Extended Family Pictures

Here are some more pictures of the whole gang:

Enjoy!

Family Pictures

I think it's about time that we got a family picture done professionally, what do you think?!?!?  I mean Leona is only 2!! :)

Enjoy!

Family Vacation

The Strickland Family vacation was in Barberton, Ohio this year. 
   No trapsing to a getaway place with bad beds!
   No lugging all of our beach stuff up and down the sand every day!
   No packing and shopping for food everyday to survive!
   No driving until your legs fall off!!

Can you tell that Mommy was SOOOO THANKFUL?!?!?

It was so much fun going to all of the fun things we did as kids in the Akron/ Cleveland area!

Here is what we did:
Saturday
frisbee golfing for the men (one of Ben's passions)
family pictures taken at Portrait Innovations (I'll put the pictures on a separate post!)
dinner at Jerzee's in Canton (You've gotta try their Jerzee's Junkyard Burger or the Texas BBQ Burger! Mmmm!)

Sunday
church at Norton Baptist Church, Ben's Dad's church
lunch/dinner at Dan and Alissa's house
fireworks in Fairlawn by Wal-Mart (the place where Ben and I met)

Monday
4th of July picnic with extended Strickland Family

Tuesday
Cedar Point for the men

I spent time with my family and a close friend.

Wednesday

Progressive Field to watch the Indian's crush the Yankees

Thursday

rest day for all of us

Friday
Akron Zoo
golfing for the men at Lion's Den

Saturday
Baylor Beach

Sunday
We spent time with my family.
frisbee golfing for the men

It certainly was a FULL week, but it was such a blessing to be with family and just be around our "home" territory.  Having so many days also helped us to find time for me to rest my back and to just curl up with a good book...

"Stolen Woman" by Kimberly Rae to be exact!!!  We were able to see Kim and Brian (Ben's first cousin) over our vacation.  We are so proud of Kim finishing her first novel.  IT IS A MUST READ!  It is a book about a girl who goes over to India on a short term missions trip. Check out this website and on facebook for more information.  If you live in Elkhart, I have a copy if you are interested in reading it!  I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

2 Year Appt.

We had Leona's 2 year appointment!  It went REALLY WELL!

weight: 26# 12 oz. (50%)
height: 33 1/2" (50%)

Can you believe it?  I couldn't when the nurse showed me!  Finally an AVERAGE kid! 

We looked back on some photos last night with Leona and I just can't believe how skinny she was.  Some of them, I just cringe at!  God has been faithful to help us find our way in helping her and I just know He helped her stop vommitting for those 5 months!  Thank you Lord!

Update on labwork from last week:
All of the immunoglobins are in normal range, just a little on the lower edge! YAY!

So where do we go now? 

Well...we are still waiting to get the final assessment from her pediatric gastroenterologist.  Once her suggestions come back, we will know a little more of where to go.  Most likely the suggestion will be food allergies, but we probably won't know for 10-14 days. We are hoping that her normal pediatrician will be able to handle her case from now on. She has done a FANTASTIC job!  Thanks Dr. Wendy!

The doctor now wants us to be more normal parents...what a RELIEF!  We are going to be able to be a little more strict on some areas of eating...she is going to love losing her control a little, I'm sure!  Up until now we have had to cater to her likes/dislikes and times when she wanted a bottle or to eat.  Now we will begin pulling out the bottles and just going to sippies; we don't want rotten teeth! YIKES! No more bottle in the bed (which really switched a while ago). We also are going to get a little more variety, but still watch any possible allergies, adding only 1 thing at a time. Lastly, we are dropping the Bright Beginnings Soy Pediatric drink and adding in Soy Milk---sippy cup only!!!

I got a feeling our sometimes stubborn and controling little strawberry shortcake is just going to LOVE these changes!!!! (I wish you could see my face... big eyes and a "Yah Right" expression!) So...we have our work cut out for us!  I am glad to move on to a new stage though... well AFTER 10 days of vacation that is!!!!

We could still use all of your prayers as we still try to put the pieces together on the puzzle of why she vommitts randomly!
Thanks for checking in with us :)

Look Who's 2!

Happy Birthday to our little girl, who turned 2 last Thursday!  Time just flies!

Here are some pictures from her Elmo birthday party:

Leona's 2nd birthday party!

Elmo cake I decorated.
See the smashed foot from the fight with the fridge :(

Don't you love the moment she chose to touch her nose?

blowing out the candle on her special cake

no eggs, no milk cake
It's a pumpkin cake they used to make back during the depression!
She LOVED it!

reading her cards and finding all of the "budderfies"

She finally caught on to the ripping open presents and loved it :)
Last year she just cried if we tore it.

card from Mommy & Daddy had to be Elmo

The Results

I know a lot of you have been asking about the results.  I am going to do my best to simplify and explain what I have figured out the results to mean.

Biopsy Results
-negative for Helicobacter Phylori (bacteria infection)
-no signs of celiac's disease
-rare EOS (eosinophils) count of 2 in esophagus; results must be higher to diagnose as Esophagitis; could be caused by GERD (reflux) or allergies

Lab Work Results
-CBC panel showed elevated MCV (mean corpuscular volume) which measure the avg. size of your red blood cells; larger in size; probably resulting from a deficiency in vitamin B12
-CBC panel showed elevated EOS (eosinophils); type of white blood cell that react to allergic responses and resist some infections; this may be caused by parasites, blood disorders, immunologic disorders, allergic drug interactions, & endocrine disorders; not sure if any of these are likely to be causes in children
-CBC panel showed elevated HGB (hemoglobin) & HCT (hematocrit); HGB measure the amt. of oxygen carrying proteins in blood; HCT measures the % of red blood cells in a given volume; this could be caused by fluid loss due to diarrhea or dehydration
-Celiac panel showed decreased IgA (immunoglobulin gamma A) proteins that act like antibodies from secretions from respiratory & intestinal mucosa;
-RAST panel showed food allergies: moderate for eggs; low for milk and walnuts

The doctor reordered the CBC panel and ordered a quantitative panel for the IgA, IgG, IgM & IgE.  We have begun the process of getting into an allergist to get a more extensive opinion and testing.  I am suspecting we are going to find a lot more allergies and that the blood work is just pointing to that. The RAST panel was only for eggs, milk, shellfish, nuts, corn, and a few others.

This is mostly based on my studies from the internet and deciphering the dr's lovely penmanship. The lab work takes about 2 weeks, so I am sure I will have an update in the next few weeks.

Update on Leona
Leona had started the Prefacid soon after the endoscopy and had a terrible time with abdominal pains, vomitting, nausea, and diarreha, so we have taken her off.  She is doing much better now.  We are awaiting to try Nexium if she gets bad again.

Endoscopy pictures

Here is a copy of the pictures from Leona's endoscopy.

You can't really see it, but the bumps of irritation were around here.

You can kind of see the red spots of irriation.