Oct 2012

 

It is officially fall in Maryland. We have been doing little trips on the weekend around Maryland and West Virginia. Audrey is 31 months now. Audrey has PT 2 week and uses a walker daily to have her own independence. She is working on more leg endurance.The state program for Audrey tested her expressive & receptive language skills. She had a score of 42 months old. She is doing great verball. She really enjoys reading, playing makebelieve and playing with her train and huge assortment of animals.

 Last week was her 3 month post op MRI. We received great news. Audrey's lipoma is smaller and the blood vessels have shrunk away, so there is no major blood supply feeding it at this time. We are very happy and relieved.

 

Shawna currently has 2 jobs in Virginia. 3 x a week, she works for the state of Virginia as a dental educator for the intellectually challenged. 1 x week as hygienist in a regular office. We bought a Nissan Sentra GXE for the 44 mile commute she will have to endure.

 

We went to a pumpkin patch in N Maryland.

fun activities

 

It took about an hour to do the maze

 & solve all the clues.

 

 



A Day at the Rock Hills Orchard N Maryland

 

Picking some apples. The trees are small so Audrey can reach.

 

Audrey playing with her food. We are going to make some pies. Yummy

 

The Audrey Aftermath

On JUN 22 Audrey underwent five tedious hours of laser surgery to remove the lipoma from inside her spinal column. The benign tumor had actually infiltrated inside the spinal cord which is obviously less than ideal. However, for what is was, the surgery was a success. Dr. Davidson stated that the instant the top of the four thoracic vertebrate were removed, there was an immediate relief of pressure on the spinal cord as indicated by an increase in amount of electrical activity in the legs and feet. After the tumor was removed, it only got better. After the completion of the surgery there was mention of possibly having to do the surgery again later on down the road if the lipoma decided to grow out of control again. Audrey will have an MRI in a couple months (for the 5th time) to set a baseline for the growth.  We shall crown Audrey the MRI queen. If anyone has a right to hate hospitals it's her. The pictures below show the lipoma progression.  At 2 weeks old, the lipoma is seen near the marker. At 27 mos, the lipoma has grown nearly 10x the original size severely compressing the spinal cord. The surgery took place next week, with the third MRI picture showing the result. One can see the remainder of the tumor inside the spinal cord.

MRI @ 2 weeks old MAR 26, 2010

MRI discovers tumor JUN 14, 2012

MRI Post Surgery JUN 24, 2012

Audrey has been doing very well after the surgery and can almost fully extend her legs. She does have a slight problem with her right foot angling outward which is due to her hip not rotating correctly. The physical therapist said this should correct itself over time. We built her some parallel (monkey) bars to assist with strengthening her legs and developing balance. 

A week after the surgery a Derecho (storm with high winds caused by the massive heat wave) knocked out our power for four days. Dad had flown in the night before so we all took a road trip up to Niagara Falls to beat the heat. We visited the Canadian side during Canada Day on July 1st and then the American side the next day. It was more spectacular than I had expected. Afterwards, we went to the Alleghany State Park and spend some time at the lake before going home and hoping our power had come back on.

Stay Puft Marshmallow Woman escorts Audrey to the OR

Daddy acting as an Ipad holder

Keeping whiny butt pacified

Frankenstein Scar... Cool!

Red House lake in the Allegheny State Park

Waiting for the 4th of July fireworks in front of the White House

Visiting Joel Salatin's farm in Western Virginia, dad's idyllic sustainable paradise

Bock... bock....  bock...  boggggoocck!

Audrey's magnificent monkey bars post surgery

It almost looks like she can walk!

The bunny and the bear pop up and down. Grotesquely cute.

Hi.

Petting the goats at the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary

Swinging at the farm

Tour de Fat DC

Audrey's favorite station at Tour de Fat

Shawna busts out her clown skills and defies the ball pit. I wasn't so lucky.

Checking out Niagara Falls

Coldplay unplugged...

Coldplay plugged in.  30,000 wrist bands lit up the venue with "Charlie Brown"

count down

As most of you have heard. Our sweet little girl has to have a spinal surgery. Here is an image to show what has happened. Audrey goes to surgery Friday 6/22/2012, at NNMC. This is the hospital that Chad works at for the Navy. The  fat tumor (lipoma) is in the spinal canal taking up the room of the spinal cord. Smashing the spinal cord, so she can not walk without assistance. The neurosurgeons will remove 3-4 spines off the vertebrae from T9-T12. The surgeons are hoping to cut away the tumor without it being integrated into the spinal cords protective covering. Afterwards they will place her bone back on using self absorbing materials that will last a year, which allows time for her bone to grow back. We are all hoping the outcome will be that Audrey will have no lasting damage and will be able to walk on her own. Chad's dad will be coming out the 1st week of July and Shawna's parents will be out after that. Please keep us in your prayers. We will keep you updated.

not a surgeon

 

 

How many toddlers does it take to set up a tent?

Seneca Rocks W Virgina. Great rock climbing.

I was told there was going to be water. Where did it go?

Hike to the top of Seneca Rock 

grand view

First doughnut yummy

trying out the rocks

Happy Birthday TWO you!

Audrey had her second birthday this month and she made the most of it.  She ate her Elmo cake and then went to the Wheaton Regional Park and botanical gardens. The following week she saw the Ringling Brothers perform (somewhat) harrowing feats of magnificence. It would have been more entertaining if someone had been trampled by an elephant or something. Probably my first and last time I attend a circus; they must make more money on concession crap than ticket sales.

Tasty Elmo!

Sophisticated Audrey

Look, a Tiger!

Ringling Bros Circus

Playing with rocks

Trains are awesome!

The winter here has been nonexistent save for the occasional snowflake. Shawna, Audrey and I skied Whitetail Resort on president's day weekend.  Audrey did more daycare than skiing, but I'm sure she still had fun. Shawna figured out how to snowboard and was able to keep up with me the whole time!!

Audrey's brain MRI in early Feb. developed no negative results thankfully. Doctors were looking for indications of cerebral palsy or some sort of brain cyst that may be inhibiting her gross motor skill delays. She is still an enigma. We recently had casts of her legs made to construct leg braces in hopes of helping her walk. We shall see what April brings.

Poor Audrey is sedated.  Wish I could do this every night at bedtime!

A Merry Madagascar Xmas

 Last weekend Shawna, Audrey and I visited the National Harbor area just across the river from Alexandria, VA.  40+ Chinese Chiselers spent a month and a half carving multiple sculptures out of ice blocks to create a Merry Madagascar Christmas theme.

Shawna slides down the slide of dooooom

The best characters of the show: Skipper, Kowalski, Private and Rico

The temperature is regulated around 0 deg F which is pretty chilly on bare hands.  No one was brave enough to lick any ice blocks.  We also visited the marina area to check out the shops and restaurants.

Santa wants YOU to have a merry xmas

The ball of wonder

I like to Move it move it...

The same day, we visited a xmas tree farm and took a tractor ride, ate chili, and picked out free winter clothes for Audrey.  Xmas trees were also being donated to military families but we declined since we have no space in our tiny abode.

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Now an update for Audrey: she is not walking yet (even at 21 months) so we have a physical therapist to help her out a little.  She weighs a gravitational defying 18 lbs now!  She has an extensive vocabulary but cannot string two words together yet.  We are learning numbers and songs and she really enjoys listening to all types of music.  She has finally warmed up to daycare and gets excited when I come to pick her up. It's probably my favorite part of the day.