Grandma Bev's 75th Birthday Bash!

We had a lovely weekend in Olympia celebrating Grandma Bev's 75th birthday! Larry did a great job putting the party together. It was a full crowd on Sunday and so much fun. My favorite part were the evening campfires with the family. Such a treat to have all of the Dunivent children together. I am sure Great Grandma and Grandpa Ames were there watching over the festivities too. We love you Grandma!

The Birthday gal with her five children. From the left: David, Mark, Dana, Beverly, Paul and Dan.

Grandma with two of the three C&B Faulkner girls.

Elsie belly and I with her baby quilt made by Grandma Dana. I love it!

Reagan on the rocking horse.

Reagan on the playhouse porch.

Katya in the playhouse. They had a blast!

Katya and Reagan with their Grandma and Baba Thompson


Grandpa Dennis, Reagan Eileen, and Grandma Dana.

Four generations of mothers and daughters.

CT scan

The CT scan on Thursday sucked.  We were at OHSU hospital for almost 3 hours.  I am so grateful that Katya is such an amazing kid.  She did really well.  I came prepared with the portable DVD player, toys, Katya's art box and the stroller (since carrying Reagan any real distance is pretty hard).  As soon as we checked in the office lady put some tegaderm bandages with lidocain lotion on both of Reagan's hands and one foot (to numb the skin before the IV stick).  She screamed the whole time and was not at all happy with the bandages.  She settled down after a while in the waiting area and played with some of the toys.  We finally got called back to the prep area and a nurse put in her IV.  This was the first IV stick she has had to get while awake and it was pretty awful.  They had me hold her chest to chest and put her arm over my shoulder so I couldn't watch.  She screamed of course and I cried too, though she wasn't able to tell that I was crying.  They got it on the first or second try (I am not sure).  She did complain of the IV though out the morning ("It hurts me.") but did okay.  Next we waited for the oral prep contrast to be sent up from Radiology.  It was diluted with apple juice and she did well, drinking a little more than half.  The nurse brought Katya regular apple juice and we sat and watched Curious George.  After Katya accidentally spilled the rest of Reagan's contrast the nurse took us down for the test.  Katya stayed in the prep area with another nurse and I carried Reagan down to CT.  Our nurse gave her Versed through her IV and in seconds she was all loopy.  I held her until they were ready for us.  She was mumbling a bit and staring at the celling, clearly doped up.  It was a bit unsettling to see my 2yr old on drugs.  But I am really glad she had it for the scan.  She was smiling at the nurse when we put her on the table and I was able to stay with her until they were completely ready (they had to put contrast through her IV as well).  I had to step out for the test since I am pregnant and it took about 5 minutes.  She started crying after a few.  Her nurse told me that she sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with Reagan, who was doing fine until she looked over and realized that it was not mommy singing to her. 

Katya did awesome for the 15-20mins I was away.  She played with some giant stuffed horses they had and watched TV.  They took Reagan's IV out right after the scan and she quickly became herself again.  The thing I was most annoyed with was that they had us do the no solids 6 hrs prior, and nothing 2 hrs prior but then they said they can't put her to sleep because she had to drink the oral contrast and that creates the risk of aspiration.  It was fine that all she needed was Versed, I was happy about that, but why could she not eat that morning!?  I woke her up so she could have some Jello and apple juice in the morning and she really did fine.  But it seemed unnecessary.  She was able to eat right away when we were done and it was very nice that she was not all loopy from sedation for the rest of the day.  Of course, like with all these procedures, I am so glad it is over.  I am also so thankful that we have health insurance!  We blew through our medical savings account in no time (the one we allotted for because of expecting Elsie's birth).

Our follow up with Dr. Hayden is next Friday.  We are praying that the CT was clear.  Reagan is still not wanting to walk, though she did a little bit today holding my hand.  Her leg is still swollen and bruised but the incision is looking good.  It is so strange to have her crawling everywhere!  We went to the Children's Museum today and borrowed one of their umbrella strollers so that I did not have to carry her everywhere.  Katya had fun pushing her around.  I am still having to carry her a lot and I am looking forward to getting her back on her feet.  My belly is quite impressive these days and I am definitely feeling hugly pregnant. 

