Hannah Update

Hannah had a Rheumatology check-up last week. Here are the highlights from it:

***Her sed rate at her last visit (4 mths ago) was 35 which is pretty high. One month later it was 20 which is normal! Yeah! I am anxious to find out what this month's rate was. This measures the amount of inflammation, so I am praying that it is still normal this month.

***I talked to the doctor about the tummy troubles Hannah has been having. Back a month or two before we moved, she was complaining about her tummy hurting alot. She would go to the bathroom quite a bit and have diarrhea. She is now taking Prevasid everyday and it seems like it may be helping. Dr. Byrum wanted me to make sure she was getting enough fiber in her diet. He thought this would help. Dr. Morris decided she wanted to do some tests to see if Hannah has any blood in her stools. So, I'm working on getting her those samples. Yes, it is lots of fun. NOT!

***The doctor did not find any signs of inflammation, swelling, etc at this visit!! This is the second time for this. Her medicine is obviously working! So, if she can continue to be symptom free two years from now, they will start tapering her off the meds. That would be wonderful!

***Hannah is using her wrist more we think. She can cut with scissors with her right and left hands. She can even attempt the monkey bars at the park, with my help. She is climbing more and much better than she used to. I know some of this is probably due to age, but it is such an improvement from 1 year ago.

***I talked to the doctor about all the fevers Hannah has been having. I have been keeping a record of them. She will get a low-grade fever (99.8 to 100.7) every 4 weeks or so that lasts less then 24 hours. Usually they come in the evenings and are gone by morning. Used to when she'd get a fever, she'd really hurt and just lay around. Now, she'll tell me she doesn't feel good but I don't see any signs of pain, which is a huge blessing and another sign to us that her medicine is working! It is just really odd to me that she gets these fevers so frequently. I've mentioned them to Dr. Morris before and she blew them off as just viruses that kids get all the time. However, this time she paid more attention to them and said that she thought Hannah was just one of those kids prone to get fevers. She wanted to test her immune globulines, something that she said she had not done before. Apparently these are proteins that fight infection. So, we will see what that tells us. She told me to keep up the record keeping though.

We were very pleased with her visit and thank God that she is doing so well. My prayer is that she continues to be completely healthy!!!

Now, to some of the fun things Miss Hannah has been doing lately. She is starting preschool in a month and is VERY excited about it! She has never gone before, so this will be new to her and to mommy. I am excited for her though. I think she will love it!

She loves to play with her baby dolls still. She is such the little mother. She talks to them so sweetly sometimes and not so sweetly at others. She tells them the exact same things that she hears me tell her like "If you do that again, you are going to get a spanking." I have to say it is funny the first time and then it bothers me. How often do I say that to her? How often does she need that said to her??? She can be a handful at times. When things don't go her way,she can't do something that she really wants to do, or she gets frustrated trying to do something, she can throw some mean fits! I will be SO glad when she outgrows these!!!

She and Lincoln play okay together. We are working on the sharing. She is SO bossy--loves to tell people what to do. Again, it is like looking in the mirror! Scary!

She loves to write. She is more into trying to write lists like me than coloring or drawing pictures. Maybe this will change when she goes to preschool. I am really looking forward to seeing what kinds of pictures she will draw.

She loves her cousin Logan. She has a little crush on him. She gets giddy when she gets around him. It is funny.

She also loves Jennifer. The other day we were in the car going to Jennifer's house for something and she said, "I like Jennifer. She's the best." Your right, Hannah, she is! She has been SO good to my kiddos. We love her!

She loves going to her grandparents houses. She has so much fun and always hates to leave. This last visit to the Keims she actually seemed to conquor some of her fear of dogs. She used to be deathly afraid of Rocky, their dog, and had to be held to be outside. This trip she would walk around with a stick and say, "Get away, Rocky." So big and brave! She really enjoyed seeing the goats and all the other animals down at my parents house. We are about ready to send the kids to my parents for the weekend for the first time. She will love it!

She has been having LOTS of fun this summer, but I'm going to save that for another post.

Finally, here are some pictures of my little sweetie! She came out of her room the other day wearing this--her Australia boots and panty hose. Then she asked for her rain coat. I love her model pose in the second picture.