I'm a blog slacker...

Well, it is great to have my husband home again! Dan got home last weekend from SERE (survive, evade, resist, escape) training in Washington. It was definitely not the best time of his life but he did survive and he learned alot. It is however not something that he wants to EVER repeat.. poor guy. This is the picture he texted me after he returned from a week out in the woods "surviving." He looks so exhausted.. and he lost about 7 pounds through the 3 weeks of training... good diet plan I guess!

For a few days while Dan was gone Callen and I got to go to Utah to visit some family. Although it ended up being an awful trip for Callen and me, it was still really great to see family.

This is getting ready to take off on the plan from San Antonio, things were still good at this point.. and then callen started coughing mildly throughout our trip...

My brother picked us up from the airport and took me to visit the school I used to work it, that was really fun. I also hooked up with my roomate that I had all through college. I took her and her husband along with my brother and some of his roomates out to Brick Oven. It was lots of fun. It was great to see my old roomie and my brother Dusty has some great roomates as well. That night I stayed with my roomate and around midnight Callen woke up coughing, throwing up and having trouble breathing, so I woke Tami (my roomate) up and she drove us to the ER where they told me Callen had Croup... great. She got steroids, a respiratory treatment, x-rays at of course antibiotics just in case for her Neutropenia, which the dr. didn't believe me that she had and I had to argue with him for 5 minutes before he would believe me.. great.

Throughout the next 5 days that i was there with family Callen was still sick, coughing/throwing up and NOT sleeping. I averaged about 2 hours of sleep each night which is what made the trip not so nice. However.. I have awesome family that didn't mind being woken up all throughout the night to a crying hacking baby.

I also have great in-laws who watched Callen for awhile one day so I could go skiing, so fun! I'm not any good but it was great to get out there and try! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Although Callen saw snow in Iowa over Christmas it was just too cold to go play in it, so this is her first experience touching snow, maybe someday she'll like it!! haha

this is Callen and her Cousin Hannah, so cute. On the right is my sister-in-law Pam, it was so fun to see her and her adorable little girl!

Callen likes to feed people, here she is feeding my brother grapes.

Here are the pictures from Brick Oven (the best Pizza ever) for some reason my blog wouldn't let me move them up to where I talked about them.

I loved seeing everyone and I also loved coming home to my own bed and a quiet house! It actually wasn't that bad to be home by ourselves for a couple of weeks, Callen and I got to hang out and play! She is changing so much, she's starting to talk and learning new words and signs ever day, I love it! Once Daddy came home she wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with him but after a couple of hours she was giving him hugs and kisses, so all is well in the Leininger house!

Our New Assignment

Well even though many of you already know this, since we found out we could not go to Kadena we have been trying to figure out where we are going. It's been a bit of a roller coaster trying to get a new assignment we have finally found out that we are going to be stationed at Scott AFB in Illinois. The base is right next to St. Louis, MO. The assignment was a surprise as we didn't even have a chance to fill out a new dream sheet when someone just decided to send out medical packet here, but it should be fun. It is fairly close to my family... at least closer than we are now! So that will be nice to be able to visit for long weekends etc. Dan will be one of the few active duty KC-135 pilots there as the 135 unit at Scott is a Guard unit. Hopefully that will be a good experience for him though. St. Louis is close so there should be good medical care for Callen, and hey... we've made it almost 2 years in Del Rio, so anywhere should be a pleasant chanage right?!

It is easy to get annoyed with the Air Force sometimes.. ok alot of the time, but i'm starting to realize that each assignment will be what I want it to be. I mean, life is what you make it right? So I am ready to head off to a new adventure in Illinois and it will be great because I will have Dan and Callen with me and we will make it great. It really is just nice to know where we're going.

I've had alot going on lately, so hopefully i'll get some more posts up here soon about what i've been up to. I've been so bad about blogging lately! I hope everyone is doing well.

Kadena Denied

SO.. we've been so busy trying to get everything done with orders and etc. so that we can get the Air Force to move our things and I could go to Altus with Dan for his training. He was suppose to leave this weekend but we didn't have orders yet or approval from Kadena so I was going to stick around and figure all that out and then go join him in Altus. Well, this morning we got word that Kadena actually denied us because of Callen's medical condition. While we weren't completely surprised because we knew it was a possibility we are still a little bummed. I was really getting excited to go to Japan we had even gotten Rosetta Stone and were trying to learn some Japanese. I even organized my house getting ready for the movers with things separated for long term storage etc. At least i'm glad we didn't sell our car yet!

So basically right now we have no idea what we're doing and where we're going. All we know is that it's not Japan.


Yay for unexpected hiccups, life is full of them!

Leininger Update

Ok... so I know it's been awhile, we have been so busy! Just as a super quick update... We had a great Christmas break! We went to Iowa to visit my family for a couple weeks and had a great time!

Callen got this turtle from Grandma and Grandpa leininger and she LOVES it!

she was very interested in the new baby calves at Great Grandma and Grandpa's Farm

We visited some friends from high school and their little boy Jobe, what a cutie!

