October = Pumpkin Patch Time!

Happy fall! Since (mostly) recovering from our nasty bouts of sickness, we've tried to get out when we have a chance and do some fun stuff :]

One of the most fun things we did a couple of weekends ago was visiting a pumpkin patch up in Farmington. Entry was free (fantastic for young families like us with short attention spans lol), and you even got to push your own wheelbarrow around to haul around pumpkins. That really turned into hauling a toddler around in the wheelbarrow, but hey, he enjoyed it so it was well worth it. The pumpkins were only 29 cents a pound, which wasn't much more than the stores at the time, so we escaped with five smaller pumpkins for under 10 dollars. Big win in my book. We were only going to get four pumpkins (one per person), but Jayson got really attached to a little baby pumpkin he saw on the way out, and didn't want to let it go. Since it was little and cheap, we went with it. But enough talk, here are some of the pictures I took:

The boys enjoying the nice weather at the pumpkin patch--5 pm was a good time to go on the weekend!

Jayson also enjoyed pushing around the wheelbarrow, as opposed to just sitting in it. It was practically as big as him though, so it didn't last for very long.

Three of our five pumpkins. I believe Jayson was excitedly pointing at a giant pumpkin in this picture.

Jayson and Max posing for a picture. I don't think Max has quite figured out how to smile on command haha.

Jayson and I being a farmer; just proof that I actually tagged along on this expedition!

 I'm not sure what type of strange gourd this was, but Max seems just as confused as Sam was to its name.....

Max didn't help us pick out any of our final five pumpkins (he's just not strong enough to pick them up yet) but he did enjoy getting to explore the mini-pumpkins since he could hold them all by himself. Ultimately, he preferred to chuck them on the ground, but hey, he at least had a chance.

We've also visited the zoo several times, but I will have to post those pictures once I figure out how to get them off of my new phone and onto the computer. We are going to attempt to take some family pictures this weekend as well, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have some of those to show off as well :]

P.S. On October 3rd, I had my blood drawn to be sent out for CSID genetic testing. We are eagerly awaiting the results to come back (but will probably have to be patient for at least another week) and I will most definitely post about that when I know!

Looking Back: Sickness Follows Us EVERYWHERE!

Getting hopelessly behind here.....so we are going to slam 1.5 months into one post...........sounds good right? Really though, the only exciting things I can think of that have happened to us since then are primarily sicknesses. So enjoy the read, and be glad you weren't us!

Mid-End August
The boys had seriously only logged a couple of days in daycare before we got our first nasty bug. On Wednesday when Sam picked up Max, they said he had thrown up a little earlier in the day. I figured that they were talking about a large amount of spit-up since no one at the daycare seemed to be concerned enough to call us when it happened. Later that evening, as I was holding Max and bouncing him on the counter, he had the biggest baddest nastiest throw up ever. I felt awful for him (and almost as bad for me, because I was totally covered in butternut squash/soy formula throw up). But it only seemed to be a one time thing, and he was his happy self the next day, so we sent him off to daycare. We were being so naive. Not only did he throw up a few more times that day, he started having awful diarrhea...like even worse than uncontrolled CSID diarrhea. It wasn't contained by any diaper ever invented, and smelled like rotten eggs gone all wrong. Max was still drinking his bottles, but I'm pretty sure everything was running through him from one end or the other. It was terrible.

