Sarah had a hard but good weekend

A few weeks ago, Sarah went to the ear doctor to have her hearing checked and had tubes placed. She had to be knocked out for this procedure. Well things seemed fine, so we thought.
The last few days of last week, she seemed like she was getting sick and was unusually fussy. Friday she kept tugging at her left ear. During bath time she was really upset. So Saturday, since I was backed up with house stuff due to training, I asked Mandie, Sarahs provider to take her to urgent care at Sarahs doctors office.
Turned out she has a blood clot in her right ear. She was prescribed steroids and antibiotic ear drops.
She seems to already be feeling better.
Sunday, Darin and the girls took a trip to Luke AFB with their grandparents. She had on a diaper since it was going to be a long trip. When they got home, took her straight to the potty, took her diaper off and it was bone dry. Man did she go! Lol! Shes GOT IT!!! She is still doing AMAZING with potty training. YEAAAA MY GIRL!

Sarah taking a bite of food and not even fussing!

Her is Miss Sarah taking a spoonful of food and not getting all upset. I was holding the camera so its a little funky looking, but as you will see..... its sooo wonderful!!!!!

Sarah having fun with feeding! Yea

The video your about to see is YEARS in the making. I don't want to say much, because it's a surprise. I was sooo thrilled that I was able to capture it and Sarah was for the most part, cooperating. This may be a small step and seem like not that big of a deal to some, but to those who TRULY understand Sarah, this is a HUGE HUGE STEP for her getting closer and getting her one step closer to her goals. If you dont see her in a blue shirt playing with her tube, then click on the wording "Sarah playing with food."

Start of a remolded room for Hannah

Hannah has a new bed, a water bed to be exact, with drawers and storage thanks to our neighbors Kelly and Carl. THANK YOU GUYS!!!  Here is the before and after of her room.

We want to paint and clean up the walls. Add cork for displaying her work and her art and fun things.... its all a slow work in process. Hopefully we will have it done by the end of the year! She loves it and I am sooo happy. Man.... was it work getting it cleaned..... hopefully it WILL stay that way! :-))) 

Another milestone for Sarah!

Ever since Sarah was a baby... she has been rocked to sleep. Not every night, but at least 90% of the time. As she has gotten older and even recently, especially with a new routine, we rock her to sleep maybe 2 nights a week. Well last night was just another typical night, rocking her to sleep. (Its not anymore that she needs it so much, its us, still wanting that time with her)
Alot of times, I will rock her, then she will get up and go to her daddy and he will rock her till she is out. Usually he has a bed pillow under his arm to make it comfortable for both of them.
So last night, daddy was rocking her... all of a sudden she got up, grabbed the pillow, and laid it next to me on the couch. So I placed it under my arm.... she then grabbed it put it back next to me on the couch and got up on the couch, lied down and fell asleep.

What most dont know....is that this is the VERY FIRST TIME EVER, Sarah has done this. I mean EVER!!! For us as her parents.... this is a HUGE HUGE MILESTONE, A HUGE HUGE STEP towards her progressing, maturing and becoming a young lady.... no longer a baby. We were soo sooo amazed she did this and just blown away and soo happy. Sarah is SOOO SOOO much smarter than we know and she is slowly, but surely letting it out and showing us a bit more each and every day. We are so proud of her and love her more than words can say!

Latest News

I decided to add a Pay Pal account for donations for Sarah. Anyone wanting to donate to her and her medical   bills, foods, any need for herect..... anyone can and anything is sooo sooo much appreciated!

Well we've had such a busy week. Tuesday, Sarah had her hearing test where she needed to be put under and she had tubes in her ears. She was SUCH a trooper that day, but by the end of the night, very cranky. Cant blame her at all.

Hannah has been working hard getting ready for the end of the school year. She is doing soo well! This week she has her swim class, like she has every week. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she finally passes this class and she will be headed to the next level.

Darin has been working alot and I mean ALOT. He has been working a 2nd job still doing land surveying. However he is not sure when he will be getting paid for this work. Hopefully soon.

And finally....I had been getting sick.... and that stinks. Today I am finally getting my energy back. Moms are not allowed to be sick... but hopefully the worst is over!!

Also... I was officially hired on at UHaul, working from home, taking truck rental reservations. My training starts next week and it will be for 3 weeks. It is kind of a bummer that my training times will be during school times and not sure if I will be able to have lunch for visit both the girls schools before they get out.... but hopefully I will have enough time during the last part of May.

That is all for now!!!

Great News for Sarah!!!!!!

Well I have such wonderful news to share. I will post this part on Sarah's page as well.

Last week, Sarah had an EEG. It was set up at home. The EEG was suppose to be 48 hours, but overnight Sarah messed with the head gear and by morning it was such a mess. So basically we got a 24 hour and while she was sleeping.

