God is in Control!

So, as I sit here and ponder the events of the day, I am starting to get frustrated with all the "issues" going on with Asher. Not with Asher himself, nor with the fact that he is sick, but just the not getting any answers thing is starting to get to me. I have had sooo many people tell me sooo many different things and yet those people that are telling me all those different things are NOT DOCTORS and yet, seem to be helping me more than the doctors, nurses, etc. I was getting so frustrated earlier today, and just wanted to "be done" with it all. Then it hit me. Why am I worrying about this. God has it all under control and knows the outcome (even though it feels like it is being drug out longer than I think it should be). I just need to surrender all my apprehensions (sp.?) and stresses to him.

"Cast all your care on Him because He cares for you" I Peter 5:7

Finally....maybe getting some answers.

Well, Asher has yet again been sent home from school with a fever. This time is 101 degrees. They gave him some tylenol at school, and at about 7 pm we gave him some motrin again. He was really cranky, but finally fell asleep for good at about 7:30 or so. It is getting a little frustrating, but at the same time I know that God will take care of him, and there is a reason this all being drug out longer, ya know? Well, we finally got a date to go up to Wilmington to see the G.I. specialist. We are going to see them on Oct. 2nd at 3pm. It is a little longer than what I would really like, but they are going to talk to the pediatrician and if they think we need to be seen sooner, they are going to move some things around just to get us in. Thank you to all who prayed. Hopefully, we will know something soon. I'll keep you posted.

The Story Continues......

So we went back, yet again, to the dr. today. This time it was our normal doctor and he checked out Asher's ear FIRST THING and confirmed that his ear infection was gone, and that the Amoxicillin had worked ( I am glad it was just one round this time). His belly was still distended (abnormal), so the doctor reffered to a pediatric G.I. specialist at A.I.Dupont. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, "haven't they already been there?", well, yes, but no! We are now going to a different dept. and going to a G.I. specialist. Hopefully this time we'll maybe get some answers. I have to call and make the appointment and then call our doctor to see if our insurance will approve it. Just in case you are not familiar with the way insurance works....IT SUCKS!!!! I mean, don't get me wrong, it saves me money, and all that good stuff, but dealing with them is what SUCKS!!!Please pray, not only for Asher and his many, many appointments, but also for me. I am trying to stay calm about this, but starting to get stressed.Also, pray for the insurance company. I hope they will approve it because we are soo financially strapped that we really can't afford it. That doesn't mean that I won't take him, but it would be nice not to have to worry about the BIG bill that accompanies that visit.

Asher's pretty pictures.....

Asher LOVES to color...we spent time together tonight coloring...and here is the product.....

Oh, Mimi or Mama Joan if you're reading this....Asher has requested coloring books.... :D

Just Kidding....Asher didn't do this one!

He did this one though

Dinner....

This was the scene tonight as we ate dinner. I am not sure why Asher thought that it was better on himself rather than in his tummy, but nontheless, he had fun. We had Pizza Pasta and bread. He loved it. The juice was good too.
(the scratch near his left eye is from the cat...he tormented her this morning, and so she fought back....you'd think he would learn)

It's been a week....

Well, it's been a week and no major "scares". As many of you remember, (as prayers circled Asher, and were heard ALL over the country,) Asher had a FEBRILE seizure, and was rushed to the ER. Now, the seizure was caused by nothing more than a high fever, but it was still scary. Just two days before that we were at the doctors office because of stomach "problems." We had taken up to the ER/Hospital at A.I.Dupont on Wilmington, and they found nothing. Then during his 15 month well-baby check up the doctor noticed that his stomach was distended. He did not know why it was that way and all of the tests were inconclusive, and showed nothing wrong, but there IS something wrong, and he wakes up pretty much the same time EVERY time night screaming in pain. Tylenol doesn't work, and neither does Little Tummies (Mylecon). When I told that to the doctor he was a bit concerned and told me to closley monitor Asher, so I have been doing that for this week, and will continue to do so.
It may be nothing more than a severe food allergy, but it seems no one seems to know what is wrong.
Please pray that the doctors will have wisdom as they tackle the what seems like impossible task of trying to find out what is wrong with Asher. Please pray with us as we figure it out together.

More Pictures...

In the last post I posted some pics of Asher and myself in the backyard by my favorite tree. So, then I decided to post some of Asher and Kent "bonding" one afternoon. Notice how happy they are

Like Father, like son.

Daddy, your soo funny!