On Saturday (something like three days later) Max was still pretty sick. My sister, who hadn't seen him in days, happened to drop by, and mentioned that it looked like he had lost some weight. At this point, Sam and I figured we would just all go in as a family to Primary Children's and get Max checked out. No sooner had we decided this than Jayson totally barfed up his breakfast. Now we were two for two. So I took Max up to Primary Children's all by myself--that kid wore me out! For a sick baby, he was sure interested in being mobile....it made for a long five hour experience in a small ER room. To make a very long experience short, they ended up admitting him to the recovery unit for the night. He had to get an IV because he needed to get/keep in some fluids so his little body could heal. It was so sad to see my little baby with a needle in his hand, but I knew it was necessary. The worst part of the whole experience was that he couldn't eat through the night because they wanted his gut to get a break. And I just can't swaddle him the way Sam does, so he lacked that comfort too. It made for a long night with not enough sleep. I was very excited when they let him start eating that next morning, and especially when they decided we could go home around 11:30. He had stopped throwing up, and the diarrhea had lessened. What I didn't know was that the diarrhea was quite lingering, and wouldn't go away for several more days. But one day, about a week after the illness, he was just magically all better. That was seriously a fantastic day.

I thought after Max's ER experience that we were over the worst of it. Unfortunately, Jayson took a turn for the worse on Monday evening, and I ended up dragging him into the ER around 10 pm after I got off work. (Poor Sam, this was all on his birthday!) By this point I was feeling like a pro with this stomach virus, and the doctor recognized me from a few days ago, so we both agreed to just go the IV route. I was SO proud of Jayson--he didn't even flinch or cry when they put in the needle (they even had to move it around a bit to get in the vein). When the labs came back, they showed he was quite dehydrated like Max was, so we stayed in the recovery unit overnight. The actual night wasn't so bad, because once we got into our room, he slept through it. But right at 7 am sharp, he was awake, and so ready to be off the IV. We did several wagon ride trips and played with big boy legos to distract him, until the doctor came around and said he'd probably be good to go home. His sickness was about a day shorter than Max's in duration, but it still seriously felt like forever.

The ER doctor theorized that the boys picked up a mutation of rotavirus that had been going around, and I'm sure it was from daycare. All I have to say is thank goodness for immunizations to the common strain of rotavirus, because it would totally stink to have that around all the time! Sam got a little bit sick from this weird illness in the long run, but it totally passed me over. This may very well be the only occasion I can ever remember in which my family got sick and I didn't!!

Early-Mid September
I'd say we had a week of general healthiness before Sam got a terrible cold. Sam doesn't usually get sick, so this is saying something. It was so bad that he lost his voice for about four days. Probably because he had such a hideous cough! Max totally picked up on the hideous cough thing too. Especially at night. Oh man, it was a drag every time Max coughed so hard that he puked all over his pajamas and crib sheets. It was sad for him, and way not fun for us to clean up (particularly when Jayson tried to help out with the cleaning). I was sick with all the fun colored mucus stuff (and still am), but no terrible cough, to which I have been incredibly grateful. Jayson seems to only have a slightly runny nose, which is great all things considered. As I learned with our last illness, two kids really sick at the same time is CRAZY, so it was nice to only have one down for the count this time. May you all avoid this cold, because it is the longest lasting thing I have ever seen. Almost one month out we still haven't entirely kicked it.

Mid-End September
My sister's moving date to Idaho was Saturday, September 20th. My main job in this was to watch the 7 kids the Friday night before, so the boys could move the Penske up that night and Autumn could clean the old house. Plus, I had make the five hour drive up there the next day to fetch my husband and check out their new house/town. This was a daunting task after 10 hours of work anyway, but then sickness made it way worse. My eyes had been burning all day (Friday) at work, and I thought it was just because I was really sleepy. Oh no. My right eye just kept hurting more and more as the day wore on. I went to bed around 11 pm and woke up with Max about 1:30 am. In that short 2 and a half hour time window, my eye made so much goop that it had sealed itself shut. Pinkeye had struck. I'd seriously never had pinkeye in my life before, so the timing was hideous! I had to drag myself down to St. Mark's ER at 2 in the morning so I could get a prescription for eye drops. Then I had to drive to a 24 hour Walgreens pharmacy at 3:30 in the morning to obtain said eye drops. 70 dollars later, I had what I needed.