The WONDERFUL WONDERFUL news is that according to her neurologist, he did not see any signs of seizures during this time. The spacing off, the hand and arm flapping, is most likely her stimming or day dreaming, quite possible an autistic characteristic. Not 100% sure, but of anything as long as it is not seizures causing this, then I am soo happy. She had started her new medication just over a month ago CLOBAZAM and I am wondering if that is the one drug helping her. She still is on Topomax, and we are weening her off of Risperdahl.

This has been the most WONDERFUL AND BLESSED NEWS we have had in MANY MANY YEARS!!!! God has answered our prayers. I am trying my best to keep this all positive, but on the other hand I have to be realistic. I am keeping my eyes and ears wide open and still staying alert just to be sure. So as or APRIL 16TH 2012, is the beginning of her seizure free!!!!!

Hello there!

Ok... so here I am.... working on keeping things up and running. Any updates for Miss Sarah can now be found on her page. So this will be a trial and error type of thing, but once I get the notches worked out.... it should be running smoothly.

Well things with the girls have been going rather good. Sarah being bussed to school has been the best thing that has happened in such a long time. I am S-L-O-W-L-Y finding so much more time to get things caught up around here, get on a good schedule and not feel so damn burned out both mentally and physically all the time. School for Sarah has been running so sooo smooth. It frees up so much more time with Hannah. We still have our good days and our bad, but I am slowly seeing Hannah so much more happier. I am not having to ride her butt each and every day like I had before.

Darin has been working alot, thank goodness. He was out of town for a total of 3 weeks. Financially that will help us out so much. But since I am finding more time, I am going to conquer once again the notion to look for work. Ideally something at home. So I am doing lots of looking and seeing what is out there. Hopefully I can find a legit at home job where I can set my own hours. If that goes well, then just to get out of the house, break up the monotony, maybe even super part time work in the evenings. Its all a work in progress.

So that is the latest and greatest with us for now!

Have a wonderful day!!!!!! 

Once again I am here

Ok.... so I am once again trying to make this a regular thing, posting and such.

Its been very crazy since I last posted. Sarah left LIFE after being there since 2007. It was such a hard decision, but there were so many factors to leaving. The main one is that she needed to be more challenged. I feel as though she finally hit a point where she is able to learn so much more than she will show us. She is doing so well in so many areas.

Currently, she is opening up to more receptive language, meaning, when we ask her a question or tell her something, she will do it, if she chooses, or respond in a verbal way. She is taking sips from her sippy cup, with water and with her blended diet. She is allowing teeth brushing, she is getting better with her fine motor skills while using the IPad. Thanks to my brother for getting us one to use for her. She is even making progress with potty training. She rides the bus to and from school and comes home soo soo happy!!! The down side is she is having more seizures lately. We are waiting to hear back from the doctors office on doing an at home EEG monitoring and will be slowly changing med. Other than that things are good.

Hannah, well, she is doing so well too! Getting mostly A's and B's in school. Math is ok, but other than that, her grades are great. She won a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut by meeting her AR goal. She is back into swimming and hopefully she will pass to Advanced Stroke. Next month I am hoping to get her into an singing/acting class... I have seen some things similar to comedy fun shows that I know she would love to do.

That's it for now!

January 12 2012

Hello~

Well its a new start to a new year. I hope that this year I will be able to maintain this site and not so much on Sarah's site. It will still be up and running and hopefully I can some how bring both together. Who knows.

Anyways.... life here at the Zicafoose family has been pretty good so far.

First of all, I have to say we had such a WONDERFUL Christmas this year. It really was all about the girls and just seeing the joy and excitement in their faces. Especially for Sarah. Cognitively.... she has come so very far and to see her express such happiness after receiving something she loves is just priceless to us. Hannah was so very excited with all she got too.

We also had a family "adopt" us for the holidays. George and Bonnie Page and family invited us into their home for dinner and to share in the evening with their huge family. They welcomed us with open arms and were so genuine,kind, and very giving.

They gave to so so many things that we deeply needed. Soo many essentials from laundry soap, bottle water, paper towels, toilet paper, food, to dog food to gift cards so I could buy Sarah's foods, to clothes for the girls. Because of their incredible generosity, we were able to purchase gifts the girls have wanted all year. I was overjoyed to see them this happy.

We also were blessed once again by our "Secret Santa". Because of them, we got an even bigger surprise for the family.

Several months ago, we had one a kitchen makeover from Republic West. I had entered a contest Traumatic Brain Injury, that Darrell Ankarlo started.

Well we were the first winners and what we got, which is amazing and beautiful are cabinets where our desk area sits. It has freed up so much room and its now a combo office/supplies for Sarah and its all hidden. We just love it.

I am still working on this blog and trying to figure out how to manuver thru this. Hopefully I can keep it updated more often than I have.

Have a wonderful day!

Victoria