California McMillans

Tyler has had a change of attitude.  Previously, he would wake up with a scowl and growl, "Where's my iPhone?"  And he would complain, whine, and scream all day, despite having the iphone. About three days ago, he suddenly turned into a sweet, charming young man.  We are unsure of the reasons behind the change but are really enjoying them.  This morning, he bathed with Kira.  He said, "Kira went poopy in my bed." "Oh really?" "Yes, a big dump."  That's my boy.  A cupcake Tyler decorated at Erin's birthday party  Kira at Scott's soccer game Scott scored a goal and this was the first soccer game I went to.      How am I doing?  All things considered--specifically, my left PAO--I am well.  Still, I have a lot of pain down to my kneecap in the form of paresthesia.  Why don't I take pain meds?  Because they were making me psycho:  aggression, anxiety, and nightmares.  So I don't take anything.  Also, the

I have been asked what these are.  They are called Skippy Pets brought to you by a nice man named Skip.  My sister got 6 of them for Paisley's birthday and they were sooo much fun.  They are motorized animals that sing while you ride.  They go forward, back, around and around.  I need a couple of these for my backyard!

Danny is doing awesome!  He might not totally agree with that statement as he can't walk, but all in all, is doing great! Today we dropped off Scott and headed to the store, library and post office.  He survived it!  Amazing!  He is totally off his pain meds.  It will not surprise his surgeon since he thinks Danny is a little crazy and has a high pain threshold after his last surgery.  I will never forget when Danny was cleared to do whatever with his hip, he decided to ride his bicycle to his first therapy appt.  I think the therapist only had him come in 1 more time. As for the rest of us.  We need to take lessons from Danny.  I thought Kira was teething all last week.  She had a little fever and diarrhea but worst of all would wake up and be in pain.  Not just a little, but a lot.  Like not allow you to hold her, throw her tiny body on the floor and roll around screaming.   It was hard.  I realized how lucky we have been with her.  When she is not herself for a week I w

I was a great parent until I had kids.  I fought and fought to keep the kids well-rounded instead of glued to their media devices.  For a while, it was the Nintendo DS.  Well, we solved that by giving them back to grandma.  Now the boys are addicted to the iphones.  I can't really entertain them with my physical limitations, so I just give the iphones to the boys to keep them occupied so I can have some peace and quiet.  Except that it's not quiet.  They turn up the volume all the way on these obnoxious games. Then I gave Tyler some headphones.  It was nice for about two minutes, but Tyler didn't hold out.  I said, "Either you wear your headphones or you go to another room."  That worked and I was able to take a nap.

Tyler:  Daddy, can you download me a new game on your iphone? Me:  No, you have enough. Tyler:  I'll give you candy! Me:  Really? Tyler:  Yes, I'll give you chocolate chips! Me:  Okay, go get them. Then he got distracted and then it was time for the bath.  No chocolate chips for me.

When Danny and I were in the hospital, my parents took the boys to the pumpkin patch.  From the looks of it they had a lot of fun!

My mom got diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) 4 years ago.  The week Tyler was born.  She has done really well and been more or less asystematic with occasional shingles and such from a weak immune system. She was able to live a relatively normal life.   About two months ago she had horrible back pain and was diagnosed with a herniated disc which has improved with time. And two weeks ago she started having double vision.  After seeing specialists, they decided to do a spinal tap to see  if her leukemia was present in the cerebrospinal fluid.  It was present  which is pretty rare and doesn't have a great prognosis without treatment.  So tomorrow my mom will be going into surgery to get a permanent catheter placed in a canal in her brain to start chemo on Monday.   This internet describes it better:  People who have leukemia in their cerebrospinal fluid, or who are at high risk of having leukemic cells migrate to the spinal fluid, receive chemotherapy dire

My sister's beautiful daughter, Paisley, turned 1 this weekend and we had a great time celebrating.  My sister threw a very special birthday party at my parents.  She is beautiful and we love her so much!!  Happy Birthday Paisley!  Grandma and Pop of course threw the best party followed by a second party that night for the Porshe club.

This week has been filled with family time. We are trying to take advantage of the time that we have together with Scott on school break and Danny home all day.  While Danny isn't 100% we are still trying to make the most of our time together.  Tyler's upcoming surgery makes our time together even more meaningful and special!  We were blessed to have Danny's dad come into town for a couple of days to help.  He brought the boys fishing two days.  Brother Jeffs brought them out on his boat one day which was a lot of fun.  He cleaned the rugs (wahooo!) and had some quality time with the kiddos.  We are so grateful for his help.  The update on Danny.  He is doing well.  Much better than last surgery.  He is proud that he can pretty much do all necessary tasks by himself.  He is tolerating his pain.  He rotates oxicodone and Tylenol. He probably takes about 2 pills during the day and 2 at night.  I think he should take more since he had his hip taken apart and screwed back

Danny pre-op Danny recovering So Danny has his PAO on Friday.  He was supposed to go in for surgery at 11 and be done in 3 hours or so.  He ended up going in at 12:50 and it lasted about 5 hours.  He was in recovery around 6 and things went well...YIPEE! The only complication he had was waking up with some irregular sinus rhythm's, EKG and heart arrhythmia's.  I wasn't concerned because this happened last time as well.  They sent us to the telemetry wing instead of post-op which simply means Danny has to wear an annoying heart monitor and be watched more closely.  The arrhythmia's continued but nobody seemed concerned. In 2009, Danny's left hip was case #11 and in 2011 his right hip was case #50 or so.  In the past 2 years the surgery has really advanced (not to mention the surgery team has gotten more practice).  Instead of going into the actual hip socket where the head of the femur lies, they simply sawed the acetabulum into a 3 piece triangle and p