All the kids are growing up so fast. Lucian is now in early childhood and is doing so well! He is making all kinds of new sounds and doing new things! He never ceases to amaze me! He is currently 3 and still at 23lbs! Silas is right behind him at 1 year old and weighing a whooping 22lbs! For some reason Lucian has never been much on drinking from a cup unless it is an adult cup then he is all  about it as long as we are holding it! But today he grabbed Silas’s bottle and started going to town on it! I don’t care how he is drinking as long as he is drinking by mouth and not by g tube!  Huge progress!

Jessica Gamble is charged with child endangerment, evidence tampering and “corrupting another with drugs,” according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in Cincinnati. The 21-year-old mother could face up to 11 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters told reporters that Gamble was indicted after someone to whom she sent the video reported it to authorities. The girl has been placed in the care of relatives “and is safe today,” Julie Wilson, the chief assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County, told HLN’s “Prime News” Thursday.

“Obviously, the case is just starting, so we’re taking it very, very seriously,” Wilson said. “She stands indicted on very serious felony charges. We’ll have to see how it all plays out, but we’re obviously very concerned about this little girl and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that she’s safe.”

Attempts to contact a lawyer for Gamble were unsuccessful.

Prosecutors released the grainy mobile phone video after Gamble’s indictment this week. On it, the child appears to take a puff from a thickly rolled marijuana cigarette as a woman identified as Gamble laughs and tells her, “Don’t blow on it.”

When the girl brings the joint to her, the woman asks, “What is that? What is that?” Taking the pot from the child, she chuckles and says, “Phat”

Just like in Cinderella, the spell cast on Lindsay Lohan by the evil judge ended at midnight. After all, she got her start in a Disney movie.

She was out of the Los County jail late Friday night bail.

Eddie Murphy Beverly Hills Cop would have been appalled. Judge Elden Fox, tired of the star of “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls” making judges look silly, had sent her straight to jail earlier Friday.

She did not pass go, did not receive $200, but went straight to the lockup. Later in the day, though, she got a get of jail card, though it wasn’t free.

Lohan needed no guns, but she had the help of lawyers and plenty of money.

Another judge, the good one, overruled Fox because California law says anyone charged with only a misdemeanor must be allowed bail.

In Lohan’s case, it was set at $300,000.

To quote the Los Angeles Times, “She was whisked out of a backdoor and driven to an undisclosed location.”

However, she certainly didn’t ride in a chariot. And she did get to keep one thing, a SCRAM device, which monitors alcohol and drug abusers.

Lohan has been on a sort of merry-go-round, stopping sometimes in court, sometimes in jail and sometimes in rehab. Where will she end up next?

She is growing up so quickly it is scary. She is 7 and acts is if she was 12.

Before I know it she will be in Jr. high then in high school then she will be going to home comings and prom and so on. O and don’t let me forget she will be getting her drivers license.

I had a friendly reminder from my nine year old son just the other day that he was nine and he was almost a teenager.

Wow can I say a big eye opener. Although I must admit he doesn’t act nearly as grown up as my daughter does.

It has really made me realize to enjoy the time I have with them while they are young because once they get older that time will disappear. It will go from Cinderella, to all kinds of other things.

It’s no wonder when the Internet and television airwaves are full of personal stories that raise a question about the link. But the study that started the autism vaccine scare was recently retracted by the prestigious journal that published it 12 years ago, and the lead researcher had his medical license pulled.

Given these developments, some experts hope we have finally reached the end of the debate.

In 1998, a British gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, M.D. and his colleagues published a paper in the British medical journal The Lancet suggesting that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine might cause symptoms associated with autism.

Wakefield had a case study of eight children who had received the MMR and then developed symptoms of autism,” says Paul Offit, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “He also believed they had abnormal intestinal tracts and proposed a syndrome — linking intestinal inflammation from receiving the MMR with the development of autism.”

Though Wakefield acknowledged in the paper that “he could not say whether the MMR caused autism,” says Offit, “it opened the door for the notion that a vaccine could cause autism. It was the Royal Free Hospital, an excellent hospital in London, it was published in the oldest medical journal, and it was off to the races.”

