Surgery Again!

5pm...resting...drugged...sewn up. Nasty hernia. Colon had to be pulled out of her chest. Hopefully a week stay in the hospital we would not be shocked at more. Always glad to have phone calls and visitors to break up the monotony. Going to the hospital is not like changing our underpants, it actually totally disrupts our lives. Keala hugs the phone at night when talking to her sissy and I cry watching it.

Summer 08

It's the end of July already ! ? ! ? Really ? WOW ! It still amazes me how time can get away from you. For those of you still checking this on a regualr basis, I'm so sorry for not keepin things fresh and updated. But here we go.
Allison keeps growing and growing. She has had a few studies done so far this summer, including a swallow study to see if she will be able to handle some food by mouth. She passed that one with flying colors so we're starting to ramp up that process again. Tastes of different things a couple times a day, working up to a goal of being able to chew and swallow. She also had an overnight sleep lab study done last week to see if we can narrow down whats causing her to wake up in the middle if the night. It would appear from preliminary results that it's seizure activity waking her up. :{ There was also a concern that she might be suffering from sleep apnea, but the tech said she didnt ever stop breathing, so thats a good sign. We have to wait a week or 2 for the official results from the Dr's. Registration for preschool is in a couple weeks, and she'll get a 3rd full year of preschool before she goes to kindergarten in '09. Because she will turn 5 after school starts in September (can you believe it? 5 yrs old!) she still is qualified for preschool rather than kindergarten.
Keala is already almost 16 months old (again... can you believe it?) and makes our heads spin. She is a constant whirlwind of activity. Nonstop, on the go, all the time. Her body and mind dont comprehend slow. Everything she does is at a full sprint. She tries our patience, yet makes our hearts and souls sing with joy. She is absolutely amazing.
Amy had a brief scare last week. She has been running and swimming and has lost almost 50 lbs since before Keala (!!!!!! 50 lbs !!!!!!) so she decided to try and get back on the basketball court. After about 20 min she felt her knee pop. We thought for sure she had torn her ACL. Turns out it was a sprain and she's improving steadily. Thank you Lord for allowing us to avoid surgery and recovery!
Jeff is in the testing process to be a Police Officer in McMinnville. There are 2 openings available and I am confident this time around that I will be one of the 2 they hire. It will mean 16 weeks of Police Academy away from home, but the short term sacrifice will reap great rewards in the long term.
We pray for all our friends and family, that you all experience continued health and happiness. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our family.

Almost a new month already

Well, here it is the end of April. Wow time flies doesn't it? Life for the Yates fam just keeps on tickin. Allison is doing really, really well and is really starting to enjoy her little sister. Over the last couple weeks she has become more involved with playtime and Keala is starting to initiate interaction with her. Which is a great sign for whats destined to come in the future. Allison has been joining in the peek a boo sessions by pushing the blanket away from her own face and grinning at Mom and sister, and Keala has also been handing toys to her so she can have a turn! It's just amazing to see the growth potential in both of them. Allison also really enjoys the times during the day and at bedtime when Keala is asleep and Allison gets alone time with Mom or Dad without little sister butting in. We have a couple of upcoming Dr's appointments for Allison but they are strictly follow ups and not anything pressing. We are getting glasses for her though (as soon as we can get down to the optometrist and pick out the frames that will work best for her.) The doc thinks that by giving her eyes some correction, it will allow them to relax a little and be able to focus both eyes at the same time rather that one at a time.
Keala decided last Sunday that she wanted to walk. All the time. Everywhere. Not just a few steps here and there. She looks like an adorable little drunken mime in a box. It's sooooo cute! She's still falling quite a bit, but doesn't seem fazed by it a bit. Boy are we in trouble now! : }
See is also really close to actually talking. She has had a few words for awhile, but is at that point now where she is actually putting together phrases (that dont sound like anything that makes sense to us, but are definitely phrases and sentences.)
Jeff is slowly (but surely) getting back into shape. After spending the last 7 years sitting at a desk all day (or night), he's back in the gym working out 5-6 days a week and has lost 15 lbs already since the first week of April. He has a really good motivation at the moment, he is in the hiring process to become a McMinnville Police Officer. He has made it thru the first 2 phases, his application qualified and he passed the written test (with flying colors). There are 4 phases left, oral board interview, ORPAT (Officer and Reserve Physical Agility Test or something similar to that), background investigation and a psych evalutaion. The first 2 are up to him to make sure he passes, the final 2 leave up to other people to decide if he's the right candidate for the position. The tentative hire date is July 1st. So we'll keep you posted.
Amy is doing well, still getting used to Jeff being on Swingshift and not getting home and into bed until 1 am or so. She's feeling better and is also starting to do some more exercising. She is going to be getting some much needed respite a couple days a week thru the end if June. The county found us some grant money to pay for a respite care provider 10 hours a week to give Amy a chance to get some time for herself. What an amazing blessing.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. Please feel free to call and check in with us
whenever you may get a chance to. We would love to hear how things are going with you too.

