Cindy caught a flu this month but it may have been salmonella poisoning. The brand of cereal she eats (make that ate) caused a salmonella outbreak in our state and around the country. She would roll on the floor screaming in pain for hours at a time and there was nothing I could do for her. She also had a temperature of 103 and lots of stinky diapers.

She got sick during my first week of training for a new job and I had to leave her with her great grandparents.

I wish I did not have to work for a living and I could stay home and just take care of Cindy. I have been juggling between jobs and day care all week. My job keeps me away from home late some nights and most daycares close at 6:00pm. Next week I have a meeting that starts at 6pm I hope my grandma feels well enough to watch Cindy during the meeting

My new boss is much nicer than my old one and seems very willing to work with me on scheduling. I am going to put in to have every Monday off so I can schedule all of Cindy's doctor appointments and not have to worry about putting in a leave request slip each time.

Today a man came by our house and sold us the aerial picture of our property shown on this page. The real picture is much larger and looks VERY nice.

I bought Cindy a pair of pink jelly bean shoes at K-Mart today. She is in love with them. She refused to let me leave them out on the porch when we came into the house. When I first put them on her feet she squealed with joy and walked a full block by herself.

Cindy had her echo, and the results are inconclusive. They still can not decide if it is time to remove her PA band. Her largest VSD is still 5 mm but it has a ring of tissue growing around it. Dr. McCloskey is convinced the VSD will close someday but is worried about leaving the PA band on much longer. The PA band will damage her Pulmonary Artery more the longer it is left on. If they go in and repair her VSD now they will have to cut into her left ventricle to access it. They want to avoid cutting into her ventricle so it looks like the waiting continues. Dr. McCloskey will call me sometime in the next two weeks and let me know what the surgeons have decided.

On a brighter note her bicuspid aortic valve is not truly bicuspid it is just functionally bicuspid. She has all three cusps but two of them are fused together. Dr. McCloskey said he would be very surprised if Cindy ever needed to have the Ross. He thinks her aortic valve will function well until Cindy is into her 60's.

Dr. McCloskey called today. He wants to schedule Cindy for a heart catheterization in late July or early August. The surgical conference felt that Cindy's largest VSD might be small enough to go unrepaired, but they are not certain. During Cindy's cath they will check her pulmonary arteries for damage caused by the band and they will inject die into her left ventricle to see how much blood is flowing through Cindy's VSD.

The rate of serious complications for patients undergoing a heart cath is only 2%. While 2% is low it is higher than Cindy's chances of being born with heart defects in the first place. If your child is the one affected the statistics mean nothing.

Dr. McCloskey will do Cindy's cath at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital but Cindy's surgeries will continue to be performed at Seattle Children's Hospital. Our HMO gives us no choice over what hospital Cindy has her surgeries at as far as I know. I am glad that the choice has been taken out of my hands!

I am looking for a cheap travel trailer to buy so I will have a place to sleep when Cindy has her next surgery. Seattle Children's Hospital is over 70 miles from home, I will need to sleep near the hospital. I also want to use a travel trailer out at the creek property I inherited this year. It used to have a cabin on it but after 20 years the creek changed course and washed my cabin away.

Cindy went on her first camping trip this weekend. She had fun throwing rocks into the Tahuya river. I took a picture of her drinking her bottle next to the camp fire. We camped out in my little blue tent and Cindy woke me up bright and early at 7:30 am. I'm used to sleeping in when I go camping.. it is going to take some adjustments on my part to get used to camping with a toddler. It was very important for me to take her camping this summer before her surgery. I try to live each day with her as if it might be her last even though her surgery is very low risk.

Cindy and I are going to go camping again next weekend unless she goes to visit one of her relatives that just moved to Tacoma. He'll have to pick her up out at the creek on Friday night because we are going out there early Friday morning and he'll have to take her back tot the creek Sunday night at six as we are spending Sunday night at the creek. If he needs directions to the creek he'll have to call my aunt Irene, my grandparents don't know how to get there.