Lots has been happening here. First and most important, Courtney had a swallow study yesterday. Her two speech therapists wanted one before they did any more therapy. They wanted to see if she needed more therapy and if so what for. Wouldn't you know that kid sailed through her test! Remember, that means swallowing cherry flavored barium. But, guess what?! She passed! Meaning she was able to handle thin (non-thickened, regluar) liquids! And her pallet was working really really well for the first time! So, it looks like the therapy has worked! Later that afternoon her speech therapist called and said that it's time to discharge her! Whoo hoo!
I can't tell you how good this all feels! She was diagnosed with this swallowing issue when she was 8 weeks old or around there. And for the last few years it really felt like all we did was treat the symptoms and no one was interested in working towards resolving the problem. They kept telling us the problem should resolve itself as she grew up, but every time she had a swallow study it was the same results. It really started to feel like she would always have this problem.
Things all changed when I refused another swallow study for her around age 18 months. I told her pediatrician that I didn't want to bother since we always end up with the same results, and all we do is treat the symptoms. That was when the pediatrician sent us to Children's Hospital in Denver. That crew that did the swallow study was the one who suggested she sees a pulminologist. The pulminologist was the one who worked hard to find the root of the problem and to get her into therapy.
We started her in therapy in July last year, speech therapy that is. She did really well for a while, we saw improvements. But then she plateaued. That was when we discovered how weak her core muscles were and we needed psychical therapy to strengthen those. Once we started working on that, she started improving her oral motor muscles as well.
It's been a long road. So, to get the news yesterday that she was able to come off thickener, and that her pallet looked to be working properly, well, I can't even describe the feeling of happiness and excitement! For the first time walking out of a swallow study I had tears of joy in my eyes, instead of tears of sadness! I know Courtney doesn't understand how big this is, or how exciting, but boy as a mom...there aren't words.
Kasey had her one year old party this weekend. That made it feel so real that she is now one. That makes me sad. But, kids grow up, not much you can do! She had a great time, had little sleep, but she did amazingly well!
She is changing so fast now! She is starting to walk more and more! And when she does she is also walking further and further. So, I can't believe it, but she is going to be a big time walker and give up the crawling any day now!
Kasey is really into using silverware now. She is enjoying using a fork to stab her food and trying to get it into her mouth. It's quite cute and she is doing a pretty good job at figuring it out!
We took the girls to get some professional pictures taken for Kasey's first birthday. We tried a new place (since our old place closed suddenly due to bankruptcy). We were quite happy. It's about the same price, but you get more pictures, so overall we were happy with the result and we will use them again.
Looks like we will be selling our dooh domain. Hubby got a really nice offer to sell it. I think we are going to go ahead and sell it. It's going to be a lot of work for Hubby, but we constantly get offers to purchase it, and this is the best offer to date. That means that our dooh.com emails will be going away. Hubby has had the domain for about 14 years, so it's going to be a big change.
So, while we have a ton of adorable pictures I would like to post here, it just makes it more difficult for Hubby and the changes if I post yet more pictures. So, I am going to just tell you all you can currently go to www.dooh.com and later it will be www.kirouac.org.
Also our emails will be changing to ending in kirouac.org instead of the dooh.com.
So, I guess I will end the post here. Hope everyone is well!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Mom's weekend away
I had an awesome weekend. My wonderful Hubby made sure he made it home in time for me to be able to go off for the weekend. My neighbor and I were carpooling, so we left a bit early and stopped to get some dinner at a nice sushi restaurant. We arrived at the B&B to find that we had probably the best room in the whole place! There were 5 of us sharing the room, but still, we had an incredible view of the peak! We had a huge bathroom with a jetted tub, walk in shower and 2 sinks. The room had a king bed and then a sitting room off the main room. There was a fold out couch in the sitting room. They also brought in 2 folding twin beds. We all fit nice in the room, my neighbor and I ended up sharing the king bed. Here I am with 3 of my roommates:

