Saturday, December 6, 2008

New Family Member

It is official, we have a new family member.

Pancho Villa is a little guy that was a stray that we got from the pound.



He loves Sierra.The three Musketeers.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Staying Busy

I guess I'm overdue for writing an update. We have been so busy lately, I feel like we don't even have time to breathe!

Sierra is getting physical therapy 4 times a month, developmental delay therapy 2 times a month, and blind services 1 time a month. She is also going to the chiropractor in Austin (75 minutes away) two times a week. On top of all that, we have been doing fundraisers. Our next fundraiser will be in Burnet on Dec. 13. That will be a fun one. We are going to have an arts and crafts booth set up and sell wooden things that I made with the scroll saw and also homemade soap.

We went on a 2 day camping trip to Pedernales State park about 2 weeks ago. We took Sierra and the two dogs. We all had fun and really enjoyed it. We hope to go camping again sometime.

Yesterday, Sierra, Daisy, and I went to the swearing in of our state representative. I got to take pictures of Sierra with lots of important people so that was fun. It has been about a year since I have been able to go to any political events so it was nice to be able to do that again. I'm hoping to gradually start becoming involved again.

Here are lots of pictures from our camping trip and our trip to the capitol.



Camping






Swearing in of State Representative Ralph Sheffield



Sierra with State Representative Ralph Sheffield, State Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, Former Rep. Dianne White Delisi, and State Representative Jimmie Don Aycock

Sierra with State Senator Troy Fraser (and Mr. J. Brown)


Sierra with Justice Bob Pemberton (3rd Court of Appeals)


Sierra with U.S. Congressman John Carter
(this one was actually on election night, not at the swearing in)





Sierra with Governor Rick Perry

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Accident and Vacation

I will be adding pictures to this post in a day or two.

Last week was a whirlwind of activity. We were planning on leaving on the 23rd to go to California for a week to visit Jason's parents. On Monday, Sierra and I were out doing some last minute errands when we were rear-ended. It turned out to be a 4 car accident. I won't go into details because the insurance claim is still open. Thank God neither of us were seriously hurt! Our car is in the shop right now, so we are using a rental car.

On Tuesday, we flew to San Francisco. The flight went okay but we had some issues with luggage. Our luggage didn't make it when we did. That wouldn't have been so bad, because they said they would deliver it, but the problem was that our car seat was with the luggage. They said they would lend us one. So they took us over to where they have their loaner items and pulled out an ancient 10 year old car seat that didn't look safe. FWIW, car seats expire after about 5 years. We said that there was no way we were going to put Sierra in it and that they could face major legal problems if they ever loaned that out to someone. Since we wouldn't use their car seat, they told us to wait at the airport for 3 hours till ours arrived. Finally, after asking to speak to a supervisor, they suddenly came up with a solution and found a safe car seat for her to use.

On Wednesday, we drove to Grizzly Flats to visit with some long time friends of Jason's. After a nice visit with them, we drove to Galt, to visit my KIRABO!!!! =) Kirabo is the wolfdog that I owned before Jason and I got married. I gave him to a lady in Galt, because I knew he wouldn't be happy in a house with a small backyard. It was wonderful to see him! After visiting Kirabo, we drove to Salinas.

On Thursday, Sierra got to hang out with Grandma, while Jason and I celebrated a late 2nd anniversary. We went to Monterey and Carmel. It was fun seeing the Sea Lions so close up and in the wild. Carmel is a very picturesque town with beautiful little houses. At Carmel, we ate dinner at a restaurant. We did feel rather out of our league there. Then we walked down to the ocean. We enjoyed our day very much.

On Friday morning we visited the couple that fostered Jason from 3 days old until 6 months old. This was the first time in about 21 years that Jason had seen them, so it was really neat for all of us. Friday evening we visited with some other friends.

On Saturday we went to the airshow. Sierra hated wearing the ear protection that we bought for her. She looked very cute though! She got her picture taken with one of the best aerobatics pilot in the world, Sean Tucker. I'll add the picture soon.

