Daycare, visitors and updates...

So this has been a busy week for us! Monday was Brianna's first day of daycare. I must say it was bittersweet. I know that Brianna needs the socialization and Todd and I need to work in order to provide the kind of life we want for her, but its so hard thinking of strangers watching our little girl. Needless to say, she has been doing great! The first day was only a half day as Grandma Gordon picked her up just after noon. Today was her first full day and she seemed to be doing well when I picked her up. Here is a pic Todd took just before dropping her off on her first day of daycare...

We had a really great weekend here in NC. With all the uncertainty, we wanted to do our best and have a NORMAL weekend for once. We drove to Hickory on Saturday to the furniture capital of the world and went to a 4 story furniture mall. Then on Sunday we went to the arboretum and walked through some of the gardens. It was really nice to be outside in early Febuary without needing to wear a jacket! Here is a pic of us at the gardens...

Aunt Mary and Uncle Kenny were in town tonight and got a chance to meet Brianna for the first time tonight. Even after a long day of daycare, Brianna was all smiles and had a great time meeting them. Here is a pic of Brianna with Uncle Kenny... she was a bit fussy when it picture time with Aunt Mary came around.

Other big news for the day... We have Brianna's ultrasound and MRI scheduled. Next Monday morning is her renal ultrasound and next Thursday morning is her MRI. She will have to be sedated for her MRI so that one we are a bit nervous for and we will be taking the whole day to be with her. The pediatrician also called back tonight to follow up with us and see how the oncology appointment went. It was really nice to know they are thinking about us over there. He also brought really promising news... the urine test they took last week came back as normal for both indicators for neuroblastoma. This is great news! Now we just need to hear similar results at our tests next week and we can breathe easier...

Grandma Gordon leaves tomorrow... Todd and I have been very lucky to have her here for the past 3 weeks and it sure is going to be different without her! Im sure Brianna will miss her a bunch!

Here are a few more pics we have taken over the past week.

Good Preliminary Results!

We spent nearly the whole day with the oncology appointment and got some good preliminary results! Todd and I are extremely relieved, though we still have to hear back from the oncologist himself.

Walking into the pediatric oncology clinic was a difficult thing to do this morning. I have to say, never in a million years did I ever imagine having to take my child to test for cancer. They were incredibly warm and comforting there though which helped a lot. After the traditional heart rate, weight and bp tests they took us back to the room where our nurse for the day took our version of events that lead us to them.

After she was done, Dr. Beatey came in and took the most thorough history. He was very nice and put us at ease pretty quickly. After taking the history, he did a very thorough exam (similar to the pedi yesterday). His first comment was that she does not look like a sick little girl and everything preliminarily checks out great. The only thing he could find was the fact that her eyes and pupils were different sizes.

We took blood work and a chest x-ray to look for any masses around the superior cervical ganglion in the upper chest area. The ironic thing was that we had had a chest x-ray just 2 weeks ago so it gave the radiologist a nice comparision. Except for some slightly off bloodwork results, most likely due to her fighting off the virus mom and I have had, everything looks pretty good!

We are still waiting to hear back from Dr. Beatey to see what the next step will be. She might have to have a CT to double check everything the chest x-ray showed, or we may just be waiting and watching for a while. I will update with the news when we hear something!

Thank you to everyone thinking about us today, knowing you all care has helped us get through this difficult time~

UPDATE: I just spoke to Dr. Beatey and he feels we should do an MRI and Adrenal ultrasound to further rule out any brainstem issue and verify no neuroblastoma. So still on pins and needles until the MRI is done at some point next week.

Scary uncertainty...

I am copying a pasting from an email I wrote today to tell the story about our day... Sorry if it sometimes seems out of context.

Brianna's pupils are dramatically different sizes (have been for a month or so) and we were referred to a pediatric opthamalogist to examine her. Todd took her to the appointment this afternoon. The Dr. said that she either has two extremes: either she is just normally that way and the reason for this difference is completely benign or she may have neuroblastoma. Obviously we have to take this very seriously. They were referred back to our pediatricians office for a 24 hour urine test to check for levels of hormone in Brianna's system. The pediatrician and eye doctor thought it very important we see the pediatric oncologist (man to even say that...) right away tomorrow morning. They will determine what imaging and bloodwork needs to be done to determine whether or not it is neuroblastoma. Our appointment is for 9am on Friday morning(tomorrow). I do not know how long the appointment will take, what they will do, or if we will need to go directly for imaging...

The good news out of a crappy day... Brianna was all smiles and a happy happy girl today. So even though she was being examined literally from head to toe, she took it all in stride.

Please help us pray for the best tomorrow and from here on out for our little girl!

Some pics...

I was just noticing how much Brianna has grown... Here is a pic taken at one week and another taken today at about 10 weeks...

Milestones of the week: "talking back and holding things on purpose" Alright, she's not really talking of course but she will definitely copy me when I go "ohhh' and 'ahhh' and she also is laughing a bit and learning to stick out her tongue. Here's a pic of her grabbing at her favorite...giraffe!

