Lor's VUC Tests

Last Friday, November 21st at 4:00 PM I received a phone call from the insurance company stating that Lorelai's tests that was scheduled for yesterday was denied due to the the fact that the tests could be done in LaCrosse.  Within 15 minutes I had 5 phone calls in and had another dictation from the dr coming stating the importance of having the tests done at Mayo.  It was a very long weekend of waiting and a LOT of praying.  

Tuesday at 11:35 AM I received the phone call from the insurance stating that they reevaluated her case and she was approved for her tests.  I picked her up from school at 2:55 and we were on the road headed for Rochester by 3:30.  What a world-wind it was but we got up to the hotel by dark and settled in for the night.  I told her we could go swimming, shopping, out to eat...whatever she wanted to do.  Nope she got her jammies on, jumped into bed, turned the cartoons on and stated "the food can come to me!"  WOW how fast they learn the ropes of being a princess.  :)

Wednesday we were up, dressed, ate breakfast and at the clinic for our first test by 8 AM.  Ultrasound was very easy.  It was a very reassuring test for me as well as the ultrasound tech's daughter had to have these tests and surgery. She talked to me about what happened and how she was doing great now.  She did tell me that if one child has the VUC there is a 30% chance another child can have this which I did not know before.  

The VUC test was not pleasant but I had already prepared myself for that since it was not pleasant when Ellaree had her test done 3 years ago.  Even though she screamed and cried she was very brave and did a great job!  The test in itself took less then 10 minutes to do since it was very evident that she had the VUC reflux on both sides.  She is a stage 2-3 on the left side and a 1-2 on the right side.

After meeting with her pediatric urologist nurse practitioner (dr was in surgery) we are hopefully setting up to do a minor surgery next Wed Dec 3rd.  We are waiting to hear from the dr to clarify and then we will proceed.  Should hear tomorrow.  The procedure is called a VUC Endoscopy Deflux.  There is an 85% success rate on this.  If this does not work we can then either do it again or do the open procedure which is a 90% success rate.  

We are very thankful for all the family & friends who have helped with the kids, prayed, gave encouraging words and support.  We are very thankful and blessed.  

Lor Update

Well November 13th has come and gone but I am finally finding time to update on her appointment in Rochester.  I am so thankful that we have such good drs that are willing to send us on to specialists when they need to and know when they need the help.

Lorelai and I ventured up as soon as we put Ellaree on the bus.  Mr. Harry stayed overnight at the farm with Papa Harry and Nonie the night before so I was thankful not to have to worry about getting him ready and I could focus on getting Lorelai out the door on time.

As expected the appointment was ONLY a consult.  They asked many questions and the minute I mentioned that Ellaree had the same signs & symptoms and had the VUC test they wanted Lorelai to have this test done.  They also said that the ultrasound done in LaCrosse was incomplete as they only scanned her kidneys but did not scan her bladder.  Therefore she will have another ultrasound done as well.  I requested a Wednesday for all her tests done so that Harry could go with us as he has Wed off.  Well they scheduled her tests for Wed. Nov 26th.  Unfortunately that is the day before Thanksgiving therefore Harry has to work that day for two reasons...1) so he can have Thursday off for Thanksgiving and 2) it is the busiest day before Thanksgiving and he has to stop at every store.
So with that being said Lorelai and I will be venturing back up to Rochester by ourselves.  Her first test is at 8 AM so we will leave Tues afternoon and stay in a hotel.  I have had so many wonderful family and friends to offer to come with and I am so very thankful for their offers but I think I will take this precious quality time with her and spend it shopping and at the pool before her very long day the next day.

What are we doing with the other two?  Well Mr. Harry will venture back to the farm.  Poor guy has to help Papa Harry around the house, drive tractor and anything else he might think up to do on a farm!  He's heartbroken his momma is leaving.  ;)  Grama will come to the rescue to help with Ellaree.  She will come up to get Ellaree on the bus and then she will be back in time to get her off the bus on Wed.  Ellaree is very excited for one-on-one quality time with Daddy on Tuesday night.  Our kids are so good about rolling with the punches.

So our schedule for Wed.

8:00 AM is urinalysis and ultrasound
9:45 AM VUC
2:00 PM Meet  with Dr.

Prayers are so very welcomed at this time.  The dr did say that she is concerned about her kidneys as this has went on far too long with no answers.

I have added the link to the Mayo definition of what VUC is, symptoms, and procedures.

Love Him!