On Sunday, we went to church and then had a meet and greet after we got back.

On Monday morning, we went to visit some of Jason's other friends. That afternoon we took a ride in FIL's 65 mustang and then had pizza and watched movies. (Well, I fell asleep during the second movie! Opps! )

Overall, we had a good time and enjoyed seeing Jason's parents and friends. Sierra enjoyed it, except for traveling. She didn't like being held for that long and wanted to be on the floor doing her army crawl.

Friday, September 19, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIERRA!

Today is Sierra's 1st birthday. We went to the chiropractor today and Sierra did really well. They were so sweet and had a piece of cheesecake for her. She had a few bites of it and really liked it. :) We really didn't celebrate today. We are going to celebrate on Sunday. We'll have a little "Praise Party" for her. (If anyone wants to come, let me know!)

It is hard to believe that a year has gone by, but on the other hand, it seems like the day she was born was so long ago. I had been dreading her first birthday for a long time, because of the nightmare of memories that it holds. However, today was good. (Two days ago,the anniversary of the day that I went into labor, was rough emotionally.) Today I was just bursting with indescribable joy and so thankful for the precious blessing that God has allowed us to have!

Here is a picture from today.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Padre Island


When we went to visit my grandmother we decided to go to South Padre Island since we were already at the tip of Texas. It was Sierra's first time to go to the beach and Jason's first time on a Texas beach (he is used to Florida and California). We really enjoyed it and are talking about going more often.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Please Pray for Sierra's Great Grandmother

Please pray for my grandmother (Sierra's great grandmother). She is going to be having triple bypass surgery starting at 7:30 am (Sept. 4) because she has 80% blockage. It should last 4-5 hours. We made a quick weekend trip to see her.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Benefit

The benefit today was a huge success thanks to the Elks Lodge, Kay's Motorcycle Mania, Wind & Fire, and all the other many people who made it possible and came out to support Sierra. They raise $5,336 for Sierra!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Rant

Last month Medicaid ran out for Sierra and we were denied renewal due to income. We had to pay for her Keppra (seizure medication) out of pocket. At Wal-Mart it came out to $57. We have a prescription card through insurance for Walgreens, but we were in a hurry and didn't have the time to transfer it. Yesterday I decided to go ahead and deal with having it transferred to Walgreens. I asked them how much it would be, but they said they didn't know. Today I went to pick it up, and the lady said that it was $69.69.

That is CRAZY!!!! Why does everyone have to hike up the price if you are using insurance!!! I said, "You have got to be kidding me! Am I required to buy it?" She said no, so I said that I wasn't going to. (I'm sure they weren't happy with me but seriously they should have told me the price yesterday and then it would have saved both of us time.) So then I had to call up Wal-Mart and get the prescription transferred back to them. What a pain. It's a good thing she is not on a lot of medicines...they are expensive!

Now if we could only get MDCP with Rider 28. I'm not sure if it is based on severity though....don't know if she would qualify for Rider 28.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Miscellaneous

EEG Results

Today the neurologist called with the results of Sierra's EEG. The bad news is that one side of her brain is having some spikes. The brains cells are irritated, so he wants to keep her on Keppra for now. He said that we will re-evaluate in 4-6 months. The good news is that she has not had any seizures for over 9 months now and the neurologist is going to keep her at her current dose of Keppra rather than increasing it. (We are SO much happier with this neurologist!)

Chiropractor Visits

We can't believe how much the chiropractor visits have helped Sierra! The lump that she had on her back from scoliosis has gone down immensely. We have also been working on patterning with her. We move her opposite arms and legs up and down in a crawling motion. Since her last adjustment on Monday Sierra has been pulling her knees up under her quite a bit and lifting herself up into a crawling (technically it is called creeping) position. Sierra's body temperature tends to run low. Whenever we would touch her, she felt cold to the touch even if it was a hot day. Since going to the chiropractor her body temperature seems to have improved. Now when I touch her, she feels nice and warm not cold. She has been rather vocal lately as well.

