Wow! I can't believe I haven't written since March. It feels like so much life has happened in the last 6 months. We had an awesome summer. Behaviorally, Lauren is doing AMAZING and has matured so much. She's such a joy to be around and I genuinely miss her when we're not together. We went up north several times as a family this summer and it was a lot of fun.
Healthwise, things are going well. Her severe sleep apnea is still untreated as she doesn't tolerate CPAP. We have plans to (eventually) try a full face scuba style mask, but I don't want to mix too many new things in at once and she just started school at a new building this week. We were going to try for a surgery in Boston as part of a clinical trial, but her BMI unfortunately excluded her. This lead to us recently seeing a pediatric weight management clinic and it was such a positive appointment. (Note, we never ever talk about Lauren's weight as a negative thing in front of her and our concerns are obviously 100% health/mobility related in regards to her weight.) Her BMI has actually trended down quite a bit over the last year with dietary and activity changes we've made as a family. We're going to check some labs as the doctor suspects Lauren has some insulin resistance. Depending on labs, we might start some medication (Metformin) but we don't want ot jump into anything so the plan is to see what her labs look like and then we'll likely wait 6 months to see how we do with more dietary changes.
We see cardiology in October for our yearly echo and visit. Sadly, our most recent cardiologist jumped ship and went to a different health system so we're seeing somebody new. Hopefully we like this person as much as we liked the last two she had!
Lauren started 5th grade this year! It's a new school and she has been very nervous, but so far it's going great and her best friend is in her class. The teacher seems super sweet. Lauren will be unhappy to realize that she has PE twice a week (LOL), but she already said music is her favorite special. She's now on an adaptive cheer team at a competitive cheer gym and she absolutely loves it. She's been swimming all summer (in both our small backyard pool and swim lessons). The most recent roun of swim lessons started yesterday but her bus was late and she missed it, so we're hopeful that next week we'll have better luck! She moved up to the next group and is very excited. She did some lessons this summer at a local swim club and they legit taught her how to swim! She can now do the big slide at the public pool because she can safely swim her way to the ladder. It was a big deal. I'm so proud.
Ryan started middle school and it's going well so far! He has classes and lunch with his friends. He's joining the robotics team. He's interested in a few after school clubs. It's very exciting!!
Greg got a promotion at work and is working day shift now. It's amazing!!
I've been doing fairly well! I had an ER visit for dehydration in June (the last day of school so I missed out on that fun stuff, sadly) and restarted IV hydration for a while. The plan for now is it do it on an as-needed basis when I'm struggling or when I have a big event coming up (like going to Washington DC next week!). Unfortunately, it took FIVE tries for my IV on Wednesday and I was sweating profusely and wanted to cry. Zero stars, do not recommend. Otherwise, things are going well. Work is great, I'm only working about 20 hours a week and it's perfect for us.