Pictures

Here are some pictures that we took in the backyard with my favorite tree, right before Asher turned 1. (Too bad the pedals are pink.). Now there is a swing there for Asher and a soon tire swing. It's also the perfect climbing tree (according to my husband who used to LOVE to climb trees)

Elmo

Well, Asher has a new "favorite" , it's his elmo doll which he calls "melmo. He takes "melmo" everywhere he goes, to the store, to church, outside. "Melmo" even went with us to the hospital this weekend. I think it is his "security blanket". I was not able to capture him toddling along carrying elmo (even though it happens very often.) Here is one picture of him.

Notice the coaster in his hand as well. He also has found a fascination with coasters, and so I find them all over my house now.

I will post more later when I get some of him actually looking at me carrying him.

15 months

Well, Asher had his 15 month well-baby check up this morning at 9:00 and he was okay as far as the fever goes, so they did give him a shot (which I was not in the room for, I will have you know), but the doctor came in before the nurse gave him his shot and said the same thing that I did. He noticed that his belly was distended, and to keep an eye on it. I told him my concern of what we were told this weekend, and we went over this weekends events, he agreed with me (finally....a doctor that really truly is going to be honest with us, and not just tell us something and send us on our way), and told me to keep an eye on him closely. So, I am going to do that, and pray that we don't have any more "episodes" like we did on Sunday night. His ear and throat are getting a little better, but still red and infected, but the antibiotics is definitley helping.

So, please continue to pray for Asher and his little body! I know God will heal his little body!

Our unexpected trip to the ER last night with Asher.

Thank you for the continues prayers. We are still battling the "stomach" stuff, but had an unexpectd visit to the ER last night. It all started last night at about 8:00 pm. Kent and I were watching TV in the living room and Asher had been sleeping since about 5:30 that afternoon. (He had had a long day, swimming, playing outside, going out to lunch....etc,) We heard him through the baby monitor, he was rustling around almost like he was struggling to find a comfortable position, so I was going to go get him and bring him out in the living room to snuggle and watch TV with us (which I don't usually do, I usually just let him get more comfortable, and fall back asleep, so I know that without a doubt God had His hand on Asher), so I went in, turned on his light and saw him face down struggling. I picked him up and noticed that he needed a diaper changed, so I layed him down on his changing table. When I layed him down, his lips were purple and he was shaking uncontrollably, and barely breathing. I immediatley called for Kent who came running back to the nursery. He took Asher and held him close to him, while I immediatley got on the phone with our pastor (who is also the EMS captain for the fire dept., so I knew that he would be here before the ambulance) He and his wife got to our house in record time with thier blue lights on, and sped into our driveway. This whole time I was on the phone with 911 who was talking me and trying to keep me calm while the sent the EMS/Ambulance to our house.Once Charlie and Erica got to our house...they told me to let the the person on the phone know they were there, so when they heard that....they were pretty confident and got off the phone. During that time, Charlie and Erica were trying to get oxygen to him in order to get him breathing again. Again, God was watching over him and speaking to me and having me do things that was VERY random. I all the sudden said, take his socks off, when we did...he had no color in his toes/feet at all. From his knees down was all blue. Then the ambulance came, and while keeping the oxygen on him and trying to get his color back, they put him in the ambulance (they had a little carseat in there that they strapped to the stretcher, so that was cool. We went to the ER and they took us in, got us checked in and took us to the room. By the time we got to the hospital, his breathing was better, and his color came back, so that was good. They took his temp. which was 104, so immediatley gave him a tylenol supository, they also did a cath for a urinology (which came back good), and they also did an x-ray on his chest to check for pnemonia (which they did not find). Then after about 30-45 min. of having the tylenol in him, the nurse came back in and checked him over again, his temp. at that point was 100.7 (so it went down dramaticall, so that is good), we did the whole "hurry up and wait" thing for about 3-4 hours and then finally the dr. came back in and checked him over (his ears, eyes, nose, and throat). His righ ear was really red, and so was his throat. So, they gave us amoxicillin for the middle ear infection.They prescribed amoxicillian for his middle ear infection, and the ibuprofen for the high fever. The dr. diagnosed his "episode" as a Febrile Seizure, which was broughtn by his high fever. A Febrils Seizure (which was really, really scary to walk into my sons room to him not breathing, shaking really bad, and turing blue) is brought on by a high fever. Which apparantley, this type of seizure is very common in children up to 7 years old. 1 child in 20 will have this type of seizure, and are more likley to happen if a close relepiative has also had a febril seizure. These sezuires are not usually caused by a disorder of the nervous system (i.e epilipsy or a brain infection). Due to his high fever, there are a couple things we need to do in order to keep his fever down. He is sleeping now, but a little fussy. He has had his medications (he is on 3 different ones: ibuprofen, amoxicillin, and miralax), and hopefully whatever is going on will not keep him from getting sleep this morning (as you might guess, we had a rough night)Well, thank you for your prayers, but please continue them as we are still in the middle of all the antibiotics/medications. Our prayer for today is that there will be no "episodes'" for a while

