January is cardiology month for us. Josh is great and he considers Mott hospital "my hospital". More like he owns it than he needs it. He had an ekg and an echo.There are essentially no changes. He is 40 lbs and 45 inches tall. He is thin and healthy! Dr Russell is really good with Josh and with Ron and I. I love that he answers my questions before I ask them.

Josh is in great shape. They were pleased that the echo appears stable. Functionally he is doing great. He is high energy and has never self limited his exertion. He eats like a truck driver and is learning well in preschool.

The gray area centers around his pulmonary valve. He has a trans-annular patch across his pulmonary valve so the valve was sacrificed during his surgery in 2007. He has lots of back flow through the valve back into the right ventricle. Eventually he will need to have this valve replaced.

The good news is this week, the FDA approved a device that is used to do pulmonary valve replacement through heart catheter procedure. This is big! if they perfect this technique, it would mean an overnight stay and sedation instead of open heart surgery! (we've been there before, and if possible would rather not go back!) Right now, it can only be done via catheter if people have a man made outflow track. Josh has half natural and half man made. If we play our cards right, he will not need a valve until the procedure can be done with his type of outflow tract.

The decision about when this valve replacement should take place is based on clinical condition and echo and MRI findings. Within the next year or 2 he will have an MRI to take these measurements and we'll see how he continues to do clinically.

For now we CELEBRATE!

So moms... You may be able to relate to this story...True of course. Ron is out on the other side of town so I am doing the transient single parent thing. I get all 4 kids form two schools and we got home and had snacks. Josh "took care" of my keys for me but we found them relatively easily. Ron calls to say he is running late and could he meet us at the soccer game (he is coach Ron) instead of coming home to pick up Erin. I tell him that would be fine... and mobilize the troops.. Josh goes to the bathroom While Erin an Mally put on shoes and get the right things to bring to a 1 hour soccer game! Low and behold the toilet backs up so he does what every 4 year old would do to fix it. He flushes again and again....THEN calls for help! Now we are running late for the soccer game with gallons of dirty water all over the bathroom and an upset 5 year old with soaked pants through no fault of his own. I call for back up! Erin get me a towel!!!! Erin comes back with one square of paper towel and throws it on the floor... I was laughing... it might have been hysteria ... but it was funny. We managed to get the mess cleaned up and to soccer before kick-off... We had a debriefing which included proper protocol for toilets not flushing properly.

I have the funniest Christmas tree story ever. We cut trees with our family very year, and this was no exception. We cut our tree down on a Saturday along with many of our relatives, and my uncle brings the trees home in a truck and delivers them. On Sunday morning my mom asked how our tree was. I told her we didn't have it yet and she told me they had been dropped off. We called my uncle . He had droped it off the night before...at the wrong house! The people who who live one block away had our tree delvered to their driveway!

Happy to have the mystery solved, Ron went to the neighbors house with 2 of the kids and the neighbor was in the garage. Ron explained the situation. The guy said they had already decorated the tree! Sorry....

We were a little surprised. He said something about a friend who has a tree farm and he thought the tree had come from him. We have since gotten a very wonderful tree, and will have a much nicer Christmas than the guy who has our first tree....

Santa and other matters

How behind am I? Happy Halloween.

I had to include this picture. The kids were so cute. Josh was a zebra. Totally cute. The costume fit when we tried it on, and was too short by the big day! He is growing so much. Erin was Aphrodite an Mallory was... You guessed it...Dorothy. Poor Bryan was sick. He got plenty of candy and he s fine now....

So here is my crew with the big guy. Josh was still unwilling to get on his lap, and Ron was his go to guy this year. It is the first time ever that Ron has been in the Santa picture. Josh was perfectly happy to be standing near and he made a list in case he did not feel like talking. He will make quite as boy scout some day if he is always that prepared.

When last I posted, Mallory was having reading issues. I could not be more proud of her. She has worked so hard and come so far. When she started reading recovery in early Oct, she was about 9 months behind grade level, and now she is a little ahead. She has definately gotten comfortable. We are still reading and working on it, but she is definately out of the danger zone. The hero in all this (besides Mal of course) is our neighbor Jen. She has worked with Mallory every week and sometimes 2 times per week and showed me how to teach her. She rocks.

I am also very proud of Ron. Despite his worry, he is doing really well in his classes, and is working really hard around the house too. I wish he allowed himself to feel proud too, but I will certainly settle for releived:-)

I am not planning on moving to Montana and becoming an artist today, but I am leaving my options open.

Soccer and back to school shots.

Hello Friends.

The Debono Family is live and well. This fall has been a wild one. We are still steaming ahead. Let's see...Soccer. Soccer. Soccer. Soccer. Between the 4 of them, Ron and I have been through 5 practices per week and 5 games per week and all that goes with it. Ron coached Erin and assistant coached Mallory. They all did well and played hard. We were proud of them, and sort of glad to see the season end.

Ron is taking 3 masters level course this term. That is a lot of work! He is doing really well and liking his classes. I am proud of him too. He is being house dad and student extraordinaire, and I am working.

Work has had its good parts and its bad parts over the last few months. it is as they say feast or famine. Otherwise translated....I am never satisfied. I am quite busy most days, and I have the best patients any doctor could have. That is a blessing. I like what I do, and that helps too. It is really hard not to run late when you squeeze people in with problems, and such. Running behind is stressful, so is not being busy enough. I have had difficult cases too: young women who are suicidal over boys who are not worth it....27 year old with cancer who wants children and needs to have a hysterectomy...... lovely full term baby who despite my best efforts dies.

And I am doing that mom thing. I work because I love my job, but also because I have a family of 6 to support. I would like to spend more time with the kids, but there are only 24 hours per day, and I am trying to balance the best I can.

The other thing that has changed is Ron and I are basically home schooling Mallory in reading and writing. It is a long story, but the school she is going to has a really outdated way of teaching these subjects. We asked for help when we realized she needed it, and they really have not been helpful. The rest is a long story, and those of you who know me, know I don't take no for an answer where my kid is concerned. I have had to take a step back and think clearly about what my kid needs. We are seeing great progress thanks to our neighbor who is a first grade teacher and her friend who is a reading specialist... It is a small world because our neighbor is the best, and has 2 boys that my kids love to play with, and her friend is adopting from China! I am not a confident teacher, but Mal is doing awesome, so we will wait and then make some school related changes. This extra school work has completely cut into my exercise time. That totally sucks. I can't stand myself when I cant exercise. I haven't figured out how to do both. Remember? Only 24 hours per day....right now Mallory needs the time.

Some days I want to move to Montana and become an artist all by myself . Some days the stress seems to be too much, and Montana seems like a good idea, but l think artists in Montana have stress too, and they don't have my husband and my kids! I would not trade them for anything and they are worth all of it.

So now we know what a slow blogger I am. We had a wonderful reunion with our China family. We all missed the Edmonds, but we had a wonderful time! Having 3 families and 10 kids sounds like chaos, but it was very calm chaos. The kids got along great, (and the adults as usual did too!) I was so greatful to Ron for organizing it all.