We are off to Olympia tomorrow to celebrate Grandma Bev's 75th birthday.  Mom and dad are flying into SeaTac in the evening and we cannot wait to see them!  Hoping for some nice weather:-)  Have a great Memorial weekend everyone! 

Diagnosis: Lymphangioma

We had our follow up appointment with Dr. Hayden today.  He said the final pathology result is that the tumor is a lymphangioma.  He said it is a pretty unsual case and that these tumors, like hemangiomas can grow back.  For that reason he is hesitant to recommend surgery at this time.  He feels it is more prudent to watch the tumor and make sure it does not grow and invade more of the surrounding tissue.  But before we can be done with this for now, he wants to be sure there are not more tumors elswhere in her body.  So he ordered a CT scan with contrast.  We are having it done under sedation (suck) because she will need an IV and to lie still for 2 mins.  We don't think she will and want to be sure it is the easiest on her as possible.  It is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:00am.  Poor baby! 

He thought her surgical site was healing well and was not concerned that she doesn't want to walk.  Kind of what I figured, that we should let her walk when she is ready.  He thought it was pretty funny how she doesn't want to see her owie.  Everytime I change her diaper she tells me, "I don't want want to see my owie!" 

Post op days 2 & 3

Friday- feeling better! 

Dressing off

Thursday was a little rough. I gave Reagan one last dose of Vicodin in the morning and the switched to regular Tylenol and Motrin. Getting her off the narcotic helped a lot, that stuff really made her loopy and it tasted awful. She wanted to be carried all day and that was really hard, being that I am large with child:-). When Craig got home and I finally had some help, wouldn't you know she only wanted mommy.  Later in the evening (probablly once the Vicodin wore off) she was much happier and moving around more.

Friday was better.  She was content to crawl and walk on her knees and she played all day.  She was very happy most the day, acting like her cute, silly self.  She doesn't like to see her 'owie' leg and if we are changing her pants or diaper she says, 'Pants on!  Pants on!'  I have started only taking her one pant leg off for diaper changes but she still does not like it.  It reminds her of her owie and she gets pretty upset.  She has taken a few steps with support but is pretty much avoiding it all together.  Today she is not even really weighting her bad leg.  The swelling has definitely gone down in her leg and foot but is still somewhat swollen.   

I have always been very thankful for my healthy children, but something like this really puts it into perspective.  All day Wed, and since then too I find my self saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord" in my head:-)  Her follow up appointment in next Thursday.  It will be interesting to see what Dr. Hayden has to say about what to do next, if anything.

Post op day 1

I forgot to mention a cute fact:  The first thing Reagan said when she woke up from surgery was, "Where is Katya?"  She loves her sister!  The rest of the day yesterday went pretty well.  After I got back from picking Katya up from the Godfrey's I could tell Reagan's leg was starting to bother her.  We gave her first dose of Vicodin at 12 noon and then q 4 hours after that.  The Vicodin made her a bit loopy and at one point last night I had a panic moment where I thought they may have prescribed her too large a dose.  I am not use to giving her much volume of medicine and her prescribtion was for 7.2ml.  Basicly her dose is the strength of half of an adult Vicodin pill.  That seems like so much!  I am so grateful to have an awesome Peds nurse next door who I feel comfortable bugging with questions:-)  I chatted with Jen on IM and she reasured me that the dose was fine.  It was great because this was at 9pm at night and I then did not have to worry about continuing the q 4hr dose through the night. 

Blue popsicle face.  Reagan was pretty sleepy all day and loved snuggling with a parent on the couch.

Reagan's leg and foot was pretty darn swollen and there was a lot of bloody drainage on the bandage. 
It is all to be expected but it sure looks nasty.  Poor baby!  We are keeping loose, comfy pants on her and as long as she doesn't see it, she is leaving the bandage alone.  We get to take the bandage off tomorrow afternoon.

