results from biopsy

Well, we've had a trying weekend. Eve must not be feeling well because she has been a pain in the butt all weekend long. She just wasn't satisfied with anything. The whining has really gotten on my nerves, so I have escaped to have a few minutes of solitude as I update this blog.

We finally heard from Dr Shoffner, but we might as well not have. :) It's all medical terms that I truly don't understand. We'll have to wait to meet with the doc to have it all explained. It seems as though he did find something, and he gave a probable diagnosis. Unfortunately, I looked it up online. Big mistake. What I saw online was not good. But I have decided to ignore this (the best I can) until we meet with the neurologist. She may not have exactly what I looked up, and for all I know there are different levels of severity. I called Shoffner's office to make an appointment with him, but the waiting list has over 100 people on it. They get new patients in pretty quickly, but they don't really do followup appts. Instead, Shoffner recommends you go over the results with your doctor (who has received all the test results and the summary), and if the Dr has questions he can call Shoffner. We already have an appt set with the neurologist (Krawiecki) for the end of April. He is actually planning to open a new office with Shoffner and another doc so they can see more patients. That makes me feel good in terms of his interpreting the results of the biopsy. I'm sure he understands it, but if he doesn't he clearly has a connection to Shoffner. It does appear as though Shoffner is recommending treatment however. He wants her to be on CoQ10. I'm sure this will all be explained to us. So now we wait for another 4 weeks. I did put in a call to Krawiecki's office to be sure he got the results and ask if he wanted to move up Eve's appt. But, I am sure he is booked up so we'll just plan on seeing him at the end of April.

Oh, other things we did this weekend. We went out and bought big girl furniture for Eve. It will be delivered in the beginning of May. It's a nice mission style set. She'll have a twin bed with a bookcase headboard, and dresser and a chest of drawers. I will definitely feel more organized with lots of drawers to put her things in. It will be so nice to not have to lean over to put her in the crib. We've got a great bedrail (thanks, Kristin!) that we will be using to keep her in bed. Jim is going to fix up a changing table top for the dresser. I've been working on her quilt. I'll put up a picture of it soon. It's coming along quite nicely. Now, I am just waiting on the bath chair because baths are getting pretty tough on us.

Happy Easter

Well, we had a nice Easter weekend. We dyed eggs. Eve wasn't terribly interested. She did like cracking them to make egg salad, however.


Jim has also figured out a fun activity for Eve. He rolls her on his exercise ball and has her push off with her feet. He also rolls her on her back which must feel really good. Then he has her sit on top of the ball and work on her balance. Today, Tracey showed me some other tricks and exercises to do with Eve. Here's some pictures from this weekend.

Oh, and here's the Queen of Athens out for a ride.

daycare pictures

Here are some pictures that Eve's teacher took at daycare. I don't think she drinks like this on a regular basis. She can't do this at home. Pretty cool, though.

Today I will be ordering hand/wrist braces to help support Eve's hands. That way she can't do this when she lays on her stomach:

Oh, and I talked to Tracey today. Apparently the one stiff leg thing is neurological (we all have it to some degree). So, we'll just work with it. If I need her to relax her leg to put on her pants, I'll just have her turn her head. It's not as big of a deal as I thought. :)

code cracker

Eve has been using her right hand a lot lately. Today I found her using it several times without being asked to or prompted. Also, she fed herself strawberries using her right hand. I haven't before seen her do that. She always eats with her left.

Also, last night I realized something. I need to check with Eve's PT to see if it is important. I had her lying on the floor on her back and I was moving her legs like she was riding a bike. Bending one knee to chest while straightening other leg. She had her head turned to the right to look at Jim and I noticed that the right leg was very very stiff. The left leg gave no resistance, but I had to use effort to push her right knee up. All of a sudden she turned her head and looked to the left and darn it - her left leg was now stiff and her right leg loose! So I got her to turn her head to the right, and the resistance switched again! It was so amazing. I feel like I cracked a code. If she hadn't turned her head precisely when I was pumping her legs, I don't know that I ever would have realized it. I've noticed this every time I have tested it (bath, changing table, etc) since last night. So I'll ask Tracey on Tuesday. I wonder if this is something muscular or neurological.

returned deposit

Here's the response from Dr. Shoffner's office about the returned appointment deposit:

"I know it is a little confusing. A lot of work goes into scheduling anappt to include coordinating with the outpatient surgery center. Theappt deposit is designed to be used only if a patient doesn't show up or fails to cancel the appointment for a non-emergency reason within 72hours of the scheduled appointment. The deposit is strictly to secure the appointment for that purpose and is returned after the appointment."

So that answers that.

happy news

We've had a great weekend. Grammie and Papa came for a visit. Boy, was Eve happy! So were Jim and I. It was a very productive and fun weekend. With Jim's Dad's help, we installed a new closet organizer in our bedroom. We are on track to do the closet in the spare room as well. This will help us organize our crap and our lives. I can't stop looking at my new closet. It looks so amazing.

Jim and I also were able to go out to dinner and a movie last night. It was just so wonderful. Eve was mostly good all weekend, but she was really a champ today. I was surprised considering the time change. I expected lots of trouble with nap and bedtime, but she was great. We pushed her nap from 12:30 to 1pm (so it only felt 30 minutes early to her body). We put her to bed at 7:15 and she talked and laughed until about 7:50 - but she never cried! Oh! I almost forgot. We put Eve on the potty last night and let her drink her milk and watch TV on it. All of a sudden, I saw this liquid shooting out and I realized she was peeing! Apparently the cheap-o potty we bought didn't have a nice shield. I think the way she was sitting also didn't help aim her girl parts properly. It was really funny and we praised her like crazy. Next time I will have towels on hand and try to keep her seated comfortably, but properly. Again, I think this was pure timing, but I am so glad she was successful.

I got an email from Dr. Shoffner's office. They are sending back the new patient appt deposit. No explanation. I emailed asking why (not that I am complaining). I just assumed it would go to the cost of the testing. Maybe things are moving along and we will hear something soon. Obviously, we are back on their radar.

On to the biggest news: our new nephew, Giovanni Emilio! He was born yesterday afternoon. My parents are visiting to help out with big brother Alex. Dave and Trina are doing well. All is well. When I hear more, I will add more. Here's a picture:

visitors and standers

This weekend we had visitors! Colleen, Tom, Claire and Lydia came for the weekend. We had such a great time.

This is Claire

And this is Lydia

Story time!


We went on a woods walk, too.

We all went to a UGA gymnastics meet. It was lots of fun! Then we went out to dinner. Eve was really good. I think she just really loved spending time with everyone. She was cranky after the gang left, I think because she missed them.

We were able to borrow a stander from Babies Can't Wait. Tracey set it up this morning and Eve LOVES it. I was amazed that she took to it so quickly. When Jim got home she wanted to get in it again and cried when we took her out.




This picture is from dinner tonight. Eve kept wanting to give me cookie kisses. Yum.