Crazy Exciting News & Turner Falls

We were at Six Flags water park and after Natalie went on a water slide I noticed that her mickey button looked funny under her shirt.  I assumed the cap had come open, but when I looked it had ALMOST come out.  I guess the force of the slide did it.  And the fact that several days before the baby had pulled on it pretty hard- I guess that did something because it hurt her pretty bad.  Maybe it unstuck it since it had seemed stuck before that. We took all the water out of the balloon and wanted to take it out but Natalie was VERY scared.  Instead it kind of went back in.  A day or two later it did the same thing when she went swimming.  But still she was nervous to take it out.  She was trying to get herself brave enough and then it went in again. 

 

 Fast forward five days....

 

We went on a little day trip to a waterfall three hours north in Oklahoma.  It was HOT, but we hiked around a bit to see the falls and a cave and then headed to the swimming area---that's when things got interesting.  Scroll to the bottom to see what happened!!

We had to crawl on our bellies to get into this cave. 
Quite an adventure!
Stephen loved it once he was sure there wasn't a bear inside:0)

The other way out wasn't quite as hard as coming in. 

The swimming hole.
 Notice Natalie still has her mickey button in this picture!

Stephen takes on the diving board!

This slide was responsible for taking Natalie's mickey button out.
I guess after this ride she said she lifted her shirt up to get the water out
 and her mickey button fell on the ground!!

Beautiful Baby!!

 

And here is Natalie's mickey button!!  It has been stuck in there for a long time.  I used to change them very frequently, but after she finished chemo they didn't need changed nearly as often.  The last time I tried to change it, it seemed stuck and was hurting her a lot so we just left it alone.  It is old and gross!  But at least her skin around it has looked so amazing all these years.

 So excited for it to be out.  Natalie hasn't been using her mickey button for food since part way through kindergarten but she was still using it for mirilax until about the end of 2012. Whenever we tried to have her just drink her mirilax before that she would start to have trouble with vomiting and would start to have more GI trouble and her appetite would suffer.  But the older she is getting, the tougher she is at dealing with her tummy troubles.  She has been doing very well drinking her mirilax.  We saw her GI doctor in March and we were going to take her mickey button out but decided to hold off because we were going to the ocean for spring break and she wouldn't be able to get in a natural body of water for a week after taking it out...ha she has great timing huh!!!

This is what the hole looks like where her mickey button was.  It leaked for several days after coming out, but seems to have stopped now.  The doctor told us if it still leaked after six weeks we might need to do a little surgery to fix it, but luckily it looks like it has closed.  It has been about a month now since it came out and it still looks pretty similar to this, so I am guessing it will leave a pretty good scar.  She has had her mickey button since two months after she turned two.  After it came out she kept telling us all the things that felt better without it--her seatbelt didn't hurt it, her shirt didn't pull on it, she could lay on her tummy with a lot more comfort....and that's just to name a few!!  Pretty exciting!!!
The harder part came last week when she needed an antibiotic for a major sinus infection.  She is working on getting used to taking some BIG pills. But she is doing it even though she doesn't love it.  I think she misses her mickey button a little this week but she is still happy to be done with it!!

We covered it and then put plastic on it so she could stay in the water
at the falls but it came off and we had to cut our swimming short. Yes, not the best timing but you can see how excited she is!! Mostly because she was SO scared to take it out and then it was out on its own!!  Yay!!!! 

I saw a girl at a swim meet wearing this shirt and I HAD to find one for Natalie.

When I saw it, I had a huge emotional response to it.  I went back and looked at something I wrote the week of her wish trip and I used that exact phrase,
"bright days ahead...." at least four times as I described the story of her wish. 

Crazy!!  And PERFECT!! And yes, that is blue sparkly!! 
How fitting to go with this post!!!