Well it's time for another update :) I have tried every day to get this written but haven't been successful, obviously!

Things have been moving along. Lots of medical crap that we're less than enthusiastic about addressing - but have to.

Carter saw his urologist on Monday and will have to have at least 2 more surgeries. One to clean out the infection that has developed due to his first surgery in March. So we're optimistic that the infection will be cleared the first time. Once the infection is completely cleared, we can schedule the surgery to repair the torsion - AGAIN! What are the odds that the surgery would repair the initial torsion, then a second one develops that is different than the first. I just feel bad for my Monkey. I guess that any mother has trouble being patient when their child is in pain. I will be excited to put this behind us and move forward. It is already affecting Carter psychologically. So I want this done fast!

Rayden is great! Potty training with ease! He is the most independent little shit! He has to do everything himself all the time! He saw rob go to the bathroom once and now he REFUSES to sit on the potty. He has to stand! We have step stools in front of the toilet & one in front of the sink so he can go potty & wash his hands w/o help. Letting go of ME controlling things is the biggest challenge. Its hard to step back and let the boys do things on their own. Besides me being a control freak - it blows my mind that my babies are big enough to be doing so much alone.

Robert is enjoying his new softball league. We go to his games whenever possible. Basically - whenever I can get other people to go with me because the twins LOVE running around the top of the complex and they go in opposite directions yelling "chase me mommy!" It is impossible for me to wrangle them alone. The boys LOVE watching Rob play. They appropriately "GO DADDY! HIT THE BALL!" or "YEA DADDY!" and "DADDY CATCH THE BALL!!!" and with whatever he does he gets "GOOD JOB DADDY!!" Rob says he can hear them when he's playing down on the field - which makes him happy.

As for me; I'm still blissfully employed as a Mommy! It is absolutely amazing. I am so lucky. I just hope the twins like it as much as I do. I'm sure that some days are questionable haha
I still have medical crap to deal with. My Intersticial Cystitis has been bothering me since I stopped one of my medications at the request of my pain docs. I used to take 2 anti-seizure medications: 1 to control my pelvic pain and the other to deal with the fibromyalgia. The new DR said that the fibro medication should control both... yeah right! *sigh* I don't have the energy to fight right now. My pain is constant and the pain medication on takes away certain pain - others are constant. Things with my gastric bypass haven't been going well. I've gained weight back with no clear reason why. We were thinking my stomach was damaged and stretched out from something that happened in March. I had a second surgeon do another scope of my stomach and they found out why I'm sick & vomiting all the time; along with the stomach pains. Still no answer about why I can't lose weight. My stomach measures 4cm from top to bottom - so it's very small. What they found was at the bottom of my stomach there are two tunnels. One is where my intestine was re-attached and that is normal. The 2nd tunnel is where my intestines were before surgery. Instead of closing that opening right up at the stomach, the doc closed it off further down so what is left is a tunnel that food can sit in and not go anywhere- so my body tries to get rid of the food by pushing it up cuz it cant go anywhere else. So that process is what makes me feel so sick all the time - food that is partially broken down but not digested. Yummy! The only way to fix that is to operate again and close that off right at the edge of the stomach. How we are going to pay for that - NO CLUE! My old insurance paid for the first surgery but I don't have that insurance anymore - just Rob's, which covers NOTHING related to bariatric surgery. The new doc I'm seeing about my stomach has me doing a detailed food log for a week and keeping track of my calorie intake. He thinks that it something hormonal that's preventing weight loss. May be my medications also. So it's a work in progress. I'm just thankful I FINALLY found a Dr. that agreed to take over my treatment. I've been searching for months - every office refused to see me because of who did the surgery - he is such a jerk. Whatever will be, will be.

Jer is moving out & a friend of mine will be moving in next week. I am looking forward to that. So have a busy week ahead of us. We are finishing the bathroom downstairs. Then we will paint the bathroom & the bedroom. Not to mention cleaning out the basement so she has her own space. Having someone pay rent will make things easier for us. Rob is still getting a 2nd job though. We are still paying for Carter's last surgery... now we have the scope I just got (which bills like an operation AKA WWWAAAAYYY expensive!), and Carters surgery thursday plus his 2nd surgery as soon as the infection clears. And even though this infection is a complication from the initial surgery - the insurance won't cover it that way (which would be free) because it didn't happen within the first 10 days. So it is like a brand new surgery. His first one was almost 1,000 out-of-pocket. Crappy insurance! We're just trying not to think about it because worrying just makes things worse. Carter's surgeries are unavoidable so it doesn't do any good to stress. Things have a funny way of working out.

WOW it's much later than I thought! Time to give sleep a try! WISH ME LUCK! ;)

~ Shelby