Translate This Page To: Spanish German French Italian Portuguese Norwegian Brought to you From FreeTranslation.com Give a gift in honor of this child. Michael & MyKayla Our first day of church. UPDATE: 10-11-07 Wow, I can't believe its been so long since I have done an update on me and my family. So here it goes, hope your in for a good book. The twins are doing good, sometimes it is hard to believe that they are five and going to be six in March. I often find myself wondering how did time manage to fly by so fast. Both are happy, healthy, and blessed. They are in school now, kindergarten. They go to school from 7:55 am to 3: 10 pm. They seem to be enjoying school and learning alot of new stuff. They get sent home homework every day, which sometimes that is a battle with Michael. Mykayla loves doing homework. She loves writting and coloring. She didn't get that from me. LOL. We went to see the endocrinologist about their " growth " issue. They told me at this present time they do not qualify for growth hormones, which made me feel good, and they said that they were proportinate for height and weight ratio based on the fact that they were 10 weeks premature. However, Michael has advanced bone growht, while Mykayla has delayed bone growth. They say its better to have delayed than advanced, so we go back in six months and will redo x rays and see where they are at. If Michael still shows advanced bone growth then we may have to talk about starting him on growth hormones. And they say advanced or delayed growth is nothing to worry about. But as of right now they are doing good per the endocrinologist and if any other doctor tells me different to tell them the endocrinologist is not worried. We also had an appt. with the pulmonlogist which went well. We just keep doing what we have been doing. Mykayla gets a breathing treatment on an as needed basis and Michael gets one on an as needed basis as well. Unless they get sick then we go back to every four hours. He said they both sound good. They also got their flu shots while we were there. Mykayla kicked and screamed trying to hit the nurses and was fighting till she was blue in the face. Michael took his shot like a big boy with no tears. He was so proud of himself. LOL. We are getting ready for deer season to start and they both are excited about being able to go to the deer lease and hunt with dad. They call them selves little hunters. LOL. ( No they don't shoot the gun themselves, they just pick out the deer ) Mykayla is 40 1/4 inches tall and weights 29 lbs. We actually got the same weight and height at both doctor appts. So it must be accurate. She ended up last week in the hosp. she managed to catch a stomach flu, which left her dehydrated and I was pushing fluids, but she just got to dehydrated. So we had to go and put an IV in her and give her fluids. After three days of non stop vomitting what does one expect, but to be dehydarated. But after getting the IV fluids and rest she has fully recooperated and went back to school and her live and vivacious self. She loves doing gymnastics, so I am going to have to look into a gymnastics class, she is actually pretty good considering she has never had any professional training. Of course I am bias. LOL. Michael is 40 inches tall and weighs 32 lbs. Can you believe it he is finally over 30 lbs. One down one to go. LOL. He has manged to stay away from the stomach flu, but his allergies are kicking his little bottom. So every morning and night we have to give him allergy meds other wise its a terrible, snotty, mess. LOL. He lost his two front teeth and got a visit from the tooth fairy which left him four dollars. So now he says he has to buy stuff for deer season. And his five year molars are coming in, which causes him to be a little grumpy sometims. Chad is doing good, he just celebrated his 32nd birthday on the 7th. He is working hard providing for us so sometimes our time with him is limited. There are even times the twins don't see him. He will get up before they do and come home after they are asleep. But health wise he is doing good, he too is just suffering from allergies. As for me, well I am doing ok. Just doing every day mom stuff. Well, like I said hope you were up to reading a book. That is all I can think of for now. So talk to you later. Love to all, Wyndi UPDATE: 2-8-07 Michael Well things here in the Adkins household are going rather smoothly..Knock on wood.. LOL. Its hard to belive that next month the twins are going to be 5 yrs old. It seems just like yesterday that we were in the NICU. They are growing up so fast. Michael is doing great. He was discharged from OT on Tuesday. All he had left to master was holding his pincher grasp correctly, like when holding a pencil, and buttoning and unbuttoning. And I am very pleased to say he has mastered those and was discharged. He now only attends speech therapy. Normally he attends twice a week for 30 mins, but the therapist is going to knock him down to once a week with an hour session. That way he still gets the same amount of speech just in one visit instead of two. Which is good, cuts down on the driving and the fuel it takes to get there. Plus he is still getting speech therapy in school twice a week for 45 mins each session. He will however still need speech for a while but that is ok with us. He is doing so good, everyone has said how much his speech has improved. He his enjoying school and is learning how to write his name. Its still a little sloppy, but its great. He does have a problem writting lowercase a's and e's, but with help from me its getting better and better everyday. I make him write his name everyday, we call it our homework. He has mastered all his colors, shapes, alphabet, even spelling some words, can count to 100, knows the days of the week and the months of the year. Yes, I am going to brag, most of it he knew before going into school. LOL. His favorite activities include playing his v tech educational video game ( actually he is a little addicted to that ) hunting and fishing and doing anything with his dad. And thankfully, we have made it throught he winter months with very little illnesses. He is eating good and growing taller. As for his weight it still flucutates between 29 - 31 lbs. Mykayla Mykayla is doing wonderful. She is definetly my little helper. Loves to help me with daily household duties. Her job is to empty the clothes dryer for me. LOL. And she is always asking if she can use the swifter wet jet to mop the kitchen floor. LOL. I tell her she does not have too, but she just keeps asking until I finally tell her ok. She also takes care of her cat's food and water. I will not let her do the litter box, which is ok with her. She is enjoying school and loves to go, although I can tell she is not as eager to get up in the mornings like she used to be. She has mastered all her colors, shapes, alphabet, even spelling some words, can almost count to 100 and knows her days of the week and months of the year. Bragging again, she knew most of it going into school. She too is writting her name everyday ( doing homework ). I do have to watch her cause on some words she writes backwards. For instance when she writes dad she does is bab. We are keeping an eye on that and monitoring it. Not sure if its due to her age and just learning how to write or its the warning signs of dsylexia, Either way we are monitoring it. Her favorite activities are her v tech educational video game ( not as addicted as Michael ), coloring, and anything outdoors. Plus she too loves doing anything she can with her dad. She is eating well and growing taller, her weight still fluctuates between 27-29 lbs. And she too has made it through the winter months with very little illnesses. Both twins do have daily chores they have to do, they both have to clean up the toy room every night, put their own clothes away in the dresser, help me feed and water the dogs, and are learning how to bathe themselves. I still have to help with hair washing. Chad is doing good. We just recently bought our OWN company and are now self employed. So all the work that he is doing benefits our family. He has not had a relapse of his Crohns in a while. And thankfully no kidney issues to deal with. As for me, as most of you know I have been ill bascially since October of 06 and just recently got a diagnosis of what is wrong with me after numerous doctors appts, and test. It turns out I have a condition called Fibromyalgia. Which is related to some of the heart issues that I have had. But it is under control and I am feeling much better. Oh wow, look I have wrote a book, well just wanted to tell everyone here that we are doing good, happy, healthy, and blessed. Much love to all, Wyndi UPDATE: 12-5-06 Hello Everyone ~   Well can you believe its Christmas time again? I can not, I have not done one thing to get ready for Christmas, but as usual I will catch up.. LOL.   Things here are going good ( or as well as can be expected ). The twins are happy, healthy, and blessed. They had such a good time at the deer lease over Thanksgiving.  With a few bumps and bruises. And too much food. Trying to figure out what to get them for Christmas. Which I have ideas for Mykayla but Michael is my difficult child to shop for. All he is into right now is deer hunting and bull riding. So if anyone has any ideas please share them. LOL. Both are enjoying school and learning so much. They can even count to 10 in spanish, blew me away. They said they learned it from their friend Angel. I guess your never to young to learn a foreign language.  We still attend therapy twice a week for Michael ( speech and OT ) and he is doing really well. Everyone tells me they can actually understand what he is trying to say now. He works so hard at it.   Chad is doing ok, he lost his job at the scrap metal business ( long dramatic story ) and he is going to try to go back into the dirt business again, which to be honest I am a nervous wreck over the whole situation. As of right now we have no income coming in, but he has always pulled through for us and I know he will this time as well. Things are just going to be tight for a while, what a wonderful time for this to happen with Christmas right around the corner.   As for me I am ok as well. Not much to report on me.   Well I better go its time that I go get them from school.   Much Love to all Wyndi UPDATE: 9-22-06 Hello, well its been such a long time since I have said hello and given a small update. Things here have been so so. We have had our ups and downs these last few months.   Michael and Mykayla are doing good. Still find it  hard to believe that they are  4 yrs old now. The pediatricians are still concerned about their size ( weight and height ) so started doing tests on them to rule out possible diseases. The first test done was a CF test and that came back neg. and second test was to test for Celiac's disease and that too came back neg.  The doctor wanted to do more testing, but we have come to an agreement that it would be best for the twins to be referred to an endocrinologist to check for growth delays and if they sought the need to do more testing than we would since he can do one blood draw and test for numerous things at once instead of constantly poking them. So we will go see the endocrinologist in November. And Mykayla has an appt. with a pediatric opthamologist Oct. 5 to check her vision. She acts like she has a hard time seeing far distance.   They are both in Pre K this year and are loving it, they go Mon thru Friday 7:55 am to 10:55 am and are in the same class. So far everything seems to be going good with that. Michael has only gotten time out once for not following directions and Mykayla says she always good. The only thing they don't like is having to wake up at 6:30 am. Sometimes they can be a little grouchy. LOL. Both are extremely smart. I have already been complimented by thier teacher about how much they know. She has said that they know more than most of their peers. Which made me feel good. They are currently working on spelling and writting their names and memorizing their home phone numbers.   Michael still has red hair, with some blonde highlights in it, due to constant swimming over summer break and Mykayla's hair went from brown to almost blonde, I too think that is from constant swimming. Michael's last weight was 29 lbs and 38 3/4 inches, that puts him in the 3-5 % for weight and the 10 % for height. Mykayla was 28 lbs and was 39 inches tall. That puts her in the 3 - 5 % for weight and the 15 % for height.   Other than that they are doing great. I am doing well, just living day to day and being blessed for all that I have.   