Well, the summer is over and school has been in session a few weeks. I think this is one summer I will be happy to leave behind. A week of it was spent in the hospital in Iowa City. Then we had two and half weeks at home where Lizzy wasn't allowed to go out at all (except to the doctor). Thank goodness we had family helping us for a few weeks. It wasn't just this that made things crazy though. It seemed like our normally very healthy, only go to the doctor for well checks family had an explosion of problems. It felt as though we were always at the dentist or doctor this summer. Between all of us, Greg and I included, this is what we have done since April 25th (only about 3 or 4 things happened until end of May and then....):
6 trips to the pediatrician
3 shots
1 draining of an infected toe
2 trips to the ER
3 x-rays
1 cat scan
4 MRIs
1 set of crutches
4 trips to our Family Practice Doc
1 neurologist visit
1 EMG
1 nerve conduction study
8 blood draws
2 hospital stays (yes they did overlap)
4 visits to the orthopedic
2 visits to the prosthetic place (for Lizzy's brace)
1 specialized EEG
1 trip to the anesthesiologist
4 trips to the neurosurgeon
1 posterior fossa decompression
1 frenulectomy
2 cavities filled
10 trips to the orthodontist (most in the last few weeks)
5 trips to the dentist
2 trips to the chiropractor
1 ultrasound (no, I am not pregnant; people have ultrasounds for other reasons)
8 trips to the pharmacy
Maybe I should have titled it a summer to forget! I hope our next summer is better than this one has been. But, we have made it through, and we are ever so grateful for the medical technology that has blessed us this summer, especially Lizzy.
We didn't get to go on any vacations this summer, so instead of vacation pictures you get these:
Anna shows off the handiwork of the orthodontist. She received an expander this summer to correct her bite.
The expander has caused her two front teeth to open up and cause a huge gap. She is still beautiful though, and the orthodontist assures us her teeth with drift back together.
Adam has an appliance called a distal jet in his mouth, along with the braces.
Adam's new metal smile. He was bummed they didn't have blue and white, the BYU colors, so instead he chose green and black.
Guess who is allergic to penicillin?!!
The kids (and I) played a lot of games this summer. This is a not so traditional playing of Blockus. Ben and Jake made up their own rules.
We had to find a lot of things to do at home. This was a day the kids all played with Playdoh.
Greg found the time this summer to install an in ground basketball hoop. It took several days of digging to finish the 4 ft. deep hole.
Adam spent a lot of his summer powerwashing our playset and then covering it with primer. He still has to do the paint coat. This is what we had him do to earn money for scout camp. When he wasn't working on this he could be found working on his magic tricks.
Although it has been a hard and unusual summer, we are grateful we have had each other to spend it with. Traveling even the rough roads of life is a little bit easier with family.
