And John Journeyed Forth... To the Endocrinologist

                                   Photo Credit: MentalFloss.com
                                          © Bettmann/CORBIS

Since the black mold problem we have all been sick.  So much coughing, sneezing, runny noses, and more coughing!  I've been coughing and having issues until my asthma has acted back up.  It's been bad.  This is the most we have all been sick over a winter since their birth.

We thought this last round of illness was due to heavy black mold exposure but now we are not sure.  After two weeks of being sick and LOTS of OTC medication we are all starting to feel better.



Today Margaret and Joseph had an appointment with a new endocrinologist.  They are both SO small that we need to monitor them closely.  Plus Joseph has Hashimoto's thyroiditis so we need to check his thyroid levels.  After seeking some recommendations from other moms of multiples in the area I settled on a doctor.  John had to go to the appointment by himself since I have very little time off left at work from the holidays.

Everyone dropped me off in the morning.  John took the kids to the doctor office.  He called me later and told me about their day.  They saw the doctor and agreed that Joseph is a candidate for growth hormone.  John explained why we were interested in growth hormone for Joseph with included having my grown so his teeth can fit in his jaw (because the two bottom teeth he has coming in are NOT fitting at all!) and because we want his to grow so he trachea will growth and less his breathing issues.  The doctor agreed that those were good reasons and Margaret also needed to be monitored because she is also quite small.  Joseph weighed 33 pounds and was 41.5 inches tall.  Joseph is not on the chart for height or weight at all.  Margaret was 41 pounds and is 45.6 inches tall roughly.  James is basically 53 pounds and about 55 inches tall.    You can see the BIG difference in height and weight between them all.  That is one of the main reasons that no one asks me if they are all the same age any more.  They look SO different that it looks like I had one child per year versus all the same time.  LOL

You can see how people would be confused!

Joseph recently had a bone age x-ray completed and it was considered normal. Margaret was sent for a bone scan x-ray today.  We will get the results back in a few days.  Joseph also had his blood drawn to check thyroid levels.  John said the kids were SUPER good at the doctor's office.  A nurse even complimented John and how great our kids were.  LOL

John left the doctor's office and took the kids to the Target we got our Christmas pictures redone but they had just closed for lunch.  He went driving around a bit and found Freedom Park.  He let the kids out to play for about 15 minutes before taking them back to the Target to get the pictures.

I'm not sure what else he did but I know it involved lunch, taking my car to get my tires looked at and filled, going to another Target and picking up my prescriptions, then heading to the house for a bit and feed the children dinner, load everyone back up to get me from work.  When they arrived I get into the car and James was in the back sleeping.  John said he tried to keep him awake but James said, "My eyes are just too tired."  LOL   We got home, unloaded everyone one last time.  I got them into the house and it was about 7:00pm.  I got the kids ready for bed while John took a break for a bit.  By 8:15pm we were basically back on track for bedtime.  Not too bad of a day for the kids but I am sure John is exhausted!

I will try and post the new pictures tomorrow.  :)

Christmas 2014

The Christmas holidays were a lot of fun. Santa was so good to the children this year. Santa's gifts were in special blue paper, with special tags, and had a jingle bell on them. Santa's gifts were awesome! Christmas was a group effort. With the presents John and I got along with money from my in-laws, my parents, a friend who brought over gifts, and the help of MOST (a group of high order multiple moms) the children had the best Christmas they have had in YEARS! Santa was very good and on target with the gifts he brought. One of the best gifts was an iPad mini. I am excited to get apps to help with therapy stuff for the children.

James was happy to get some great gifts including Snap Circuits and a furby. He is having fun with those. He is also enjoying the games he got from Santa like Life and Clue Jr. Margaret got several gifts that she loves including a furby, new bedspread, a pop-up playhouse, balance board and clothes. Joseph got several gifts he loves too. He got a piano that he is having a blast playing! He got a bubble timer. Visually Joseph is having a blast with it! He also loves his new backpack. It fits his little frame just right.



John and I did not get anything for ourselves. We figured we could get something later with tax refund money.  ALL money went to buying new toys and toys to be used for
therapy for the children. The poor kids were so starved for new toys and more age/developmental appropriate toys that the children kept forgetting to open their Christmas presents to open Christmas morning. It took us TWO hours for them to open all their gifts! They would open a gift and then they would get excited about the toy and would ask for us to open it. We would open the present and then they would start playing with it. I would have to remind them to come back to open another present. James and Margaret would literally say, "Oh yea, I forgot!" LOL It was VERY cute!




Christmas day and the next few days after that was nice because no one asked me for my phone. They were too busy to playing with their new toys. :)

Happy 7th Birthday My Babies!

