long update!

There are a lot of things to catch up on!

We will start with the medical stuff:
Starting Easter weekend, Ethan starting getting sick. He would get fevers each night, eat very little, be tired enough to actually fall asleep at night, complain of achy arms, legs, and have more headaches. It was really strange though because during the day he would feel good and have no fevers! It was the strangest thing to be healthy during the day and then get sick each night! He still has the wet cough that he's had for over a month now. I figured with all the other symptoms that his wet cough turned into pneumonia again. We went to the pediatrician yesterday to get checked out. She listened to his lungs and said they sound really good once he actually coughs. That is a huge relief - no pneumonia! :) The doctor said he has a bad sinus infection. Another thing she figured out was he is getting all of his 6-year-molars right now! She thinks he might've had a virus along with this, but seems to be getting over it already so that is good. His sinuses and teeth are most likely the reason for his weird fevers and pain. We'll continue with all of his breathing treatments and vest therapy. He is also starting amoxicillin to hopefully help him out. Tonight is the second night in a row without a fever, so hopefully we're on the right track to getting healthy! :)

He also has petechiae all over his body - mainly his chest, but also on his back and legs. The doctor ordered labs to make sure his levels were all within range. The doc called later that night with his results and apparently his INR, PT, and PTT levels were a little high. She was concerned about this, so we spoke to cardiology today and got their opinion. Our cardiologists are out of town, but the on-call doctor said that his levels are not in a dangerous range for him. He does want labs repeated in a week to make sure everything is okay and hopefully back in range.

John also has had a very busy couple of weeks. Many of you know already through Facebook, but for the rest, John was in a motorcycle accident 2.5 weeks ago. He is okay thankfully, but has a broken collarbone and tons of road rash. His road rash is healing well now even after going through a round of infection with it. We just returned to the ortho doctor today and his collarbone is starting to heal. He broke it in 4 places, but the middle section that was completely loose has started to connect with the rest. It is realigning and starting to heal well! We return in 2 weeks for another x-ray and hopefully will be cleared to remove his sling and start using his arm again. Here are some pictures about the crash.

Easter:
We had a great Easter weekend! I hope you all did too! The kids went on an Easter egg hunt at Lakeview Park. They had a lot of fun collecting eggs and taking pictures with the Easter bunny.

We had a great time having family dinners and seeing everyone. The kids loved finding their Easter baskets and enjoyed their baskets and gifts from everyone. In addition to all the gifts from all their grandparents, the kids got their candy and treats Easter morning. Ethan especially loved his Lego kit and disappeared to build it all morning! :)

School:
Things have been going really well at school! I'm so proud of how the kids are doing! The kids brought home their report cards a couple weeks ago. Callie always brings home great report cards, so I was happy as always with hers. I was however very surprised (and thrilled) with Ethan's report card! The past cards we've received have not been good. Basically failing everything. This time was completely different! He has mastered everything except the boxes that have check marks in them. I can't believe how much he has improved just recently! He's enjoying attending school. He's really loving learning how to read and tries to write letters/signs constantly by sounding out words. I love it!

Callie's report card (above)

Ethan's report card (side 2)

Ethan's report card (side 1)

one of Ethan's spellings (that is supposed to say "handcuffs")

He also was picked to have his artwork displayed at the upcoming Art Fair! I'm so proud of him and he's so excited to have been chosen! Callie is certainly jealous since she has never been selected to be in the fair! She certainly isn't used to being outdone by her little brother! LOL!

My last point is just a little sales pitch! :) I'm now officially selling AdvoCare products! John and I started using the products 2 months ago. We each did the 24-Day Challenge which is a cleanse and supplements to kick start your weight loss/wellness program. John actually lost almost 20 pounds already! After the challenge we continued on with some products to maintain the health benefits and I couldn't be happier! My main problem was a lack of energy (probably due to the fact that I don't get enough sleep at night between work, school, and the kids)! I went to Starbucks on a daily basis, and that is not easy since the nearest one is 20 minutes away. Now with AdvoCare I don't go to Starbucks at all - and I don't miss it one bit! I'm continuing taking products like Spark (a drink for energy and mental focus), Omegaplex (great vitamins/fish oil), and ThermoPlus (helping burn fat and increase energy). I love the products and couldn't be happier with how much better I feel now! I have had major problems with healthcare products in the past. My stomach is extremely sensitive and I can't even handle a regular daily vitamin without getting sick. These products don't make me sick and help me so much! Even the energy drinks aren't like normal ones you find in the stores. They don't make you jittery, they are sugar free, and they don't contain anything to increase your heart rate or cause any health concerns!

