Tutu through the Tulips

It's Audrey's second birthday today!! Yaaaay!!! Daddy's planning to get off work a couple of hours early so that I can get in a doctor appointment (allergies have been kicking my hiney) and then we'll all go up to see the tulips together. Since the likelihood of her having some sort of age appropriate meltdown is high today (already I think I need to lock up the apples. Her stricture is kind of being a beast and we travel this Thursday to Boston for her next dilation) I was thinking of calling it Tutu Too Two Tulip Tuesday... suppose it's a bit much?

Fixing the Early Posts

I don't know how long it's been this way, but I just discovered that all the photos from the first four or five months of this blog had disappeared.  I'm so sorry!  Without those photos it kinda reads like strained spinach.  Healthy, but with nothing sweet to help it slide down easier.  Haha!  Long story short (yuk yuk) it was because they were originally input as links to a photo album on another site that has now changed their link format.  The best way to fix it is to manually replace each photo with a fresh upload, and it is taking ages to find and replace each photo individually, but the good news is I am also adding many more photos.  I am working overtime to fix it, and it is going to take a few weeks to get them all back up.  But in the meantime I'm noticing other errors and problems that needed to be fixed to help the start of our story flow more naturally, and having the opportunity to put captions on the photos that share some fun insights into our adventures as they were happening.  Gradually, hopefully the beginning of the blog will be becoming more friendly to visit.  Please do me a favor and send me a comment or email if you notice any errors or problems with the blog, layout suggestions, or in general if you have any suggestions for making this a nicer site to visit.  Thank you for your patience and help!

A Few Minutes of Normal

Today we braved church as a whole family again, something that's been becoming easier and easier as the months have gone on.  Since the anesthesiologists won't work on her if she's sick, and everything she gets seems to hit her harder than other kids, we're always very worried about exposing her to stuff.  My germophobia gets a bit of a reprieve as the weather warms up, but one place it still rears its ugly head is in the toddler Sunday School class, otherwise known as Nursery.  Even though we know Audrey would love Nursery, in order to protect her from infection we usually keep her with us in the adult classes or else take her home for her nap, as often she is very fussy by that point of the afternoon.  But today, a funny thing happened on the way to her naptime.  We were distracted by chatting with an old friend who'd come to visit for the day, and so when my 8 year old asked if he could take Audrey to his class to show them how much she'd grown, I said yes.  I intended to go get her in just a couple of minutes, but instead got caught up listening to our friend's conversation.  Several minutes later I hurried down the hall and passed the Nursery on my way to my son's class.  I paused for a moment as I saw a sweet sight... her name was on the list of children who were supposed to be in the youngest Nursery class.  It made me feel a twinge of longing and regret, and my eyes strayed momentarily through the classroom window at the sweet little toddlers singing Old MacDonald with the teacher.  I could just see Audrey standing in the middle of them, in her little polka dot dress.....  wait a minute.  That was her.  Standing in the middle of the seated children, back to me but obviously entranced with this wonderful place she'd discovered.  I hesitated for a moment, then knew what I needed to do.  Wouldn't you?  .....Duh!   I ran back to get my husband's phone to take a picture.  When I returned to the window, my amusement suddenly turned to panic.  It was snacktime.

I burst through the door in a flurry of protective paranoia.... "Oh I'm sorry! Audrey can't eat!"  I exclaimed.  The teacher serenely looked up and said, "Oh, that's what I thought.  Don't worry."  The teacher and I had never met before, and I was impressed that in spite of it being Audrey's first visit, she knew who Audrey was and what to watch for.  She explained that she and her husband were in school for medical training.

I looked at what snacks they were having, saw how excited Audrey was about goldfish crackers, rice chex and animal crackers, and I faltered.  She's been having trouble getting some foods stuck in her throat this past week, but dissolving foods and well chewed ones are still passing ok.  "Maybe we can try it," I said, "and I'll just stay with her to see how it goes."  So the wonderful teachers sanitized everyone's hands, then broke up Audrey's animal crackers into small pieces, and Audrey chewed everything carefully.