On Saturday my pumpkin s celebrated their 7th birthday.  I wanted to celebrate their birthday in a big way this year.  At least that was my intent.  Life has another way of working things out though.

I ordered a bouncy house for the children this year as a  surprise.  I had ordered the bouncy house right before Joseph broke his clavicle.  I thought I would be okay because his shoulder should heal right before their birthday.  Then, of course, poor Joseph falls again and hurts his should more on Thanksgiving Day but I was still holding out hope he would be okay for his birthday.

Two weeks before their birthday I placed an open invitation to people to attend the children;s birthday party.  This is a HUGE deal for me since I am always worried about Joseph catching some sort of respiratory illness and getting extremely ill.  I wanted the children to have a birthday they would remember this year.

I had several people tell me that they would come over.  The day before there was talk of a lot of rain.  I cancelled the bouncy house.  I reminded people online about the party the next day.  I was planning to make homemade play dough and we made two cakes to make sure we would have enough.  We made a chocolate cake for the children.  It was what they requested.  We also make a spice cake to make sure plenty of cake was on hand.

I started to get people saying they would not be able to come.  They had plans that changed, their kids were sick (which I did appreciate they did not come over!), and some never got back to me.  On the day of their birthday no one showed up.  We had the respite worker come over.  She brought her son.  They has a nice time playing with her son.  John and I decided to leave and head to a Goodwill across town where they are suppose to have nice clothes.

We took off and one of the moms asked about coming over but we had left the house all ready.  We ran into a HUGE storm heading to the Goodwill.  While there we found clothes to be on sale.  They did have nice clothes.  Not much in the way of pants but I found shirts for James, shirts, leggings and dresses for Margaret and Joseph did not really need anything since he wears James's hand-me-downs.  We also got some board games and books.  We used the clothes, books, and games as a new tradition this year.  Normally they get stuff for wither their birthday or Christmas since they are so close together.  This year we decided to give them each a small present every night between their birthday to Christmas.  They either got some clothes, a book or a game.  The kids are loving the new tradition of our version of the 12 days of Christmas!

Happy 6th Birthday to my Surviving Quadruplets!

                            Happy Birthday!

When you think about how far the children have come they are AMAZING!  You can see their birth information at the About Us tab. We had a nice day overall.  John made an amazing carrot cake for their birthday!  It is a gluten free Hello Kitty carrot cake.  Margaret requested the cake and the boys did not mind. They all LOVE carrot cake!

The night before the children's birthday we did a ninja move and sneaked into their rooms and put up these large wall hangings to surprise them when they woke up.  It worked!  They were SO excited when they woke up!

 

 Here are the children blowing out their candle...

 

Here are some other pictures of my cuties...

Joseph watching daddy fixing the carrot cake!

 

Going Back to Work!

After working from home basically full-time for the last three weeks I am thrilled to be going back to work on Monday. It has been tough to deal with work and stress from the last three weeks doing multiple job.  I am thankful John is here to help! 




Monday (June 24) was a stressful day.  I got up and COMPLETELY forgot the medical lady from ACHSS (I think that's right) was coming. I got up and immediately started to make the children breakfast.  I was finished making breakfast and ready to feed the children when she arrived.  I feed them some while she asked me questions.  Nothing like having a guest over right after you got out of bed and un-showered sitting in your pajamas. To do the medical interview for all three children, along with making copies of the medical information I had, took four hours.  It was long!  I was told I would hear back in two weeks.  I hope so!  I have not been able to get any therapy services set up for the children since moving here nine months ago.  It is ridiculous!  There really aren't any therapists on my private insurance.  I HAVE to be signed up through the DDD and DDD will not help me unless ACHSS is funding the services. I hope we can get this all straightened out!

Friday (June 28) I spent from noon to five calling all sorts of people trying to get appointments set up.  I will
be able to hand this off to John on Monday.  I had to call my insurance, United Healthcare of Arizona, for state employees, and I have to say I am NOT impressed.  I had to call FOUR times to try and find therapist.  Therapists who are both pediatric AND EACH of the specialties (OT, SP, PT and Feeding). I FINALLY, on the FOURTH phone call, found a center that offers ALL the therapy services AND is pediatric.  I called them and they are booked.  The woman I spoke with said the best way to get in and get services is to have services through the DDD.  I laughed!  I said I had been trying to get services for the last nine months and I was the closest I had been yet.

