Room Change

Hi All..Marcella's room has been changed...it's actually the same room, she's just by the window now. So the number is 588-4000 room #4330.

Jon

Pictures and more info on Marcella

Hi all...Just got back from the hospital...Marcella is still there. Now I have pictures!!!!! I've also got some more info, but we'll do the pictures first.

Here she is in her hospital crib. They're pretty cool, even if they remind me of a prison cell.

This is her with Mommy in the ER exam room. They had to admit us through the ER for some strange reason that I never fully understood.

Here's another crib shot

Here's a shot of her in her Primary Children's shirt. Every doctor that comes in to see her (including the residents (who are doctors) and medical students (who aren't yet)) comment on how alert she is. All of the nurses have assured us she's one of the cutest babies they've seen in a long time. When Kanien went home to take a shower, the nurses took Marcella to get a bath. When Kanien came back, she said the nurse told her Marcella had received six or seven "cutest baby ever" comments while travelling down the hall.



Here's a picture of the monitors on her stomach and chest. It also gives a pretty good idea of the distention of her stomach for those of you who haven't seen it. Whenever I see monitors like this, it reminds me of E.T.

Well now I've got to run to class, so I'd better go. I'll write the updates in a little bit. We love you all and thank you for your prayers. OK...just a mini update. They're sure it's not Hirschprung's Disease. They don't really have any other leads, though, and are going to do another Cystic Fibrosis test today. That gets my nerves going again, but I'm not near as nervous as I was last Tuesday. They're also starting Kanien on a milk-free diet (not lactose free, milk free) to see if Marcella is allergic to milk protein. That means Kanien can't really eat any processed foods, and needs to eat a lot of fruits and vegetabes. We'll be keeping Marcella on a formula-only diet for a couple of days to make sure Kanien's "possibly allergic" milk gets flushed from her system.

Well...gotta go, so I'll give a full update later today.

Marcella Update

Hi all,

I thought I'd give you all an update on Marcella. That picture is her right after she was born, but I think it really shows how she feels about all of the tests they've been doing on her.
We had a good talk with the GI Specialist, Doctor Molly O'Gorman, today. She wears a Lance Armstrong "Livestrong" bracelet. Yesterday she made a comment that Marcella's hematocrit was a bit low, and I said, "Well at least we know she hasn't been doping." She got the joke, and we all had good laugh. They're not sure what's taking place within the Bowels of Marcella (get it? "within the bowels of mercy" ha ha...funny!), but have given us some options.

They found a heart murmur yesterday when they were examining her in the ER. She said that if her heart has to work extra due to its shunting some blood over to the left half instead of into the correct arteries, (ecocardiogram) that might be a problem, but she's not sure because she isn't a cardiologist, so they're probably going to do an ecocardiogram tomorrow. It's pretty unlikely it'll have any bearing, but since she's not too familiar with it, they're going to do it just to be safe. The heart murmur doesn't impact the distension of her stomach (bloating),either. The distention is their primary concern right now. Dr. O'Gorman thinks that if she can get the swelling to go down, she'll start gaining weight right away.

She had a colonoscopy this morning, as well as a barium enema. We don't have results for either of those tests yet. They think she might have a bowel obstruction, something similar to a kinked hose. That could be causing the swelling...but it's not totally obvious in the x-ray's they've done. She could also have a "simulated" bowel obstruction...I think that's the word they used. But....usually with a bowel obstruction there aren't any bowel movements, and Marcella has normal bowel movements...but they're not ruling anything out right now.

They said it might be Hirschsprung's Disease. That's a disease where the nerves in the large intestine that initiate parastalsis (ganglion cells) are not present in parts of the large intestine. That leads to constipation and other complications. But Marcella isn't constipated, so it's probably not Hirschsprung's Disease, but they're not going to rule it out yet. In order to determine if it is, they have to go in and obtain a cell sample with a biopsy. I don't think it'll come down to this. Her blood was a bit anemic, and her hematocrit was a bit low (is that the same thing? I think so), which is a sign of Hirschsprung's. But there't the whole constipation issue that really throws a wrench into this.

Another possibility is Marcella is allergic to milk, Kanien's breast milk included That would be the easiest thing...they're waiting for the tests on that to come back, I think. Then we'd just have to feed her $20.00 shots of formula and she'd be fine. They also said she might have an abnormally high amount of bacteria in her intestines that is eating all of the sugars and turning them to gas...which would explain her failure to thrive and her distention.

