Basketball Star

Macy finished her second season of basketball on Saturday, and the team celebrated at Cici's Pizza. Good times..............

Mickey Button Blues

I've got Mickey Button Blues......rather, Audrey has Mickey Button Blues. We feed Audrey through a Mickey Button. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about so I'll explain. A Mickey Button is literally a plastic button on Audrey's stomach that we attach a tube to in order to feed the little rascal. She has had this since birth because she has a hard time swallowing her food or anything for that manner. We hope and pray that is a temporary matter, but in the mean time we have to feed her through the Mickey Button. Anyway, the problem at hand is that the button leaks and is very positional. This irritates little Audrey's skin and frustrates the daylights out of us because we are constantly changing her clothes. So this is a daily battle that we add as another brick for our ruck sack to carry. Other things continue to be busy at the funny farm. Macy had a basketball game tonight, and she did great. She scored two points (probably should have scored eight) and had a lot of rebounds. She has one more game this season so she is looking forward to her end of season party. We are also beginning preparations for my upcoming deployment in a few months. I'll most likely leave around the end of July or first part of August. The plan is to move Shannon and the kids home to Tennessee while I'm gone. Hopefully, I'll only be away for six months so we'll hope for the best. We plan on renting a home next to Shannon's Mom and Dad so she can have the extra help. It's a lot to put on Shannon........I can't begin to tell you how strong little Shanny is. Military spouses sacrifice so much, and our story is just one of them. Oh well.........the adventure continues. Tomorrow is Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JB

Goodbye Winter........Hello Warm Weather!

Hello, I hope everyone has had enough of the cold weather. We certainly have in Carolina. I recently had the house wired for a generator in case the power went out because we can't go too long because of some of Audrey's equipment. Sure enough, the weekend after everything was good to go the power went out for about 17 hours over two different days so I'm glad we got everything set-up. The generator worked great and the house was warm and nice. The power company could have cared less if we were a priority customer or not. They told me to basically just deal with it. Oh well...
On the other hand, it is so nice today........sunny and 70 degrees. Did I mention I hate the cold weather?? This day will just spoil us and want us to have winter over even quicker. I went running with my neighbor this morning back in the woods, and I certainly feel 36 today. We ran six miles, and it felt like a marathon. My joints are killing me, but I've had the crud the last week so hopefully the next outing won't be as painful.
I've got the crew right now while Shannon is at the grocery store, and it is a three ring circus. Audrey has been doing well. She had four appointments at UNC last week so she has a team of specialists that are all on the same page so hopefully we can make some more progress. They are evaluating her airway and will be coordinating some some airway, swallowing, and hearing studies in the coming weeks so we can have some data to make an informed decision. They are specifically looking at the issue of seeing if she needs a tracheostomy. This is where they put a hole in your neck to open the airway. I don't think she needs it, but I don't want to be totally biased and withhold something from her that she may clinically need. We just want to make an informed decision, but they will really have to sway me that she needs one. For example, currently I'm looking at little Audrey just chilling watching television. She is on room air with an oxygen saturation better than me, 100%. Regardless, please continue to pray for her that she continue to improve and that she will not need this procedure.
For those of you that are not in the South but enjoy basketball please check out Davidson College and their player Stephon Curry. This guy is absolutely amazing and awesome to watch. March Madness is around the corner, and I'm waiting for TN to disappoint me again and rooting for my Bucs to make it to the dance. See you around....

JB