Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia

Ok, so I just had to start this post out with a picture from last camping season. Is winter over yet? Ugh. I try to keep busy during the winter to make the time pass faster (until the next camping season). One thing I have coming up soon is a road trip. I will be driving several hours to get to the nearest donation site to donate my blood plasma to ProfNAIT. They are working towards a cure for Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia. They are collecting plasma from moms who have had babies with NAIT to get the antibodies that we make. If you have had a baby with NAIT and you would like to donate you can go to www.naitbabies.org to contact them. It's a long drive for us, but well worth the trouble. If you are a parent that has had a baby born with unexplained low platelets this would be a good thing to ask your doctor about. Your kids will either have a 50% chance or 100% chance of getting NAIT if you carry the antibodies and each pregnancy usually gets worse. My 3rd child was affected but wasn't properly diagnosed, so my 4th child was untreated and had even lower counts. Low platelet counts can lead to internal bleeding and/or death. We were very blessed. There is a wonderful facebook group of moms that have had Naitbabies as well. I was supposed to donate this weekend, but came down with a chest cold. Bummer. God has a way of working these things out though. I will get there when I'm supposed to get there. God bless!

Saving money with a deep freeze

I finally did it! I forked over the cash to get myself a deep freeze! I am convinced that this is going to save me time and money in the long run, but still, it was was hard to get past my cheapskate-edness. I also have a very tiny house so it was no easy task to find the space, but I think it will be well worth the sacrifice. I went to the grocery (Aldi and Walmart) today to start stocking up my freezer. I bought 5 pounds of hamburger, which I promptly fried up, put into individual serving sized containers, and put into the freezer. Next I got to chopping onions. I chopped up a whole bag of onions, also put into individual serving sized containers...and you guessed it...put them into the freezer. Ok, so I continued this process with green onions and strawberries (which are on sale at Aldi for 99 cents). I didn't get around to my green and red peppers yet, as tonight was church night, but I'll get to them tomorrow. I bought some fozen veggies, garlic bread, french toast sticks, and bread (hot dog buns were marked down to 49 cents at Aldi) to complete my first day of shopping for my freezer. I am so busy on the day to day duties of taking care of 4 kids (one of them a very active toddler), homeschooling, cleaning, church, etc. that it is really hard for me to put together a meal that requires a lot of prep work. Having most of the prep work done ahead of time and stored in my freezer helps so much. I was so limited with freezer space in my fridge that I didn't get to do this as much as I would like. I'm still learning all of the rules to freezing, but I'm getting there. I thought I would share my excitement! For those of you that know me, you know that spending money isn't easy for me...but I think this one is gonna pay off bigtime!

Back to blogging...

It' been a long time since I've blogged, but I thought I might attempt to begin again. We'll see how it goes. I hadn't even looked at my blog in a couple of years and when I logged on I saw my profile picture and my heart melted. My little baby boy is growing up. The baby in the picture is now 3 years old and such a big boy. I loved reading through my old posts...especially the one with the video of my lil' guy doing sign language. I would like to use this blog to document our memories, but also to raise awareness about things that are near and dear to my heart, such as Sensory Processing Disorder, Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia, Homeschooling, and most of all...Jesus Christ. I might even review some of the campgrounds we camp at so that I can remember which campsites I love/hate! Hopefully, by this time next month, I will getting ready to start this camping season!! Be blessed!!

You DAILY bear my burdens

Sunday night I visited a wonderful church. We had heard that the services there had been amazing and we weren't doing anything else, so my mom, my aunt, two of my kids and I loaded up and drove about 45 minutes away to worship with some fellow believers. When we got there, I was amazed at how friendly the people were with us. Not just your typical handshake to the visitor either. At the first beat of the music everyone was on their feet praising the Lord with all their hearts. It was beautiful. After a few songs, the pastor's wife announced that her husband would not be there because he was ill. Since he had planned on being there that night, he had not made arrangements otherwise so we were going to watch a video. She laughed as she told us how one member of the congregation had asked him if he would show the old Brownsville, live in Dallas DVD. Well, that's what we ended up watching. These people worshipped right along with the DVD as if they were right there in person. At the end of the video, the worship leader felt led to have an altar call in which many people came to the altar and had a wonderful time with the Lord. I was amazed. These people had come to worship and to meet with God, and that is exactly what they did. I wanted to share how the Lord used this old, some would say "outdated", DVD to speak to me. Lindell Cooley, from the Brownsville worship team, was singing "Blessed be the Name of the Lord" and the second verse hit me smack in the forehead. "FOR YOU DAILY BEAR MY BURDEN"...here is the whole song...

I am standing beneath Your wings
I am resting in Your shelter
Your great faithfulness has been my shield
It makes me want to sing

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name of the Lord
I will bless Your holy name
For all my days
Blessed be the name of the Lord

I sing praises to Your name oh Lord
For You daily bear my burden
Your great faithfulness is my reward
It makes me want to sing...