Happy April

Well here it is April already, can you believe it? We're excited to see it finally arrive! Allison continues to feel great and gets really excited every day when it's time to go to school. She brought home a paper clown face yesterday that was sooo cute. She helped glue the eyes and nose and mouth on it. Really adorable. She is still growing and is already approaching the 4 foot tall mark !!! Can you believe it? She's not even 5 yet and she's already 3'9! Theres some cute pictures of her and Keala on Jeff's MySpace page. (thats right... Jeff's got a MySpace page). The link is http://www.myspace.com/bigjeff911
Amy is doing much better recently after a couple visits to the Dr. Their recommendation.... more sleep, an adjustment to her pacemaker and try to take some more time for herself. She will get more of that as soon as Jeff goes to swing shift (Next Tuesday!!!). Hopefully we will both be able to start working out at the gym or at the pool a little more often. We always feel a whole lot better after a workout. Now that the weather is FINALLY changing for the better, Jeff will also be able to start riding his bike back and forth to work, that will help him get into a little better shape too.

Thanks for continuing to check up on us. Hopefully we'll continue to post good news !!!

Long awaited update

Hey All... Sorry it's been so long since we've posted for you. With Jeff stuck on graveyard, it doesn't leave Amy too much free time to sit down at the computer and Jeff is not really supposed to blog from work so....

Anyway, things are really, really good with Allison, she's been back at preschool for a couple weeks now. She did come home with a bug from school, and we caught it before it got any worse than just a cough and stuffy nose. She survived it really well, which was a great big step forward for her since this bug has been truning into pneumonia for a lot of other kidlets. She has gained all of her weight back since her surgery and has even grown some ! We are SO happy for her. She really missed her friends and teachers at preschool and even though she tends to nap a little while she's there, it's really good for her to be back.

Keala is a monster child and we are loving every minute of her ! She gets more and more rambunctious and adventurous every day. She definitely belongs to us, she's such a people person and loves meeting new people and seeing people she knows.

We're still working with the Dr's to try and get Amy feeling better. She is still pretty tired all the time and has another appt Tuesday. Prayers for her are on the agenda this time around for sure.

Missing Daddy

Well it's back to work for Jeff this week and what a nasty week it is. Jeff has 3 12 hour shifts this week so the girls aren't going to see very much of him til Friday. Looking forward to March with NO Overtime for the first time in quite a long time.
Allison seems to be doing really, really well. We went to the aquarium in Newport on Friday as a reward for Allison for being such a good girl while we were gone. Allison was SO excited to be out of the house and you could tell that she knew where we were going. She was excited and happy and laughing and squealing all the way there. So much so that she tired herself out and had to take a nap as soon as we got her out of the van :) Once she woke up she got really excited again and had a great time watching the sharks and the otters get fed. She got to touch a sea cucumber and a starfish too. Keala was mesmerized by all the fishies and had a great time also. We will definitely be spending a lot of time there over the next few months. It's been great finding something that Allison really loves to do.

Long time coming....

Hey All..... Sorry it's taken this long to get another post in here. We have a whole lot of good news to report. After kind of a rough patch in January, everyone in the family is finally healthy again after bouts of the winter cold (Allison and Amy), and croup (Keala again). Jeff has luckily maintained his health so he can take care of the family. Amy has another appointment with the cardiologist the first week of March to try and get things figured out on that front. Jeff is just finishing up vacation and will go back to work this Sunday night. Amy, Jeff and Keala took a few days (6 to be exact) and went to visit Grammy and Grandy in Honolulu. (Thank you Hawaiian Miles !!) We made the really tough decision to leave Allison at home. We really didn't think she was (or is) well enough to travel at this point. She stayed with Grammy Sue and Auntie Hanna and a couple other good friends giving them a break here and there. Keala is still nursing so we pretty much had to take her along :) It would have been really nice for just Amy and Jeff to go by themselves but that time will come soon. We had a great visit with Jim and Donna and also Amy's brother Rory and his wife Toscha and their 2 adorable boys and just took some time to try to relax.
We are discussing getting Allison back into preschool starting in March but havent made a decision yet... we are really hoping to do so though. We think Allison is really missing her friends at school.
Will post again soon.

Double Zeros

"Mommy likes us to match when we can, Daddy wants us to be Seahawks fans."

