New baby in the house!

Our last post was an update on our year so far.  The last part that we couldn't really share was the calling we felt to pursue fostering a medically fragile very premature (earlier than our boys) baby boy.  Here is an update that we sent to a group at our church:

Ken and Rachel Barnes have been at NLC (New Life Church) for over 12 years (since the old building in the skating rink). Both serve every weekend in Kid Life at the GLR campus. They have 8-year-old twin boys, Jack and Luke, who were born 3 months early. It was 4 months in the NICU before the family was finally together at home. Luke still has a feeding tube and has faced numerous medical challenges over the years. Their family also has 4-year-old Ally, who is the princess and only girl of the generation on both sides of the family.

They thought their family was complete, but throughout this year, God spoke to both about adding another member to the family. Rachel is a NICU nurse. She fell in love with a very sick baby boy born 4 months premature and was abandoned at birth. Ken and Rachel have dealt with major medical issues through their son Luke's life, and felt called to express their interest in fostering this baby boy. After weeks of waiting and very little information from DHS, they officially became provisional foster parents. The baby boy came home from the hospital two weeks ago.

Now the hard part begins as they add all of the baby's doctors, specialists, and therapy visits to their family's already busy schedule. They also are navigating the details, requirements, and responsibilities of the foster care system. Prayers and support are very appreciated as they navigate life with a new baby, dealing with the DHS system, and maintaining normal life for the 3 other children!  

Life has been extremely busy this year and is even crazier now.  We will post occasional updates as we can, but are very limited in what we can share online throughout the foster process.

What we need most are your prayers.  Meals would be a great blessing as well (if you're not local, Bite Squad works too).  Some have asked what baby gear we need, and we have an Amazon list here.  

We are beginning to adjust to having a baby in the house again, along with all of his medicines and oxygen equipment (similar to what we had with Luke 8 years ago).  It's much different this time being older ourselves and trying to add his routine and needs into our normal schedule with the kids.  Please keep up in your prayers and thanks for your support!

Big Changes....

Hello Everyone!

God has been moving and revealing so much in our lives over the past couple months. So much has happened and so much more to come. Here are some of the things that are happening:

At the beginning of the year I (Rachel) knew that this year was going to be hard. God had put it on my heart to sit and get through. That was the goal of 2017. With me starting school and Luke possibly having major spinal surgery I felt that I (and my family) needed to hunker down and just make it through. I did not renew a leadership role at work to pursue school and sadly I had to step back from some leadership roles at church.

One role I had to step back from was pretty early. No matter how hard we tried, I couldn't make my work schedule, life group with Ken, and being co-leader to the group all fit together. So I sadly stepped back from that church group. The second one was a project that I had been praying about and working with church members for the last 2 years to get started. In May I had agreed to co-lead with another lady. It was going to be a big project but I was willing to take it on. Ultimately the project was given to a couple with more experience and more ability. After I nursed some hurt feeling and did a lot of praying God gently said "Hey--remember this year is about sitting." I was again reminded that it was not the year for this project and I am praying about my involvement with it in the future. I believe God has great plans for the program and for me--just not now!

It was also at that time that God opened my eyes about how Ken had been growing and changing. His heart has really changed and I love the man I see him growing into. I was proud of him before but it keeps growing deeper! God has also really started working and changing me. During June God revealed that to me that this year was not only about sitting and hunkering down but it was also about growing and changing our family! So not only was it a year to sit--it was a year to grow, learn, and follow God's plan.

The second thing God revealed to me in June was that I needed to go serve with Ken in the KidLife ministry at New Life Church. I take care of babies. It is my life calling--my full time job is to work with babies and then I had been going to church and serving in the infant nursery. I loved it! THEN God revealed that I needed to go to KidLife. KidLife is for Kindergarten through 5th grade--BIG kids! I cried, prayed that I was wrong but I finally told Ken and obeyed. I can't say that it was AMAZING the first time I went in but it has been getting better. I have been praying a lot for freedom to be able to get out of my shell and connect with the kids. I have found that I am very closed off and while I can be silly with my kids in my house- anytime we are out in public I get all uptight and shut down. I want the freedom to be silly in public, do the worship dance moves without being self conscious, to not be so uptight, and to ward off the thoughts of inadequacy that plague me often. I have a long way to go!

I have always struggled with my christian growth. I still have days when it is bedtime and I think "Oh I haven't prayed all day." I have been making my driving time my prayer time. When I am headed to and from work I turn off the radio and pray over everything that is happening, everything that I want to change, for friends and family, thanking for everything that has happened and thanking God that He controls the future. I still need to work on diving in and learning the Word. I just pray that I keep taking little steps forward and not fall back into stagnation.

There are many more things that are happening that haven't fully evolved yet but I feel like big changes are right around the corner for our family. Some things I can't announce yet as they are not fully developed and need some time before we can reveal them. Some other big things are :
1. Ken put his month notice in at work.
2. I won a scholarship that is fully covering the rest of my school tuition for the rest of the program! It is such a relief to not have to worry about how we are going to pay for my school.
3. Luke has not had a tube feed in over a month!!! He is EATING and maintaining his weight!!!!

