Andrew update

So we went down to Gainesville last Friday (March 12) and met with the nuerosurgeon, Dr. Pincus. He told us that a child can have a cyst the size of Andrew's and never have it treated - shocking to me! However, because Andrew's cyst is pushing into the center of his brain and causing mild hydrocephalus, his does need to be treated. So, the plan is (most likely) to go into his head through 2 small holes - one on top of his head and one behind his ear (they'll know for sure after the MRI) and cut windows into the cyst. This will allow the CSF to drain out and hopefully the brain will do its part at this point and absorb the fluid normally. Assuming this happens, he should be in the clear. If not, a shunt could potentially be placed in his brain. He will stay in the ICU for one night after surgery then be moved to a regular room for a minimum of 1 night. The good news for now is that his head has been growing large enough to be able to keep up with the swelling cyst and ventricles in his brain - the doctor doesn't suspect any damage done up to this point. When we met with him, he told us that he believes that as long as we have the surgery within a month, all should be well - that Andrew is not in any immediate danger. He also mentioned that "Andrew will never have a pretty MRI, but that's okay" - that his brain will never fill back in fully the place where the cyst is now. I don't know why that surprised me, but for some reason, I thought his brain would just fill back in. Aparently there is enough extra space in the brain to have a cyst - who knew?

So, we are scheduled to have an MRI at Shands on March 30, then we'll meet with the doctor again to get the detailed plan for surgery, then we'll have surgery on April 1. It still sounds scary, but we just feel so blessed that things seem to be okay. For now it's just your routine brain surgery! We continue to pray that all will go as planned and that Andrew won't have any complications during the surgery. We are so grateful to those who have expressed well wishes and have kept him in their prayers. Thanks so much for the love and concern. We'll update after surgery!

Andrew's Head Woes

As word gets around, we feel like we should let everyone know what is going on with our family. During a normal well-child visit on March 3rd for our son Andrew (15 months old), the nurse practitioner noticed that Andrew’s head measurement was a bit big for his age (above the 98th percentile) and that he was a bit slow in walking / talking. She was a bit concerned that he had a condition called hydrocephalus (an abnormal accumulation of liquid in the brain) and recommended that he get an ultrasound to evaluate this possibility. He had that ultrasound on Friday, March 5th, but the tightlipped technician did not let any information come out about the results.

On Monday morning, March 8th, we received the results of the exam: Andrew had hydrocephalus and would need treatment (brain surgery, always a scary phrase) very quickly to alleviate the pressure on his brain. Our pediatrician’s office scheduled us for a CT scan that same afternoon to confirm the diagnosis and help get Andrew ready for treatment. We took Andrew in and let him cry through the CT scan and waited for the results.

The results came in later that afternoon. Andrew did not have hydrocephalus, but instead the focus shifted to a large arachnoid cyst in his head. It is about 5cm x 5.6cm and causing some shifting to go on in the brain (as well as some other stuff). The recommended treatment (according to the local pediatrician) for his cyst is some form of head surgery in which a shunt is inserted that drains the excess liquid from his head. Another possibility is a more invasive procedure in which the doctor enters the head and cuts open the cyst (allowing the liquid to drain out), leaving behind no shunt to drain future liquid.

Further evaluation and treatment are not possible here in Tallahassee, so we have just been referred down to Shands in Gainesville. Andrew is scheduled to be seen by a pediatric neurosurgeon on Friday, after which we will (hopefully) have a treatment plan moving forward.

Half #2

I'm not a great runner, but I'm a bit addicted. Not addicted enough to try for a whole marathon, but I'm really enjoying training and running halfs! My friend, Jennie, and I trained in Tallahassee, while my sister trained in SC. We all planned to run the Tybee Island half marathon this past Saturday. My dad decided to run at the last minute. We all met at a hotel in Savannah Friday night.

Us in the hotel lobby before leaving for the race.

It was a really nice run - totally flat and you could see the ocean during many parts of the race. I loved running through the campgounds, down the totally touristy roads and past the lighthouse. A really fun run that I would totally do again! It was really nice that I shaved over 10 minutes off of my last half marathon time...thanks to the flat course!

Me finishing the race - kind of goofy 'cause I'm waving to the kids as I'm coming down the last stretch.

Me coming across the finish line - official time: 2:08:36. It was a 9:49 pace...I was would have been happy with anything under 10 minutes, so I'll take it.

All of us right after the race - it was REALLY windy, which made it feel darn right cold.

Family picture plus Crystal by the ocean.

Andrew's First Birthday

I've said it before, I'll say it again....I really don't think that one-year-olds need a lot of hooplah for thier birthdays. So for Andrew's first birthday, we were super low-key, but had a fun day. Of course it's so hard to believe that he has already been with our family for a whole year. He is such a laid back, easy to love, joy of a child! A few days ago he finally made it to his knees to try out a real crawl as opposed to his army crawl that had become his primary mode of transportation. I think that I can feel his first tooth cutting through the bottom gum (I know...our latest teether so far), but still no visual on the chompers. He gets an absolute kick out of watching Jeffrey and Caitlyn being goofy. He has recently started this extreme head bobbing. He looks like he's just nodding very dramatically - it cracks us up! And he seems to think it's funny too since he does it over and over. We feel so lucky to have our sweet Andrew in our family!

When I solicited ideas for Andrew's cake, Jeffrey kept saying over and over that he should have flowers on his cake. Caitlyn's ideas weren't really intelegible, I just wanted a white cake with sprinkles, but Jeffrey went on and on about the flowers. So, we went with flowers. Very manly.