Chad however has been ill and in the hospital. He was recently diagnosed with a kidney condition called UPJ Obstruction, turns out its a birth defect and he may need surgery to correct it other wise he could loose his left kidney. After 30 yrs of living with it, it rears its ugly head. He also got diagnosed with Crohn's disease and we are learning more about that every day. But he seems to be feeling better and is back at work. So we are taking that issue one day at a time as well.   Well, I better go and stop writing this book and I hope to hear from you soon.   Much Love and God Bless, Wyndi UPDATE: 6-28-06 We went to the pulmonologist this am and got good reports. Mykayla is 40 " tall and 27 lbs ( still ) and Michael is 39 " tall and 29 lbs ( still ). But the good news is that they both sounded great and looked good so the pulmonologist wanted me to stop Michael's daily breathing treatments and only do them on an as needed basis too see how he does. We are to give it a try and if he makes it a week with no problems, than he said its likely he is only going to need a breathing treatment on an as needed basis. So we start that Monday, and I am going to admit it makes me a little nervous, but if the pulmonlogist is confident than so am I. And Mykayla is still on an as needed basis for her breathing treatments.   Hugs,  Wyndi           UPDATE: 6-24-06 Well we are back from the dermatologist and it turns out that Mykaykla in fact has a condtion called Ichthyosis vulgaris.  Ichthyosis vulgaris, accounts for 95% of all ichthyosis cases.   Inheritance is autosomal dominant i.e. it is passed from a parent to about half their children. ichthyosis occur as a result of a genetic mutation. The mutated gene is passed on from one generation to the next. However, within a family there may only be one person affected. This can happen if the gene is recessively inherited (you have inherited two recessive genes, one from each parent), or you are the founder of a spontaneously mutated gene. The mutated gene causes an abnormality in the normal lifecycle of skin. Whilst in most people, the growth, dying and shedding of skin happens unnoticed, people with ichthyosis reproduce new skin cells at a rate faster than they can shed it, or reproduce at a normal rate but the rate of shedding is too slow. Either way there is a build up of dry scaly skin. ichthyosis vulgaris all other forms of ichthyosis are very rare. Ichthyosis vulgaris affects about 1:250 individuals. Ichthyosis occurs worldwide and affects people of all races. People with ichthyosis have normal lifespan. However they may need to spend several hours each day caring for their skin so they can lead as much of a normal life as possible. At some point during their life people with severe ichthyosis may come against some of the following problems: · Overheating: ichthyosis may affect normal temperature control by reducing the ability to sweat · Limited movement: dry, scaly skin may make it too painful to move some parts of the body · Secondary infection: cracking and splitting of the skin may lead to skin infections and sometimes systemic infections · Impaired hearing or eyesight: skin may build up over the ears or eyes · There is no cure for ichthyosis. The main goal of treatment is to moisturise and exfoliate. This helps prevent dryness, scaling, cracking and build-up of skin. People with ichthyosis need to bathe, moisturise and exfoliate their skin on a daily regular basis. Your dermatologist may prescribe or recommend moisturising creams and ointments to keep the condition under control. The following skin care tips may help: o Apply lotions and creams to wet skin to trap in the moisture (within 3 minutes of showering/bathing) o Rub gently a pumice stone on wet skin to help remove thickened crusty skin o Brush washed hair to remove scales from scalp o Lanolin creams and products containing urea, lactic acid and other alpha hydroxy acids may help to exfoliate and moisturise skin o · At birth skin may appear normal · Skin gradually becomes dry, rough and scaly, with most signs and symptoms appearing by the age of 5 · Can affect all parts of the body, including the face and scalp. Bends of arms and legs usually spared. · Palms are excessively lined · Associated with atopic dermatitis   For more info. please go to http://www.dermnetnz.org/scaly/ichthyosis.html   Hugs,  Wyndi                         UPDATE: 6-22-06 Well I had to take Mykayla to the doctor this morning. I noticed she had all these brown splotches all over her arms and legs that sort of resembled a rash, but not like any rash I have ever seen. The pediatrician was stumpped as to what she had. And after four hours in their office they have come up with the conclusion that she has a condition called Follicular Hyperkeratosis. Which is a skin condition that causes hyperpigmentation due to excessive sunlight. And it can also be caused from a Vit. A and K deficiency. They wanted to run some labs, but unfortunatley our insurance would not cover the cost of the labs and if I wanted to pay for them out of pocket it was going to run me 800.00 dollars with 400.00 down. So, we agreed to give the cream that they prescribed a week to see if it works and if not then I will fork over the money for the labs. So keep your fingers crossed that the cream will decrease the spots. Oh the name of the cream is called ammonium lactate cream. It has to be applied three times a day.  She can still go swimming, but I have to apply alot of sunblock, and after she gets through swimming I have to give her a bath to wash the pool chemicals off, and apply the cream or some cetaphil lotion. UPDATE: 5-29-06 Well its been a while since I have done an update on my family. Things here are going good. The twins are out of school for the summer and are already asking me when they are going back to school.  And they have only been out for 6 days. Chad is doing good, he is working from sun rise to sun set. He is gone before the twins wake up and comes home after they go to bed. It makes things hard, but we are managing.   Michael is doing great. He is still doing his pulmicort / albuterol breathing treatment once a day. He is eating all sorts of food, all day long. Which is good, that was our ultimate goal in the beginning. His last weight was 28 lbs 13 oz that put him in the 10 % growth range for his weight, he is 39 inches tall and that puts him in the 25 % growth range for height. He is still underweight, but is doing great, energy level is through the roof, we have made it several weeks without any severe illness. He is getting ready to enter pre K next year from 7:55 am to 10:55 am. He is really working hard on potty training, he still has an occasional accident, but for the most part he is in big boy underware.  He can count all the way to 20, recite the whole alphabet, can recongzine numbers and letters. And is currently working on pre hand writting skills.  He still attends therapy twice a week for speech, occupational, and physical thearpies,but is excelling at all.   Mykayla is doing wonderfully. She only needs a breathing treatment when she coughs due to allergies, just as a prevenative, we don't want her asthma to flare up and land us back in the hospital. She too is eating all sorts of food, her favorites are fruits and vegtables. Rarely does she eat any meat unless its chicken nuggets. She is however a french fry junkie. But again, I am not complaining because just a year ago she was not eating orally. We have come along way in just a year.  Her last weight was 27 lbs 1 oz  that puts her in the 3-5 % growth range for weight, her last height was 39 inches and that puts her in the 25 % range for height. She has however in the last few weeks gotten taller than Michael. So I would guess she is approx. 40-41 inches tall now. Growing in length is good, if only we could grow in weight. She too is entering pre K this year from 7:55 am to 10:55 am. She will be in the same class as Michael unless one of them starts inappropriate behavior and then the school says we will put one in the afternoon class. But I think they are going to be just great. She has made it several weeks with out any severe sickness as well. She did however come down with pink eye last week, but we went to the pediatrician and got put on antibiotic eye drops and it has cleared it up nicely. She can count all the way to 20, recite the whole alphabet, can recongzine numbers and letters. And is currently working on pre hand writting skills, she can write her numbers 1-5 and her letters A, B, C, M, O, and W. She is 100 % potty trained. She is just excelling at all she does.   Well I guess that is it in a nutshell. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update and thanks to all who have thought and prayed for us. Hugs to you all      Hugs,  Wyndi UPDATE: 4-4-06 Well we went to see the pediatrician today, and thankfully he said Mykayla's incision looks good and does not look infected. Its red, but he said its a healing redness and that the rash around the incision looks like a reaction rash to the neosporin. So he had me stop the neosporin, and the rash is now going away. Go figure. He did recommend me keep her on the antibiotic for the rest of the week.  So all is going good. Just giving an update.   Hugs,  Wyndi           UPDATE: 3-31-06 We are home from the surgery. The surgery took approx. 45 mins and all went well, with one exception. When she went into recovery, she had a very difficult time waking up from anesthesia. We were talking, touching, moving her around, and she still would not wake up. This started to scare me and it scared Chad and made him very sick to his stomach. I did not panic because her vitals were good and she was breathing room air, but it still made me nervous. She was so out of it Sitting there looking at her in recovery brougth back many memories of the NICU and all I could do was sit there and look at her and how big she has became, and how much of a fighter she is. The surgeon was supposed to go in the stoma and close it up, but he had to make an incision about an inch long to go in and close up the stomach, then pulled up a bit closed up the muscle, and then he closed up the skin. She has a post of appt. next week and he sent her home on pain killers and antibiotics. Last night she woke up screaming her head off because of the pain, but once I gave her more pain meds, she fell back asleep, and then we had a relapse of it this morning, so I have been giving her pain meds every four hours and it seems to be working, because after a six hour nap she got up and wanted to play. So all is going ok. Just wanted to give a quick update, and I will try to answer emails later. Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers, they are greatly appreciated. Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 3-22-06 Well after a long hard move and a battle with phone lines I am back. With yet a new email address. LOL. My email is w.adkins@juno.com and this time its correct and not going to change. I love the new house and its perfect for my family. The twins are adapting, its taking Michael longer. He kept saying he wanted to go to his old house and be happy, but as of today he is happy here and has agreed to stay with me here. LOL. Then he decided to ride his tricycle down the back porch steps and when he did that he crashed on the concrete and gashed open his head and ended up in the ER having to glue his forehead back togather. But other than that things have been great and I am so looking forward to being back.   Hugs,  Wyndi                         UPDATE: 3-15-06 Just wanted to let eveyone know that Mykayla's surgery is scheduled for March 29th at 1:45 pm. With it being a late afternoon appt. there is a possibility that she will have to stay overnight.  Hugs,  Wyndi UPDATE: 3-7-06 Mykayla has an appt with a pediatric surgeon on Friday morning to discuss surgically closing her stoma. Will keep you all posted   Hugs,  Wyndi UPDATE: 2-20-06 Well... we have had a great day !!! We went to our GI appt. this morning to discuss the g tubes, eating, etc... well our GI said the twins looked great, are happy, and doing good. He did say they were underweight, but what do you expect when you are born only weighting 2 lbs. So he said maybe they are just meant to be small children. Then he blew me away and said since the twins have not used their g tubes in almost six months and have made it through some illnesses that he sees no reason not to remove it. So he did !!! The twins got their g tubes removed today !!!!! I am happy and scared at the same time. Then me and Chad have been shopping around for a new house to buy, and we found one and put an offer on it. The realator called me back today and our offer was accepted. All we have to do now is start all the paper work. Yeah !!! Just wanted to share some good news !!! Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 12-29-05 Things here are going good. We had a great Christmas and the twins love everything they have gotten. From the bucking bulls to the disney princess bed. LOL.   