Coburn Kids

I can hardly believe my little girl is 7 years old now! Well, Gena had a wonderful 2-part birthday. On Oct. 18th we decided to go down to Frightmares at Lagoon instead of having a full-blown birthday party for her. Adessa and her loved it!  You can check out some of the action below:

Adessa and Gena in a plane

Gena convincing Adessa that this ride will be fun. (Yes, that’s a look of terror on Adessa… but she did indeed have fun!)

On the swings!

Next I have some pics from Caden’s surgery.

Getting dressed in his surgery PJ’s

Playing in the waiting room before surgery

After surgery in his hospital room

Then we have the big day of Gena’s birthday. I have to give some explanation with these pictures though, there was a Halloween Carnival for the Jordan Child Development Center (Caden’s OT and Speech Pathologist) that we went to last night. So the girls were able to get dressed up in their costumes so here’s your sneak peek.  Just to give an explanation on these costumes too… *ahem* I told the girls they were going to do Halloween right this year.  (Plus, I really doubt next year I’ll be able to pick what they can do for Halloween now that Gena is getting older, so this was my last year to pick anything out.) Which means none of the all ready dozens of princess costumes they can wear any other day of the year in their dress up clothes, and just add to that collection.  (I sound so mean, but there has to be another mom out there who has dressed her daughter up for one-too-many princess parties like I have!) They still wanted to be pretty though so we compromised and did midnight fairies.  This is the result, and they LOVE IT!

Gena pulls off Goth a little too well….

And the pictures from her family birthday party are below, because we celebrated that right after the carnival:

Gena with her cake

Eating cake!  It was a Hannah Montana cake.

We got Gena her own set of scriptures with her name engraved on them. She went to bed last night reading them… it was enough to bring a tear to my eye! 

Caden is home from his surgery! The little boy is just amazing, I don’t think I can say that enough. He was very irritable the first few hours after his surgery, shaking his head furiously.  After a few hours we finally figured out why when we took of his no-no’s (arm restraints that prevent him from bending his arms) he had to itch his face like crazy! He’s really restless and a bit fussy, no crying though. He started throwing up and running a fever about 3 days afterward, scary but he’s doing much better. We are still piggybacking Tylenol and Ibuprofen for pain. He’s off his all liquid diet and we did baby food for the first time yesterday.  He did really well!

I’m very grateful for his g-tube right now because he’s refusing anything in his mouth.  He won’t let our hands near his mouth.  I tried to wet his lips because they were dry and he did NOT like that. I haven’t had a chance to see inside his mouth yet but just so that everyone knows he had his soft and hard palate closure, gumline repair, and a nasolabial fistula (where the rebuild the nasal floor).  A lot for such a little guy.

A huge thanks to my church though. I had 2 wonderful ladies from my ward stop by my house on Sunday night just to visit and say hi.  Some other members of my ward dropped off dinner on Monday and Tuesday for us as well. We’ve also had so many phone calls today asking about our little son and wondering how he’s doing from family, friends and people in my ward. I can’t express my gratitude enough for all the help and support those around us have been. THANK YOU!

In other news Daniel is losing his job.  As far as I understand it just came down to a numbers game at work, considering how much Daniel has done for his company and the years he’s been there it’s a blow. I can’t tell you how stressful this is because of Caden.  Health insurance is our biggest worry, having been through this before we can’t afford to do the outrageous COBRA payments (typically running over $1000+ a month), house payments and medical bills we still have. Unemployment certainly doesn’t pay enough and we can’t lapse in coverage since then Caden would be uninsurable or fall under pre-existing condition clauses. So we have to find a large company with good benefits quickly. If you know of anything at all, please shoot us an e-mail. Doesn’t have to be in Utah either, we can’t really expect to hold hope to stay here but we would like to try.

We’ll keep trucking on. Next week we have Caden’s eye appointment on Nov. 3rd to see what’s going on with his eyes. A follow-up with his plastic surgery on Nov. 5th, we also have Caden’s Occupational Therapist that day and his Speech Pathologist as well. Then we also have Caden’s pediatrician appointment on Nov. 6th. Later on the 6th we have Daniel’s mom coming in from Chicago for a visit too.  Busy weeks ahead!

This last Tuesday Caden had his hearing test through the Utah Department of Health’s Preemie Clinic. We are still showing moderate hearing loss on the low frequencies and mild in the high frequencies. The audiologist stated this could be because of the length that Caden wasn’t hearing and we are retesting after Christmas sometime and then we’ll start making decisions about hearing aids and so forth.

I talked with Caden’s Early Intervention OT and Speech and they felt we should be connected to PIP here in Utah so are contacting them for us.  It stands for Parent Infant Program and helps kids with hearing and vision problems, it’s through the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. So another therapist/doctor for us to see.

