Looking Back At 2007

We have been blessed so much this year. 2007 started out rocky when Jayden all of a sudden quit being able to sit up. He started loosing skills and we found out he was having Infantile Spasms. I was devistated but friends and family were determined. Thanks to Jody emailing Jayden's story anywhere and everywhere he became famous. Jayden was on the Fox 40 news twice. Triad Investment group was responsible for making our house wheelchair accessible and giving us a ramp, and just in the nick of time. Our cousin Christina called me and wanted to plan a fundraiser for Jayden. Thanks to her and Gloria of Antonio's Catering (and many, many others) we made it happen last September. It has been one blessing after another. This year has been amazing in so many ways. I am so grateful to all of you who continue to follow Jayden's journey and pray for him to have the best life possible. We as a family our doing wonderful, infact just before Christmas Jose got a raise! He is so excited and it is well deserved. Thanks honey for all of your hard work. We are looking forward to 2008! God bless you all, Brandy My New years resolution.......keep up the blog :)

Jayden's Got A Brand New Chair

Jayden just received this chair a couple of weeks ago. It's actually kind of cute. I love his name on the chair. Jayden likes it, he fits in it perfectly. This chair can tilt back if needed and is really easy to manuever. The only bad thing is that it doesn't fold down like the old one did. I had to take half of the backseat out of my car just to fit it in there. It's much heavier too! I am working on trying to get some kind of lift that will reach down and pick it up and put it in the car for me. A wheelchair ramp isn't an option at this time because insurance won't pay for it and the cost is well over $20,000. I'll worry about that later when I can no longer lift him. He is getting to be a Chunky Monkey! But Momma is strong!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This year we had Christmas at our house. My Mom (you gotta love her) came to my house extra early on Christmas morning to cook a wonderful meal for our entire family. It was really nice to have everyone together in our home. The kids really had a nice Christmas. Jojo was so cute, he couldn't wait for Santa to come. We made cookies the day before and he decorated a few extra especial cookies to be left out for Santa. And to his suprise Santa wrote him a nice little note thanking him for the cookies. He was able to read the note all by himself, it was priceless!

Jayden's Nina and Nino bought him a very special book called, "The Legend Of The Candy Cane". It's a very special book that tells us how a candy cane can represent Jesus and all He does for us. We will make it one of our family traditions to read this book to the kids on Christmas Eve. God bless you all.

Love,

Brandy

Jayden's First Day Of Preschool

I have been dreading this day for the past 6 months. I just can't stand the thought of Jayden going to school with other kids, sharing equipment,and laying on the same surfaces. When people started preparing me that when he turns 3 he would move on and need to go to school I made up my mind that he wouldn't be going alone. Jose was having a hard time with it too. He felt much more comforted when I said I would be with him. So on November 26, 2007 Jayden and I went to school. Daddy took an early lunch and met us there. His teachers name is Amy and she is AWESOME! My fear has now turned into excitement. I can't wait to see how well Jayden will be doing 6 months from now. This is a new adventure for us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Jayden just got out of the hospital and is still feeling icky! But we are home and that is definately something to be thankful for. Just wanted to wish you a blessed day of spending time with family and friends. God bless, The Correa's

Home Nursing

Well after we made it through our fun birthday weekend things kind of went down hill. I called Dr. Cahill to let her know that Jayden was STILL not eating or drinking ANYTHING. I didn't want him back in the hospital because of the flu season. If I could just get some fluid in him... I suggested home nursing. I thought a nurse could come out, access his port, stay for an hour while he got some fluid in him. Instead what did I get? I got a nurse who came out and watched me access the port, he then decided that since I could do that I could run the pump myself :0

It was time for a crash course in running an IV pump. Nursing 101 here I come! At first I was in shock, but after I wrapped my brain around what he was telling me it kind of became fun. It was definately a challenge and I am glad I did it. I would've been even happier if the whole event had kept him out of the hospital. After 2 bags of IV fluid Jayden threw up. He was coughing and gagging so hard that he couldn't keep it down. The next morning he was admitted to the hospital here locally. He was there until Thanksgiving afternoon. My Mom was wonderful enough to come to my house early that morning and cook Thanksgiving dinner for me and my family. Jayden was sick a total of 4 weeks. He even missed what should've been his first week of school. He's much better now.

