Update on the kidney ultrasound

Yesterday Imogen had the kidney ultrasound to investigate why she had a yucky UTI. The ultrasoundist (sp?) said from appearance she could see nothing wrong with the left kidney apart from the apparent scarring from the two ops. So the search for the big UTI continues with more urine collection - what fun lol.

All is very quiet here today, two very happy kids back to school, Jason is working hard..even Milly the cat's not here as he has gone to get the snip and ear mites remove - how very gross!!...ahhhh the serenity....though it is a little lonely. I can hear the uni work and washing beckoning must go (lucky me : )

Love Fee

Immie turns 5 with HAIR!!!

Hi Peoples

Well had to update pictures from our gorgeous girl Imogen’s 5th Birthday. I wish I could say that I always knew she would reach 5 or that the last 5 years have been a breeze, though I can’t say I was always confident in these areas. I can say we are the proudest and most grateful mum, dad and brother of Imogen. She is the most amazing big lil girl, the way she has strolled, jumped, giggled, smiled and looked adorable through especially the last 2 and 2 months, has given us hope and strength. Thankyou Imogen for teaching us incredible lessons and showing us the strength we have personally and as a family together. We love you baby girl; you are our dreams and wishes for our future together.

Imogen’s day began with the morning alarm clock of Milly meowing at her door at 6.20am. Then presents, big hits were the musical box, the train set and the cd player. Waffles for brekkie. Then off to the pool for duck diving, backwards somersaults, bombies and birthday cake (of course). Home for the Granma and Granpa suprise...a new swing!!!. Lunch with my family. Then more playing with toys, then a delicious dinner of rice bubbles and lemonade – NOICE!!!. Immie did all of this while taking Accutane, herbal meds and amoxicillin (incredible kid).

Imogen’s big break from the resort was short lived...buggy wee equals UTI, caused us to returned and major antibiotics was begun. 3 times to the resort in three days...mmmm. Then back Tuesday to pick the antibiotics up. Tomorrow she has a kidney ultrasound to look for a reasoning of her UTI. Then Thursday speech therapy.

Kody has arrived home to an explosion of noise aka Immie. Kody had the best time at the Camp Quality Rock star camp, he entered the car blurted out in 15 minutes all the awesome stuff he had done then collapsed. Camp Quality and their supporters do an amazing job to bring laughter to the kids with cancer and their sibs. We missed Kody a lot, it’s incredible to realise how much he does for and with Immie especially when he is not around. I am sooo lucky to have two amazing kids xx.

Our aim to collect the baby Beans cord blood, has reached a few stumbling blocks. We have discovered the best place to have the collection is King Eddies, tho it has been a head ache as we need to be signed off from the hospital. Not too hard.. you would think, but because they would never use cord blood for Immie treatment the answer came back No. Together with our doctor we are now trying other ways to get it through. Unfortunately there is not a public cord blood storage facility, so the only way is to go private in WA and that is not the best solution when PMH would not even look at using the cells then. Now, we are hoping we never, never have to use these cells tho unfortunately we know kids do get sick and would feel better having the safety blanket. Time will tell...

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/theholmesgang

Photos of Immies Birthday click above.

Thanks for dropping pass again

Love and Hugs

Fee and the gang

P.S. Please surround Josh’s family “The Wisniewski’s” with love as the struggle through their hardest days. Thinking of you always Hannah, Peter, Josh and Anika xxx

Catching up with us xx

Hi all

Well I have been getting the hard word from some of you as I have been a little slack about updating the blog lol : P. Up till this week I actually did not have much to update, which to us pure bliss, no scans, not lots of appts, no troubles, we have just been cruising : ).