Asher update

Well, we got back from A.I.Dupont tonight and well...yeah.....We arrived at the hospital at about 9:00 am and we were pretty much taken right back (I guess it pays to know people who know people huh?) We saw all sorts of nurses, staff and interns, etc. and FINALLY after waiting about 2 hours we saw the attending pysician that was assigned to us. He came in asked some questions, checked out Asher. Rather than having the catscan done, he just wanted to do more in-depth x-rays (he didn't want to subject Asher to that radiation and sedation if he didn't have to). So, he left and ordered a series of x-rays for us. it took us almost 30 min to go back and get the x-rays. So, after that we went back to the room and waited for the radiologist/attending to look at the films.If you have ever been to the ER with a 15 month old....yeah, it's not the easiest. Luckily I brought A LOT of toys for him to play with and there were crayons and a color paper there for him to color on. He got restless being in the room after a while, so we started to walk up and down ALL the halls (meeting ALL the ER staff-at least twice-needless to say they ALL knew Asher before the day was over, he also became thier favorite patient.) then, Asher spotted a little wagon for patients (children) and he just thought he HAD to have it. We went back to the room, got some toys, put them and him in the wagon, and then proceeded to take a walk/"ride" up and down the hallways. He had a blast. He loved the wagon.Well, almost 4 hours past and we FINALLY saw the nurse(after Kent, the guy that went up there with us, and myself saying something) who looked at the films with the doctor and the radiologist. They concluded that there was NO blockag or anything else that they saw of any MAJOR concern. So they just said they saw that he had really bad constipation with gas behind it. So, they sent us home with a prescription for Miralax (a powder substance to be added to 8 oz of juice or water) and then follow up with our pediatrician on Mon.Like I mentioned, they found nothing of major concern. But, I am still concerned, and frustrated because my baby is in A LOT of pain, and no one seems to see anything or know anything.Please continue to pray for wisdom for us and the doctors, as it has been a long road, but hopefully we will be able to nail down a cause for all the pain he has.I know God is in control, and he will heal Asher, and His will is going to be done in this situation

A.I.Dupont

Asher had a dr. appt. today with his pediatrician who told us that she still was not sure what was going on with him, but that his white blood cell count was elevated, so she gave us two options. The first being we could go and get his tests run again (both of them) and if they are still inconclusive or "abnormal" go up to A.I.Dupont, OR we can just go straight up to A.I.Dupont with the test results and get CATSCAN! So rather than, subject Asher to more poking and proding and x-rays we thought it best to just go up to A.I.Dupont and get the CATSCAN done and get a "second" opinion. So we are :leaving our house here at about 7:15 am tommorrow morning to go up north to the Children's Hospital.
Please pray that God would allow His will to be done.

Another dr. appt.

Asher has another dr. appt. tomorrow morning at 11:00 am, please continue to pray for him. I haven't seen the "bulge" yet, but yesterday, that daycare told me they saw it, and where it was. (Right above his belly button when he "flexes"). The also noticed that his belly lopped to one side (the left side-his left). Then tonight when we woke him up to feed him and let him get something to drink. He was really wobbly (couldn't walk straight), and his eyes would sometimes looked glazed over. I am kinda scared.
I am not really sure what is going on, but I know that God is the Great Physican and can take care of this.

sidewalk chalk

He did not write his name...just to let you know.
My son is advanced, but not like that.

As promised here are some of the pics of the artwork on our driveway and front porch.

Update....

When I spoke with the doctor not to long ago, they informed me there was no blockage or anything, but that his bloodwork was abnormal, she said she saw a virus or something. I am just going to watch out for anything more, but when I went to the daycare today to pick him up they did tell me of a bulge above his belly button that they did see, and also his belly was off to the left side. They recommended that we get a second opinion and check and make sure everything is okay. I don't know what to do. Not sure if the "virus" that the doctor saw is going to pass of if that is something that needs a second opinion. If we get a second opinion it will require going up to A.I.Dupont. I am just really worried. Not sure what to do. He is soo little

Can't think of a title....anyone got one?