I saw on her face at one point that uncomfortable look that told me she was getting backed up in her throat, but the water everyone had been waiting for arrived quickly, they served her first and she excitedly grabbed her cup and drank deeply, and had no issue with gagging or choking on the bits of food in her throat.  I was so proud of her, and thankful to her teachers for being so fantastic.  Audrey actually finished all of her little snack, and happily went off to play with the toys.  I was floored, and so relieved.  I spent the next few minutes just watching her play and thinking to myself, this is really, really nice.  I hope she doesn't wind up super sick.  But oh, this is really, really nice.

Friends and Family

Kids with EA/TEF come in many packages. Some are repaired at birth and go home within a month.  A few take longer, but have virtually no complications afterward, like our little friend Sawyer.  A few take a couple of years to get through their post-surgery stricturing, and then they sort of taper off and seem to grow out of it by the time they're four.  Even fewer continue to have complications such as strictures and leaks into the early grade school years, and then live a fairly normal life.  There are some who struggle with complications their entire lives, but if you listen to the news articles and the hype and the gloss, there is a general teaching that EA/TEF is overcome within the first three years of life, at least to the point of being able to ditch the G tube and depend on food by mouth.  So, like in the NICU days, we've been sort of standing at the station watching everyone get on their own train one by one, waiting for our turn.  When you stand there long enough, you look around and notice the others still standing there.  And you become like family.

I would like to depart from talking about ourselves for little bit, and introduce you to some of the closest friends we have made on this journey.  Over the next few days, I will make a few posts introducing you to some of our closest friends, who have been walking their own long arduous journeys.

April 19

With the sad exception of the Boston Marathon bombings this week, things are going great.  I've been making great progress on getting the house "back" to clean and organized, and focusing on getting the family meals back to a healthy menu.  My messy bedroom is one of the last holdouts of hopeless disaster; and I looked at the portable crib next to our bed, taking up a lot of space, and thought "we haven't used it in months. She sleeps in her own room now."  Famous last words.  I decided to start tackling the mess by taking it down the next day, only to have her suddenly need to sleep there for a week. 

My facebook status on Friday, April 19th read:

What a full and busy week this has been... flags in Utah have been half mast all week, and Boston, Texas, we love you-- you have both been all over the news here in the West. It sounds so tiny in comparison, but Justin has been enduring a terrible ordeal regarding his cell phone--he was the victim of a scam on both the sale and purchase of his phone, it's been kind of awful actually, but on the lighter side I've enjoyed making very healthy meals for the family all week, tried making my own home-ground wheat bread for the first time, and loving trying lots of whole juicing for my own meals (this morning my juice was 1.5 apples, 2 oranges, organic power greens, water and a frozen mix of pineapple, mango, strawberry and blueberry), and last night made sticky rice with orange chicken, fresh oranges and steamed asparagus. I was so proud of my first attempt at sticky rice, until Audrey got it stuck in her throat and couldn't get it up or down. She was occasionally throwing up her own saliva but no food, so last night she slept in her bassinette beside my bed for the first time in months, waking up in the night gagging and gasping. She couldn't tolerate her feeding pump, her reflux was really bothering her, so I kept turning down her flow rate until finally I had to turn it off completely. The good news is, this morning she had cleared it! She begged for cheerios and water and ate quite a few without incident. I am thinking there is no way we are going to make it another two weeks before going back to Boston, without another dilation. She just needs to eat by mouth, and we can't let it stricture down to the tiny hole she had like last week. I want to try to get a balloon dilation here in Utah to get us through this interim time, and plan on the more complex procedure when we get there. Tried to call Dr Manfredi's office in Boston this morning, and was surprised to get an answering service, so I found out about the big shootout, city-wide lockdown and manhunt there in Boston. He usually does his surgeries in the OR today, so this is probably difficult for many patients today. Thinking of our friends back East and sending prayers for your safety and comfort.

Update:
"I've discovered since posting this that both toddlers are also fighting a digestive virus, so that must be causing Audrey's extra reflux. I tried her pump again during nap and she had both gagging and diarrhea. Sorry for too much information, haha! But it was a relief to know this wasn't all just her esophagus acting up. Thanks for the caring words everyone."