Last night for the nurses :(

Well, it's Thursday night (Friday morning) and Allison's follow up with the surgeon went well and there really isn't a need to keep the overnight nursing!!! We havent had to use the suction machine in over a week, which means that she is able to transfer things from her esophagus to her stomach without a problem. Fantastic news ! Now comes the part where we have to figure out how to get the adjustable bed into her bedroom and listen for her in the middle of the night again. We've kind of gotten used to not listening for her since the nurses have been there and she's been out in the den. It's good that Jeff has the next couple days off to help get things figured out.
Allison is almost back up to pre-surgery weight, and appears to have grown some more also. We're still trying to figure out why she's not sleeping thru the night on a regular basis and why the increased doses of her meds didn't help that problem. Guess it's back to the neurologist to see if her seizures are increasing or if she's just built up tolerance to her meds.
Amy has still been really, really tired even after a visit to her cardiologist and an increase in her pacemakers rate(up to 70 bpm from 60 bpm). There are a couple of schools of thought floating around about what the issue could be. Maybe she's in recovery mode from being on high alert for 2 months with Allisons issues, maybe she's going thru a little spell of depression, or maybe it's an issue with her heart. The next thing we will try for her is to turn on the reactive portion of her pacemaker and see if that helps. That mode reacts to movement and automatically bumps the rate up to an exercise rate. Keep her in your prayers these next few weeks.
Keala is starting to pull herself up from tummy to knees to standing! It wont be long and we'll be chasing her all over the house. She is eating like a horse and growing like a weed! Can't believe she'll be 10 months old in a week or 2. She's learning how to use some sign language and signing "more" and "finished" and "eat" and "milk" and using them on a pretty regular basis. That and she's already using a couple words too. She's an amazing little girl!

Thursday

The Dr appt went well on Monday, the doc recommended a couple of changes to her feeding schedule and also a decrease in the acid blocker medication we've been giving her. He said everything seemed to be going well from a GI standpoint and will see us back in a few months to follow up with him. She's been kind of lethargic and acting like shes just not feeling really good the past few days, but hopefully will feel better soon. The neurologist got back to us today and we are increasing her anti seizure meds to try and help her sleep through the night which has not been happening for the last week or so. (maybe whats causing her to be lethargic during the day) Hopefully we'll see a change.

Dr's and nurses

Well, it's Sunday night and the nurses from the new company have been at the house every night so far. Even though the nurses are different every couple of nights, at least they are there. They have been a great blessing. Allison seems to be improving, but we're still dealing with constipation issues from trying to pack on the calories and help her gain her weight back. We have a follow up visit to Dr Zhang (the GI doc) on Monday and we'll hopefully get an idea of where she's at on the GI side of things and maybe get some ideas to help her stop gulping so much air. It may be that she's just accustomed to using that as a coping mechanism or it may be that she's still having some reflux, so it'll be good to get his opinion. Our surgery follow up is the 23rd of Jan. Thats the day they will decide if she's sufficiently healed and the swelling has receded enough to rule out another corrective surgery.
Amy is feeling much better these last few days and Keala has actually been allowing her to sleep most of the way thru the night. Amy and Jeff were able to spend some alone time over Jeff's weekend (Thank you Aunti Hannah!!) and were even able to go to church Sunday morning. What a blessing!
Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers

Thursday night

The new company providing us with a night nurse is fantastic in comparison to company #1. They have already covered the rest of the schedule thru the 24th except for one night. They seemed much more on the ball and much more in depth with their questioning also. Allison has been up and down over recent days. One day she'll feel great and the next, not so good. She is gaining weight however and appears to have kicked the ear and throat infection. Keala is still a bit under 20 lbs (50th percentile) but is over 30 inches tall (95th percentile). She is such a bundle of energy it's no wonder she's not really heavy, she works it all off playing and growing.

Amy has been not feeling well for the last week or so and is was really, really tired today. Thank the Lord for Jeff's days off Friday and Saturday. We will be able to get Amy some good sleep and hopefully that will help her feel better. Hopefully we can also get some grown up alone time also. We really need to spend some time just the 2 of us and remember that before the girls there was just "us"

best laid plans

Well so much for our night nurse! The company that we are paying to provide us with a night nurse has now dropped the ball 3 nights in a row. So we decided to fire them and have to start at square one with a new company. So needless to say we are a little frustrated and not well-rested. We are very hopeful the new company can gets things rollin and get us set up by Wednesday. Pray for Amy, she is not feeling very well and the stress of dealing with both girls at night without Jeff at home is not helping that.

Graveyard shift.. here we come

Well today was Jeff's last day of dayshift schedule for at least a year ! (if not longer) Sunday night starts graveyard til April. Hopefully we'll have reprogrammed Keala by Sunday night to not wake up in the middle of the night and refuse to go back to sleep until she's in moms bed. If that happens, Amy will have a much easier time sleeping and hopefully keep herself (and the girls) healthy. Our night nurse will last thru the end of January and our prayer is that Allison will have healed significantly by that time and will be able to make it thru the night without needing to be suctioned.She does seem to be improving day by day except for the slight ear and throat infection she's working to kick right now. We've tried to keep bugs out of the house but a couple people at Jeff's job have come down sick and he may have brought a bug home with him. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick it.
Prayers for continued rest and healing and a smooth transition to the new shift.

Happy New Year and much love to all!

Night Nurse

The night nurse came the last two nights...even though she's here it is hard to reprogram ourselves to sleep through our child's noises. She is a nice lady, we will be meeting the other one next week.

The new year is here and we are praying for good health for ourselves and all of you.