Reagan was falling asleep on the couch with me about 5pm. Soon after I put her to bed and she was out like a light. We had to wake her up at 8, 12, and 4am for medicine. The 8pm wake up went the best, though the medicine is gross and she does not like taking it. She went right back down easily. At 12 she did not want to go back in the pack and play (I had her sleep in Elsie's room) so I layed down with her and slept very fitfully for a few hours. I was so worried she was going to roll off the bed, I woke up with every little movement she made. At 3am I was able to get her back in the pack and play. Craig was on for the 4am dose and it was rough. She finally went down in the crib a little after 6 and she slept until 9am. So far she is doing fine this morning. She has not wanted to walk yet and we will be taking it easy again today.

Benign!!!!!!!!

Good news!  The pathology came back saying the tissue is benign!  We are SO relieved!  Dr. Hayden did not end up removing the tumor because it was unclear if the tumor was more a lymphangioma (lymph tissue) or hemangioma (very vascular).  He said they got some good blood squirts when the cut into it (he said, "Let's put it this way, we had to change our hats.").  He said that he is really good at removing lymphangioma's, which tend to be very easily defined from surrounding tissue, but that hemangioma's are trickier and notorious for growing back.  The plan is to look more into the tissue sample from the biopsy and decide from there.  It sounds pretty likely that we may end up leaving it alone for now.  Fine by me!

The morning went pretty well.  There was quite a bit of waiting pre-operatively and they didn't get started until almost 8am.  But then it went quick.  Jen Longcor (who is a peds nurse at Doernbecher's) came down from her floor and sat with me for a while.  It was so nice of her and a really good distraction from the waiting.  Craig ran Katya out to the Godfrey's which took about an hour and only a few minutes after he got back the surgeons came out.  They filled us in on the good news and we only had to wait about 5-10 more minutes before we were called back to join Reagan in the recovery room.  She woke up much better than with her MRI.  She was very groggy and sleepy of course.  She slept in our arms a lot after they got a last set of vital signs and locked her IV.  She had bites of Popsicle in between dosing.  They had us go back to the pre-op area and wait for discharge papers.  We got her prescription filled and were home before 11.  They did a local anesthetic at the incision site and of course she had pain meds during surgery.  We will be giving her Tylenol with codeine every 4hrs around the clock for the next 24hrs to keep her comfortable.  It sounds like the recovery won't be too bad.  Her leg and foot are a bit swollen, as you can imagine it would be.  We have a follow up with Dr. Hayden next week.

Thanks so much for all the prayers!  It has been a stressful few weeks and we are so incredibly thankful.  We know that not every parent is fortunate enough to have healthy children.  Love, Brenda 

Surgery tomorrow

The physician we saw today is preforming the biopsy on Reagan's leg tomorrow morning, which is pretty much what I expected.  He said that there is a list of possibilites as to what it could be.  He will be cutting into the tumor, removing a peice to send to pathology, and then waiting in the OR for the pathologists response.  He said he will hear one of three things from the pathologist: 1. it is benign, 2. it is malignant, or 3. they are unsure and need to do further tests on the tissue.  Best case scenario, pathology says it is benign, and then Dr. Hayden will go ahead and extend the incision and removing the tumor (preventing the need for a second surgical procedure).  If it is either malignant or unknown, he will sew her up and do nothing further at that time.  He said that since it is a preliminary look at the issue, he wouldn't remove malignant tumor until all options are looked at and discussed.  This is kind of a bummer because it would mean a second surgery.  But he is the expert.  I asked him if he sees many kids and he said that he sees 90% of the tumors in kids in the state. 

We are the first surgery of the day, checking in at 6:15am.  After Reagan gets off to surgery Craig is going to drive Katya to the Godfrey's.  She is very excited to spend the day over there and it will be so nice for us not to have to entertain her at the hospital for hours and hours.  Reagan will be coming home tomorrow.  We had an appointment with a recovery room nurse at Doernbecher's who went over what to expect.  Needless to say, I am scared out of my mind.  It is going to be a long day tomorrow.  Send lots of prayers our way!

