I am back part 1!

And no I did not fall off a cliff!

Sorry..I abandoned my blog! Hopefully there is someone still out there who will read this post :) I never intended to abandoned my blog. One week just turned into one month and so on! What can I say I have 4 kids, one with medical needs and sometimes I just run out of time, feel like I am exhausted or just get into a rut with managing my time. All three have applied since my last posting.

The past few months Lauran has blossomed quite a bit. She rarely has tantrums and is speaking sentences...which is probably why she is not been having as many tantrum's! Communication has definitely improved. Her and Megan play (most of the time) very nicely together! She has been eating us out of house and home. She does have a few dislikes but I tell people that most of the time she eats more like a grown man than a 3 year old...chili, steak, ribs. Unfortunately, a high meat diet, because of the iron, is not the best with her disorder. I was told at this point, it would be too difficult to try and control it so not too give it too much worry!

Her transfusions the past few months ....until last weeks(more on that later), have been going like clock work. She is completely compliant, she even gives the nurse her hand for the IV, she plays, she eats, has no complications and we go home! Her iron levels are starting to get too high so we are in the process of starting meds to reduce her iron. Iron overload is the main side effect to frequent transfusions. If the iron is not removed she can have liver and eventually heart damage.

The other issue we are dealing with is her dental problems. She has an estimated 14 cavities! It is suggested, because of the amount of work needed, to do it in a hospital setting and put her under anesthesia..but our med. insurance denied coverage for the hospital portion of the bill...so long story short we had a second opinion and are trying to appeal.

Overall though things with Lauran are going well. She is super independent, loves to copy everything Megan does, has the cutest belly laugh, and tolerates all she goes through medically with a lot of courage. We feel blessed to have her in our family and even though she has only been with us 6 months, it really does feel like she has always been in our family! Thank you Lord!

Stay tuned for part 2 : I will be back with more on Lauran's last transfusion, and updates on the rest of us...oh and some pictures too! Let just say this past week consisted of hives, a transfusion appt. that lasted almost 8 hours and H1N1!!