a journey with three

Here we go again.  Three for three.  Jaden, our middle child, started having some low blood sugars in the morning.  A few of them have left him on the floor.  With a more recent one, he passed out on me.

Now, I guess a doctor , or anyone who has been observant enough, would ask the question, Why now??  He is four years old.  Why is this just now coming  on?  The girls started their spells at age one.  

I guess my answer would be, different people react different ways to low blood sugar.  Jaden doesn't complain about anything.  He has had several ear aches that were a surprise at a well doctor visits. 

When we found out what Anna had, Jaden was two years old, and I was pregnant with Ava.  I begged doctors to test Jaden.  They saw no need in it.  So I thought we'd just wait it out to see.  After all, to our knowledge he wasn't showing any signs (which at the time , we thought , was just vomiting)

When Ava started showing her symptoms I knew there was a good chance this was something they were inheriting....I mean you can't tell me that two out of my three just randomly have this ...right???

Well that is what the doctors were telling me after Ava was diagnosed.  Still they were refusing to test Jaden.  It only took once for that child to pass out on me before I started fighting for him.

His last "well visit" at the doctors showed that he is anemic, and he has protein  in his urine.  It also showed his hemoglobin was low.  This told me that he was having more low blood sugar spells than I was aware of.  So I started to monitor his sugar in the mornings and found that his sugar for the most part would be in the mid 50's to 60's. 

Despite what you may believe by looking at this picture, he is not a happy kid most of the time.  He is very irritable every morning, and his energy level is very low.  When I told the doctor all of this she said, "my guess is that he just doesn't feel good"

 My heart broke.  I had spent so much time running the girls from doctor to doctor, getting blood work after blood work.  From this procedure to the next.....I totally neglected seeing all of his signs that he had and now he may just have the same thing as the girls. 

So I discussed all of this with the specialist and it turns out that she still isn't willing to test him.  Well, I decided right then and there that it was Jadens turn.  It was time for me to fight his fight.  I didn't much care what she wasn't willing to do.  I needed to find someone who was.

So through a series of doctor appointments and much discussion and many nights of prayer we have had all three kids referred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a second opinion.  It is there that they will decided how and what to test Jaden for.  They will then hopefully give me some more information on what the girls are dealing with.

There are just not a lot of doctors around that can help us with this.  I dont' know if this is where we are suppose to be.  I don't know what their future holds.  I don't know what this means for them, or for their future family's......But what I do know is that they deserve an answer to all of these questions and as their mom I intend to get that for them.

So here we go, on what seems to be a never ending journey,  but my God is standing at the end of it and I know if we keep our eyes on Him....we will see the light at the end of the tunnel soon enough.

Your prayers are greatly appriciated for our journey.

I think I'll move to Australia......

Today Jaden brought this book to me to read to him.  Now Jaden wasn't always a fan of being read to,  but in time, has grown to love it.  So whenever he brings me a book to read, I usually stop what I am doing to read it to him. Because I remember all to well the struggle it took to get him to even care about a book.

Today his choice couldn't have been more perfect.  Around here, I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

It was just one of those days when nothing goes right and you find yourself "chasing your tail", and throwing yourself the occasional "pitty party" and by the end of the day, you have gotten nothing accomplished.

  A "good day" in my book is when I am able to get up by 6 am and have a shower and my breakfast and sit in silence for about two hours before everyone else wakes up.  When the kids wake up I like to have their breakfast already made and waiting for them on the table.   I like it when my husband is out the door by at least 10 am so that we can get our day started.  I like the laundry caught up, I like toys picked up. And "barefoot floors" make me happy. You know the kind that have no dirt or sticky patches on them and they feel oh so clean on your bare feet.  I like furniture dusted and everything in it's place.  When all of this happens all at once, not only is it a blue moon ,but it is also where I find my "happy place."  You know that place that if your kid spilled her kool aid on the kitchen floor, you'd look at her, like the lady in the commercials, and grab a paper towel and say, "that's okay", with a great big smile,  all while wearing your best pearls to clean up the "little messes" around the house.  I don't know where these people who write the commercials live , but in my house there is no such thing as a "little mess"  With the messes that we have around here ,there is no paper towel in the world absorbent enough to clean it with. And the phrase "that's okay" usually is not the first thing that comes out of my mouth...the first thing that usually comes out of my mouth is "i don't really know why I bother to even clean this house"

Today was the day that all of the above did NOT even come close to happening. We had our home school group today and we all woke up late. So I started throwing cereal bars at the kids saying, "hurry up and eat we have to get ready and get out of here"  My husband decided to lock himself in the only bathroom we have at around 11 a.m.   Now we were all waiting on him to get ready for work so we could have our turn in the bathroom.   I get all of the kids ready only to look out to find that Jaden has spilled his apple juice and was now stirring it on the table with some of his toys.  Ava had to have three diaper changes and two wardrobe changes before we got out the door.  Laundry is piled up in the hallway.  Supper dishes from the night before were still waiting for me, because my logic the night before was, "I will wake up early and clean up the house before we go to home school group"  I threw together a lunch and loaded the kids in the car where Ava then proceeds to spill her water all over the car, and might I add she is laughing the whole time.  We get done with our home school group and head home to grab a quick supper and head to church.  We get home from church and the kids act like they haven't eaten in years so I start throwing snacks at them and turn my back for one minute and before I knew it, a crayon war had broken out in the living room.  I am not sure who won but at this point I could care less.   I  then decided to play  Amazing Grace on the piano for my husband,  I had been working on putting my own little "twist" to it.  When I was done and well pleased with the way it sounded he says ,"that was pretty....what song was that?"   Well that just sent me over the edge, so I say "nevermind,"  I go to the bedrooms and see that every piece of clothing they own is on the floor and the dog was laying on it..I start throwing more laundry in the hallway and finally put the kids to bed. 

Tonight, I have crayons all over the floor, toys stuck to apple juice on the table, laundry piled up in the hallway, books torn off the bookshelf, fruit loops on the floor, a bag of half eaten donuts tipped over on the counter and dishes everywhere, and apparently I must rethink my version of Amazing Grace.......I think I'll move to Australia.........