First, the girls had their first birthday!! What a celebration we had!! We had their party in NC so that it would be easier for all the grandparents to come. The girls really enjoyed their cake and opening all their presents!! Thanks to everyone that showed up to help us celebrate! On their actual birthday, John took off for the day and we took them to have pictures made and then went downtown and walked around some at the SC State House. We got some really great pictures! We tried to walk around inside, but the girls quickly learned that the hallways echoed, so we didn’t get to spend a lot of time inside.
The month of December brought a whole new world of challenges for us. First in December, we celebrated our 2nd anniversary! Thanks to a lovely gift from a dear friend we were able to enjoy a semi-formal dinner and Mark Schultz concert in Charlotte. It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with just the 2 of us. Thankfully our celebration was the weekend before our anniversary, because the night of our anniversary (12/10) the girls got sick. At first we all thought it was just simply a 24-hour stomach bug, but here we are almost 7 weeks later and still dealing with it. (We won’t even go into the fact that Mommy and Daddy both got sick as well).
At first the girls were just vomiting, but it got to the point of dehydration and we needed to go to the day hospital to get IV fluids. While there, they learned that the girls blood sugars had dropped dangerously low. Thankfully they were able to get them back up and rehydrate the girls. But, that was just the beginning. The next day the girls were turning blue around their mouth and nose, and on their lips. So, this resulted in another trip to the day hospital to run a few more tests. They didn’t find anything that was the cause of this, so they sent us home.
After a week of vomiting, we thought we were about to see the end, and then the diarrhea started. (The diarrhea actually started while we were in the ER and Daddy had to come home wearing scrubs that night.). Over the next 3 weeks, we ended up making 7 trips to the ER and 1 trip to the urgent care. The problem was, we were unable to see our pediatrician. Right before the girls got sick, their pediatrician left our practice to go to a new practice. So, every time we called the doctor’s office we got someone new to talk to and they would always send us back to the ER. Although we probably would have ended up in the ER anyway because the girls continued to get dehydrated and needed more IV fluids.
Finally on 12/31/07 we were able to get into to see their normal doctor at her new practice. Finally, someone that has worked her hardest to figure out what in the world is going on with my poor little girls! However, the first thing she did was admit the girls to the Children’s hospital to run some tests and get some continuous IV fluids. We ended up staying for 2 nights. Yup, we spent New Years Eve and Day in the hospital. While we were there the girls saw someone from neurology, cardiology, respiratory, and endocrinology. After 2 days, lots of blood work and lots of IV fluid, they sent us home with glucometers for the girls so that we could monitor their blood sugar for a couple of weeks to see if there were any problems there.
A week after leaving the hospital, the girls still had pretty bad diarrhea, so we were sent to see a pediatric gastroentrologist. So they did some more blood work and told us to come back in 2 weeks. So, this past week we went back and they informed us that the tests they ran came back negative, but they are concerned because the girls are still not eating normally and are losing weight. So, they suggested that we have an upper endoscopy test done.
We also met with the endocrinologist this week too, and after looking at the girls blood sugar readings for a couple of weeks, they feel pretty confident that their blood sugars are normal, that the drops were just due to the illness. They did however discover that Kathryn’s alkaline phosphatate levels were elevated. So, they’re going to have to re-check those in a few weeks and if they’re still high then we will probably be in for some more tests.
During all of our multiple doctor visits, the girls also managed to pick up some kind of respiratory virus, that turned into ear infections. That resulted in another couple of ER trips as Kimberly was unable to catch her breath and was turning blue and having retraction breathing. They have been on nebulizer treatments for the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, now we’re down to only one medicine 2 times a day and the other medicine only as needed.
The girls are scheduled for their upper endoscopy test on Thursday 1/31/08. This is an out patient procedure, but they will have to put the girls under IV sedation for the procedure. John and I (ok probably most me) are a little nervous about the sedation and the procedure, but we have talked to a lady who’s son had to go through this at the same age as the girls and so we’re feeling more comfortable.
In the midst of all of this, the girls are just growing and developing quicker then I ever thought possible. They are walking everywhere and have recently tried to run. They love to climb, so don’t get in their way! They are 2 of the sweetest girls, always offering hugs and kisses. They are so smart too (of course I’m not biased at all!). But, they are starting so express their differences as well. Kathryn is our mobile child. She doesn’t like to sit still for longer then 2 minutes, and she doesn’t really think before she acts. If it looks like something fun to climb on, she’s all over it. Kimberly is our more observant child. She likes to sit back and watch Kathryn to make sure something is safe before she climbs on it. Kimberly is also our reader. She will bring you a book and you can read it to her multiple times before she gets bored.
Ok, well I’m sorry for such a LONG update!! I will try to get better at this and keep you more up to date with whats going on in our lives. I’ve got a lot of pictures to share. However, the girls won’t sit still for long, so a lot of them are probably action shots! Please drop us an email and let us know how things are going for you. (We have a new family email address: jones.family@earthlink.net).
Take care!!
Getting ready for cake in our t-shirts that were meant to keep our outfits clean..they didn't work
(They say "Happy Birthday to my Sister! (Oh and me too!)")
Kathryn...before
We like facing forward in the car...so much more to see!!
We like our yogurt drinks, and we can drink them like big girls
We like the shiny red balls
(Sorry if blurry, this is a picture of a picture, but it was too cute not to share)
Ready to go bye bye
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