What can you do? PRAY PRAY PRAY. We are making big changes and following what God is calling us to do. It is scary but it is also exciting. We know that God is doing big things but we also know that we cannot do it without the help, guidance, love, fellowship, and prayers of our family, friends, and our church family. Pray that we continue to grow, that the kids handle all the changes well, that we can become better parents, that our financial needs will continue to be met, that Ken and I can keep up with everything that needs to be done, my health nuisance can be fixed (ENT appointment coming up), and just covering us fully in prayer for anything and everything else!!

Email us, text us, call us, hunt us down at church (we pretty much live in KidLife area)! We need all the support we can get! We will update as we can!!

LOVE YOU ALL!
Rachel

2 years....

Quick update. Sorry it has been almost 2 years. I am going to try to jump back on the blogging wagon! I will put up some pictures today of the family and over the next week or so do a blog post dedicated to each person. I have some blog ideas for out Twins N Tidbits page too! I have been jotting down ideas when they come to me so now I just have to sit down and find time to write the post.

Wedding Day! Hard to believe we have been married 12 years!





THEN AND NOW

THE KIDS

First day of  First grade

Ally just turned 3!

Getting a family picture where everyone is looking and smiling is hard to do. This is from our family vacation in June.

August Appointment...Last one!

Very far behind on the updating...so much has been going on in our lives and I really haven't have much time to sit down and type. It is a decent day at work so I am typing a few sentences here and there between tasks. (It is now 2 weeks later!)

Let's start at the beginning of August:

August 4th: Luke had his medical testing done at Arkansas Children's Hospital to see if he would qualify for growth hormones. We did not get the results immediately as some of the test had to be sent out to another hospital. This was the test we were praying he would fail so that the insurance companies would cover the medication! The rest of that week was work, dr appointments, therapy appointments for Luke and his new pre-k.

August 12th: Ally's one year birthday. We did cake and ice cream at Ken's work as a combo farewell to him and Ally's birthday.

August 13th: What?!? Ken's farewell you ask...Ken and I talked and prayed a lot about what we wanted to do with the boys after school in the fall. The school day is a lot shorter (done at 2:30) than when they were at private pre-k and we had to decide what to do. We could have sent them to daycare afterwards but that would cost a lot, my mom offered to pick them up and watch them on the days that I am working and we thought a lot about that, or Ken could quit his job and pick them up everyday after school and they could be home every afternoon. After LOTS and LOTS of talking and flip flopping between decisions we decided we would trial Ken not working. I have to admit that I was very anxious about it (and still am a little bit).
When Ken stopped working after the boys were born I don't remember being so nervous about it but this time I just really hated that he leave such a good job and to lose his income...especially since we were so financially strapped to begin with. Can we pay our bills every month?..yes! Can we provide for our children..yes. Can we spend extra money on toys or lots of clothes (besides basics) or new bows for Ally or cable or date nights?...no Can we afford to go on a date night even once a month?...no! It is hard but we are willing to make sacrifices for the boys so that they don't have to stay in child care every day until 6 or later. They were in school at the private pre-k from 7:30am until 5:30pm Monday through Friday. Ken and the boys wouldn't get home until after 6 every night. That gave us about an hour and half to eat dinner, relax (lol!), let them play, get them ready for bed....it wasn't too relaxing and not enough time.
Fast forward to now and I am really enjoying our new schedule. Ken enjoys it on the days I am off but it is a little hard on the days I am working just because the dynamics of 3 kids! We all go to the school and drop them off around 7:30am and both of us usually pick them up around 2:20pm. We head home and enjoy having most of the afternoon off and being together. The weather has been really nice lately and we are enjoying park time and bike rides. Ken has an idea for some additional income and working on that but it may take a while to see any profit from it...building up a business takes time! So extra shifts for me to help make up some of the difference! August 13th was also the boys last day at Pediatrics Plus. I was hard to say goodbye to them as they took the most wonderful care of our boys and we love everyone of them so much. We can never say how much we love them and appreciate them. On a funny note...check out this video their school made...check about 38 seconds into the video...yep! That's our boys!

August 16th-23: Vacation!!! That will be another post all by itself. We had a wonderful time in Gulf Shores, AL.

August 28th: Luke's appointment in Kansas City. This was the first trip we didn't take Ally. She stayed at home with her stay at home daddy! It was a lot easier and quieter as Ally is not a good car traveler. This appointment Luke lost a large amount of weight. He had been sick and with all the activity at the beach he just didn't eat well and it definitely showed in the weight department. We were supposed to find out whether he was on the real medicine or the placebo this visit but they had forgotten to have me do a couple items so I had to do those first and then they would let me know. We talked about options for Luke and his almost non-existent eating. We decided to try Erythromycin (an antibiotic) that they give children with a slow digestive system. It helps the stomach and bowels to move things through fast and help with absorption. We also decided to do periactin. It is an old school anti-inflammatory that is used in children to increase appetite. We are trying those things to see if it increases his appetite and willingness to eat. Hoping that it will work and his appetite will pick up. It has gotten pretty rough to get him to do much of anything besides his favorite foods. During the trip home I got a call from the growth hormone company and insurance had denied the initial request for his meds. The case worker said she would start an appeal process and let us know how that goes.