As you can see, they're still pretty stumped on what's going on. Hopefully we'll find out some more tomorrow. I'll update this again if I have time. I'm currently dealing with full-time work, full-time student, Grandma Noni, Marcella in the hospital, Grizzlie's hockey games (I help run a camera and the Jumbo Tron there...but don't have another game for a week or so), and the constant humming in my brain that is just a part of being a genius. Also, either Kanien or I will post some pictures of Marcella in the hospital either tonight or tomorrow night, so keep checking back. We really appreciate the phone calls and prayers and other support you guys are giving us. We love you and think of you often. We're especially grateful that Dad put us on the right track early, and had the sense to send us to see Doctor Kramer. And we're grateful that Doctor Kramer sent us to Primary Children's, so we can get this resolved.

Until next time, this is Reading Rainbow....

Butterfly in the sky......
I can fly twice as high....
Take a look,
It's in a book,
On Reading Rainbow....Reading Raiiiiinbowwwwww!!!!

(please don't ask why that came into my head just now)

Marcella in the Hospital

Hi all...Marcella is now at Primary Children's hospital. We'll be there until they find out why she can't gain weight. They didn't do any tests today, so we still don't have much information about her condition. She's still as happy as ever, and smiles at the nurses and doctors. I had a fun chat with a 3rd year medical student about his pediatrics rotation and how things are going...he seemed really nice. One nurse told us that the best case scenario would see us leaving on Wednesday, and worst-case scenario we'll be there until December 7th....but that's just tentative as well. Soo....if you want to get a hold of us, here are the phone numbers:

801-588-4000, room #4329

Well...That's about all I can post right now...We were there for about 7 hours before they actually got us a room...no one really knew what to do with us when we got there...but things are better now. Neither of us is too excited about staying there for this long, but we're glad that there are resources like this for us. If we live during the Days of '47, she'd probably just be labeled as a "sickly child" or something like that..."weak constitution...doesn't eat well" and that would be the end of it. I hope you are all doing well...and your support is much appreciated.

Love you all!!

Jon

Where's Marcella?

Marcella and I had a fun time doing the piles of Laundry. How can you ever keep up? I swear that when you dirty one thing you put three things in the hamper just so you will never be caught up. Thanks for all your prayers and I will let all of you know how it goes today. I love you!

Some Thanksgiving Pictures

Here are some more Thanksgiving pictures. Enjoy!!

Another Smiler

Here she is again...What a cutie!! 

Smiling Baby

So Here's Marcella with Jason, Kanien's youngest brother. She was having a heyday smiling and laughing a ton while he was holding her. It was pretty funny...she seems to smile more when she's being held by boys....I don't think this bodes well for Kanien and I...We don't think our first child should be a boy chaser. Although, I guess if she takes after Kanien, then that's her distiny.

 

Mom tries to do Marcella in

So Mom asked if she could burp Marcella on Thanksgiving, and we said, "Sure, that's fine." Little did we know that she'd try and do her in!!! Luckily for us we noticed and immediately confiscated her Marcella Privelages card. It's snowing right now....probably about an inch down on the ground. Pretty cool, eh?

 

Lizzie the Model

Well...Lizzie had this picture taken by a professional photographer for her Glamour Shots portfolio....the photographer? Kristin Wallin. She took time off from her New York Fashion Show tour to come to Thanksgiving...and while she was here she decided to take a few pics. 

Marcella

We just found out this morning that Marcella will be going to Primary Children's Hospital on Monday morning. They're admitting her to see if they can find out why she's not gaining any weight. It's apparent that she's getting enough food now, but they found fat and sugar in her stool, so they need to know why she's not digesting any food. Your prayers are much appreciated!! We love you all!

 
 

"It's an older code, sir, but it checks out."

That's a "Star Wars" Quote...I'm hoping Greg will break out his Star Wars DVDs come Thanksgiving and give us all something to do when we're up partying and having a HUGE feast at Mom and Dad's. I know...I know...it's cruel to post something like that when there are some of you who live out of state, but I'm getting extremely geeked out for this year's Festival of Gluttony. It's one thing to be thankful for stuff, it's another to be gluttonous...for Me Thanksgiving really ushers in the season of gluttony, to which Halloween is just a sweet prelude. There is no other time of year that you can go to the store and buy ice cream, chocolate, potato chips, popcorn, caramel popcorn, cheese popcorn, York Peppermint Snowflakes (A Hershey's product), Reese's Christmas Trees (also made by Caroline and Jeff), Milky Way Reindeer (sorry, this delicacy can't be attributed to Good ol' Milt), Cranberry Soda, hot chocolate...bring it home, eat it all, and not feel the least bit guilty? Only during the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas....It's fast approaching, so prepare yourself!!!

