Friday, April 25, 2008

Surgery and Transformers


Well after much changing of the surgery time Jeremiah, Joseph and I headed to the surgical center at 5:30 am. They took us back and got us all settled and were preping for the surgery when the doctor came in to talk to us. He had been talking to his collegues and thought the best thing to do for Joseph at this time was to inject steroids inbetween the outer layers of the eye, the sclera and the conjunctiva. The steroids will, over a period of time, diffuse through the eye and reduce the inflamation. There is also the possibility that this may clear up the media in his eye. What is more likely is that Joseph will still have to have the vitrectomy (removal of the fluid in hes eye) on his left eye. However, reducing the inflamation will make the operation and the recovery easier. So we proceded with what the doctor suggested. We were in and out in 3 hours. Dr Cory said Joseph did really well. His right eye (the one operated on last Wednesday) is looking great. He said it has cleared up and he should be seeing really well out of it. We will be going in to have his eyes looked at again on Monday and we will procede from there. Dr Cory is guessing we will be having surgery on his left eye in about 2-3 weeks.
Now since Joseph has gone through so much Jeremiah desided that Joseph need a special treat. So he took him to Target and got him a Bumblebee transformer. Well when he got home Michael and William were upset that they didn't get transformers and complained endlessly about it. So after I got off of work we headed to Walmart to get a few things and Jeremiah decided to get all the boys transformers. And it wouldn't do that Isabelle didn't get anything so she came away with a My Little Pony. I just shooked my head at Jeremiah. He responded with a "I'm a sucker." Gotta love the softies of this world.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Here we go again

Yes I am talking about potty training. This is how it all started; about 3 weeks ago Isabelle decided to start taking off her diaper and sit on the toilet every time she peed in her diaper. Well I didn't think much of it other then that it is great that she doesn't like to be wet. Well a couple days after that she started peeing and pooing in the toilet. Not often enough for me to take away her diaper. But she started refusing to wear her diaper and I would often find her completely naked. So after a few days of letting her wear her brothers underwear (just to see how well she would do) we went and got her very own underwear. I was quickly reminded how much I hate potty training, though Isabelle is so much easier then all three of my boys were.
The negative is this.
1. She won't let me take her potty. If I do she refuses to go.
2. She is wetting her pants about 3 times a day and pooping in them about 1 time a day
3. She is so independent that she won't let me help her put on her underwear and quite often she starts crying because she put her underwear on wrong and she now has a major wedgy.
4. I have more laundry to do.
The positive is this.
1. All I have to do is leave the light to the bathroom on and most of the time she will take herself potty.
2. She stays dry during nap time. (I haven't been brave enough to try the night yet)
3. Even though I have more laudry to do I still am saving money. Since she is so tiny I have to do about 1 load of her wet clothes a week. And before when she was taking off her diaper every time she peed we were going through at least 6 diapers a day which added up to about 5 dollars a week and a load of laudry cost me about $1.75
Needless to say we are in potty training mode again.


Monday, April 21, 2008

Eye Update

Joseph is healing really well. We went and saw the eye specialist, Dr. Corey, today. He said Joseph's eye is clearing up great. They had blood work done and everything came out clear. Dr. Corey said there is a chance something might have been not have registered on the test so they will do further testing. The most likely cause of Joseph's uveitis is Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Testing has been done to rule it out, but Dr. Corey is going to bring in a pediatric rheumatic specialist to help with the diagnostic. The surgury for Joseph's left eye is scheduled for Friday, April 25. For those who have looked up info about the uveitis, Joseph has posterior uveitis, or panuveitis. Nothing we have looked up talked about surgury as a treatment. This scared me that we had jumped into something crazy. We spoke to the Dr. Corey today and he told us that normally they would treat it with eye drops but Joseph's case is so severe and unusual that if we didn't do the surgury that he would never learn to use his eyes properly and likely develop a lazy eye. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has guided us to get help when we did. For those who would like to read more about it here are two links that I liked. We will be posting more as we get more info. Please keep our little Joseph in your prays. Thanks for all the love and concern.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Eye see?

We had a roller coaster of a day today. I will start with telling you what happened last Saturday. Joseph's eyes had been bothering him so we took him to the eye doctor to see what was wrong. After having him look at pictures and decided they needed to take a better look they decided to dialate his eye. He was so squirmy that they rescheduled for Wednesday (today) to have him be put under anesthesia and check out his eyes better. So this morning at 6:45 Joseph and I headed to the hospital. By 7:30 they had taken him back and I was left waiting for about an hour the whole time thinking that we were going to have to start investing in glasses. Well the doctor came back to talk to me and informed me Joseph had cataracts. WOW! What a shock for me. I had to tell myself not to cry. He then went on to tell me he had more problems with his eyes and was not quite sure what it was and we would have to take him to a specialist up in Salt Lake. He left me to go and see if we would be able to go up today. They soon brought Joseph back into the room and we started getting some liquids in him since he had been fasting. Within a half and hour the nurse came back in to tell me the doctor doesn't want Joseph to have anything to drink or eat and he was coming to talk to me more. So at this time I was thinking 'are they going to do cataract surgery right now?' Well they sent in another specialist to inform me about what else was wrong with his eye. They believed he has uveitis and they need to go into both of his eyes and take out his vitreous and put some other form of liquid and steriods into his eye and with hopes that this would help clear up the cataract. Since both eyes need the procedure done they said they would do the right eye today and wait until next week to do the left eye. Well Jeremiah got Micah(his brother) to come watch the other kids and hurried down to the hospital. By 12:30 they were rolling Joseph back out of the room to go and have surgery. One of the sweet nurses gave us some meal tickets so we could go get lunch while we waited. Well the doctor finally came back in around 2:30. The procedure went really well and the really great news was he did not have cataracts. What they believed to be the cataract was just caused by the uveitis. He informed us there was plaque on his lens, that they got most of it off, and that the steroids should help the rest to come off. Joseph was brought back into the room around 3:30 and he slowly woke up. We finally got to head home around 5:45 (11 hours after arriving). He is doing really well and is acting pretty normal. He has a big patch over his eye that we are trying to keep on until tomorrow morning when we go in for a check up.
Please keep him in your prayers. He is such a brave boy who we love very much. He was such a trooper and all the nurses told us what a good boy he was and how cute. We will keep you updated with next weeks surgery.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Westward Trek

Well it seems that the Muldowneys are all succumbing the siren call westward. Most recently Ryan Muldowney acquired employment teaching Art at Sheridan College of Wyoming fame. After they move this summer one quarter of Charlie and Judy's children will be west of the Mississippi. Happy trails Ryan and Ann.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Happy Birthday William

William is now 6 years old. He is such a big boy.

We love our William

Likes: Soccor, baseball, Joseph, Michael, Isabelle, School, Reading, riding his bike, Playing make believe, wrestling with daddy, cuddling with mommy, reinacting stories, making new friends, Going on walk, being a big boy helper.