So this past year has been extremely busy. Catherine was born in May 07. She was diagnosed with spina bifida in August 07, with a corrective surgery in September 07, then another surgery in October 07 to deal with a massive infection from the first surgery. When she was done with her antibiotics, Andrea went in to have her gall bladder out (and is feeling much better with that gone.) A week later, she was in the hospital with blood clots in both lungs. Barrie was a superior multitasker by this point. He was (and still is) working for Attensity, Corp. in the QA department. He was Andrea's big time support when she was at rock bottom when Catherine was in and out of the hospital. He played Mommy and Daddy when Andrea was in and out of the hospital and became a limited register nurse (giving Andrea Lovenox shots 2-3x's daily over the next few months)
December was our first Christmas with Catherine. WE had so much fun. "Catherine" had purchased Barrie a Hamm/CB radio for christmas, wrapped it by "herself" and even wrote her name on it (you can substitute Barrie for all the " quote" areas. Catherine loved the paper ripping.
2008 has been pretty eventful. The beginning few months, Andrea was in and out of the hospital for continued chest pains and migraine headaches associated with the medicines she was on and the blood clots. Catherine started physical, occupation, and vision therapies in March 08 to help her with many things she was lagging behind in. As of now(July 08) she is army crawling everywhere, pulling herself up onto her hands and knees, and pulling herself up into a standing position all by herself. She is also sitting upright and will move from laying down to sittinng and visa versa. With sight-wise, she is seeing small objects (without her glasses), finger pinching to pick them up. What tremendous progress she has made!! We are so blessed with that. We also made a huge purchase since puchasing our house 3 years ago. We had to buy a new furnace.
In April, we went to Raleigh, NC to visit Andrea's family. Catherine did wonderfully on the airplane trips. Andrea's grandparent from Florida drove up along with Grandma Jane and Mugsy. Grandpa Johnny flew in from NY for the fun. Everyone met Paula's Josh and his adorable children. While in NC, Andrea found out she has a blood disorder - Methylenetetrahydrofolatereducase Deficiency. Her body does not process folic acid, thus letting her homocystine levels increase - making her blood thicker and easier to clot. Her doctors are also thinking this is relating to Catherine's Spina Bifida and Colobomas (eye abnormality).
Ok, then May 08 came and we celebrated Catherine's first birthday. What a hoot. It is amazing how much a little one grows in a year's time. We had a family birthday party in NC when we were with Andrea's family. On May 28th, we along with the Stuts' and the Baker's celebrated the realy day of birth, then had a "We-made-it-through-the first-year/Thank You/Birthday" BBq in our back yard that following Saturday. That was lots of fun, all the way down to the water gun fights.
June 08, brought on the warmer weather. We purchased a AC unit and let us tell you, it has been very cool!! We helped Cattherine's little best friend celebrate her first birthday. Andrea started Per Diem at an imaging clinic doing diagnostic and vascular ultrasounds in hopes to get a part time clinic position and give up working at St Mark's with call,nights, weekends, and holidays.
So far no day has been permently giving to her, but we are still hanging in there. Barrie celebrated his 2nd Father's day. Catherine (and Mommy) made Barrie a tie, with hand and feet prints all over it. It was proudly worn to church.
And that brings us up to July 08 - this month. Look for more blogs concerning this month!!
