Nov 24, Basketball

Kids had school, Stacy worked her 2 days, I have been busy at the office, and Lindsey has been playing basketball.  I have really enjoyed coaching her 3-4 grade girls YMCA game.  Our little team tries really hard, but we are still looking for our first win (which is a big deal to Lindsey). She wants a WIN, heart condition means nothing to her on the court.  Lindsey and I are thrilled to be out playing sports in our home town.  She is actually one of my fastest players on the team. Go figure.  We still don't take for granted that just 9 months ago she received her transplant. We have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Last Monday, Hunter and Megan were presented at the school board meeting as 'Students of the Quarter'. Hunter for the K-3 and Megan for the 6-8.  The teachers that presented the kids to the board said some really nice things about our kids. It was kinda hard not to be pretty proud of our kids. 

Then... just to finish the week strong, our three youngest kids got into a food fight, in our house, with one of Sierra's friends. It was more like them throwing spaghetti at her and her running for cover. I was out working in the shop and Stacy was in the other room. When Stacy got there, she was soooo mad! She came out to the shop to get me and said, "You need to come in right NOW, before I .........!" So naturally I did exactly what she said.  For the next several hours, Hunter, Lindsey and Gage cleaned, mopped, washed, scrubbed the house.  They were and still are in pretty big trouble.

Excited for Thanksgiving.  All the Bingham's, except Jake and Wendy, will be here. Should be a pretty fun weekend.

 A 'friendly' arm wrestling match. It got really serious a couple of times.

 Tuesday game at the YMCA. Lindsey is in the pink sweets and grey shirts.

 Hunter at his presentation with Mrs. Alderidge.

 Megan and Mrs. Miller, her math teacher.

A picture we took of Lindsey to prove to her that her swelling is going down. She still doesn't think it has dropped.

 

 More pictures from our trip. This is Stacy in the tube.

 Jeff.

 Yours truly. Me.

 Stacy, notice the good hand position

And me.

 

Nov 17, ifly Seattle

So on Saturday we did the Pike's Market thing. It's an old market that has been going since the early 1900's. It's a fun place to go if you are into that sort of thing. I mostly like seeing all the different walks of life that hang and graze around those big city markets.
That afternoon we went to ifly Seattle. It's a wind tunnel that allows you a skydiving experience without jumping out of a plane. This was a way of trying to soften Stacy up for a real jump next year. The Yecks and myself are ready to go, but Stacy will need some (a lot) of encouragement... stay tune for that! 
After that excitement we went to the Space Needle for an evening view of the city.
Today we had an enjoyable drive back to Oregon. During the drive, Jenny read the book The 5 Love Languages. That got some interesting conversation going.
It was a great vacation with our college friends. Next year will bring us a new adventure. Now it's back to life.

A typical 'Jeff' look



 Just after the 'flights'

 A view of Seattle from the Space Needle

This is one of those cheesy pictures they take of you. Then you select the back drop. It was free so what the heck.

Nov 15, Our annual "After-Harvest-Before-Tax-Season" trip with the Yecks

 Each year, we get together with our good friends the Yecks for fun trip. We call it our "After-Harvest-Before-Tax-Season -SayVeurmAirEdge" Group Therapy Session. This year we went with them to Seattle.  Last year we biked across the Golden Gate Bridge in SF (not sure why we picked SF?)  We are here for a couple of days having some fun. Our kids are home with Justin and Emily and are having a good time.

We drove up Thursday and ate at Benihana's, a fun Japanese steak house.

Today, Friday, we went scuba diving and ate at The Crab Pot.  That scuba diving was great! We have never done anything like that before.

Tomorrow, Saturday we are going to an indoor sky diving place - crazy. Then into Seattle to Pikes Market and the Space Needle.

It has been really good to be with our ole college friends.

 At Benihana's. I was here once way back when I was in high school. It was a dang fun experience then and still is now.

 My kids would love to go here. They cook the meal right in front of you.

 Getting ready for our dive.

 It was dang cool, but the set suits did the trick.

 Ready and heading in.

 One last picture with our instructor.

 At the 'Crab Pot' for dinner.

 They just dump the food on your table. It was awesome!

Nov 11, Biopsy results

Biopsy results came in a few days ago but I didn't feel like posting. Results are not bad, they are just not what we expected.  Lindsey got her first 1a since February.  Nothing alarming, this just means some white blood cells are hanging around but not attacking.  They are continuing to drop her meds even with the 1a. The big drop is taking prednisone from 5mg to 3mg.  They also pulled back on two of her blood pressure meds. She has also had some weird irregular heart rhythms.  So for 24 hours she wore a halter monitor.  That way they can get a good look at any possible issues.  Soooo it's all good stuff, we all just got used to doing the zero dance. Next biopsy should be in 3 months (her one year mark) and echo in 6 weeks in Boise.  Speaking of one year mark, amazing how much faster time is going by now compared to the Berlin days.  