The Simmers Come To Stockton

The Simmer's finally made it to Stockton! And just in time to help us celebrate Jayden's 3rd birthday. We were so excited for them to get here and we enjoyed their company so much! Jacy was so sweet and loving with Jayden. And we even got to meet the latest addition to their family lil Jake who is only 2 months old. He was so sweet, practically perfect in every way. Jacy talks so much and is practically running all over. She did however take time out to watch Jayden's slide show and pointed at his picture and said, " I love that kid!" Too cute! It was a wonderful weekend. We plan on visiting each much more often this coming year.

Happy Birthday Jayden!

Happy birthday lil Jayden happy birthday to you! Yay! Can you believe it has been 3 years already? And we are so grateful to have been given the best gift of all, our son Jayden who is always inspiring ourselves and others. We were so excited because Jayden's girlfriend Jacy, her new baby brother Jake, and ofcourse Jody and Jay were here to celebrate all the way from Arizona. Jayden wasn't feeling well but he was a trooper. It was so nice to see the Simmers and Jacy was absolutely adorable. While she was here she was looking at pictures of Jayden and said, " I love that kid!" What's not to love? And her little brother Jake was perfectly healthy and extremly handsome!

Jayden's Has Been Sick

Poor Jayden started fighting a cold in the beginning of November. As you already know when Jayden gets a cold it is never anything easy. I started giving him breathing treatments and antibiotics but it wasn't helping. His flem got so thick that this poor kid couldn't eat or drink. I was really worried about him. On Nov 12th I took him to see Dr. Cahill and she wanted him admitted on suspicion of pnemonia. He was admitted that night and had an x-ray done and blood work. He didn't have pnemonia thank God. But he was still having a hard time eating. He was sent home on the 14th. It was back to breathing treatments and more meds. I was really worried that he would spend his 3rd birthday in the hospital. His girlfriend was coming to visit so that wasn't an option. It got to the point where I was ready to pull my hair out because I couldn't even keep him hydrated. I was reduced to TRYING to syringe 12 ml each half hour. It was horrible! But he is a trooper and got through his birthday weekend hospital free!

Jayden Meets New Doc

On October 30th Jayden met the new Eptologist at UCSF. His name is Dr. Sullivan and he comes to us all the way from Philadelphia Children's Hospital, which is one of my pics for another opinion. I was very happy to meet him and even happier that he had some ideas of new things for us to try. His first idea was to try to give Jayden an oral steroid called Prednisone. You have probably heard of this steroid, typically it is used for breathing problems. In Jayden's case we are using it to help his brain. In some cases they have used this drug to kind of "re-boot" the brain of a child like Jayden. In extremely wonderful cases during the course of a one month trial they see huge gains in the child. Unfortunately this wasn't the case in Jayden. The steroid was nice because his breathing was great for a month (no wheezing) and he seemed stronger. He was holding his head up very well and seemed to work harder when trying to establish head control. But since it wasn't a good enough result we were forced to take him off. This drug has horrible side effects and it just wasn't worth any risk to Jayden's otherwise perfect health. After the one month trial we were off to SF for another EEG to test the findings. It was then decided in November to start a new trial on another drug. This time it was B6 which has no side effects. We scheduled another EEG to see if it was improved at all. This EEG won't be done until the beginning of January. I am excited to try this new drug.