ECI

Sierra will be evaluated by ECI next month. Then she will begin receiving therapy.

Elks Lodge Benefit

The Elks Lodge Benefit for Sierra is this Saturday from 11:00-5:00. There will be BBQ plates for $5. All the food was donated! They have been so generous! The auction starts at 2:30. Some really great items have been donated. There is beautiful antique furniture, rustic furniture, a 5 night vacation to Colorado, and lots of other great things. People have been so supportive! We are overwhelmed with how kind everyone has been! Oh yeah, there will also be Karaoke music, that should be fun.

Newspaper Interview

We wrote up an ad for the benefit to put in the local paper. We submitted it to the section for garage sales. The newspaper people called up and told us that they could not put it in that section (they put it in the appropriate section). They said that they wanted to do a story on the benefit and on us! We will be going in for an interview on Thursday.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Pictures

Here is a picture of Sierra's first time in the pool. It was at the hotel in San Antonio last month. Somehow I managed to lose her swimsuit so that is why she is wearing a onesie.

We had another chiropractor appointment in Austin today.

Thursday, August 7, 2008


Catching up on sleep with her uncle.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Chiropractor visit

Jason's Version
Well, we just took sierra to her first chiropractic apppointment. We used the chiropractor I used to use in austin because she has lots of experience working with kids. Something I hadn't thought about was that with her vertbrae pinching her nerves could affect brain growth. We did this because her neurologist wanted her to see an orthopedic specialist and wanted her to get botox to loosen up her legs. Needless to say, we weren't happy with this because even though im sure they're capable as doctors, all they seem to be able to do is either treat the symptoms or cut on her. Id rather get the cause treated. She already looks a lot straighter. We look forward to seeing more improvements.

Rosetta's Version

So after the neurologist referred Sierra to an orthopedist, we decided it was time to look into alternatives. We didn't want an orthopedist putting her in a brace or doing surgery on her for her scoliosis. We had been discussing taking her to a chiropractor off and on for the past several months. This kicked things into gear.

Today we took Sierra to a chiropractor that Jason used to go to in Austin. She uses the CBP ideal spine method. We were amazed by what we learned and the results. I can't remember all the technical terms she used, but basically she said that the vertebrae near Sierra's brain stem was messed up which is typical of a traumatic birth. She said that having that messed up the ability of the nerves to transmit information to the brain.

Before the adjustment, she had us hold Sierra upside down by her hips. She was supposed to hang straight, but because of how bad her back is, she was hanging very curved. After the adjustment, we held her upside down again and she was hanging straight.

We are going to be having 2 appointments a week for a month and then back down to one a week. Most chiropractors give a discount for children.

I wish we had done this months ago! She thinks this will help with brain development as well as spasticity. (Not to mention the scoliosis!)

Friday, August 1, 2008

News 10 Story

Here is the link to the news story that KWTX did on Sierra. It is supposed to air again at 10:00 pm.

http://ww2.kwtx.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipId1=2759277&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Stem+Cell+Program&d1=184267&redirUrl=www.kwtx.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Doctors, doctors, doctors

We had a neurologist appointment today. She switched neurologists since her other one moved. The appointment went okay. He referred her to two other doctors to help keep track of her spasticity and scoliosis (looks like she has scoliosis which really didn't surprise us.) *Sigh* I hate going to doctor's appointments because they are so depressing. :-(

While we were at S&W, I decided to take Sierra to NICU to say "Hi" to some of the nurses there. It was SO difficult to go there. NICU is on the opposite side of the hospital, which means it was a long walk. On my walk over, I almost turned around several times. The sights, sounds, and smells were emotionally overwhelming. They brought back floods of memories; memories that I wish did not exist.

We did get to see a few of the NICU nurses. It was good to see them. The NICU nurses are wonderful!

I called up ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) today to see about getting Sierra on it. They are going to contact me in a few days. Then they will go over which types of therapy she will receive.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

News will air later this week

The interview with the news station went very well this evening. Stephanie Franks did a great job in interviewing us and I think this will give Sierra the coverage she needs. We're not sure when it will actually air, probably Friday but we'll have to see.

