It has been three months since Jillian's open heart surgery and I am still in awe at how well she has done. She was able to start Kindergarten on time and is doing great! Her teacher was a little nervous to have her in the class, but after we talked she told me that since I was so laid back and relaxed about Jillian she felt much more at ease. I told her Jillian is in a much better place after surgery then before and we have less to worry about, at least for a couple of years! We have her three month cardiology visit on Nov. 14th, hopefully all is good and we get the green light for yearly visits. For about six months or so I have noticed two large lumps in Jillian's groin area, I have taken her in a couple of times, but by the time we got to the Pediatricians office the lumps were gone. We had her 6 year well visit two weeks ago and I mentioned this to her Pediatrician (who we have not seen for this) and he was concerned, he said he was 95% certain she had bilateral hernias that would need to be surgically repaired! Really! are you kidding me! So off we went to see general surgery at Primary's. He was right, the surgeon said that this is a defect present since birth but sometimes it can take a few years for bowel or ovaries to become trapped. So, yes she will need to have another surgery this year. He said the longer we wait the more chance we have for "stuff" to get caught and cause major problems with her small bowel. She will have this done on December 10th, luckily this is usually a same day procedure and most kids tolerate it well. She will have a cardiac anesthesiologist which is good. At least we have met our out of pocket maximum so this will be covered 100% by our insurance, I am sure they are LOVING us this year!
In other news, I got a part time job working from home. It has been an adjustment but I am liking it. I do quality assurance surveys for skilled nursing, rehab and assisted living facilities. Basically I call family members or patients of these center and do a quick interview about their experience. The best part is most of what I earn goes to our vacation fund, which means I get to plan more vacations!!!
Halloween has come and gone, winter is on its way! We are finally getting into a school routine, the twins go to morning kindergarten, which means they have to be on the bus at 7:36 am, yep that's right!!! It is hard but we are doing it. I use the couple of hours from 9-11am to work while Claire watches a movie, plays games, colors etc. so far it is working pretty good.
In three weeks Jason and I will be going on a cruise!!! We won airline vouchers at the silent auction at the heart walk this year, due to this we got a killer deal on tickets to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We leave late Thanksgiving night, spend two days in San Juan then leave on our cruise from there. We will visit St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Martin. This is my DREAM cruise and I am soooo excited. I am grateful for wonderful parents, both mine and Jason's who will hold down the fort here while we are gone. I will do a complete report with pictures when we get back.