In England, thousands of parents refused to vaccinate their children, resulting in hundreds of hospitalizations and three deaths in Ireland from measles.

Since that time, 18 controlled epidemiological studies have investigated the possible connection between autism and vaccines, and “they have all come back showing the same thing,” says Alison Singer, founder and president of the Autism Science Foundation, and a mother of a 13-year-old with autism. “There is no link between vaccines and autism.”

Those studies took up two primary theories: Wakefield’s hypothesis that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism, and another that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative found in some vaccines, was the culprit.

In a 2004 report analyzing the research into the possible connections, the Institute of Medicine (the organization charged with advising the nation on public health concerns) concluded: “the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship” between both the MMR vaccine and thimerosal, and autism.

That same year, 10 of the 13 authors of the Wakefield study retracted it.

In February The Lancet, in an historic moment, retracted Wakefield’s entire study after an independent government review concluded that he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his research.

This included doing unnecessary and painful procedures on the children and not disclosing the fact that he had been paid as a consultant to two attorneys representing parents who believed their children had been harmed by the MMR vaccine.

In May 2010, Wakefield was banned from practicing medicine in his native UK.

“This retraction represents the death of a hypothesis,” says Offit. “Parents should be reassured that a choice not to get a vaccine will in no sense lessen the risk of autism, and will only increase the risk of disease.”

“The [Wakefield] study did a lot of harm when it was originally published,” says Singer. “As a result of it, I split the vaccine for my second daughter, but a lot of people went farther, not vaccinating at all, and that’s unfortunate, because what we know about vaccines is that they save lives.”

Still, it’s more common today for parents to know a child with autism and than to know anyone who suffered or even died from one of the diseases vaccines prevent.

For them, avoiding anything that they feel might lead to autism can seem safer than choosing to get a vaccine for diseases that seem unlikely.

Notable figures like actress Jenny McCarthy, who believes her son’s autism may have been caused by vaccines, also help lend credibility to the idea that there is a link between the two.

“The reason these diseases are so rare is because of immunizations,” says Gary L. Freed, director of General Pediatrics at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. “I took care of a child who died of measles encephalitis because he was not vaccinated. It was a horrible death that was needless and preventable, and those parents never forgave themselves for not vaccinating their child.”

“Choosing not to get a vaccine or to delay vaccines is not a risk-free choice,” agrees Offit .

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concludes that 2008′s measles outbreak in San Diego — the largest in almost a decade, triggered by an unvaccinated child who’d traveled to Europe — struck people who had purposely not been vaccinated against the disease.

“You don’t have to live in the developing world to get measles,” says Offit. “It’s all boiling just under the surface. Drop your guard and these diseases come back with a vengeance.”

Making a Good Choice

Amy Pisani, the executive director of Every Child By Two, an organization that advocates for childhood immunization, understands the hesitancy some parents feel when they enter their pediatrician’s office.

“I was pregnant at the time Wakefield came out, and I was nervous myself. I would listen to these presentations and worry, because it really sounded legitimate, and it was confusing. But I was really fortunate, because I worked at Every Child By Two, and I had access to all these experts at the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to help me make a good choice.”

Pisani’s organization, originally founded to train nurses and help low-income parents learn about the free vaccination program run by the government, now spends 70 percent of its time addressing parental safety concerns about vaccines and the importance of timely vaccinations.

The organization has launched a website (vaccinateyourbaby.org) dedicated to getting the research in the hands of parents, so, like Pisani, they can get the most medically sound information available before making a decision.

“It’s a parent’s responsibility to be concerned for their child,” says Freed, “and we as a society have a responsibility to make sure there is factual information available to parents.”

Nora Fitzpatrick, mother to two in Gaithersburg, Maryland, whose younger daughter was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, says the retraction of the Wakefield study has helped her to better answer her friends’ questions about whether to vaccinate.

“I feel a responsibility to be informed because we get asked so often,” says Fitzpatrick. “When the retraction came out, I was super excited. Now I explain that the Wakefield study is how it all got started, and how it’s been retracted. It’s a huge relief that it’s sort of definitive now.”

Singer agrees.

