In other news

Well not much news on the trip to Seattle except that they have scheduled his neurophsyc (development) test for the 8th of March, so we will be leaving Boise and driving up on Monday the 7th.  We are still trying to make arrangements as far as the other stuff goes, but I am sure it will all get figured out OK.  We will all drive up together and my Mom will follow in her car, and I believe Rick's Mom will fly up and meet us there, but then Rick and Josh (and Rick's Mom) will make their way back home at some point and leave my Mom, myself and Jacob in Seattle.  Jacob is supposed to be in ICU for the first couple of days after the surgery and then in the hospital for an additional, but then they say they will want him in inpatient rehab for up to 3 weeks after surgery.  I am still trying to figure out what all of that means for lodging and stuff, but I guess it will all work out.  Rick and Josh will probably drive back on weekends or at least one or two times, so that should be interesting for Josh (I guess it is good that the Durango is equipped with DVD player). As more gets figured out we will let everyone know. 

Last weekend we decided to get out and go try out the ice fishing in Cascade.  The fishing was very slow and I ended up taking Jacob back top the truck after only an hour or so, because he did not think much of the whole ice fishing experience.  In fact the only time he was happy was when he decided to sit down and eat the snow (which didn't last too long).

After a few hours and only one small perch that they threw back, Josh and Rick packed it in too and we decided to head to McCall to catch part of the winter carnival and get some dinner.  Josh loved seeing the ice sculptures and would have been happy to wander around in the dark most of the night looking for them I think, but we had to settle on seeing the most popular ones before getting something to eat and making the trek home.  I think everyone had a pretty good time (maybe some more than others) and  we will have to plan to try to get up again before it is over. Hopefully if we try the ice fishing again though it will have improved.

I did say though that there was other news, and that really was not it.  This news may come as a shock to some (it did catch Rick and I off guard), but we have know for a little while we were just waiting for tests to come back (which by the way were all good!) and the right time to break the news.  So here it is:  in July we are expecting another baby boy.  The due date it July 11, but as long as I have him before the 17th (my 40th birthday) I will be happy.  I always said I did not want to be a mother having a baby when I was 40, so that is why (I know there are those of you out there saying "well it is close enough", but I think I need to still be 39).  So there you go, we thought we were done, but I guess I never should have joked about having a backup in case anything ever happened, because someone decided they needed to grant that one.  I guess the surgery was not enough for me to have to think about, we had to throw a new baby in the mix as well.  All kidding aside it is a welcome addition, we will jut have to reconfigure the rooms a bit (I am having a bit more trouble with that because I don't want to give up my office or my guest room).  We did finally tell Josh and he is up for having a new brother, so that is good.  Any way, that is all the news for now.

Finally, A Plan!

I just thought I would give a quick update: We have a date set for Jacob's Hemispherectomy. He will be having the surgery on March 10th, with a lot of pre-op stuff on the 9th. We will be in Seattle for probably at least 3 weeks, so we definitely have some planning to do. They have more appointments to set as of yet, but they will work them around the surgery stuff. I am just glad we have a direction to go and am sure we will have plenty of guidance as we go. It is all a bit scary to think about if I think for too long, but am happy to be moving forward.

A New Year Upon Us

Happy New Year! I thought for sure I would have posted more in December, but time got away from me, yet again.
Last I left off we had a snow day. We decided to make good use of all of that snow we shovelled out of our huge driveway and turned it into our very own sledding hill. It worked out pretty good for a few days, then the weather warmed up & it melted down to a small pile of snow. It was fun while it lasted, and no one got hurt.


Christmas was quite an event. Josh was very excited to see what Santa was going to bring him and could hardly go to sleep. At last we convinced him that Santa does not come when little boys are still awake and he finally made his way into bed. Jacob however, cared less. He got a bad stomach flu (that Josh had the week before) and all he wanted to do was sleep. He had trouble keeping much of his food down (in fact threw up-to the horror of mall shoppers- while we were in Williams Sanoma a day or two before that). He did not even wake up until 10:30 am on Christmas day, which made it hard for Josh to control his urge to just open presents. We were able to get very little reaction to gifts before he decided he just wanted to go back to bed. So we did not force him to open any more.