Happy Halloween

Hello everyone! We had big plans for Halloween. UOP had a Halloween party on their campus where students lead groups of kids around the campus to different buildings who were handing out candy. Jojo went as Captain Jack Sparrow and Jayden was Ratatouille. Jeana was a cheerleader/football player and Andres was Nacho Libre (that was pretty funny). Later that night we went trick or treating wtih Jayden's Nina Anne's family. It was fun to watch the kids get so excited for one small piece of candy, usually one they didn't even like. I think just the action of getting dressed up and walking around and watching the rest of the kids in all of their cute costumes was really fun. Jojo was running from house to house and couldn't wait to see what would be put in his bag. While Jayden took the more laid back approach sitting in his chair watching all of the excitement. When we would approach each door the people thought they were adorable and wanted to give Jayden candy too. I think Daddy benfited from that, lol.

Fiesta Fundraiser A Success.

What a fun night! Many thanks to everyone who came out and joined us for a very special cause. The weather was great and the company was fine. What a success! Special thanks to Gloria Olivarez of Antonio's Catering for loaning us her backyard and making this event a success. Also special thanks to the Jayden's Wish Committee. I am so impressed with all of your hard work and dedication. You all went above and beyond to make our dinner fun and successful. I know that everyone who was there was definately impressed! I LOVE YOU GUYS! Thank you to Casa Mexicana in Lodi, Arroyo's, and Dos Hermanos Market for donating food. Dj Jeff The Music Chef you rocked! Luis and the guys, thanks for the beautiful music. There are so many people to thank and I can't possibly mention them all but I hope everyone knows how special you all are in our hearts. Because of you we can purchase things for Jayden that insurance won't pay for. I have already ordered his swing for our house. It's a huge thing and will be great for him. It was really fun to walk around and talk to everyone who was there. I tried my best to introduce myself and Jayden to as many people as possible. Thank you all again. We love you! Here are pics from that night.

Flyer For Jayden's Dinner/Dance Fiesta

I know it is hard to read, sorry about that. This is the flyer that we are sending around to get the word out that we will be having an All You Can Eat Buffet dinner catered by Antonio's. The tickets are $50 each. If you are interesting and coming out and supporting our lil man you can contact Anne Lovato at ladybuggy428@hotmail.com or by phone at (209) 337-8041. We will have Mariachi's, live DJ, Raffle, and Silent Auction. It's going to be alot of fun and we hope you can come join us. Jayden is doing just fine. He is still having the Infantile Spasms but the good news that the longer seizures that he has each week haven't been longer than about 3 minutes. That is definately an improvement. He isn't as active as I would like him to be but still let's us know if he needs something. We are still just taking things one day at a time. As long as we get to see his beautiful smile that is what is important. God has truley blessed us to have such wonderful and caring friends as you. Please continue to pray for lil Jay. For such a small guy he teaches me something about myself each and everyday. Because of him we have met such wonderful people, like the guys from Triad. People that will be in our lives for years to come. Fox 40 will be coming out and doing a final story very soon. I want everyone to see what wonderful things have been happening in our lives. It is good to report good news instead of bad for once. God bless.

Fox 40 News Take 2

Construction, Construction, Construction!

Two weeks ago this was the front of my house. As you all know, Fox 40 News did a story about Jayden on May 18th. The response from one particular company was awesome! Triad Investment Group which is made up of Chris Fey, Tony Corona, and Matt Trammel came to our rescue. The morning after the news story I received a phone call from Chris saying that he and his partners would take care of the whole project. Well, to say the least they have gone above and beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Chris made phone calls to all of their contacts and they were all more than willing to help out by donating materials and men to do the job. From floor to ceiling my house is on it's way to looking spectacular. Construction started on June 18th and is expected to finish by the end of this week. Things that have been done to the house include: totally new bathroom with a walk in shower, all doorways have been enlarged to a minimum of 36 inches (handicap accessible) new carpet and paint, new gutters outside, replaced tile infront of fireplace, and much more. The ramp is anticpated at the end of this week. These people have had such a huge impact in our lives. We are so greatful for all of their hard work and dedication to doing this project and getting it done in a timely fashion. These people have put in some seriously long hours and given up their weekends too. Thanks guys! Before and after pictures are on the way! I just want to wait until everything is completly finished. Everything looks beautiful!

