Lindie Turns One Today

Lindie's favorite thing is Chocolate.  She enjoyed her cake to say the least.  She hugged it and lifted it up to her face so she didn't miss one bite.  

Waiting on test results from spinal tap

I went to see the neurosurgeon in Denton and he referred me to a doc in Dallas.  Well Friday I went and saw him and he did a spinal tap and he found that my pressure was high I think normal is 1-15 and mine was 23.  He said it looked clear and he sent samples to the lab.  Then he did another high volume (50cc) blood patch to make sure he did not cause a leak from the spinal tap.  Since the fluid looked clear and no signs of infection he thought maybe it was pseudotumor cerebri.  I went to the eye doctor today and she didn't see signs of high volume of pressure behind the optic nerve so she thinks it is not that big long word.   So I will be going to get something called a MRA and that is far as we have gotten on this confusing headache and neckache.  I have all the symptoms of the psuedotumor cerebri and it finally sounded like we had a solution but I guess we are back to square on.

Praise God!!!

Just wanted to update you all. Brian had a regular pet scan on Tuesday and we got the results that he is cancer free!
I went to the neurosurgeon and he is sending me to another doctor on Friday for probably another blood patch. Now this makes 12 doctors that I have seen.

Aggie Kiddos

Can't Forget this one!

Long overdue Update of the Carpenter Crew

Finally I got my kids into the studio for some pics. Here they are and aren't they cute. Carson just turned 5 and wants a cow for his birthday. Cole is 6 1/2 and he loves to play video games and hang out at the house in his pj's. Lindie is 7 months old and goes poo poo on the big potty. Yes folks it is true. She is sitting up and loves to go shopping! Thats my girl! Her hemangioma has stayed the same if not even got a little smaller as she has grown. Praise God! It is starting to flatten out and is becoming lighter in color.

As you all know I haven't updated the family blog in a while. About 2 1/2 months ago my back went out and had two series of Epideral Steriod Injections. My back felt great after them but unfortunately I had a spinal leak. So fast forward. I have had 4 blood patches (where they take blood from your arm and inject it into your back to clot the blood in the spot of the leak), stayed in the hospital on and off for two months and now I still have a headache. I will be seeing the neurosurgeon in Denton on this wednesday. I have seen 10 different doctors so far and they have all tried to fix me but as you all know I am complicated in every aspect of my life.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer and Blessings to all of you.

Here is a recent pic of our kiddos.  Cole was so proud of himself.  He looks at this pic and says that he was such a big boy for holding his sister.  I think they are just precious.  I am so proud of them all.  We are so blessed.

Grateful

Sorry it has been a while since I have published anything.  We have been having fun.  We went to Mexico with the Carpenter Family.  We had a blast and enjoyed spending time with everyone by the pool and the bar.  Here is a pick of all the grandkids and Pops.  Lindie was a little unhappy in the pic but Carson did a great job holding her.  I have more pics of Lindie and Carson on a different computer and will upload them tomorrow.

Cole learned how to ride his bike with out the training wheels.  Yeah!  He was riding by himself within 15 minutes.  

Brian rides his horse for the first time in a year and a half.  (I'll let you ask him how that went:) )

Carson gets some longhorns and loves to feed them every day.

Lindie is getting bigger and she is starting to talk a lot more.  Her Hemangioma seems to have stopped growing and her stridor issues seem to be fading.  

The Lord continues to bless our little family.  I am so grateful....

New Pics of Lindie and an Update on her 2nd Opinion

I finally took Lindie to the Studio for pictures.  Brian's favorite picture is the one on the top.  It looks like Cole has taught her some of his karate moves.

Wow.... Yesterday was a stressful day for Lindie and I.  We went to see Dr. Murray in Coppell for a second opinion about a hemangioma in her airway.  He was absolutely wonderful to us.  He spent a good 45 minutes to an hour with us.  He did another in office scope which was stressful but cool at the same time.  He had it hooked up to a camera and it was displayed on the TV in the room.  So I could see everything he was talking about.  He did get glimpses of below the vocal chords and he did not see anything.  He said he would scope her under anesthesia on Tuesday if I wanted to be absolutely sure  because the most common place for an airway hemangioma is subglottic.   Unless she was under anesthesia there is no way to be sure because he can't see past the vocal chords.  Brian and I agreed that if her symptoms get worse then we will opt for the scope under anesthesia.  Dr. Murray also said that kiddos with an airway hemangioma have a croupy cough and Lindie does not have this.  He also agreed with the first ENT who did a scope on her that her muscles may be underdeveloped causing the stridor and that she will likely outgrow this.  So that was all good news and we headed back home in the blizzard.  It took us 5 1/2 hours to get from Coppell to our house in Bridgeport.  We were stuck on 380 in one place for about 3 hours with no fresh bottles.  Lindie was a trooper and never even cried.    She just smiled while I cried.  I was freaked out to say the least.  It was so good to finally get home at 5:30.  Brian's dad had to pick Cole up from school early and Carson had to be picked up by Troy who works with Brian in Decatur.  Carson then got to spend some quality time with his namesake Wade.   It was good bonding time for the two of them.  Thank you all who helped with the kiddos and thanks to those of you who kept me calm on the phone while I was stuck in the blizzard.

