Medicine and Potty

Strange title, huh? But it's all exciting! Caden has successfully been weaned from his two diuretics, so now he's only on ONE medication! At one point, he was on 12 medications (I believe... it's easy to lose track). So this is a BIG deal! It's very strange only having to draw up one med as opposed to all three. He still takes it 3x per day, but that may change in the future. Most kids with his condition do get off of the meds at some point, so we'll see how long that takes.

Both of the kids did have horrible colds last week, and Paul took them to the Dr. I was afraid that it might be the weaning of the meds, but the Dr assured us not. He prescribed an inhalant steroid and refilled the Xopenex (Albuterol for heart kids), and after a few days, he is now back to normal. He's such a big boy when it comes to taking his breathing treatments.

Now on to the other big news! Cameron has been consistently going #1 and #2 on the potty at least several times a day! Woot! He won't be 2 until January, so this is very impressive to me. Caden was much older by the time he was fully potty trained. I am soooo looking forward to the days of no diapers! He loves to rip the diapers off and climb up on the big boy potty. It's adorable! As long as he doesn't fall in, I think we're good! :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are busy running around like crazy getting ready for the Thanksgiving Holiday, but I wanted to post an update for you guys. :) I've been told that I should do it more often... Forrest.

Caden turned 4 on Monday this week, and so far he has had 1 BIG bowling party, 1 dinner (on his actual birthday) and he'll have 1 more party on Friday (after the rest of the family gets in town). WOW! That's a lucky kid! And a big thank you to everyone that came to his party on Saturday!

Cameron is starting to use more and more words. He is very adamant when he wants something, and then as soon as you give it to him, he throws it down... only to pick it up 5 seconds later and walk away. Oh boy! He's going to be a handful like his brother. He's a very good dancer as well (which he obviously does NOT get from his dad). Hahaha

We started doing "sleepovers" for the boys on Friday nights. We let them both sleep in Caden's bed, and they watch a movie before bed. We have to go check on them every few minutes to make sure no one is bleeding, but they have a blast in there together!

Caden is the smartest little booger. He remembers everything! We were driving down the highway and he saw the car dealership. Last SUMMER (before he was even 3!) they had one of those huge inflatable slides for kids. He went down it with his Nana. When we drove by it just the other day, he said "Remember when we went there and went down the slide?" Crazy!!! It's almost scary, actually! LOL

On the way to work this morning, it was "rush hour" and the light turned green. It took a while for the line of cars to start moving and he must have been watching. He said "Green means go!" Ha! We talk about and learn things when we're driving, and I know he didn't mean it as road rage, but it was funny nonetheless!

I'll try to remember to update this more often, Forrest. :D

Caden's Annual Checkup

We went this morning to Caden's checkup. Overall, it is GREAT news!! :)

I didn't want to spring the appointment on him, and he loves going to the Dr (weird, right?!) so I told him on the way home last night that we were going to the Dr in the morning. He told me he didn't have any ickies, so he didn't need to go. Smart kid!

He didn't fully remember when we went a year ago, but he did AMAZING through the entire checkup. He had some silent tears at the beginning because he was nervous/scared, but after those were gone, he was very relaxed and even a little happy. I let him bring his Sponge Bob DVD for the echo, so I think that helped!

Overall, Caden's heart is doing amazing! :) He will be 4 next month, and he still has his original conduit (not uncommon) which they placed when he was 3 months old. She said that for the most part, the conduit still looks brand new! There is no narrowing, no calcification, and the gradient across the homograph is very low (which is what they want).

Caden is currently on 3 different medications, one for his heart and blood pressure, and 2 are diuretics. The Captopril (heart) is staying the same. The Lasix will be cut in half for 2 weeks, then stopped completely. (YAY!) Two weeks after we finish the Lasix, we will start the Aldactone wean, which will also last for 2 weeks before stopping completely. (Double YAY!)

We are going back in 6 months (April 27th) to check on how he is doing without those two medications. Hopefully things are still going great, and we will go another year before he has to get checked again!.

I also have to mention that Cameron was a real trooper through the entire appointment, which lasts about 2 hours! He didn't cry once, and he even sat on my lap while Caden was getting the echo. He held his hand and leaned over to put his head next to big brother's. How sweet!

Thank you all for your prayers, your thoughts, and of course for your support. ♥

It's that time again...