The weekend was amazing. The food was good, the speaker was really good! We got a nice free time on Saturday. I got a 15 minute chair massage and sat in the hot tub. I also painted my finger and toe nails, took a nice long hot shower, and took a walk around the property.
It looks like the place started as a regular house that they have added to. There are all kinds of passageways every place you look. I didn't even see the whole place while I was there! Thankfully our room was kind of right in the middle of the house, so we never had far to walk.
We watched a movie called "Born Into Brothels". It won best documentary in 2004. It was a good movie, hard to watch, but good. We studied a few bible versus that were very interesting to me. They peaked my interest enough to prompt me to go and purchase my first student bible.
I felt very refreshed and renewed and ready to come home to be a better mommy. Something in me this weekend just clicked and I came home feeling like a new person! Or like a whole person for the first time in 3 years! It was a wonderful feeling! Of course I promptly came down with a cold or allergies or something when I got home. That was no so fun, and still isn't 3 days later.
Monday was a beautiful day! The neighbors came over for some play time and dinner. The husband of the family across the street is a CPA. So this is a pretty long week for him. We had the girls over for dinner since the husband is barely around the week before taxes are due. Sounds like busy season is just that and keeps him at the office long hours for a few months. But the girls enjoyed some outside time.

Courtney typically has speech on Tuesday mornings, but she is currently on hold for speech. Her speech therapists want to do another swallow study before they figure out what their next step is, or if a next step is required. Here's to hoping we may actually be almost at the end of the road with all of this!
Kasey had her 1 year appointment. 4 shots, ouch! Hubby did come with us, so Courtney and I stepped out of the room for those. Kasey came in healthy and happy! The pediatrician was quite happy with her. Her big old head measures in the 90th percentile! Her weight was in the 25th and her height was something like the 50th percentile. So, the kid has a big head.... Hopefully that means she will be brilliant (room for brains)!!!
From the pediatrician's office we headed out to hippotherapy. Hubby was able to come with us for that too. Courtney rode Trixie that day. She again had a blast. She also kept asking to trot. She loves it when the horse goes fast! She worked pretty hard, and I don't think she even realizes it!

Today she had her occupational therapy and her behavioral therapy. Her occupational therapist told us that in a month she would be moving to northern Colorado. That is sad, I really like her! She is so nice! She says they are trying to hire someone to take her spot before she goes, so we don't know who Courtney will have yet.
After nap time I took Kasey for her first haircut. Her hair was always in her face, so it was time. She wasn't so happy about it...
Here is the end result all though she still isn't happy:

