Another health update

Ok, we'll start with we got great news!
The high risk OB said my avidity test was 0.59, meaning I was probably exposed around 4 months ago, which means I can likely blame one of my children versus the hospital patient. There's no way of knowing if this was the primary infection or not unfortunately. However, he said being exposed that early, if Kate had been exposed, there would have likely been a miscarriage because of how the virus works, attacking dividing cells. The other most common things seen on sonogram when exposed that early are brain or organ calcifications or lack of head growth...neither of these showed on the sono!!! She is growing very well, and he says she's going to be tall! She is slightly bigger than average, so a great sign! He said there's no reason to see him again, do any other testing or anything like that, no amniocentesis either (he thinks it would carry more risk than what he believes we need to worry about). He said all we need to worry about is that she's going to grow up and want to date boys and drive!
Now for Matthew...despite a very long wait, we left feeling good about Matthew's pending surgery. Dr Gordon is 95-98% that all will go well & without a hitch! He'll have 3 scope holes, 1 with a drain that will stay in for a week or so to be more certain things are moving where they should, as well as a 2-3 inch incision. She doesn't need him to do any other scans, but he'll have a colonoscopy the morning of his surgery to make sure there aren't any surprises. She said she wants to do surgery on a Monday in hopes he'll be home by the weekend. The surgery is later than we though, July 21, but they had a hard time finding when Dr Gordon & Dr Lovett can coincide with an open spot in the OR... Lovett was the original Dr that cared for Matthew, so wants to "stay on the case"... Matthew won't be able to drive or work for 2 weeks from day of surgery & no soccer, lifting, etc for a total of 4 weeks...so he's happy it's not longer!
We want to thank you all for your thoughts, concern and prayers over the last few months and weeks. This has all been very unexpected and at times, very overwhelming, especially for a tired, emotional, hormonal, protective pregnant mother! The numbers are all in our favor, but my emotions just weren't seeing that at all, so thank you for helping me and being understanding. Continued prayers that Kate does truly miss any type of exposure will be greatly appreciated, as well as Matthew having a successful surgery and recovery without any complications!

Health Update

I was exposed to CMV (cytomegalovirus) 5-7-14 while seeing a patient at work. This virus is part of the herpes family, is relatively common and usually not a threat for normal healthy people. It is a threat for infants (Kate) and immunocompromised people. I wasn't aware I should have avoided this, it wasn't on my radar...I had blood work done the next day and waited a week for results that showed I had antibodies and there was an acute infection within the last year.

So they had to run another test (avidity) to see how recent the infection is which took 2 weeks (AKA forever)...the biggest threat is if this is the primary exposure and in the 1st trimester. We think I've been exposed previously because I already had the antibodies...however, the avidity test came back at intermediate levels...so we don't really what this means. To be honest, after the nurse told me it wasn't all clear, I pretty much stopped processing information. She said something about primary vs. reactivated and timing of exposure, but I don't remember. What happens next is I start going to a "High Risk OB" to do more testing and following of the course. The lady that coordinates that switch will hopefully call me Monday to get it set up and for peace and answers, I hope I get in soon.

The risk for Kate is hearing and vision loss, developmental delays, fetal growth issues, calcifications in different organs, mental retardation, seizures, and other things...there is no risk for me. Again, from what I understand, the worst scenario would be that this is a primary infection and/or I was/she was exposed in the early stages of development. I think they can see some things on a sonogram and can also tell in a certain window of time through an amniocentesis. The good news is the chance of Kate being truly infected are about 30-40% in a primary infection situation, and much less if it's just a reactivation...but any risk at all is more than this Mommy is ok with...and even then, the chances of her being affected are even lower, so the numbers are in our favor, unfortunately, my emotions and thoughts are having a hard time seeing that part...

So, onto Matthew. We had scheduled a follow up CT scan, but insurance was dragging their feet on approval, so we pushed the appointment back. In the meantime, Dr. Lovett (general surgeon that we've followed up with) found the GI doctor he wanted to coordinate the surgery with b/c he wanted a laparoscopic approach for a smaller incision and he isn't "the best" at that, so was kind enough to find someone who does. Matthew found out Friday that this has been coordinated and we are to meet with this Dr. - Dr. Lori Gordon - on Tuesday morning. Matthew texts me this at work, along with her address, which is in the hospital district. I'm on the GI surgery floor when I get this info and randomly ask a nurse walking by if they know Dr. Gordon (she's in the hospital district, probably works for Harris since Lovett does, and I'm here, so why not?!). She says, "Yes...she's right there." I turn around and Dr. Gordon says "I'm Dr. Gordon."...a little shocked, I say nothing while she finishes her conversation with another nurse and then she asks me what I need. I tell her I just found out she's going to do my husband's surgery...a patient of Dr. Lovett with perforated diverticulitis...she says, "Oh, you must be Mrs. Palmer."..."Yes! I am!" - amazed she would remember the name. She says, "Great, I'll see you next week!" There was a bit more, but you get the point! As soon as she leaves, the MA at the desk turns to me and tells me how great of a Dr she is and that all her patients really love her! What a wonderful God moment! The chances of me working on that floor are rather low randomly, and to be in the same place as the Dr right when I find out the info...well, it was more than coincidence!

So, that's where we are for now. Sorry for the novel, but I can't really get through the conversation without crying, but wanted to keep everyone up to date on our situation, so there you go!

Prayers are appreciated of course! And I'm sure I'll stop crying about it all of this at some point...