Check up: 32 weeks, 5 days

Midwife appointment went fine yesterday.  I have gained about 19.5lbs, my belly measured 31cm and Elsie's heart rate was in the 130s.  The midwife agreed with my guess that she is head down.  She is moving lots and has hiccups a ton (exercising her diaphragm!)  I am surprised how differently I am carrying this baby compared to K and R.  This baby belly is much more the 'basketball' belly, very compact and out there!  I carried Katya and Reagan wider.  I have been VERY bad about taking belly pictures...I think the last one was at 7wks!  I will try to take one soon.  Physically things are hard but mentally/emotionally I am feeling really good.  The next 7 weeks are going to fly by and it really feels like her birth is just around the corner.  Such a difference from how I felt a few months ago!  Thanks for all the prayers and support. 

Reagan's appointment today with the OHSU doc is at 1pm.  I will be posting an update sometime this evening so stay tuned. 

Reagan's leg: next step

We still don't know anything.  We have an appointment scheduled for next Tues afternoon with a Dr Hayden at OHSU.  He describes his specialty on a web-site as: "I evaluate and treat a wide variety of bone and soft tissue (muscle, tendon, fat and ligament) conditions, including benign and cancerous tumors in the arms, legs, pelvis and spine."  He has received the MRI and has looked at it, according to the gal who called me.  I expressed my frustration in having to wait a week to hear what he thinks, and asked why he can't tell me something over the phone.  She just said, "Well that is not how we received the referral from Dr Achterman.  Dr Hayden wants to evaluate her in person and get all the information."  Sigh.  She also said that they may be scheduling a biopsy for the next day at Doernbecher's  Hospital (the children's hospital associated with OHSU).  So the wating and worrying continues.

Thanks for a great birthday!

I had a nice day on Sunday.  Craig spoiled me thoroughly; flowers, chai latte, eggs Benedict, cooked dinner and made flourless chocolate torte for dessert.  He also did laundry and took the lead on the kids.  Poor guy did not have a very restful weekend!  Thanks for the wonderful cards and gifts!

No news yet on Reagan's leg.  Her Pediatrician called yesterday to check in.  She had received the MRI results and was wondering if we had our Ortho appointment yet.  I filled her in on what Dr. Achterman said and told her we are waiting on the Oncologist's opinion.  She again said that she really did not think it was cancer, that it would be so unsual for something malignant to be hanging out on her leg for so long.  Despite my own fears (which are unavoidable) I am feeling pretty positive about it too.  I think it is likely something called a lymphangioma which is benign.  From what I have read, removal is purely cosmetic unless it is in an area where it is impeding on major organs or airways.  I would definitely not put my 2yr old through surgery for cosmetic reasons.  I am hopeful that this is the case and we can wait to make a decision about surgery until she is older.  I may call and bug Dr. Achterman's office today if I don't hear anything since he is leaving for a conference tomorrow and will be out the rest of the week.  I will post updates as we get them. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all the moms have a great, relaxing day! 

Ortho appointment

We don't have much news to report.  The MRI revealed that the mass is lymphatic tissue.  The doc is sending the test results to an Orthopedic Oncologist to see what he thinks.  We may need a biopsy next, unless the Ortho Oncologist knows exactly what it is.  Once we know more about the mass they will recommend where it is something we leave alone and watch, or if it needs to surgically removed.  We are feeling very nervous but we still don't know what we are dealing with so we are trying not to worry too much.

MRI

The MRI went fine today. It was stressful and emotional of course, having my baby under anesthesia. She woke up very upset but is fine now and we are having a quiet afternoon/evening. Katya had a great time at the Godfrey's and it was such a blessing to not have to worry about her while Reagan and I were at the hospital. Hopefully we will have some news after the Othopedic appointment tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for the prayers.

Paige Kennedy

The day I got to meet my beautiful neice, I was also hoping to take some great pictures of her. Unfortunalty, the photo shoot did not turn out, though it was a good learning experiance for me. Paige is just a doll and I couldn't seem to capture her beauty on 'film.' Regardless, here are a few cute photos. Such a sweetie!