Michael is doing great, he is now 100 % oral. He eats everything in site and I am loving it. Nothing goes in through the g tube, not even medicine. He is no longer on prevacid or an appetite stimulate. The only medication he has to take is his albuterol and pulmicort breathing treatments and well that is a given. He is still not potty trained, but I am  not stressing over that, these children have to make up their own minds as to when they want to do it not when we want them to do it. He will do it when he is ready. He is loving school and learning so much already. He can now completely sing the whole ABC song, count to 20, knows all his colors,  shapes, etc.. His IQ tested him at above average. I am so proud of him. His fourth birthday is coming up in March and on his birthday he is scheduled to have his feeding tube removed. What a blessed even that will be. He is now 29 lbs and 38 inches tall. He is in both the 10 % growth range for weight and height. He has come up from the 5 %. He is still attending speech therapy twice a week and I am pleased to say that he is no longer having to go to OT twice a week they felt that he is progressd so much that he can go down to once a week. ANd he is still in PT once a week with only one more skill to master and then he is discharged from PT. Other than that he is always full of smiles.   Mykayla is doing wonderful as well. She too is 100 % oral, nothing goes through her g tube either. She is no longer on any meds, except the occasional albuterol breathing treatment. Which knock on wood we have not had to do one in a long time. She is 100 % potty trained and knows when she has to go. She is loving school and is learning so much, They are really bringing her out of her shell. She too was IQ tested and came out average. Which I am pleased with that as well. She knows all her colors, shapes, and can count to 20 as well. She is still having some trouble with her ABC's but it won't be long till she can sing it with the best of them. She too will be four in March, duh Wyndi they are twins. LOL. And on her fourth birthday we are scheduled to have her g tube removed as well. Another blessed event. She is 27 lbs and 38 inches tall. She is in the 10 % for her weight and the 25 % for her height. She too came up from the 5 % growth range. She is no longer in any therapy services. Other than that she is so full of energy.   As for Chad, well he is doing good. He was home for Christmas and is off again tomarrow. He is heading back to Ozona and will be gone for a week, hopefully not longer. He has put in some bids on some jobs locally and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he gets them.   As for me I am doing good, some female issues I am still dealing with,but nothing major. I am beyond ecstatic about the twins eating and getting ready for March so we can remove those feeding tubes. It has been a long journey to get to this point. Not only was it long and hard for them but for me as well.   Well that is us in a nutshell. If I can think of anything else I will post it.       Hugs,  Wyndi UPDATE: 11-11-05 Its been a while since I have done an updata. Lots is going on here in the Adkins household involving the twins. The twins are doing great, we took their tube feeds away, today is day four,and I am proud to say they are doing great. They are eating non stop and all day it seems. Which is what we want. Michael has not had any weidght loss and Mykayla so far has lost five ounces but gained back two. So I am pleased. I put all the feeding supplies up and out of sight. The philosophy out of sight out of mind. Also, we are making another journey, and starting the local PPCD program here in town, Its a preschool program, the twins will go to school at the elementary school from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. Plus they will get to eat lunch with all the other children,and I am hoping that that will have a big influence on them. We have our first ARD meeting tomarrow. To discuss the plans for the twins. They will be in seperate classes me and Chad have decided that that will be best since Mykayla babies Michael terribly. Give him some independance. Potty training is still a hit and miss issue. Some times they do great and then the next day nothing. But I have come to realize its up to them not me when they will be potty trained. Oh some good news about Michael we had another evaluation in therapy today for OT and Michael has progressed from a 28 mth level to a 41 mth level. So we are excited for him plus he ate macaroni and cheese with out any problems. I just know in my heart they are going to be good eaters and not need that feeding tube. Plus they are taking their meds orally. Our goal is to make it six months with out anything through the tube and then they can be removed. So everyone keep your fingers crossed. Well that is pretty much all that is going on here. I will update more later. God Bless you all and have a great weekend. UPDATE: 10-30-05 Some exciting news for us... So, the twins went for their PPCD program evaluations. PPCD stands for preschool program for children with disabilities. Well they both qualified for the program. Its done through the local school district. They will go five days a week from 11:30 to 2:30.  They are going to help improve on their social skills, language development, and feeding help. I am so excited and so happy. Plus it don't cost me a thing. LOL. They will get to eat lunch at little tables in the cafeteria with other children, which I am hoping will be a huge benefit to them seeing other kids eat orally may intice them to eat orally. I can hope. It will be about two weeks before they start we have to get all the paper work done and our docs and therapist have to release some medical records to them. And if needed the nurse can give them tube feeds and breathing treatments. On red ozone layer days they don't go outside to play, so they have built an indoor play ground. Which is amazing. We got to go and look at it, meet the teachers, and see their class rooms. I just can't belive my babies are growing up so fast. Then next year they transfer to pre K and they have the option to go half a day or all day. I will see what we do when the time comes. They even have the option to ride the bus to and from school with aids that pick them up at your front door and drop them off at your front door. Actually walk them to you and hand them directly to you. I said no thanks, I will take them and pick them up. 3 is a little young to be riding a bus I think.  Hugs,  Wyndi   UPDATE: 10-14-05 Well its been a couple of weeks since I have done an update. Lots have been going on.   I myself suffered a brain injury and had to have CT scans done of the brain, they were looking for subdural hematomas, luckily and thankfully, they only found pressure and swelling. The pressure was not enough to do surgery, but enough that yieled medication. I am pleased to say that I am doing ok now and the medication is working.   Michael is doing good. The allergies are really tearing him up right now. He is still having ups and downs with his oral eating. Its like a roller coaster ride. Some days are good and others are not. He is still getting anywhere from 6 to 12 oz a day of formula through his g tube. One day at a time. He is doing great in OT, PT, and ST. Really moving right along. I think the most difficult thing for him right now is ST, he has oral apraxia and sometimes it is hard to understand him and he gets so upset with us. Than I feel bad for not being able to understand him. He has had a relapse in potty training. He went almost a month of no accidents and now I can not get him to go potty for anything. He just has no intrest in it anymore. And I am at a loss on what to do to get him to go potty again.  He is so full of energy and life. He loves to dance and has recently started singing.   Mykayla is doing great. She is no longer in any kind of therapy. She has been discharged from all. She is developing like a " nomral " toddler should. She is still getting some formula through her g tube, but with much consideration we have decided to take away her g tube feeds next week completely and see what she can do on her own. She has the ability and desire to eat, she is just so stubborn that she won't. She wants to eat when she wants to and what she wants. But when I just leave her alone and let her eat she can eat and eats well.So we are going to take it week by week and see how it goes. If no significant weight loss in week one we will then extend it another week and so on and so on. She is still having issues with potty training. Some days she does good and other days its like she is too busy to go potty.   Well that is pretty much what is going on  here at the Adkins house. Hope everyone is doing good and having a blesed day.    Hugs,  Wyndi   UPDATE: 10-4-05 Wow, its been a while since I have done an update so I thought I would. Things here have been up and down the last few months. Like a roller coaster ride. Michael is successfully 100 % potty trained. Occasionally he will have an accident, but other than that he is doing good and is wearing big boy underware, no pull ups or diapers. He finally had another hearing screening done and this time he cooperated and passed. So he only has selective hearing. We also had a vision screening and he has 20/40 vision, they said sometimes that is normal for toddlers to show that kind of vision, and to just keep an eye on his vision. His eating is still about the same. He has good days and bad days, good meals and bad meals. Still gets some throught the pump at night, just to make a total of 1200 calories a day.He hates to get up in the mornings, he is a little grump. Loves nap time though. His weight is 27 lbs 14 oz and is 36 1/2 inches tall. Mykayla is still not potty trained, She has no intrest in it. She can do it she just chooses not to go to the bathroom. She is so stubborn. She too has passed her hearing screening and her vision was 20/40 as well. Told to keep an eye on her vision as well. Her eating is still about the same good days and bad days good meals and bad meals. She is still getting some throught the tube at night. She has the ability to eat all of her calories orally, she again is so stubborn and chooses not too. She does not mind having to be tube fed. Her weight is 27 lbs 7 oz and is 36 3/4 inches tall. And she is all attitude. Other than that not really to much going on in our little neck of the woods. Take care. God Bless    Hugs,  Wyndi    UPDATE: 8-23-05 Hey Just thought I would do an update and let you guys know that I am feeling much better. I went to my doc last week and he started me on HRT and so far it is working. I go back to see him tomarrow to discuss our "other " options, but if the HRT works, I think I am going to give that a try before doing a surgery. I am still having some cramping, back aches, and bloating but not as severe as it was. Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers. Mykayla and Michael went to the doctor last week for their height and weight check up. Well of coarse it is the same news as alwasys, both are under weight and short. LOL. But he did say they both looked healthy.According to his scales Mykayla is 28 lbs 5 oz and is 37 1/2 inches tall. That puts her in the 5 % for her weight and the 25 % for her height. Michael weighs in at 28 lbs 8 oz and is 37 1/4 inches tall. That puts him in the 5 % for weight and 10 % for height. I know every scale is different but when I weigh them at home I get Mykayla at 26 lbs 5 oz and Michael at 27 lbs 3 oz. But I also weight them in nothing but a dry diaper. And at the doc office they were fully clothed and had shoes on. LOL. Either way they are still under weight. But again, they are toddlers who run it off as soon as they put it on. LOL. But looking back at our weights from the inpatient feeding clinic Mykayla never got above 27 lbs. LOL. And Michael never made it above 27 lbs. So in my opinion we are doing good. He did say that with feeding kids weight is so hard cause you have to loose weight to wean them off the tubes so we came up with a game plan and that is to only give them each 6 oz of formula a day through their feeding tube and everything else they eat has to go via mouth. In hopes that this will increase the hunger and get us closer to becoming completely off the tube. But I still have to add lots of calorie boosters. I have to take them back in 10 days for another weight and height check. If no severe weight loss, than we are doing good and might try to take away that last 6 oz. But we will know more about that next week. Other than that both are doing great and running wild. I think the "trying three's" are worse than the " terrible two's ". LOL. UPDATE: 6-8-05 Well I have some wonderful and scary news..... We are going to make the final tube cut on Mykayla on Friday And they said if she can