Two month checkup-

Brianna had her 2 month check up this morning and shots. Todd has been in WI all week and I had to work so Grandma took her and said she did great! She weighed 11 lbs 7 oz and is 24 inches long. I have to look at the growth charts to see what percentile because Dr. Martin didn't go over that with mom. She's lifting her head up appropriately and using her legs better than the Doctor expected given the fact that she was in a brace until a week ago. She is even putting weight on them and lifting herself up a bit. So exciting!

Mom said she had 3 shots and did pretty well. She only cried for about 5 minutes and by the time they had her dressed and in the car seat she was back to her old self - for now that is :) We will see how she does this afternoon. Mom gave her some tylenol to combat any fever that might try to spike. Lets hope for a happy baby tonight! - I really hope she continues the STTN as she has been for the past few weeks. Gotta love it that she sleeps straight from 9-6!! (lucky us)

The Dr. did up her dose of Zantac and kept her on her new dose of Prevacid. So she is currently taking two meds twice a day. Dr. Martin wanted us to watch and see how she does over the next week to look for improvement (already 100% improved from last weekend). If it doesn't look like the meds are doing the job, we will have to go in for more tests and they might have to change her meds/formula around.

The last thing on my list was her eyes. I don't know if I had mentioned that her pupils were different sizes and have been for quite a while. Well anyone who knows me knows that I am very type A and paranoid about anything going wrong with her so I have been freaking out about this for the past month. When we were in the ER with her last weekend, I asked the doc about it there and he didn't see much of a problem with them. They both dialate and constrict appropriately. Well, the pediatrician we saw Sunday morning thought it was enough for a referral to a pediatric opthamologist. (They scheduled that for next Thursday.) Of course this freaks me out even more and I proceed to google the topic - not recommended! Dr. Martin looked at them today and said that she didn't think it would be anything serious. So I am hoping that two out of the three docs that looked at them this week are right! We will know next Thursday I guess!

If you are still reading, congrats! I know this turned into a long one! Ill keep you all updated on how she does post-shots and what happens next week at the opthamologist.

Sick baby = fussy time and sleepless nights

So mom and I had a scare this weekend with Brianna.

We were at the mall and Brianna was acting somewhat odd. She had an odd look on her face and seemed kind of out of it. As we were changing her in one of the mall restrooms (after 3 failed attempts at finding a changing table), she started laboring in her breathing, wheezing and I think her lips started turning blue. Needless to say, I completely freaked out and picked her up and handed her to my mom. After a few seconds (though it felt like a lot more), she started crying and her breathing returned to normal. Of course we called the pediatrician right away who sent us to the emergency room.

I was on call this week so I planned to be going to the ED, but NOT for my daughter... thankfully, she had stabilized and the ED staff was very helpful in getting her through to the back in less than 5 minutes. After a chest x-ray and 3 hours, we were released with the diagnosis of reflux induced chocking. (She has been diagnosed with reflux since about 3 weeks old).

We went home with a somewhat happy Brianna and thought things would be back to normal. Six hours later as I was getting her ready for bed, it happened again. Of course this time I knew what to expect and she only wheezed for a few seconds. I had her up and screaming as soon as I recognized what was going on. Needless to say, I called the pedi once again and they recommended we come in to the clinic in the morning.

After a very sleepless night - and THANKFULLY no pages for me to the emergency room - we made it to the pediatrician without any more episodes. The pedi looked her over from head to toe and changed her reflux meds along with recommending we thicken her formula with rice cereal.

With the eventful day we had that day and the day before, Brianna was so overtired that we had to drive around for over a half an hour to get her to calm down enough to go to bed! Our poor new neighbors were just moving in yesterday and she was screaming nearly the whole time. I was tempted to introduce myself and appologize!

- a pic of her in her new carrier - one that is good for her hips so we don't have to worry about dislocating them! This was one of the ways I attempted to calm her down... it did work but only for a while.

Today she seems a bit better now that we have had her new med on board for a while and thickening her formula... Lets hope for the best~ We are just happy to know the cause of what happened and are praying for no more episodes!

No more harness!

After a long day at Shriners with my mom and Todd, Brianna got a clean bill of hip health! Though Todd had to kindly remind Dr. Pete that she had infact been stable for 6 weeks now (he initially said ok, looks good, lets keep her in for another two weeks), he finally gave her the all clear. The ultrasound looked so good the radiologist said he couldn't even tell there was ever a problem. She's scheduled for a two month follow up and will continue to have follow ups until she is 18. It's good to see she will be followed closely.

Its pretty funny to watch her try to adjust to life without it! She has had a brace of one form or another since she was 13 days old. We will see how she will sleep tonight...

Im posting some pics of Brianna without her harness. -Some of the MAY have been taken before she got the 'all clear' in our illegal nightly stretch sessions ;)