Here's the Man of the Day...Greg. I took this picture umm....October 02, 2005.













So.....Here are some other pictures. Kanien made a comment about how much Elizabeth has changed in one year....See for yourself. And please....NO COMMENTS ABOUT HER IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!! She's so cute it'll just get filled up with things like "OMG....Elizabeth is such a babe!!" or "I can't believe how cute Lizzie is!!!"

This is the picture that's a year old....You can check out Kristin in it too...she's been much embiggened as well.
Then Here's Lizzie at the Hospital holding Marcella....I won't tell you which one I think is Cuter.
And Here's Lizzie striking a pose...this picture was taken August 27th, it must have been at one of Kanien's Baby Showers.


So....here are some other pictures you guys will enjoy. First one of THE OWENATOR....who just had a birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ORANGE JUICE!!! (Get it? Owen Jeffrey=Orange Juice).



And now here's one of Marcella...UMMMMMMMMM...I mean Little Kanien...



This is a picture of a Dragon Fly that Kristin took. It's the best picture she's ever taken, in my opinion at least. It's resolution is set so it'll make a great desktop Backgound at 1280x1024...it's the same aspect ratio as your screen, so it fits just right.



And now we have the great Matriarch and Patriarch of the Hanson family...I think they look really nice here:



Well...That's all for today. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. I know we all miss Laurissa and Caroline and their respective families (but just between you and me, I think we miss them the most because we used to fight so much with them and now there's this empty spot where all of that fighting once was (if you object to that comment, please substitute "hang out" or "do massive group hugs" with fighting), and now we really miss them...but we miss their families too), and want them to come home.

Please leave your comments in the comments box below...especially if I put up a picture of you. If you don't comment and you have a picture of you up here, then you're not going to be on Jon's Glutton All Stars list...and as such you won't be invited to POST-GLUTTON-CON 2006.

In The Spirit of

It being Rivalry week, Marcella just wanted to say GO UTES!

Is She going to Do it?

We have been feeding Marcella some formula and as most of you know, she sometimes has a hard time keeping it down. Here is how Jon has solved this problem of always having to change his clothes and everything else around him.

Luckily she kept it all down.

Marcella Sneaks a Snack

Tonight when I came home from work, I saw Marcella trying to sneak a snack. All I can say is she's sure got Grandpa's genes, and good taste as well.



When Mom got the skinny and realized what was going on, she promptly removed the contraband from Marcella's reach. We really want her to gain weight, but don't think she should do it by eating chocolate.

This weekend Jon and I found the Joys of trying to get a cute family picture taken. Not only was it a bad location, just because it was outside, but it was about 20 degrees tooo cold. That coupled with a little girl who doesn't like to be woken up made for some pretty fun pictures, none of which are worthy for "the Christmas card" But I thought that you would like them just the same.

The following are links to videos of Marcella. Most of you guys have broadband, so it shouldn't be a problem to download these. There are three versions of most of them, a small version, a large version, and an MPEG-1 version. The small and large versions are WMV-9 files, so you'll need at least Windows Media Player 9 to watch them. Get it here if you don't have it. If you don't want to get it, that's why I included the MPEG-1 videos...they're not too great quality-wise, but they'll work on any computer. The large videos are full screen, the small ones are...um...smaller. You can either click on the link directly, or right-click them, and select "Save Target as..." or "Save link as..." depending on your browser.

Jon


Marcella gets her hair washed

Small-3.5MB

Large-20MB

MPEG-1-9MB

Marcella on the floor

Large-23.5MB

Small-4MB

MPEG-1-10.5MB

Marcella rolls to her side-2MB

Marcella gets dressed

Large-67.5MB

Small-11MB

MPEG-1-30MB

Kanien's working really hard getting Marcella to eat. She nurses her every two hours, and gives her formula in between nursing episodes. When we started giving her formula, she didn't really like it. We started with two ounces, which she ate fine, but promptly let us know it wasn't agreeing with her by putting the entire two ounces onto her blanket. I couldn't believe she had that much room in her stomach!! So a few hours later we gave her one ounce, thinking the two ounces were just too many, and with a smaller dose she'd be alright. Well...same thing happened. We figured she was getting too much formula too fast. So now we let her eat for 30 seconds, then burp her for five minutes. It takes about half an hour for her to eat two ounces, but at least she's keeping it down. Here are some more pictures.