Vote for Gabriella Roddy - Payne, OH in the 2013 National Mobility Awareness Month Local Hero contest!

Vote for Gabriella Roddy - Payne, OH in the 2013 National Mobility Awareness Month Local Hero contest!

To all my readers, We are tryin to win Gabby a new van! Please take a moment and vote daily for her! We can do this!

AFO'S

I first need to say how sorry I am for my lack of updates! Being a full time student is defiantly taking up more of my time (In a good way) We have been dealing with the wonderful waiver program in Ohio and by wonderful I mean this is a very long drawn out process that should be simple, but due to some major poor listening skills we have had to reapply. This time around I have everything in order and we should be good to go.

Gabby had the botox in her calf muscles, and then we followed up with serial casting. The first week was living hell! She was so angry and sore all she did was cry. We had her fitted for new sole less AFO's two weeks ago, and today they came in. We had the last set of cast removed, and she finally had flat feet again! I also for the first time in Gabby's life got to go buy her some shoes. I know to most people we would not think twice about it, but this is one of those milestones that meant the world to me. We went shoe shopping right after our appointment. As you can see from above she loves them! She is growing like a weed! The whole time change thing did screw her up and for about a week was staying up till 2-3 am! I think she is finally back to her schedule and that is a good thing as my spring break is over and its back to the hustle and bustle of school.

I am carrying all A's in school with one B. If you know me from back in High School, well you know how much I truly applied myself... So it feels good to be going after my dream-and being successful at it. I have registered for all my summer classes and applied to be in my nursing classes this fall! I can say to everyone who uses the excuse its impossible because I have kids, is full of crap! If I can do it anyone can! As you see this post is at 1:30 AM, because I just finished up some homework! I feel this is also showing my kids that at least one of their parents is furthering their education and that college is a good thing. I feel this is even better for Kiera to see, as she truly needs someone to show her the right way in life!

The kids got all A's and B's on their report  cards-I know not a big surprise there! Smarty pants kids! I will try and post again here soon!
Love you all-
Maria

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Life has been BUSY here! The kids are doing great in school. Kiera and Kirstynn made the honor role as always plus got their C.A.R.E.S. awards to! Jazmyne is to young for the traditional grade card but is getting all E's and S+ ! We are getting ready to start 4-h projects at the house. Kiera is taking a second year in photography (We have a DSLR and it was to advanced for project one last year) and quilting! Kirstynn and Jazmyne are clover buds so will be doing the county wide project all clover buds do. This year its Keeping fit and healthy. They are keeping me busy with all their homework, and school activities!

Gabby is doing great as well. She goes Feb 12 to Akron for her botox treatments! I am very excited for I know this will help relieve the daily pain she is currently in. She is moving forward with Ipad! We received the arm to attach it to her wheelchair, and it has made it more accessible for her. She can choose if she wants to play on it or not. She also can choose when she is done. I love seeing her move forward, even if its just something simple. I feel something simple is massive to us but to the rest of the world trivial.

School is whooping my butt! I am getting 100% in math as well as Comp 1. Biology is going good to. I am just struggling with it. Its not my cup of tea, I am learning allot about things I had never thought about before and I am guessing that is the point of the class.I have great teachers, and its a wonderful school program as well. We have out meeting Wednesday with a state worker. She will be coming out to the house to do the finial interview of Gabby's wavier. I have had to call endless amounts of times and demand to find out what was going on. Her file was sat off to the side at one point. It happens just glad I am on top of this! Lets hope this will be the last step and soon be able to have nursing here. I am going to bed after 2 am(when I finish my daily school work) and getting up by 7:15 to help the other kids get ready for school. Its starting to whoop my butt, and ware me out.

Well I hope everyone had a happy Ground hog day. Lets hope his prediction was right and we will see a early spring. Now with spring comes Ohio's crazy storms, so I am hoping for a calm spring and summer this year. I think we got our fair share last year! :-/

Thanks for all your support!
Love-
Maria

Christmas in the PICU

I wanted to post an update to all my readers whom don't follow us on facebook. Gabby just got out of the hospital, from a picu stay. We had her teeth cleaned about 2 1/2 weeks ago and Gabby aspirated while having them cleaned. A week after her cleaning we took her to Dr. Wiley and he confirmed she had aspiration phenomena, we got her on medication and hoped for the best. We ended up spending Christmas Eve in the hospital (gave her fluids and sent her home) She only continued to get worse as the days past. We ended up taking her back to our doctor's office and they admitted her into our local hospital. (Great Hospital but not a children's hospital) they could not place an iv line, and had wanted to place a pic line (We refused) and were transferred to Children's hospital in Toldeo. Gabby spent 3 day's in the PICU. This was the sickest we have seen her to date. She gave us all a large scare. She was in an unresponsive state for the first 20 hours. Her right lung was full of phenomena, and was starting in her left lung. Her o2 stats were in the lower 80's(off oxygen) and high 80's with oxygen. Her respiration's were around 55-60 and her heart rate had shot up to around 170+. She was placed on some new antibiotics (strong ones) and lots of new breathing medication. We also are getting a vest that will 'shake all the fluid around" She is home now. We are taking the week off from everything to continue to allow her to heal. Please, Please everyone get the flu shot. There fear is she also caught something else and that was why her body was unable to fight it off. It was a scary couple days for us. The doctor's and nurses were great! While there we also filled out new paper work to get Gabby on a wavier. This will get Gabby a permanent nurse, and will allow me to be able to attend things with the other children, more time for school (so i can be full time student) and it will help us be able to keep her out of the public. There is just to much going around, and having her limited to the public will help reduce her being exposed to any other virus.

I also found out 85% of my schooling will be payed for with grants! That is only about 15% we will have to pay out of pocket. I don't expect to go for free but its nice to have the extra grants to help out. I hope to be able to get some scholarships to help pay for the following 8 classes I will need to obtain my RN after I finish with my LPN. :) I never thought I would be one to head back to school at the age of 30, but I am happy some classes transferred from my first time around. I know this will help my family in the future, and give me more knowledge with Gabby so we can give her a better quality of life. They are older getting older and someday we will have college and cars to pay for! :D I hope every one had a Merry Christmas! I will post picture hopefully this week from Christmas!

Thanks again for all the prayers, We see the power of prayers daily!
Maria