I can't overstate how much it means to have the support and feedback of our family and friends, and the experienced comments of other EA moms, when surprises and questions like this pop up.  Here are some of the sweet comments that people made on this post:

Carolyn T:  Little Audrey has been such a little trooper... She has a tremendous role to play on this planet... we won't know what for many years... but she's fought the battle to stay here with wonderful parents willing to fight along side her. Sorry to hear things aren't going so well. Just keep saying " every thing will be o.k." !! And eventually ... in our loving Fathers own due time and a little prayer power and his help... it will be!! Hang in there and keep praying!!

Amy P:  Dr. Manfredi is on vacation this week as it is spring break in Boston. Jennings is gone as well he left the middle of last week for Costa Rica. They both should be back next week.  [My 12 year old EA/TEF daughter] gets rice stuck whenever she eats it, she gags, gasps and throws up saliva all the time at night and doesn't need dilations, it may be just the type of food she ate. when things are stuck she can't even get water down. Love ya

Melissa R: I am so glad you two are out of Boston, It was so hard having to listen to the news with the knowledge that you were safe at home. If you had been there I know I would have become a nervous wreck.

Dana E:  I'm glad you're not in Boston right now, Susie! I know how good you and Audrey are at making everything an adventure, so you+Boston at this point in time would be a bad combination! Love you. Hoping things settle down in Boston SOON. It's been a crazy week for them.


Stacy K: [My EA/TEF toddler] had trouble with rice a few nights ago as well 

Melissa M: That's really very interesting that she had such a tough time with the rice.... My [non-EA] dad has an esophageal stricture, and he ALWAYS gets rice stuck in his throat (also chicken and anything even a little bit dry). (He usually avoids it, but once in a while he just wants to go for it, I guess....) Anyway, he ends up spending nearly an hour in the bathroom trying to cough it out. I wonder what it is about rice that would cause that.... I hope you get that little girl's woes figured out, and quick! 

 

We Heart You, Beautiful Boston

Morning of the Boston Marathon

Our first morning back home in Utah.  My 10-year-old son snuggled into bed with me this morning, and I knew it would mean a lot to him if we pushed ourselves to get out the door to join him on a school field trip.  So I hustled to get the two babies ready and we went to play with the school class at the dinosaur museum.  The housework could wait.  

 

I lingered a few minutes after the class left so that I could take the three year old to the bathroom, and it was literally while I was helping my little guy in the stall that my cell phone rang; it was my paternal grandmother in tears.  Since she lives in Oregon, she hadn't known for certain when we were traveling home, but she had been watching the morning news and the horrific news stories about the bombing of the Boston marathon had her frantic with worry for our safety.  Knowing how we love an adventure, if we had been in Boston today, I'm sure we would have been there, cheering on the runners who had worked so hard for this exciting day.  Seeing the picture in my mind of beautiful Copley Square so clearly, with all of my peaceful and happy memories there, was disconcerting.  The whole thing seemed impossible, incomprehensible.  

On August 25th, Justin's birthday, we spent part of the day visiting Copley Square.  It was only a couple of days after Audrey's resection surgery, and she was artificially paralyzed with medication at the time, so our emotions were frazzled and raw, adding a note of surreal to the beautiful surroundings.  It was hard to persuade him to leave her bedside, but we needed that time together. Copley Square was a nice place to stop for some photos and enjoy his piece of peanut butter cheesecake.

