Fill #8

Who knows what was wrong, but at least the blog is up and running again. It wouldn't allow me to post anything new. But it is now, so let's move along before it changes its mind.

Last week Wednesday was Keziah's second last fill. We are excited about that for her (and us)! That means tomorrow will be her last one!!!

We once again left bright and early, taking Lincoln with us as we planned to continue on to Ottawa. Lincoln was excited!

Through all of these trips, Keziah is proving to be quite a consistent girl: excited to go to the hospital, eager to play, kick and scream during the procedure and then happy to play again. Although she still gets quite upset during the procedure, I do not anymore, knowing how quickly she recovers. Kids are so resilient!

25 cc's (forehead) and 18 cc's (cheek) later, we were about to leave but someone else needed to be seen by Dr. Zucker.

Nathan has this tiny pinprick of a mark on the end of his nose which if scratched,
will bleed till the cows come home. Well, while waiting with Keziah, he was playing with Lincoln and Linc got a hold of his dad's nose, which opened up that pinprick. And it bled. And bled and bled and bled. It started just as we got there, through the whole time we were waiting, during the procedure, during bravery bead picking and chocolate milk buying, all the while him dabbing at it. Dr. Zucker came to the rescue and treated it for him! This was good or else he would have been dabbing at it throughout the drive to Ottawa! Keziah was very impressed with her dad's bravery, asking "daddy, you didn't cry?!". And since I know you are wondering, no, he did not get a bravery bead. :o)

Chocolate milk and cookie in hand, off we went to Ottawa!

And here she is with one more fill to go:






Yup!! Still smiling!!

I do hope to post about our trip to Ottawa in the next days. Today Keziah has her physical (preperation for surgery next week) and Wednesday we go back to the hospital. So more blog posts coming!

Once again, thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, emails, calls, cards etc. The support we have received is humbling. Knowing that we are remembered in prayer is comforting. What an amazing God we have, One that is oh so powerful yet approachable. Thank you for approaching Him with us and on our behalf!

Testing out the blog......it's giving me trouble. Hopefully I can figure it out!!  Check back soon!

Our Break!

It was a nice break, having the 10 days without making a trip to Toronto. Although a part of us wants to just "get 'er done", the other part of us needed the 10 days to gather ourselves emotionally. And now we look forward to tomorrow, knowing that after tomorrow, we are down to one more fill!! Yay!

We've been enjoying our pool already, which is great, because once Keziah comes home from surgery, she won't be allowed to get her incisions wet for a few weeks. So we are making the most of it now!

I think you'll be okay, Kez, and not sink! :o)




Loving the water!


Lincoln dipped his feet in the pool for the first time ever, and he LOVED it. And so eventually more than his feet got wet.....he went in completely! And still loved it! The first picture you might not be able to find him as he is camoflaged with the white steps (yes, he is incredibly pale!! :o)








Tomorrow is exciting as we are not only going to get another fill done, but we are also taking Lincoln with us and then after the hospital, head up to Ottawa for a few days. We are looking forward to that! So don't worry that things went wrong if there isn't a post about tomorrow's fill as I probably won't be posting anything until we get back. And if there is a post in the meantime, it'll be without pictures. How boring is that??! :o)

Batteries Not Necessary!

Our very own personal Glow Worm!! And an adorable one at that!!




And our very own personal Frown Face!! (guess who tried beans this week?!)

Snoozing and Cruising

We have been asked numerous times throughout this process whether Keziah needs to be careful while cruising/running around, in case she bonks the expanders in her head and cheek. The picture below was taken in March, before her expanders were put in.


As I am sure you can tell by the picture, her landing was, er, not really graceful. Let's just say it wasn't a perfect 10. She ended up with a mouth and face full of mulch!


We howled, as it looked quite funny. That was then, when grabbing the camera was more important than running to make sure she didn't pop an expander.

We will admit that when the expanders first were starting to fill up, we would consider ourselves in a category with some other parents, known as the 'helicopter' parents. We definitely hovered around her a bit more, making sure areas where she was running about was safe. But she is 2.5! She IS going to bonk her head. She WILL run into things. And she has.

One of the first times she ran into something was a few weeks ago at our friends' house. She was running to me, crying for whatever reason (she's a girl...it happens :o). I was sitting at the dining room table and wouldn't you know it, just before she reached me, she ran straight into the corner of the table. I saw the corner go INTO her cheek! My heart stopped and my stomach dropped to the floor. I quickly picked her up, very fearful of what just happened. To my surprise and relief, I could tell right away that nothing happened. That's right! Nothing!! She didn't even notice herself!! If anything, I think more damage was done to my heart than to her cheek!

That incident really proved to us that those expanders are not thin little balloons. They are thick and durable. It's almost like we needed her to do that to get over our hovering. We are more relaxed about it now, not quite as relaxed as a few months ago, but a little more at ease. But as her expanders get larger, our ease wanes. I mean, look at her....wouldn't you think she would just topple over from her head being so unproportionate to her body?! We are still fearful of her falling onto pavement and scraping her forehead or cheek, also known as the "good" skin; the fact that there is a risk of it popping, we still keep an eye on her. At church, kids often like to run after her, playing. This definitely makes us nervous because she is crowded around by kids which can make her trip and fall. So at church we tend to keep her close by.

