Snow

It may not seem like a huge deal depending on where you live, but most all kids in the south dream of the white stuff. Here, in coastal SC, it seems every 8-10 years we get a few inches of snow. Typically, the snow lasts about a day and then the temps rise right back to normal and it all melts away. This year, not so much. It has been a deep freeze here and the several inches of snow which fell on top of the layer of sleet and freezing rain have lasted for days!

Ayden Jane was so excited. She made a snowman, had a snowball fight and Gary even took her sledding! It was a golf course hill but when you live on the coastal plain, you find a hill where ever you can. There were other kids there and she had a blast. Only one near mishap when she was headed straight for the slightly frozen pond and apparently bailed off her sled just in the nick of time. The sled went out onto the ice then floated the ice on the other edge. Oh, did I mention her 'sled' was a boogie board? That's how beach kids sled.

Kayla and Mckenna were awesome and wandered the neighborhood through the snow and threw snowballs with her. Noah was less than impressed now that he has spent a few winters in the north.

So, here we are after just over 3 full weeks off school. No routine, a week of flu, Christmas excitement, snow and frigid temps... so many days of indoor activity. She/we are not used to this!!

She has learned to stay up late and sleep in. A skill I appreciate in the summer but I think it is going to be a rude awakening when she heads back to school on Tuesday. (schools out again tomorrow) It's cool that with Pitolisant the days of the 4, 5, even 6 AM wake up are gone!! At the same time, letting her get into the habit of sleeping in may not have been my best choice. It was wonderful for me though.

I will make an appointment to meet with her teachers this week. There are a few things we need to tweak from last semester. I was so spoiled last year with the bond Ayden Jane had with her teacher and the way her teacher just 'got her'. Not sure we will ever have that awesome a situation again, but I need to get my act in gear and help get the rest of this year back on track.

Happy New Year

As I read the New Year posts around social media and thought back on 2017 I realized it was a pretty amazing year.

At the start of 2017 Ayden Jane was not on pitolisant and the ability to import it from Germany was just being worked out. I knew we were headed to see Dr. Miller for our annual visit and had plans to ask her about starting Ayden Jane because we were in a rough place as far as being able to get through her day. She was struggling the second part of the day at school with focus and just being able to stay awake. She would either fall asleep after school or push through and be in bed by 6 in the evening. Just getting enough functioning hours to do school and a bit of exercise was a huge challenge.

We made it through the process, started Pitolisant, increased dose gradually and learned all we could along the way. Much of that is logged well here through last spring.

Then there was the brief hospital stay with pneumonia that came on fast and furious. So thankful to have amazing ER docs here that have taken the time to get to know Ayden Jane and are now on high alert for her.

Summer came and a wonderful family vacation to Busch Gardens.

I finished on job started a  new one.

Gary had his wrist reconstructed and it is rehabbed and doing great.

Kayla has figured out what she wants to do and hopefully acceptance to grad school will soon follow. She also was able to return to Honduras for a couple months and spend a week in El Salvador.

Noah has officially completed his undergrad degree and begun his graduate work.

Mckenna is rocking school, had a great spring HS soccer season and fall club season. She has done very well and enjoyed her music, both singing and learning piano. Her drawing has been so fun to see come pouring out. So much in that kid who knows where she will end up in life, although she is already narrowing down her college choices. 

Christmas 2017

After a week of sickness and living with the alternate life form Ayden Jane, she seemed to turn the corner just in time for Christmas Day. Gary had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas night so we waited for him to get home from work on Christmas Day to open presents. Well, mostly.

It's always been a deal that the kids can open stockings when the get up whether there is parent supervision or not. It started back in the days when my kids waited for Grandma and Grandpa to come before Christmas morning could officially begin. Now it's more so we can stall for Gary to get home from work. Ayden Jane happily looked through her stocking and was so patient all morning. The funny part, however, was when the big kids came out she told them they could open their stockings and how much they would like the things like candy in them.... ummm, how did you know what was in them Ayden Jane? She giggled as she had searched through them all and had a wonderful time. (no worries of her eating candy - she is not interested in ruining her day.)

