Happy 11 Month Birthday Princess Finley!

Okay - so its been nearly a week since I last posted.  This week absolutely flew by....along with the last 11 months!  Can you believe my princess is 11 months old today.  I can remember her being born, and all of the excitement that followed like it was yesterday.  Its so hard for me to believe its been nearly a year.

And so we celebrate.....with some new PICTURES!!!

That ball is one of Finley's most favorite toys

Grammy to the rescue!  Mike's mom came home from her 2 week stay in Seattle with my sister in law Andrea and her new baby David!  Since that darn camera cable hadn't come in the mail yet - I asked her if I could borrow hers - we have the same camera!  And so yesterday when Grammy got home from her date with Nate, I was finally able to download the pictures from my camera.  I had also sent an email yesterday to the place I ordered that darn cable from and said, "What gives - its been two and a half weeks?"  So they apologized...sorry it got lost in the mail - we will send it out again.  Guess what came in the mail today?  That darn cable they mailed out on 6/24.  When it rains it pours!  (As a side note, I a not going to tell them it came so that when the second one comes I will have a back up after I give grammy's back to her!)

Nate and Mike and the Father's Day cake Nate picked out for his daddy
Finley had her 6 month Early Intervention evaluation today and it went really well.  Currently Finley sees 7 different therapists - 1 occupational therapist, 2 physical therapists, 1 feeding, 1 speech, 1 developmental hearing, and 1 developmental vision.  So for this evaluation, they all come together and share a progress report as to how they think Finley is doing progressing toward the goals we set forth when they started her therapies in December.  There was some worry going in to her last heart surgery that she's regress and have a lot of ground to make up but her therapists think that is only took her a week or two to bounce back and that she is doing so much more now and is just a different child from before her surgery.  I appreciate the fact that they are so very positive and they help me to understand where Finley is at developmentally, and they help to teach us how to best work with her on our own.  We are very fortunate to have a really exceptional group of therapists and we are really grateful for that.

Finley is sitting in her high chair like a big girl!
Did I tell you that I am planning a party?  Two actually - boy oh boy is August a busy month around the Roth household!  Finley's birthday is on the 8th and Nate's is 13 days later on the 21st (which also happens to be the 1 year anniversary of Finley's first heart surgery).  As convenient as it would be to have one party for both of them - I think its really important that they have their own parties this year.  Primarily because Nate didn't get a party last year because of everything that was going on.  Heck, because of Finley's surgery, we pretended with Nate that his birthday was on the 22nd (he was turning 3 - fortunately he didn't know better).  And Nate has been such a trooper this year and quite frankly the best big brother that any little princess could ever want.  And quite a silly brother I might add....

Nate doing karate poses for the camera
And so this weekend I will don my party planner hat and try to plan two parties that I can only hope will be as wonderful and the two guests of honor.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Just like her brother - Finley LOVES to be naked.  This was her before her bath yesterday.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

YAY for new pictures!! Finley looks absolutely awesome...I love the picture of her in her high chair :)

mary nunez said...

omg she looks like such a big girl in her chair! She looks sooo good god bless her! love how nate was doing the karate moves!

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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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