But for the most part, we let her be a regular 2.5 year old, letting her do what 2.5 year olds like to do. She has learned now how to swing on the swing more carefully and continues to love it!



The other day it was raining, and this child LOVES to run in the rain! And look at the happiness in her face! How could we NOT let her enjoy this moment? Sure she could slip and fall (and she did as you will see), but we just couldn't deny her this much joy. Besides, then we would have denied ourselves the pleasure of watching her run about without a care in the world.






And to her, life looks even better upside down!! :o)

(yes, I absolutely cringe when she puts her head upside down. I just don't like it as I think the pressure of being upside down will do something to the expanders. I mean, my head feels like it's going to pop if I'm upside down too long, so wouldn't hers actually??! I know, it won't but it just looks uncomfortable.)

It does help that Keziah is not a hyper child, but one who is cautious (usually) and likes to do quiet things too. Below are some "safe" activities she likes to do, and I don't mind because it means no more heart failure! Heart melting, but not heart failure :o)

Reading!


(looks like Lincoln is trying to figure out what is that on his sister's head)

Baking! No problems with opening her mouth up to lick the beater....funny how that is :o)



Feeding her brother!


Painting....and even FINGER painting!!



So as you can see, life continues on for her like any other child her age. Other than dealing with the procedures, our little girl continues to be happy, usually smiling and singing, enjoying each and every day. She is a blessing I tell you. A real blessing.


As her cheek gets bigger, the question of how she is able to sleep is posed to us on a regular basis. Well, you tell me. What looks more uncomfortable, her sleeping on her cheek expander or the fact that she is in that position??! I don't know about you, but I think for me, sleeping on a bubble that goes into a pillow would be a whole lot more comfortable than with my legs like that!! And yet she continues to sleep. With no problem. :o)

Fill #7

Didn't I just write a post about the last fill??! That's what it sure feels like, especially because we went today instead of this coming Wednesday. After the fill on Wednesday last week, Keziah did very well. She even had a sleepover at Oma and Opa's with her brother until Saturday so her mom and dad could try out the camping trailer to get it ready for the summer. So we really didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare for today, other than talking about it a bit. I'll be honest, I don't usually like to do anything about preparing her until the day or two beforehand, giving us all a few days "off" from hospital talk. This time, I still wasn't ready by Saturday to work with her as I myself was not in the right frame of mind....meaning, I was not looking forward to Monday. By Sunday I snapped out of it, clueing in that once Monday is done, we don't have to worry about going to the hospital until 10 days from now!! And it'll be another fill done! Yahoo!!

And so today came quick and early but was met with peace and strength. Prayer is such an amazing means of communicating with our heavenly Father. We knew we were being lifted up in prayer for today and that helped immensely.

We woke up earlier today, anticipating that driving to Toronto on a Monday would be a bit busier. Keziah was no worse for wear for having to get up early. She promply got dressed and then made a picture for Shaindy, her Child Life Coach.




She enjoyed a breakfast for Champions, eager and excited once again to go to the hospital (I find that so amazing, because of how she is during the procedures)


Then off we went. No accidents and no tickets! Yay!! But let me tell you, I never knew I could crave Oreos at 7 o'clock in the morning! I guess following this truck for over an hour would do that to any sane person!


I was secretly hoping that the truck would tip somehow (carefully so no one would get hurt) and lose its load. But that was not to be. Oh well.

Shaindy met us again in the waiting room, where Kez gave her the picture she made. But all interest in the picture was lost once Keziah saw what Shaindy brought to the hospital!!






Again, everything went well until the words "Okay Kez, time to sit in mommy's lap." were uttered. She fought it again, yelling "I don't like the doctors, Mom!!!!" over and over. Thankfully they only had to fill one expander, that being her forehead, so it was over fairly quickly, putting in 25 cc's. As soon as the doctors were done, she was done her fit. They left her cheek alone for this time. They will see if they fill it a bit more next week, depending on how everything looks.

Once done, Keziah waited patiently for more bravery beads to be added to her necklace.




Other than that crying spell she had two fills ago, she has always recovered very quickly. This picture gives you an example of how quick she recovers. I know it's blurry, but that's the point.....she was jumping all around, happy as a lark!


Here she is with Dr. Tom. Dr. Tom is the one who has done most of the fills. He is a very kind, caring and fanTAStic doctor. Even Keziah thinks so...as long as he doesn't touch her :o)




Next week, Shaindy will not be there, so Keziah was introduced to another Child Life Coach, Riann. She will be with Kez for the next time. Looks like Keziah won't mind! Riann has pretty cool things, too!


And within the hour, we were going back home, looking forward to a break before the next fill.


Here she is, close ups of this last fill. She is definitely getting quite the bubble on her head! (she first wanted to do a funny face...this is about as good as she could get it without laughing!)





Quite something, eh?! Yeah. They are definitely expanding! We are thankful to know the end (of this phase) is in sight, because I am not too sure how much more her little neck can hold up!!

Our little man was once again taken care of by my mom. She has been here the last number of fills and it has been so helpful! Thanks, Mom!! Lincoln also says "thanks" with a great big smile.

And yes, he can be serious.....sometimes.


Some of you have asked questions in regards to her ability to sleep and the risk of the expanders popping if she bangs her head/cheek. I will address these questions later this week. If you have any more, either email me (see "contact me" tab at the top) or ask below in the comments and we will do our best to answer them. Have a great week!!