“We were right to do the studies, we were right to look at the link. But now those studies have been done, and the data is very clear. We looked, and the answer wasn’t there.”

Still, Singer and Offit agree that until there is an answer, people will still ask questions about vaccines.

“We’re never going to be rid of the vaccine hypothesis completely,” says Singer, “until we know what does cause autism, that’s why it’s so important for more research to be done.”so Stay tuned.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’s website provides tons of info vaccines, up-to-date schedules, safety concerns and the latest vaccine news.

Egleston’s pre-surgery policy requires Varner to sign a hospital surgery consent form (which states that, in the event of an emergency, the hospital has the authority to administer a blood transfusion). Previously, while at Cobb Wellstar, Billie contracted a bacterial infection in her blood from a blood transfusion making surgery very risky and possibly fatal.

Varner refused to consent to the surgery with any possibility of a transfusion, and was told by an Egleston Hospital social worker, Jody Nuyg, that if she found a facility (with a GA Medicaid approved physician) to conduct the surgery with less probability of transfusion, it would be covered. Instead, the Sibley Heart Center social worker Christine Post and Ms. Nuyg are prepared to advise the Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services to “temporarily” take custody of Billie. Once the state has custody of Billie, they will have the surgery done and the hospital will discharge her back to the state until the necessary paperwork is completed to return her to her mother (this with the assumption that the surgery is successful considering complications result in death).

In March, through diligent research, Varner located a GA MEDICAID APPROVED Physician (Mark E. Galantowicz, M.D.) and hospital (Nationwide Children’s Hospital) in Columbus, Ohio, with the capabilities to conduct the surgery without the blood transfusion. Nationwide has a dedicated blood conservation program (Information of the Blood Conservation Program) and specializes in no blood surgeries for infants. Immediately, Varner requested all records and referral requirements from Sibley Heart and Egleston to be sent to Nationwide in preparation of Billie’s surgery.

On July 16, Billie was re-admitted to Egleston by her pediatrician, Dr. Kevin Mason of Cumberland Pediatrics. Before Billie was discharged the following day, Varner discovered that Billie’s records were never sent to Nationwide. Varner demanded Billie’s records (and refused to leave without them) and they were surrendered to her at the hospital. She immediately had the documents expressed to Nationwide. In addition, a new requirement was presented. According to Medicaid, a referral from a patient’s cardiologist is required to have the patient travel out of state for a surgical procedure. Immediately, Varner obtained the required letter from Dr. Samai.

Finally, Nationwide had all the materials required for an approval. The physical request was sent to the GA Medicaid Program on July 20 by Nationwide. On July 27, Melissa Loveless, at Nationwide contacted Medicaid to obtain a pre-approval but she was told at that time that the request was denied. Documentation was not sent to Nationwide or Varner to inform them of the denial until July 30.

Varner and Nationwide should have been contacted by mail, phone or fax with the decision. The stated reason in the document sent to Nationwide was: “Medical necessity has not been established. There is no medical necessity to transfer the child out of state since these surgical services are available in Georgia.” The procedure is available in Georgia, but under very hazardous circumstances for such a young patient. In addition, the GA Medicaid Program has failed to pay WellStar Home Care for the equipment being used to maintain Billie’s heart at home. Soon, Varner may be forced to surrender the equipment, due to nonpayment.

Varner requested an Emergency Hearing (on August 18, through her attorney, Chuck Sylvester of the Law Offices of Sylvester & Associates, P.C.) requesting approval for the emergency surgery, but the requests have gone unanswered. The lack of urgency and empathy is disheartening to this mother of two, Billie and her twin sister, Brooklyn. She continues her fight and urges citizens to hold these government funded entities accountable. There are procedures written in the guidelines and laws of this program (Georgia Medicaid receives $1.63 in federal funds for every $1 of state funds) that were not followed despite the critical nature of this case. However, there is a sudden sense of urgency in forcing this mother to surrender her child to state authorities to protect the insurance provider from liabilities incurred due to their lack of service.
The fact that Varner has been waiting 30 days for a response for an EMERGENCY Hearing is unacceptable.

Right now, Billie’s heart is critically failing, SHE does not have time for inaction, and neither do you or anyone else with a beating heart.