What a whirl

The past few weeks have went by in a flash. I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone.

I don't have but a few minutes so I'll be quick.

Evie's broncoscopy went as well as could be expected. She is a little "scrub/labcoat" shy at this point, but that is to be expected. The worst part of the whole thing was getting the i.v. going. I had to basically lay on top of her while two nurses worked to get it in. The poor little thing was wringing with sweat by the time it was in and she has said mamamama and no, no, no, no about a hundred times. Anyway--from the procedure they were able to rule out surgery. Her airway is just fine and not obstructed at all. (Praise the Lord!!!!!) They took some samples and grew some cultures from those and have discovered that she has a staff infection (the doctor assured me it wasn't the dangerous kind you are hearing about in the news) and also that her "gamma globulins"--they the numbers they check to see how your immune system is fuctioning--anyway the one number for the lower part of her lungs is low. So basically her immune system is not fighting off things in that area. We are in the process of waiting on some more blood tests to get back to see where to go from here. I believe they are checking to see how her immune system has responded to the regular immunizations she has received and then we will go to an immunizologist (that may not be the right word--anyway an immunization specialist) to see what can be done to boost her immune system in the lower lung area. Whew--for now we are just having to do two breathing treatments a day with a mask. The boys say she look likes a fire breathing dragon because we have these cute little dinosaur masks and the vapor comes out two little holes. I'll have to post a picture. She is tolerating it better, but still looks so pitiful when we sit there holding her hands so she doesn't yank the whole thing off.

On a more happy note--Evie started walking around the 17th of November. Now she is really into everything with the boys!

Here are a few recent pictures and I have to go.

Here is Evie sporting the same hunting outfit her brothers have worn (plus the orange socks...a girl's got to accesorize:)

Look at what we get to enjoy all of the time...here are our "cowboys" taking a rest before hitting the trail. (We think they are so cute!)

Finally, a quick update on the Surprise party...this is the death look I got from my hubby when he realized we weren't going to a movie and that all of what he saw was for him...notice how pleased Jon's brother Josh (behind him) and sister-in-law Jennifer (to the left) are with the situation? I have to say a HUGE thanks to both of them because without their help and everyone else in the Littlejohn family, we wouldn't have pulled off the surprise. He was TOTALLY surprised...can you tell? He did get a litte more happy after a few minutes:)

Update on Evie

Many of you already know that Evie has been having some sort of breathing problem since mid-May. We thought maybe seasonal allergies (but the medical community seems to think babies can't have allergies) Anyway our doctor kept an eye on it all summer and really believed it was RAD (Reactive Airway Disease)--in an adult this would be Asthma, but so many babies grow out of it that they don't want to label them as having "asthma"--long story short (and vaguely I feel like maybe I've posted about this already) anyway--we have tried inhalers, a nebulizer, I've tried not eating dairy products, keeping her from eating any wheat etc., etc.

Since she is still having problems our doctor thought we should see a pediatric pulmonologist. We did last Wednesday and after quite a while of examining her, listening to her, and asking us questions he told us he really doesn't think it is asthma. Instead he thinks she may have an artery that should be laying beside her wind pipe actually laying across it and causing it to flatten instead of stay round and open. He said it has probably been this way since she was born, but she caught her first cold/virus in May and it basically got trapped down below where she can't cough it up. Most of us have a little mucus/secretion in our airway that a good cough clears out. Evie's just sort of stays trapped and moves up and down. (This is how we get the sound Jon likes to call "Darth Vadar") They went ahead and send us somewhere else and did a test Wednesday to check her swallowing and didn't see any obstruction as things went down to her stomach--which is good--if they did that would have meant the artery was actually wrapped around both airway and esophagus--but it's not, so now we have a "procedure" scheduled at Cox South in Sprinfield on the day before Thanksgiving. They will actually put a camera up through her nose and down her throat to check if her airway is open or looks flattened. She will have an I.V. and be sedated so she is more comfortable. It will be done in the NICU because the beds are nice and open all the way around and they have all the monitoring equipment--for keeping a close eye on her during it. We can stay with her right up until they put the camera in and then they will record everything so the doctor can go over the video with us when he is done. If it doesn't' look flattened he will still take some cultures to try and figure out what is going on. If it is flattened like he thinks it is he told us it will just require a "simple sugery" to move the artery over off of her airway. (No surgery near the heart/lung area sounds simple to me...he did say we would need to be at a Children's Hospital to have that done if that is what they find.) So please keep us in your prayers next Wednesday. They said after a breathing treatment or two for inflamation she should be ready to go--sometime between noon and 2:00 p.m.

Jon and I are still not sure if I am going to go this one alone...he will already be missing work on Thursday because of Thanksgiving...so he may have to be here on Wednesday. (Being self-employed has its perks and its "not so perky" parts. :)

Anyway--that updates everyone on what is going on with the breathing stuff. Other wise we are just racing along to the holidays it seems.

(Had to edit here because Jon just happened to check our e-mail and I forgot when anyone leaves a comment it notifies us in our e-mail. I am turning that little feature off--and hopefully he will forget how wierd I acted when he tried to click on the comments e-mails. Oh well--if you're reading this and it makes no sense whatsoever, give me a call and I'll explain.)