The good the great and the ugly

it's not too often that someone has an oncology appointment just a hour before an OBGYN appointment, But I guess I'm not the typical patient,  I'm happy to report that I continue to be cancer free I'm nearly 3 years out and there are no signs of lumps, bumps or bruises (unless you count the great huge bump consuming my belly.)

we also had some great news today at my OBGYN appointment, our little twin girl is looking better, Her anemia is back to normal levels,  she still has a lot of fluid surrounding her organs but that should clear up as her body gets the oxygen it needs.

Our twin boy is still struggling and his anemia is actually worse.  I am meeting with the doctors on Thursday and if he isn't improving we will prepare to do a blood transfusion on Friday.


There isn't much research to prove that the benefits of doing transumbilical transfusions outweigh the risk of the procedure so the doctors want to wait to see if the babies recover on their own. The improvement in the girl is encouraging and we suspect that since she was looking worse last week that maybe she was just a bit further progressed in the viral illness and that the boy will soon follow. There is a 5% risk of death with transfusions which doubles with twins so it's all kind of risky business but we are taking it all pretty well, as usual. We thank everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

we hope that Thursday's report has all good news.

 Cameron doesn't know how to do things half way,  if he is going to do something it's going to be done well, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Cameron announced that if we wanted a bunny cage built into the play set it would need a paint job first.

Dallin is always first to volunteer when it comes to working alongside daddy, 

Grant also thought it would be fun to help scrap off the old paint.  Who wouldn't like that job?

 Because of school Katelyn missed out on the scraping part but was happy to help with the painting part.   Cameron picked out the paint when he was out by himself and when I saw the color I thought it would be way too bright but once the whole set was painted I thought it looked great.

While Everyone else was busy painting Grant decided to paint a few things himself.  the side walk, and our brick mailbox were numbered among the causalities.

Not to mention himself and of course the bunny.

 Once the play set was repainted it was time to finish putting together the bunny hutch,  Cameron designed and built it himself.  It took a lot more work that we had anticipated and in the end we decided that next time we will just buy a bunny hutch... but for now we will enjoy his handy work.

it was complete with 2 entrances, in case we needed to reach the bunny from either side.  I added the brick paint job, I thought it would make it look nice. and now the bunny can move out of the plastic storage bin and into his new fancy house.

Little bunny fofo

We love the library, so many books to read and you don't even have to find a place to store them or even pack them up when you move... it's great.  back in February I found this cool gardening book I thought looked interesting,  not realizing how much Cameron would love it.  one thing the book talked about was how rabbit pellets are a great way to fertilize a yard and next thing I know we are meeting a girl at a gas station who is selling her bunnies on craigslist.  

 Each of the kids have fallen in love with "Fuzzy" (we tried to convince the kids to rename her but that didn't go over well, so Fuzzy it is)

 Katelyn has recently decided that Fuzzy is her personal baby and she carries and coddles her to no end, Fuzzy seems to tolerate all the "love" very well.

 Dallin and Grant love to take turns creating advnetures for the bunny,  she take many trips down the slide and has been zoomed through the house in the back of a dump truck,  not to mention she been carried around in our compost bin,  she doesn't seems to mind too much.

some not bad news

my ultra sound today showed that there was the slightest improvement in each baby's flow of blood meaning that their red blood cell count is a tiny bit higher.. a good sign,  but we also saw that there is slightly more fluid surrounding their organs, our baby girl especially has a lot of fluid.... not a good sign.  I have another appointment on Thursday to see if the anemia is improving,  if things aren't looking better we will do a blood transfusion on Monday,  if it does we will likely have another ultra sound to monitor progress.

so not  necessarily good news, but also not bad news,  overall I feel better about this whole situation.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, please keep them coming.

helpless

This past Wednesday they did the "big" ultra sound,  That morning I got a call from my OBGYN letting me know that the blood work from my last appointment had come back positive for fifths disease and to be sure and let the doctor who would be doing the ultra sound know so that he could look to see how it had effected the babies,  everything should be fine, worse case scenario the babies would need a blood transfusion, but that rarely happens.

So an hour later I casually mention to the ultra sound tech that my doctor wanted me to mention that I tested positive for fifths disease.  so she quietly took picture after picture, measuring one thing after another,  an hour later everyone cleared out of the room and we waited for the doctor who also happened to be the department head.

He starts explaining about how the fifth's disease has attacked both babies bone marrow and they are highly anemic and struggling to make enough red blood cells. they have enlarged hearts and extra fluid surrounding their organs, their condition is very serious but' it's possible that it will correct itself but if it doesn't it would be fatal.  The only thing that can be done is a blood transfusion, they would attempt to give the babies blood by sticking a needle into a vein in each of their umbilical cords.  risky on so many levels.

As he's talking more doctors file in, my OBGYN and the other department head. as they come in I become more nervous because I'm starting to understand the seriousness of this situation. and I keep thinking "this isn't right, he's suppose to tell us "congratulations, you're having a boy and a girl and they appear to be healthy and strong." and yet he goes on about blood clots and heart failure, not to mention the lack of red blood cells causing problems with brain development."

After more measurements are taken and options are discussed we decide to wait a few day to see if the babies recover on their own and then proceed with a blood transfusion if we need to at that point.  and there is nothing I can do, nothing that I would eat or do would help the babies in anyway with this problem.  We find out tomorrow how they are doing and until then I feel completely helpless.

Mother's day

This mother's day was mostly uneventful, in a crazy busy sort of way.   Katelyn started the day with "wake up Mommy!  it's mother's day!"  she then insisted that I open the present she made for me at school.  Pink soap, shaped like a rose and smelling like gummy bears.   It was pretty cute, what was more cute was how excited she was to give it to me.  she get's so excited for surprises and special days.

Cameron made us waffles,  and the kids where torn between that and "special cereal" (any surgery cereal) because they are only allowed to have that on Sunday and holidays.  it's tough having to choose between two great things so they all chose both, and they actually ate both, which doesn't usually happen... ever.

the rest of the day was busy, calling our wonderful mothers, preparing lessons, and getting things ready for the mother's day luncheon which would take place during Relief Society and then of course cleaning up after said luncheon.

Dallin, quite envious of my pink rose soap asked, "so when is kids day?"  I told him every day was kids day,  He didn't buy that, but was pleased to find out that there was an actual Father's Day.  Now he has something to look forward to.