A Plug and an Update

This is probably just the second or third time we've used this blog for publicity, but since Kevin is the one we're publicizing, it may be okay.

During the past year, Kevin wrote a young adult book. Since he's a teacher, he has access to the opinions of middle schoolers. Long story short, he decided to write a book for that age, and it's now finished! At least, he's ready to share it. It's called The Magi.

Because it's so new, he's trying to generate a little buzz around it and obtain a small following so if and when it is published (either by a reputable publisher or on his own) there are people that know about it. So here's how you can help...assuming you haven't already:

1. Go to facebook (Kevin M. Turner) and become his friend.
2. "Like" THE MAGI SERIES (which is a page on his wall)
3. Go to the website www.kevinmturner.com and subscribe (everything's private) to get updates
4. (most importantly) If you know a young adult that would be interested in an adventure/fantasy book...or just likes to read, spread the word and have them check it out on the website. There will be writing samples up periodically.

To get an incentive to do all those things (which looks good for perspective agents), he is releasing chapters a little at a time based on how many people subscribe to the site.

We hope this isn't too out of line....

In Karsie news, she is having quite the up and down time. Her weight continues to maintain (at least it's not dropping) but she's not growing much. She is feeling much better but her gagging has come back. We think it's a result of the constipation setting off a spasm reaction.

We have an appointment soon w/ G.I. which will be scary as she hasn't grown and they said they'd put in an NG tube if she hadn't. However, we really think that they're very understanding and logical, so we have hopes that they will let her have another month. However, surgery is just around the corner, so she doesn't have too much time.

Until later...

Another Setback (slightly)

Things have been going well for Karsie. Her eating was up, she was drinking milk. It looked like we were on our way to freedom. However, we think she has had a small bout of constipation (hope you weren't eating dinner) and has had a lot less desire to eat. We're hoping it goes away soon and she picks up her appetite again soon because we're nearing our GI appointment and she hasn't gotten back to her previous weight before the major leaking of the g-tube.

Today has been slightly better, but we still need much more than this.

MILK--It does a Karsie Good!

So this is a risky thing--putting our recent success out into the universe. Hopefully everyone knocks on wood before reading.

For months and months, we have known that if Karsie drank milk the way she drinks water that she would grow like a weed. The problem was, she didn't like milk. RATS!

A few days ago, however, we decided to water down some milk and call it water, which it was...mostly. And she drank it! Since then, we have been slowly increasing the milk to water ratio, and she has taken to it (that is, once she realized that was her option for hydration). At the moment, we are at full volume milk with a few ice cubes in her cup. She likes her ice cubes. Go figure.

The good news about this is that once she gets used to drinking milk like this, we can add supplemental formula to it to give her more calories. We might be seeing the light at the end of the growing tunnel. One day we may have to explain to her why water is actually not white, but for now, she's drinking...and growing!

UPDATE

Thank you all for your patience w/ us the past few months. We've been busy...and gone! But we're back for now. We can't promise the frequent updates that we've given in the past since the end is near w/ Karsie's medical stuff, but we'll try to give information as we feel comfortable.

Quick hits from the beginning of the summer:

We took a trip to Yosemite and Karsie had a blast! She's a good little camper.

Karsie had to be taken into GI in San Diego unplanned due to an enormous amount of granulation tissue, which hasn't gone away....yet! Nothing came of it other than we tried to get rid of it by burning it. Didn't work.

Karsie got to spend a few weeks with her Nana and Papa. There were trips to the zoo, trips to Sea World, trips to the beach (which she hated). She had her second birthday party and a trip to disneyland (which wasn't in San Diego in case you were wondering).

Other medical news: here's a quick narrative of our journey.

Karsie has turned into an eater!!! Well, sort of. She has definitely stepped up her game. So, we were given permission to start weaning her off of her tube feeding with the hope to get down to nothing by the time surgery happens. During the weaning, we have had a bear of a time with her skin around the button. It has been broken down and covered in yeast for a lot of the summer. This has been due to leaking because her button has stretched her skin so much that her stomach liquids would pour out!

Since she was doing so well on her weaning, we decided to cut her feeding altogether and see how she did. She picked up her eating and did well. But then a few days ago her skin finally had enough and her leaking was as if there was nothing plugging her hole leading to her stomach. So, after permission from GI, we removed the button. That was an event! The idea is that the wound will heal on its own, but during the healing process, there's a gaping hole that spills everything that she eats until it closes. It didn't close right away, and it caused a trip to the ER to get Karsie something for pain because the stomach acid burned her broken down skin every time it leaked. Which was every time she took a drink. Which was always because she was so thirsty as everything was coming out. Poor girl! The good news was that it only lasted a day because it has started to close. Our only obstacle now is to get her back to eating like a champ because if she doesn't grow enough by the next GI appointment, they're going to put an NG tube in her nose for feedings. We're not sure how that's going to go with a 2 year old, and we'd rather not find out. But the good news is that she's been eating well. Grow Karsie, grow. No more button!

Back from Summer...News to follow

Thanks for being patient with us. We're public again and will share news asap.