And Life continues........

Things are going pretty well here. I took Keith in for his post op check up today and we got great news! Keith can now see the big E on the eye chart! He can also see some bright colors and can count fingers up to 4 feet away! This made me cry at the docs office today and the doc was ready to do a dance for Keith as this is the most he has seen from his eye in about 5 months! The only sad news was that he has a small cataract on his eye. We will have to watch that and see how it progresses. So the doctor said we did not have to come and see him for another check until after our trip to Boston! Yeah! Hopefully this last surgery has done the trick so we can maybe have a normal summer!
Sarah is still loving school! She loves to learn and loves to be with her friends. Unfortunatly I have realized that she has inharited her Mother's stubborn head! We but heads frequently, but we also have a great time together. She is my little artist. She can make  beautiful art from anything. She also amazes me with her ease with numbers! They come so easily to her. She gets that from Daddy. I told Fred the other day that in a few years I will not be able to help her with her math homework as she will be over my head.
Logsn is just awesome to be around. He is such a funny kid. It is hard to be mad at him as he can make you laugh even when he is being naughty! He loves to sing! We have a casio piano in the livingroom with a mic hooked up to it. When no one is in the room he will turn it on and sit and sing a song to himself. I have yet to catch him with the video camera. I need to get it ready as this will be so cute to look back on in 20 years....especially if he becomes  famous.
My husband, Fred, whom has been with me for 16 years now, is still the love of my life. Don't get me wrong...we still get on each others nerves from time to time! But I am amazed at how easy it is to talk to him and share the craziness in our lives. With everything that has been going on in our lives for the past 8 months, he has been there to help me through it! I know that I would not have been able to do it without him! My church family and some close friends have also helped me to understand that there is light at the end of this dark tunnel and we will get there. I am so blessed to have such great friends and church family and my children and husband!
So hope you liked my sappy post, as I have had such an amazing day that I could not possibly say anything negative! Tomorrow is another day though!!

February trip to Boston

At it again. We went to Burlington for a check up to see how the January surgery went....and we did not get good news. So we were sent back to Boston for another surgery. This one was much different though. We have been going down for laser and cryotherapy treatments. This time they wanted to do a vitrectomy. Which is the removal of the fluid in the eye. They stick in three needle like things into the eye to remove the cloudy fluid and they replaced it with a gas bubble and saline like fluid. The gas bubble is used to put pressure on the retina to lay flat and hopefully reaatch itself. Sarah came down with a stomach bug the morning we were supposed to go so Fred had to stay home with Her and Logan. Keith and I made this trip by ourselves....Not Fun!!! I really need my other half to hold me up!!! Keith's nerves got the better of him the morning of the surgery. I think that nerves, mixed with an empty stomach and the super hot waiting room really wreeked havoc on his system! Keith cannot lay flat on his back, run, jump, fly on an airplane, change elevations for the next 30 days! So, basically not be an 8 year old boy for 30 days. Impossible you say???? We will only find out soon enough!?!? It has been tough as we have had to do the drops 4 times a day and those of you who know Keith well know that this is not an easy task!! We did find the cocktail for anesthisia that works for him!! Only 5 surgeries before we got the right one!! We are opting to go with the intramuscular injection rather then the "yummy" sleepy juice that never seemed to work, or taste good for that matter!! So we have been in for the one week post opp visit and all seems ok. His eye pressure is in the normal range, they cannot see much due to the gas bubble but we will go back in two weeks to see how he is holding up. Hopefully if all goes well we will not have to go to Boston for 6-8 weeks! I love to visit Boston but this is getting rediculous! We are going to have to find an apartment down there if we keep this up!! Here are some new pics to ponder at! He loves to gross his Mom out as he knows how much the eye bothers me and makes my eyes water just thinking about it!!

January 2010 trip to Boston

Back to Boston again. This time we were unable to find anyone who could come with us. So Fred stayed at the hotel with the two younger kids and I went with Keith to the hospital. It was an easy surgery for him this time as they only had to use the laser...which does not cause much in swelling or pain. He did have a hard time coming out of the anesthisia, it took about 5 hours. We will have to re-evaluate this for the next surgery. The surgeon (Dr Duker)  said that we would need to see our retinal specialist (Dr Kim) in Burlington in 4 weeks. If he does not see a significant reduction in the amount of fluid in Keith's eye then Keith would need to come back down to Boston shortly after the appointment for a vitrectomy (which is where they will make 3 incisions in the eye and drain the fluid out, then they will replace it with a saline solution) I am not looking forward to this as this has many more complications. We went to Boston 2 days before his surgery so we were able to take the kids to the Boston Museum of Science! Wow was that fun!! For Christmas, Fred's parents gave the kids some money, so they pooled it and bought a years membership for the family which also includes like 100+ museums, zoos, and aquariums accross the US and Canada. They had a Harry Potter Exhibit that was great! Over priced, but great. I don't think that we even saw half of the museum and we were there for 6 hours. When we arrived home we were very lucky that our Church and friends had arranged to have meals delivered to our house for the rest of the week. It was such a relief not to have to worry about dinner while helping Keith recover!

There was an amazing lightning show!

Logan had to cover his ears for the loud "booms"

The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show!

This was so cool. The kids laughed quite a bit!

A view of Fenway Park from the top of the Prudential Center!

One of the cool machines to take pictures of Keith's retina.

November trip to Boston

November 4th we went to Boston for another surgery on Keith's eye. My sister Holly came to hlep with the kids while we were with Keith at the hospital. What a great help. We did not have to worry about the kids at all. We were able to go for a walk around Boston and to the park the day before surgery. The surgery was a tough one this time as they did mostly cryo and that creates a lot of swelling. Keith is getting a little better at the whole process although he still really hates it. It took about 10 days for the swelling to go down, and about 6 weeks before the dilating drops wore off in his left eye. His right eye (the coats eye) has not retuned back to normal. During this surgery the cryo damaged the iris muscle and so his pupil remains larger then normal. We don't know if will ever go back to normal. It does not react to light anymore. His vision is about the same as before, he can only tell light from dark and can see dark shapes but no details. We are so llucky to have such great support from our family, friends and our church family who continues to pray for Keith.

Tufts Children's Floating Hospital

Checking out the pigeons. The kids loved how they would eat right from your hands!

Walking through the park in Boston!

Brothers checking out he scenery.

Mom and kids!

Sarah......

Aunt Holly chillin with the kids in the hotel

Mom and Keith, ready to go in the OR......

Keith playing on Mom's laptop during recovery at the hotel.