Opening presents is always fun with AJ. She thoroughly enjoys each gift as she goes along. Makes sure everyone has a gift, unwraps things slowly... The big excitement this year came when Santa had brought her a zip line! His elves are going to have to help put it up in the coming days (especially the one that goes back to college soon) In all, we did not go crazy with Ayden Jane's gifts and she declared it the best Christmas ever. I'll take it.

Now she is excited to have the greatest yard. She already has a trampoline, we finally got her swurfer up that she got for her birthday (It's a swing you stand on and ride like a surf board), and now a zip line! I love that she enjoys playing outside.

She also got a human anatomy factoid activity book and skeleton thing from Kayla. She spent a couple of hours today putting together the skeleton and doing some of the activities in the book. I had a hard time getting her to stop for supper! She now spouts off random facts about human anatomy. It's pretty great.

We are very much enjoying our time off school. I know I for one am not ready to return.

December

I have been terrible at posting things. There have been things to post, but I'm not going to back track now. We will see how break goes and maybe....

For now, we are dealing with sick Ayden Jane. It's her alter ego and we don't like it. Last week, the week of school before Christmas break, she had a bit of watery eyes and complaints of sore throat. We did not think much of it. Then on Sunday afternoon she was suddenly out of breath. By early Monday morning she was raging fever and obviously sick.

We took her to the pediatrician and he decided that although he did not hear anything, he was not to be fooled again by Ayden Jane so he put her on a pretty strong antibiotic. She did  not seem to get better and we took her to the ER Wednesday night because something needed to be done. Breathing treatment, steriods on board and labs drawn. We came home.

Friday morning we got a call from the ER that her blood culture came back positive (but without the specificity yet). They wanted us to go to her primary care pediatrician. He was not in the office today but our favorite ER doctor was so we headed back to the ER.

He started from scratch and found a positive flu test....  He also re ran the blood cultures. He is thinking it's possible the first run was positive by a contaminate (like from AJ's skin)  So, she is currently on cefdinir, tamilful, steriod, albuterol and ibuprofen. Had the fever Monday and Tuesday and has coughed, and coughed, and coughed since. Miserable, pitiful and MEAN.

Plan is: if blood culture negative, finish current meds and all should clear up. If culture positive for strep strain, then we will extend the cefdinir for a few more days than the 10 prescribed. If culture is positive for staph, we will have to return to the hospital for IV antibiotics.

NEED the coughing to stop so we can get on with Christmas festivities!

Wonder

I read the book Wonder with a class I was teaching last year. I really liked it and thought it was a good book to read with Ayden Jane this summer as she was changing schools and some of the social chords might ring true. Her class is also reading it currently so it has all worked out nicely!

The movie came out last weekend and I promised to take Ayden Jane. Gary read a few chapters with her through the summer and loves movies so he wanted us to go when he could come. Mckenna has not had a chance to read it yet, but it is on her list. She was excited to come along with us so we make it a Thanksgiving Day family movie time.

So we sat there together. Ayden Jane super excited and wanting to talk through the movie... as usual. Mckenna with a vague idea of what it was about. Gary expecting a sweet feel good movie that champions kids who overcome challenges. Me, wondering how the book will play out on the big screen.

I'll start with Gary. Yep, he is the family crier as it comes to movies and he didn't let us down. Ayden Jane loved it but Daisy dying really hit her hard. I think she also totally grasped the "Via" piece. She has been talking about how much Mckenna loved herr and helped her and played with her and was her best friend when she was little. I think she has morphed all that Kayla, Noah and Mckenna meant to her and, for know, has it all placed on Mckenna. All in a good way. It is super sweet. Seeing the charatcter and hearing her talk about what it was like to be Auggie's big sister is such an honest, yet positive way was so great for her. She just 'got it'.

The Via part hit Mckenna HARD. She said after how accurate the character was. The way they showed how Via loved Auggie and totally understood he needed so much. Wanted only the best for him, but also felt as though she couldn't need anything... "Scary how accurate" were her words.