July Update

Hello, Not much of an update for July. No changes. Luke lost about 3 ounces this month. He is losing slowly and small amounts but I would love to see him stay the same or gain some next month. Our August appointment is our last appointment! At that appointment we will find out whether he had been on the placebo or the real medication (most family thinks he has been on the real medicine). If he is on the real med we will have the option of continuing the medicine or tapering off. I think we will continue it for a couple months to help transition into 4 yr old kindergarten. After a month or so and when the boys are settled into the new school we will wean him off and see how he does.

When Dr. A told me all this my reply was "I would rather have the appetite stimulant again and not the trial medication!!" He laughed but that isn't one of the options. Luke will still eat but it has drastically decreased and his drive to eat and his willingness to try new food had almost come to a screeching halt. It is frustrating but Luke hasn't had a feed since June and would hate to start that back up again. We have a couple options that we can try before going back to the tube feeds. Right now while we are in the clinical trial we are holding steady. I want to say thanks for all the prayers and it has been awesome to see Luke do so well and not require his feeding tube. The trial had been totally worth our time and money (and my mom's money--big thanks to her for all the help).

Monday-August 4th--Luke is having a medical test done and we are hoping he fails it. I have written before about Luke having procedures/test done and being conflicted about whether we want something found or not. I am 100% sure that I want him to fail this test!! He is going to be at Children's Hospital in one of their clinics Monday morning for the test. It is going to be a rough day for Luke with an IV start and multiple lab draws. The doctor is going to test his body's response to a medication and see if he produces enough growth hormone. If he doesn't produce enough then we will be able to try growth hormones. I have talked to several families...including a friend and a coworker.. and they said it was the best thing they ever did for their kids and they would do it again every time.

Growth hormones were mentioned last year and I immediately had a negative reaction to the idea. Over time, prayer, and communication with those whose kids take growth hormones, I have come to welcome the idea and look forward to starting it so Luke can grow! My mother's heart hates the idea of doing daily shots and putting him through more pain but also looks at the future outcomes and growth that can be obtained and focus on the big picture/long term goals. Please pray specifically that he doesn't make enough growth hormones and that he isn't too distraught about all the needle pokes he will have to endure!

Thanks-R

June Update

Sorry this is a little late. Ken hijacked my computer and I just now reclaimed it!

The June appointment went really well. It was really fun too because Ken and Jack came this trip. We decided to make it a little family mini-vacation. We drove to Kansas City on Saturday and had all day Sunday to do what we wanted and then drove home Monday after Luke's appointment. It was a quick trip but really nice. The weather was good and not too hot so we enjoyed some outside time.

I will skip to the appointment first so those that don't want to hear about our weekend can stop reading! Luke only lost about 10 ounces! Not even a whole pound. I was pretty proud. The doctors were happy and we were cleared to continue for another month. We are currently in the process of weaning his appetite stimulation medicine. His last day was on Tuesday and this hasn't been a great week of eating. Even his teachers, who didn't know we were stopping, commented on how he hasn't been eating very well this week. We all have had a slight cold so please pray that his decreased eating is related to his runny nose and it will pick back up again. I really hope it is just his nose and this weekend we can get to start eating a bunch again. Thanks for all the prayers and keep them coming. Luke hasn't had a tube feed since June 2nd and that is amazing in my book.

ok...here is more from our weekend.

Saturday we drove to Kansas city. We got there and our room wasn't ready so we went for an early dinner. Ken chose a little restaurant that has trains that delivered the food. He thought the boys would really like it and they did. They thought it was very cool. After dinner we went to Cabela's and wandered around. It was a cool store and we got the boys life vests. After Cabela's we went back to the hotel, got our room settled, and went swimming. The boys had so much fun swimming and Jack even did some swimming by himself (with his life vest on)! Sunday we did Father's day brunch and then drove around downtown. We went to the Farmer's market and then to Union Station. It is beautiful. There is a train museum, a planetarium, shopping, and we even got to see some real trains. It was nap time, then dinnertime, and then we drove around some more. We went to a park and walked around the gardens and paths by the water. The boys loved being outside and running around. After that it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for bed! We were worn out. The next morning we packed up, went to Luke's appointment, and then drove home. Even though it was a quick trip we jammed a lot in and had lots of fun.

boys taking a nap in the car

At the train restaurant

Ally was more interested in the french fries than the trains

Union Station

Planetarium

Watching the trains

At the park

The Kansas Star..one of the main reasons we were in Kansas City. They were the paper that wrote the article about the clinical trial and I saw that article on Facebook!

May Update

Well we rocketed through the testing that the doctor wanted us to do plus got to go see endocrinology. Usually it takes 3-4 months to get an initial appointment with endocrine but I asked a few favors and because I have a good relationship with Luke's medical home clinic team at Arkansas Children's Hospital, and they were able to get Luke in within a week of asking. That is a miracle in itself! The results? Well everything was NORMAL! Glad for that but again sort of wishing we could have found a reason why it takes such an enormous amount of calories to maintain Luke's weight. We have him on 1400 calories a day from his formula and are finally getting him to grow. That 1400 calories doesn't include what he eats by mouth every day too..which is almost another 200-300 calories. When he got weighed on Thursday he was just shy of 27 lbs!! He has never weighed that much!

The doctors felt good about proceeding with the clinical trial so we have started the crucial point in the trial.....I am SOOOO NERVOUS. I try not to think about the what ifs and pray about the positives and the outcome we are expecting. For Luke to start eating everything and not needing tube feeds anymore.