maintain her body weight than they will discharge her completely from ST, and OT. They said they have been nick picking her apart trying to find stuff to work on. They can't work on speech because she is speaking beautifully and clearly, can't work on any more ot skills because she has nothing left to work on now that she has the potty training thing down, she plays with messy textures, and she is eating her calories. And she has never needed PT. So if she can maintain her body weight, next wed. they will make preperations to discharge her completely. And we have been driving an hour to therapy twice a week, well they are going to make arrangements to get Michael's therapy transferred back down here to our home town. So I will only have to drive five mins up the road twice a week instead of an hour one way. Since I know the feeding protocol and how to decrease tube feeds, and they can work on his apraxia here in Waxahachie, no reason to stay in Dallas. Just wanted to share some much awaited good news. hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 6-1-05 Hey Everyone, Well I just thought I would do a quick update. Lots going on here. I will start with Chad... He is sick and making me crazy. LOL. When he gets sick he is worse than the twins. Other than that he is doing ok, tired and hot from working outside, and then it rains and makes him behind again. Rain = no money= grumpy Chad. Michael is doing good too. His allergies are really flaring up. It seems as if everytime I turn around I am wiping his nose. Some days the nasonex works great and others it won't do a thing. His weight is slowely going up, which is good. Weight gain = happy momma. Although it seems as if his height has plateaued. Which every one of my family members says that when Chad was a little boy he too was short. Then one day he just hit a growth spurt. So hopefully that is all it is with Michael. He is doing really well eating, now drinking is a different story. He is batteling me every step of the way with drinking. Its like pulling teeth. Don't get me wrong his oral calories are still ranging any where from 600- 900 a day and he gets 8 oz of formula at night which is an extra 240 calories. To wean off the tube he needs a min. 1200 - 1300. And a min of 23 oz of fluid a day. Fluid, grrrrr. I have tried every trick in the book to get him to drink and he says NO !! But when we go to therapy he drinks like a champ for them. We had his hearing tested today, again. Guess what, he refused to cooperate AGAIN !!! Little toot. LOL. Its hard for him because when they are this little they have to be quiet and still. Well hello, he's three. LOL. So we got a referral to an ENT in Dallas at Childrens, who will do another evaluation, and if they can't get him to cooperate they are going to do a sedated ABR hearing test. Yes, sedated. As much as I don't want to I have too. Hopefully he will cooperate. But good news is our ENT said by the way Michael was speaking he did not think there was a hearing loss but more of a problem with speech. Which we know he has that. He has apraxia, which can cause speech issues, oral motor issues, etc... and obviously hearing difficulty until corrected. So both good and bad. He said he felt confident enought to tell me not to worry about it. So I am not. I said all along I thought it was selective hearing. LOL. Michael is doing great on potty training. Although I am still having to tell him when its time to go but hey hes doing it. Yes,we are batteling two issues at once, eating and potty training. Other than that he is still my sweet little crazy wild red head boy. Mykayla has had a major milestone happen to her that we are just so thrilled about. She has finally made the decision to go potty. Yeah !!!!!!! We have been batteling it and she just would not do it and then the other day she said momma I have to go potty, took her into the bathroom put her on the potty and she peed. I have never been so happy in my life. Now she comes to me and tells me when she had to go potty and it is just the greatest thing to hear. Even this morning when she woke up the first thing she did was come to me and tell me she had to go potty and went like a big girl. She even runs to the potty to poot. LOL. Its cute, odd but cute. I put a huggies pull up on her and on it they have the disney princesses on them and she got so excited and said momma its a princess just like me. So now she calls her self a princess and I agree with her. LOL. She is doing amazing eating and drinking. She is eating any where from 600-1100 calories a day. We are so close to the 1200 - 1300 mark, It wont be long for her I just know it. I can feel it in my heart. She is still getting 8 oz of formula over night just because we are not there yet, but were close. Her hearing is fine no problems there and her speech has just soared. She speaks clearly, and often. She can carry on conversations with you. Its great. Although she can turn on you and bring out her temper in a heart beat. LOL. Its scary. LOL. She loves her cat, he is the apple of her eye,and she gets mad at me because I call him flea bag. LOL. He got out and into fleas and brought them into my house so we had to bomb the house and de flea him. She is gainging weight again its slow but its going up and makes me happy. And I think she has hit a growth spurt, she is getting tall. She is probably an inch taller than Michael now. Other than that she is my little princess. As for me, I am doing good, tired but good. Well thats enough for now, so I will let you go and have a blessed day and I hope you all happy and healthy. Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 4-29-05 Hello everyone, We are home !!! That was the longest 8 weeks of my life, even though it flew by. LOL. I know that does not make any sense. The twins got so excited to be home. They did not really believe me until we turned on our street and then they started screaming were home were home. I almost cried. Then they tore through the house like a kid in an ice cream shop. LOL. They were so excited to see all their toys, beds, cat, etc.... I was happy to be home and able to lounge around in my pajamas. LOL. I got to take my bubble bath and sleep in my own bed, it was so nice. LOL. Then the church did an amazing thing and brough us dinners for a few nights so we did not have to worry about what to cook for dinner. That was so nice and thoughtful of them. The Lord has truely blessed me. Well the twins are doing great, we went in to the feeding clinic 100 % tube fed and came out 90 % oral eater and 10 % tube fed. They are only getting 6 oz of formula throught their g tubes and that is at night while they are sleeping. Other than that everything is eaten orally. I could not be prouder of them. Our weight is down some, but were hoping now that we are home it will start to improve. Michael weighed 11.88 kg and Mykayla was 11.96 kg on the day of discharge. Both are still up from admission weight thought. I will do a weigh check on them in the am, hopefully it is either stabalized or better. Its still a long process we are going through, they are not like normal toddlers. You can't just set food in front of them and tell them to eat it. You have to do some cuing ( sp?) Sometimes you have to remind them to swallow or take a drink, but nothing we cant overcome. We will continue out patient therapy twice a week to help wean off that last 6 oz's. Plus we have to make sure they get enough fluids in them to stay hydrated and they are eating four to five times a day. Its alot to do but its working and I am going to continue to do it. T Well I just wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know we are home and doing great. I will write more later. Hugs to you all Wyndi UPDATE: 4-7-05 Hey everyone just a quick update. I know its been a while but we have been non stop busy. The twins are doing good right now we are currently dealing with behavior issues. Especially with Mykayla. LOL. Some issues I have never seen before but we are working through them. Both are up in weight, which they tell me is unusual. But I am happy with that. Michael is still on 18 oz of formula but if his weight is either up again or still the same then on Friday we are making a tube cut to 12 oz. Mykayla is currently on 12 oz and it will probably be next week before we knock her down to 6 oz's. Then the last week here we will take her off completely. We have good meals and bad meals, which is to be expected. Michael has over come his aversion to pudding and yogurts and is eating them. Wow !!! And Mykayla is eating pretty much what ever they offer her. Sometimes its a standoff but she works through it. Our hearing test was done and Mykayla's hearing was normal and Michael did show some hearing loss but just to confirm it we are going to do another hearing test on him next week. Both are eating anywhere from 500 - 1000 calories a day. Which is good. Michael is still on all pureed foods along with some crunchy foods like cheetos, crackers, cookies and Mykayla again just what ever they give her. That is pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head, I will try to write more later, I have to go and get back to the twins. Hugs to you all, Wyndi UPDATE: 3-26-05 Good Saturday morning to you all, Well Michael and Mykayla are doing good. So I thought I would do a quick update on them. Wow, three weeks down already. Lets start with Michael. We had a meeting the other day to discuss how the program is going, what our expecations are, etc... Well they don't see Michael coming off the feeding tube completely. They do however see him possibly coming home on one can of formula, 8 oz, so I am pleased with that. 8 oz is a lot better than 32 oz. But then again we still have 5 weeks to go. He is however ahead of their expecations. So that was good to hear. They have done numerous evaluations on oral motor skills and although Michael is three years old he has the oral motor skills of that of a 9 - 10 mth old level. I knew he was behind but never would have thought it was that far behind. But thats ok, they are working with him on that on a daily basis. And by doing that they are working on lip closure, moving his tounge side to side and up and down, etc... His fine motor and gross motor skills are at an 18 mth level. But again, thats ok he wil get therapy daily for that as well. He is taking his milk and juice ( yes I said juice) out of a medicine cup, its easier for him to handle and manipulate. Eventually we will ween him to a regular cup once his oral motor skills are stronger. They are also starting to introduce more foods into his diet. Currently he is on an all pureed diet, well they have been doing alot of sensory play with food and some of the food that they are playing with they will start introducing into his diet. For instance eggs, he was playing in the eggs and out of the blue decided he was going to take a bite and he liked it. I was so happy to see that. They are doing the theraputic listening with him each morning before breakfast along with a brushing technique. I forgot the name of the brushing, but basically they are taking a surgical scrub brush and brushing his legs, feet, arms, back, etc... Another techniqued used in children with sensory issues. His current weigh is 11.98 kg or 26 lbs 3 oz. Coming in he was 11.68 kg or 25 lbs 6 oz. So our weight is doing good. His oral calories are ranging anywhere from 450 - 570 daily. When we first started three weeks ago he was only doing 200- 400 daily. So slowely going upwards. Oh and they are going to have his hearing tested. They said sometimes when children who are this delayed in oral motor skills can have hearing problems. So I said that was fine. I know he can hear but there is a chance that there could be some hearing loss. Over the last few months I knew he was not hearing me but then again he could hear other things so I always thought it was selective hearing. And like the therapist said hearing does play into eating. If you hear better you eat better. Go figure. Mykayla is doing wonderful. They have found her weakness in finger nail polish. When they do good eating they get a reward and she loves to paint nails. Great !!!! But its working. And that is all I care about. She is where they thought she would be. Her oral motor, fine motor, and gross motor skills are age appropriate. She does however have one issue they are working on sensory wise. She does not like to leave her center line of gravitational space. In other words she does not like to have her feet off the ground or extend her arms out sideways. I knew she had a problem with that because when I would swing her she would get real nervous and panic. But they are going to work with her on that. They transitioned her from a medicine cup to a regular cup and are introducing whole foods into her diet plus using adult utensils. They are going to go ahead and test her hearing just because they are doing Michael so I asked that she go ahead and be done as well and they said no problem. Her current weight is 11.94 kg or 26 lbs 2 oz, when she came in three weeks ago she was 11.84 kg or 26 lbs. So her weight is stabalized. Which is good considering last weeks she got sick. Her oral calories are ranging from 600-847. Yes !!!!! When she started three weeks ago she was doing anywhere from 200- 500. So as you can see both are making wonderful progress. We have our good days and our not so good days. But in "real" life you have good and not so good days as well. Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 3-22-05 Hi everyone just wanted to shed a little update on how the twins are doing. Last week was a rough week with Mykayla getting sick and Michael just being the busy little boy he is our calorie counts went down. But over the weekend our calorie counts started to climb back up. And so is our weight. So that is good news. Michael is still having issues eating breakfast. So instead of feeding him food at breakfast they are doing sensory play in the food, making him touch it with his hands, putting it on his face, etc.. And he is adapting much better to that. A couple of times he has even taken a few bites voluntarily. They are also doing what they call audio therapy. They say they use it for autistic children . What the do is put a head set on him and let him listen to someone talking about food and how its good for the body, how yummy it tastes, and how they know food can be scary to them and to let them know that food is not going to hurt him and what it does it it stimulates the brain to get ready to focus on one specific task at a time instead of being all over the place. They do it approx 10 mins before feeds and when it comes time to eat he is focused and ready to eat. While wearing the head set he can play, walk around, etc.. He used to only get 20 cc's of milk at a time, that is a little less than an ounce, now they have moved him up to 30 cc's at a time which is one oz of milk. He is doing great with that. And they are slowely starting to introduce more food into his diet. His weight went from 11.86 kg to 11.96 kg. So he gained 3 ozs. Yeah !!! And his oral calories are starting to improve as well. On Friday the 18th he ate 506, on Sat. the 19th he ate 382, but on Sunday the 20th he ate 552. Yeah !!!! He does not fight anymore and goes willingly to therapy. He is funny.The therapist were feeding him goldfish at a snack meal along with soup. Well she handed the bowl of goldfish to him and told him to get one and eat it, well he grabbed four at one time and shoved them in his mouth as fast as he could. I was a little nervous, I thought for sure he was going to spit it back out but he took his time and swallowed it all. He gets so happy when he swallows food he says " I did it" and claps for himself. Michael has gone down from 34 oz of pediasure to 18 oz. Mykayla is doing well. She is over the throwing up and is back to herself. They started giving Mykayla a drink called Resource Juice? Apparently its a high calorie formula but its in juice form. Any how she will be offered that twice a day and milk three times a day.She is finally starting to eat breakfast. And doing well at it I must say. LOL. Plus her other meals are good. Her weight is up she went from 11.66 kg to 12.0 kg. Thats almost a pound 14 oz is what she gained. Yeah !!! Her calorie count for Friday the 18th was 340, Saturday the 19th she was 297, and on Sunday the 20th she was 660. She too went from 34 oz of peptamen jr to 18 oz. She is doing great. Occasionally they will have standoffs but Mykayla works through them and over comes it and eventually takes her bite. LOL. Today at lunch she even ate green beans. Yucky. She ate them though. Woooo Hoooo Mykayla. On Sunday we had a birthday party for them. They enjoyed that so much. Although we did not get to eat any birthday cake. So what I did was have my mom bring up cupcakes and when the twins went to eat dinner I took the cupcakes with us and they got to eat cupcakes in therapy. And guess what they actually took bites of it. Yeah !!!! Well that is all I can think of off the top of my head if I forgot something I will write about it later. Hugs and we love you all Thanks for the continued prayers, Wyndi UPDATE: 3-17-05 Hey, Well lets see, what has been going on the last few days. Well Dora is still missing and not returning. The broom came up missing, but it found its way back into our room. LOL. Then Michael's blanket came up missing, only for a day, but before bed time it found its way back. LOL. Makes me crazy when things grow legs and walk out. But hey at least there coming back home now. If only Dora would come home. LOL. Well the weekend was not so good calorie wise. On Friday 3-11 Michael ate 314 calories and Mykayla ate 304 calories. On Sat. 3-12 Michael ate 347 calories and Mykayla ate 425. On Sunday 3-13 Michael ate 311 calories and Mykayla ate 679. On Monday 3-14 Michael ate 276 Mykayla ate 541. And on Tuesday 3-15 Michael ate 476 and Mykayla ate 669. Our goal is still 1300. So between oral eating and tube feeds they are getting anywhere from 1086-1406 calories a day. We came in on 32 oz of pediasure during our first week they dropped us down to 27 oz and then yesterday they did another cut down to 18 oz of pediasure. If weight maintains or increases and oral calories increase then in a week or so they will do another tube cut. we went into the program Michael weighed 11.68 kg and he jumped up to 12.34 kg and then he dropped back down to 12.12 kg, so he is still up in weight. And Mykayla came in and weighed 11.84 kg and went up to 12.24 kg and then dropped down to 12.12 kg. So all in all she is still up in weight. Mykayla pulled a fast one over on the therapist. She acted like she was having a hard time drinking 20 cc's of milk at a time ( that is less than one oz) so they started only giving her 5 cc's at a time, well they filled the cup up to 20 cc's of milk and stepped out of the room and she picked it up and drank it with no problems. LOL. So she is back to 20 cc's at a time. LOL. Breakfast are still hard for her. She has her good mornings and her not so good mornings. This morning was bad, did not take one bite of food. LOL. Michael is having a different protocol. Since breakfast was such a battle for him and since he has yet to take one bite of food at breakfast they went about doing breakfast a different way. Instead of trying to get him to eat the food, they play in it. Rub the food on his hands, cheeks, arms, etc.. To help him come over his aversion to food. It seems to be making a differnce. Michael has such sensory issues with food. He is actually starting to take tiny tastes of the the food at breakfast. They had to change his menu from the sugar, sweet foods to the more salty spicy foods, which he is tolerating so much better. He sitll has to work through his issues of not wanting the sweets so what they are doing is still offering it to him and instead of him taking an acutal bite he has to touch it to his lips, and he is ok with doing that. Well that is a basic up date on us. I am doing fine, just really tired and my back hurts really bad. But that is a sacrafice I am willing to make, to make sure my babies get the best out of this program. Thanks to all for continued thoughts and prayers We love you all, Wyndi UPDATE: 3-12-05 Wow, what a first week this has been. Both twins have done wonderful. Making progress everyday. Plus gaining weight.Yeah !!! Which is unusual, usually they loose weight. LOL. But hey no complaints here. After a day one the new wore off pretty fast, now were back to ourselves with our attitudes. LOL. At home they were sleeping till 9am, give or take, well here they only get to sleep till 7 am. And Michael does not like it one bit. He fights and screams in the mornings. Plus they have to do blood pressure checks and he hates that. LOL. Mykayla cries when I leave,she hates to see me leave and that makes it hard on me, but I just keep telling myself this is for a good cause. But after a few mins. she calms down.She too is not a morning person. They don't eat breakfast. Mykayla just keeps turning her head away and Michael screams at them. But the rest of the meals go good, usually both are eating. Michael has had some trouble staying asleep at night. He wakes up and cries, I think its from the fact that he wakes up and is in an unfamiliar place and an unfamiliar bed, luckily I am able to calm him to sleep. Mykayla is pretty good at sleeping through the night.Although we have had one problem, her stuffed Dora doll has wandered off and has not come back yet and none of the nurses seem to know where she has gone to. They said if she went out in the laundry than she is not coming back. Not good news for Dora. LOL. We have picutres hanging up in our room for the twins to look at family. They only have one pic on their bed and that is Chad. They tell Daddy good night every night and blow kisses to him. LOL.Chad came up to see them and they got so excited to see him but then he had to go back home so he just told them he had to go back to work and they understood that that means Daddy is leaving but will be back. They have a weight check every Mon, Wed, and Fri. Lots of fun for the twins. LOL. ok calorie counts for Michael on Monday March 7th he ate 374, March 8th he ate 452, March 9th he ate 301, March 10th he ate 473. Mykayla's calories are March 7th she ate 310, March 8th she ate 472, March 9th she ate 558, and March 10th she ate 686. Our goal is 1300. I will get March 11-13 on Monday. Bath time is not fun time at all,they are so scared water is going to come shooting out at them that they scream all the way through baths. Hopefully as time passes they will settle down at bath time. Mykayla gets a breathing treatment once a day and Michael gets it twice a day. They are fed over a feeding pump at night from 8 pm to 4am for Mykayla and till 5 am for Michael ( since his calories are less) But on Monday that is all going to change as they are going to make another decrease in the amount of tube feeds they are getting. Michael is having a rougher time because they are trying to feed him more of the sweet things and he does not care for sweets so they had to put in an order to change his menu to more of the salty spicer foods. All the therapist said that this has been a great week for them and that they are passing their expectations. Which is good to hear. So keeping our fingers crossed and saying a prayer everynight that this feeding program works. Hugs to you all Wyndi UPDATE: 3-1-05 Good Evening Everyone, Well we had one heck of a busy day. From sunrise to sunset. LOL. The day started off with us going to the pulmonologist, he said Michael's lungs sound great, he looks great, keep up his breathing treatments and come back in six months unless he gets sick. He did say however that his lymph nodes were swollen and when I asked what that means he said it could be the beginning of a virus or the end. Oh great just what I needed to hear. LOL. Considering he has not been sick so is this the beginning of a virus? I sure hope not. LOL Mykayla was seen as well for her cough that she has been having at night time. He thinks it from the sounds I was describing an asthmatic cough. So he just ordered her to do albuterol breathing treatments once a day before bed and as needed. If she has any problems to call him immediately. They both weighed 26 lbs 13 oz, how odd, but good. Michael was 37 inches tall and Mykayla was 36 3/4 inches tall. That puts Michael in the 7th percent for weight and the 25th percent for height and Mykayla in the 10% for weight and the 15% for height. Yeah were moving up. LOL. He was pleased to hear we are going into the inpatient feeding program and wished us the best. We left Dr. Hadeeed and had enough time to come home do a tube feeding and then off to the developmental pediatrician. Where she told me Michael is considered above average for his ability to count numbers, knows some of the alphabet, all his colors, etc.. He is actually at a 3 1/2 yr old level and he is just fixing to be 3. That made me feel great. He can count to 10, knows ABC. Mykayla was at an average level for a 3 yr old. She knows some colors, numbers, etc... But she is considered average and I am happy with that. I could not have asked for better. She was so proud of how far they have come. In fact she says she thinks she only needs to see us on a once a year basis. Yeah !! She also said the only thing keeping them considered special needs now is their g tubes, and fine motor skills, plus some pronunciation issues, but hey there three. And she sees no problems in the future. Yeah !!!! Well I just wanted to brag I was so proud of my little guys they have over come such tremendous obstacles in their lives. My