A lot has happened in the past few months and I thought you would love an update. From the photo above you can see the kids are all doing well. My kids are very good eaters, makes a mama proud.
JT has been placed on Gentropin which is a growth hormone. Since being diagnosed with ISS (idiopathic short stature) he is being placed on a six month trial of the growth hormones to see if this helps him. He has a check-up in December and another in February or March. If he has made significant progress as to what they feel his progress should be he will stay on the growth hormones, if he has not made enough progress he will than be started on IGF-1 or IGF-3 replacement therapy (I can't remember which one they had told me). Thank goodness for our medical coverage because this medication is not cheap at all. He gets an injection every night before bed and we calculated the cost and it comes out to about $20-25 a shot. JT has had a big increase in his energy levels and his muscle tone is getting better too. I am not sure if it is helping him grow but that is because I see him everyday. He has been able to finally run which is something he could not do before and enjoys it. Other than that, he is your typical four year old.
HR has stayed on a gluten-free diet and seems to be doing well. Zach thinks she has grown some and caught up with her older brother. Again, I am not sure because I see her everyday. I might need to take her back in as she is complaining again of stomach pains, so I am not sure if she will need to go back on her medication for the gastritis and esophagitis. Besides the medical, she has been enjoying riding her bike.
JR has been doing great and being a lively 16 month old. He is walking all on his own and wants to be Mr. Independent. He tries to do all the things his brother and sister can do which just makes us laugh because he isn't quite big enough yet to do some things like ride his brother and sisters bikes. He is also more talkative than the other two were as JT and HR didn't talk till they were 25 months, Josiah just is a little chatterbox and says some words already which is something completely new to me. A few days ago though he was feeling really warm and when I got home to check his temp, my thermometer didn't work and than when I stripped him down to help cool him off I saw a rash all over his body so off to the emergency room we went. When we got there, his temp was 103.3. The doctor came in and looked at his rash, his fever and saw what looked like blisters in the back of his mouth, so she diagnosed him with hand, foot and mouth disease. So home we went with Tylenol, Motrin and Benedryl. He seems to be doing better, his fever has dropped but he still has a rash all over. Please keep him in prayer that he can quickly return to being that lively 16 month old.
As far The Mom and The Dad, we are doing good. The Mom (me) is sick and I sound like I swallowed a frog or as The Dad (Zach) put it, I sound worse than Joan Rivers. Gee, doesn't that sound lovely? Other than that I am getting ready to host Bunco for our PWOC ladies and after that head to PWOC International Conference in Dallas, Texas. Looking forward to seeing some ladies I haven't seen in awhile, Lord willing, all the kids and I are healthy by the time I leave. The Dad is busy with work, November and December are busy months because of the holidays but after that should be a time for things to slow down. He is currently taking two classes, one on public speaking and another on the Old Testament. He also got told that he could possibly finish his associates before we leave Fort Sill. Oh yeah, some of you might not know but our orders to Fort Wainwright, Alaska were canned because MEDCOM would not support us medically because of the kids so we are slated to PCS to Fort Lewis, Washington in April next year and Zach will be heading to Korea for a year without us. After his year there he will return to Fort Lewis for at least two years if not more.
So as a family we are busy, kids being kids, mom with PWOC and dad with work and school so he can get promoted before June next year. Keep us all in prayer.
