My birthday/ Jackson's day in the hospital

Ok I am going to start at the very beginning, but summarize. About 4 months ago Jackson had a bout of horrible abdominal pain. He basically grabbed his tummy and was literally screaming in pain. After a couple of hours of this and a few treatments, like gas drops and a laxative, even though he had had no problems having a bm, we took him to the ER. By the time we got there he was a lot better, by the time someone actually came to check on him he was almost completely better. They said it was probably gas or something else non significant and sent us home with no treatment or test. At the time we pretty much agreed with them. We didn't given this much more thought. On Saturday he did the same thing again. This time it lasted for 6 hours, he also got cold and clammy and pale. We were hesitant to take him back to the ER because they said it was nothing last time. We were getting worried and decided to take him to the hospital. As soon as we got in the car, he was fine. I am not talking about a kid who is a little better or getting better he was totally fine, he did not look or act like he had been in any distress of any kind ever. So we turned around and went home, and back to bed. We actually joked that we had another four months until the next episode. We also discussed that if it happened again we would go straight to the ER because maybe if they saw him in pain they could help more. When he did it again on Wednesday (AKA my 30th b-day) Adam took him to the ER pretty quickly. We took him to a local ER. I think this was a big part of the answer because they were not too busy to actually look and him and try to investigate to figure out what the problem was. While we were talking to our nurse practitioner I asked about the possibility of a kidney stone, she said kids don't typically get kidney stones, and the symptoms were a little off also. She decided to do an x-ray of his tummy to see if she could see anything abnormal. She did She came back and said it looked like 4 kidney stones. She them ordered a sono and some labs. The sono showed 2 kidney stones and 2 gal bladder stones. The labs showed elevated pancriatic enzymes. (Gal stones can lead to pancreatitis which can be severe). She sent us to Children's at this point. Children's did some more testing and another sono. Long story short. They are not worried about the gal stones, although his enzymes are up they are not high enough to be classified as pancreatitis. They are actually only worried about 1 stone in his Kidney. It is roughly 1cm. That is absolutely huge for a kidney stone. It is way too big to ever pass, or even move out of his kidney. It is also too big to break up. He is going to have to have it surgically removed. We were very glad to hear that our kidney doctor did not find it necessary for us to stay at the hospital until surgery. He sent us home and we are supposed to hear from him tomorrow. They have given us pain medication in case he has another bout of pain. I do not know anything else at this time. I will have more answers soon and will post updates. Please send good thoughts our way. I know this was a long post sorry. Too tired for anything else right now
Love
Kimberly
Adam
and Jackson

Jackson's 3 years old

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. I am posting some on Facebook. Ok enough excuses. I really have no updates. Jackson is doing amazing. He is very tall and thin, the doctor said is huge head is back on the charts. It was so big it had gone off but its back now. So I guess he is growing into his head. He is eating amazing and his speech is coming along nicely. He no longer qualifies for ECI. Which is both exciting and sad. We will miss our therapist very much. He goes to school for his therapy now and his teacher is Mr. Durham, he seems very nice and good at what he dose. He seems to really love kids. His party was great. We had so much fun. Jackson flew a kite for the first time he really liked it. I hope everyone who came had fun. He is getting so smart. He can spell; stop, exit, cat, dog, bear, and book. Well I guess that's all for now. I hope everyone is doing wonderful, and having a great year.
Love
Kimberly, Adam and Jackson

Happy New Year

Jackson was spinning the tea cups

Welcome 2009. Hi everyone. As always there is no news here. Jackson is doing great. He eats anything we give him. His weight is the same but I am not overly concerned about that, he is just going to be tall and skinny like his dad. We had a great time in Disney, a Christmas we will not soon forget. I hope you enjoy the pictures. The one where we are all wearing glasses was when we were waiting to get on the new Toy story ride, its in 3D.
Love Adam, Kimberly and Jackson

Nothing to report

Hi everyone, there is really no news to speak of, but I am being harassed about how rarely I update. He was the cutest puppy dog in the world for Halloween. Then the other day he asked to put on his costume, so I let him, then he wanted to play hockey in it, It was hilarious. My little hockey playing puppy dog. Jackson is doing wonderful, it seems like he is eating constantly. He is a little parrot and repeats everything we say. He is not really gaining weight, but he is not losing either. He is potty training and doing quite well. We should be out of diapers soon. I guess the only news is that we are going to Disney Land for Christmas. So I know I don't post much but I will definitely post pictures once we are back and settled in again. For those of you that are wondering how my lap-band/weight loss is going. i have lost almost 60LBS. I am including a before and after picture.
Love
Kimberly, Adam and Jackson

Post op

Hi everyone sorry again for not posting in so long. Jackson had surgery to fix his g-button hole on friday the 26th, we also decided to have him circumcised at the same time. I was very worried about this surgery for some reason, but there was no need. He did so good it is like nothing has happened to him. He had surgery at about 10am and we went home around 4pm. He was very sleepy for a little while but by the time we got home he was normal Jackson. In fact he ate a thing of fries and half of Adam's drink on the way home. The next day we gave him pain medication just to slow him down, he was so active we were afraid he would hurt himself. He continues to eat more and more, he has even gained a pound. His speech is still behind and we are still getting ECI for that, but he seems to be improving on that every day. I have not downloaded pictures in a long time so there are no new ones to post. We have a fun filled couple of weeks planned and I will take lots of pictures and then update again.
Love
Kimberly Adam and Jackson

UH-OH!!!!!!

Hi everyone. About a week ago Jackson walked into the the living room and told Adam uh-oh. Adam said what uh-oh and Jackson lifted up his shirt and his button fell out. Adam said UUHHHH-OHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To make a long story short, after trying all day to get the button back in Adam was unsuccessful and we basically decided not to torture him with anymore attempts. (For those of you who don't know those holes start to close up pretty quickly.) Because Jackson had been doing good on his eating we decided to leave the button out. He still only eats a little bit at a time but it appears to be getting better. He does complain about his stomach hurting every now and then and we think it is because he is getting hungry. We are offering him all kinds of food anything to get calories in him at this point. We still think he has a good chance of staying off the feeding tube. He still has a small hole in his tummy that is leaking and causing some skin breakdown. We went the surgeon's office yesterday and got a cream to treat the breakdown. We have another appointment Wednesday the 20 th to decide if the button hole needs repaired surgically. I guess that is all right now. I hope everyone is doing well.

I am including some pictures of our wonderful vacation to Padre.

Love

Kimberly Adam and Jackson

P.S. If anyone in Houston still reads this we will be in town on September 13 th for the Texas Center for Fetal surgery reunion. We would love to see you guys while we are there.

Happy Independence Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREAT GRANDADDY MCDONALD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I guess I should start by apologizing for not updating more often. It just seems like there is nothing to update on. Jackson is doing wonderfully. He eats a little bit more each day and we are hoping to be off the tube feeds in a couple of months. We are down to 3 feeds a day which is half of what we were doing a couple months ago. He is saying new words all the time, we continue to be amazed by him every day, we are so proud of our little man. I painted a chalk board in his room he loves it. He loves the ABC's so we write the alphabet on there, he can say a lot of his letters. We went to Branson last weekend with Adam's family. We had a good time. We rented a boat one day and went intertubeing, Jackson even rode on the tube. The next day we went to a place like six flags called silver dollar city. Jackson road all the kid rides and LOVED the frog and elephant rides, he asked to go over and over again. We are going to South Padre with my family in about a week. I can't wait to see Jackson at the beach. I guess that's all for now. I will try to post more frequently.

Love

Adam Kimberly and Jackson