This is what we are doing:
Friday: We started the appetite stimulant. It is not FDA approved for children and only given to adults but they are using it in the study.
Tuesday: (5/20) We start weaning off his formula. It is only one hour a day so it won't really catch up with him for a couple days but the goal is to be completely off his tube feeds by June 4th! Scary times!!

The results they are seeing in the clinical trial kids are they just start eating.They call it "the flip". As the formula intake decreases the kids make it up by eating more. The doctor and I are both concerned about his weight since he needs an abnormally high amount of calories to keep weight on. They expect clinical trial participants to lose about 10% of body weight and then start gaining it back. If he continues to lose past 10% then he will have to be started back on formula and the clinical trial will be over. That is the part I am so scared about and praying about. I want him to triumph over his feeding issues and move past this time in his life. I would love to post in 6-9 months that we are getting rid of his feeding tube forever!

Luke has a friend named P. P was Luke's feeding tube friend. They both had feeding tubes and love to get together to play. Jack usually asks if he can get a feeding tube when all three of them are together as he feels left out! Well P got his feeding tube taken permanently out 2 weeks ago!! YEAH P! It is funny though because Luke will now say "P is not my tube buddy anymore" and he is so sad. We take that opportunity to encourage him and tell him that if he would start eating more then he could get his tube out too like P. He says OK and then runs off to play!

Another "issue" we are praying about is that we enrolled the boys in 4yr old kindergarten! The issue is that they do not provide nursing for the 4yr kindergarten since it is not a state mandated program. No nursing means no tube feeds for Luke. If he is not eating and requiring tube feeds then he can't go. We decided to step out in faith and enroll them in the class with the expectation that he is going to do amazing with the clinical trial and not need tube feeds this fall.

Now is the time we need all the extra prayers we can get! I appreciate all the encouragement and notes from people praying for him and know that we have our prayer warriors out there! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Major changes these next couple weeks and I am holding my breath!

April Clinical trial visit

A little information: Luke is getting continuous feeds about 20 hours a day. I was sure that once he started getting continuous feeds that he would really start gaining weight. When he was getting the bolus feeds in his stomach he usually threw up one or two of those a day. All those wasted calories were now staying in and I figured it would allow him to grow. Well I was wrong. After several trials with different calorie concentrations we were right back where we started....40 calories per ounce and just maintaining his weight. I talked to Dr. D (Clinical trial Dr) about him not gaining weight. She talked to Dr. A (Gastrointestinal Clinical Trial Dr) and they decided we would have a special meeting when we came on Thursday.

Normal kids his age need 850 calories per day to GAIN weight. Luke is getting around 1100 every day and just maintaining his weight. Any less and he loses weight. We can't change his formula concentration anymore because he is maxed out and don't want to overload his kidneys. Plus one thing I didn't think about that Dr. D said was when we start weaning his formula and Luke has to start eating....All he is going to have time for is to eat. If he has to eat 1100 calories a day then he won't have time for anything else.

I scoured through the boxes of papers we have for Luke and tried to find any test that we have had done on Luke and took them to the clinical trial appointment. We sat down and talked about him, past symptoms and current. Dr. A was very thorough. We talked and decided to run a bunch of labs and get a belly x-ray. We will be doing growth hormone studies, pancreatic studies, blood count, electrolyte labs, kidney and liver function test, and allergy tests. Some of this stuff has already been done but it has been around 2 years so a lot can change in 2 years. He started him on a new reflux medication. There is talk of doing a "scope" on him again-which is a video camera looking at the insides of his digestive system but that is only if nothing else is found. There are some other options available but again they are future things. I will wait to discuss them until we decide to do them.

So for the time being we are "on hold" with the clinical trial. They liked to say "deviating from protocol." Again I struggle with "I hope they find something wrong vs I don't want anything to be wrong." Finding a diagnosis would give us something to treat but then that mean he has something and no mom wants their child to have a disease or syndrome or disorder.

The trip was great. Weather was good on the way up and decent on the way home. We had some rain on the way back but nothing hard and not more than 20 or 30 minutes. On the way up to Kansas City we stopped and saw my last primary from work. I loved getting to see her mom and snuggle with her. She has gotten so big and chubby (which is good for preemies)! We ate at our favorite Italian restaurant and Luke enjoyed a plate of cannoli cream. In the morning we went back to our favorite restaurant and Luke drank some coffee creamer. Yes...coffee creamer. He wanted to try it so I let him. Calories are calories!

Will keep updated as we find out results from the study. As of right now we still have our next appointment on May 15th.

Clinical Trial Week 3

Week 3:
Very good drive up to Kansas City. We have gotten our stops pretty much figured out. Going up we stop maybe twice...bathroom break, a snack, and to feed Ally. We have found a place that sells local pecans and other goodies. Our favorite so far has been their cheddar horseradish Amish cheese. Ally is really good on the ride up and doesn't fuss much unless she is hungry.