She looks really different. It's going to take some getting used to! We are having her party for her this weekend!
Time to go take some NyQuil so hopefully I can get better fast!
The weekend was amazing. The food was good, the speaker was really good! We got a nice free time on Saturday. I got a 15 minute chair massage and sat in the hot tub. I also painted my finger and toe nails, took a nice long hot shower, and took a walk around the property.
It looks like the place started as a regular house that they have added to. There are all kinds of passageways every place you look. I didn't even see the whole place while I was there! Thankfully our room was kind of right in the middle of the house, so we never had far to walk.
We watched a movie called "Born Into Brothels". It won best documentary in 2004. It was a good movie, hard to watch, but good. We studied a few bible versus that were very interesting to me. They peaked my interest enough to prompt me to go and purchase my first student bible.
I felt very refreshed and renewed and ready to come home to be a better mommy. Something in me this weekend just clicked and I came home feeling like a new person! Or like a whole person for the first time in 3 years! It was a wonderful feeling! Of course I promptly came down with a cold or allergies or something when I got home. That was no so fun, and still isn't 3 days later.
Monday was a beautiful day! The neighbors came over for some play time and dinner. The husband of the family across the street is a CPA. So this is a pretty long week for him. We had the girls over for dinner since the husband is barely around the week before taxes are due. Sounds like busy season is just that and keeps him at the office long hours for a few months. But the girls enjoyed some outside time.
Courtney typically has speech on Tuesday mornings, but she is currently on hold for speech. Her speech therapists want to do another swallow study before they figure out what their next step is, or if a next step is required. Here's to hoping we may actually be almost at the end of the road with all of this!
Kasey had her 1 year appointment. 4 shots, ouch! Hubby did come with us, so Courtney and I stepped out of the room for those. Kasey came in healthy and happy! The pediatrician was quite happy with her. Her big old head measures in the 90th percentile! Her weight was in the 25th and her height was something like the 50th percentile. So, the kid has a big head.... Hopefully that means she will be brilliant (room for brains)!!!
From the pediatrician's office we headed out to hippotherapy. Hubby was able to come with us for that too. Courtney rode Trixie that day. She again had a blast. She also kept asking to trot. She loves it when the horse goes fast! She worked pretty hard, and I don't think she even realizes it!
Today she had her occupational therapy and her behavioral therapy. Her occupational therapist told us that in a month she would be moving to northern Colorado. That is sad, I really like her! She is so nice! She says they are trying to hire someone to take her spot before she goes, so we don't know who Courtney will have yet.
After nap time I took Kasey for her first haircut. Her hair was always in her face, so it was time. She wasn't so happy about it...
She looks really different. It's going to take some getting used to! We are having her party for her this weekend!
Time to go take some NyQuil so hopefully I can get better fast!
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Kasey's 1!!!
Some people read my blog on my blog site. Some people read it when I send them a copy via email. So, for those who read it on the blog site, please excuse a small redundancy in the last few posts. I didn't email the last 2 posts out.
To catch everyone up: I had a friend who I found out last Thursday was in the hospital dying from Sarcoma (cancer). It was swift and fast, she was only sick about a month, and they only knew it was cancer for just over 2 weeks before it took her life. I was able to see her 3 times before she passed. The last time was within an hour before she breathed her last breath. It's been a tough few days since she passed. Her obituary was in the paper yesterday:
Kay Burlison, age 49, a resident of Colorado Springs since 1999 and formerly of Ocean Springs, Mississippi passed away on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Hospice Residence after a short battle with cancer. She was an infant care giver at the Child Development Center at the Rampart Range Campus of Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. Kay Buchanan was born on February 13, 1961 in Wiggins, Mississippi to Gerald and Dottie (Renick) Buchanan. She was a 1979 graduate of Clinton High School and graduated from Mississippi State University in 1983. Kay married Gordon Rogers Burlison on December 18, 1982 in Perkinston, Mississippi. Kay loved her work in child care. She could read an infant's facial expressions, understand their cries and seemed to know their every need. Her motto was, "Babies are such a nice way to start people." She also enjoyed reading, her family and long drives in the mountains of Colorado. She is survived by her loving husband: Gordon; her parents; and her sisters: Donna (husband, John) Lucas of Bedford, Texas and Cynthia (husband, Jim) Harfst of Pheba, Mississippi. Kay is also survived by her husband's parents: Horace and Karin Burlison of Moss Point, Mississippi and her nieces and nephews: Lauren Lindigrin, Amanda, Karleigh, and Ryan Harfst. A Celebration of her life will be held at 7:00 pm on Monday, April 12, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Community College, Child Development Center, Rampart Range Campus, 11195 Highway 83, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921. Memorials may be made to the Kay Burlison Memorial Fund for Infants, in care of Ent Federal Credit Union, 6060 Championship View, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80922.
Brian and I will be attending the memorial service on Monday.
So, the past week has been a busy one. I think I will work backwards.
Today Kasey is 1 year old! I can't believe it. It seems SOOO long ago that I was in labor. But at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday that Kasey arrived in our life. How is it possible to have such conflicting feelings? We will be having a party for her in 2 weeks.
Today we went to the zoo for preschool. As always it was fun. We learned about Hippo's today. It was a super big class, apparently a lot of kids didn't want to go to the zoo yesterday because yesterday was windy and snowy. So they let them come to today's class. It was a little windy today, but the sun was out and the temps were MUCH better.
The zookeeper took the kids into the hippos' pen (the hippos were locked outside) to put the Popsicle treats in. Then the kids came back out and they let the hippos in to find their treats. It was cute!

After preschool was over the girls and I wandered around the zoo. We stopped in the education center and the keeper in there asked Courtney to help her feed the bearded lizard named Walter! Courtney was glad to help! She also helped feed a gecko or something. That is one reason I love the education center, they involve kids as much as possible.

I was looking forward to trying out their new "Grizzly Grill". They re-did their major food place in the zoo. Also the head chef at the zoo recently won some cooking award (but I already knew his cooking was TASTY!). The new Grill opened just in the past week or two, it's been closed for months while they were redoing it. So, after a merry-go-round ride and seeing some animals, we stopped there for lunch. They have quite the wide variety in there now! They have everything from teriyaki bowls, spaghetti, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, wraps, and more. But as I was walking in, I overheard a guy telling his family how good the Parmesan garlic fries were. Mmmm, I had to try those! And the guy was right, they were WONDERFUL! I also had a chicken teriyaki bowl. It was pretty good. Courtney had a corn dog and that was pretty good too! Kasey picked off my bowl and fries. Yes, even she loved the garlic fries!
After lunch we wandered around the zoo a little more. We stopped in the giraffe house to see the 2 newest additions to the zoo, 2 baby giraffes. Oh my gosh they were SOOOO cute! SOOOO cute!