2nd Opinion

I emailed Dr. Ducic and he wants me to take Lindie to get a second opinion.  He recommended a pediatric ent that deals with airway involvement.  So I will call tomorrow and get an appointment with him on Thursday.  He spoke with this doctor and he was overbooked but agreed to do Ducic a favor and see Lindie.  So hopefully our worries can be put to rest.....

Lindie Sleeping

Hello everyone.  I wanted to post this so maybe some of you that have had babies with reflux can reassure me that this is normal.  This is a video (you can't see her) of Lindie sleeping.  It is only 15 seconds long but at the very end you can hear her do this thing with her breathing.  We took her to see Ducic's partner and he scoped her in the office and he said he thought she had laryngomalacia (I'm not sure if this is how you spell it, I have taken a vic's nyquil).  Which is basically from what I understand the muscles are underdeveloped and cause this stridor sound.  I am so tired but she has been doing this a lot more often and when I layed down tonight I told myself if she does it again then I will record her digitally with the movie camera.  Well she did it right away and my camera only records 15 seconds at a time so I thought I would be up all night trying to catch her doing this again  but I got it on the first try.  So maybe someone can tell me to relax and go to sleep.  

Hello From L.A. California!

Brian is speaking at a conference here in Los Angeles. Sunday night I had this great idea to take Lindie to Dr. Reinisch in LA. There are 2 docs in the US that are the big names and he is one and the other is the doc in NYC. Monday I called his office and they worked us in today at 4:30 so that Brian could come to the appointment also. My wonderful parents got Lindie and I an airline ticket and are taking care of Cole and Carson while we are gone.

Have I told you that Lindie is the best baby? She slept the entire flight and we never heard a peep from her. Brian said he could travel by himself with her and it would be no big deal. She really is so easy.

We went today to Beverly Hills to see Dr. Reinisch. He said everything that Dr. Ducic said but the only difference is that he would do surgery as early as 4 months but ideally at 6 months when the Hemangioma has stopped growing. He said he would not wait until 12 months for one reason and that reason is the mobility of the child. At 6 months they aren't crawling, standing, and don't seem to pick at or pull on the incision. So he thinks they get better results just based on the developmental stage of the infant. He said that he would not do steriods and would not do laser. These are all things that we were wanting to hear and he told us and we did not have to tell him what we wanted for her. So we will be scheduling her surgery sometime in May or June.

It was just so easy from getting the appointment, getting a airline ticket, getting Brian's ticket rearranged to be on the same flight and to be seated right next to us. The hotel that Brian is lecturing at is only 8.5 miles from Dr. Reinisch's office. So everything just fell into place. Brian and I left his office with a feeling of relief. Don't get me wrong, I am not looking forward to having my baby go through surgery but he explained it to be something very basic and we could even go home the next day if we wanted. It is a out patient surgery and she should be just fine.

So Little Miss Lindie will be going to Beverly Hills 90210 for her surgery. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I really feel like God has just guided us to this path. I actually found a mom of a little girl named Lyndee with a Hemangioma on her forehead. It was a post from 2005 and she was going through laser treatment at the time so I emailed her to see if she could tell me how it all turned out for them since we were thinking about doing laser treatments also. She emailed me back in 10 minutes and told me that at the time that was the best decision for her little girl. She did have some complications (it ulcerated and left a deep scar on the last treatment) from the laser but she felt like it was the best option for her at the time. She then proceeded to tell me that she met a lady whose daughter also had a Hemangioma on the same place and she went to Dr. Reinisch at 6 months and had it removed. She said that this little girl had a hair line scar for about 4 to 6 months and now at the age of 4 she virtually has no sign of the scar.

The Little Smartie!

Yesterday I took Cole to the pediatric dermatologist. He does not like going to the doctor. He was laying on the examining table and he was wiggling like crazy. The doctor had not come in yet. I told him to settle down and he told me that he couldn't because he was nervous. I told him that he didn't even know what nervous meant and he said, "Mommy it means I AM FREAKING OUT!"

