Excuse me sir....can you spare some change???


I am proud to say we are Change Makers this year!!  What is a Change Maker you ask?  Well, as part of Eric and Kathy's 36 hour radiothon for Childrens Memorial Hospital in September, they do this Change Maker thing leading up to it where all of the "Change Makers" collect spare change from anyone and everyone they know - quarters, dimes, nickles, pennies, DOLLARS - and all of the money gets donated to Childrens Memorial Hospital.  We are officially Change Makers in the Roth household so PEOPLE LISTEN UP!!!!  If you are stopping by for a visit - bring your spare change!  If I see you at work - I am going to be hitting you up for your spare change!  If you see me out and about - I just might be carrying this container you see here and I need you to fill it with your spare change!!!  As Nate would say, "You get that?"  What I am trying to say here is we need your help so we can fill this container up and then some!!!  WE NEED YOU!!!!

On another note, I survived the work week.  Mike came home last night, just in time to celebrate his birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!).  And the anticipated craziness of my week was crazy indeed but I have to say, it could have been incredibly frustrating but things just seemed to fall in to place so I didn't have any Earth shattering mishaps, frustrations, etc.  Everything just sort of flowed.  And it was good.

Nate's recent art project which I adore!
Finley saw the urologist for the first time yesterday.  It was an interesting visit.  He started out by saying that he wasn't sure Finley ever had a UTI in the first place.  What?  I guess her culture that got this ball rolling to begin with only grew 1000 bacteria.  You need 10,000 for it to be considered clinically significant.  And since there are tons and tons of people in the world with kidney reflux today who are perfectly fine - 75% of them have no idea they have it at all and never have any issues.  And since Finley's is only on one side and a low grade (2-3) Dr. Cheng said that he'd like to try to confirm that there was no damage to her kidney as a result of the UTI (we are going to do this via a kidney scan) and if the scan comes out okay - he said he is going to take her off of the preventive antibiotic that she takes now and we can cross him off our long list of doctors.  WHOO HOO!!  He said that he thinks that the reason they focused so much on the UTI because they were really trying to figure out what was wrong in the hospital, why she was running a fever, etc. and that was the only thing that presented itself.  He said that had that not happened, and we didn't have the subsequent follow up tests, we may never have known Finley had reflux because she might never have had a problem with it.  Go figure.

My sweet little Nate shared his Wall-E toy with Finley while she was sleeping last night....so cute!

Admittedly though, my biggest excitement this week came in the form of the new grocery store, Mariano's Fresh Market, that opened up a couple blocks from my house.  I like to think of it as a cross between Whole Foods (but better) and Jewel.  I was eagerly awaiting its opening (Tuesday at 6 am) and so I stopped by that afternoon after work thinking nothing of it.  What I encountered was a parking lot I can only liken to Woodfield Mall on Christmas Eve.  The place was a mad house!  Truly, I went in for a loaf of bread and milk and the first three things I put in my basket were: two beautiful cupcakes that were decorated as flowers, some Snickerdoodle cookies (Nate's favorite) and a bottle of wine (they were giving out samples!).  Here is a run down of the excitement - they have: a gelato stand, espresso stand, fried dough stand, brick oven pizza station, panini station, sushi bar, and a bakery, deli/cheese/seafood/bakery/butchers counters that put all other stores to shame.  Seriously, I was really geeked up about this.  And you know what, I have been there every day since it opened!  Last night I picked up dinner (a brick oven pizza) and today I went for a birthday cake for Mike!


And so I leave you with a picture of my little princess doing what she likes to do best these days - play with her toes....

Can you blame her?

1 comments:

Unknown said...

I always listen to Eric and Kathy's marathon!!! Makes me cry while driving :(!!!! Good job Tracy!!! You really are an inspiration to moms!!!!

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Finley's Medical History

Born on 8/8/2009 - Finley is taken to Children's Memorial Hospital via the transport team 12 hours after she is born.  She is having trouble breathing and is turning blue.  She is immediately admitted to the NICU.

8/9/2009 - Finley is diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect and laryngomalacia, a condition that causes her to aspirate whatever she swallows in to her lungs.

8/21/2009 - Finley has open heart surgery to place a Blalock Taussig shunt to help facilitate proper blood flow.  When she is older, she will require a full repair of her heart.

9/10/2009 - Finley is released from the NICU.  Because of her laryngomalacia and reflux, she is fed 100% through a nasal gastric tube.

9/14/2009 - Finley is re-admitted to the hospital for an infection in her surgical wound.  Finley's genetic test comes back - she is diagnosed with CHARGE Syndrome.