We get into Kansas around 2 or 3 and eat a late lunch. Usually we pick something big so we can take leftovers to the hotel for dinner and of course a dessert. This week we found a GREAT place. It is a little Italian restaurant called Cupini's Italian Food. It was one that I found online while scrolling through Google Map. It is a deli style Italian restaurant and WONDERFUL.The lady working the counter was very nice and gave us the whole run down of the menu. Mom got their lasagna and I got chicken pasta with a pink sauce. Mine was okay but mom's was the winner of those two. When we go back I will get something with their marinara sauce because it was yummy. We had also gotten delicious stuffed zucchini and an order of garlic bread. They had some beautiful desserts. We got a passion fruit/raspberry cheese cake and a tiramisu to go for later. We also split a cannoli. I had Luke try a bite of the inside cream and he LOVED it. It has cinnamon in it and was delicious. He finished almost all of the inside of our cannoli and was asking for more. The wonderful lady at the counter knew we were in Kansas for a clinical trial for Luke and his feeding tube. We asked if we could have a little bit more of the inside cream for Luke and she squeezed us a good amount into a cup...and didn't even charge us! He ate some more and we took the rest with us back to the hotel, We will go back there again...maybe even in April...even if just for dessert! We went to the hotel, unpacked, and then went swimming in the hotel's indoor pool. This is Luke's favorite part!

Mom and I had talked about how we were getting tired of the hotels breakfast. There isn't much for me to eat as I can't eat eggs (Ally doesn't do well when I eat them) and their orange juice is watered down and the pancake machine was broken the week before. We went to a breakfast place and it was very good too. Luke ate a couple bites of pancake and they had some lemon curd that he inhaled.


It has become apparent that Luke gets a little anxious about his appointments as he always says "I don't think they will need to poke me today or lay me down" We are honest with him and tell him that they will need to but like always it is very fast and doesn't hurt very much and he can get a treat afterwards. One morning he was acting out and I told him that if he didn't start acting right he was going to lose privileges. He looked at me and asked "I will lose my feeding doctor privileges? I won't have to go?" I couldn't help but smile...poor (smart) guy was trying to lose privileges so he didn't have to go to the doctor.

God has been very good to us on our travel days. Twice it was forecasted to be bad weather on our return days and both times we have been fortunate enough not to run into any rain. We have encountered strong winds but no severe weather! The trip home seems to take longer and we have to stop more often for Ally...she isn't too happy the last couple hours. We have found a lunch stop that has 2 play areas..an indoor playground at a Burger King and an outdoor playground at a Sonic. Luke enjoys running around and playing while mom and I eat lunch.

The next couple weeks we aren't doing much....continuous feeds and medicine. Have to talk to Luke's nutritionist at Children's Hospital to see if we can tweak his formula recipe and try to get him to gain weight. He hasn't gained anything yet but has gotten a little taller. We need him to pack on some pounds because they are expecting him to lose 10% of his body weight when we start weaning his formula and he doesn't have much to lose right now. Please pray that we can get him to gain weight quickly! I would love for him to his 30 pounds before we start weaning formula and losing weight.

Luke snuggling with Ally before bed

Grandma Barnes gift was light up balls. This is a screenshot of the boys skype-ing before bed and showing each other with toys.

Our next travel visit is April 23.

Clinical Trial Week One and Two

Luke and his backpack

Week One: We started with our appointment on Monday March 10th. We left early and drove up to Kansas City on Sunday. We had a fabulous (late) lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then hung out at the hotel as we were too tired to do anything else! Monday morning we packed up, went to his appointment, and then drove home to Arkansas. The appointment went well. They weighed him, measured his height, did another EKG, and more blood work. Those things we will have to do every visit. This visit we got "the medication" - we don't know whether it is the Amitriptyline or the placebo. The nutritionist had figured out 2 different feed options for Luke's continuous feeds. He has to get 26 ounces in a day over a minimum of 10 hours. One option was a rate of 75 mls/hour over 10 hours and the second option a rate of 65 mls/hour over 12 hours. I laughed at that because he has NEVER gone over 45 mls/hour without having stomach pain, gagging, and throwing up. Even though the formula bypasses his stomach, the formula going too fast makes him uncomfortable and end up throwing up whatever is in his stomach. There was hardly a night when we were doing continuous feeds that he didn't wake up between 12-3 screaming and crying because his belly hurt. They told us we would slow it down to whatever rate he was comfortable with...as long as we got the 26 ounces in. The first day we tried out his feeding rate at 65 mls/hr but he didn't tolerate it. We bumped it back to 45 and he did better. After a couple days we started increasing it and he currently is running at 57 mls/hr! He is tolerating it and sleeping through the night!

Luke's favorite part of the appointment was when they gave us a lunch bag with an ice pack to keep his medicine cold. He wasn't excited about the bright cool lunch bag but the ice pack! We were leaving the appointment and walking through the lobby. Luke would stop, look at someone, hold up the lunch box, and it a loud whisper say "ice pack." He would then move on to the next person without a second glance to that person. Mom and I were cracking up at him! The older people in the lobby thought he was pretty cute too.

Ken's mom has been sending little gifts for the boys to open on travel days. Week one gift was Star Wars action figures. My mom has been getting Luke and Jack little things too. This first visit was the light up light-sabers. This visit was spider man sunglasses for her car. The boys are loving the attention.