Please keep praying. We're going to let News 10 break the story and then start trying to get newspapers and other stations involved next week.

Monday, July 28, 2008

News Interview!

KWTX called us this morning. They are going to come over tomorrow and do an interview! They want to do a story on Sierra.

Please be praying that it would go well and that God would direct us what to say!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Numbers

Wow. God has really blessed us. We've been actively fundraising for about a month now and God has provided $4500 so far. We have also had over 850 website hits and 103 members on the facebook group. A note about the website hits: to count as a hit, it cannot be our ip address, and that ip address must not have visited for at least an hour. So these are actual, legitimate seperate hits.

Our church is supporting us with prayers and money which is a great relief and we appreciate their support.

We were a little concerned about Sierra today because when we got home from church she started having myoclonic movements, but they went away. I think it might have been the half dose of children's Motrin we gave her lastnight to help with her teething pain.

Please pray that we'd get donations for the auction on 8/23. We haven't had any donations yet. We need to pound more pavement and get the word out, but also we need to figure out which person at each business has the power to do this. We also are needing contributions from individuals of items in good condition, so let me know if you want to donate something to be auctioned off

Its so nice to have my girls back from San Anton.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Hyperbarics Again :-)

Just wanted to write a quick update. Sierra, my mom, my sister, and I will be going to San Antonio tomorrow to start two weeks worth of hyperbaric treatments. Please pray that God uses them to do a lot of good.

The 4th of July fundraiser went well. Some of the upcoming fundraisers include...

*A BBQ and auction sponsored by the Elks Lodge #138, Wind & Fire, and Kay's Motorcycle Mania.
*A pet photo contest and a baby photo contest
*A Christian concert
*A garage sale

We are still working on details. More information to come.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Fundraiser

Tomorrow we will be having our first fundraiser for Sierra's medical fund for stem cell treatments. We are having an arts and crafts booth at the Fourth of July celebration in Belton. We have been super busy making things! Here two pictures that I took of her today to put on the poster board with info on it for tomorrow.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

New Website

We made a new website for Sierra. It is www.sightforsierra.com

I will still be blogging here.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Getting the Ball Rolling

After much prayer and research, we believe that God is leading us to take Sierra to China for stem cell treatments. We are working on filling out the registration form. We will be setting up a website for her with information about Sierra and our path to China.

Lord willing, we will have an arts and crafts table at the 4th of July celebration in Belton. We are making all sorts of craft items to sell to help raise money. I will post pictures of some of the items as we complete them.

For those of you who are local, if you could save your plastic bags for us that would be great! There is a recycled project that we are making with them.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Getting More Excited!

In my research on SCT (Stem Cell Treatments) all of the articles and information that I was coming across talked about children with ONH (Optic Nerve Hypoplasia) regaining sight from SCT. However, Sierra does not have ONH. Her optic nerves are damaged. I had not found anything about people with damaged optic nerves being helped.

Today I received an e-mail from one of the Yahoo Groups that got me so excited! A lady wrote about her brother-in-law, who is 57. He had damage to his optic nerves. His damage was so bad that he could not discern light or dark. He just went to China and received SCT. Now he is seeing light and also seeing colors. Once they start hyperbarics they expect to see more improvements.

Sierra cannot see, but she does have some sensitivity to light. Plus, she is still very young. I believe that God would use the SCT to help her vision immensely.

I am looking forward to continuing to see God's miracles in her life. She truly is our little miracle baby and God has taught us so much through her! She is a constant reminder of His goodness and power.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Pictures

Just wanted to post some photos that I took of her today. She is wearing a cute little outfit that "Aunt" Amanda gave her. Thanks Amanda! Sierra's hair is starting to get adorable little curls in it. I think her hair is going to be wavy like mine.




Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Roll Over Red Rover

Today Sierra did something new. While she was having tummy time on the floor, she rolled from her tummy to her back. She has rolled from her back to her tummy before, but this was the first time for her to roll onto her back.

