Shower boy

Getting a Mohawk from Daddy.

*giggling* He looks so cute in the shower. He's been taking showers instead of baths lately. It's better for his skin to not be sitting in water (he has a form of eczema w/ a crazy name).

Isn't this the cutest towel ever! His Uncle Joel gave it to him! Thanks Joel.. we love it!

I crack up everytime I get this towel out.

The wife of a friend on Mike's squad, gave Matthew this fun carpet w/ some diapered wooden animals. We love it ... it's a big hit ~ Thanks Joy and Wes!!

After one solid month of not eating/tasting a thing by mouth ~ yesterday I got him to taste (not so much eat, but it's a start) some chopped up grapes, apples and a teeny tiny peanut butter sandwich. I've been having a bit of luck with the white string cheese.

All of that did end up on the floor ... guess he was done! Oh yes, I do see some Cheerios too. He will taste those.

A "glitchless" version of our CNN interview

This is the "Broken Government ~ Healthcare ~ Critical Condition" special that CNN aired a few times. I wish there was a way to get our politicians to watch this ~ they need to see what is happening in the "real world".

The Zeigler's are up first, then we come on at the 5:25 mark til the end.

Quick update

Matthew is beginning to feel better. His retching is under control now, too. That was a real problem this time around. He retched non stop for a couple weeks and it was quite miserable for him. (us, too... that is never fun to watch)

He had a great day today. Still a little junky in the lungs, but we are working on that by extra inhaler treatments that contain steroids, percussion treatments and manual chest manipulations. He loves the chest manipulations, he just lays there and let me do my thing. He usually starts giggling. We are doing everything possible to avoid that dreaded Prednisone. We avoid that like the plague.

It's been nice to see him smile and be happy again.
That makes me happier, too.

It's been a tough month, that's for sure. These little guys w/ lung issues really take this kind of thing hard. It's a reminder how fragile he really is. He's not like a normal kid when they get a sniffle. For us, there is no such thing as a "simple cold".

Still not feeling so hot

Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow... tomorrow will be his last day on antibiotics.

Mike just got "the call" :-)

He starts his new position as a Sergeant on March 8th.

I am so proud of him, he worked so hard for this.
He's beaming with that great smile of his.

Feeling Better

A five day regimen of Antibiodics coupled with his own ever-improving immune system has brought Matthew out of his cold. It is great to see him this chipper first thing in the morning.

Le'me have that cell phone ... blink blink

Under the weather

Matthew has been trying to fight off nasty cough and cold sypmtoms for the past 10 days...
and he just couldn't do it. Talk about grrrrrrumpy, fussy, whiney and clinging. Uh Muh Guh!!!

He never did get a fever. (?) After listening to him wheez and try to breathe last night on the baby monitor, I decided it was time to take him in to see the doctor. This morning during a "retch" I noticed that his lips were a bluish tint, so off we went.

He's now on Zithromax and extra breathing treatments. We are trying to get away with NO STEROIDS... if his wheezing isn't better in about 4 days... we'll have to put him on prednisone.
Cross your fingers... steroids are not fun for these little guys... OR THE PARENTS.

Anyhoo.. that is the latest update on the GooMan.

And, in case you missed us on the CNN program tonight.....
you can watch "Broken Government: Health Care - Critical Condition" Sat 6 a.m., and Sun 4 a.m., 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. (all times eastern).

CNN just informed me that it will re~air Saturday, Feb. 9th at 8 p.m. Pacific time and 3 a.m. Pacific and the next Sunday 3 a.m. Pacific.

The Zeigler's were up first, then us.

The Zeigler's Story on CNN

I got this off of Dr. Gupta's website. I sure wish our politicians would watch this kind of thing!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
It can happen to you

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta Chief Medical Correspondent

The Number 1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills. As we found, it is not just the uninsured, but also the underinsured. It is also people who think they have excellent health insurance, but it is simply not enough.Dawn and William Zeigler were living the American dream with a nice house, cars and plenty of money. When their daughter Brooke was born too early and required multiple surgeries, they never considered the cost because they thought they were covered. And, they were, at least for a while. They were amazed at how quickly the bills piled up, though. Tens of thousands of dollars a day, and soon their policy no longer provided any money. (Watch Video)Brooke Zeigler died when she was 18 months old. Her father told me that he had to tell the doctors to stop working on her. It was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life. The bills that arrived for nearly a million dollars may pale in comparison to losing one's child, but the Zeiglers are now at real risk of losing their dreams.The health care debate is complicated. Again, the Zeiglers were covered, but not enough to cover little Brooke's millions of dollars of expenses. This is the reality of our broken health-care system and continues to be one of the biggest domestic issues on the minds of voters. Any thoughts on how to address this specific issue within of our health-care system?Programming note: Watch "Broken Government: Health Care - Critical Condition" on Thursday and Sunday at 11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT)

This was a bullet we dodged last year, but thank God we didn't lose Matthew.