Jojo Graduates From Kindergarten

Jojo made it through a whole year of Kindergarten without getting suspended LOL. But seriously, he did a great job. Little miner behavior problems here and there but his teacher Ms.Heinsleman was a woman with great patience. With 15 boys in her class she had to be. Thanks Ms. Heinselman for everything. Jojo learned many things this year, letters, numbers,and even reading! He is doing awesome and is looking forward to first grade. This is Jojo's "Friend" Dominique. One day when I was picking up Jojo from school I over heard him talking to her. He said,"Ok, don't forget to call me." I thought oh boy here we go, I am not ready for little girls to start calling. When I asked him what that was all about his response was," Oh, nothing Mom. I hope you don't mind but I gave Dominique your cel number because I couldn't remember the house number." I tried not to laugh. And sure enough, that afternoon she called him! That conversation lasted about 2 minutes and Jojo was smiling ear to ear the whole time.

The Clip From Fox 40 News

THANKS FOX 40 NEWS

As most of you already know, on May 18th Jayden was on the Fox 40 news. It was such a nice story about Jayden; done by Roweena Shaddox. The response to the story was absolutely wonderful :) I received a call from Chris of Triad Investment Group, he and his partners Matt and Tony were very anxious to help us out. We are very excited to see what happens. They are going make our lives alot easier.

And to whom do I owe this privledge? My wonderful friend Jody Simmer from Arizona. Yes, she's all the way in AZ and has helped us tremendously. She is amazing! As soon as she heard about Jayden's Infantile Spasms she told me we had to put his story out there. She jumped on the computer and did her magic. She wrote letters to everyone she could think of, including Fox 40. They responded right away and the next thing I know they were at my house interviewing me. Thanks Jody, I don't know how I would have gotten through these past couple of years without you.

As soon as I know exactly what is going on I will let you all know. Jayden is doing pretty well right now. He has been rolling around alot which is an improvement. We have set a date for our benefit dinner/dance which is Sept 16th so save the date! We want all of our friends and family there with us. That's all for now.

Love you all,

Brandy

FRUSTRATED!

Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe what I am feeling right now. So much for the saying, "What you don't know won't hurt you". That is not true is Jayden's case. We left for SF at 5:45am on Wed, fought the traffic and arrived close to 10. We were set up in our room and waited for the docs to come in and talk to us about the ACTH that we were sent there for. Well that was a joke. An attending whom I have never met came in with her crew and told me how against the ACTH she was because of all of the horrible side effects. That was the only thing the two of us agreed upon. She went on to tell me that it didn't matter whether or not we stopped the infantile spasms or not. They were not the reason Jayden was regressing, the underlying cause (whatever is wrong with him) is the reason. It was a very tense room when she had the nerve to tell me that UCSF had exhausted all tests possible and have not found what is wrong with Jayden. He is the only child with the symptoms he has and has yet to be diagnosed with any real thing. Basically she said that they had given up on him and there was nothing left for them to do. Keep in mind that I have never talked to this woman EVER! It was all I could do not to throw her out of our room. I told them I was leaving if that was how they felt because I was going to get another opinion. It's not that there aren't any more things to test him for it's that she is not willing to test anymore. So I left that afternoon. After a very emotional day and after talking to the Neurologists that I deal with daily we concluded that she was full of %^&%/! Dr. Hutch and Dr. Armstrong/Wells will stand by Jayden and our decision to go somewhere else. That woman had no right to talk to me the way she did, especially without the backing of the whole Neurology team. I'll deal with her later. Right now we are focusing on getting paperwork ready so we can go on a roadtrip. After talking to lots of people and searching the Web I think that at this time our best shot is UCLA. Will insurance pay for it? I don't know. But what I do know is that we have had such wonderful support from all of you and prayers too! Where there is a will there is a way and we aren't going to let money get in our way. I am bound and determined to give this kid the best shot at life no matter what. Jose and I have been discussing different ideas to raise money. As soon as I have more info I will let you know what we plan on doing. Doctors don't know everything I would love more than anything to prove SF wrong! So please continue to pray for us. Right now Jayden is doing ok. I am going slowly back up on his Tranxene and I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. He is still having pretty bad spasms but he is still in a great mood. He gives me strength to keep fighting because he hasn't given up yet. We'll never give up on him! Love, Brandy & Jose