After 8 years he still melts my heart every time I see him. He has been my rock through thick and thin. And I am honored to say that he is my best friend, my love, my help mate. And I thank God for choosing him for me. I love you Harry with all my heart! Happy Anniversary!

Girls

It has been a crazy start to the school year and as I look the first quarter is almost done.  WOW time flies.  What has been happening...

Ellaree has been in gymnastics for a 6 week clinic and she loves it.  She started piano lessons.  Goes to AWANA on Wed nights at church and loves riding horses when she can.  This coming spring she would like to start riding lessons.

Lorelai loves 4K.  She goes 2 full days and brings home lots of fun projects for me to hang on my kitchen cabinets.  She will start hockey this Sat.

Harry is all boy all farmer and loves his 2 full days alone with mom.  He loves to be in the mud or tractors!

Today I did take the girls into the clinic.  Since the last time I wrote about Lorelai and her UTI issues she has continued to have issues.  She has seen the Urologist and he is stumped. Therefore today we scheduled an appt for her in Rochester at Mayo with a Peds Urologist.  We will travel there on Nov 13th.

Ellaree also went with today.  She has been sick since last Wed.  It seems that her symptoms just keep getting worse.  What started off as an ear infection has turned into double ear infection with a ruptured eardrum, strep with rash and was not tested but 95% sure she has mono as well.  She's one very sick baby girl!

We have had many trips to the Onalaska Clinic which is an hour one way and many sleepless nights but hopefully we will get on the road to recovery soon.

1st Day of School

Ellaree had her picture taken with Mrs. M at Back To School Night...just in case.  She had her baby the Sunday before school started.  Good thing we got that picture!

Since starting school our tradition has been Mom taken Ellaree to school the first day of school.  Though she doesn't like it much (she would rather ride the bus) she tolerates it.  :)

This is Ellaree's long-term sub Mrs. L.  Mrs. L is right out of college and Ellaree loves her

Unfortunately this is how Lorelai spent her first day of school.  She started a 104.6 temp on Monday the 1st and it didn't let up for 3 days.  After going to the dr we found (I had a hunch) that she had a very severe UTI.  Tuesday we got her some good antibiotics but her body was still fighting the fever on Tuesday so after calling back up to the dr they gave me a second antibiotic.  The following Monday we had to return to the dr for yet another antibiotic due to a yeast infection from the UTI.  We go on the 17th for an ultrasound of her kidneys and Urology appt.

Lorelai finally made it to school on Friday of the first week.  She was not 100% but was definitely better then Tuesday.  She was very excited to be at school but nervous she was going to get sick at school.  My little pumpkin is growing up!

Lorelai with Mrs. S.  Mrs. S is the 4K assistant and great with kids.

Lorelai with Mrs. U.  Can you tell Lor loves her teacher!

Even though Harry had fun spending the day with Mom and Grama he sure was happy to see the bus come!

The following Tuesday Lorelai finally got to ride the bus TO school with Ellaree.  It was very cute to see Ellaree holding her hand and helping her on the bus.  Telling her the rules of waiting for the bus, getting on the bus and she said she helped her to the room, helped her with her backpack and got her into her classroom before heading down the hall to her own room.  

That night when they got off the bus Lor was standing by the bus driver for quite some time.  Thinking she must not have followed the rules on the way home I asked about it when they got off.  Apparently, Lor got on the bus before Ellaree and she was worried that Ellaree was on the wrong bus therefore started to cry.  Our bus driver (who by the way is awesome) sat with Lor and comforted her and talked with her until Ellaree got on the bus.  Now that is an awesome bus driver!

August

4K Summer School

Lorelai attended 4K summer school two weeks prior to school starting.  She got to visit all the different rooms in the school...library, office, cafeteria, principles office. The next day she got to ride on a bus and learn all the rules.  The 3rd day they did a fire drill. She had so much fun and is ready for her school year to begin.

I had wonderful help this year with canning.  My workers are helping with peaches.  I did 13 quarts of frozen corn off the cob, 20 quarts of canned peaches, 9 peach jams, 8 apple pie jams and 23 quarts of tomatoes.  We are still waiting for the grapes to come in but I would say we have had a bountiful crop this year.

Elroy Bike Trail

Harry ready for the tunnel

Ellaree ready for the tunnel

Lorelai loves her head lamp

No better way to travel in the tunnel then on dad's shoulders

Mom and girls heading back through the tunnel

The kids had so much fun going to the bike trail last year with Papa Harry and Nonie that they wanted in the worse way to show dad the tunnels.  We had a fun day of biking and exploring.