I decided to drive the long way home that afternoon, through the mountain pass, flying over the stunning mountain vistas near Park City, grieving for the beautiful city of Boston, reveling in the open skies all around me and marveling at the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness in this world.  I began the drive by listening to the news, growing more and more horrified as the scope of the attacks came into focus.  One man was describing how people's severed limbs had gone flying past him in the blast, and in spite of my horror I felt a responsibility to listen carefully to his interview that was being drowned out by other noises in the car.  But when I reached out to turn up the volume, to my surprise the radio somehow switched to playing a Hawaiian album my husband and I had bought on a date last summer to see the Polynesian Cultural Center on tour, I hadn't even realized was still in the player.  I pushed the buttons for several seconds trying to get the news back, but for some reason the radio would not cooperate, and suddenly I noticed that I had been ignoring the fact that in the back seat, the news had been making Audrey cry.  As soon as the music began she quickly settled and fell asleep, and I felt like I there was a gentle message being sent here.  So I tried to relax into the moment and just let my mind rest.  Soon both babies were peacefully slumbering in the backseat as I drove those beautiful miles over the mountains listening to Hawaiian music.  It was oddly incongruous, and yet somehow exactly where I needed to be.  So many thoughts ran through my mind, frustration at the things I could not control, prayers for the wounded and the law enforcement officers and doctors that would not rest until their job was done, prayers of gratitude for the safety of my family and friends who had all for various reasons either been out of the city or out of harm's way at the time, pride in the resilience and strength of the American people and the wonderful people of Boston, and just, time to breathe and enjoy the beauties of the earth.  As details about the bombers would unfold in the coming days, I would realize that the little town where we'd lived for all those months in Southern Masachusetts was right next door to the little college the younger brother had attended; he'd lived twenty minutes from our house.  I'd driven past the small campus every time I went to town for errands.  At first that knowledge had made my blood run cold.  But yet, our friends there and everyone we knew was safe, and my heart beat strong with love and faith in God and mankind.  Even the wounded were being cared for at literally the #1 hospitals in the nation both for children and adults.  Still the horrifying, hopeless feeling question remained, why would these two young people, why would anyone do this thing, why in Boston, why now?  There is so much that we don't know.

..."But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out.
This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

"But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."
 ~Patton Oswalt

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.” ~Paul Rogers, aka Mister Rogers

April 14

We traveled home without incident, and again made friends on the airplane.   I gave Audrey's balloon to a little girl in the train station, because we couldn't take it on the airplane.  (After I explained it carefully to Audrey several times, both well in advance and at the time of parting.  She was ok with it until we actually walked away.)  Our later flight meant we were riding trains and standing in lines at the airport during naptime, and Audrey showed her nearly two-year-old-ness with an impressive tantrum at the airport.  

She melted down when I wouldn't let her ditch me to push her stroller all over the airport lobby as I waited in a very long line to get our boarding passes (we always have to check in at the counter because of our medical flight status and because she is a lap child).  She lay on the floor screaming, and when it made no difference she actually contorted herself into an inchworm on the floor, bunching up and scooching along in her fury.  These are the moments when being the seasoned mother of five serves me well.  I remained calm and carried on, while she definitely got the attention of the amused and sympathetic crowd.  One 11 year old girl was excited to learn that we were also going all the way to Salt Lake City, because she loved babies and was traveling alone.  Despite Audrey's behavior, this brave girl enthusiastically decided that we would sit together on both flights, and visibly relaxed as she had obviously been nervous about flying alone.  Audrey settled down once we were through security, and a nice lady at the Cosi restaurant where I bought a sandwich gave Audrey a free bag of chips.  (Seriously, who gets anything free at airport food places??  It was so sweet of her!  I had told the person who made my sandwich that I always look forward to coming there, that in my opinion it's by far the best place for quick food of all the airports I'd seen.  Then, a person from the restaurant came running after me as I went to board our plane, and gave me a coupon for a free entree the next time we came.  Wow!)  We were so happy to finally get settled on the plane, and Audrey quickly fell asleep and slept for more than half of the 9-hour trip home.  High winds delayed us on our layover in Denver, so we were pretty bushed when we finally got in to Salt Lake, but the fam met us with fresh homemade cookies.  It's great to be home.

April 13

With her Disney Princess balloon jauntily bobbing alongside our stroller, Audrey and I walked around the North End and visited the Haymarket (outdoor weekend grocery stands), a fantasy land where my wildest grocery price dreams come true.  

 

She loved snacking on our $1 box of strawberries. The way she devours them is almost as cute as the way she pronounces them, "Buhbewwies!"  

My fifty cent pound of fresh green beans will have to travel home with me because we went to visit Amy and her daughter one more time before heading back to the house this evening.  We enjoyed seeing a group of runners in superhero costumes being goofy in the streets as we walked around.  Lots of tourists and people in Boston are in town for the famous marathon, and the positive energy of the city today is contagious and exciting.  I am very excited for our host family to be heading to Paris for the first time, for their spring break this evening! Bon voyage!

