Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Halloween Fun, Braiden's OCD Elbow , & Mason's Biopsy This Friday

Halloween sure seemed to sneak up on us this year!Maybe because we seemed to have a warmer fall than usual. Which I won't complain about! We drove up the canyon a couple weeks ago to see the beautiful fall colors, and I sure wish the fall leaves would last just a little longer!

Pumpkin carving, Halloween parades at school, and trick-or-treating are a few of our fun fall traditions. This year my cute kiddos dressed up as a fire fighter, Elf on the Shelf, Willy from
Duck Dynasty, a baseball player, and a skier on crutches. (Preston should have been in two walking boots for this picture, because he's still recovering from his foot surgery, but he had just taken them off for a break . He skipped trick-or treating this year and handed out our candy for us. I wouldn't want to trick or treat on crutches either!)


Did I tell you that I have the cutest kiddos ever??
Okay, maybe I'm a little biased....
but they are great kids and I dearly love them!


Mason was quite proud of his 'Giants' jack-o-lantern!
We even carved our pumpkins before the winning game!


Braiden (or Willy the hunter) is such a good big brother!
He took Mason and Ammon trick-or-treating around the 
neighborhood, while Mark and I slowly followed behind.


Ammon came up with the idea to be the 'Elf on the Shelf'
all on his own. He loves Christmas! In fact he loves to watch
Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music all year long.


Mason has worn his fire fighter costume at least once
a day since the middle of September. I'd say he was just
a little excited to be a fire fighter for Halloween!


We also took Ammon and Mason to visit our fire fighter friend
at the fire station the weekend before Halloween. They wanted 
to show off their cool costumes! (At that point Ammon hadn't 
decide if he was going to be Elf on the Shelf or a fire fighter. 
Got to love indecisive kiddos!)


October always means red ribbon week and dress up days
at school too. Here's two very cute boys on crazy hair day!


If you ask me, these boys have some pretty awesome hair!



Besides all the fun we've had this fall, 
we've also had a few doctor's appointments to keep us busy.  This cute baseball player of mine has a had soar elbow for several months. We had him take a break from fall baseball to see if that would help, but his elbow has continued to hurt him. After an X-ray and MRI on his right arm (his throwing arm) we found out he has osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) in his elbow. We took Braiden (age 11 1/2) to see a specialist (a orthopedic hand and elbow surgeon) at Primary Children's last week to learn more about this OCD and to see what can be done about it. Basically it's is an erosion of cartilage and underlying bone his elbow. Over time, OCD may lead to bone chips in the joint. What causes this condition? In Braiden's case, most likely over use at a young age. Braiden just loves playing baseball and has quite an amazingly strong throw, but we had no idea this could happen! What can be done for it? He could get it scoped to remove any fluid or loose bone chips, but this is can be very invasive and there's always the chance of damaging some very important nerves during the procedure. A less aggressive treatment would be a cortisone shot to help with any swelling and then to lessen the  usage of his throwing arm. The doctor also said that he shouldn't pitch anymore (So sad!! I love to watch him pitch!) The latter option is what we chose for now. Hopefully this will do the trick without needing to scope it! We also hope that Braiden will still be able to play baseball, but we will need to be careful about what positions he will play and how much. Hopefully we caught it in time so   this baseball loving boy can play for years to come!




And lastly, my cute little firefighter has a heart biopsy this Friday, November  14.  (I had said in a previous post that it was on November 13, but I had my dates  confused!) It is a routine scheduled biopsy to follow up on his lingering rejection. It has been 4 1/2 months since his last one, so we are certainly praying the report is good!  It'd be nice if the rejection was all gone, but I'll take ' not worse'! He has seemed so healthy and strong lately , that I hope this means his heart is happy and healthy too! That special heart of his that beats because of his generous donor, for which I don't go a day without being extremely grateful!   We love our Miracle Mason and  are so thankful for the many miracles he has been given and continues to be given  from our Father Above. 



"Family love is wonderful. 
Nothing is as specific as the love of a baby for its mother. 
Nothing is as predictable as the love of children for their parents
 or the love of parents for their children."
~Russell M Nelson



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