What have we been doing??. Immie did have an appt at the Deaf school, which was very informative. I was really amazed at what hearing aids can’t do. I never knew how many limitations they have and the fact they are still only able to be used for hearing language in a quiet room face to face a metre apart. Ahhh...not exactly how Immie spends most of her day at Pre Primary, 28 other lil people surrounding her with plenty of excitement going on!!!. When term two begins the hearing school will be sending out a teacher to assist Immies amazing teacher, in working with the hearing aids. I also attended two excursions one for Imogen to Whiteman park to the animal park, were we had heaps of fun and Imogen got to feed the lambs. Then Kody’s excursion was to the Freo Maritime Museum, that was actually very interesting, the 1/7 of the ship they have stored in there is huge!!.

Immie also went to get her vision checked after the school health nurse, was slightly concerned. I was very happy to hear from an amazing optometrist that all of Immies sight is fabulous. Though it would be an advised to either check again in 6 months or get her glasses to help support her while she is lil and learning all the important early years’ knowledge. For once I was able to make a decision regarding Immie medically; I decided that the glasses for now were the way to go. We chose out a very cute pair with ladybirds on them, which was actually Imogen’s discovery : ).

This brings us to this last week, Imogen had her monthly check up to see whether she was ready to resume Accutane again for the second last cycle...and the answer was No. Her feet were still not cleared up enough. So Accutane has been delayed a week and we will make a decision next Wednesday to wether she is ready to begin. Unfortunately the side effects of this ugly drug will coincide with Immie’s birthday and party. This is something we could do without but have little choice over. The drug in Imogen system seems to be building up each time. Last month she had the dry hands, extreme peeling feet and cracked face, which meant we did not see the beautiful smiles of Immie for about a week and half. Jason and I are keen to finish the Accutane, and unlike the first round treatment where we were nervous to be off treatment we are actually looking forward to the day when Immie does not have to swallow any more tablets or endure any more poking and prodding. So that was Wednesdays clinic, then we received a call on Thursday as Imogen’s urine sample had grown a bug, back in we went with another urine sample. Then back again on the Friday for Imogen’s first speech, that was painful to listen to as you don’t realise as a parent how much you adjust yourself to understanding your child’s speech. The end point is Imogen speech, grammar and saying tricky words is not that crash hot. Now Imogen has appt booked each Thursday morning at the resort for speech. The speech therapist actually thinks that her problems are not just from treatment but also from the many ear infections she had when she was very little. That’s all for now on all the updates on Immies medical marvels : P.

In the normal dull boring world (which we absolutely love), Immie and Kods finished Term One of with a bang. Both attended the school disco and had a blast. Kody also received a merit certificate for his project which are like hen’s teeth at Alinjarra. My mum flew out to Tasmania for a workshop on papermaking and we missed her like crazy. We had a wonderful Easter in Narrogin with my parents and Granny and Granpa, we all loved it and enjoyed the break. Then we headed to Hyden to see the other half of the Holmes gang, and give my beautiful niece Tayah birthday wishes. It was great to be able to see them all and Jacinta’s big belly : ). Then this Wednesday (same day of clinic) we headed back to Perth , with a few lost moments, we arrived an hour ( 5 hours instead of 4 – yuk) after we were meant to...tho still made it to the hospital on time.

Our Bean’s testing all came back low risk, which was a big woohoo. I promise I will upload some pics of the scan to the picassa web album link below. I have still been soaring through this pregnancy, just tired and now my pants are getting way to tight to fit hahaha. 17 weeks along – incredible.

What’s next....well it’s the most important day of the year for our beautiful girl, Imogen turns 5 on the 26th of April. WOW is the word that sums that up. She will be spending her birthday with us, probably at the pool and then has a birthday party on the 3rd of May with friends, family, a pirate and a fairy. I can’t wait her first birthday for two years with HAIR!!!!. Term Two will begin, and we have another 4 weeks of no appts besides speech – NOICE!!!. Then Imogen’s last dose of Accutane...can’t wait!!!. We will also have a scan to see our lil bean again; this will be the last time till we official get to hold him or her in our arms. And most importantly till we blog again we will be making the most of life, laughing, smiling, giggling and loving every bit.

Love to all

The Holmes Gang

see the below link for more gorgeous pictures of Kody, Immie and our Bean
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/theholmesgang