Well, we went to the dr. this morning to get Asher's belly checked out because it looked "irregular". Our appointment was at 10:15 this morning and we got home at nearly 1:00 in the afternoon. We didn't see his doctor rather we saw the nurse practioner today. They came into the room asked several questions and then proceeded to do the regular exam on him with a little bit of pushing and poking his tummy (which he didn't like at all). After the examination was over we were told to go over to Beebe Medical Campus (the outpatient lab potion of Beebe Hospital) and get blood work done and an x-ray on his abdomen.
For those of you that don't have kids, trying to get blood from an almost 15 month old is pretty near impossible. I had to sit in the chair with him and cross my legs over his to keep him from squirming and hurting any further. It pained me SO much to see him get poked with a needle, but I just kept reminding myself that it was for his own good, and that it was necessary if we were to find out what is wrong with him.
The x-ray was a little better, but I still had to hold his hands above his head and hold his legs down so they could get a good "picture" of his belly. He did NOT like that at all.
After that ordeal was over we went home (thankfully). I know it was not under the best of circumstances, but I got some cuddles from him, so I can't complain.

Now, let me back up. The reason that we went to the dr. in the first place was because Kent and I had noticed his belly looking "irregular", but honestly didn't think anything of it. Asher has always had a good appitite, so I didn't think anything of it. I just chalked it up to him liking to eat. So, then there were two people at the daycare that mentioned that it looked like there was a possible hernia or something, so they requested that we get it checked out. Then, the last couple days, Asher has been really fussy and waking up at the same time a night screaming in pain. (I sat up with him in the rocking chair, and again, got cuddles from him). On top of that, the last two days has been throwing up alot latley. Yesterday, I was noticing it was un-digested, so that really worried me.

Now, back to our appointment today. As we were in the office waiting on the nurse to come back into the room after consulting with the doctors as to what to do with this situation. They also said there WAS a little concern about a hernia or some kind of blockage. The reason we went to get the bloodwork done was to make sure everything was normal, and the x-ray on his belly to make sure that was no blockage. The nurse told us that when they get the results back they will give us a call, and if there is not a blockage then they will probably send us up to A.I.Dupont (which is a really good Children's Hospital in Wilmington) for a sonogram. (Apparantley, they don't do sonograms for hernia's around here 'children's hernia's anyway')

Sorry for some of the graphic words I used in some of the description.

Well, we had a very productive day otherwise, so that was good.

In the middle of the afternoon, early evening, he was feeling better and hadn't thrown up since that morning and wanted to go outside, so we had our first experience with sidewalk chalk. Let me tell you. He loved it. Pictures in the next post, coming soon.

Inspitation

This is the song to which I though of when I was writing my last post.
Alot of times God asks us to "step out of the boat"
Are you willing to?



Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out his hand
But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. 'Boy, you'll never win!'"You'll never win"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
And the voice of truth says "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Oh what I would do to haveThe kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a Sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again "boy, you'll never win!"You'll never win"
But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them looking down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

words/lyrics from http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/casting-crowns-lyrics/voice-of-truth-lyrics.html

FAITH

Forsaking

All

I

Trust

Him



I was reminded of that acronym last night as I was talking to my friend from TX. When talking to her I was also reminded not to worry about ANYTHING! God is in control of EVERYTHING!! They are willing to give up what they have and follow God's plan for thier lives with no question of whether they should or not. It reminds me of when Kent and I left what we had in TX to come out here and except the postition here as a youth pastor of our church voluntarily and having faith that God would provide for us. I will admit that I did get angry with the state and hate living here and sometimes take it out on the ones around me, but then I realize that God is in control of EVERYTHING and have to rely on Him no matter what. This is just a gentle reminder to everyone reading this that God does provide and if you follow God's Will for your life you will NEVER be disappointed! I promise!


Ps. 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted among the earth.

The Dollar Store and a little bit of attitude

Well, I was in the dollar store the other day getting a little basket thing to put in Asher's room to organize his toys/cars. Asher is feeling a little independent these days, so I let him walk, but not before I put a monkey "harness" on him so I could keep a tight reign on him. We were in the cleaning isle just looking around when we were "rudely" approached by a lady that asked me "do you believe in thos things?" I'm thinking to myself "no I don't, I just have one on him for the fun of it." I politley held my tounge while she repeated herself again, as if I didn't hear her the first time. I just smiled at her, and we continued on our way. We then saw her again, to which she said again, "do you really believe in those things, because I don't" "NOT AT ALL" I didn't say anything to here, I was getting a little frustrated with her at that point. I just thought that best thing to do at this point was to just walk away. Well, then a little later we finally found what we were looking for and made our way to the front of the store to check out. Well, guess what, we saw her again at the front of the store, and then she just gave me a look and didn't say anything. We just paid for what we bought and then decided to leave. Why do people have to be so rude. I know how to raise my son. She was trying to tell me that I was doing it wrong. Can you believe that?