After that it was a quick trip to stop and feed the giraffes and head for home. Kasey was babbling in the backseat. And she stopped suddenly. I turned to check on why, and I saw why: she was SOUND asleep. She went from babbling to out like a light in 1 second!
The week prior to today has been pretty standard. The usual therapies. Oh, but we did start our regular hippotherapy. Courtney did amazing. She even stood up on the horse! Pretty darn cool! She also rode the horse while the horse was trotting and she loved that. She was giggling and had an ear to ear grin! The horse she rode this week was named Blinkers. She loves telling people that, and she blinks when she does. It's so adorable!
Hubby in in Florida at the moment on a business trip. He gets home tomorrow and a few hours later I take off for the weekend. My MOPS group is having a mom's weekend away. I am looking forward to it. I will be at a bed and breakfast in Black Forest for 2 nights. My neighbor is going too, so we are car pooling and hopefully rooming together (we will get room assignments when we get there).
Easter was good. My parents came up, we had 2 of our cadets here, some friends, and us. We were supposed to have a few more, but it didn't work out. The day before Easter, we had our last 4-H ham defrosting on the counter. Hubby and I went to hospice to see my friend and while the girls stayed at the house with another friend. They ended up playing upstairs the WHOLE time we were gone. When we got back, what was left of the ham was on the living room floor. The dogs had helped themselves. So, we went the store and purchased ham #2.
Courtney and I made the place settings. We made edible bird's nests. They turned out soo cute! And yummy too!

Courtney was excited to get up in the morning. The Easter Bunny had hidden 24 eggs around the living room. She found them in a hurry! Plus there were a few other items in a basket on the table. She had fun. Then when Nana and Papa got here, Nana had more stuff for them. Then Nana took her outside because the Easter Bunny also hid some eggs in the backyard for her. She had fun looking outside for them too!
We are in that time of year where we get too much of everything as far as weather is concerned. We get snow, wind, and warm weather. I can handle most of it, but the wind gets old fast! I am ready for the wind to move along. But last week we got some nice days, and the girls and I were sure to get out and enjoy it!

I have to say, spending a few hours at the zoo this morning really took my mind off the loss of my friend for a while. It was very refreshing!
To catch everyone up: I had a friend who I found out last Thursday was in the hospital dying from Sarcoma (cancer). It was swift and fast, she was only sick about a month, and they only knew it was cancer for just over 2 weeks before it took her life. I was able to see her 3 times before she passed. The last time was within an hour before she breathed her last breath. It's been a tough few days since she passed. Her obituary was in the paper yesterday:
Kay Burlison, age 49, a resident of Colorado Springs since 1999 and formerly of Ocean Springs, Mississippi passed away on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Hospice Residence after a short battle with cancer. She was an infant care giver at the Child Development Center at the Rampart Range Campus of Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. Kay Buchanan was born on February 13, 1961 in Wiggins, Mississippi to Gerald and Dottie (Renick) Buchanan. She was a 1979 graduate of Clinton High School and graduated from Mississippi State University in 1983. Kay married Gordon Rogers Burlison on December 18, 1982 in Perkinston, Mississippi. Kay loved her work in child care. She could read an infant's facial expressions, understand their cries and seemed to know their every need. Her motto was, "Babies are such a nice way to start people." She also enjoyed reading, her family and long drives in the mountains of Colorado. She is survived by her loving husband: Gordon; her parents; and her sisters: Donna (husband, John) Lucas of Bedford, Texas and Cynthia (husband, Jim) Harfst of Pheba, Mississippi. Kay is also survived by her husband's parents: Horace and Karin Burlison of Moss Point, Mississippi and her nieces and nephews: Lauren Lindigrin, Amanda, Karleigh, and Ryan Harfst. A Celebration of her life will be held at 7:00 pm on Monday, April 12, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Community College, Child Development Center, Rampart Range Campus, 11195 Highway 83, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921. Memorials may be made to the Kay Burlison Memorial Fund for Infants, in care of Ent Federal Credit Union, 6060 Championship View, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80922.
Brian and I will be attending the memorial service on Monday.
So, the past week has been a busy one. I think I will work backwards.
Today Kasey is 1 year old! I can't believe it. It seems SOOO long ago that I was in labor. But at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday that Kasey arrived in our life. How is it possible to have such conflicting feelings? We will be having a party for her in 2 weeks.