And Sierra got a 1b. This one really bummed us out. Her pressures are good, she is acting great, and had a zero a few months ago. This time they were talking dropping her prednisone and other meds, but not now. They want to see her again in one month for echo and two months for biopsy. This means our girls are off schedule with each other. Thank goodness for our Calif friends.  Yesterday we heard her antibody rejection came back zero. That is all good! That is the big one she had issues with while we were in Calif.
 
As for Gage, he is growing and gaining a bit of weight. They did say his heart has slightly increased in size since May. We really didn't want to hear that.  Pacemaker pacing along. Should last about three more years.

But you know, these are the cards were are dealt and we are dealing with it. It's interesting, for months now we haven't given our kids rejection and antibody issues a second thought. If you notice in prior blog posting, I don't talk or worry about it. The kids have been doing absolutely great. Lindsey is playing basketball, and is one of the quickest kids on the team. Sierra is active in school, dance and volleyball. Gage is Gage! So you get into this false sense that 'that' is in the past. Then it has a way of smacking you in the face and bringing us back to reality.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I still can't and won't complain. We love being home, working, playing, living, all outside the hospital.  God has blessed us and we are grateful everyday for it.

In other news, Axelrod, our black lab, was ran over. He is okay...I guess. He only has a broken pelvis, and femur.  Vet says he should heal up, but it will take several months. He gets plenty of love and attention from his 5 biggest fans.

The day after we came home, Stacy, Megan, & Hunter and my mother drove to Crane to be with my sister Garrity and Seth and their new little baby, John Thomas. Stacy came home yesterday, a day earlier than anticipated. The house was not ready for them to come home yet. So Sierra, Lindsey, Gage and I had to work hard to get cleaned up!

That's about it for now. No other great thoughts or points to ponder. Jake and Dad sold their calves, 3 semi truck loads. It's getting colder, but no real snow yet.
Jason 

Nov 5, Calif trip, Gage's pacemaker optimization.

12:10 pm. Sitting here in Gage's echo and pacemaker optimization. This process takes two plus hours. I have to admit, it is really hard to not get anxious sitting here listening and watching them.  There are 3 people in here looking at screens, taking measurements and readings, and making adjustments.  One is doctor, and the two are echo / pacemaker techs. What gets me the most anxious is when the doctors says, 'That measurement can't be right, try it again', or  'At least we are consistent', or 'Wait... do that one again?', or 'I need to go review this'.  I can just feel my heart racing and that cold sweaty feeling with each comment.  I just hate to look at the screen with the picture of the heart. I know and try hard to avoid listening or watching what they are doing, but human nature and parent anxiety sometimes overrides and I listen in. I understand it does NOT do me any good. I don't even understand what they are doing, it is all very technical talk. The best thing for me to do is keep typing, review my e-mail, read my accounting literature, or anything to keep me busy.

Lindsey has had a fun morning. She has seen many of her favorite nurses including Kim P, Suzanne, Marissa, and Shannon.   She is at school enjoying the day with Kevin and the gang.

Megan is having some sort of fun get together with Abby Black, PK, Hanna, Mia, and other Palo Alto friends.

1:30, Pacemaker check is over. It's all good....I guess.  He sure looks and acts good. Next pacemaker check in 6 months and optimization in 12 months.  At this rate he should need a new pacemaker in about 3 years.  Sitting in doctor's office to review everything.  Just met with Dr. Kaufman. His heart is about the same. We are going to try pill form to simply meds. So really... all that chitter the earlier doctor was going on about, was just stuff. What I needed to hear is, 'It's about the same, see you in 6 months'. If it's important, they will let me know. ...And I knew that.

Sierra is in IVIG, should be done around 10 pm.  Tomorrow is biopsies for both Sierra and Lindsey.

Met with a genetic researcher from the Stanford side. They would like to study our family genetics some more. They now have the ability (and he proved it with a video clip) to take skin, expose them to the genes of stem cells. The skin cells become stem cells, which they then turn into heart cells. He then showed us a video clip of stem heart cells beating in a plastic dish. It was crazy. That's the kind of research they would like to do. They would like to recreate our kids 'sick' heart cells and study them. Of course we said they could.

 EKG, the beginning of the optimization

 More optimization

 

 

 Lindsey's turn

 Lindsey with a couple of her favorite 3 West nurses, Suzanne and Kim P.

And Shannon of course.

Sierra and Nori and her IV pole.