Caden’s surgery is on Monday, no time set yet. Daniel and I are fighting with our insurance company on a number of issues, a saga I will not bore you with.

At this point, by the time Caden’s an adult I should have a medical degree by default!

First off, the girls primary program on Sunday was adorable.  The girls looked great and they did their parts perfect.  Adessa didn’t even need her teacher’s help as she had memorized her part.  They sang beautifully and Grandma and Grandpa were able to come and see them.

Caden’s surgery was at 8:45 AM in the morning and he was just so happy to have all of mommy and daddy’s attention. What was really cool is that we were able to go back with him this time.  Since it was only being done in the dental operating room both Daniel and I went back and were able to hold his hand as he went to sleep.

Caden wearing his surgery PJ’s and in the waiting room

We spent only a 1/2 hour in the waiting room. Dr. Romney, who removed his palate prosthesis came out first and actually gave us the piece.  I thought it would be larger, and those screws… owwww. Dr. Park, who did the ear tubes, came out next and Caden did great.

Caden’s little palate prosthesis, look at the screw!

I went back to the recovery room with him and he was awake. Once again, his nurse couldn’t believe how wonderful he was. No crying or fussing afterwards just checking everything out.  Back in the post-op room I swear every single kid in there was crying or screaming.  The noise level was incredible.  Caden fussed a bit but never cried. What a great lil’ guy huh?!

Caden after surgery, no he does not look happy.

So he’s home and doing great. We’ve got him on just a bit of Tyelnol.

I have a full week filled with fun things such as the Circus, a Fun Run at Gena’s school, a Women’s Show Expo with my mom, the girls Primary Program practice, then their actual Primary Program on Sunday, a ward Ice Cream Social, my brother’s housewarming party and so forth. I have other not-so-fun things such as another Preemie Clinic to see the neurologist with Caden, his phone call on Friday from Primary Children’s so that I can find out the time of his surgery.

My husband told me of a man at his work who’s wife was completely distraught when her own son had to go in for surgery for ear tubes.  It makes me stop and think, that I consider this surgery (he’s having his palate prosthesis removed to) to be a minor one. Not even worth the time to really worry about it.  Yet I do, because surgery never gets routine.  I think my heart starts racing because I’m thinking of his big surgery coming up in October. Where he’ll be on that operating table for 3+ hours. His tiny body on that big bed, sleeping while his plastic surgeon slices/repairs and closes everything up. For me, the moment your surgeon walks into that waiting room after your child’s surgery is one of the most heart-wrenching, scary, and tense moments of your life.

It’s as if time slows down. You watch the doctor’s walk. His body movement. His facial expression. Is he giving anything away? Is he going to say the dreaded words of “Let’s go into another room and talk” or the words “He did great! No problems”. At that moment you have every emotion running through you and you are just waiting to let out a sigh, a gasp, something… anything.  For me, the moment is more intense then the walk back to see your child in the recovery room.

I was nervous to see Caden after his lip repair.  What would he look like?  Would I still recognize that little face? Would he be crying? Would he still be asleep? But I all ready knew that he was fine. That everything went well. So much of the tension had all ready passed.  The same with his feeding tube.

I know other parents that their moment of tension is handing the child off to the nurse or doctor.  For others it’s the waiting room.  For other’s it walking back to see their child after their surgery.  It’s probably different for every parent but for me, hands down, the moment the doctor walks in after the surgery.

7 more days until I feel that moment again.

Labor Day weekend was wonderful. The girls and Daniel spent Friday boating at our lake, which they loved. Saturday we decided to take the girls up to the mountains for lunch.  They did not want to leave! We were enjoying hiking around and seeing all the trees and plants. They really loved the river too. Later that day the girls and Daniel went back to our community pool while Caden took his nap.

Daniel and the girls in the mountains

Sunday was my little nephew Ethan’s 3rd birthday party. We started out at a park but the wind was terrible so we headed over to their house for cake and ice cream. The girls always love to see their cousin and play with him.

The girls at Ethan’s Bday

Grandma with Caden

Cousin Ethan with Aunt Angie and Uncle Ryan

On Monday, we headed to my Dad’s Labor Day Picnic he has for his union. It was rainy at the start but turned out wonderful, even a little cool. They gave away some awesome prizes of books and games and there were some blow-up slides to keep the girls entertained.

It was so nice to spend the weekend with the girls and they certainly enjoyed themselves.

Adessa also started dance classes on Thursday.  She was so excited to get all dressed up in her dance clothes and had a blast.  Her teacher said she was just great, following directions and was all smiles and giggles the whole time.

