The first thing to mention about Jenna is she turned 7-years-old on May 12th. We had a little party on that day for her with cake and ice cream, and she received her new bike. Earlier she wanted to go to the Play Station, but since it was a school night we just ate supper at a McDonalds that had a tubular playground – which I guess you could call “splitting the difference”. Here are some pictures from this day…
Jenna riding her new bike on her 7th Birthday! 
Jenna with her brothers Alex and Ryan. She's wearing her birthday crown she received at school. 
Jenna and Leah with Jenna's 7th Birthday cake! As I believe I mentioned in the last blog post, Jenna has to have another surgery on June 8th. Jenna has a new surgeon at the U of I hospitals, since Dr Canady (who has performed her last 2 surgeries) has left for another job. Her name is Dr. Kacmarynski, and while she has us continuing Jenna’s speech therapy, she has decided to take another direction. Jenna has always had poor hearing and has never passed hearing tests. She has some problems hearing some lower frequencies in the audio range, and her right ear tests worse than her left ear. Dr. Kacmarynski told me that either we could get hearing aids for Jenna which could help this problem, but she also mentioned that she could surgically investigate inside her middle ear to see if she could find any problems there. The surgical procedure is called Tympanoplasty, which is a reconstruction of the ear drum and/or small bones of the middle ear (ossicles). The doctor says sometimes fibers grow around these bones (individually called “hammer,” “anvil,” and “stirrup,” and keep them from moving or working. She could free them up if this is the case. If the bones are malformed or just not working they can all be replaced with prosthesis. This procedure is called “ossicular reconstruction.” If this is what’s done then Jenna won’t be able to do any vigorous activity or playing for several weeks afterward, which I’m sure she won’t like. There are a couple of scary things to us about this procedure. The first is she will have to go under anesthesia again, which is always scary. The other thing is the doctor mentioned there is a facial nerve nearby that if it’s damaged during the procedure could cause some facial paralysis. The doctor said this isn’t common but she felt we needed to be warned. About a month ago they had me bring Jenna to UIHC for a CatScan, but the doctor hasn't mentioned anything about the results. Hopefully it was useful in some way to give her some clues to what they will find during Jenna's surgery.
Jenna’s speech has improved from her last pharyngeal flap surgery (click here) last November, but she is still struggling, mostly with getting people to understand her speech still. She can read lips OK, but if she’s turned away from us when we speak to her it’s clear she has hearing difficulties. This is all related to her years of having a cleft palate, and all of the untreated ear infections she has suffered over her first several years, which have permanently damaged her hearing. The first surgery will be done on her right ear, which tests worse. If the surgery works than she may have the same thing done on her left ear later. If it doesn’t work then we are probably looking at getting Jenna fitted for hearing aids. The main thing is we are sticking with our plan to do whatever we can to give Jenna the best chance to have decent speech and hearing, which can hopefully help her to finally catch up developmentally. Jenna is still 1 to 2 years behind in most learning categories, and now she will be entering 1st Grade where learning really picks up fast. It is a critical point in her development. Jenna is such a sweet and friendly girl, but we know if she falls too far behind her peers she will experience “shunning” and maybe be teased by the “normal” kids. We know this will sadden her as it would most anyone. So please pray for our sweet little Jenna, she has been through so much and still has a ways to go, but with God’s help we will do all that we can to make it through.
Leah with her new bike - an early birthday present so she can use it throughout the coming summer. Leah has completed 5th Grade, and will start attending the middle/high school next fall. She has been continuing with her horse riding lessons at Greenbriar Riding Academy. Leah’s 10th Gotcha Day is May 31st/June 1st (we received her around midnight, so it’s one or the other)(click here). Benjamin’s 6th Gotcha Day is May 26th (click here). We celebrated both of these on Saturday, May 28th. Here’s a couple of pictures from this day…
Leah and Benjamin with their "Gotcha Day" cake.
Speaking of Gotcha Day's, our daughter Leah just made a post on her blog about Gotcha Days from the last year. To see it just click here.
Group photo.
Also here are some pictures and a video of Leah playing her flute at her bands Year-end Concert at the elementary school. Leah has made good progress on learning the flute this year, and hopefully she will continue at her next level, where she starts 6th Grade at the middle school.
Mr. Porter and the band.
Group photo of the 5th Grade Band!
Leah receiving a band award after the concert.
Jenna showing us how to navigate the monkey bars.
The Foley kids on the tornado slide.
Alexander and Benjamin just completed 2nd Grade and will be moving on to 3rd Grade next fall. Jenna and Ryan completed kindergarten, but only Jenna is moving on to 1st Grade. Ryan has some remedial kindergarten learning to accomplish yet. We have all of the boys signed up for some remedial reading and math each weekday for a few weeks this summer. I hope to work with all of the kids on their areas of weakness learning wise, as well as some basics such as keeping their rooms clean and picking up after themselves much better. Hopefully there will be some time for some summer fun. Lord knows we have plenty to do. This will be training for me as well – I want to learn how to be a better parent, and get some things accomplished. This is my goal for me.
Mr. Benjamin mugging for the camera.
Thank's for stopping by!
You have such AWESOME, adorable and handsome kids!!! Thanks for the update!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Angel!
ReplyDeleteOn the tornado slide picture I was trying to get the kids to each sit on a step, with Leah at the top and her stradling Alex who would sit on the lower step, and so on, according to size and age. However Ryan bumped his head (he's always bumping his head on something) on the bars and he started crying, and chaos ensued. I was lucky to get any sort of picture at all. I had a much better picture in my mind, but that doesn't always happen.
I'm having trouble downloading video's to these blogs lately - that's why there's no video despite my mentioning that there is one.
ReplyDelete