9/15/2009 - During a CT scan to assess the infection, the doctors notice something strange on her CT.  It appears Finley has a malrotated bowel and will require surgery.

9/23/2009 - Finley is examined by the opthalmologist and she is found to have colobomas, a condition common with CHARGE Syndrome, in both eyes.  The degree of her visual impairment is unknown.

9/30/2009 - Finley has the Ladd's Procedure to correct the malrotation and also has a g-tube placed.  

10/7/2009 - Finley has a sedated ABR to check her hearing.  She has a mild hearing loss in her right ear and a moderate to severe loss in her left.  Her loss can be at least partially corrected with hearing aids.

10/8/2009 - Finley is supposed to be released from the hospital today but she has been having low blood sugars.  The endocrinology is called in to evaluate her.

10/29/2009 - Finley is finally released from the hospital with a unconfirmed diagnosis of hyperinsulinism.  Actual diagnosis requires fasting blood tests - because of her heart condition, it is not safe for her to fast.  She needs to have her blood sugar tested every three hours and we are taught how to administer an emergency glucagon injection in case her blood sugar gets to low.

11/1/2009 - Finley requires emergency injection because she cannot sustain her blood sugar.  She is taken to the local ER and transported via the transport team to Childrens Memorial.

11/10/2009 - Finley is discharged from the hospital on a 24 hour continuous feed.  We add polycose to her milk to help her keep her blood sugar at an acceptable level.

11/22/2009 - Finley is taken to the local emergency room with a bad cold - she is having trouble breathing and her oxygen saturations are low.   She is transported via the transport team up to Children's Memorial.

11/25/2009 - Finley is released from the hospital - just in time for Thanksgiving.

12/8/2009 - Finley is taken to the local emergency room for observation - she has a bad cold.

12/21/2009 - Nate is chasing the dog and the dog runs in to Finley's IV pole, knocks it down and pulls out her g-tube.  She is taken to the ER at Childrens to have it put back in.

2/10/2010 - Finley is admitted through the ER at Childrens - she has a bad cold again.  Oxygen saturations are low and breathing is labored.

2/13/2010 - Finley is released from the hospital.

4/17/2010 - Finley is taken to the ER at Childrens - she has pus draining from her belly button.  They suspect a urachal cyst - they send us home with orders to return on  Tuesday (during our scheduled visit) for an abdominal ultrasound.

4/20/2010 - Finley is admitted to Childrens for an overnight stay.  She will have a swallow study and abdominal ultrasound on Tuesday and a CT and sedated echocardiogram on Wednesday which will require anesthesia.

4/21/2010 - The anesthesiologists have trouble intubating Finley, so they call in her ENT to have a look at her.  He observes that her airway is 75% closed off - partially due to scar tissue from previous intubation and partially due to an infection.  The diagnosis is subglottic stenosis and may require her to have surgery on her airway.  She is immediately admitted to the PICU and put on a 24/7 breathing treatment and antibiotics and steroids to help reduce the inflammation.

4/26/2010 - Finley is well enough to be taken off of all oxygen.  Immunology and Infectious Disease are called in to examine Finley because the culture of her throat are growing staph and strep.  Infectious Disease is trying to figure out what could have caused her infection.  Immunology labs will be drawn to determine if Finley has an immune problem which sometime occurs with children with CHARGE.  This is the second significant infection she has had since she was born.

4/27/2010 - The lab calls to say that they mis-read Finley's airway culture.  It's not growing staph - its only growing strep.

4/28/2010 - Immunology labs are back and don't show anything significant.  Finley's lymphocyte counts are low but that isn't unusual for a child who is fighting an infection.  The doctor wants to re-examine her before her first birthday.  In the meantime she cannot have any live vaccines.

4/29/2010 - Finley is discharged from the hospital.  The ENT will do a bronchoscopy before her heart repair surgery to determine next steps on her airway issue.

5/11/2010 - Finley has open heart surgery to repair her heart.

5/17/2010 - Finley begins to show signs of infection which is later identified as a urinary tract infection.

5/25/2010 - Finley is discharged from the hospital.

5/30/2010 - Finley goes to the ER at Childrens because of fussiness, sweating, heavy breathing.  And echo later identifies that the pressure gradient around Finley's pulmonary valve is an astounding 90%.

6/1/2010 - Finley is admitted to Childrens to try a medication called Propranolol to help ease the pressure in her heart.

6/2/2010 - The Propranolol brings the pressure in Finley's heart down from 90% to 50%.  Finley has a positive test for C. difficile which will require antibiotic treatment.

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