Not much new

I made it home to Thunder Bay OK. You know you have travelled the same stretch of highway too much lately when you start to recognize the highway workers who hold the stop/slow signs at each construction job!

My Dad is slowly getting worse. Not much new to report. He is tired, confused at times and has basically slept all day. He is no longer able to to eat or drink anything. This is hard :(

Sofie and the rest of my family

Update on Sofie first.
Her hearing has improved. Her left ear is back to her previous level of hearing loss and her right ear, the mid range is back to her prior level, the upper and lower levels are slightly better that her worse test and worse than her previous normal level of hearing loss. Make sense??? We do know that this will be her last set of ear tubes and that when her ear wax builds up, it really affects her hearing and needs to be dealt with ASAP! We have no idea why or how or what! It is what it is. It is Sofie :)

Family notes.

My Dad has been battling some type of cancer since Ainsley was minus one month of age. When I was eight months pregnant with Ainsley, my Dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. He beat it. Later on, he was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. No biggy, we figured it was caught early. Turns out it was the more aggressive type. He continued to battle on and never complained or whined.

This summer was tough. He is losing his battle. I just got back with the girls from Thunder Bay tonight.  Tomorrow I head back to Thunder Bay by myself. After I left today, my Dad's lab work came back and it had changed a lot. His hemoglobin is no better despite many transfusions and his platelets are super low. His oncologist gave him 2-3 days.

I will try to keep everyone updated on my blog. My Mom and Dad are very private and are not comfortable with their battle being posted on Facebook. I request that any comments that you wish to make are made on my blog and not on Facebook. I hope to respect my parents privacy and still be able to update our friends and family.

Thank you so much

All of us :)

PS if anyone feels the need to help out Jim, please just step in and volunteer. The beginning of the school year is not a great time for Mama to be MIA :)

Updates

It has been a while hasn't it. I keep meaning to update everyone and then something else comes up and I forget and then I am too tired to think about what to write so I go on Facebook :)

Lots has been going on. I will update about Sofie first. Today she had a minor surgery done. She had her ear tubes replaced as they had worked they way half out of the canal. The other reason that new tubes were put in is that her hearing has gotten worse symmetrically across a wide range of frequencies. The hope was that new tubes would help remove any fluid or inflammation that could be a cause of her hearing loss. No such luck. No fluid, no infection and no inflammation at all. In fact, if it weren't for her abnormal hearing test he wouldn't have even bothered to put them back in at all. Sofie is an enigma. She has stumped her ENT surgeon.

The next step is to repeat her hearing tests, make new ear molds and make any adjustments and then go from there. If her hearing returns to it's previous state, we scratch our heads and keep moving in the same direction. If the tests show the same abnormal changes then we take a breath and depart down an unknown road. There is no way to know if her hearing will continue to deteriorate or it will stay at this level. One day at a time.

....and everyone breath in and breath out :)

Sofie's language has just exploded over that last year. There are even days when I have to stop and stare at her in amazement over the stuff and the words that come out of her mouth. It is truly phenomenal. Don't get me wrong though, this little girl is stubborn, strong willed and fierce. She takes life on head first and doesn't stop. I love her, she is exhausting. She needs to be fierce.

So I might try to change things up a bit on the blog. Make it more about our life and living in general and less about just our adoption of Sofie. If I ever get the chance.

I have also started a photography journey. I have been taking classes on photography and photo editing and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I hope to one day be able to actually get paid to take photos of people and places and things. If you never take the leap and try, you will never get there.

Here are a few photos that I have taken. Take care and we will talk again soon :)