Week 2: We are slowly ramping up his medication dose. We haven't seen much change except for tolerating the continuous feeds at 57 mls/hr and some loose stool! He is doing a little better about trying new things...but only if he initiates it. Same things at the appointment: blood work, EKG, weight, and height check. He lost a little weight but only a little bit so no big deal. The big event this trip was Luke's feeding tube came out during the night. He woke up around 3am complaining that his sheets were wet. I thought maybe his pull-up leaked but as soon as I turned the light on I saw his tube laying in the bed. I don't know how long it was out but I had a hard time getting it back in. Because I had such a hard time getting the tube back in his stomach, I was afraid to feed him until we got it evaluated. We were in Kansas City and headed home that day. We didn't make it back into Little Rock in time to get his tube replaced at Arkansas Children's Hospital. We had to wait until the next morning to get it replaced.

This week's present from Ken's mom were storm trooper pez dispensers. Luke has never had pez before and he ate a whole pack in one sitting. Mom got him new shoes and got Jack some Russell Stover candy. Anyone who knows our children know that those were the perfect gifts to meet their personalities.

Luke showing the nurses and doctors his pez dispenser after his appointment

Week Zero of Clinical Trial

Okay sorry I have been lagging....seems to be my speed these days!

Week zero there wasn't much to do. It started with our appointment on Thursday (February 20th) with the EKG and blood work. During this week we kept a 3 day food log of everything Luke ate or got via his tube. That way they can keep track of his calorie intake and have a written account of what little he ate. It also helps us compare later down the road. We had to do 3 video recordings of him at dinner time. The meals went in typical fashion where it took him over 15 minutes to take ONE bite of new food just to be able to get to his favorite foods. You would think that it is a no-brainer....take a pencil eraser size of new food (usually soft so it isn't too hard for him to chew) really fast so then you can eat your favorite foods but for him it is a struggle. You can just see the internal turmoil he deals with every time he is faced with something new to eat. The doctors took the videos so I don't have one to post but I will do my own sometime soon to show you how hard it is for him.

So not much change this week....3 videos, 3 day food journal, and waiting for lab results to come back (everything was good). Week 1 appointment was supposed to be March 3rd. We were to drive out on Sunday, have the appointment Monday morning, and then drive back Monday afternoon so I could work on Tuesday. The forecast in Kansas and in Northern Arkansas wasn't looking too good. Kansas was supposed to get 5-9 inches of ice/snow and even Little Rock was supposed to get bad weather. After emailing a couple times we decided to postpone the appointment a week so we didn't have to face the bad weather. It was a good thing we did because Kansas and most of Arkansas got LOTS of ICE! We would have been stuck in Kansas for several extra days. We had an option to go to New Orleans but we didn't realize it was Marti Gras until later in the week...good thing we decided just to push it back a week because I bet we would have had a hard time finding a place to stay.

 Thanks for being patient..R

Great Appointment

Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement during Luke's trip to Kansas City. Luke did so much better than we could have hoped.

We walked into the room to take his vitals and the first thing he asked was "Are you going to lay me down on the chair?" The nurse and I assured him that we wouldn't be laying him down but only wanted to talk and watch him eat. He then smiled and didn't stop talking. I haven't ever really seen him take to strangers the way he did with them. The conversation piece was his new light up light saber. It gave him security and very thankfully the Dr has boys of her own and was a Star Wars buff!! Daddy would have been so proud at how long Luke and the Dr talked about their favorite parts of the movies. We didn't feed Luke his normal morning bolus feed as we wanted him to be hungry for the appointment. While my mom and I were eating he kept asking for banana and pudding so I told him that I would take a banana to his appointment. We started the appointment with Luke playing on the floor with toys while I answered questions and about halfway through it was time for him to eat. He was ready and excited. He ate half a graham cracker, half a container of yogurt, 4 BIG bites of banana, 2 butter mints, and half a squeeze pack of apple sauce! He never eats that much in one sitting and he actually took bites off the banana. We usually have to slice them really thin before he will eat them. One bite he took was an adult size! I was so proud of him. The funniest thing was towards the end of the appointment: Luke looked at me and said "Mom, When is the feeding Dr going to come in?" I looked at him and pointed to Dr. D and said "she is right there." Dr. D looked at him and said "BAM! I was here the whole time." Luke thought it was so funny. Especially the BAM part...Mr. Willie fans understand! We passed and were accepted into the clinical trial as long as the Gastrointestinal doctor also approved Luke too but Dr. D didn't think it would be a problem. That appointment was the next morning.

Luke with his light saber

We were done for the day and did what any 2 husband-free women did while out of town...SHOPPED! We enjoyed being outside and walking around the outlet mall, had a great lunch at a Japanese restaurant, and saw some dinosaurs. There is a restaurant (T-Rex Cafe) that has robot dinosaurs and is Jurassic themed. We walked in to look around their gift shop and first thing was a T-Rex that roared and bent its head down toward us. Luke did NOT like that and wanted out as fast as he could..needless to say we didn't eat lunch there.

In one of the race cars around the outlet mall

By the time we got back to the hotel we were tired and didn't feel like getting out again. We rested and watched TV for a little bit, ordered in some pizza, and then took Ally and Luke swimming! The hotel has a very small indoor pool. It was nice..the water was a little cold but we enjoyed it.

Ally in her swimsuit.

