A Hectic Week

It has been quite a week this week. Damein started his Strafford Wood Bat Tournament which has taken up most of the week. He has had a baseball game almost every night this week. He has done well and they are undefeated as of tonight. They get to play for the championship Monday in Conway! I am so very proud of how well he has done throughout the week. He has pitched great and his on base percentage has got to be incredibly high as he is on base the majority of the time either via walks, hit by pitches or hits. He has also been hit more this season than any other kid on his team. He is getting a little tired of that :) One of the dad's took a few pictures of Damein and they turned out great! The Buffalo Reflex has had something to say about him every week now for about the last 3 weeks. I have been cutting the articles out and saving everything for his scrapbook!
Darein has had a week full of ups and downs. She started the week off by finding out that she has scoliosis. Her doctor's office from Kansas City called and said that when her xray of her abdomen was done the radiologist noted that she had scoliosis to the left. They suggested that we contact her pediatrician for further recommendation. They then proceeded to let us know that we need to get more strict with her Miralax and Benefiber regime so that she is regulated better and we will call back in 3 months and let them know how this is progressing. We will continue to wait to do anything about her left kidney reflux until we have her regulated better and then will proceed from there. She is scheduled to see an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday so that we can find out the severity of her scoliosis and if we will follow up with observation, bracing or surgery. Me and Darein are a little worried that she might have to have a brace which neither if us want for her. She had curvuture of the spine when she was a toddler and they chose to just watch it at the time. Unfortunately, with all of her other medical issues we didn't feel as though this was a pressing issue to continue care with and soon forgot all about it. Therefore, our concern is that it has possibly gotten worse. Darein is and has been having some back pain and with her recent diagnosis of chronic regional pain syndrome it is difficult to decipher whether her pain is from that disease or from the scoliosis and if it is severe enough that they will try to treat or not. At this point, we will wait to see what the specialist says on Tuesday.
On the positive part of life this week, my son tells me that he is dating the preacher's daughter which is good. She is very sweet. Damein however is not going to Prom this Saturday and I have to say I am a little disappointed. I was hoping to see him all dressed up in a tux, he is so cute! However, he has chosen not to go for whatever reasons and is choosing instead to have a date night with his girlfriend which is good too :)
Darein was asked several times on Wednesday by her Shop teacher to please enter the Industrial Technology Competition at MSU as she made a bench with a horse on it. She agreed to do this and brought home the permission slip. She ended up going today and qualified to take her bench to State Competition! 9 kids from her school made it and she is super thrilled about it. She even got a medal and a ribbon for it. Me and her dad are so proud of her. She doesn't get many opportunities like this so when she does and she does so great it's a really big deal!!!
I also forgot to mention that Damein took a test, I am assuming in Finance class and ended up scoring in the top 20% of the nation! It was a Financial Capability Challenge and he is being recognized by the U.S. Department of Treasury. I called the phone # on the consent form and it went straight to the U.S. Department of Treasury in Washington D.C. I was told that his ranking, name and school would be placed on the website for recognition and they would also send out something to the local media if they chose to spotlight those students and their schools. So it's kind of a big deal and we are very proud of him. 76,000 students participated so Damein doesn't think it's that big of a deal and says him and about 16,000 other students received this reward. I tried to explain to him that it was still a big deal because it was nationwide but he is staying humble on this one. I kept the top portion of the consent form though so that he has it for his college applications.
Anyways, it was kind of a big week so thought I would go ahead and write. Will probably write again next week once we know how things turn out at Darein's orthopedic appointment.
Take care and I wish everyone well :)