miracles. Hugs, Wyndi P.S. Another busy day tomarrow, we have WIC and then physical exams by our pedi so we can go to the inpatient feeding program UPDATE: 2-24-05 Good evening everyone, Actually good night. LOL. Its 10:30 pm and I am finally able to sit and do some emails although I don't know if I will get them all done so please be patinet. LOL. Lots have been going on here. Ok lets see where do I start.... Michael had to go back to the doctor again, he has another ear infection, luckily its not as bad as the one he had a few weeks ago. He has been doing extremely well eating. I am so proud, he is eating any where from 2 - 6 oz of soup a day, 2 - 8 oz of whole milk or milk with carnation instant breakfast added in ( extra calories), plus when we offer him whole foods like french fries he just pigs out, although he is still having a difficult time swallowing them so for the most part they just get spit out, but thats ok at least there going in his mouth. LOL. He does swallow things like teddy grahams, pringles, and ranch dressing. It was the funniest thing, I put some ranch dressing n a bowl for him to dip his carrot sticks in and he picked up the bowl and drank the ranch dressing. One tough kid. LOL. I am so proud of him, in therapy they have stopped giving him the vital stim treatment, they say he has the swallowing down and now we have to concentrate on sucking and chewing. His vocabulary has really taken off, he talks to me all the time. I know its good but man sometimes a mommy needs a break. LOL. Downfall for Michael is he is having the pleasure of night terrors. Makes for a very long night. Now Ms. Mykayla is more and more like me everyday. Scary I know. LOL. She is a little fire ball and if you make her mad she lets you know it. LOL. She is eating anything I offer her, just not large amounts to live off of, but its a major jump for her. She takes any where from 6 - 10 oz of food a day, plus she drinks min. of 4 oz of milk a day and she has water all day long. It won't be long before she is off her tube I just know it. She has taken over a little bit of mommy role to Michael. When he hurts himself or gets into trouble she meets him with open arms and a hug and kiss. It is so cute. She too talks up a storm, non stop and she is finally getting loud about it. Before you could barely hear her. Not anymore. LOL. Oh and she finally went pee pee in the potty, after months and months of trying she did it. Only once but I hope its a start and she wants to do it again. As for me and Chad, were doing ok, Chad is trying to work between all the rain, and I am just sleep deprived as ever. Strangely enough I am getting used to it. I am also starting to prepare myself for this journey were fixing to take, going into the inpatient feeding program. I am ready for it physically, I just hope I am ready for it emotionally. Well I better go its late and I am tired. I will talk to you all later Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE; 2-7-05 Hey I just wanted to say hi, I know I have been sort of MIA, these last few days. But alot and I mean alot has been going on. LOL. Ok to start with both twins are over their illnessess. Thank goodness. I am sick of being sick, if you know what I mean. Although Mykayla is having some diarrhea, I hope and pray that it does not turn into anything. I was in the process of switching over from dial up to DSL, I don't know how I lived with dial up for so long. LOL Having DSL is super nice. LOL. I like it. Well here is the greatest news I could have recieved. Michael and Mykayla have been attending therapy now as an outpatient for approx. 2 1/2 yrs twice a week. They currently do occupational and speech therapy. The speech therapy helps them to deal with their eating orally. Well where we go to therapy they have an inpatient feeding program, which is designed to help wean kids off their g tubes. Well we have applied and done numerous evaluations for the imaptient program and they have never qualified due to the lack and inexperience of swallowing. Well the therapist approched me last week and said that in March they have two open slots available for the inpatient feeding program and asked if I was interested So without a hesitation I said YES !!! They think now the twins are at a stage where an inpatient program will do them some good. They are pretty confident that they can get Mykayla weaned off of her tube but with Michael since he has more issues, they don't see him getting off the tube but they do think they will be able to wean him down significantly. The downfall is the program is 8 weeks long. But I am willing to make that sacrafice. Don't worry I am there with the twins every step of the way. So from March 7 2005 to May 5 2005 the twins will be in the inpatient feeding program, weaning them off of their g tubes. Yeah !!! I am so excited I can not stand it. LOL. I know its going to be hard and difficult but in the long run its going to make their lives so much easier. And its better to do it now than five years down the road. Does that make sense to anyone? So for the next few weeks to months if I am in and out please bare with me. I will have internet access at the hospital so I can keep everyone updated on their progress. Plus last week they did awesome eating. Michael ate 1 oz of soup. Yes he swallowed 1 oz of soup, I was so proud of him, plus he ate a shortbread cookie, and some cheese. Mykayla ate 1 oz of fruit salad. She actually ate the fruit, not the juice, is drinking sprite, which she loves, sunny delight, milk and water. I can not believe this. LOL. So now for my lows, our business it getting hit hard. Since we have had so much rain, everything is standing in water it makes working hard. We do have the work to do its just can't get to it. So right now we are going through a little financial troubles. Ok alot of financial troubles. But don't worry were going to be ok, Chad keeps reasurring me so if he is ok then I am ok. Money goes so fast. Especially when you are paying out bills and not bringing in any money. LOL. Ok, well its late and I am going to quit rambling on. I will talk to you all tomarrow. Hugs, Wyndi UPDATE: 1-31-05 Hello, Just a quick update to say please Pray for Mykayla. She has been sick since Jan. 20th. It started out as an upper respiratory infection, which went away and developed into a serious ear infection. We went to the doctor last week and it was just an ear infection in one ear, so they put her on antibiotics and ear drops for pain. Well since that visit she has started spiking high fevers, constant crying, whimpering, real restless at night, and can not sleep. I took her back to the doctor today and she now has an infection in both ears, but it turns out the she has fluid filled cysts behind her ear drums. And that she is not responding to oral antibiotics, so they had to give her an antibiotic shot in her leg, which she fought the whole time, and now her leg is swollen and sore. They told me if the shot works, she will feel better tomarrow and if not then I have to take her back in on Wed. for another shot of antibiotics. I hate seeing my baby girl this way. She is so miserable and just lays around crying, I am giving her plenty of tylenol and motrin for fever and pain, plus the ear drops and nothing is seeming to work. Oh and Michael is doing great, he is a little rotten. LOL. Just acting like himself running around playing. Thanks for the prayers, Wyndi UPDATE: 1-26-05 We have had a rough couple of days. Mykayla has been throwing up tons and tons of mucus, coughing, constant runny nose, and moody. Michael however was standing on a stool and fell and hit his ear on a heater guard and bruised the inside of his ear, he has pain drops for that ear and in the other ear he has a major ear infection so he got put on antibiotics. Plus he is running a fever. Neither one has done really well on eating, but I think that is due to the fact that they don't feel good. We have not gone to therapy this week, can't take them sick. So we have just been at home. Just wanted to give a quick update. Thanks for thinking of us. Wyndi UPDATE: 1-21-05 Ok, an update on us... Michael is doing great with his vital stim, he is actually swallowing smooth foods. He tries real hard to swallow whole foods like french fries etc.. but he is still having a hard time chewing them up small enought to swallow. But I am excited for him anyways, this is a huge step for him. Potty training is going good for him as well. Every time he pees in the potty he gets to put a sticker on his chart on the wall and he loves doing that. Although we do still have accidents. He is currently 26 lbs 6 oz and 36 1/2 inches tall. Firey red hair. And becoming quite the bully. Mykayla is eating whole foods. Her favorite right now seems to be french fries and ketchup. Tiny tiny bites but she is eating it. And swallowing it. In all honesty she is actually eating what ever I offer her. Last night she was eating tiny bites of roast. Now its just a matter of weaning her g tube feeds and getting her to increase more orally. Potty training is not going so smoothly for her. She loves to sit on the potty but just sits, nothing comes out. As soon as I take her off the potty she pees in the diaper. I have put real panties on her in hopes of letting her feel what its like to feel wet but she just takes them off and puts another pair on. She is also able to self dress her self now, which is a big help for me. She currently weighs 26 lbs oz and is 35 inches tall. Brown hair and a short temper. Our nutritionist is the one who weighed us and measured how tall we are. So as for how accurate the weight is I don't know. Because when I weigh them on my scale here at home, I just weigh them with a diaper on only and I get them at 25 lbs 14 oz and 25 lbs 13 oz. I don't take my own height. But we have an appt. with our pediatrician on Friday to get a weight and height check and see where we are at on the growth chart. Will be interesting to see what she says their weights and heights are. Hopefully were still on the growth chart. We have never fallen off but have been in the 3 - 5 % tile for the longest time. I would love to see an increase. We have had a crazy day. We went to therapy this am and Mykayla did great. Michael however was a bit defiant. He really was not all into therapy today. He ate a cookie and that was it and in OT he kept saying I want mamma. They are trying to help him on his self help skills and he just does not care. I can not get him to put on his own shoes or anything. He can't pull up his own pants. He wants me to do it all for him. Total oppostite of Mykayla. She does everything independently. They asked him to put his shoes on and he looked at them and said no help and took the therapist his shoes. Little toot. I don't know if he can't or if its he is used to me doing it for him and thinks I should continue. The twins are being unbelievably rotten this afternoon. Mykayla insisted on wearing her big girl panties and I am too tired to argue with her and guess what she peed in them takes them off and poops in the floor and comes and tells me about it. They got into the photo drawer and dumped pictures everywhere. Just busy little people today. Plus its non stop fighting. Makes me go crazy!!!!!!! Their room looks like a tornado came through it. Plus the dang old cat is complaining at me for being out of food. UPDATE: 12-27-04 Well last week on the 20th We noticed Michael was not feeling well, I thought it was just a bug or virus but on the 22nd he only got worse so I took him to the doc and they thought he had a sinus infection, well Christmas came and went and Michael still has not gotten better so I took him back to the doctor today and turns out he has RSV. Which is a very serious virus and can make breathing difficult especially in children with lung disease like Michael. He is very lethargic, weak, pale, he is having a severe cough, runny nose, and fever. We have him on antibiotics, steroids and tylenol / motrin for fever. I am also giving him breathing treatments every 3 hours to make breathing more free. Please pray that he gets feeling better soon and gets over this fast. I hate seeing him feeling miserable. He did not enjoy Christmas because he was feeling to bad. Mykayla started to come down with it, but luckily and thankfully we got her over it and she is doing great, still a runny nose but she is acting just like her self. Thanks again. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 12-21-04 Well the twins had their evaluation for the ppcd program. PPCD stands for preschool program for children with disabilities. Well, this is actually great news, the twins did not qualify for the program. The director and the therapist of the program preformed evaluations on the twins and decided that they were too advanced for the PPCD program. They said they would not classify them as needing a disability class. Although they do have delays in fine motor skills but by 3 - 4 months, speech skills 4 - 7 months and gross motor skills 3 - 4 months and no physical delays. In fact the only delays they said that is significant is oral motor and well that is because of the feeding tubes but we are currently attending feeding therapy working on those skills. They said they see no reason in needing the ppcd program and at age 4 they qualify for preschool. So that was great news for me. They were blown away that the twins can count to 10, know all their colors, all their body parts, and are working on knowing all their shapes. So we will just continue our therapy twice a week at OCH ( 0ur Childrens House), there they recieve speech ( for feeding), occupational ( for their gross and fine motor skills) Just wanted to share. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 12-16-04 Ok, well lets see, what has been going on with us.... First of all, I want to say thank you for the wonderful ornaments you sent to the twins. They loved them, right now they are on the tree and after Christmas they will be hung over their beds. Thank you !!! That was truely wonderful. Michael first, We have been taking Michael to therapy once a week for vital stim therapy, I am happy to announce it has been working for him. In fact it is working so well they booted him up to twice a week. So far with doing the vital stim therapy I have seen a difference in his eating ability. He is swallowing pureed foods and drinking tiny amounts of milk. We are still new into the process, we have only gone through four sessions and they recommended 12. The other day he swallowed 33 swallows of yogurt and drank 1 tsp of choc. milk. Then he did 20 swallows of veg. soup, and yesterday we lost count of how many swallows he did but it was more than the previous days. Which for those of you who know Michael knows that this is a major milestone for him because before that he never swallowed anything in his life, he immediately spit it back out. This in fact is music to my ears. Still a long road ahead of us but we will get there. Michael is able to count to 10, knows all of his colors, and is doing really well with potty training. A couple of times he has even came to me and said momma potty. Michael did come down with pink eye, now where in the world he contacted it from I don't really know, however I took him to the doc and he prescribed some antiobiotic eye drops, one drop three times a day. what a battle this has been. Currently we are battling bed time, he hates to go to bed. Other than that he is doing wonderful and I am so proud of him. His favorite past time right now seems to be telling me paw paw drives a green truck over and over and over again. He is paw paw addicted. Mykayla is attending therapy as well, although she attends speech and ocupational just once a week. Her eating has tampered off a little bit, no actually she has lost all intrest in oral eating. I hope its just a phase were going through. She is even being defiant in therapy. She too contacted pink eye, I think she got it from Michael. So now I am doing eye drops with her as well. And she screams. Her g tube had to be replaced the other day so now every time I have to feed her she thinks I am going to mess with her tube and she screams and fights me. Unfortunately, changing the tube irritated her stomach and she has a little bit of bleeding around the g tube site, I just hope and pray it does not lead to that dreaded granulation tissue. She too is really smart, although she can not count to ten she can count to three and say ABC. She too knows all of her colors. She can not say yellow so when you ask her what color yellow is she says duck, it is the cutest thing. She recently got a cat and she loves that cat so much. She is always asking where's kitty? Makes me crazy after a while. She is still not having any luck with potty training. No intrest in it what so ever. Yesterday she was not feeling well at all. She threw up tons and tons of mucus all day long. Today she is feeling a little bit better but not much. Hope tomarrow she is alot better. Both are ready for Christmas. They can't stand it any longer. They will walk by the tree and grab a present and run as fast as they can. Don't matter what present they grab. So far I have managed to save every present except for one. We have not been out to see Santa yet. I am a little anxious about it since they are so sensitive to every little virus and bug out there. But they are asking Santa for a tri cycle for Christmas. But more than likely if I can find out where he will be locally I will take them. Last year they wanted nothing to do with him. Well I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Christmas and a Happy 2005 Lots of love Wyndi UPDATE: 11-30-04 Hello everyone, We hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was great. The whole family came over and the twins had a blast. We have a big family so they had plenty of people to play with. Michael is doing great with potty training, He goes to the potty nearly every time I put him on it. He is doing so great. I am so proud of him. His eating is still about the same, chewing up his food and then spitting it back out. He is however reconizing hunger cues when his stomach is growling. He is however not sure on what to do about it yet. For some reason he has not made that connection. I just keep telling my self in time.We started a new therapy with him called Vital Stim Therapy. At first I was a little hesitate about it but we gave it a try and he tolerated it just fine so I am going through with it. Vital stim is where they take these small electorodes and place them on the throat and the electrodes massage the muscles in the throat waking the muscles up in hopes of getting him to swallow. The results performed on other children have been tremendous and I just felt like I could not pass up the opprutunity. We have 12 sessions of that and so far we have gone through two and both times I can see him swallowing tiny tiny bites of soup and yougurt. Still having difficult time drinking and sucking but therapist reassures me that, that will come in time. His hair is the prettiest shade of red this holiday season, I love his hair color. His vocabulary has really taken off as well. He is putting togather small sentences. One thing however, is he is hitting his terrible two's really hard right now, being really defiant, not minding, and starting to be a little bully. We will get that under control as of how we will get it under control not sure as time out is not working for him. He is a little handful right now but I would not trade it for anything. Mykayla is doing wonderful. She has recovered 100 % from her salmonella and is back to her self. She even started eating small amounts. Now all we have to do is improve the amount of food she eats and can hopefully in the near future decrease a tube feeding. She is still having a difficult time potty training. She went pee in the potty for the very first time over the weekend and since then she has not gone again. She too is still recieving therapy for eating but only once a week. When another spot opens up we will go twice a week. She too has really taken off on her vocabulary and is starting to say simple sentences. Althought sometimes it still seems like martian talk. Her hair is getting darker and longer, which is about time because for the longest time I thought she was going to be bald all of her life. Now it is long enough for pony tails. She is very smart and is always taking care of her brother. Other than that things are going good, Chad is spending the weekends away down at the deer lease but when he comes home he is greeted at the door with wide opens arms and lots of smiles and giggles. As for me I am still doing ok, days start at 6 am and end at 11 pm. We are getting ready for Christmas. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 11-9-04 I just wanted to first of all say thank you to all of those who prayed for Mykayla. Due to all the prayers and God's healing touch she is getting stronger and back to normal every day. THANK YOU !!!! Mykayla was hospitalized for a salmonella bacterial infection that had spread through out her body fast. Luckily with a high dose of antibiotics, IV fluids, and a continous feeding pump she is doing much better. She is at home with me, Michael, and Dad and is recovering nicely. She is no longer vomitting and is only having the diarrhea once to twice a day now. We think that may be in part to such a high dose of antibiotics. She does however have a horrible diaper rash that has left blisters on her little bottom but again thanks to God's healing touch they are starting to go away. She is acting like she feels better every day. Her energy level is great, and she is playing although sometimes she does get to over exhausted and has to lay back down. She is no longer on continous feeds. So gracefully things are starting to get back to normal for us. She did however loose two pounds which is ok becasue she is alive and in time we will put the weight back on. Michael is doing good, acting like himself, He was a little concerned for Mykayla when we brought her home from the hospital he kept saying take sister to the doctor, sister sick, what did sister do? But now that his sister is back to being somewhat normal he has started to relax as well. He is doing great, his vocabulary has really taken off. He is still however having trouble swallowing food or liquid, but one day he will. Again, thanks to everyone who prayed, it was truely appreciated. Thank you and God Bless you All. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 11-4-04 Last Friday night Mykayla got terribly sick. I thought it was a virus that was going around town and it would pass. Well unfortunately it was more than that. On Sunday I noticed Mykayla was getting worse instead of better. I was concerned and took her to the emergency room. After several hours in the ER they finally decided it would be in her best interest to admit her. When I asked what was wrong with her they had no answers except for severe dehydration. I knew in my gut it was more than that. Well around 11 pm Sunday night we finally got into a room, still unaware of what was going on with my little girl. I was so scared. I was there with her by myself, Chad was at home tending to Michael. On Monday our pediatricitian came in and said that she thought Mykayla had rotovirus. I still had a gut feeling that this was not it, simply becasue we had rotovirus last year and none of the symptoms are the same. So we were still just hanging by a thread. Mykayla was hooked up to IV's, feeding pumps, every four hours they were coming in checking her vitals. I was still scared to death. On Tuesday we finally got an answer Mykayla has contacted Salmonella and Shigella bacteria. And the two of them had spread into a bacterial infection.At first we were not sure where she would have come into contact with them but after much searching, and thinking back we remembered she got into the fish aquaruim and drank the water. When we told the doctor that she said BINGO. I would have never thought in my wildest dreams would this have ever happened. Antibiotics were immediately started. On Wed. night our pedi. thought she was hydrated enough for me to bring her home. I am still not convinced that was the best idea but I did it. As of today Mykayla is still very weak, black under her eyes, pale, moody, and does not want to be touched or loved. Her lips are very chapped and bleeding. She is still throwing up and having horrible diarrhea. I am able to get all of her fluids into her via g tube. My pedi told me to watch out to make sure she is urinating but with all the diarrhea, I have no idea. She gets up and then she goes back down. Makes me so frustrated that she is not starting to get better, but my pedi. again told me to expect that. Just wanted to ask everyone to please pray for her and for a fast and speedy recovery. Michael is also having diarrhea, I don't know why but luckily he is not dehydrated or having trouble. He is acting like his normal self running around and playing. Although I can tell he is extremely worried about his sister. He keeps telling me to take sister to doctor. I guess he thinks we were on a mini vacation with out him. UPDATE: 10-23-04 Good Evening everyone, Just a little note to say hi. Everyone here is doing good. Still awake, hard to sleep when you have nasty thunderstorms pounding away at your roof. I took Mykayla for her feeding evaluation the other day they had a few interesting suggestions. One was to back off of her eating and concentrate on her drinking and swallowing fast. Once we get her drinking and swallowing fast then try to give her foods again. But not to stress about it they think it is only making her more stressed. They