Appointments and More Appointments

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One of the unfortunate things about cerebral palsy (CP) are the many co-occurring health issues that go along with it. Because of this, those with CP have more doctors, specialists, and other kinds of providers they see on a regular basis. While the CP itself mainly affects the muscles, other areas of the body are affected as well, which results in more medical challenges.  For instance, besides CP, some of other Faith’s health issues include: ·          Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other digestive issues ·          Scoliosis ·          Bowel and bladder incontinence ·          General anxiety Because of these co-occurring conditions, we have more appointments than the average person. At times, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Faith enjoying a nice fall day On September 23 rd , we ended up in the E...
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What? No Whip Cream for the Pumpkin Pie?

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Me and my little family of three have a Thanksgiving tradition of going out for thanksgiving dinner on our own. This year, though, we invited another family of three to join as they had done years ago after we first moved to Mandan. We had met this family at a church in Mandan and have recently reconnected with them as we all now go to New Life Church.

So thankful to be reconnected with this wonderful family!

So today we headed out to one of the buffets at a local hotel. I was looking forward to eating a delicious turkey dinner and having pumpkin pie with whip cream for dessert. As we walked into the dining room, however, the first thing I noticed was that the pieces of pumpkin on the dessert tables were not topped with whip cream. I wasn't going to complain though, as I didn't want to appear to be ungrateful on Thanksgiving of all days.

As we sat around the table, enjoying our delicious turkey dinner I couldn't help but notice that nobody was taking the bare pumpkin pies set out on the tables. As I finished my second helping of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, I began to think hard about my dessert choice. Was it even possible to eat pumpkin pie without whip cream, I wondered.

I couldn't hold back any longer, I had to say something. "I'm a little bummed that there is no whip cream for the pumpkin pie." Apparently, I wasn't the only one. All the sudden our friends started getting every server's attention asking if there was any whip cream for the pumpkin pie. They said they would check but nobody came back with any whip cream. Finally, Peg decided to hunt someone down in the kitchen.

Just as she left, a server walked by with a piece of pumpkin pie with whip cream! I almost yelled, "Hey there's a piece of pie with whip cream!" 

I wasn't the only one who noticed. Jeremiah, a college football player, was quick to take action. "Excuse me, ma'am. Could we get some whip cream for our pie?" She seemed to be bothered by his question and curtly replied, "hold on just a minute." (Before seeing evidence that there was whip cream in the building, he had been thinking of using the cookie salad as topping for his pie.)

We thought for sure she was never coming back. But she did return with a huge bag of whip cream and Jeremiah asked if he could just have the whole bag. I think he was serious! He had a piece of pie in front of him and she promptly topped it with a little squirt of whip cream. He was not shy about asking for more. He ended up having three or four pieces of pumpkin pie all topped with extra whip cream. 

She then went over to the table of bare pumpkin pies that were just sitting there, amidst one lonely piece of banana cream pie. As she began topping the pies with the wonderful, white whip cream, throngs of people came over and grabbed their piece of pumpkin pie.
 
Pumpkin pie now topped with whip cream!

It was a great dinner and we really enjoyed spending time with our friends. Faith spent a lot of time giggling and laughing eating mashed potatoes and gravy, cookie salad and even a few bites of turkey. And of course, some pumpkin pie with whip cream!
 
Happy Thanksgiving!

It was tough getting Faith out the door, but once we did, she had a lot of fun!


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Appointments and More Appointments

-
Image
One of the unfortunate things about cerebral palsy (CP) are the many co-occurring health issues that go along with it. Because of this, those with CP have more doctors, specialists, and other kinds of providers they see on a regular basis. While the CP itself mainly affects the muscles, other areas of the body are affected as well, which results in more medical challenges.  For instance, besides CP, some of other Faith’s health issues include: ·          Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other digestive issues ·          Scoliosis ·          Bowel and bladder incontinence ·          General anxiety Because of these co-occurring conditions, we have more appointments than the average person. At times, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Faith enjoying a nice fall day On September 23 rd , we ended up in the E...
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My Tetanus Shot Ordeal: A Real Pain in the Arm

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Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm.  The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. My arm is still red and sore on day 2 after my tetanus shot. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four-hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three-hour nap up until 7 o'clock, but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. ...
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Faith's 73-Day NICU Stay

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September is  NICU Awareness Month . For those who don't know, NICU is an acronym for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. According to  World Metrics  50,000 premature babies in the United States receive care each year in the NICU.  The average NICU stay for a preemie is 25 days. Honestly, that number surprises me, as I thought it would be much higher than that. Along with preemies, full-term babies born with certain health issues, such as respiratory distress, jaundice, and other kinds of infections receive care in the NICU.  Tiny Faith in her isolette at Mayo  But for Faith, whose untimely birth consisted of an emergency C-section 11 weeks early, it took 73 days before she was discharged. Those 73 days were a major emotional rollercoaster! And for many reasons, one of which was being nearly 600 miles from home as Faith was born at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. (You can read what led up to that on my post,  October 4, 2003: A Day I'll Ne...
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Faith's 4th

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Every year, the one thing Faith wants to do for the 4th of July is go to the parade in Mandan. It surprises me how much she loves parades, considering the noise and crowds of people. About 20,000 people attend the annual 4th of July parade, and it's filled with very loud firetrucks, big machinery, trucks, and other kinds of loud noises. This year, there was also the concern that it would be more crowded than usual. This was due to the fact that part of the normal parade route was under construction.  Besides all that, the Parade starts at 10:00, which means Faith needs to wake up pretty early so that we can arrive in time. Neither of us had slept well the night before, so I was already concerned that she didn't get enough sleep to get through the long, busy day. I let her sleep as late as possible and prayed for us both to have enough energy to make it through the day. It helped that we could do her morning feeding enroute and also during the parade. She normally doesn'...
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