Remember when this story aired in November 2006 right before we ran out of health insurance for Matthew?

CNN this Thursday night after debates

Keep an eye out... we are going to be on a CNN special about our healthcare system, hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta called "Broken Government ~ Healthcare ~ Critical Condition".

Not sure how they are going to edit the interview ... or what they are going to air .. you all know I had a lot to say.

I think we'll be on for at least a minute or two discussing the issues we faced. Two other local friends of cardiac babies will be on as well.

I must admit, every time I do something like this, I swear, I'm not doing it again ... it's very draining to re~live all that... plus, I get so dang nervous about it. I just think something needs to be done.. but we are only one of hundreds of thousands of people to go thru this.
Not sure if our system will ever change, it's too big of a business and there are too many lobbyists out there.

Now, before you leave this blog... you must go listen to Matthew count to two on the next post...
it was a huge breakthrough for us and we're just so thrilled.

Matthew Counting

All the kids up in Beaver had a positive effect on Matthew. He tried new foods, interacted socially, and even had a speech breakthrough. I was counting to him with one of his books and he actually started counting back. I quickly grabbed my cel phone and shot this video.

Pictures while in Beaver

*giggling* Isn't this the funniest picture! If you look close, you can see a bit of a "shiner" over his left eye... he took a little tumble down the stairs. (yes, it scared me to death, but he was just fine) He also biffed and fell on his bottom lip in the mudroom. He was officially broken into boyhood this past week.

Matthew's little Beaver girlfriend, Ashland ... she is so cute! They each wanted that chair.

Here is Vanna Banana reading to Matthew. He was quite spoiled with all the girlies reading to him.

Mom got him this cutest snowsuit, mittens and boots ~ it kept him quite warm.

Watching his daddy and Uncle Timmy being "spidermen" on the scaffolding.

Taylor and Shania spoiling Matthew w/ book reading time.

Trying some of Aunt Tanji's mac and cheese.

Just chillin.

Shania (Nia Bug) reading to the Goo Man again.

He's been having cold and cough symptoms since the day we got home. So far, he's not feverish, but he is coughing his head off and very snotty ~ QUITE GRUMPY and not sleeping well.

I am hoping to avoid taking him to the doctor.... I am keeping an ear on those junky lungs.

Oh well, maybe it's good that his body is having to fight off this kind of thing.... but it sure isn't fun.

Isaac's Blog

Isaac's Blog
The Rollers found out tonight that Isaac will need a third heart surgery, scheduled this coming Friday at Stanford. Poor little guy, he just had a 13 hour surgery in November ~ they've only been home for one month. This was very unexpected, please keep the Rollers in your prayers.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Here is our Annual New Years Eve picture before I headed to the Las Vegas Strip. Thankfully it was a quiet, albeit cold night.

Matthew's 1st and 2nd New Years Eve

The Workbench

Matthew received this 100% Dad approved workbench for Christmas. For the first few days he was a little wary of it. But last Sunday our Friends Trish & Avner brought their son Ethan over for a visit. He had such a good time in the workshop that it inspired Matthew to give it a try.

Snow Suit

A few weeks ago when we were in Beaver, UT Terri snapped these photos of Matthew in his snowsuit. Doesn't he remind you of the little boy from "A Christmas Story"?

Matthew Marsupial

Matthew has been so clingy towards Terri lately! He cries and throws a little tantrum whenever she leaves the room. Terri has began calling him her "little marsupial" because he only seems content when she is holding him. To add visual effect,I photo shopped this picture of a kangaroo & joey that Auntie Kim found online.

Focus on the Family

One of our favorite radio broadcasts is Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson. They are a great organization and we get a lot of our family books and videos from them. On December 7th we were profiled on one of their radio broadcasts. The main broadcast was on "White House Traditions", but if you CLICK HERE, then click "play audio", and fast forward to 21:50, you can hear a 5 minute phone interview where I discuss the impact their broadcasts have had on our family.

