It is the end of another appointment filled week.

On Monday Tomas was checked by his pulmonologist and she said he is doing much better and to keep him on the new meds she tried. They are drying up his lungs ,and I can hear an improvement, so can Victoria which I'll get to in a few lines. Olivia has also started with the same pulmonologist for her asthma. After last months attack she really needs to be followed for awhile. The doctor gave her some new meds to use and a new action plan, so I am looking forward to a winter without pneumonia for her.

Tuesday, the girls and myself had our first "family" dentist appt. The girls went first and did great, then kept an eye on Tomas (in the stroller) while it was my turn. I sat in the chair, they reclined it - and I thought oh no I'm gonna fall asleep. The tech had to take a bunch of x-rays though so that kept me awake, right up until she said she was finished and going to go get the dentist. Sure enough, I awake to the dentist gently smiling over me!!!! This is how amazing God is though, as Tomas' story came out, the receptionist told me she has a 5 year old with severe and irrevocable seizures and he is at risk for sudden death. She then gave me the number of a home health ministry that will send someone out at night to watch the monitors so I can sleep.

Wednesday was the appt. with the new GI doctor. He has some new ideas to try and would basically like to train Tomas' stomach to allow food in it without retching, gagging, etc... He would do this by letting Tomas get hungry and only giving him small amounts of food at a time. The doctor told me he would most likely lose weight but that he has had a lot of success with this process. We really have nothing to lose so we'll give it a try. If it doesn't work, we'll move back to the way he eats now and he'll eventually gain the weight back. He also said that if it works than the future surgery to repair all the hernias would have a better chance of taking since there would be no stomach contractions to tear things open again.

Wednesday was also the day the girls have their Little Flowers meeting and choir practice. While driving from one to the other, Victoria calmly says, "Mom, I have some REALLY bad news." I'm thinking maybe she spilled some water, forgot something at the house, had an accident, or something along those lines. But no. It's "Mom, I have some REALLY bad news.......Tomas isn't breathing."

I wish I knew how to type the sound of brakes screeching along the pavement. Fortunately, there was a place for me to pull over, and I ran around to the backseat. He was fine, sound asleep and breathing so QUIET that she thought he had stopped. Remember I told you his new meds were working! I then had a discussion with Victoria about how she did exactly the right thing because she is the one sitting next to him, and he did sound different from how he normally does, but that next time she needs to spit it out a little faster. My friend said she was just trying to soften the blow, but there is some news that you just can't make sound better. At choir practice poor Victoria didn't know the words to the new songs and could not read fast enough to keep up on the sheet music so she sat in her chair and swung her legs, watched the ceiling, watched the floor, looked behind her, etc... After practice the choir director asked me if there was something "special" she needed to know about Victoria. Luckily, I found this funny.

Thursday was a trip to Dallas for Tomas' oncology visit. His labs looked great and I finally caught a break with the whole insurance issue. His doctor said that pediatric oncologists were such a specialty that usually they had no trouble continuing care with existing patients, and that she would discuss it with the finance dept and get back to me. She also cleared him to only need check ups every other month instead of every month. Awesome!

Today, was a visit to my doctor that I have been trying to see for the last 3 months. Then in the afternoon I took the girls to the park because it is beautiful here. We ended the afternoon with a quick run to the pediatrician for a rash that Tomas has had for about a month. She didn't think it was anything major - just some hard skin bumps that might or might not go away. There are not a lot of them and I was relieved it wasn't anything to worry about.

Tomorrow I am going to tackle the ROOM full of laundry, really, it is amazing we have any clothes left. The girls have a movie date at a friends house at night, Sunday is for the Lord and than next week I will try my best to get caught up on school. NO DOCTORS APPOINTMENTS!!!

Have a blessed weekend everyone,

Dorothy