We enjoyed New Years eve letting Joshua stay up until after midnight to ring in the New Year with us (Jacob only stayed up until 11:30). We then had New Years day dinner with my family and "finished" Christmas.

On January 2nd, we of course celebrated Josh's birthday. He was very excited to finally say that he was actually 5 years old that day. I made him his own truck cake (my first ever creative baking challenge) and he also opened all of his presents (of the big ones, he got his very own Motorcycle-gas engine-which he found out in the shed under a tarp a week before Christmas). After the presents were opened and everyone left he then asked me why he did not get more presents?! I just looked at him and said "How many did you expect? and what about that Motorcycle you have out in the garage?" I guess it is time to start working on the knowing when you have enough and others in this world have a lot less than us lessons a little harder.

All in all the holidays were good for us.

But now that it is a New Year I vowed to get on the phone and to start bugging the doctors in Seattle to get some things going. So Monday morning I called and left a message saying I wanted to know what we needed to do to get something done for Jacob. Later that day, I got a call back, the nurse in charge of Jacob's case told me they were no longer pursuing the genetics testing because they had come to decide (with the help of the genetics lab) that the tests were unnecessary. They also told me that any additional test needed could probably be done there and she confirmed that we wanted to pursue surgery and told me she would see what the doctors said and would call me back. She called yesterday and told me that both the neurosurgeon and the epilepsy doctor had said they wanted to put him on the schedule for surgery. So there we have it, I guess a little bugging goes a long way sometimes. They are looking into getting him in for the left hemispherectomy in March. We should hear back in a couple of day on the exact date, but we now have a plan. I am both elated and scared to death. I don't know what exactly to expect, but am sure that there is a greater plan for Jacob and that all things happen for a reason. So here is to hoping and praying for the best of all outcomes.

This last picture I threw in just because I thought it was funny. Rick looks like a little boy in this huge chair at Cabelas. This is supposed to be a three person chair with 6 drink holders, but I don't think I know anyone that would want to sit in a chair like that with 2 other people.

I promise to update as soon as I have any news on any dates.

Snow Day!

Well, I know it is unusual for me to post 2 times in one week, but I couldn't help it, this was our very first snow day (from School that is)! Of course we had to try and shovel the walk, so I put Josh in charge of it while Jacob sat back and watched, at least for a few minutes. He then decided, like everything else, that he should taste it. I am not sure if part of it was that he just couldn't get up to walk around because of all his layers, or if he just needed to be one with the snow. At any rate he enjoyed it until he decided to take off one of his boots.

We did not complete the job of shoveling, but we did manage to build a snowman with cranberry eyes and a carrot nose (from our garden). It is days like these that I miss our old house a little with it's small driveway and little sidewalk. It is definitely a disadvantage to live on a corner lot and have an extra long driveway when you get a lot of snow. It takes a lot more work and a lot longer to clear the snow. Oh well, we will leave the rest for Rick to do when he gets home from work!

No news is good news? and other daily happenings

Well, as usual I am getting to my posting a bit later than I intend, but at least I am trying to keep at it once or twice a month. So far all is well in the Wilkison household. Jacob is coming off yet another medicine and seems to be holding steady at the same amount of seizures per day. Josh is enjoying school still and has made lots of friends and even went to his first school friend birthday party (as you can see had a great time).
We still have not heard anything new from Seattle Children's Hospital, and I am thinking I either need to get over my feeling that I am bugging them and just give in and start calling every day to get things done myself, or just sit back and relax and take things as they come (that one I am not good at though, although my argument to myself would be that even with the seizures Jacob has, he is still doing remarkably well).

Jacob's new obsession is climbing into things. He for some reason loves laundry baskets especially, and I will often find him getting into a pile of clothes I am trying to fold, or clothes I have folded and left for Rick to put away. This has gotten him into a bit of trouble recently though. I was working on the computer the other day while he was playing in his room and suddenly I heard some crying. I went to investigate and found him. Apparently he decided that if the toys are comfortable in the toy bin in his closet, then he could be too (to his surprise). I had to dig him out. We will see if he does that again. So far we are back to staying with laundry baskets.