April 12 Dilation

morning:
 I have to switch Audrey's feeding pump from formula to Pedialyte at midnight on the nights before surgery, so it makes for some pretty long travel days, but on the plus side, a tired mind can do some pretty funny stuff. For example, first I dreamed that I was laying on a beach in the sun, and I suddenly thought oh no! I have to wake up! I forgot to put on sunblock! Then I dreamed that I was watching a faceoff between Orlando Bloom as Legolas (from Lord of the Rings) and David Bowie as Jareth (from Labyrinth). They were having a kicking match to settle the issue of who had the most fashionable pair of tall leather boots. I have admired the tights with tall boots look on women in Boston, and just this past week I scored a pair of tall black boots at Savers. I think I'm getting a message from my subconscious: on stressful days, dress to kill. And wear sunblock.

afternoon:
Surgery went very well. Doctor M did a lot of cutting inside her esophagus, also did some localized steroid injections and a balloon dilation. He opened her to about 11 or 12mm. Audrey is awake and doing great! We should be discharged soon and will take a bus back to where we're staying to rest.  It has been another day full of good things: incredibly kind nurses (who gave her a beautiful Disney Princess balloon and lots of cute attention), wonderful visits with friends, three found pennies, and nice compliments on my "tall boots" outfit. ;-) 

Audrey was feeling so well after surgery that it worked out to visit some of our special EA friends in the hospital.  We loved seeing our friends Amy and her daughter who are also from Utah! As well as Deb from child life and a special nurse Jenn, and our Amish friends from upstate New York Katie Ann and her little son Amos, who struggles with tremendous complications from both EA/TEF and Down Syndrome, and has been in the hospital continuously for his 2.5 years of life but is close to being able to go home for a "break" (even though doctors have been unsuccessful at repairing his esophagus). I cannot over credit the joy and lift that it gives me to meet amazing people like these families in the course of this adventure.

Then to top off our day, Audrey ravenously ate a big dinner of cut up mac n cheese, an entire little jar of applesauce, and even a few excited bites of yogurt, a food she used to vehemently refuse but could aid her big time in getting the nutrition she needs to get off the feeding pump. 

Back in Boston, April 11

After a long day of travel, I'm snug in my bed in Boston! This has been one of those wonderful, "tender mercies" sort of days. Met a high school choir embarking on tour, met a 7th Day Adventist and her family who had the most amazing life story about escaping terrorism in Indonesia and living for 7 years without her beloved children until they could reunite, met two other groups heading to Boston for the first time for conferences and had fun telling them about things to see and do in the city, and Audrey slept peacefully for most of both plane rides. She loved toddling around the mezzanine at the Denver airport, and although her strong desire for food (despite being unable to swallow it) meant I didn't dare eat anything today until she went to bed, she agreed that a TCBY smoothie was a good compromise for us to share at lunchtime, and contentedly slurped up a bunch of that. Got good news from home, sunny skies in Boston on arrival, a short happy stop at the New England Aquarium, 
  
bought chowder (to go) from the oldest restaurant in America, (that I waited till she was in bed to eat), 

found little gifts for each of the children, some of which were given to me for free by a sweet store owner who fell in love with Audrey. People offered to help me with the stroller or bags everywhere I went on the public transportation, spent an hour happily conversing with the family I'm staying with here in Boston, and another hour happily conversing with my children and husband, and to top it all off, twice this evening I found a penny and picked it up.... and all day long I'd had good luck even without them. ;-) Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts! Surgery is at 11:30 Eastern.

The Updates are Coming!