I crawled back into bed around 4:30 with my cranky toddler (I still don't know why in the heck he thought it was time to wake up when I got home) and crashed until 7 am. Then I got two kids and myself ready, threw together our bags in a frantic hurry, and hit the road by 8:45. You can call me wonder woman now LOL :] Thank goodness my eye remained open enough (and not in terrible pain) so that I could safely make the drive. But man, I hope I never get pinkeye again, it was a nasty experience!

And just when I thought we couldn't get any sicker, we found a weird rash all over Jayson's bum, legs, feet, and hands on Sunday afternoon. It was really the last thing I wanted to see. I'm thinking hand/foot/mouth disease. Hoping he doesn't spread it to all his friends at daycare. At least it isn't bothering him all that much.......

Just for fun, since the post was so full of depressing stuff, here's a super funny picture of my kids being bad children/playing in the kitchen stuff--seriously, Jayson knows way better, and is already trying to teach Max how to misbehave!

Illness Update: Sam's cold is almost gone, hurray! Max is still trying to kick the nasty cough, but it hasn't made him throw up in like a week. Now we are just dealing with two teeth trying to come in lol. My pinkeye is getting better, and my cold hasn't gotten worse. Jayson's rash hasn't gotten worse since we discovered it, and his nose isn't any runnier either. Here's to hoping October is healthier for us!!!

Looking Back: Three Is Our Lucky Number

Okay.....so maybe you guys should get used to only expecting one post or so a month, because that's all I ever seem to be able to muster up. However, now that I've figured out how to download Firefox on my computer here are work, maybe I will actually be more successful about writing a little more often. (Previously the only internet browser I had access to was an old version of Internet Explorer....gag. It was so old/outdated that starting one day a few months ago, it wouldn't let me write text in the screen for a post. So needless to say I didn't write blog posts at work anymore after that. Tried downloading Firefox then, but for whatever reason it wouldn't run. But problem solved now!)

Anyway, since I'm about a month behind in posting about the good stuff, I want to back up to then--when both Sam and I had our endoscopy procedures done to be tested for CSID. Mine was on August 7th, and Sam's was on August 14th. I was dreadfully nervous for weeks about the whole thing, whereas Sam had no fear and showed up the day of his procedure cheerful as could be. Turns out he had the right attitude about the whole thing, because it really was painless.....but don't tell him I said that because then he will think he's always right ;p

When I had my procedure done, everything was textbook. I showed up at 8 am for a 9am procedure, got asked a million questions, was hooked up to an IV, and had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the doctor who was running late. I was probably shaking like a leaf (which I'm sure they are used to) right up until they injected me with the sleeping drugs in the procedure room. I remember looking at the time on the clock right before I conked out (9:30) and thinking that I was really sleepy and wanted to take a nap. The next thing I knew I opened my eyes and looked at the clock.; this time it said 9:52. I asked them if they could arrange a longer nap for me next time because I still felt tired! Then it was the half hour observation after, complete with apple juice to drink. Best half hour ever for me, because I got to eat again and wasn't so dreadfully nervous anymore. The doctor said everything looked good and that they would let me know when my results were in.

I was expecting the turn around time to be a couple of weeks, because that was how long we typically waited for the boys' enzyme results to come back. However, since I work in a lab, and knew my results went through a sendout lab in downtown Salt Lake that we have access to at our hospital, I went and requested my records a few days after, just to see if the numbers were in. If you were wondering, the reason I couldn't just look them up myself is this really annoying policy about not being able to pull any medical result unless it pertains to a current case you are working up. Pretty sure that's the policy for anyone working in healthcare, but man it sure is a temptation! Anyway, after requesting my results, I was pretty sure they would tell me they weren't ready yet, but I got lucky and they were already done!