also said we should not tube feed her during the day and to only feed her at night on the pump. I am not sure about that yet but I think I am going to give it a try and see how it works. They said it would work by letting her get hungry during the day hopefully increasing her desire to eat. My only problem was she has to have a total of 32 oz of formula a day so what I think I am going to do is give her 8 oz after her oral lunch feed that way she will possibly take a nap then that way at night I only have to give her 24 oz. Less stress on me and her. The therapist said that she does not qualify for inpatient program and even if she did that they would stop all tube feeds during the day. Now my only other problem with this is our therapist in Virginia says we should not do this because she will not feel hunger during the day. So I don't know who is right but I have to at least give it a shot. She is still not throwing up. I am so thankful that she is not. Makes her feel so much better and happier. And for Halloween she is going as Dora The Explorer. Our weight is good. We weighed in at 25 lbs 12 oz and is 35 inches long. She grew one inch and gained 10 oz.This puts her in the 17 % for weight and the 25% for height. Yeah!!! She is growing again. Today she drank 2 oz of milk, one bite of choc pudding, and a couple of bites of a taco. She did so well. Very proud of her. Michael is doing well. He is actually doing better. He was having issues with screaming but I started doing the blenderized diet with him for all of his feeds and he is doing so much better. No screaming, no gagging, no retching, etc... who would have thought one little change would make that much of a difference. I was getting concerned about the constant screaming so I took him to the doctors to make sure nothing was going on like autisum, etc... and the docs said they think it is just the terrible two's to the extreme. The only reason I was concerned was becasue one doc. said it sounded like autisum or cp and I was beside myself. Well our doc said no no no. ... they have no signs of any type of disorder like that. Just terrible two syndrom. As for the vital stim we decided not to do it. We just though it was not the right choice for Michael. I was concerned about making his aversion worse. They said it won't but they could not guarantee it and they don't know Michael like I know him and any sort of traumatic event makes him regress. For Halloween he is going as Bob The Builder. His weight is too good, He weighs in at 25 lbs 4 oz and is 35 1/2 inches tall. He gained 4 oz and grew an inch. This puts him in the 5% for weight and the 20 % for height. He is growing. yeah!!!! Today he took multiple bites of soups, even took a bite of my butterscotch pudding of coarse he spit it out but he atleast tried it. Well as for me and Chad, we are doing good nothing new to talk about for us. Gotta go so take care and God Bless. Wyndi UPDATE: 10-14-04 Well, lets see so much has gone on in the last few days. We took Mykayla for her pre op screen and while we were there the GI doc said that since she has not thrown up, gaining weight, and is starting to eat again he would like to postpone the endoscope. Which I agreed too, I am not to fond of putting Mykayla under anesthesia, especially since she had such a difficult time with it when she had her tonsils removed. She has not thrown up for at least ten days. Who would have thought an over the counter med. would have done the trick. Then Michael had his feeding evaluation yesterday and that was interesting as to what they had to say.Well we get to the evaluation, had to wait another hour, when it is our time to be seen we go in and the team watches Michael play and eat, then they leave for a group discussion. They were gone for another hour. By this time Michael is irritated and ready to take a nap. They come back in and say that MIchael does not qualify for their inpatien program but they would like to see him three times a week for vital stim therapy to help him learn to swallow, they want me to do this for four weeks, then if he is swallowing put him through another swallow study and if and then everything looks good and he is able to swallow then they will consider him for the inpatient program.But to be considered for inpatient program your child has to be eating one oz of food three times a day. All I could think was if I can get my child eating one oz of food three times a day I dont need an inpatient program. So they want me to drive to Dallas three times a week they want me to keep up our speech therapy two times a week. That would mean I would be doing something every day of the week. Do you know how tired that would make me? I am already exhausted.Then they proceed to tell me that Michael has major sensory issues. And all I could think was "Duh" I knew that you moron. LOL. The boy hates to touch slimy slick gooey things. And they want me to increase our OT therapy to two times a week. Currently we just go for OT once and speech twice. By the time I left there is was 5:30 pm. I had to sit in rush hour traffic coming home, listening to Michael scream " where is sister" over and over and over again. LOL. So all in all that whole day was a complete waste of my time. And yes, I do think my time is very important. LOL. So good news, I did not have to put Mykayla under anesthesia for her endoscope, since we have gotten the throwing up under control, oh and her pH test came back from the lab, we did this a while back, and everything was with in normal range. So the prevacid is working. Bad news, Michael still did not get into the feeding program and is still stuck at not swallowing. All I keep telling myself is in due time. Well that is pretty much it in a nut shell. Well it is late and I am going to bed. Take care God Bless and we love you all. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 10-3-04 This is the first morning in many months Mykayla did not wake up and throw up. I went to Eckerds and bought a bottle of Triaminc Chest congestion, I gave her 4 cc at bedtime last night and then again this morning 30 min before her tube feeding. And guess what she did not throw up. I was so happy I was dancing. Watching her throw up everymorning was so horrible because there was nothing I could do about it. She felt so terrible before and after for that matter. I hope this is something that works and not a fluke. Her endoscopy is scheduled for October 13th at 7 am. They are going to look down her esophagus, stomach, and intestines for any damage and take biopsies as well. So please say a prayer for her. Anesthesia is safe now days but it still scares me. Also today she ate 1 1/2 oz of choc. pudding. She is also finally able to identify three colors and can name all animals and their sounds. Her speech is really starting to take off, its still hard to understand her but she is at least talking more. She however is having no interest in potty training. She could care less. Michael is doing good, although here lately he is having a rough time staying asleep. He cries and screams during his sleep. Makes for a long night. And because he is up all night crying he is moody the next day. He is still not eating orally but is at least tasting and experimenting with the different foods. His allergies are really flaring up these last few days. He normally takes Nasonex to help but here lately I am also having to give him Dimetapp Allergy. Oh he is allergic to dog dander, cat dander, dust mites, and mesquite trees. Of coarse we have three dogs and lots of dust. I bought a hepa filter and placed it in his room next to his bed in hopes of this helping. We shall see. He is extremely smart and can name off seven different colors, knows all animals and their sounds, and loves to read books or have them read to him. Michael is starting to put simple and small sentences togather. He is really good at saying " I want...." He is having a hard time when you ask him what his name is. He is however soaring with potty training. Only a couple of accidents a day. Both are finally gaining weight which is good maybe we can get the FTT ( failure to thrive) taken off our charts. Mykayla is up to 25 lbs 9 oz and Michael is 25 lbs 5 oz. Michael is 34 3/4 inches tall and Mykayla is 34 inches. I am so proud to have them in my life. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 10-01-04 Here is me with michael and mykayla still in the NICU. Twincerely, Wyndi UPDATE: 9-30-04 My name is Wyndi and I just turned 30 weeks pregnate when on March 19, 2002 I went into labor, my husband rushed me to the local hospital and upon arrival they stated they were not able to deliver premature babies and transported me to Presbyterian Hosp. of Dallas. Immediately the doctors tried to stop the labor and administered steroid drugs to help the babies lungs develop, They gave me demoral to help with pain but that only made things worse, I started to seizure, they got that under control and checked the babies so far everything was ok just a ruptured membrane unfortunately there was no stopping the labor things took a turn for the worse the ob/gyn said that the umbilical cord ripped and the placenta wall tore and it became life threatning, All three of us had dramatic drops in our heartrates. So on March 23, 2002 I gave birth to Michael and Mykayla Adkins via emergency c section. I was rushed into the operating room and placed under anesthesia, while my husband had to wait out in the hall. I was so strung out on all the drugs, I had no idea my babies were even being born. Michael came at 12:59 am weighing in at 3 lbs 2 oz and Mykayla was born at 1:00 am weighing in at 2 lbs 15 oz. Both were 15 inches long. They tell me that Michael came out screaming and Mykayla came out and was immediately placed on a ventilator. We spent the next 14 Weeks in the NICU When I first saw the twins in the NICU I cried hysterically. I was able to hold Michael but was so scared he was so small and then I saw Mykayla she was hooked up to a ventilator and I was not able to hold her only touch her. I just cried. Three days later I finally got to hold her when they weaned her off the vent. I cried again. It was so scary seeing my babies hooked up to all those wires, machines, all those IVS. But the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was go home without my babies. I tell eveyone I meet that Michael and Mykayla are my miracle babies. When we were in the NICU, they were checking for brain bleeds, well when they were checking Mykayla they found two small growths on her brain. They were not sure what they were at the time. Then another doctor named Dr. Thomas Pullano said they appeared to be some sort of cyst. He told me that they possibly have to be removed, they were in the area of the brain that affects your coordination and walking, etc.. The only way to find out if they were cancerous would be to remove them. So we were preparing to send our preemie into surgery and one day they did another brain sonogram the cysts were gone. Five different doctors looked over the sonogram results, they even came back and repeated the sonogram and they are just gone. They were amazed. They thought she may still have trouble walking and with her coordination but she proved them all wrong. She has strong legs and her coordination is great. They even did another sonogram a year ago and the cysts are still gone. Truely a miracle!! God was really looking out for us. He took care of those cysts on his own. I thank God everyday for my miracle babies. Michael has a g tube, fundoplication, hypoplasia lung ( used to be a collapsed lung) history of pneumothorax, and an eventration diaphgram ( the right side is paralyzed) they think this may have happened during delivery, when the doctor pulled him out he may have crushed the diaphgram paralyzing it. He has under gone three surgeries one to repair the diaphgram,it is called a diaphgram tackdown, that is where they took the right side and tacked it to the left side so when he would breath the right side of the diaphgram would move and lift off the collapsed lung. Second to place the g tube and nissen, and the third was to remove his adenoids, they were extremely swollen obstructing his nasal passage. He takes daily breathing treatments. Mykayla has a g tube, fundo and suffers from aspiration and severe reflux disease. She has undergone two surgeries, one for the g tube and fundo and the other to remove her tonsils and adenoids, again they were to swollen causing an osbstruction. We attend therapy twice a week, speech and occupational. They are 100% tube fed, although we are currently working on oral feeds, just a long process. All in all that is the short version of our story. Take care and God Bless you all Twincerely, Wyndi Added: 9-27-04 Condition: ...prematurity, hypoplasia lungs, g tube fed, aspiration, history of pneumothorax, sensory issues