Cleaning Day

Monday is our cleaning day. What that means is that every Monday we do a "thorough" cleaning of the house. Katrina has become accustomed to this routine and most recently has wanted to help in more ways than simply pick up her toys, etc.

So, I figured I would teach her how to mop the floor. "Forward, back. Forward, back. That's right, Katrina. What a great helper you are."

With about 12 Mondays left between now and when the baby comes I think she might be ready to do "cleaning day" on her own for a few weeks after the baby is born!

Results

Wednesday we received a phone call from the doctor's office saying that the biopsy results came back negative. Everything looks good according to the lab. So, now we are back to working with these symptoms. We appreciate your prayers as we "press on." When the nurse called, Katrina had been doing GREAT with her bowel movements but yesterday and today she has not gone at all... This is one of the reasons we wanted to find something, you know? It is just stressful not really having an alternative form of treatment (besides milk and molasses enemas and good ol' Fleet). We will keep you posted. For now we are content with the course the Lord is calling us to.

How are you doing?

We are doing well in the "aftermath" of the surgical procedure. Katrina is back to eating normally and today she has had her first bowel movements after the colonoscopy (3).

We are now waiting for the biopsy results. We are hopeful for a few different things...

We hope that they find something so that we can treat the constipation issues with more than what we are doing now (daily laxatives). If they do find something, we hope it is more allergy-related than Herschsprungs because we feel at this time that we are readier to deal with allergy issues than surgery. (I know, certain allergies are not desirable...)

We hope they find nothing with the biopsies. If they find nothing, we will be given more information about dealing with her constipation issues. This is positive and negative. Positive in that we are done with procedures, etc. Negative because we will sort of be back to square one.

We know the Lord already knows what the outcome will be and He is preparing us for whatever it might be. His plan for our lives is PERFECT and we have experienced it over and over and over. We are thankful that He is with us no matter what the results will be.

It's Over

 

The procedure is over and we survived.

We should get the results sometime next week and we will keep you posted.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We KNEW people were praying for many reasons. Here are three...

At 7:30 this morning I heard the phone ringing and knew it was the hospital (ring tone). One of the surgeries had been cancelled and we were told to arrive at 10:30 instead of 11:30. One less hour of having to distract Katrina was such a blessing and answer to prayer.
 

Katrina normally sleeps 10 hours at night. Her normal bed time starts around 8:00 and she is typically sleeping at 8:30 or 8:45. She then wakes up at 7:00 the next morning. Even if she goes to bed later than 8:45 she still wakes up around 7:00. Last night we kept her awake until 10:15 to see if she would "sleep in" per the nurse's suggestion. This morning she woke up at 8:15. What a praise! We watched Sesame Street and headed to my brother and his wife's house to play with their little puggle, Ginger, and only had to distract her there for about an hour.
 

Yesterday, as you are probably aware, Katrina was restricted to a clear liquid diet. It went well until 5:00 and then she was begging me to make her a pancake. I have never been so tempted to make a pancake! She was hysterical and I began to sob because of all the built up emotion. Finally I distracted her enough to try some jell-o animal cut-outs and it passed. Her friend, Taylor, showed up with a gift and we were good to go. The rest of the evening went well and even this morning when she woke up she did not ask to eat. When we went to my brother's house she asked a few times for juice or yogurt or french fries but was satisfied when I said they didn't have any for her today. Thank God she was as easy to "starve" as she is!
 

We are certain that the Lord was being petitioned on our behalf and He is ALWAYS faithful to answer prayers. We are thankful He answered them in accordance with what we hoped this time.
 

Like I said, I will keep you posted. As for now, we are emotionally exhausted and will be laying low for the rest of the day/night.

 

Not So Good News

Unfortunately I have an update for Good News Good News

Katrina was doing so well with her bowel movements for a week and a half and then on Saturday she simply stopped going. She did not go on Sunday or Monday and this morning when she woke up she started out with the symptomatic signs of wanting to be changed EVERY time she urinated even a tiny bit.

So, I called the specialist's office and spoke with the nurse who talked with the doctor and immediately recommended that the procedure be rescheduled. Thankfully they still had an opening on Friday. Unfortunately our check-in time got pushed back until 11 AM.

Please pray for all of us! I will begin to make all kinds of clear liquid popsicles and finger jell-o today and that will be her diet on Thursday. After midnight on Thursday she cannot eat or drink anything and that will be a long haul for her to make it until we get to the clinic at 11. I am racking my brain for ideas of how to distract her both Thursday and Friday and I am very open to ideas...

I will keep you posted. The procedure is a colonoscopy where they will biopsy a portion of her colon to determine if she has Herschprung's disease. She will be under general anesthesia. Apparently it is a 45 minute procedure and then about 45 minutes in recovery. We should have results from the procedure within 3 business days so I expect sometime in the middle to later part of next week.

We appreciate your prayers on our behalf. We know God has His hand upon her and us, just like He does every single day.

I've been tagged

1...In 5th grade my head and waist circumference were the same (we were studying circumference in math class)

2...I have over 30 first cousins on just my mom's side of the family (she has 13 brothers and sisters)

3...I do not go to bed unless the ENTIRE house is in order (I even put all the
Christmas gifts away the same day so I don't have to wake up the next morning to a "mess")

4...I speak fluent Spanish

5...I knew my husband one year to the day we were married (we met on August 11, 2000 and were married August 11, 2001)

6...I am a "member" of a bi-racial marriage (my husband is from Venezuela)

7...In the past five months I have received at least one injection/day (I have to take a blood thinner injection every day with this pregnancy)

I don't have anyone to tag! If you read my blog and have your own and have not yet done this "7 random things" you are it!