After the doctors visit we went shopping at Target. We spent too much money and the reciept kept coming and coming and coming. Cole's eyes got really big and said you spent a lot of money. I told him that it was mostly for him and his brother and sister. He then decided to tell Brian at dinner that Mommy spent a lot of money at target today and proceeded to tell him about the long paper that came out after I paid for it. Thanks Cole. That is a man for you!

Horsing Around

Sunday night we took the boys to see the Lipizzan Horses. Cole thought it was cool and Carson thought it was really cool. He wants to teach his old pony to fly like the lippizan's. Good Luck Carson.

Brian is famous in the WWE....

Just had to share this.  Too funny!  This is this months WWE magazine.

Waiting on appointment in Arkansas for Lindie

Today we went back to see Ducic.  After an hour and 4o minutes of waiting in the waiting room we finally saw Yadro.  He said that he noticed the growth and the deeper red color even from standing out in the hall way before coming in.  Which made me feel a little better because I have been feeling like I have been over reacting with the growth thing.  He basically went over everything again and restated everything that we already knew.  He said that it is growing rapidly and that it does have a darker color (which usually means that it is in the rapid growth stage) and he recommends treatment.   He said that looking at it from a surgical aspect he doesn't want it to go wider because of the loss of skin.  He said that he is a surgeon and he recommends we go to a pediatric dermatologist.  He recommended two, one in grapevine and one in Fort Worth.  Neither specialize in it, and we have actually taken Cole to both of them in the last year.  He said that treatment is going to vary on what doctor we take her to.  Brian and I both agreed today that since it is growing and Ducic recommends treatment we are going to take her to Arkansas.  Arkansas Children's Hospital specializes in vascular anomolies and has a team specifically for this.  Dr. Buckmiller's office (doctor at Arkansas Children's Hospital) contacted me last week and said she would recommend laser and maybe steroid injections.   So now we are waiting to hear back from the RN  that works with Dr. Buckmiller to schedule appointment.  She is in surgery today with Dr. Buckmiller so we probably won't hear back from her until tomorrow hopefully.    She wants to see her on a Monday and do the laser treatments on Tuesday because we are coming from out of town.  

From what I have researched on the internet the pulse dye laser has had very good results in reducing the red color and stopping the growth of the hemangioma.   Brian has had issues with the doctor in NYC because of three reasons.  One is that he is not in a children's hospital, two he did his residency and medical school in South Africa, and three he does not accept insurance.  I have joined a couple of support groups online and have learned more about the doctor in NYC.  He seems like he is all about the almighty dollar and not about the kids.  I was actually contacted in a support forum by someone that is paid by him trying to recruit me to bring Lindie to him.  I found this very strange and was very put off by this.  So I have since realized Brian's first thoughts about him were right.  So we feel like we are taking her to the right place.  We hope that we can get her in to Dr. Buckmiller soon.  It usually takes a month to get in with her but they do make exceptions for urgent cases.  So if they feel that her case is urgent they will fit her in.  So hopefully we will get some answers soon.  We will keep you updated.  Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.  They mean more than you know.

More Words of Wisdom from Carson....

Last night I was putting the kids to bed and I was holding Lindie.  She was not happy because it was time for a bottle and she was fussing a little.  Carson gave her a hug and kiss and that really made her mad.  So she cried even more.  He looked at her and said," there's no tears with your crying so it really doesn't count."

Brian got a call from one of Carson's classmates mom today.  She told him that she had a bone to pick with Brian and I.  She said that Carson is a buddy of her sons and ever since Carson came to school with his new haircut, her son wants a haircut just like Carson's.  She went on to say that they have had to hide all of the scissors in the house.  Brian told her that we did not cut it like that on purpose and he explained what Carson did.  She then understood why he has the haircut (or lack of hair) that he does.  Carson is definately a leader.  He is so proud of his new haircut.  We are in trouble with this one!!!!!!!

Never a dull moment at our house, especially with a Carson

Feb 5, 2008

This weekend Carson decided to cut his hair when he was suppose to be taking a nap.  Believe it or not he actually cut it with kid scissors.  His daddy tried a number 1 on the clippers but he still had big holes in his hair.  So as you can see it is very short.  Carson thinks it is great because he says he looks like an army guy.  

Cole is loving school and is so proud that he can do addition.  He hates the homework every night and to tell you the truth, so do I.    

Lindie is growing and is almost 13 lbs.  She is really getting a personality. She has the cutest cry when she is tired.  She is one of those babies that has a muted cry which we are all thankful for.   Her Hemangioma still seems to be growing.  In one week it grew 1/2 cm in length.  It seems to be growing more towards the hair line and not towards the eye so that is a good thing. We are going back to Ducic on Thursday to see what he says.