Our happy one-year-old hanging out in his walker.

Not sure he knows what to think about the candle on his cake.

Opening the new church clothes from Grandma Leckie.

Andrew starting in on the cake.

Getting used to the idea...

Enjoying making his own litle mess.

So...I decided I would try to make a yellow cake from scratch. "How hard can it be?" I think to myself. Well, let me just say that I'll never take Betty Crocker for granted again. I don't know what her secrets are, but I'll never try to imitate her again! However, those light, fluffy, delicious cakes that Betty Crocker produces don't stick together like a dense brick, allowing the birthday boy to handle it more easily.

Guess blue icing wasn't the best idea...

We love our little Andrew!

Cheap Orlando Fun

We try to make the drive to Orlando every month to attend the temple, but since it's a 4 hour drive, and schedules are usually pretty full, our trips end up being really quick. We found out that the last minute that the temple was about to close for the rest of the month, so we figured we needed to head down last weekend. Dan's schedule wasn't too bad, so we decided to Priceline a hotel and go for a full 2 days - kind of a luxury. We drove down on Thursday morning and I took the kids to a nearby park while Dan attended the temple, then we switched and he took them back to the park while I went. We then had the rest of the evening to hang out at the hotel, go get dinner, and swim at the hotel pool.

Jeffrey and Caitlyn do surprisingly well sleeping in the same bed (once they fall asleep). Dan and I don't do so well with arms or other appendages falling in our faces. They don't seem to mind!

Andrew does better when he can't see what's going on around him. Cover the pack and play and he's out in no time!

Friday morning we took our time getting ready, ate breakfast and did Disney the really cheap way...Downtown Disney. Of course, since we've never been to the 'real' Disney World, the kids thought Downtown Disney was great! They thought the dinosaur in the water was the coolest thing ever!

At the Lego store they were working on a life-sized building of Buzz Lightyear, so the kids got to build a small piece for the "Master Builder" to add to the project. They were excited to get certificates saying that they had participated.

The kids getting their certificates and standing in front of where the Buzz will be built (the project was just getting going, so not much to see yet...)

With Jeffrey as the photographer, you never know what you'll get. He didn't do too bad of a job!

They thought the "Pooh Bear Bush" dumping water out of the honeypots was great. Grumpy Caitlyn didn't want to be in the picture.

So we decided to try for a family photo - which we rarely attempt, and this is what we get! We've known for awhile that we needed a new camera - I think this picture will speed up the camera-buying-process.

So it was a great way to experience a little bit of Disney - totally free and the kids can handle a couple of hours. After carrying Caitlyn half of the way and hearing Jeffrey talk about having to walk so far, we were really glad we hadn't spent $200+ taking them to the real Disney World. Jeffrey keeps talking about going back to Downtown Disney. Ignorance is bliss, and if they don't know that there are better things out there, we'll keep going the cheap way for a few more years!

My Half-Marathon

So my sister, Crystal, has run several half marathons and I've always thought it was neat, but didn't really want to try to do one. Well, back in August, she convinced me to run the next half marathon in Greenville, SC, with her. At the end of August I started a training schedule and started looking forward to/dreading the race day: Halloween. Training went well, and I really liked having a schedule tell me exactly what to run. Any time there was a long distance that I wasn't sure I could handle, Crystal would tell me, "Have faith in the schedule. If it says you can do it, you can do it." She was right!

So a few days before Halloween we made our 5th trip of the year up to SC for the race - spending Halloween with family was a big plus! Of course, I forgot to take my own camera on the trip, and haven't acquired the pictures taken on other cameras yet...shocker. So I don't have any pictures of the kids dressed up in their costumes or trick-or-treating yet, but I'll get them one of these days.

The race day was really perfect running conditions most of the time. The temperature was in the low 60's and it was a little misty. It did rain a little harder during part of the race, which was a bummer, but it was still WAY better than being hot!!

Crystal and I the morning of the race.

Andrew got up to see us off too - a little too chipper for 6-something in the morning.

The race finished up in the Greenville Drive baseball stadium. Kind of fun to run into a stadium full of people. The is me coming in, waving to our awaiting fans: Dan and the kids, my mom and dad, and Dan's mom and dad (drove down from Durham to spend Halloween with us). It was so nice to have fun people around to celebrate the fact the Crystal and I didn't die during the race!There are professional photographers positioned throughout the race - taking lovely pictures!

Crystal coming across the finish line.

Crystal and I right after finishing.

Back at home with our medals. Totally rain-soaked, but glad to be done!

So it was a great experience! I had decided that if I finished in 2 and a half hours I would be happy. I managed to finish in 2 hours and 19 minutes, keeping a 10:40 pace - so I was pleased. I don't know whether or not a full marathon is in my future, but I am certain that it's not in my immediate future. However, I DO think that Crystal and I are going to run another half in Tybee Island in February. Almost time to start training again!

Swimming

So, ever since the middle of September I've been telling myself that it was too cold to go swimming...it's September afterall. So, the highs kept getting progressively higher and we were soon in the 90's regularly. I keep telling myself that it's too cold to go swimming...by now it's nearly mid-October afterall. So finally on Friday the kids took early naps and we had a long afternoon ahead of us. I thought, "I guess we'll go brave the cold pool." Well, sadly, it wasn't too cold to go swimming. It was really pleasant and the kids had fun - pathetic, but true.

The kids having a fun time at the pool.