It's almost time for another checkup for Caden. We went last October, can you believe that?! WOW! Overall, he is doing well. He is just as active as his brother, he just sweats a little bit more. I truly believe that this will be a good checkup.

Cameron and Caden are becoming the best of friends... sometimes. Ha! Brothers, I guess. :) Cameron still has his blankie that he has to sleep with. He is now saying a ton of different words. If I ask him if he wants to be tickled, he points to his stomach and says "right there" and pretty well too! His favorite things to drink are juice and milk. He will eat 3 bananas a day if I let him. He looks like a little monkey with half a banana stuck in his mouth! :) I'll try to get a picture of it for you. We went to the KU game last weekend. We whooped 'em, and every time we got a touchdown, everyone started screaming. Both of the boys looked around as if to ask "Can we yell too?" They started screaming and MAN did they have a blast! I'll add some pics:

This has become Caden's standard picture face. Not sure about that... LOL

And Cam was a big cheeser the entire time! He was actually growling at the football field. Haha

I will post an update after our appointment on the 27th of October.

Caden Day

Today is Caden Day. I was getting him ready for daycare in his room. He has a Sponge Bob calendar on the wall and he was staring at it. I looked up and saw the date. I asked him if he knew what today was and he was curious. When I said "Caden Day" he got very excited! (As if he has any clue what all that really means). He's such a sweetie.

3 years ago today, we got to bring Caden home from the hospital. We had been there for almost three months, and gone through MANY things I never thought we would have to experience. Too many to remember, and quite frankly, I don't like to remember most of them. BUT, today is about celebrating Caden's health in the last 3 years, and all of the obstacles he has overcome.

Tomorrow is the Heart Walk in Hutchinson, Caden's big debut. We're gearing up for the BIG walk in Wichita, so this will be a good jumpstart! :)


Today is also the day that some dear friends lost their baby girl 2 years ago. Please visit their blog HERE and let them know you are thinking about them. We are all lighting candles today in honor of sweet baby Ava.

The walk is getting closer!

Thank you to those of you who donated to Caden's team and showed your support! :) We are getting closer and closer to the walk date. If you are planning on coming to the walk, please register. You do not have to donate, and you do not have to set a goal for yourself. You can just set it at zero if you wish. The point of signing up on Caden's team is to show how many people are expected to walk. Plus, for every 5 people that register to walk for his team now through Sunday, we get entered into a $50 gift card to Strouds! Sounds yummy! :)

Go HERE to register (click join), and go HERE to get your Caden Team apparel! If you do not see Caden's items, just search for his name, Caden Konecny. Also, use the discount code located toward the top of the page for a price break on shipping. :) I think we should all wear one of these shirts, and the proceeds go straight to his team's numbers! Wow! :) Thanks to my mom for designing the shirts and other items and for setting all of that up! :)

I hope to see you there. Please get in touch if you have any questions!

Ashlea

Please forward this information to anyone you think may want to join us.

American Heart Association

We are well into our adventure with the American Heart Association for 2010!

We have been to 3 different functions, the last being Wednesday night. Caden is an amazing little helper at the speaking engagements. He pulled out the ballots for the prizes the other night, and it was sweet. :) He did a great job!

At one point, Paul got up to go to the men's room. Caden screamed "Ooooh, I know! Daddy go pee!" Everyone was cracking up! :)

During the event the other night, we made a few phone calls to friends and family to start raising money for Caden's team. We raised $240 in 10 minutes! WOW!! A BIG THANK YOU to everyone that donated. Let's get to our goal of $1,000!!! All of the teams that raise $1,000 get entered into a drawing to go to Disney World. It's a 6 night stay right across the street from the park! WOW!! I think we might be able to reach that $1,000 mark, and how cool would it be to take the boys?!?!

You can go to this link HERE to donate to Caden's team. Just click on his name and donate. Thank you to everyone! If you donate, please leave me a comment here so that I know who you are! :)

Check it out guys!

As I said before, Caden is the "rock star" of the American Heart Association Start! Heart Walk for 2010. That's a mouthful! I have been working with the AHA to get Caden's story out there, and the story was just posted on their website this week! Here's the link: Story

We had our first outing in mid-December, but next Tuesday is our first speaking engagement. Caden and I will be meeting with VP of Product Development and Engineering of Hawker and other executives from the Galichia Medical Group here in Wichita. We will be sharing his story with these very influential people.

I expect to have several more of these engagements throughout the year, so hopefully I'm not too nervous! :)

Check out the link! :)