yummy food and drinks and great conversation as usual! We played the game You Must be an Idiot that I had gotten at Borders when we were down state last. It was a lot of fun.

This morning we went out to breakfast with my Mom and John. Then they came over to pick up their dog Buddy who spent the night with us since they went to a hotel in town to celebrate New Years Eve.

Will and I are headed downstate again on Monday for appointments he has on Tuesday and Wednesday. His Tuesday appointment is with his ENT doctor to make sure everything is still going alright with his Sub-Glottic Stenosis. Then Wednesday's appointment is with the surgeon who put in Will's g-tube. Will is having a lot of granulation tissue build up around the g-tube site so they need to figure out what to do about that.

After all of his appointments, we are going to go see Jennifer (my sister) in Lansing and then on to Jills (my other sister) in Sterling Heights for a day or so. Then I am going to pick my wonderful Mother in law up and she is going to stay with us for a few weeks. I am so excited to have her! I have an awesome Mother in law and am so happy to have her come stay with us.

I think I am done revamping things around the house again. At least until we get out tax returns back. I will update tomorrow with pictures of what I have been up to the last couple of days.

Happy New Year everyone!!!