Back to San Francisco

Well tomorrow morning bright and early we are off to San Francisco. I spoke with Jayden's doctor yesterday afternoon and wasn't able to get too much more info. They are stumped and can't believe this is happening. I have asked that they put their heads together and think about where they can refer him for another opinion. UCSF considers themselves the highest level of care and often don't refer patients out. But in Jayden's case she said that they were all for sending him to the best of the best. The next thing we have to worry about his how are we going to get there and is insurance going to pay for it. I don't care how we get there or how much it costs as long as I am giving Jayden the best shot I possibly can.

Thank you everyone for all of your kind words and especially your prayers. It's ultimately in God's hands, but we must continue to pray that God will give these docs the wisdom they need to find out what is wrong with Jayden so they find the appropriate treatment. We as a family are hanging in there but keep the comments coming because it helps me to know that others are praying for him. I will keep you posted as we go along. Both yesterday and today I saw Jayden choke on his own saliva, this is not a good sign :( We need answers and we need them fast! My poor baby, it just breaks my heart that he is going through all of this. No time to cry now, only time to fight!

Love,

Brandy

Devistating News!

Yesterday was a bad day. I took Jayden to UCSF for an extended EEG. It's kind of a long story but let me back track so you will fully understand. A couple of months ago I started noticing that Jayden was doing something new. Every so often he would put his head down, throw his arms out and stiffen up. This would only last for second or two and at first would happen maybe once a day. But as time went on these "shocks" as I call them began to come more often. I also noticed that the "shocks"didn't occur until the first time the VNS was adjusted after surgery. At first I thought it might have something to with the VNS. After ruling that out I was completly stumped. I let the docs know and it didn't seem to concern them at the time. So as usual time went on and the "shocks" became more often. Until two weeks ago today I decided to count them, 30 times I counted on that particular day. I started to become more and more concerned. Well my worst fear was confirmed yesterday. Jayden has developed Infantile Spasms. These spasms always occur in an infant (less than one yr old) but ofcourse Jayden doesn't do anything textbook and these docs are even more stumped now than they were before, if that's even possible. There is nothing good about the prognosis. These spasms cause severe brain damage. Those of you who see Jayden know that over the last 6 months he has lost many skills. He is no longer able to sit, hold his head up, roll over, and I fear the worse is yet to come. If he deteriorated this fast in the past 6 months what do we have to look forward to? I am really having a hard time right now and I would really appreciate prayer for my little Angel. Each day that I have him is a gift from God. I am desperately trying to keep my head up and think positive but it is very difficult. Jayden will be admitted next Wed to UCSF so we can start giving him ACTH (steroid) which I will learn to give him injections daily. As if this poor kid hasn't gone through enough:( We hope and pray that this injection will stop these little seizures that he has having every single day. The docs said they have never seen this happen before, a kid this age developing spasms like this. Especially after having such an extreme seizure history.The VNS is still working to hold of those long seizures but now we have something new to worry about. Please keep us in prayer.

Brandy

Jayden and Jacy Andres and Jacy Our future is so bright we gotta wear shades!!!

