Mayerly's 8th Birthday

Well, this is where I would normally post pictures of Mayerly's birthday celebration. Unfortunately, there was no celebration last night. We have had an ongoing problem with Mayerly listening to us at home and to her teacher at school. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that the past 2 weeks she has had more bad reports from school than good ones.

She had been warned repeatedly all week not to continue this misbehavior (and grounded from her favorite activities and has had added chores to do around the house when she received bad reports). Well, yesterday (which was her birthday) she had another bad report from school - so we had to follow through with our threat to cancel her birthday celebration.

We are more disappointed than many of you probably are about not having happy birthday, candle-blowing-out pictures (especially since this is our first birthday with her). But we couldn't make our threat to cancel her birthday celebration an empty one either. She WILL start listening to the adults in charge of her, or her life is not going to be very much fun for awhile.

So, instead of posting birthday pictures, I'm posting the girls' school pictures. We just got all of them back this week. I think they turned out pretty well (better than any of mine ever were).

One dentist, one doctor, one lawyer

Wednesday we went to the dentist. Oscar, Diana & Mayerly will all need sealant to be applied to their teeth. Diana will need a crown and Mayerly has a cavity. We go back in November for the sealants and will have to return for Diana's crown (she had a big old filling that fell out). Claudia was the only one who won't have to return until her next six month cleaning appointment.

Today Diana and I went back to see the eye doctor. She needed to do a couple more tests due to the communication barrier (even though we had an interpreter). Diana tends to want to try to give the "right answer" instead of telling the doctor exactly what she is seeing. We couldn't seem to convince her that there are no "right answers" to these test questions. Anyway, the doctor seemed to get the answers she had been looking for today. She also is a Christian doctor (which I didn't realize before). She made a comment to me about praying before this exam that she would be able to figure Diana's vision problem out - and this visit she was able to. The doctor believes that Diana can see out of her left eye and that the eye turn is likely developmental rather than congenital.

Tim and I will go to see the doctor on the 19th to discuss what we do next. First thing, Diana will be getting new glasses with a different prescription. Next we have a referral to an osteopathic doctor that Diana will see before she starts therapy. What more, I don't know...

I also called a lawyer this week about getting the re-adoption (actually it is a "recognition of foreign adoption" hearing) rolling. If we don't hit any snags, we may have that all done by Christmastime this year.

We also had another interesting thing develop recently. Unfortunately, I can't talk about it right now - mainly because we don't know enough to talk about it. Anyway, maybe someday soon we will know something. That probably doesn't make any sense... so, if you would, just pray for all our children and for us as parents.

Doctors, doctors and more doctors...

The other day I noticed that when Oscar blinked, he was only blinking one eye. I looked at him more carefully and then noticed that when he smiled, only the left side moved. So, we were soon headed for the doctor. Turns out he has Bell's Palsy. The doctor says that no one knows what causes it and there is no treatment for it. However, it seems that this is a temporary condition and that it should go away in a few weeks. If he is still can't move the right side of his face in six weeks, we are supposed to go back.

Poor kid, he can't drink anything without it coming back out of his mouth and we have to tape his eye shut at night when he goes to bed. (If his left eye is open, the right eye opens, but then he can't close it again without using his hand.)

Pray for a quick recovery for him, if you are so inclined...

Diana had her second visit to the optometrist's office today where they did more testing. Today she was with the therapist instead of the doctor.

Next week, we are all going to the dentist...

Update on Diana

Thursday was our first visit with the vision therapy optometrist. Diana just loves her. They spent 2 hours "playing games" (really, they were vision tests) and the doctor told her that she would not have to wear a patch or use atropine drops again (I think that is what really won Diana over). The doctor is a former teacher and has a wonderful "bed side manner". So different from the opthamologist we were seeing (although our new doctor says that he is an excellent surgeon). Diana even WANTED to wear her glasses to school the next day. Before, I had to practically threaten her life to make her wear them.

We should be finished with the evaluation phase by October 19th. We'll keep you informed of the progress.

Also, I'm reading a book called "Fixing My Gaze" by Susan R. Barry. She's had strabismus since birth and had it surgically corrected several times. When she was 50years old, she underwent vision therapy and she was finally able to see in 3D (stereovision) for the first time in her life. Her experience goes against the conventional wisdom that if strabismus isn't corrected by the age of about 6 or 7, it cannot be corrected. Gives me hope for Diana's eyesight.

Diana's Eye

We went for Diana's 3rd opthamologist appointment back on August 29th. The news wasn't good. He could not see any improvement in her left eye and wants to do corrective surgery. I asked him about any alternatives or therapies and he said that there were no therapies and that surgery was the only way. However, after surgery all he was going to do was patch her right eye again. Being me, I wasn't convinced and decided to do my own research. What did parents ever do before Al Gore invented the internet? (hehehe)

From what I've read, Diana's condition (amblyopic strabismus) cannot be corrected with surgery. Sure her eye may not turn in anymore, but she still won't see any better out of it. What causes the eye to turn in is a disconnect between the brain and the eye. Surgery can't fix that, but I think therapy could. In fact, surgeries usually have to be re-done after a few years - sometimes several times because the real problem is not being addressed.

There is something called "vision therapy" done by a few optometrists. It turns out that there is one in Kansas City that does it. Long story short, we have an appointment this Thursday for testing and another next Wednesday for more testing and then the doctor will write up an evaluation. After that we will likely begin weekly therapy.

The reason that there are not a lot of doctors who do this is because it is not widely covered by insurance. In fact, we will have to pay for all the testing out-of-pocket and then try to get reimbursed by our health insurance company. Incredibly, most insurance companies will cover eye surgery to correct the strabismus (eye turn). Crazy! Who cares if the kid can see, let's just make her "look normal"! Oh yes, health insurance does need reform... but I'm still not in favor of "Obamacare".

I'm off my soapbox now. We'll keep you informed about Diana's progress.

El tiene 12 anos hoy!

Today is Oscar's 12th birthday. Of course, everyone had school today. But after school we all went to Red Robin for dinner. Oscar had pizza (yeah, I know it's a burger place - but it's his birthday). We then had a quiet celebration back at the house with cake and ice cream.

Enjoy the pictures!

After Dad set fire to the cake...

After he put out the fire...

Las Quatro

Can't get rid of Hank's 'blue eye' with my picasa freeware...

He says it is his dream to be a 'bombero', we'll see...

Short Happenings

*** Hankie boy ***

We brought Hank home the last week of June. He has done much better with the kids than we expected. We did have to have a few lessons on "when to know when Hank has had enough of you" and "where Hank will let you touch him so you don't incur his wrath" and "why it's never, ever a good idea to take Hank's toys away from him". They have been good about not pushing him past his limits, and he has been more tolerant of their intrusions on him than we thought he would be.

The kids all went to summer school in June. In July/August the girls went to a day camp that is run by the county parks and rec department at a local lake. Oscar spent his summer (after summer school) with Grandma Schoemig learning more reading, writing and math. He also started playing soccer on a team with his cousin Neil in August. The girls went back to school this week. Diana is in 2nd grade, Mayerly is in 1st grade and Claudia is in kindergarten. Oscar is still being home schooled by Grandma right now. We're hoping he'll be caught up enough to go to school next year, but we aren't going to rush him into something we feel he isn't yet ready for. He still has a lot of ground to make up.