AdvoCare sells so many different kinds of products and they are all natural and good for you. There are products for overall wellness (vitamins, aging health, women's health), weight loss, and performance elite (muscle building, strength training, and overall muscle toning, etc. There are great benefits and you will be amazed with how you feel!

I just wanted to let you all know that if you are interested in any of these products, please feel free to let me know. I have a website that you can order products directly from. Click on the "products" tab to search all the different product options. Then click the "shop" link to purchase products and have them sent directly to you! You will be happy you did! Also, if you have any questions about anything feel free to contact me. You can email me directly at jkbradley44@gmail.com, text me at 216-394-2741, or Facebook message me. I will help answer any questions you have and help point you in the direction to give you the best results! I can also provide some great recipes and tips that have helped us on our journey! :)

Here is the website:
https://www.advocare.com/140457681/default.aspx


Overall, things have been going really well here. John is continuing to heal and is feeling better each day thankfully. Ethan is already starting to feel better, so hopefully he will continue to improve quickly as well! Thank you for all the prayers and support! I will update again soon to let you all know how his labs went, how he's feeling, and some other fun things that are coming up! For now, we have our first soccer game for Callie tomorrow - the first two were rained out. We also are in full swing with softball practices and games will start in a couple weeks. We're definitely keeping busy, but doing well thankfully! I'll update again soon with our upcoming activities!

cardiology and random updates

Today Ethan had a cardiology appointment. Ethan has been doing really well and I didn't want to even go in for an appointment because I didn't want to "rock the boat". We went in and had our echo first. Everything looked good and they were able to see some blood flow in his pulmonary vein. This leads us to believe that it's not occluded again, so that's a very good thing! We don't know for sure because Ethan's anatomy doesn't allow us to get a good view of it at all, but just based on our past experience we think it's open. Ethan's oxygen saturations were 72% today, which is good for Ethan.

We have been passing around a cold through the house lately. The kids have been congested with headaches and sore throats for the past few days. Yesterday John caught it and had a fever, aches, headache, congestion, and sore throat. Today John's starting to feel better, but I definitely caught it now. The kids still aren't feeling good, but hopefully we can all turn a corner soon! I've been Lysoling everything in the house constantly - even though it doesn't seem to be working yet! :( Even with Ethan not feeling well, his lungs didn't sound junky today! :) Definitely a huge blessing! Hopefully we can keep them clear and none of his congestion travels into them!

Upon listening to his heart, the doctors noted that his murmur has increased. It was listed as Stage 3 on the chart and now it's Stage 4. His heartbeat is very visible on his chest just by watching it - I've noticed it's become much more obvious these past few weeks. I brought it up to Dr. G, but I also don't know if I've only just noticed it or if it's gotten worse lately.

We also brought up the iron topic again. Nothing happened with it during our last discussions because we never came up with a solution for the liquid/adult pill being split for his correct dose. Today we decided that he'll start taking a multivitamin with iron to start. We'll see how things look at his next appointment in 3 months. If I remember correctly, his hemoglobin is around 13 and for his anatomy he should be around 18. Hopefully the iron will help increase this count. If the vitamin iron doesn't do the trick, we'll look into figuring out a regular iron for him to take instead.

Basically, we're happy with how Ethan looks right now. We have no plans to change anything (other than iron) or to do any intervention soon. The next step will be the open heart surgery to replace his conduit. We are just going to continue watching and waiting to see when that will happen. We are looking to wait until his saturations are in the low to mid-60s. That will tell us that he definitely is needing the surgery. Hopefully that can wait a LONG time and we don't have to worry about it anytime soon. We'll continue our every three month appointments, at home monitoring, and just watching to see what he needs.