Our dear friends old and new,
A brief note of explanation.
Please forgive me for the long silence on Audrey's blog!  The past four months our lives have been so chock full of miracles, heartbreaks and adventure that I have been unable to keep up with writing about it, and I have only just now managed to eke out a few hours to begin the updating process.  In December my laptop broke and it took several weeks to get it fixed.  There are more than 25 blog posts in draft form that will be posted over the next couple of weeks, covering the months of December through March, and for the moment I feel I owe you a lightning fast summary of our current state.  Audrey's progress has been up and down these past four months, but the highs, when we have them, are definitely getting higher. For example, sometimes now, soon after her dilations, she can eat almost like a normal toddler!  When she is open, she is learning to chew and swallow and her fear of certain kinds of foods and drinks is definitely being overpowered by her curiosity and thirst to learn more about life and the part food plays in it!  We needed to stay in Massachusetts much much longer than planned and wound up saying good bye to the rest of our family soon after New Years, and then staying (through the immense generosity of new friends) at our rental home in Southern Massachusetts until Audrey was cleared to return home to Utah, and return every few weeks for further treatment.  We saw our beloved Utah home for the first time in over six months at the end of February, then turned around and came back to Boston the following week for a few days, then went home again for two and a half weeks, and came back again, and then again, and we are now on our fourth trip back to Boston for a dilation.  In the time I have been home I have been cleaning and organizing like a madwoman to reclaim my home from long months of "momlessness" and helping the children to get resituated with their doctor and dentist appointments that needed to happen, as well as working hard to refill their emotional buckets.  So in a sense, what a friend said to me tonight is true, that we simply needed to "circle the wagons" for a bit.  Thank you for your patience.  I confess I did hit a snag on a difficult post I was writing back in early December, that I needed to put on the shelf for a while, and it held up the works just long enough to prevent writing about the flood of information that quickly followed.  I will be working hard over the next few weeks to get caught up and share with you the surreal adventures we have had recently, but for now, please know that we are still here, we are still fighting our battle, and we are so grateful for you!

An Unwelcome Surprise

After a sweet spring break filled with family, friends and spiritual uplift, I'm unexpectedly sitting at the hospital with Audrey on this beautiful rainy Monday. She hasn't been able to swallow solid food since Thursday, and we suspect the culprit is a handful of grapes she conned out of her big brother. I think the grapes got stuck just above her stricture, and the esophagram we just completed seems to agree. Certain foods are famously challenging for EA kids, but with all the progress she's made I guess we got a little over confident. Even though we are traveling to Boston this week for a dilation, her doctors felt it was important for this to get cleared out before we travel. She was a total champ for the test, best ever for her, where she had to lay down under a machine and drink barium while they took x rays to see what was happening inside her throat. The debris was obvious and unfortunately the stricture looks like it has worsened significantly in the past two weeks. Crazy questions, wondering what is going on inside her cells and why. She's heading into the operating room now where they'll just remove the debris and get a better look, we should be fine to go home tonight and travel as planned on Thursday to Boston for Friday's dilation.

A little elaboration on why the esophagram test was best ever for her: She is normally very scared and instead she cooperated beautifully! She was too nervous to open her mouth to drink the barium, but she grudgingly let me put a little in her mouth with a syringe, and it was enough. Even though she's normally pretty chill in the hospital, there was a definite improvement in her stress level for this particular test. I was amazed how relatively relaxed she was on the table, letting them position her as needed and staying in that uncomfortable spot until they were done. I love that she seems to be responding well to verbal explanations prior to her procedures now, it's a big help.

Awwwwwww! :-) Still asleep in the recovery room.

4pm:
The debris is out, but I'm sorry to report that Audrey's throat has inexplicably strictured from 15mm to 3mm in just two weeks. We are fine, though our minds are filled with questions.

She has still always been using the feeding tube for her primary nutrition every night.  As several friends have suggested, smoothies are a fabulous idea for when we start to replace the full nutrition of the formula with oral food.  We are so close but just not quite there yet.

Her food by mouth is not yet "counted" toward her overall nutrition.  Food is just fun for her, but she loves it. It's why I brought her in today really... She was upset from wanting food and we thought we could help by clearing the grapes out of her throat, so she could snack again. But the doctor is now saying no solid food until after her dilation, so bummer. Might just have to let her have all the ice cream she wants.

The friend whose baby shower was where the grapes originated felt bad for Audrey, but I told her truthfully, she was probably already having problems in there before the grapes got stuck, and if it hadn't been those it would have been something else! She's been stealing whole apples off the table and taking huge bites of them, she acts like she is starving and begs for real "big people" food, it's part of the very independent attitude she has right now.  One friend theorized that this sudden stricturing might have something to do with a growth spurt, and I think she might be on to something there.  Other families with EA kids have had similar sudden setbacks throughout toddlerhood, that finally tapered.  I wonder, could growth hormones be sending a message to that scar tissue as well, to "be fruitful and multiply" like the dickens?

At any rate, the plan is that she and I will travel to Boston this Thursday, her dilation is Friday, we rest Saturday and hopefully return Sunday.