Merry Christmas '07

Merry Christmas from the WhoMagoo Family

This picture was taken last week up in Beaver ... We were staying at our neighbor's cabin. Kim purchased these adorable "Pajama Gram" PJ's. Matthew's britches say "WhoMagoo" and our shirts say Magoo Mommy and Magoo Daddy.

Poor Mikey... he was so tired from being a "bad ass(et) log builder" and we didn't give him a chance to shave.

Someday we'll be taking pictures from our own cabin in Beaver!!

Last night when I was getting ready to put Matthew to bed, he kept running to Kim and slamming his head on her chest every time I said,
"let's go ni~night!" He would make a bee line over to the couch and scramble to get on top of Kim. It was the funniest thing.

An early Christmas

My mom ordered these from Lillian Vernon ... and OMG... are they ever cute!!

The Train Top was made in Germany ~ it's soo stinkin adorable ... the train choo choo's and moves around and around ... the gates even open and ding. We love it! I know I can't stop playing with it.

The Jack in the Box, of course is an all time favorite. Matthew is always kissing it and tries to rip it out of the box, so cute.

I have these "lead testers" that you swipe over the toys to be sure it contains no lead. You can find them at Home Depot.

Matthew checking out his heart w/ the stethoscope

We saw our wonderful pediatrician yesterday, Dr. Michael Tenby.
Dr. Tenby gave Matthew a 6 month check up and he received his last vaccine until he's five. He does need to go in for testing to see if his kidney reflux is healed. We will do that after RSV season. I am not looking forward to the VCUG test... poor little guy.

We have one more doctor appointment tomorrow with Dr. Baron, the G.I. doc and then we're done for a while. Thank goodness.

I absolutely dread taking Matthew to any doctor office during RSV season. It's very hard to keep a "twonager" sitting in one place ... I simply won't let him touch a thing. Of course, you can never get out of a doctor office in less than an hour.
I got lucky and his early intervention feeding counselor is going to meet me at the doctor office.....she'd like to discuss Matthew's feeding issues w/ the doc. Matthew is back to not "eating" again; ever since he got sick about a month ago ... he's been retching, too. It's all very strange. Something happens after he takes an antibiotic.

Well, here is the best part of the post!!!!

Is it here??
No, maybe it's here.

Oh yeah.. here too.

Okay.. sounds good.

I understand that it sounds like a muffled washing machine.

Steel Magnolia: Little Drummer Boy ~ playing to Joan Jett#links

Steel Magnolia: Little Drummer Boy ~ playing to Joan Jett#links

Steel Magnolia: I am going to be sick

Steel Magnolia: I am going to be sick

Steel Magnolia: Casey hasn't gone back to the cath lab yet, it's 4:50 ~ think it's going to be a longgggg night

Steel Magnolia: Casey hasn't gone back to the cath lab yet, it's 4:50 ~ think it's going to be a longgggg night

My oldest son, Casey

I will be back sometime tonight with an update on my oldest son's heart surgery. It is called a catheter ablation, they go up thru an artery in his leg and laser off a node or the thick part of his ventricle. (Hope I explained that right.)


I am up and getting ready now while Matthew is sleeping. My mom is coming over to play w/ Matthew while we all go hang out at the hospital. We need to be at "patient waiting" by 11 am. As soon as the doctor is finished w/ his previous patient, he'll take Casey back. They say surgery can be 2 to 6 hours ... then he needs to hang out for several hours after because they are going up thru a main artery. We are expecting an easy fix.

*big sigh*

Here we go.

I hate/dread being in hospitals. It makes my heart hurt thinking of it. This is the same hospital that Matthew (and Mike and I) spent three months of his little life. Ugh.. brings back weird feelings.

WhoMagoo Christmas jammies!!!

Auntie Kim ordered this winter sleeper from Pajama Grams for our little GooMan .... isn't this the cutest dang thing. His nickname is written on the britches of the sleeper.

Remember, he got this nickname when he was first born ~ he was only 4lbs 1 oz, he looked just like a little "Who" from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas .... but then as he got a teeny bit older, he started looking like Mr. Magoo in his white hospital garb and cap...hence the name WhoMagoo. Most of you know that, but this is for those of you who forgot.

Little stinker... crawling into the tub looking for his fish

Proud daddy and son

Mike in uniform ~ getting ready for his Sergeant ride along ~ he passed his Sergeant test. Woot!

Mike as in Mike Huckabee! We like Mike.