Jesus DAILY bears my burden, IF I let Him. So many days I carry my own burden. If I hold onto the burden, it will only get worse. I need to put it in His hands so that He can mold it into a beautiful testimony, so that I can sing praises to Him! His great faithfulness is my reward. He is so faithful to hold onto that burden as long as I will allow Him too. In exchange He gives me His burden (for My yoke is easy and My burden is light). Oh, how I love carrying His burden. It is not heavy like mine is. It does not weigh me down and threaten to destroy me. His burden makes me feel as light as air. When I feel like picking my burden up I will act like a crazy woman and start telling myself to put that thing back down...and I will sing praises to His name, for He DAILY bears my burden!!
Hallelujah!

Rough week...

I made it! I wasn't quite sure I would make it through this week. I am a bit exhausted, but we ALL survived. Praise God. Tuesday my oldest daughter (12 years old) started having neurological symptoms followed by a severe headache and vomiting. Her speech was impaired (using the wrong words and using nonsense words), and her right arm went numb all the way up to her tongue. She had been to the dentist the day before so my first instinct was to call the dentist and see if this was a delayed reaction to the novacaine/laughing gas. The dentist said it was not related, but that we needed to call her family doctor immediately. I called them right away, but had to wait for them to speak with the doctor and return my call, which took about 20 minutes. In the meantime, my daughter's headache was getting worse, while her arm and tongue returned to normal. Her speech was still affected. The doctor said to go to the ER if the initial symptoms returned. I gave her some ib profin, but the headache continued to get worse. I called my mom and my husband, and kept asking my daughter questions to evaluate her state of mind. I asked her why she was talking in such a way and she answered that she couldn't hear me. At this point I took her to the ER as fast as I could get there. On the way she started vomiting. We stayed for a couple of hours and the ER and then were sent to Riley Hospital for Children's ER. Several hours later she was admited to the heart center at Riley. She was given a CAT scan, a CAT scan with contrast, a chest xray, an MRI, an echocardiogram and blood tests for several different clotting disorders as well as a CBC. We were allowed to come home the next day as the tests that had come back were normal, but we are still waiting on results for the echocardiogram and the blood tests. At this point the neurologist is thinking it was a "complex" or "complicated" migraine. This is a type of migraine that has neurological symptoms and it is rare, especially in a 12 year old. If she were to be given Imitrex, or any drug in that family (which is the drug normally given for a migraine), it could cause a stroke. We have an appt. with the neuroglogist in 3 weeks. The night we came home from the hospital, exhausted and running on 1 hour of sleep, my other kids woke up vomiting. I think they caught a bug in the ER waiting room. Vomiting and fevers for 24 hours. Yuk! Finally, we are all recovering well and I am staying busy cleaning the house and getting rid of all the germs in the house. God was with us and supplied our every need. My mom was a tremendous help! Thank you Lord, for taking care of my babies!

Ready for Homeschooling

I have been working very hard for the past couple of weeks to get ready for the upcoming school year. I am very excited to be much more organized this time! I am so very close to being finished, and I will post pictures soon. The baby is sleeping through the night finally, and I have a feeling that this year is gonna be a good one!
God Bless

"What's SPD?"

A few days ago I was shopping with my mom and my 10 year old son, who has Sensory Processing Disorder. My mom showed me a shirt to see if I liked it, but I told her I didn't like to wear things that were tight on my arms, especially how it feels around my elbows. I also HATE fur, fake fur, fake hair...*gag*! I was telling her how I prefer short sleeved shirts that are very soft. It made me think of how my son must feel with his sensory issues effecting so many areas of his life and I said to my mom, sarcastically, "maybe I have SPD too!" My son then announces "what is SPD?" Are you kiddding me?? I just stood there for a second and then told him I was referring to Sensory Processing Disorder. "Oh," he says. LOL! It was so funny. He knows that SPD is short for Sensory Processing Disorder, but I guess he didn't understand why I would say I might have it, so maybe I meant something else. It was cute. He is so well behaved at stores now! Thank the Good Lord for Occupational Therapy and Wilbarger Brushing. He occasionally heads over to the area where the carts are and likes to sandwhich himself in between them (yes, I know, input!), but we are working on that. Really, his only behavior issue right now is his over-excited, in your face approach to his baby brother! Also, at times he gets insulted and angry over things that other kids might just laugh at. He takes things so personal. We are going to work "Social Skill Training" into our homeschool curriculum this year. I found a couple of workbooks for teaching social skills! He "bickers" with his 6 year old sister (also has milder SPD) constantly. If I could figure out how to fix that problem I would be on cloud 9! I do believe that I am going to try the old "I'm gonna make you hug each other" approach here soon! :)
God Bless!