Sunday, August 1, 2010

As Todd would say, if it's been a month without an update, it must mean that all is well! All is great! Hannah has been enjoying the summer with lots of activities. She has math tutoring 2 times a week at 8:30am which hasn't been easy, but I find that if I talk to her about it the night ahead of time, it helps a bit. Last week I didn't give her enough notice, it was difficult to get her up in the morning and she accidentally kicked me right in the nose. I saw stars, and there is a good chance she broke my nose. I contemplated going to the ER, but there really wasn't anything they would do. It still hurts, it's been about a week. She felt badly and apologized later, but she still went to school. This week is her last week of summer tutoring, and I hope it's been enough to keep her up to date with things.

We have all been pretty busy this summer. I keep saying that summer is supposed to be for relaxing, but why don't we feel relaxed? It's a fine line you walk between being too busy and being bored. When the girls aren't doing enough, they are on their computers and watching tv. When they are doing too much, they are tired! Hannah did a farm fun days camp that they said was "very boring mom." She also did a tennis camp which she really liked. Hannah also swims on a swim team on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. In true Hannah fashion, she said she was not going to swim on this team. She swam on the team last summer, then continued to swim during the year at an indoor place. She really improved from last year, so this year she was on the next level up team with her friends.

I think she was a bit nervous about swimming this summer. Last year Hannah wasn't as strong and needed a lot of help and encouragement while swimming. She couldn't do a full lap without stopping last year. If it wasn't for Marissa, a teenage girl that is a coach for the team, Hannah would never have stayed and swam. Thanks goodness Marissa is there again this year, and thank goodness that Hannah doesn't really need her that much this year! Marissa was so surprised to see how much stronger Hannah is this year. She doesn't need breaks that often, and in general can keep up with the kids in her lane. Last week I heard her ask Marissa if she would stay by her lane because she was tired. Still, she did fine.

We are count down again for Grandma and Grandpa's house, only 5 days left. Sydney is here with us for a visit and the girls are having a great time with her. We leave on Thursday for Indiana.

So in between swimming, lacrosse, school, basketball, tennis, more school and more lacrosse, we have been trying to get in some fun in the sun. Hannah continues to do well. The hospital called last week to schedule her next MRI-for DECEMBER!! Wow, that's great and a little weird. About 2 weeks I eliminated one of Hannah's medicines. She still takes two anti-nausea meds. Almost immediately she began to have stomach issues. I don't tell Hannah when I decrease her medicine. She started having stomach aches again in the mornings, that lasted quite a while. She stopped eating breakfast, became more selective about what she would eat, and just seemed to regress. Sometimes this happens when I decrease her medicines, and it passes but this just wouldn't pass. The issue when adding back in a medicine, is that you usually can't just add it back in at the same dosage. Her doctor explained that you generally have to increase it from the last dose, then slowly decrease it back to what it was. So, I added the medicine back in 2 days ago at double what it was. She is much better already. All this changing and she never knew. Well neither did her doctor! Really no need to contact him unless I couldn't get it under control myself.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer. We don't go back to school until after Labor Day in New York, so we still have over a month left! Pictures to follow soon, I'm off to bed!
Kim