Monday, October 3, 2011

New Day....New Doctor

Today we met with Dr. Zalinski, the neurologist we saw last time Jayden was inpatient at Primary's. I liked him then, and I like him even more after today!
First of all, we didn't realize our appointment was at the Riverton hospital. We drove up to the main campus like we always do and I didn't think twice. We got to the clinic and then they told us that our appointment was at Riverton....oops! They called down to the Riverton clinic to say we were on our way. We got to our appointment about 15 minutes late and Dr. Zalinski came in almost immediately. What I love about him is that he LISTENS to everything I say. With Dr. Sakonju I felt like she had made up her mind about what the problem was long before we even got into the room. Dr. Zalinski listened, and pondered, and asked a few more questions, and listened some more.
We didn't come out with any miraculous answers but I just felt as if he actually heard what we were saying and agreed with us that it wasn't just Jayden being "crazy". He made recommendations but ultimately left the decision up to us and our doctor.
For now....we are going off the trileptal. He said he has never seen success with trileptal for neuropathy. (Nerve problems.) He said there are far better drugs for what we need. He suggested taking lots of time to really research and understand what each drug's effect is on Jayden. He suggested writing down how she is feeling each day (which I pretty much already do.) If after a few weeks there is no change, he suggests putting her back on the amnitriplyne. This drug should help Jaydee in a few different ways. First, it works well for neuropathy, second it works well for gastroparesis, third, it can help with her headache prevention, and last it will make her sleepy for bed. We tried this drug before but always with the combination of multiple other drugs.
If after a few weeks the amnitryptline isn't working enough, he suggested putting her on pregabalin as well. This has the same effect as the gabapentin without the side effects she had before.
He felt like the next step for us is to see a rheumatologist. I have felt that for some time but was told that without a postive test result that indicated this was rheumatology based that the doctor would not see us. Dr. Zalinski assured us that was not the case, and if our doc wouldn't give the referral that he would.
He also told us that the headaches Jaydee has been having he does not believe are migraines but are part of whatever she has. By giving her migraine meds with out the common migraine (and most likely she is having complex migraines) we are putting her at a strong risk for a stroke. That was news to me!! Needless to say,I will not be giving her any maxalt any time soon.
Like I said, nothing fantastic happened today but for once I felt like we were trying something new and that someone was listening to me. I haven't felt that for a few months so it was nice to feel like someone was willing to take another chance on her!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Homecoming Dance

This past weekend was Homecoming. Jayden was asked by a boy named James. Besides being sick, they had a pretty good time. They went to the Asian Star for dinner, then went to the dance, and then went bowling. We only spent 3 full days looking for shoes and 2 full days looking for jewelry but the end product was beautiful!



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Mini Cheer camp

One of the greatest things about having a big sister cheerleader is mini cheer! Twice a year each high school does mini cheer camp as a fundraiser. This year Chloe and Annabelle were so excited to be cheering at half time during a televised game!! (Unfortunately, the camera crew didn't pick up on the best part of the football game) My girls banded together and invited a few of their friends to cheer with them. This lead to 14 excited little girls to cheer with Jayden. I think she was the cheerleader who had the most girls signed up for cheer camp. We can't wait to do it again during basketball season!




Monday, August 22, 2011

First Day of School

I can't believe that summer is over! I have had every intention to document our summer fun with this blog but alas I have failed again. One day, I will keep this thing caught up!
Today was a bitter sweet day with the start of school. Although I am excited to have a routine again, I miss having my kids home all the time.

Chloe was super excited to start 2nd grade. She has Mrs. Hardy and I hope it will be a good year for her. Several of her BFF's are in her class so hopefully she won't get into too much trouble for talking!



Coleman started 6th grade and has a great teacher, Mrs. Sharp. Unfortunately, she will be having a baby any day now so he will have a substitute for the next 6 weeks.



Jayden started high school. I'm not sure when I became old enough to have a child who is taking driver's ed!!




While the big kids were at school we were at home baking yummy cookies for them to come home too. I love my Belle!!!


Let's hope this school year is a good one!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

San Diego

A few weeks ago we went to Sunny California. We pretty much did nothing but sit on the beach and hang out. We met up with friends and Aunt Sherry. We caught sand crabs and boogie boarded. It was heaven!! While we were there we decided that we need to buy a beach house in Coronado. Any one want to go in with us on it? We will put up the first $100,000 and you all can do the rest ok?






Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Happy 4th of July




Let the Rivalry Begin

Jayden cheers for Skyline and Coleman plays for Olympus. Looks like we will be rooting for both teams in this house!!