Friday, as we were leaving Pepere’s house, I got a call from Noby’s doctor.  The test results from his last blood test were in and they were not good.  At Noby’s 12 month appointment he had blood taken.  They tested for lead and it came back in the normal range but on the high side.  Normal range is 0 – 10, 0 being normal and 10, the high side.  So at his last appointment, the 15 month one, they tested the blood again.  The doctor was calling about this second blood test.  Noby’s blood lead level is now over the normal range and they are now concerned, his level is at a 17.  Not high enough that he has to go to the hospital or anything but high enough that they are concerned.  They wanted Noby to start on a prescription right away so they called it in to a pharmacy in CT.  I give it to him twice a day for 3 months.  In a month we go back in for a more blood work and again when the meds are finished.  We are giving him Feosol, which is an iron supplement.  The iron and lead should fuse together and flush out of his system.

We decided that we were going to leave my parents house on Saturday, instead of Sunday so we could head home and start cleaning.  On the phone with the doctor, we tried to come up with reasons why Noby’s lead level would be so high.  We decided that it could be a couple of things.  1.  When the house was being siding it could have caused a dust that settled in the house.  The doctor gave us a name of a cleaner to wash down all the walls and pretty much anything where dust can settle.  We also ordered a couple of hepa filters to help with the air.  2.  Ichiro and I realized that the doorways where the gates were in for the playroom had chipped paint.  It wasn’t like the entire doorway was chipping but we had the old fashion type baby gates in those doors and every time you took the down it had suctioned a little more of the paint off the walls.  So there were 4 circles in each door area that were chipping. So besides washing everything down with the cleaner, we were also going to repaint the door jams and add new permanent gates that screw into the walls. This will make sure that they do not chip anymore.

I’m sure you can imagine that this has been an emotional week for us, one of the main reasons I haven’t blogged in a while.  I keep reading about lead poisoning on the internet and of course I keep getting upset about it.  Is it our fault that Noby is sick, could it really cause all this permanent damage to him?  Ichiro keeps yelling at me for looking it up and getting upset.  But at the same time, as Noby’s mom, I need to know everything about it.

He is doing ok with the medicine, it does seems to be upsetting his stomach a bit but nothing that a few crackers can’t cure.  He of course hates the taste but doesn’t put up to much of a fight.

So that is that.  Please keep Noby in your thoughts and prayers.

Noby trying out the pony he got for Xmas!

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I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas!  We had a pretty busy week!! I need to start by saying that the Ashihara family is very lucky to have such loving friends and family.  Everyone was so generous and we can’t thank you all enough!!!

It all started Wednesday when we packed the car up and headed for CT.  The truck was OVER packed!!!  We had so much stuff!  I kept trying to convince Ichiro that this was just going to be like this for the trip down.  But deep down I knew (and I think he knew) it would be like this on the way back too!  There was so much gifts that you couldn’t see out the back window, so much stuff you couldn’t see Inu in his cage!  I kept asking Ichiro if he thought Inu could breathe.

After unpacking at my moms, we ate some YUMMY YUMMY Chicken Linguine that mom so smartly prepared before hand.  This meal ALWAYS tastes awesome reheat!!  I think the flavors soak into the pasta or something!!  hahaha ANYWAY!  We got ready for church and headed out.   Noby did pretty good at church but you could tell he was ready to head to the Blackburns!!!

Like always, we had a fabulous time at the Blackburns!  Great company, great food and great drinks!!  The gift exchange this year was a hit and I think everyone was so excited with what they got!!

Every year the night ends perfectly with Glenn reading The Night Before Christmas. A tradition that started when Nicky was born and one I will continue with Noby!

Christmas day was perfect, it was very relaxing and we just went with the flow of how the day progressed.  This year Mom let us get up on our own, there was no bell ringing and no load music.  I think she knew Noby wasn’t going to let us sleep in very late.   When we were all up, we started with the stockings, one of my favorite parts of the morning.  We then took a break to have some monkey bread and mimosas before starting on the gifts under the tree!

It felt like we were opening gifts all day!!!  So much so that while we were cleaning up all the paper we saw that our first set of company was pulling in the drive way!!!  We all made a mad rush to get dressed!!  It was so great to see Aunt Sherry and Uncle Ronnie, also to be able to hang out with Kevan and Heather, who were up from NC.

After they left we thought we would take Noby outside to try out his new sled…

The next picture is one that I think is just so cute.  Noby LOVES my mom’s Time Out bench.  Here he is hanging out on it while he watches a movie.

For the past several years, our family friends the Martzs would come over in the evening.  We always have a great time hanging out!  Here are the kids (well the girls) form the night!  Sorry Shane and Ichiro, we didn’t get any pictures of you!

Friday we headed to Manchester to visit with Pepere at his house.  We aren’t going to be able to make the Ouellette family Christmas party so we thought this would be a great time to see him.  Grandma was going to meet us there so we could all get to see each other. It was a great time visiting!

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