Even cosmo got into the Christmas spirit.. well kinda

Cruise!!

After christmas Dan and I left Callen with my parents and went on a carribbean cruise for a week! It was amazing! We had such a good time, we went down to Progresso and Cozumel Mexico. At progresso we went to the Mayan ruins and to salt flats and a private beach and then to the flea market in town. Then at Cozumel we went clear water kayaking (the kayak is clear so you can see through to the water and see all the fish). And we also went snorkeling which was probably my favorite part, the water was so beautiful! I couldn't believe how nice it was! We ate Way too much but it was so worth it!

when I went back to Iowa to get Callen there was no one sitting next to us so she sat in her own seat and played, she was so good!

Answers....Finally!

Yesterday afternoon we got a phone call from Callen's hemotologist. Although they told us it was highly unlikely they would find anything on the first round of labs....they DID!! Callen's blood came up positive for an antigen agains her neutrophils (a type of white blood cell). She has now been diagnosed with Autoimmune Neutropenia. This means that her body does not recognize her neutrophils so it sees them as enemies and in turn produces an antigen to attack them. So although she produces neutrophiles her body destroys them before they can build up and be there to fight off any infections. The Dr. said that she can still be treated pretty normal we just have to be more cautious and it will be alot more serious if she does catch something, she will have to go in for antibiotic shots to help her body fight off infections.

The Good part about all of this is that she will likely outgrow this within the next couple of years. I read that 80% of babies that get this spontaneously outgrow it within 2 years of diagnosis. SO... although it might be a rough two years with a very paranoid mom, Callen will hopefully outgrow this and can act just like a normal child in a couple of years. I know this may not sound like good news but since in the back of my mind i've been terrified that Callen had some kind of cancer and is going to die, to me..... this sounds like really good news!

Also, great news, we shouldn't have any more trips to San Antonio to see the Dr., he just told me that she will need to get tested every 3 months to monitor her neutrophil count.

SO.... i'm feeling pretty good lately, it is really nice to just have some answers instead of having no idea what's wrong.

Also, thank you to all of you for your kind words and your support, I have so many good friends that have been so sweet to ask how we are doing and offer assistance!

UPT Graduation!

Finally, after a long year of pilot training we are finally done! Dan received his aeronautical rating as well as his wings, such a big accomplishment. I am so very proud of Dan and all of his hard work this past year. I know it hasn't been easy for him but he has done such a great job both as a student and as a husband and father. It was a great week for us, we were able to do all kinds of fun activities that are included in graduation. We were also able to have both Dan's parents and sister here as well as my parents for the last week and on the day of Graduation Dan's aunt and uncle drove down from Austin to be with us. Here are a few pictures from all the activities.

We all were able to take our turn flying the T-1 Simulator

The Retreat/fly over ceremony

Dan Receiving his wings from Col. Deucette

I was able to pin Dan's wings on, it was a big honor

Dan broke his first set of wings and presented the other half to his dad, it is suppose to symbolize luck throughout his flying carreer by being the only wings that will ever be broken.

Isn't he cute!! :)

Uncle doug and Aunt Sue

My parents

My parents, us, Dan's Parents

Dan and his Dad. His Dad was a pilot in the Navy

Callen Update

So I've had alot of people ask me how Callen has been doing. It has been pretty up and down lately. She had another week's battle with fevers and her Neutrophil (white blood cell) count went down again after going up slightly. We made the trip to San Antonio again, they had results back from one of her previous labs that said she had been negative for Roseola, so basically the Dr's are back to where we started, which is having absolutely no idea what is causing her to have no white blood cells. They basically told me it could be anything from a number of various autoimmune dissorder she was born with, chronic benign neutropenia which she has a 50% chance of outgrowing by age 5, her body could be attacking itself, all the way up to worst case it could be some form of cancer.

SO... they took as much blood as they could afford to take from her and sent it off to someplace in California for more labs. They said most likely since it could be so many things most likely we won't find anything out on the first round of labs and there will be many more rounds of bloodwork before we get any answers. We're just hoping to have some kind of clue which direction to even take for the next labs. Once the fevers go away and Callen starts eating and sleeping again she really looks and acts perfectly healthy. So right now she is doing well, she's my happy girl. Since she is so severely neutropenic (low neutrophils) we just have to be super cautious about where we take her and what kind of germs she might pick up while she's there. So we're slowly starting to actually get her out of the house, we took her to a couple graduation events and we took her to church. I've never been one of those germaphobic people that washes my hands nonstop but I think i've been keeping the hand sanitizer companies in business lately!!

Anyway, that is what's going on in the life of Callen, hopefully we'll get this all figured out soon so she can always be my happy girl.