I remember waiting just a split second to flip over the page and look at the results. I knew there were three distinct possibilities: my levels would be totally normal and indicate that I only carried CSID, my levels would be lowered and it would be difficult to tell if I just carried or had CSID, or my levels would be as bad as the boys' and I would show definite signs of having CSID. As crazy as it sounds, I honestly wanted to see some concrete answers; I wanted my enzyme levels to prove that I had CSID! It would provide answers of my symptoms since childhood, and it would show just why the boys were so sick. It would even give me a solid reason to be done with children (but man is that a whole 'nother bag of worms to open up at another time and place). I did finally flip over the page to read this:
~Lactase: 15.3 (normal 15 or greater)
~Maltase: 79.9 (normal 100 or greater)
~Palatinase: 4.6 (normal 5 or greater)
~Sucrase: 13.2 (normal 25 or greater)

I wasn't exactly sure how to feel about those numbers--they pointed to a mild to moderate deficiency, which explained some of my symptoms, but they didn't give me the big answer I was going for: one gene for CSID or two?? When I asked the doctor that question the following week at Sam's endoscopy, all he could really tell me is that I would be a good candidate for diet change and enzyme therapy if I was going to eat a lot of sugar. Wasn't exactly a helpful answer, but it has tempted me to give Sucraid a go when I load up a big bowl of ice cream. Not so sure I can just cut out my beloved starch though :/

Anyway, one week later, we returned for Sam to have his endoscopy. My favorite part of the whole experience was hearing him promise the whole endoscopy staff cookies as he was coming out of the sleeping drugs. Good thing they only have like 10 people back there LOL. The only really interesting thing of note about his procedure was that he has a condition called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Basically, Sam has an allergy to something he eats (probably has something to do with his seafood allergies in my opinion) but his is pretty mild. It can occasionally cause trouble with food feeling stuck as you swallow, which Sam complains about every now and then, so the doctor gave him some meds to take for it. Fairly easy, but I found it interesting because it seems to pop up more often that I've ever heard it before on CSID support group boards.

Anyway, the Saturday after Sam's procedure, I told him that he should come down to the hospital to visit me during my lunch and subsequently request his lab results. So he came down. You should know before I tell you how it went, that I have been convinced for quite a while that Sam actually has CSID and that I'm the carrier (at least). This is all symptom based, but it had kind of become ingrained in my mind. The first the Sam said when I saw him was "You aren't going to believe this". I figured he had numbers like the boys and was just in total shock. I looked at his result paper and went into total shock MYSELF.
~Lactase: 22 (normal 15 or greater)
~Maltase: 200 (normal 100 or greater)
~Palatinase: 11 (normal 5 or greater)
~Sucrose: 51 (normal 25 or greater)

My jaw seriously must have dropped to the ground. Sam has always been much more classically symptomatic than me, so I entirely expected his numbers to be really bad. Not really good. I remember finishing the rest of my work day in a haze, and really almost angry. I was actually convinced for a day or two that the testing reference lab majorly screwed something up. I wanted to those numbers to reflect the struggle that Sam has with foods, and they weren't! I know that some people are quite symptomatic carriers, but it just wasn't the answer I was looking for in my puzzle. At least over the past several weeks I've come to be a bit more at peace with it. They are simply numbers and a guideline. The real answer is in our genes.

At my request, our doctor has referred us to a genetic counselor, who we are going to visit with on Tuesday. I say at my request, because the doctor insisted we see a genetic counselor before getting the genetic blood testing ordered. I don't really understand why, but I will do it if that's what it takes. Maybe we will learn something in the process--I'm just hoping that we don't have to teach this genetic counselor about CSID, but I will go prepared in the event of that. Hopefully, in a month or so, we will finally know if our boys just both hit the unlucky genetic jackpot of each inheriting CSID, or if one/both of us parents gave our kids worse odds.

Btw, in reference to the title of this post, I realized while writing that in our family we have had three different endoscopy procedures in three different months! Aren't we just so much fun??