As for me? Well, I was prepared, having read the book 3 times now. The parts that were so true were Auggie's mom - putting her life on hold - but that not really being a bad thing. Just a truth. I agree. Via's part ... played out in Mckenna's life. Not sure about Noah and Kayla. And the Dad being the glue in a way. Supporting everyone. Also, his crazy attachement to the dog. It's going to rough when our Sadie dies. OH!! And Mckenna and I had to laugh at the part when Auggie brings Jack Will home and sort of announces him as his friend. The look of shock/excitement and wanting to cheer but holding your breath at the same time. We totally get that!

All in all, it's a great representation of the type of things that go on in a family that has a child with a big medical condition. Everyone plays their part. 

Kitchen and Running

Whew. We are in the home stretch of our kitchen remodel. What exactly dose that mean? It means 3 months after demolishion, I have counters, a sink ... a fully functioning kitchen. Still needs paint. Still needs some carpentry completed. Still needs to be painted. Stil needs a few odds and ends and I still need to unpack some boxes and find things but I can finally cook again.

For Ayden Jane's part, she has done amazingly well. It is common for kids with PWS to get very nervous when routines are messed with, particularly those that involve food. For the most part, she has just rolled with it. It got so bad at the end, I hadn't made many of her typical standbys to have on hand and she was still rolling with it.

I will say, the large amount of eating out has not been the best for her weight and health, but things have not gotten out of control so I consider that a victory! I am looking forward to getting her back to good quality food and lots of vegetables. We shall see if I succeed.

Ayden Jane wants to start running again during December and January. Swim team is done this week and soccer is over for the fall. She is thinks it will be easier on Pitolisant and she remembers how much it helped her when she was running before. For my part, I told her I would run this crazy run with her http://www.the5kfoamfest.com/ . It is in March so she has 3 months to 'train' for the 5k.

Her plan is to do the running plan we found once before that will get her up to about 2 miles by the time we see Dr Miller at the end of January. Then switch over to a 5k training program that will get her to 3 miles. Wish me luck because we all know who will be running along side of her...

Over Due Update

Time is flying by. Ayden Jane is doing well She seems to have really hit a groove this past week.

She brought home testing results from last spring's standardized testing. She has met grade level expectations across the board. Language, reading and math. She also had lexile score which placed her in the 73rd percentile and a math quantile which placed her in the 89th percentile. Yep. That pretty much blew me away. I think her 3rd grade teacher gets TONS of credit.

We managed to get through Halloween this past week. Ayden Jane loves Halloween. She dresses up and trick or treats with reckless abandon. She is convinced that the more candy she piles up for the Great Pumpkin, the better/more toys she will get in trade! The excitement that builds can get a little out of control. I blame it on being a holiday that doesn't start until late in the evening... That is just cruel. Having to wait all day long!

Just to up the excitement of life a little, we finally made good on our birthday promise to Ayden Jane. All she wanted to do was the ropes course. We took her friend G and off we went. It was a challenging course and after 2 hours, one potty stop which, of course meant we had to start over, and a lot of panic, we completed the entire level 1 course. It was so much fun and Ayden Jane did great! She is ready to go conquer level 2 next time. I hope I am up for the challenge!

My favorite quote of the day. As the girls were playing on some bars wating for our turn, Ayden Jane says: G, how do you do that so easy. Oh, I bet you have all your chromosomes. I'm glad I'm strong so Prader Willi Syndrome can't stop me! The positive attitude and determination are amazing. No whining, no 'not fair'. Just a truly thankful heart that she is strong and can do anything.

Mostly, life is summed up as a bit complicated, but totally doable. Ayden Jane still has no ability to be rushed. She still loves to thourghly discuss a topic before doing what needs to be done. She still can get a little stuck the moment you need her to process smoothly and quickly. Honestly though, I think we are getting to the point where some of these things are less PWS related and more quirky Ayden Jane things.