On the way out of the hospital (after our obligatory Starbucks stop of course) a policeman stopped us in the lobby. Now Ethan had been slightly anxious about the cops all over the place - for some reason there were tons of police outside as well as inside today. Ethan LOVES police but still gets nervous when he sees them for some reason. This officer stopped us and asked me if he could give Ethan something. He asked Ethan what his name was. He then pulled out a little badge and told Ethan he was now an official police helper at the Clinic! He pinned the badge on him and told him that we can now count on him! Ethan felt so special and I was so happy that this policeman took a few minutes out of his day to do that for him! Even something that might seem like a little gesture to him just really made Ethan so incredibly happy - especially after hours of appointments! :) I wish I would have gotten a picture of the two of them together!

That pretty much wraps up the medical stuff.

Ethan's class is planning a field trip to the zoo in the beginning of May. I signed up to be a parent volunteer since obviously he wouldn't be able to go roaming the zoo without me there! Each parent is supposed to be assigned three children to be in charge of. I contacted Ethan's teacher today to make sure that him using a stroller to get around the zoo wouldn't cause a problem. He'd never be able to walk around there, and my back would break if I had to carry him! She said a stroller would be no problem and she also let me know that I was only assigned him with no other kids to watch. I was a little surprised, but she probably just wanted to make sure that if Ethan needed to rest, other kids weren't being held up because of him. It's probably a good idea.

I spoke with another heart mom about a stroller she uses for her son. He's close to Ethan's age, so I figured she might be able to recommend a good one. She said she absolutely loves the one she uses and it goes up to 75 pounds, so she gave me the info on it and we'll be looking to get that soon. I have to get it off Amazon or something since our regular stores only carry strollers that hold up to 50 pounds. Thankfully the one she recommended is only $400 whereas most of the other 75 pound strollers were closer to $800! Still crazy expensive for a stroller, but at least it'll let us get around much more easily! It also has a basket thing underneath to hold oxygen if necessary, so that's great. :)

 Another thing we were able to do was go to my friend's son's 1st birthday party! He is absolutely adorable and we had a great time at the party! There were lots of kids for Callie and Ethan to play with, great food, and fun goody bags for the kids to enjoy! :) Even Fiona got in on the fun when the balloons came home! ;)

 

Callie has another spelling bee to attend tomorrow night (Thursday). She won her class round, so now all the class winners are going to compete in this round two competition. The winner of this goes on to the county spelling bee! Unfortunately, Callie has not put forth much effort (or any at all) in studying her words, so we'll see how well she does tomorrow! I'm still pretty excited that she's involved in this! Hopefully she feels better so she can concentrate!

Other than that, we're just keeping busy with school, work, girl scouts, soccer, and softball. Our school has decided to make each school day a half hour longer from April 7-May 30. This will make up 4 of the snow days we used. The fifth snow day to make up will be done with a "blizzard bag". This is apparently a bag of work that the kids will have to complete over spring break. That should be interesting. Ethan asked to play soccer and baseball this spring. Unfortunately, I had to say no since he's not allowed due to his heart. :( He was sad, so instead he's going to sign up for the S.N.A.G program (starting new at golf). He also expressed interest in returning to karate. I told him to start with the golf since now's the season for it. In the fall if he's still interested, we can look into doing karate again. It'd be good for him, but I just don't know if I can handle four separate activities at once! And that's not even including my own work and school!

I forgot to add in pictures of the kids riding their quads. The weather finally warmed up enough for them to get out and ride a few times! They absolutely love it and have such a great time riding around!

Please keep us in your prayers for health and sleep. Ethan is definitely struggling in the sleep area again! Also please keep our heart friends that are sick right now (one in particular is waiting for a new heart) as well as those who have recently earned their angel wings. It has definitely been a rough few weeks in the heart community, but I pray for some peace and good news for a while! Thank you all for your love and support!