Quick Pic Post

There has been so much stuff going on lately that I should write a giant blog post all about it, and I'm really hoping that I do get around to doing that soon.....but as for now it's late Sunday night and I'm definitely far too sleepy for that! However, I was going through my pictures earlier this evening and just can't resist making a quick picture post of some recent favorites :]

 I love these pajama sets! It takes me back to when Seth was the bigger kid and Jayson was Max's size (you know, a year or so ago haha). It's getting to be so much fun now that my boys are the right sizes for matching clothes. And it's also so much fun now that they are interacting with each other a ton more! I honestly love to watch them "play", it's too adorable. So glad they have each other and haven't killed each other (yet anyway).

 From Saturday the 2nd until Wednesday the 7th we were fortunate enough to have the New Jersey part of Sam's family spend time with us. The boys loved having four extra grown ups in the house to play with! The last day everyone was here, we decided to go to Hogle Zoo. Jayson and Max had never been before, and as you can see by the picture above, Jayson thought all the animals were totally cool! Special thanks to Gram and Grandpa for getting Jayson the adorable ball cap, because mom and dad weren't smart enough to pack one for him on a sunny day.

 We also failed to pack a hat for Max. (At least I remembered sunscreen, right??) Since they didn't really sell hats in his size, Grandpa improvised and used his clean hanky. Max though it was pretty cool, and absolutely loved Grandpa carrying him around vs. sitting in the stroller.

Too bad the kids looked so miserable, because this is a really great picture of Sam and I with a nifty looking background (this was by the polar bear exhibit). This was pretty much the end of our trip (we really only saw half the zoo), and the boys were EXHAUSTED. But Gram and Grandpa saved the day by getting us a year pass to the zoo, so we can go back whenever we want!!!! I'm looking forward to lots of mini-trips in the next year :]

A group picture of the zoo-goers (minus me of course). Had to have the token picture of a crying, irate child at the zoo, thanks Jayson. Like I said, we were pretty exhausted!

Jayson's Second Birthday

Well, it's official: I have both a 2 year old AND a 6 month old. Man does time fly! Really does seem like yesterday that I still had several months to contemplate their upcoming birthday/half birthday. I think it's so fun that they pretty much share the same time of year for a birthday and half birthday (Jayson is July 26th and Max is January 27th...almost a perfect half year apart).

Jayson Is Two!

On Jayson's actual 2nd birthday (Friday the 26th) I had to work most of the day. I was kind of bummed, but had to laugh when I realized this was the third July 26th I had spent in a hospital (2011-having Jayson, 2012-internship, 2013-work). Guess it's kind of a tradition now. But Sam was able to spend the day with him, along with Max and Jayson's cousin Mayce who just turned 3 a few months ago. It was perfect company :] He also had the perfect breakfast, filching almost two-thirds of his special zucchini bread that we made the night before. Here's a picture of the damage (it used to be a full loaf)....

Anyway, once I got home I found a really really really big box in my living room. Turns out we got Jayson's birthday gift from Sam's family. Here's a video of Jayson LOVING it (and so do we)!

 

Yesterday (Saturday the 27th) we had a little get together with my family to celebrate Jayson's birthday...pretty sure we are always looking for a good excuse to have pizza and cake! We figured out how to make CSID friendly pizza crust that is to die for, so for the first time in six months he got to enjoy pizza and not just the toppings! His cake was not CSID friendly but he was okay eating his leftover zucchini bread. Speaking of the cake, I think Sam did a fantastic job making/decorating it:

Here's just a few more shots of Jayson enjoying his party. He was really excited for the concept of a party every time this week when I would tell him it was almost time for his party.....but I still wasn't so sure if he was going to get it or not once the big event finally arrived. As you can see, he was totally getting that he was the center of attention and loved it!

Opening his presents. This may have been his favorite part. He parked his bum in the "birthday chair" and squealed with delight at each card and gift. I was pleased that he already knows to show the appropriate thanks, and that he gets so excited over cash haha.