I just got done telling my mom last week that of ALL of the vacation time I had this year (which included two extra weeks for my 10 year "splash") all of it - ALL of it - has been used for medical things - surgery, hospitalizations, doctor's appointments.  You name it.  So I was really looking forward to my Christmas vacation which was to start yesterday and go through the end of the year.  Only one doctor's appointment for Finley, she is happy and healthy.  Good times.  Then I got a call from Dr. Holinger's surgery coordinator (Ben)- we have been trying to reschedule Finley's bronchoscopy and ABR that she couldn't have at the beginning of November because she was sick.  Well, I made it my mission this week to ride this guy like a rented mule so that we could at least get it on the calendar.  And I went so far as to say, "if we could try to get it in by the end of the year that would be GREAT since I've already met my Out-of-Pocket maximum for the year."  Of course when it came out of my mouth - I was thinking - "the week after Christmas would be ideal!".  You know what they say - be careful what you wish for!  Anyway, I got a call early yesterday afternoon from Ben and he had "great news" for me.  Dr. Holinger and the audiologist were going to flex their schedules for us and they could do the procedures on Tuesday.  As in next Tuesday.  The 21st.  She'd get admitted on Monday afternoon, get up on her IV fluids and then have the procedures on Tuesday with the expectation that she will go home Tuesday night.  Piece of cake right?  Well the pessimist realist in me makes me fear that it won't be as simple as that.  For those of you that don't remember, the last time Finley got a bronchoscopy, she wound up in the hospital for two weeks because they found a nasty infection in her airway.  Anyway - we HAVE to have these tests done.  Otherwise we have to wait until late February and that is just too long to drag this on - we began trying to schedule in August!  All of that being said, my Christmas wish is to make sure Finley makes it home before Christmas.  And while part of me is trying to tell myself to suck it up - if something happens its just ONE Christmas of many we will have - but its Christmas.  And I have so been looking forward to being at home, as a healthy family this year.  So hopefully the big man in the red suit can manage this.  Seems pretty easy right?

Since we will now be at the hospital all day Monday and Tuesday, my plans to finish my Christmas shopping and wrap gifts at the early part of last week have had a wrench thrown in to them.  So I will be out and about  trying to get all of this done over the weekend.  With the thousands of other people.  UGH.  Wish me luck.

Finley got her two front teeth for Christmas!!  Perhaps its was her use of the remote as "the best teething toy on Earth" but one of them popped through a week ago Thursday and the other popped through last Sunday.  As if that weren't enough for our girl, we are also waiting on her eye teeth to break through now.  Both of them.  Finley just doesn't do anything half-assed (as reference above : o ).


Mike spent the week in Costa Rica this week for work.  Life's a bitch right?  Somehow it just isn't fair that when I travel I go to exotic places like Cincinnati, OH and Richmond, VA - he goes to Costa Rica, Argentina, Australia and Ireland.  Hmmmm.  And he goes for a week at a time which means that yours truly has overnight feed duty for Finley all to myself.  I have to say though, Nate was wonderful and very well behaved while Mike was gone (except for one teeny little hiccup) and Finley was great as well.  Unfortunately it was a busy week for me.  Tuesday I participated in a volunteer event that I had organized at Erie Family Health Center in Chicago.  You might remember a few weeks back I posted a picture from the toy drive we had for Erie. On Tuesday we went to the west town facility and painted the new child care center.  It was a lot of fun.  Their CEO, Dr. Lee Francis is a WONDERFUL man - he brought us on a great tour of the facility and told us all about all of the wonderful services that they provide to the community.  Its an amazing place and they do great work.  I am so happy we've been able to partner with them on so many great opportunities.

Wednesday, Gigi and I took Finley to pick up her orthotics.  They are Ankle & Foot Orthotics (or AFOs) and she will wear them during therapy to help her practice standing. They turned out really cute - I got to pick out the strap colors, the pattern on the plastic, etc so hers have hearts all over them and have lavender colored straps with little sneaker bottoms on them for traction!

Yesterday I took Finley to Children's for an ophthalmology appointment.  Dr. Yoon (who I adore) said that her eyes hadn't changed at all since the last visit in March (which is great).  He took a lot of time to help me understand exactly what a coloboma is and why its not correctable.  Using a model of the eye, he told me to imagine that the entire inside of our eye is lined with a delicate film - that is our retina.  A coloboma is caused from the eye not completing in utero - so there is a big hole in Finley's retinas.  The coloboma in her left eye sits right on her fovia which is the spot directly over the optic nerve.  This interferes with the signaling to the brain - so what Finley sees through her left eye, doesn't get processed correctly because the connection to the optic nerve is blocked.  He said that her left eye will likely not ever improve.  He believes she does have some very limited vision in that eye - like peripherally - but that she likely only sees shadows and such.  The right eye is better,  "but not great" in his words.  The coloboma in the right eye does not completely take out the optic nerve - but it does sit on the macula.  And for those of you who aren't eye experts - the fovia and the macula are two of the most important structures in your eye as they contain all of the rod and cone cells which are responsible for determining vision.  So again, not good that the coloboma takes out a chunk of those "vision" cells in her right eye - but "good" that the fovia isn't directly involved because the optic nerve in that eye is not blocked.  At this time, we are trying to determine if Finley's vision can be enhanced through glasses but its been tough for him to do a refraction on her at her visits because of where the colobomas sit and because she is, quite frankly, squirmy.  So he is going to try to take advantage of the fact that she will be in the OR on Tuesday, under sedation, and he is going to try to do the refraction then.  He said he doesn't "think" Finley needs glasses right now - but wants to be sure so that we can maximize her vision if that is the case.  Also, he said that regardless, we would likely put glasses on Finley down the road to help protect her right eye - since that is the only one she will be able to use.  I am still not convinced that Finley isn't going to surprise us as far as her vision is concerned.  Her actions seem to indicate that she does see pretty decently in that right eye.  We will not lose hope.  That is for sure!



I am going to wind this down so I can go out for a run.  Seems crazy I know but its actually not that bad to run in this weather - especially once you get going.  The worst thing I think is worrying about falling since tons of people don't shovel their sidewalks!  SHOVEL THOSE SIDEWALKS PEOPLE!!  There are people like me who are just crazy enough to run outside in this weather.  I also need to go hide Innie, our Elf on the Shelf, because I hear Nate stirring upstairs.  God I love Innie, Nate has so much fun with the whole "Elf on the Shelf" concept.  But darn it if I am not running out of hiding places.  And Nate has even gone so far as to tell me that some of Innie's hiding spots are "lame".  Hahaha.

Have a great weekend!