Saturday, July 17, 2010

Home and Happy!

We have been home for a few days now. 

Eryn is doing very well. We have had two plasmapheresis treatments on an outpatient basis at the hospital. So far, so good! She is doing well while on the treatments and not having any problems.

We also just got a phone call from her kidney doctor tonight. He stated that her blood levels are going in the right direction! It seems as though she is keeping more albumin (protein) in her blood and not losing it through her urine and kidney. That is FANTASTIC news! 

We are hoping that this treatment is going to have her going in the right direction and possibly into remission... Keeping all of our limbs crossed!!

We should be receiving Eryn's school stuff from K12 in the next week or so. School here starts on August 9th, so we only have a few weeks left of summer vacation!!! 

So far, we have all good news!!!!!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Great giveaway!!

There is a site called Freely Educate (www.freelyeducate.com) that I visit all the time for some wonderful "freebies" that are out there for education.

They are giving away a great spelling program that totally ROCKS!!

Take a look at their website... there is some GREAT freebies in the past posts! And while you are there, SUBSCRIBE to their email newsletter... This way you won't miss another AWESOME FREEBIE!!!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

It's been a while...

I haven't updated here in a LONG time, but I thought that now would be the best time to do it with all of the recent changes we have had!


We got the call on June 23rd that there was a kidney available for Eryn!  We quickly got packed and drove to the hospital in Orlando (about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our house).  We spent the night in the pre-op department while they ran tests to make sure that everything was good.  


On June 24th, Eryn went into surgery for the kidney transplant.  She was in surgery for about 3 hours and all went well.  We saw her a few hours later in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit).  She looked good and was doing well.


Unfortunately, on June 25th, we got the news that the disease (FSGS) had returned in the newly transplanted kidney.  They immediately got her scheduled to start a regimen of plasmapheresis.  Her levels have become better while getting this treatment, but the disease has not gone into remission.  We will be doing plasmapheresis treatments on an outpatient basis at the hospital once she is discharged.  It will most likely continue to be every other day, but we will have all of that figured out once we are ready to leave.


The day we received the call I had gone into our school district office to place Eryn's paperwork for her to enter the BVIP (Brevard Virtual Instruction Program) through FLVS (Florida Virtual School).  Eryn had received her report card and was promoted to 4th grade.  If I had pulled her out to be "homeschooled" without the virtual program, there was a very good chance that she would lose her status with the school.  Thomas and I had agreed that putting her into the virtual school would be in her best interest.  Luckily, I submitted that paperwork that day!!


She is already enrolled and I have to be in contact with an advisor (they called on Friday on my home phone).  Hopefully, I will be able to get in contact with them this week so that we can figure out exactly what our next steps are.  We will have to have another IEP meeting in the beginning of the year to make accommodations for her learning.  But overall, we think that this is in her best interest and I know she will continue to learn through the online environment.


The best part is that our district uses the K12 curriculum as well!  So there shouldn't be much change for her other than a new shipment of books.  I have noticed that she definitely needs to be on the 3rd grade level for reading and history and can probably move up to the 4th grade level for math and science. She will also get art and music through the district, which she is not getting right now.  She will continue with the Elementary Spanish I through the school year...


Lots of things are changing, but everything is changing for the better!!


I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!  I can't wait to update more as we get out of the hospital and settled in our new life!!