Thursday morning we packed up and went to Luke's "week 0" clinical trial appointment. I filled out paperwork and the GI Dr approved him too!! The negative was he had to have lab drawn and EKG. He did great with both...a few tears shed...but he held still and let them do what they needed to do. I think the worst part for him with the stickers coming off from the EKG. Next time I will be bringing some adhesive remover so they can come off without hurting him. We were done and headed home. The weather home was CRAZY! It was cold dark and rainy in Kansas and it was supposed to change over to snow by noon so we wanted to get out as fast as possible. About an hour we got sunshine but bad winds. There were some reported gusts up to 60 miles per hour and we sure felt them! Arkansas was supposed to have bad storms so we were worried about running into them too. We kept seeing DARK clouds in our perimeter but only had some sprinkles for about 20 minutes. Finally the sun came out, the winds died down (a little), and the storms that were forecast disappeared. I really believe your prayers were the reason for our safe journey! Our "week 1" clinical trial appointment is March 3rd. We will get a new feeding schedule and start the medication/placebo. I am going to really try to document our progress through this trial so be prepared for lots of post!!

 Luke getting his EKG




coming up..
*Ally's post
*Clinical Trial..all about it and what I know!
*Breakdown of each week and travel
*Each week's activities starting with week 0
---R

Prayers Please!

Hello All,

First I want to say sorry that I haven't posted about Ally yet. I promise that I will get to it before her first birthday. It does help that my wonderful husband got me a new laptop that actually works so I can update a little bit easier!!! Thank Babe!!!

On the road headed to Kansas City

Some big things are hopefully happening in the Luke eating department! Here is what is going on:

One random day back in December I was feeding my Facebook addiction and thoughtlessly scrolling through all the posts on my phone. Usually Facebook post random articles that we all ignore because they have nothing to do with our life or interest. There was an article titled "Learning to eat, at age 4". I clicked on it but didn't read it at that time probably due to one of the 3 kids needing something from me. A couple days later I opened my Internet app on my phone and started closing all the open web pages. I quickly skimmed the pages and closed them until I got to the page with the article on it. I read it and thought it was interesting. The article said that the trial was going to end in July so I didn't think much about it since I figured that it was too late to get in on that. Several days later it was still bouncing around in my head so I "googled" the trial and found it on the clinicaltrial.gov website. I read about it and became more interested about it. I saw that it was currently recruiting in Ohio, LA, and Kansas City. I talked to Ken about it and got the go ahead to email the Dr. in KC. I had lots of questions and there were some trial qualifications that Luke wouldn't meet currently. After a month or so of emailing, a phone conversation, lots of talks with Ken and my mom we decided to make the evaluation appointment! There is so much to write but I will save it for if he gets accepted..no reason to bore  you with the details until then.

Ate the icing but not the cake!

I am in Kansas City in the hotel room bed writing this blog now. His evaluation appointment is tomorrow and if he passes and gets accepted then his first clinical trial appointment will be Thursday. Please pray that Luke is cooperative and eats (BIG PRAYERS). Luke gets nervous around new doctors. He always asks "Are they going to lay me down?" To him if he gets laid down then bad things happen which was usually true when he was little!! With everything he has gone through he has every right to be nervous but I am praying he is at ease, talks, follows directions, and eats better than he normally does.

His appointment is at 9 am. I appreciate all the prayers. I will update when I can.

---R

That is as far as that (or any) fry made it in his mouth!

Update

Where do I even start? Last post was in October 2012 and so much has changed from that time. Let's start with the one with the most changes....Luke!

Luke has done amazing this year. Looking back at the last couple posts we were just trying to do belly feeds with Luke and while he was tolerating 2 oz feeds, he didn't tolerate much more than that. He was getting feeds at night through his "J" port, which is the part that bypasses his stomach and goes into his intestines, and getting his belly feeds during the day. The backpack was still a big part of our lives! Around Christmas Luke really started doing great with his feeds! He was able to do more and more belly feeds and we were able to start cutting back his night time feeds. I am not sure when but sometime around February-March Luke accidently pulled his feeding tube out. The balloon that holds it in had partially deflated and it just slipped out one night when Luke was pulling his shirt off to get ready for bed. Typically when this happens we put the tube back in, refill the balloon, and have to go to the hospital the next morning to get it replaced. The J part of the tube has to be in a specific place so it has to be put in under an x-ray machine. It only takes a couple of minutes to get a new tube, but Luke HATED it..more for having to be strapped down than anything else. He still gets anxious about laying down for any doctor. Anyways... When the tube came out, Ken and I talked about it , and decided NOT to put it back in...just put a plain G-tube in and try to do some night feeds into his stomach. Doing a plain G-tube (it only goes to the stomach) is very easy and doesn't require a hospital procedure to replace...routine changes are done at home every couple months. From that point we continued to manipulate his feeds...VERY SLOWLY!  Increase his daytime volume, decrease his nighttime volume. Around June we were able to completely stop all night time feeds and just do 5 bolus (stomach) feeds. He has loved being backpack-free and also has slept so much better since we stopped the night feeds. He currently gets 6 ounces 5 times a day!
Now to the fun stuff...eating!