She also seems to be having more leg movements. When she is on her back, she is lifting her legs a lot higher up than before.

We have been in contact with the doctor who is the medical consultant for Stem Cells China. She is going to be sending us more information. I am really getting excited about this. There have been people who could not walk who had the stem cell treatments and then were able to walk. As far as Sierra's eyesight, I think it might help the optic nerves, but I think she probably has CVI (cortical vision impairment) in addition to optic nerve damage. However, we have heard of several programs that have helped children with CVI gain sight. My main concern is for her optic nerves.

Something interesting that I learned is that the improvements from stem cell treatments are not visible on an MRI, or at least not right away. Here is a quote from Krishner, who is a medical consultant for Stem Cells China.

Typically on brain injured kids MRI’s are not done. Getting an MRI on a special needs child usually means sedating them so that they will lie still in the machine and thus the treating facility will not do this unless the MRI is absolutely needed. It also is the case that patients are only in China for a few weeks which is not long enough to see any changes that might occur. This type of growth would need to be very substantial in order to be picked up on a scan and that type of growth takes years. You also should remember that the cells are not creating a lot of new grey matter which is what makes up the bulk of your brain but rather they target white matter. White matter is laid down within the existing grey matter creating new Neuro pathways. The cells thus activate parts of the brain already there but may be stunned and/or dormant.

Having said that I will now tell you that there are a couple of kids who started SCT (stem cell treatments) when they were very young and have gone back for more treatments thus the doctors were able to obtain both pre and post treatment MRI’s over a longer time span. The MRI’s on these little’s ones did show increased brain mass....

...
The requirements for the Optic cases are very different and I do gather a pre treatment MRI. We have only just begun to treat these cases within the last 10 months thus not enough time has passed to expect that we might see a change on the MRI. I would say perhaps two years post treatment they might be a visible change on the MRI.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Sight for the Blind?

Matthew 15:31
So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.


We have begun doing research on stem cell treatment for repairing the optic nerves. What we have been learning is so exciting!!! China is currently doing this using umbilical cord blood (NOT aborted babies). They have around an 85% success rate right now and it is increasing. We are still in the initial process of our research, but we are hoping and praying that this is something that we could take Sierra to get. We would appreciate your prayers. This would be a huge step that has the potential of having miraculous results.

Here are some videos about one boy who had the procedure done.

Part 1
Part 2

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Laughter is NOT the best medicine....

....Sierra is! My grandmother was sick last week. Her blood pressure was high. On Sunday, my mother, Sierra, and I took an unexpected trip to visit her. When we arrived she was just laying in bed. She was thrilled and surprised to see Sierra! After we got there, she started doing so much better. She was holding, talking, and singing to the baby. Lil' Bit was the best medicine for her.

Prayers
I am continually amazed at how many people are praying for Sierra. I will be out shopping or something and I will run into people who ask about her and say they are praying for her. Some of these people I meet I barely know! Then there are many others who I have never met or even heard of who are praying for her. It is so heartwarming to know that so many people love her and faithfully pray for her. God is using all of your prayers. He is working so many miracles in her life. We are so blessed to have her. She is truly a priceless treasure.

Stubborn
Well, Sierra got a double dose of stubbornness and it is becoming quite evident. Now that she is eating from a regular bottle, we thought it would be good if Jason and my mother started feeding her also. Before, I was the one who would always feed her since I knew how to operate the special bottle. They have tried several times to feed her, but the little squirt takes a few sucks and then refuses to eat unless Mama feeds her.

March of Dimes
On Saturday we participated in the March of Dimes walk. It was a three mile walk. Jason's work, Sprint, had a team. We took the dogs and the baby. They gave her a shirt that says, "NICU Graduate."

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

No OT?

Sierra has been having occupational therapy once a week. Medicaid only pays for the first 6 months that they are out of the hospital. Her 6 months ran out. Now that she is covered by our insurance we figured we could just get them to cover the OT. Unfortunately it isn't that easy. Jason made a bunch of calls trying to figure out what we needed to do to get our insurance to cover it. No one seems to know. We may just try taking her to an OT appointment and then submitting it to insurance to see if they will cover it. Our OT is working on trying to get Medicaid to approve more months.