Countdown to summer

Well, it's been another busy month, with an odd feeling of limbo weighing over the parents (wondering when Matthew's surgery will be, when can we get our to do list started/finished, waiting for test results), but the kids are growing and playing full steam ahead as normal! And after ending last month with the boys being sick, Mommy and Daddy caught it the first week of May and while we weren't quite as puny as the boys, it certainly took it's toll on us. The boys were happy to get back to school with friends and back into some semblance of a routine again.

Drew had his last blastball game this month, and had an end of season party at CiCi's (that ended short for use because Drew worked his mind into thinking his tummy was sick...continues to be a weekly issue! He is so wired for worry...:( ). But we were able to make it to Chick Fil A a few weeks later for another team gathering for their medals, so that was fun.

Drew has been ramping up his climbing skills lately, scaling walls at playgrounds, climbing around the edges of our fort and other places that really aren't meant for climbing or playing, but fun to see him expand in that area of physical play and not be too timid.

Both boys are enjoying and playing more with letters/sounds and numbers/counting. So that's been a fun learning opportunity with both of them. Drew is getting pretty good at putting some sounds together into words, but at times just guesses or tries to memorize rather than actually learn. We are planning to go through a "teach your kid to read in 100 days" book this summer to help with that! Noah is recognizing more and more letters and we are matching some sounds. Noah is getting better at counting, both just for the sake of counting, but also pointing and counting the correct number of items...his favorite number is still 5, but he can make it all the way to 20 now! :)

The boys' preschool hosted Muffins with Mom for the first time this year and I was happy it worked out with my work schedule that I was able to go and be late for work. It was fun to see the boys, have some snacks, and catch up with some of the other Moms. It was very well attended, so crowded and noisy - perfect! Noah ate a ton and surprisingly, Drew was the one that had a hard time saying goodbye when it was time for me to go. But a fun morning for sure.

It has been a busy month of us trying to get as many things accomplished as we can without over straining either one of us and we've been pretty to-do list driven, making for short/busy evenings. But thankfully there have been a few evenings where we have slowed down to really enjoy our time with the boys, and there's nothing better than hearing their squeals and laughs of pure joy and thrills. Whether it be Tickle Monster, playing in the tanning ledge/swimming pool, running around in the front yard, playing in the sprinklers (or sprinkles, as Noah calls it) - it is still one of THE best sounds in this world!

Two of the Saturdays this month were dedicated to some time consuming tasks...a huge yard sale and planting flowers in the 4 large flowerbeds around the pool. The yard sale was a huge success thanks much to the help of several Palmer family members, especially Joyce and Dennis that stayed most of the day. We had people from 7a-4p! It was crazy! We sold a ton, very happy with our return, but promised to never do it again! :) The following weekend we worked in the yard almost all day as well. I bring this up because it was by God's mercy that the boys played so well together with so little supervision or parental interaction 2 weekends in a row! They did quite well together once they got in a groove. For the yard sale, they stayed inside most of the day, but the following weekend they were outside almost the whole time playing on the patio on the OTHER side of the pool fence.

We had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day this year. It was very quiet and calm, which is just what we needed. We were able to go out to dinner with Grandma Saturday evening, leaving Sunday to be just the 4 of us. The boys were especially sweet to Mommy and super excited to share their gifts with me. We spent the afternoon outside with Mommy getting in the pool for the first time - it was still a little chilly, but fun, and then dinner outside. Nothing extravagant, just simple and quality time as a family. I am truly blessed!

The boys have discovered the joys of wrestling even more this month...it is a very common occurrence now and reaching a new level of intensity, and therefore fun! :) Noah is actually the one who starts/asks for it more than half the time and the boys just love it - rolling around, punching each other, grabbing necks - all good healthy boy play! It's funny how different it is when they are play wrestling how they really are just having fun and both seem to realize to not do anything to really hurt the other vs. how they act when they are mad at each other and do really want to hurt the other one...I guess it's a good thing they can tell the difference already! Anyway, we expect to see much more of this for years to come, but it cracks us up to watch them - very amusing!

Some fun things we've done this month include another trip to the zoo, our first snow cones of the season, more water gun fun, playing with water table, playing at the park (where they discovered and played with sticks more than anything!), lots of dinners outside, Nighttime Ninja, and buying toys with their own piggy bank money. But our big event of the month was a family day at Six Flags! It was Noah's first time, and Drew's third! Mommy couldn't ride anything but the train around the park and the Yosemite Sam river adventure (which both of those said to not ride if pregnant, but driving is bumpier than those rides! sheesh!) but they boys had a great time and Noah keeps asking when we are going back! Drew shied away from the bigger rides this time, but that worked in our favor since Mommy couldn't ride anything with Noah...so we had a great time! It was a long day for all of us, at the park from 10-4:30, but great weather and not that crowded, so it was a blast!

We are thinking/hoping Noah is going through/about to go through a growth spurt because he went about 2 or 3 weeks of seemingly eating everything in sight...just couldn't fill his belly enough! He is also more obsessed with cars lately, always wanting to have some specific ones around - usually more 'bad guys' than 'good guys'...hmm!

A funny thing Noah said this month...we had the garage sale stuff in the garage for about 5 days prior as we were trying to get ready and they found all the toys we were going to try and sell - one of which was a huge Hot Wheels set that we'd never actually played with, but was a hand me down and had more pieces than either of us wanted to deal with, but Noah bee-lined for every time we went through the garage. He came out several times that day and asked where it was...thankfully it sold by the end of the day and I was able to honestly tell him it was gone! When it was all over he asked "where our party go?!" and when I said it was all gone you were very sad that all the toys were gone as well...but thankfully relatively easily re-directed by one of hundreds of toys we had inside! :)