Adessa in her dance clothes

I’ll have to tell you about our fun Labor Day Weekend and Adessa’s first day of dance in a few days here when I can get the pictures up… but first off -

Caden has his new OT and Speech Pathologist.  Becka and Lynette.  Two wonderful woman who were just so excited to start working with Caden. They spent 1 1/2 hours at my house on Wednesday and we went thoroughly over Caden’s feeding issues.  Caden is on another cycle again of not wanting to eat.  2-3 oz’s he’s decided is all he needs. We discussed a lot of what may be the issue behind his refusal, from apettite issues to maybe it’s getting up in his palate. They’ll be coming out every other Wednesday at 2:30 pm to work with him.

In other Caden news he is getting another tooth!  His top front left tooth is coming in and seems to be coming in fine.  With cleft babies you never know if they’ll come in sideways, weird angles, even upside down! But this one seems to be fine, it’s right near the notch in his gumline and he is constantly playing with it with his tongue feeling it.

Caden and I trekked up to Primary Children’s again today… and I can tell we have been going up there too much because the guy who hands out parking passes didn’t even ask me which building I was visiting today.  Just handed over the pass since it’s the same guy there every time.

Caden’s ENT is Dr. Park and after waiting for 1 1/2 hours we finally got in to see him.  He was surprised at the amount of paperwork that is there for our lil’ guy. But we were able to schedule Caden’s ear tube surgery on the same day of his palate prosthesis and will be coordinating with Dr. Yamshiro. That’s a great relief that we can combine those 2 surgeries since they are so minor.

He’ll have to see the ENT about once a year to check on his ear tubes, and about a month after the surgery they’ll want to do another hearing test. According to Dr. Park doing the hearing test directly after the ear tube surgery isn’t really reliable. Those surgeries, by the way, will take place Sept. 29th.

Also, the girls hearing results came back fine.  Great news!

Just as an update, Caden’s blood test results came back normal.  When I asked the nurse who reviewed them about his hemoglobin she thought we were looking for anemia… had to tell her it was the opposite actually.  His hemoglobin came back at 13.6, they said 13.5 is high so he’s just slightly over that mark. So nothing to worry about there.  It’s hard though to have your heart and mind be put through the wringer with these tests.  Wondering about the worst, but Caden just keeps on truckin’ on.

This week I have Gena and Adessa’s hearing tests on Thursday.  With the amount of ear infections they’ve had, and the fact that Gena has complained previously about thing sounding muffled I figured it was better safe then sorry.  Daniel also has early hearing loss so that’s a factor too. Then on Friday is Caden’s appointment with the ENT.  They sent over the referral but I’m not sure who exactly we’ll be seeing yet but that’s at 11 AM up at Primary Children’s.

In other news, Adessa has now been signed up for dance.  She has been begging to go to dance classes for at least a year now but I could never find one that would work with our schedule.  So now, starting on Sept. 4th she’ll go every Thurs. from 12-12:45 PM.  She’s super excited and we even got her new dance clothes and she’s just prancing around the house in them. I’ll have to get some pictures up of her in her dance clothes. The best part about the dance classes is that they are at our neighborhood community center as well. So very convenient.

Yesterday we went for Caden’s blood test, with the almost I’m-pretty-sure-he-has-an-iron-deficiency-because-of-all-the-signs mentality. He has spooned fingernails, he’s been very tired lately, he’s been irritable, he’s a preemie so it wouldn’t be all that surprising.  In addition, we haven’t been giving him his iron drops for months (he’s supposed to get them until 12-15 months old… bad mom I know) and he’s just on a regular formula now.  But noooooooo, Caden has to blindside me with his hemoglobin results.  He’s a 17.  I was pretty clueless to what a 17 meant too so I’ll explain.

Normal hemoglobin in a child 6 months old – 3 years old is 11-13 gm/dl.  Caden is a 17 gm/dl.  It’s extremely high. Way too high. Especially for a preemie who has had numerous surgeries. And just for my science lessons here, hemoglobin tests measure the amount of red blood cells in your bloodstream.  More of them means that your blood is thicker.  Thick blood = bad. Turns out my neglectful parenting could be a great thing!  That and the preemie clinic doctors were so sure of an iron deficiency too that they wanted me to increase his iron!

So today I am headed up to Primary Children’s (again) to get a full blood work up on Caden that involves filling 5 vials.  He won’t be happy. And because everyone has asked, no I’m not really sure what all this means. I’ve done some research and besides maybe some pulmonary hypertension nothing sounds like anything Caden has.  Not that pulmonary hypertension is something to be casual about because it’s very serious but literally… nothing else fits. So his test results will be interesting. I am right now leaning toward a possible fluke, where it just measured high for no reason.