Earlier return to TCH than expected!

So I haven't updated in a while, sorry!
We have had a great summer so far and have enjoyed the warm sun on our faces and cooling off in the pool or beach. Dylon has been doing really good considering he had open heart surgery 7 weeks ago. I had the mind set that we would have our big follow up 6 months post surgery but Dylon has started to gag randomly and burping too. I know it sounds so weird, but he's not trying to vomite, he's just gagging. I have been noticing it for the past 2 weeks and so he had another gagging episode at my Aunts house when he had spent the night with her and I decided we needed to get some further evaluation. We saw Dr.K (family doc) yesterday and he talked to Dr.S who decided that Dylon may have Tracheomalacia. Tracheomalacia is where there is softening of your esophagus, Dylon's softening comes from the vascular ring which has put pressure on his esophagus and this was caused by his circumflex aorta. The vascular ring was released during surgery, and he is just now beginning to show the effects of tracheomalacia. Why is he showing effects now, 7 weeks after surgery, we don't know.
I just got off the phone with Dr.S (Dylons cardiologist) and he wants us to come up in two weeks to have an echo to rule out the possibility of a coarcted aorta, which Sacred heart thought they saw at our last appointment. So we have to rule that out. please pray they rule that out;)We will then see Dr.S and also an ENT that will give us an approximation on how long Dylon will have tracheomalacia.
I was really hopeing that Dylon's heart journey was kind of over, but I am realizing that it will Never be over. I'm a little discouraged this morning but i'll get over it! *S*
If MckMama can be so strong during Stellans heart journey, so can I! Please pray for Stellan and the whole Mck clan!
God Bless!
Shelli

Day trip to Ft.Walton Beach and Eglin AFB Aviation Museum

Tuesday my mom and I drove the boys down to Ft.Walton to spend the day on the beach. This was Dylon's first time post op and he spent 99% of the time in the water. He would just lay in the water were the waves crashed. Houston spent most of his time splashing mommy with water and building sand castles. Laeton Reid mainly played in the sand and on the bank were the waves would crash on him. My boys are part fish, I swear! After three hours of the beach, we headed back home. We stopped for some lunch and then some icecream. By this time we were all so exhausted but we wanted to stop at an aviation museum on the way home. Im so glad we stopped, the boys just loved. While we were outside looking at all the airplanes and such, a fighter jet kept flying over us. It was really awesome! We then saw the B-52 which is a plane my husband worked on for a couple of years, it was nice to see a familiar plane and I could tell the boys a little bit about it. We had a great time and look forward to doing this again!

this is the b-52, the boys are standing underneath it.

Houston playing!

Part fish +Part Boy=Dylon

Laeton Reid loving the beach!

Just a short update!

We are really enjoying our summer and are taking full advantage of our precious little boys!

We did have to take Dylon to the our family doctor Thursday because a cyst looking thing came up on his neck where he had one of his main lines from surgery. I didn't take any chances with it so I took him straight in. The result was just some scar tissue that is forming from where the line was. That was a big relief to us. We were told it would eventually go away. I also talked with Dr.K (family doc) about Dylon's echo from Sacred Heart a couple of weeks ago and he said that there was deffinantly some coarctation in the pictures. However Dr.K believes this is from Dylon not cooperating and a shadow was probably formed which is why it looks coarcted or narrowed. But we want know the true answer for this until we go back to TCH in December. I haven't made the date yet, but plan to go in Nov/Dec which will be 6 months after Dylon's surgery. Please be praying that it was just a shadow and he doesn't have a coarctation. Dylon was weighed at Dr.K's and he gained another pound, so this is almost 4 pounds since surgery, he looks so good. We also got the ok to take Dylon swimming so we joined Matt's work on their family day out at a water park, Big Kahuna's. My boys just love the water and I believe they were the only 1 and 3 year olds that didn't wear a life jacket. They do such an incredible job swimming. They went down every slide that was age appropriate atleast 5o times. We stayed in the kiddie pools which was perfect they had like 3 different ones. We had such a good time and even met a guy with family member with a CHD. Dylon's scar or Boo-Boo as we call it looks so good, but still left a few people asking questions. I might as well get used to it, im sure we will hear this most of his life. Most people try to cover up scars, but this scar we are very proud of and will always feel this way about it.