Luke's favorite things: marshmallows, yogurt melts, lemon pudding, and smarties. He will also ask for and eat consistently: pop tarts, slice of cheese, banana, jello, pancakes, and bread. There are other things he will occasionally eat, but not like the foods mentioned above. We still lots of room for improvement on variety and lots of work on volume. While he will eat bread or poptart...it is only about 1/3 of one slice. It is as start and we are happy about that!

My favorite story - Luke: "I want a sandwich!"
me: "What kind of sandwich?"
Luke: "A ham sandwich.....without the ham or cheese."
me: "So a piece of bread........?"
Luke: "Exactly! Can I have the sandwich?"

Now we can talk about Jack and also include how they boys interact with each other and their differences! Jack is doing great. He is so inquisitive and asks questions all the time. I hope he always has that drive to ask questions! He loves to dance and sing. He can ask for specific songs by name by the Newsboys, Toby Mac, Capital Kings, Carrie Underwood and others! His favorite artist is Toby Mac. While Jack likes to sing and dance, Luke likes to dance and "play" his guitar. They are so much fun to watch! Jack loves to eat and can eat enough for both him and Luke! Despite eating all the time he remains tall and skinny..typical boy! He likes anything sweet, can eat anything banana all day (fruit, bread, chips), and likes pizza too. He is a rambunctious little boy that likes to run, climb, wrestle, and be outside as much as possible. There is a lot of separating the boys for being too rough and many bumps and bruises. Luke likes to do those things too, but he will also sit and play quietly with cars for hours. Jack likes to be first and is competitive. Luke likes to be first if it is against his brother but with others doesn't really care. They love playing together but frequently have to be separated and told to be nice to each other. They definitely fight like brothers do but if separated for any amount of time they will run up to each other and give each other big hugs.

I will try to explain this the best I can...Jack is the snuggler while Luke is the lover! They both are affectionate but Jack wants to snuggle. He climbs into bed with me and snuggles. Asks for me to snuggle with him on the cough in the evenings. If he doesn't feel good he wants to have some part of him touching some part of you. He asks for hugs and kisses whenever we are going to be separated and runs to give hugs when we get back together. He is our touchy feely boy. Now Luke is not touch feely. He wants his own space. Majority of the time he wants to sit in a chair by himself unless he asks you to sit with him. He frequently will tell Jack there isn't any room in a chair for both of them. But Luke LOVES people especially his baby sister. I love walking into a room and Luke looks up and almost yells "Mommy! You look so beautiful!" even when I have just rolled out of bed with messed up hair and in my pjs. Luke is more detail oriented...he notices if I paint my toenails, wear my hair down, my earrings, etc.--and he will compliment them every time. If I wear my hair down and he wants to play with it and tells me over and over how soft and pretty it is. When he gives hugs on his own will (not asked for) he squeezes you so tight and won't let go for a couple seconds--so wonderful! Jack is my snuggle-bug and Luke is my love-bug!

There is so much more but that is a long read for one post. Here are some pictures of the boys over the past year:

Fall 2012

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012

Easter 2013

Summer 2013

Big boy bed

Big boy bed

Getting a bolus feed

August 2013

All about Ally is the next post coming!
-R

Many changes...

Stay tuned for a update on our family. I am going to try to do one once a month from now on! Sorry for letting this site slide as I know many people followed to keep up with our family. Here are a couple pictures from this past month. There have been MANY MANY changes this past year!

Introducing Ally Barnes (Allison Jade Barnes)!! She was born August 12, 2013

They boys just turned 4 and are quite the characters. Luke had made amazing progress with his tube feeding and eating!  Can't wait to tell you all about it.

Until next time!!
--R

Loving the weather!

It is finally cooler! It really has gone from HOT to cold in just a matter of days and that makes me and the boys allergies go crazy. But we are not letting that slow us down..lots of benadryl and cough medicine to help us through. We took the boys to a pumpkin patch last weekend and they had so much fun. It was the first time we ever got to take them because it seems like the previous years we someone was sick and/or in the hospital. We did the hay ride twice, looked for pumpkins, played in the corn pit, ran the hay maze, walked through the sunflower maze, petted the animals (I loved the pigs),and climbed the mountain of hay. The boys were worn out and were asleep not even 5 minutes down the road.

Enjoying the hayride

Luke thinking about picking up the pumpkin

Corn Pit

Luke in hay maze

Which way do we go mommy?

Luke carrying his pumpkin

Jack picking his pumpkin

Helping daddy wheel them in

Climbing hay mountain

Out!

Sleeping boys

 This weekend we had a marriage class in the morning. The boys enjoyed the attention of the child care workers and got to play outside with just a couple other kids. Later that evening we took the boys to go the lake in town where the city was having "Boo-lloon Festival". There were a couple booths giving away candy, a jump house, and hot air balloons. The boys loved them and didn't want to leave even though it was freezing!

On Thursday night Ken and I got enjoy dinner at a fund raiser for the March of Dimes. The boys were in their gallery of premature kids and it was nice to dress up and not have kids hanging all over you! Thanks mom for watching them! The March of Dimes is very active at the hospital I work at and our friends were the ambassador family that night. We love them so much. Many of you know their story since we have talked about them on the the blog before and here is a video about their story that was made for the fund raiser.

 Jodie and Me

 The boys picture. We were worried the photographer didn't get a good picture of them since they were ALL over the place.

 Couple of Coworkers and Me

The family!