Thanksgiving

So I know I'm a little late but we had a Wonderful Thansgiving! We took a trip up to Austin to visit Dan's Aunt and Uncle. They treated us SO well! We had such a great time! We had a wonderful dinner of course and did a lot of relaxing and games with the family. They are such fun to hang out with, it is nice to have someone close! Uncle Doug and Aunt Sue were so sweet, they watched callen for us while we did all sorts of exciting things (date night at the Melting Pot..mmmmm, Watching the new Bond movie, and black light mini golfing!) I love getting alone time with my hubby! What a great trip, and the best part of the whole thing... I didn't have to cook at all!
I hope everyone's thanksgiving was a great as ours!

Drop Night

For those of you who don't speak "Air Force" Drop night is when you get your Airplane assignment. Last night was our Drop Night. We found out Dan will be flying the....

KC-135

Stationed in....

Kadena AFB, Japan (it is in Okinawa)

Here is the base

A beach in Okinawa

Ok, so I have to admit I was VERY shocked about our assignment, and a little angry about the ranking system of Dan's class since this really wasn't very high on our "dream sheet." However, I am excited to live on a tropical island and to have the adventure of living in a foreign country. SO, I think it will take me a little while to get used to the idea, but probably somewhere around 6-7 months from now we will be heading off to Japan for the next 3 years!!

If it's not one thing, it's another....

As many of you already know Callen has been sick again. I don't think it has anything to do with last time but it was stressful nonetheless. It all started last Monday when Callen woke up from her nap, she felt really warm so I took her temp. It was 103.8, so I gave her Tylenol and it came down a little, she had a fever through the night at at 3 in the morning it was 104.5 so we took her to the ER. The people at the ER made us feel dumb for going in, and took her temperature wrong, they said it was normal but I could tell it wasn't, so I asked them to re-take it, they were not happy but finaly did and it was 102, after the tylenol, anyway they said ther wasn't anything they could do so they sent us home.

The next night she was up all night and her fever was up to 105.4, I just alternated motrin and tylenol but it only brought her fever down to the 101 range. I got her into the clinic here on base and they decided to do some tests to find out why she had such a high fever. So the Dr. ordered bloodwork, a urine sample, and a chest x-ray. Dan showed up towards the end of the appt. an waited with me for lab results. The Nurse came back to get us and we could tell by the look on his face it wasn't good news. He got us back to the room and told us they were starting an IV. I asked why and all he said was "doctor's orders."

Then the Dr. comes in and said that she was Neutropenic... ??? What's that? That means that her Neutrophils which are the main white blood cells were severely low. The Dr. Said they should be above 1500, anything below that is low, anything below 1000 was moderately low and anything below 500 is severely low. Hers were at 250. So the Dr. told us she was starting an IV to get her blood pressure up and they were giving her 2 shots of antibiotics and the Ambulance was on the way to transport us to San Antonio to the hospital there. At this point I am crying uncontrolably and my head is going a million miles an hour thinking she has leukemia and shes going to die etc. etc. You know how imaginations work.

So, for the first time I rode in an ambulance... it really is not comfortable at all. We got checked into the hospital Wed. evening where they did more bloodwork and the doctors checked her out. We stayed in the hospital until Saturday while her Neutrophil count continued to go down but she seemed to be improving. We finally were able to get her to eat and drink so we could take the IV out and she started to get a little rash. they looked at her blood cells and didn't se anything abnormal that would indicate Cancer... Whew. Because of the high temperatures and the rash the Doctors think she got the virus Roseola but for some reason it totally wiped out her immune system. With her white blood cells that low they told us if she happened to get anything her body wouldn't be able to mount a defense.

Saturday afternoon they said since Callen had gone over 24 hours without a fever they would release us to stay in a hotel off base but we had to come back in on Monday for more bloodwork. So this morning I took her in for her tests and when the lab results came back her Neutrophil count was down to 40. Nobody has any answers why it keeps going down other than it will take awhile for her body to recover. They said it could take up to 2 months for her White blood cells to go back to normal. So even though her count was down to 40 they said that she didn't have a fever, she looked fine, and they are pretty sure it was Roseola, they said we could go home and just re-test her the end of this week. SO, Callen and I were able to come home from San Antonio today. She has been acting like she feels fine, so that makes me feel good but I really wish her blood count would go back up. They sent some bloodwork off to make sure it was Roseola but we won't have those results back for 3-6 weeks.

My poor baby, it is so hard to watch them in pain, I was counting up on the way home and with all the IV's and bloodwork, she was poked 10 times and had 2 shots within the last 6 days...no wonder she is still clingy. They had her hookeed up to a heartrate monitor in the hospital and everytime a nurse/doctor would walk in her heartrate would shoot up 30 beats, poor thing, she was terrified of them. What an ordeal! I am really glad to be home and Callen was able to go outside and play and she really liked that.

Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and support, we seriously have the best friends. I appreciate all of you and everything you have done for our family. I have to be super careful not to expose her to any germs, but for now she's happy and healthy and we are glad to have our baby girl home!

On, a more happy note callen finally started say mommy... well ok not exactly, she calls me
"ma nommy nommy" but hey, that's close enough right?