My first call on Friday was to Dr. Salevitz.  He is a pediatric eye doctor.  I have to get all the children to an eye doctor.  I want to see if Joseph can do an eye test now he can talk.  Plus we are not sure if he is color blind or at least have the color portion of his vision impacted.  Next I called SARRC.  They only told me of other people to call and see if I could get help.  Then I called Dr. Hancke's office.  I have to set an appointment with the endocrinologist to discuss Joseph's stature and pay my bill with him.  After making calls to United Healthcare I finally found a therapy office, Bright Horizon Therapy, but I have NO idea when we can get in with them. Got to call in a week and follow up (that is how long they asked me to wait). Next I called Dr. Jay Cooks to see if I can get Joseph in for a follow up with a neurologist.  I will see about working Margaret in if I like the doctor and finally James.  I would like to have an MRI of James to see if he suffered any brain damage (hope not but then again I never thought Margaret would have had brain damage either!). Finally I called Dr. Robin Laks office and see about taking all the children there too.  She is a pediatrician in the area that deals with medically complex children.  I was told she is very good and I am excited to get the children in to see her.

So that is how I spent five hours of my Friday.  I did not even call anywhere near all the people and places I wanted to call but it is a good start and John can take it from here!

Where's Your Nose?

To get three children to be doing ANYTHING at the same time in the same way is practically a miracle!  LOL    I got a few good shots of the children I will share.  It probably will be the last pictures I get of the three of them together in Henderson, Nevada home.  I will miss this place!

In this one at least EVERYONE has their eyes closed...lol.  It is rather sweet!                                                















This one COULD have been cute except for Joseph's expression...lol.  Otherwise it is a good picture of Margaret and James.

Story Time - Are You My Mother

James LOVES to read.  He taught himself to read basically at 2 years-old.  He will be 5 years-old in December and he can read at roughly a third grade level.  He is very gifted in the reading department!

Here James is reading Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman to his siblings.  I will try to get a better video of this one and I will try and record him reading other books.

Surviving Quadruplets

Here I am with all 4 babies in my tummy! This is at 6 months!

This past Friday I got a call from the Melmed Center in Phoenix.  I have been looking for doctors that are specialists in all the areas that the children seeing here.  The Melmed Center has a lot of neat services and is staffed by developmental pediatricians.  I had called to get an appointment since in Las Vegas there are only a couple of developmental pediatricians here (literally less than 5) and most of them do not accept insurance.  So a visit to them is VERY expensive (At least $1,500 per child).  In Arizona it is different.  Plus I found out as a cash pay patient I could see one of the head people there for a first time office visit of $540.  That is a lot but not near as much as other specialists charge!

As I was talking to the intake specialist about Joseph she told me that he sounded like such a complex medical case that Dr. Melmet may want to see him personally.  She said the first available appointment was February 19th and I said I would take it.  Towards the end of our discussion the intake specialist asked me what exactly are surviving quadruplets.  I have used that term and sometimes I forget that not everyone will understand that I am implying.

I am not sure who I first heard use the term but essentially anytime you see a high order multiple (HOM) mom and she says she has surviving fill in the blank then one or more of the children are no longer living.  I have surviving quadruplets.  I lost my darling Martha Renee about 14 hours after she was born.  The other three children made it home to me.  I think surviving quadruplets is a more accurate term to give to people, especially medical professionals, because to call them triplets would be inaccurate.  The pregnancy was a quadruplet pregnancy, not triplet pregnancy, so the risks are different.  The birth was quadruplets.  Again, the risks are different.  Also, in my particular case, Baby D of the quadruplets is still alive (Joseph), and since he is the last to be born in a quadruplet pregnancy it may be of importance when considering his medical issues.

The last reason HOM moms use the term surviving fill in the blank is because they do not want the angel sibling(s) to be forgotten.  I know a mom that has surviving triplets.  Her son fought hard but lost his battle and went to the Lord six months after being born.  It is tough to be a HOM  mom and walk away from the hospital without all your children.  It is even harder when one or more of them die.  Your dream of your HOM life changes.  Your dream of the child(ren) that passed away is shattered.  It is hard to move on but you have to for the sake of the surviving children.  There really isn't anytime to grieve for the child(ren) that are lost.  When you do it can be YEARS later.  I think it took me two years to finally find time to grieve the loss of Martha.  I can at least look at the few pictures I have of her now and not cry my eyes out.

Hopefully this explanation will help others to understand the use of surviving fill in the blank.  Out in public ,and sometimes for the sake of simplicity, I will tell people I have triplets.  This way I do not get asked any questions on where the other child is or the looks of pity/sympathy.  If you hear surviving fill in the blank from a HOM mom then she wants you to know there are other child(ren).  So feel free to ask (in a compassionate way!) about the other child(ren).  I know I am happy to tell anyone who cares to listen about my sweet angel Martha and how beautiful she was to me.