another day @ Cherry Hill

What fun having multiple appointments in one day all spread out...

Scott had a shuntogram to test how the shunt is working. He came back saying "I never want to do that again! They shaved the back of my head and stuck a 4 inch needle in it!"

They have to inject gamaradiation into the shunt and watch the flow. They were nice enough to numb the spot 1st, which felt like ice cold water being injected into his head. After that was the 4 inch needle with the gamaradiation. Followed up with the pain & heartache of laying in the fetal position. (wow it's really fun to write this together while chilling waiting for the next appointment). The only thing to the pass the time was watching a small computer screen on the other side of the room to see the super slow drain of the shunt... now is the fun of guessing what that means, will it be turned up or replaced... no bets please, you'll have the answer if you keep reading lol.

After that he was lucky enough to have his CT done early. YAY one procedure in this hospital he likes. It's fast and easy. Lay down on the board have a camera circle your head for a few minute, get up and your done. Nice and Easy! The lady was laughing when she took him back and we were joking about how much he likes to have a CT.

This appointment with Dr. Newell was a good one. They talked with us a bit, turned the shunt from a 1.5 flow to a 0.5 flow. We go back in about 6 weeks to check if the flow needs to be changed again. He does have to wear a fun athletic cap to keep pressure on the outside of his skull. It will force the fluid through the shunt and allow the skin to tighten. Mostly he needs to wear it when he's laying down.

Good & Humbling Day

Today was an interesting day. Scott was able to change the battery on the truck and get it running so he decided why not drive? When we were in the hospital I had been told that his license was revoked and Dr. Newell would have to have change that. At the beginning of August, I asked about it and found out that this is not true. He never actually had a seizure so he is fine to drive when he felt ready (I forgot to report that with all the other we learned that day).
He felt ready today, so off we went over to Walmart and off to Cascade.

The volunteering at the Y mixed with working out is helping build stamina for getting back to work, but it is a long road ahead of him to get back to working full-time.

On to the humbling part. While visiting at Cascade, we found out that another auto body painter in the Valley had a brain aneurysm recently. The little they know is that he is not doing well at all. It was shocking to stand there and hear that someone so close to Scott's situation and younger had something so similar!
It's so easy to get wrapped up in the pile of To-Do's. To let negative thoughts take over. But we always seem to get the wake up call when we need it that life could be Much Worse!

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting in the next few days, because we have a fun weekend coming: Saturday I have a fitness training. Sunday we are all participating in a walk for PKD (for more info go to www.pkdcure.org/betsyfarmer ) Then on Monday is follow up appointment for the VP shunt.

First day of School

Cora was excited to go to school. Coby not so much.

He did have fun posing for pictures before we left for school.

I just love Cora's style. She can wear anything & make it look cute! She decide that pink boots were the way to go this year.

Once we got to school, Coby went right out to find his friends and catch up on the summer happenings.

Coby's thoughts on the first week: It was OK.

Cora went to class to get settled in. Cora's thoughts on the 1st week were a little differant:

1st night while in bed she said, "I just don't think I should go back to school. There are 19 kids in my class and I can only handle 10 like I had in preschool."

The ride home from school on the 2nd day, "It was no fun! I really don't think we should have to go to school after preschool!" Coby said, "But Cora you have to go to college to get a job." Cora answers, "No I think that after preschool you should be done!"

Ride home on Friday the 3rd day of kindergarten, "I had so much fun today. We listened to books, had nap time, and free time. We even got to watch a movie."

WOW it only took 3 days of being in public school for her to realize Friday is the best day of the week!

Visit to The Museum of Flight in August

Coby & Cora loved that one of the 1st planes they saw looked just like Jetfire from Transformers 2 Revenge of the fallen.

They each got to sit in 2 different planes and learn what it takes to fly.

We got to go into the 1st jet Air Force One and the Concorde.

Coby's Baptism

On July 31, 2010 Coby was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-Day Saints. Scott was able to do the baptism with little problems.

It wasn't until the next day that I understood the comments of how exciting it was that Scott was able to baptize Coby. My thoughts kept going to, why wouldn't he? He's come so far in these last few weeks. On Sunday it hit me that he was very close to not being here at all only a few months before.

Coby wasn't going to let a broken arm stop him from anything. He had such a great attitude about having to deal with a cast.

Diane's Birthday Fun!

Cake For Breakfast! What a great start to a great Birthday!

I had a much better birthday this year than Scott and he reminded me of that a few times lol.

Kate was looking for a reason to have a party and with my birthday being on a Friday, she threw me a party. We had so much fun playing in the pool and eating super tasty food!

This is a picture of the cake Scott bought me. When I found out that Kate was making tasty treats and a cake for the party we decided that starting the party early at home was a great idea. When I had them take this picture I realized the camera was blinking low battery. I was so smart and charged it...which is where it stayed all night.

Picture this cake twice the size and that's what we had for the party:)

Scott took me to lunch at Denny's for a Free Birthday Grand Slam. I love Grand Slams! I've been thinking... maybe this year I'll find all the free things you can get for your birthday and next year have a day of free fun...

I finally got the summer pictures on the computer... one step closer to getting them posted!

I think the words insurance and social security are now on my naughty words list lol! I have spent hours, days, weeks, months dealing with them and I don't care to do it any more... But I will because I must.
Ok ok my rant is over... The kids are back to school tomorrow and Scott and I are going to work together. What Scott's going to work, well kind of... I have a project at the Y that I get paid for, he on the other hand just gets to volunteer :) We're both looking forward to having a project to do while the kids are at school this week. We'll deal with next week and what fun that brings next week.

I hope to get some fun pictures on here soon...