On another note, I registered for classes and will be taking Biology 103 and Medical Terminology in the Fall. Im really excited about starting school again. I will be taking my prereq.'s for a year and then start on the actual sonography part of it in the Spring of next year.

Im sorry I don't have any picture's to post from our adventure to Big Kahuna's, but I forgot the camera! Oops! But I did remember 4 bottles of sunscreen, 5 towells, 5 swimsuits, swim diapers, reg. diapers, hats, sunglasses, 5 sets of clothes to change into afterwards, Laeton's blankie, paci, and sippy cups. So what was I thinking??? I can't believe I forgot something! Ha!

Love Y'all!
Shelli

Some News about Me!

So I have become totally and completely addicted to Crystal Light. You know the little packets you add to a bottle of water. I have been trying to cut some calories, so I figured this would be a good way, they are only like 5 calories compared to 160 calories in a can of Soda. Im cutting back on the soda and adding up on the water.

There's more news about me, I didn't just write a blog about my addiction to Crystal Light.
I have been a stay at home mom for 4 years now, and it has been such a blessing to me. I love to know that I was there for every milestone my boys made as a baby and I loved that.

Here's something you may not know about me...I have an associates degree in Arts and got the degree at Central Alabama Community College also known as CACC. I received a tennis scholarship there and played for two years and was ranked as high as 12 nationally. I had chances to go to a private university to further my education and play tennis, but came home for the summer to teach tennis and fell madly in love with my now hubby who just happened to be home from Tech school. We had dated prior to that summer, but how does the saying go, "If it comes back it's meant to be"...well we were married 5 months later.

At the time my hubby was in the Air Force, we were stationed at Barksdale Airforce Base, Louisiana. I had planned on finishing up my degree in elementary education at LSUS, but got pregnant 4 months after we got married and so my thoughts of school were kinda tossed to the side and I became a stay at home mom(the hardest yet most rewarding job). And so here I am today getting everything ready to .... start school...thats right!! I have changed what I want my degree in and I have decided to go for Sonography, but mainly Echocardiograph Technician. After going through this with Dylon, I have become so very familiar with Echo Tech's and find this job to be so interesting and rewarding. Rewarding??? an Echo Tech was the one who saw Dylon's special heart and had it been misread then where would we be now? I feel like I can relate to these parents and kiddos.

I will start school around the first week of August...I haven't registered for classes yet. They open up registration this week, I hope to get everything on one day and if not in one day then hopefully at night. Even though I have Associates Degree, I still have more basics to do before I get to really start on Sonography part of it all. I was told that since it's been 4 years since my last Biology class, I will probably have to retake that. I will be taking classes locally at a junior college. I am really driven and ready to start learning..I am nervous about doing this, but I know that it will be great and the reward will be in the end.

What will my boys be doing? D and H will be attending their usual preschool and L, well I haven't really decided on him yet. I think that my mom will watch him or he might attend school with D and H. D and H's school age starts at 2 and L want be 2 until October, but I've talked to the teacher and she said we'll try him out and see how he deals with it.

So keep us in your prayers as we balance this out with our already busy, busy, happy, fun lives!
Love Ya'll!
Shelli

Insurance!

Yesterday afternoon, I recieved a voicemail from Dylon's cardiologist (Dr.S) asking to call him back today because he had a few questions and just wanted to check on Dylon. So I called him this morning and he just wanted me to be aware of our insurance company and the fact that they are trying to deny any claims at Texas Children's. He said due to us coming and staying two nights before the surgery, because Dylon had been so sick that they were claiming that we had no reason to have been there those two nights so they are trying to not pay their BIG part. Dr.S assured me that he had written them a letter and had gotten a few others involved with the process and said that they will have to pay for it. He also adviced me not to pay any bills that came in from them and to call them if I recieve any bills from Blue Cross or Texas Children's in the mail. Its so crazy, we pay a good bit every month just so we can have excellent insurance and then when we really need them...this is what we get. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama you are not on my good list right now!!!! However, I am glad that Dr.S decided to call me and give me a heads up because had I had recieved a BIG bill from one of them, I would've stroked out.

