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Well, true to form, the doctor's office accidentally sent Reece's second blood sample to the Mayo clinic instead of across the street to Children's Hospital (where they sent the 1st sample taken 1 hour earlier.) Ugggg! So, we will have to wait until next week sometime to have the results of that second sample to compare the two. They did say though, that they were a little discouraged that the first sample showed such a low factor level since he had just been given a treatment the day before. We're not going to rush to judgement just yet though. Stay tuned...

Here is a quick video of Mr. Reece walking with his lion that Gammy and Papa gave him for Christmas this year. He LOVES it!!

Reece Update

Well, my little guy has had a rough time this week. Now that he is on the verge of walking he is in to EVERYTHING. This must have been the cause for what we believe was his first true joint bleed. On Tuesday afternoon I noticed that he wasn't standing/jumping in his crib when I got him up from his nap. When I put him down all he did was crawl on his knees pushing his toys around. When I tried to make him stand, he refused to put any weight on his right foot and was would cry when I touched it. These are all red flags for a joint bleed. By this time I noticed it was almost 3pm and if we can get to the doctor's office before 5pm we can have his factor given there without having to be admitted into the hospital. So, after many apologies to Olivia (she already had her swimsuit on ready to go to the pool) I finally got her to put some shorts on and we all jumped in the car. Poor David had of course left for Washington DC on Tuesday morning not to come home until tomorrow afternoon. I was determined though that I could do this alone. When we got Children's Hospital the doc. office only had 3 nurses that were still there. After about 45 minutes and 6 sticks in his arms, wrists and ankles, none of the nurses could get find a vein that would cooperate. They said that if they couldn't find one, we would have to walk next door to Children's Hospital and get a NICU team to find one. This is when I started to get worried. During this time, thank goodness our amazing doctor's office had taken Olivia to the play room to do arts and crafts while Reece was being worked on. (After it was all said and done, she came home with a potted plant made from tissue paper, 2 painted wooden picture frames, and a get-well card for brother). Back to the needles...just before the nurses gave up the doctor came in and was able to find a vein on his foot. They gave him his factor treatment and sent us home. Whew... glad that was over. He and I were both shaking when we left.

HOWEVER, this morning when we all woke up, I noticed that his poor ankle was swollen again and he still refused to put pressure on it. Uggg, I was so upset. I was determined that Olivia wouldn't miss out on her gymnastics and play date we had scheduled so my wonderful friend Maryann took her to do all her stuff. Mom also met up with them later and took her to see Kungfu Panda. Reece and I went back to the doctors office and luckily they were able to get a great vein on the second stick. They took a factor level test first to check against a second blood sample after his factor treatment to test for an inhibitor. An inhibitor destroys the clotting factor before it has a chance to stop the bleeding. We have also read that it occurs in 15%-20% of patients. Please keep us in your thoughts while we wait on the test results for this. We should know something by early next week. The good news is though, that this afternoon the ankle was back to normal and he was back to his mischievous self. We will keep you all posted as we find out anything.

Need A Laugh?

Ever have one of those days where you just need to laugh. Here is my standby video. Most of you know that I have a unique sense of humor. Apparently so do Peyton Manning and the United Way. Enjoy!

Please note that no children were hurt in the making of this video.

Raising Parents

It is said that most children overcome obstacles by not fearing failure. We tell them that mistakes will happen and they are only a way to let us try things again. We make mistakes to learn. I am going to take a dose of my own medicine this week.

I have struggled a little with making sure that Reece is treated like any other child, hemophilia or not. At least treat him the same as we did Olivia at this age. Obviously we take extra precautions, but by far our family handles him much more cautiously that Jaime or I. Enter this week....................I was playing with Reece and threw him in the air which he absolutely loves. He laughs so hard. Two days later:

Thumb prints. These bruises do not seem to bother him, and Jaime and I are getting more used to seeing bruises on him, however it is never easy knowing that you caused them. Needless to say, I will not be doing that again.

Dave

Adjusting Slowly

Well.........we are now established in the apartment, which neither Jaime or I have lived in since college. It is actually a pretty nice apartment after the sticker shock. Prices have definitely gone up in the last 10 years. Wow, 10 years out of college..............we are getting old.


Olivia really likes the new appartment since the invasion of the "DoodleBug". For the first two weeks, she was regulary picking up 30-40 per day and putting them in her jar. It is hard to name all of them even for Livi. Here is a pic of her with a new find!



On a side note, we now know that the Austin Influence has hit Olivia. As she and I were going to the post office this week she was explaining to me that we do not litter on the earth. I asked her what happens when we litter and her response was: "God will turn you into a bug". I guess this is where the term litter bug comes from.

Happy 1st Birthday Reece

Well, my little man turned one on May 24th. In some ways I can't believe it's been a year since we had him, but in many others, it feels like so much longer. I'm a little sad that his first year was so tough because I spent half my time wishing he would hurry up and grow out of what ever issue he was having at the moment, and hardly any time enjoying his baby stage. Thank goodness he is over many of his issues though. Since his party was on the same weekend as our moving into the apartment (I know, great planning mom) we had the festivities at my parents house. We had a really good time. Reece did however, fall and hit his cheek on the very first gift so his face is red and puffy in all of the pictures. He also wanted NONE of his chocolate cake. He is his fathers son I guess.