 

Another Trip to the Apple Orchard

Yesterday we took another trip to the apple orchard. This time we went with my parents and my youngest brother and his girlfriend.

Katrina's style has not changed... She took a bite of the first apple she picked and then let us fill the bags with our pickings while she enjoyed her apple.

Walking down the lane after picking the apples.

This time we tried out the corn maze... Katrina wanted to navigate through the maze on her own so she constantly told us to go ahead and then when we were just out of sight she would start coming. It was not the safest feeling as a mom thinking about losing our little girl in a HUGE corn maze. Thankfully we could keep our eye on her through the rows of stalks.

We also tried out the playground this time. Last time we went we skipped the playground area because it was $3.00/child to enter. This time we all had wristbands (courtesy of my parents!) and could enjoy all the amenities of the apple orchard.

Ride 'em, cowgirl!

This scarecrow is not scary at all!

"Quit kidding around, Durán family."

I think this is where the term "pumpkin head" originated.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

I had to include this picture... Not sure what a good caption would be... Any suggestions?

 

 

Good News Good News

I have some good news to report...

Katrina does NOT have to have the biopsy on Friday, October 17th.

For the last five days at least her stools have been completely normal. In fact, she has gone two times in one day on many occasions. That is unheard of for our little Katrina. So, last evening Pancho met with our closest friend who is also our family physician for prayer and Bible study and shared these details about Katrina's progress with him. He encouraged us to call the specialist and tell him these changes.

I tried to not get my hopes up too high. After all, if the doctor believed this was the best course of action, we would want to go forward. But I must admit that I was really hoping and praying that he would decide that the biopsy was not necessary at this time and that we could cancel the procedure.

So, this morning at 8:00 EXACTLY I called the clinic and talked with the nurse explaining the changes and our family practitioner's advice. She spoke with the doctor and just called to say that he is overjoyed to hear that she is going normally and he would not go forward at this time with the biopsy. He does want to follow up with Katrina in 6 to 8 weeks to be sure she is still progressing. We were VERY happy with that news as well.

Thank you for praying for our little girl in this situation. We are so appreciative of the body of Christ coming together to lift her up before our Heavenly Father.

** If you wonder how things turned around so quickly and why she is going normally, join the club! She does take a laxative daily that she has been taking for about 2 years already and I always gave it to her in her milk. I was one of those moms that did not want her children drinking juice unless it was a special occasion. Well, recently Katrina has not wanted to take her milk with the medicine in it (it is not supposed to change the taste, but maybe it does). So, I buckled and started giving her the meds in 100% fruit juice. I kid you not that within 2 hours of finishing the juice she has a dirty diaper and needs to be changed. It might be just the thing to keep her regulated. I am willing to give her juice now!

Nothing New

Nothing new going on here. Although there is one thing that is on my mind quite a bit these days...

Some may remember that Katrina had a bowel obstruction a while back and we were seeing a specialist to see if something could be diagnosed. Well, after a barium enema and a post-procedure film and blood work (for Celiac, thyroid issues and blood count matters) it has been determined that she has none of the things she has been tested for.

Not only does that stink because she went through a slew of tests that showed nothing (although I know I am not supposed to look at it that way)it means that she has to have a biopsy done on October 17.

Apparently there is a portion of her colon that appears to have Hirschsprungs disease. What this is a part of the colon that does not have nerve fibers/cells and therefore the stool stops lowering in the colon and therefore becomes blocked. If this is what she has, it can be treated with laxatives or with surgery to remove that part of the colon. We have been told that it is quite common (although we have NEVER heard of it!) in children who experience bowel issues.
All of that said, I am blogging about this to ask for your prayers for our dear little Katrina. After the barium enema her stooling normalized and yet she screams whenever she gets a diaper change (even just a wet diaper) and assuring her that we are not going to do molasses or fleets (her least favorite words these days) she does not calm down until the diaper change is over. We know this is the next logical thing to either rule out or to have and we know it is the right thing to do to go forward with the biopsy but we are nervous. The very thought of her wheeling away into an operating room (she will be under general anesthesia) with a little gown and cap on is just more than we can imagine these days. Our other thought is, if this is not what is causing her problems then we are back to simply managing the symptoms of something we don't know about. That is really hard. She can get backed up again without any notice to us and we are all miserable when that happens, especially her.

We know God allowed this to happen and we are trusting that He will work it out according to His perfect plan. We have taken comfort in Paul's narrative in Corinthians asking the Lord to remove "the thorn from his flesh" and the Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for you." We are claiming that grace for our lives today too.

Homemade Caramel Apples Are Best

Last night Pancho, Katrina and I invited my brothers and their "ladies" over for pizza and caramel apples (I know, strange combination, but what can I say? We all like both food items!).

  

We heated up the caramel on the stove to make it feel as "old-fashioned" as possible and had lots of choices for dipping. A few people chose to remove the core of the apple because they did not like eating off all the caramel and then having to eat the apple without an topping. Hence the apple in this picture with a hole in the side!

 

This picture doesn't have a good caption. I just thought I would include it so you can all see me! I enjoy seeing my friends on their blogs and MOST of the time I never do because we are always the ones taking pictures! So, here you go... How do I look 22 weeks along?

 

Here is our finished product... Take a guess who has the apple without the caramel or any toppings?

If you guessed Katrina, you are right. I am sure that a few bites out of the apple gave it away. There are some sweets she stays away from. I guess caramel is one of them.

* Also, I ran out of sticks so Pancho and I used plastic forks. They worked well but just don't have the look I like! Oh well!