We had our first snow fall of the season, and Josh was so excited when he got up that he ran upstairs, got dressed all by himself (which he has know how to do for a long time, but since

Jacob has been born, every morning says in his most whiney voice "I can't do it all by myself, I don't know how"), and went out in the snow before he had even thought about breakfast. It melted off later that day, but the next morning started again and now seems to be here to stay at least for a little while. We got Jacob dressed for it too, but he did not seem quite as impressed.
We spent a nice Thanksgiving with my sister Shaun and her family, while my Mom and other sister Erin were in Italy spending some time exploring. Now we are just getting ready for the Christmas season and I can't believe it is already the end of November. Boy how time flies anymore.

Oh the fun!

I have so been enjoying the weather lately and still can't believe we have started November with days that are getting up into the 60's. Oh, but apparently that will all change next week :(

We had a good Halloween though, and the boys enjoyed going out trick or treating with friends. Jacob went as Nemo (Josh's old costume) and Josh went as an astronaut (which he had to put on and wear every day for 3 or 4 days until Halloween). Jacob was not quite sure of what he was supposed to be doing and had trouble figuring out why every time we went to someones door we did not go in. He also had no idea what they were giving him, but was happy when someone gave him the choice of grabbing his own candy (he was very good and only took one). Josh decided this year that he had to run to every house and felt he had to be the first one at every door, although he had to race with his friend Faith in order to do that. All in all they collected more candy than they need, or will probably eat, and had lots of fun.

So far we have not heard anything more from Seattle Children's Hospital, so I was beginning to feel like we were in "Limbo", so I called. They are going to be calling me back next week, but I think it must be a case of - they have been waiting for something, while we have been waiting for them, while our doctor waits for them, meanwhile I find out no one is doing anything because we are all waiting for the others. Who knows, I guess I will just have to keep bugging everybody until someone makes a decision about something. The good news is that Jacob is completely off another medication and is just down to 2 now, and has not had any increase in his seizures. (yaa!) In fact they may have even gotten a bit better. So he is doing pretty well, although he is giving us the definition of terrible twos already (something Josh never had so it is a bit new to us). I apologize to everyone out there that I said I don't know what your are talking about with the terrible twos, because I am finding out in a big way!

Life goes on

Well here it is already the middle of October, the leaves are changing colors, and We still don't really know what is in store for us with Jacob. We did hear from the Doctors in Seattle (sort of), but they did not tell us much more than they told us when we were there. They still think that Jacob's best option is surgery (a left hemispherectomy to be a bit more exact), but they would like to see more results from genetics testing (which we went in for a few months ago but the genetics lab would not do the tests due to their idea it was useless- we are letting the doctors duke it out with them). They feel if Jacob does not have the surgery the bad part of his brain (left side) will eventually destroy the good part (right side). They feel he will get to a point where his development will plateau or he will start to regress. Drugs have so far not made a huge impact, so our options there are becoming limited, so surgery is looking to be the most effective method to get control of his seizures and keep his development on track. It is not however without risks.

Good news (I think) is that we are coming off of another medication to see how Jacob will do. I am glad we are taking another one off his schedule, but I also hope it does not wreak havoc on him with many more seizures. So far, so good. We are still hoping to get more information about the conference that they did about Jacob, but who knows when that will be, so we just take things day by day.

(I call this one OMG)

We did have our family pictures taken last week by a photographer friend of mine Kim Mitchell, who also took our photos last year. I told her I would be happy to work a trade, so I am hoping I can return the favor soon and do her family photos. She got some great photos (as usual) and I am greatly appreciative. We will be sending out our Christmas cards with one or some of the images when it is time.

This weekend we spent doing chores and trying to get lost at the corn maze here in Meridian. Josh and Jacob had a great time trying to find our way around and Josh sliding and bouncing on all of the things they have there to do. We even tried to lose Rick and Jacob once, but they found us.