We had a little scare for the second time over the weekend. Turns out that due to decreased oxygen capacity which derives from the pulmonary stenosis, Carissa has breath holding spells. She took a spill on Sunday and bumped her little head which in turn startled her. She starts in one of those cries that you have to blow in their face to get them out of but she never comes out of it. She continues to scream until she runs herself out of breath and then goes limp and passes out due to lack of oxygen. Once she passes out her involuntary reflexes take over and she begins to breath normally again. This is a very scary thing to witness because her eyes never close, her lips turn blue and she goes completely limp. The doc's say that she'll grow out of it when she gets a little more control over her reactions but until then continue to call paramedics "just in case" she doesn't start breathing again right away. We go on the 30th of march to have an MRI of her heart so they can better determine treatment for her stenosis. They want to get a better picture of what they are dealing with. Hopefully we won't have any more spells and the MRI will show good things. I will update everyone a little later.

We here in the TNKilgore household have had a very busy last couple of weeks. We started off this one by having a bunch of sick people. I stayed home with Carrisa until Wed. We had hoped that the boys wouldn't catch the bug that was going around but inevitably Kendra was at the doctors office with them by Friday.
We had Carissa's cardio check up on Wed. the Doc is concerned that her pulmonary artery isn't growing at a rate that will allow it to keep up with the rest of her body so we are going to do an MRI as soon as possible to get a better picture of what's going on and then create a game plan for future treatment. Everything else is going rather well though. The liver Doc is super pleased with her growth and development shes 15lbs 6oz. and 26 inches long. She tries to mimic mommy all the time and wants to eat our food @ dinner time (she'll eat baby food but doesn't like it to much).
Tyler and Drew are getting to be a handful, they hurt me when we wrestle now. They both continue to make honor roll at school and are becoming very independent.
I'm still waist deep in class work @ work training to get my green belt in MTSU's Six Sigma program. I've recently headed up and co-led a couple of projects that will save our solution center $400,000 annually so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Kendra continues on with her work as clinical coordinator @ the Doc's office (fancy name for Nurse manager). With her winning personality she made quite a few friends and not many enemies. We're hoping that when I get promoted she can go at least part time maybe working a couple days a week so she can spend more time @ home with the little one. I don't think she could ever quit work completely unless I made enough money for her to go shopping every day(she gets bored easily).

Well that's all until next time hope all is well with everyone.

As we close out 2006 we want to wish everyone a blessed new year. With the holidays coming to a close and life getting back to somewhat normal we feel like backing up a bit because it all goes by too quickly.

We had a good Christmas and I think everyone got what they wanted so we made it through with no tantrums. Tyler is out in TX with his dad until Wed. Drew went to his moms last night and Carissa is behaving well so of course we have no idea what to do. Kendra and I just stare at each other like it's way to quiet. If it weren't for our rowdy kids I think we'd go NUTZ!!!!!!!!! it's almost eerie not knowing to act without kids! These are our family pics I think I also sent them out via E-mail so enjoy and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Kendra and I finally got all of our X-Mas shopping done this weekend. Wal-Mart was a ten min never go in again experience and what they were sold out of we found elsewhere for cheaper. So don't be fooled, Wally wolrld seems to be getting to big for it's britches.......
Carissa's levels came back indicating she needed to have extra vit. K so we're going to have to do two shot per week until further notice. To top it all off my insurance doesn't cover vitamins so we'll have to carry the finacial burden solo on three of her meds now YIPPIE!!!!!!
The boys are getting huge I'll send X-Mas pics soon. The day after we had them taken Drew got his first black eye. It was a rather funny story... He bumped into a kid and the kid thought he was being pushed so when Drew turned around to say sorry the other kid threw a sucker punch and caught him in the eye. Drew said " I didn't hit him back cuz there was a teacher right behind me and I didn't want to get in trouble".
This was the first time I've had to think really hard about what to tell him if something like this happend again. My conclusion was that I was proud of him for showing restraint and that he did the right thing but............ If there isn't a teacher there to help you out or you can't get away from the aggresor ball up your fist and punch the kid square in the nose!!!! I don't know if this was the right thing to say but I would hate for him to take a beating because he didn't want to get in trouble. We also talked about the difference between starting a fight and defending yourself and he seems to get the concept so I feel like were good for now.
Tyler on the other hand wants Drew to point the kid out so he can beat him up for hurting his brother.............I've still got some work to do.

We had a doctors visit last week, so I thought I would update this blog tonight.
Carissa is stable for the most part, that's all they really tell me when we go. Her bili level (this make her my little glow worm), is 12, it has gone up since the last visit. Her cholestrol is 494, yes that is not a type "o", but they expect this because of her condition. This is what makes her itch so badly, but one of her liver numbers went down slightly. They are not sure why. We are giving her extra vit. D,and those levels were good. They are checking her Vit K, because that is the next vit. level they usually see drop, if this is low then we will have to start giving her Vit. K injections 2x a week, we have not gotten that level back yet. However, on a brighter note I found another bottom tooth today, yea, so we are up to three now. She bites hard too. She is beginning to enjoy veggies, green beans are her favorite so far. She is faking a cough, when you cough at her, she thinks this is so funny. Carl had a cold last week, and he was coughing, I guess that is where she picked that up. She is rolling over and beginning to sit up by herself. She has yet to figure out how to catch that Dog's tongue , but she is trying hard. The boys both made honor roll this 6 weeks, and have maintained that all year so far. We are very proud of them, and not sure where they are getting their smarts, haha. We are gearing up for xmas, shopping in the mall is not pretty. I ventured out to Walmart tonight at 10:30pm, and felt for my personal safety. I had to leave my cart and purse three isles down to go and look at something I was wanting. I figured if they want my large, heavy, pink purse with no money in it, they can have it . That is one less thing I have to carry to the check out. Well I will be getting up in a few hours to the little one, so I guess I better end this. Kendra

Carissa went to the doc's office yesterday for a checkup with the GI and all is well for now. There had been blood drawn on a previous visit to do gene testing to try and find the abnormal gene that causes Alagille's syndrome, all tests came back as unremarkable.
The doc is talking about entering us into the Pittsburgh Alagille's gene study in order to try and identify the root cause (or locate the) abnormal gene. According to Kendra, she likened it to reading War and Peace and having one word in the middle of the book changed without affecting the entire story. In other words can you say Needle in a haystack?
She also said that there is a chance that this may be a new type of mutation so cross your fingers that we don't become guinea pigs in order to get someone published!!!!!!!
Well the doc is happy with her growth, she's 13lbs5oz. and 24and3/4" long cute as a button and grinnin with teeth. The brothers love her when it's convenient for them so all is well in the tnkilgores houshold so until next time I bid you all farewell

As you can see Carissa is enjoying her first true romantic moment. With baby food in the near future I feel this will be a match made in heaven.........and the dog will enjoy it to