Jayden & Jacy

Aren't they adorable? This past weekend our favorite little girl turned 2! And we were there to see it! We drove all the way to Arizona for a short 2 day visit. It was worth every minute we spent in that car. My Mom, Andres, Jojo, Jayden and I set off on an adventure. Jeana decided that 12 hours in the backseat with Jojo was little more than she could handle. Everyone there was so excited to meet us and had already heard alot about Jayden. Jacy was so cute! She called Andres "boy", Jojo was "Jojo", and Jayden was "My Baby". She kept giving Jayden kisses every chance she got. Her smile was so bright and her personality was sweet as can be. Every time she would walk past Jayden she would acknowledge him in some way, either with a kiss or by talking to him or touching him.

This trip was very special because it was the first time the Simmer's have seen Jayden out of the hospital and awake. We have tried to meet up before but Jayden ended up back at the hospital knocked on with lots of meds. This trip was wonderful because he was his perfect little self. NO SEIZURES! WE can't wait to go again. Thanks Jody, Jay, and Jacy for being such wonderful hosts.

Epilepsy Conference 2007

Last week Jayden and I were invited to the Epilepsy Conference at UCSF. His Neurologist Jen Armstrong-Wells asked me to speak on Jayden's behalf. The topic was VNS ( Vagus Nerve STimulator). Jayden had the VNS placed last August and it has truley increased his quality of life. Basically I talked about how much shorter the seizures are now that he has it, quicker recovery time after seizure, no more frequent ER visits, and NO MORE DIASTAT! UCSF has a very small population of VNS patients. The reason for this is because the Neurologist are skeptical because there is no proof of how this thing works. We don't know why it works but it works. I am very excited because Jen emailed me to let me know that we made BELIEVERS out of them!!! YIPPPEEE!!! This procedure should've been done alot sooner. Jayden seized out of control for over 8 months, trip after trip to the ER. Since the VNS was placed we have only called 911 three times. Two of those were because he had a high fever. I can only hope that the VNS will be used more often now at UCSF. Thanks Jen for asking us to come and be part of the conference.

We Have New Friends

This past summer when I took Jayden to Stanford for a second opinion on his movement disorder we met some special friends. I was sitting in the waiting room when Kerry approached me and asked me about Jayden. She has a daughter named Maddy who has a metabolic disorder. We exchanged emails and just recently got in contact with each other. Kerry and Maddy live in Manteca which is the next town just south of us. When I make my way to Manteca for doctor appointments we always have lunch. I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship :)

Fighting Phnemonia

MUAH! Love that boy! Last week Jayden had 3 seizures on Tuesday and we ended up calling 911. After blood work and x-rays we found out Jayden had phnemonia. He spiked a fever of 102.5, never good news for a kid with epilepsy. After lots of antibiotics and breathing treatments Jayden is recovering quite well. He had the chills so bad it scared us because he was screaming and crying. Jayden NEVER cries. But as you can tell Jayden gets lots of sympathy here. He is still wheezing a little bit but no complaining. That's my boy!

The Correa Bunch

This is my family...Jeana 13, Andres 12, Jojo 5 and Jayden 2. Aren't they cute? It's not often that I can get this whole bunch together and smiling at the same time. These kids have become experts on Epilepsy. You can ask Jojo what to do when Jayden has a seizure and he can tell you step by step. He even knows how to call 911 and what to tell them about his brother. Pretty good for a five year old. When they first saw the seizures they would cry and get upset. Now they bust into action. While one of them is running to get the oxygen the other is looking at the clock and observing the details. They know that I write down all of Jayden's seizures and they make sure I get it right.

Swallow Evaluation Today

Today I took Jayden to San Joaquin County General to have a speech therapist watch Jayden eat and drink. The point of the visit was to determine whether or not Jayden would need therapy to help him learn to chew. Jayden did AWESOME! She was very impressed with him. He ate his yogurt like a pro! But when it came to drinking his milk from his bottle he coughed a little too much. This is concerning because we don't want Jayden to asperate. He had a good strong cough and was able to clear his air way. Jayden needs to drink things that are thicker than normal. Milk by itself with nothing in it is a challenge at times. Water is really difficult too. The therapist said she has high hopes for him that we can teach him to drink from a sippy cup! We are ready and willing to work really hard to achieve this goal. I am so excited! He is getting a little BIG to be drinking from a bottle. So now the waiting game begins. She writes recommendations, insurance reviews it, APPROVES it, and then we can start working toward our goal.