We could always get OT from Early Childhood Intervention, but we like Sierra's current therapist. Her therapist has been working with her since she was about a week or two old and we know that she really loves Sierra.

Y'all can be praying that everything works out so that we can continue with our current occupational therapist.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Little Stinker


I have been meaning to post an update for a week now.

Sierra is really starting to show more personality. She is getting an attitude. Recently she has begun throwing little temper tantrums. She throws her arms forward and complains. Although this is behavior that is going to need correcting, it is WONDERFUL to see! It is so good to see her expressing herself in more ways!

We have begun giving Sierra some solids. I started her out on a jar of baby food that was rice cereal mixed with applesauce. It took her a little while to get used to the taste but she seems to like it. She slurps it down. Avocado is supposed to be really good for babies, so I decided to give her some. I mashed it up and mixed it with milk. The first time I gave it to her, she took a spoonful, made a face, and promptly went to "sleep." I continued to try stuffing it in her mouth which was a messy job! She didn't open her eyes once. Then I put her bottle in her mouth. Her eyes popped wide open and she stayed wide awake while she drank the entire bottle. At first, I was wondering if it was a coincidence or not, but she did the exact same thing every time that I tried giving it to her. One time I was playing around and would switch back and forth between the avocado and the bottle. Avocado in...time to fall asleep; bottle in...time to wake up! She's got this playing possum down to a T.

Sierra's OT (occupational therapist) says that she cannot believe how much Sierra has improved after HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy). She says that she would love to see an MRI to see if it shows any thing different since HBOT. Her OT says that Sierra has already surpassed what the doctors thought she would do.

Sierra is beginning to push her chest off of the ground and pull her knees up under her. It seems like she is starting to take a few steps toward creeping (crawling on her hands and knees.) Of course she is very delayed, but we are hoping, praying, and believing that she will walk someday, contrary to what the doctors say.

BTW, I just have to say that our dogs absolutely adore Sierra. I call Bucky her buddy and Shylah her guardian angel. We usually put a blanket on the floor in the living room and let Sierra lay on it. The other day, my mother was here. She picked Sierra up and put her in the bouncy seat but left the blanket on the floor. Shylah came in the room later and walked up to the blanket. She sniffed it and started whining because she didn't know where the baby was. Finally she found the baby and was happy. =)

Monday, April 21, 2008

Doing Good


Sierra is doing good. The most recent progress she has made is that now she is drinking out of a regular bottle. Before, she was using a special bottle because her sucking was so weak.

She is now 7 months old. This weekend she was able to ride a horse for the first time in her life. She has plenty more horse rides coming! =)

Here are some pictures.


Thursday, April 10, 2008

Lil' Bit with Her Puppies

Here are some pictures I took yesterday of Sierra with Buck (Boxer) and Shylah (German Shepherd).

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Wonderful Day!

Today we went to downtown San Antonio. We walked around a park that had nice waterfalls. There was a cottage that had beautiful flowers all around. But all those beautiful flowers paled in comparison to one rose, Sierra Rose. There in the garden I started spinning her around and saying,"Wee". As I was spinning her, she SMILED! I spun her around more and she smiled every time. You cannot imagine how wonderful it is to see her smile! We are praising the Lord for her beautiful smile.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

First Taste of the Political World

Sierra got her first taste of politics on Saturday. She went with us to the Republican County Convention. Everyone there loved her. Unfortunately she will not be able to attend the state convention this year.

Here she is with her grandfather. He was so proud to have her there to show off to everyone. :-)




















Nice picture of the two of us.
Photo copyright of Marcelino K.
and may not be printed, posted,
or published without permission

























Sierra hanging out with her uncle.










































This is a really bad picture of Sierra with Senator Troy Fraser. The senator was in a hurry but was gracious enough to stop for a very quick photo.