On another note, Dr.S said that we will have a followup with him in six months (from surgery) so five months from now we will be going back to TCH!

Just thought I'd give you guys an update!
Love Ya'll!
Shelli

Favorite pic...Linky's

I decided to join in on the fun...here is one of my favorites

Smith Family Fourth of July!!

We had a wonderful time on the 4th. We had some fabulous ribs and chicken by my mother-n-law and all of us older kids made a slipping slide...thats right I said made. My body is still aching from doing that. We had a great time doing it though! Oh check out the cookies me and Dylon and Houston made, aren't they cute?? They tasted better than they looked too!

On another note, have you heard that the Daniel family is getting to transfer baby Gaine's to Alabama? This is such a relief for them and a HUGE answered prayer.

Love,

Shelli

Wonderful Report

(Dylon before getting mad at the echo guy)

The follow up appointment at Sacred Heart went really good, Dylon no longer has any fluid around his heart. That was something that I was worried about, but it is no longer there, Thank God. The Dr. did say that she could see a little bit of narrowing in his aorta still, but she hoped that it would just grow with him. We will go back in two months and hopefully start coming off some of his Blood Pressure Med. Dylon did not want any part in them doing the echo or his blood pressures...He was scared, but who could blame the little fella? He is just so tough. Houston was there for moral support and he sat on the bed with him while we attemted at the echo and other various things.

(Dylon and Houston in the waiting room)

(Dylon) (Laeton Reid)

(Houston)

Once we got home from Sacred Heart, we decided to celebrate and take the kids to eat at their favorite place, Pizza Hut. This was the first time that Dylon has got to eat out in 7 weeks. We had such a great time. We will also go see Dr.K (family doc) today he will go over everything that the Dr. from Sacred Heart said to us.

When we came back from Pizza Hut, I needed to water my flowers and so I let the boys play in the sprinkler while I watered the flowers. While we were out there a little bird fell out of its nest. Im not sure the kind of bird, but we watched it for a while, and didn't let the kids touch the bird for sake of it finding its mother. The boys where outside calling the mommy bird like one would call a lost dog. We never saw her. When we woke up this morning the baby bird was gone..so hopefully it survived.


Hope you all have a safe 4th!

God Bless the USA!

Love,

Shelli

It's been a While!

Just a quick post to say that we are doing good. Dylon has a follow up appointment today in Pensacola,FL @ Sacred Heart. They will be doing an echo and checking all his blood pressures. Houston insisted that he go with us, so he will be joining us and Laeton Reid will be with my mom, because the appointment is during his naptime. I will try and update tonight or in the morning to let you all know how his appointment went. Here's some recent pictures of Dinner one night, my grandmother and granddaddy Cotton brought us Pizza Hut and homemade banana pudding, and Aunt Angie brought us capri suns and icecream and popcicles, Thank You, this was so thoughtful of you guys!

The Boys loving their pizza!

Laeton Reid drinking his capri sun

Homemade banana pudding after Laeton Reid secretly ate/destroyed it...I wish I had a before picture of the banana pudding, Grandmother had it so perfectly done, with some cookies on top. But while we were outside talking to grandmother and granddaddy, I had just put all the food on the table, Laeton Reid came back inside and destroyed it, he ate almost a full bowl..when I caught him doing this all he would say was mmmmm....and lick his lips. There is truly never a dull moment in our house.

How has everyone's summer been so far?

Im sorry that I have been slacking on the blogging.....Hope you have a blessed weekend and fourth of July!

Love,

Shelli