On A Mission To Find Jayden

The past couple of months have been really tough. Jayden who 6 months ago could sit on his own for up to 5 minutes has lost that skill. Six months ago he had great head control but doesn' t now. I have the video to prove it! I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what I can do to help him. He has the most caring therapists who continue to work with him even though it must be frustrating to see him regress. When I approached his doctors with my concerns they assured me that since he had grown so much since his VNS surgery he was probably having a hard time adjusting to his size. Well another month has gone by and really there aren't any changes. I have been so frustrated! Going to therapy nearly brings me to tears because I know he is capable of doing so much more. Last Friday I took Jayden to UCSF to talk about adjusting his VNS. We thought he might be having some side effects. Jayden's VNS is now programmed to stimulate his brain every 3 minutes instead of 5 minutes. After talking to Hutch we decided to start taking him off some of his meds. Before he was taking such a high dose of his tranxene he was doing much better with his motor skills. I am both scared and excited at the same time to see what happens. I am hopefull that the VNS will do it's job and we can get rid of these meds that are drugging my little boy and making him loose his cute personality. I am so sick of hearing people tell me how tired he looks. He's not tired! He's drugged! Today was his last day on Ativan YIPPEEEE!!!! My goal is for Jayden to only have to take his Keppra! The best thing about that is Keppra has the least amount of side effects in comparison with meds he has been on in the past. So keep your fingers crossed and say an extra prayers for my little man. We couldn't have made it through the last two years without all of your prayers and support. Thank you from the bottem of our hearts.

love,

Brandy

My Heart Belongs To Jayden

Taking pictures with this kid is beginning to be a challenge. More so for me than him. I have to explain that he can't sit up and pose the way they want him too. The photographer looks at me like I am crazy. I have to make sure I have lots of patients and remember that before I had a child with special needs I would've looked at this precious baby boy and wondered what was wrong. I need to get rid of that chip on my shoulder that I sometimes carry. Jayden holds the key to my heart!

Breast Cancer Survivor!

As most of you know my Mom has been battling breast cancer this past year. She just finished Radiation and is offically a survivor! Praise God! She has been so strong through this whole thing. Never complaining, saying if Jayden didn't complain she couldn't either. She worked full time the entire time. The hardest part for her was right here near the end when she suffered from a blister that popped under her arm from the Radiation. Mom we love you and we're so glad your a survivor!

Our First Hockey Game

Andres, Jojo, Jayden, and I went to our first hockey game together. It was a special occasion, my nephew lil Paul's birthday. We had alot of fun. Jayden was very interested in all the noise and lights.

Jayden's First Haircut

Jayden is 26 months old and got his very first haircut. Look how handsome he is! He was very patient. Special thanks to Kim for letting us come to her house instead of the salon. My baby is becoming a big boy .

Mommy Flushes My Port

Jayden has had a port that is placed under the skin since last May. When he first got the port his seizures were totally out of control and it needed to be accessed at least once a week. UCSF trained me to access Jayden's port as needed to give the hospital IV access for meds to help stop seizures. Since his VNS we haven't had to use the port as often. But boy are we all glad he has it. Today marks the 4th time I have had to flush it at home. Every 30 days, if the port hasn't been accessed at all, I have to flush it with heprin. This keeps the blood from clotting. This pictures shows Jayden with the needle in patiently waiting for me to finish. He's a good sport! Big sister Jeana helped me by holding his arms down. And don't worry, it doesn't hurt because Mommy puts numbing creme on it first. Isn't it amazing how we as parents do what we have to do to help our children? I never would've thought that I would be doing all these things.