Madison Zoo

Ellaree, Mom, Harry, Lorelai and our dear friend Ann

My Lil Roo's

Newry Antique Tractor Show

Big Grapa, Grapa

Harry, Lorelai & Ellaree

Playdate

Ellie, Jack, Harry, Lorelai, Ellaree & Lila - The kids came upstairs all dressed up...too cute not to take a pic

The fun part of this playdate is all the kids are roughly 6 months apart in age.  Our families are so similar with stay-at-home moms, hard working farmer dad's, and the kids similar in names and ages.

VBS

Preschool group

The whole group ~ Average of 75 kids and 54 helpers

Wild West Days

Kids loved the tee-pee

standing by buffalo waiting for our turn on the stage coach

Here comes the stage coach for our turn

So much fun riding...just a quarter a person for a ride

Pony rides.  Ellaree was not letting this opportunity to ride a horse (big or small) get past her)

They love their horses

This little man just melts my heart

While walking around the grounds we met some friends, said hi and kept moving on.  Not soon after two pretend marshalls came up to us to tell us we had a little problem.  Harry and I needed to come with them.  We thought we were being arrested.  Poor Lil Harry got watery eyes to think mom and dad were getting arrested. We had to explain to him that it was all just fun and pretend.  He still didn't like it but never let a tear fall.  But the marshall informed Harry it was much worse for him...he was getting "hitched" whether he liked it or not.  They had outfits for us to wear, ceremony and the big shot gun after we said "I Do"

My beautiful wedding dress and Harry's nice vest we wore

Ceremony

The family with the marshalls in the back

We even got a certificate for our marriage.  Lorelai said later "you have to start all over again"  haha

It was lots of fun and great memories

June/July

The end of June we were able to attend the Richland County High School Rodeo.  Harry nor I have been there forever.  The kids and I attended the parade earlier that morning with Grapa and we scored ourselves free tickets for the kids!  When we arrived at the rodeo and was walking in a very nice gentleman asked Harry if we were just getting there.  Harry replied that we were thinking he was just having small talk.  The guy handed him two adult tickets and told us to have a wonderful time.  What an awesome surprise.  Our whole family got in for free!

The kids had a wonderful time dressing up as cowboy and cowgirls!

As we were walking out after a great time I grabbed a lady and asked her to take a picture really quick for me.  We had so much fun!

Another exciting adventure this summer for the kids were going camping with Grapa and Grama.  They had so much fun going for walks, riding bikes, feeding the ducks, playing ball and roasting marshmallows.

This year mom had her act together and bought fun 4th of July items for the fireworks. Kept them entertained while waiting for dusk.  We also had a mini picnic with juice, chips and cookies. Kids were in heaven!

Two years ago we decided to have a Hornby Gathering during the summer instead of trying to get the whole family together at Christmas time.  It is so hard with everyones schedule and then to try and predict the weather.  This has been such fun gathering at Big Grapa & Big Grama's house every year.  If I am correct we were only missing two families this year.  We aren't doing too bad.

Big Grama & Big Grapa with the Great Grandchildren

We also had cousin pictures taken with Grapa's 1973 Chevy pickup he just got done restoring

Love this picture

Here is the whole Hornby Clan!

Another adventure this year was Ellaree's first Bible Camp.  She went for two nights three days.  She had a blast and didn't want to come home.  Her group was called Little Squirts and her dorm was called Princess Pawnee's. 

She's in the right upper corner if you are looking for her

Lorelai's first eye exam before 4K.  She did great.  The fun part is the lady with her is our friend so she was very comfortable doing the eye exam.

This year I decided to do all three kids birthday party in one shot for the family.  We will do a friend party close to their birthday but family was one shot.  The fun part was that I got to get ready for the party with no kids.  The kids went to Aunt Jen, Uncle Nick & Maddie's house for two nights while I was at home cleaning and preparing food.  But it was nice to have some time with daddy as well.  It was a great day and we had so much fun!

Since the kids get to pick their theme party for their friend party, mom got to pick the theme for the family. We had a luau and it was so much fun. I think the kids didn't care as long as they got to play in the obstacle bounce house as much as possible.

Before the party started I made them do their family picture and this is their shared marshmallow birthday cake.  Lorelai was very tired and didn't want anything to do with pictures.  She cried through them all.  Some day she will look back on all these pictures and wonder why she was crying and throwing fits in all her pictures.  Yes it is stressful having to have your picture taken so many times.  :)