Today we went to the zoo for preschool. As always it was fun. We learned about Hippo's today. It was a super big class, apparently a lot of kids didn't want to go to the zoo yesterday because yesterday was windy and snowy. So they let them come to today's class. It was a little windy today, but the sun was out and the temps were MUCH better.
The zookeeper took the kids into the hippos' pen (the hippos were locked outside) to put the Popsicle treats in. Then the kids came back out and they let the hippos in to find their treats. It was cute!
After preschool was over the girls and I wandered around the zoo. We stopped in the education center and the keeper in there asked Courtney to help her feed the bearded lizard named Walter! Courtney was glad to help! She also helped feed a gecko or something. That is one reason I love the education center, they involve kids as much as possible.
I was looking forward to trying out their new "Grizzly Grill". They re-did their major food place in the zoo. Also the head chef at the zoo recently won some cooking award (but I already knew his cooking was TASTY!). The new Grill opened just in the past week or two, it's been closed for months while they were redoing it. So, after a merry-go-round ride and seeing some animals, we stopped there for lunch. They have quite the wide variety in there now! They have everything from teriyaki bowls, spaghetti, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, wraps, and more. But as I was walking in, I overheard a guy telling his family how good the Parmesan garlic fries were. Mmmm, I had to try those! And the guy was right, they were WONDERFUL! I also had a chicken teriyaki bowl. It was pretty good. Courtney had a corn dog and that was pretty good too! Kasey picked off my bowl and fries. Yes, even she loved the garlic fries!
After lunch we wandered around the zoo a little more. We stopped in the giraffe house to see the 2 newest additions to the zoo, 2 baby giraffes. Oh my gosh they were SOOOO cute! SOOOO cute!
After that it was a quick trip to stop and feed the giraffes and head for home. Kasey was babbling in the backseat. And she stopped suddenly. I turned to check on why, and I saw why: she was SOUND asleep. She went from babbling to out like a light in 1 second!
The week prior to today has been pretty standard. The usual therapies. Oh, but we did start our regular hippotherapy. Courtney did amazing. She even stood up on the horse! Pretty darn cool! She also rode the horse while the horse was trotting and she loved that. She was giggling and had an ear to ear grin! The horse she rode this week was named Blinkers. She loves telling people that, and she blinks when she does. It's so adorable!
Hubby in in Florida at the moment on a business trip. He gets home tomorrow and a few hours later I take off for the weekend. My MOPS group is having a mom's weekend away. I am looking forward to it. I will be at a bed and breakfast in Black Forest for 2 nights. My neighbor is going too, so we are car pooling and hopefully rooming together (we will get room assignments when we get there).
Easter was good. My parents came up, we had 2 of our cadets here, some friends, and us. We were supposed to have a few more, but it didn't work out. The day before Easter, we had our last 4-H ham defrosting on the counter. Hubby and I went to hospice to see my friend and while the girls stayed at the house with another friend. They ended up playing upstairs the WHOLE time we were gone. When we got back, what was left of the ham was on the living room floor. The dogs had helped themselves. So, we went the store and purchased ham #2.
Courtney and I made the place settings. We made edible bird's nests. They turned out soo cute! And yummy too!
Courtney was excited to get up in the morning. The Easter Bunny had hidden 24 eggs around the living room. She found them in a hurry! Plus there were a few other items in a basket on the table. She had fun. Then when Nana and Papa got here, Nana had more stuff for them. Then Nana took her outside because the Easter Bunny also hid some eggs in the backyard for her. She had fun looking outside for them too!
We are in that time of year where we get too much of everything as far as weather is concerned. We get snow, wind, and warm weather. I can handle most of it, but the wind gets old fast! I am ready for the wind to move along. But last week we got some nice days, and the girls and I were sure to get out and enjoy it!
I have to say, spending a few hours at the zoo this morning really took my mind off the loss of my friend for a while. It was very refreshing!
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
It's over
My friend Kay ended up passing away yesterday, very shortly after I saw her for the last time that morning.
I am glad she is no longer in pain.
I am glad she is no longer in pain.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Losing a friend
My friend Kay is dying. Over the past 2 months she has not been feeling well, they thought she had pneumonia, turns out it was blood clots in her lungs. That started the the trouble in February, right around the time of the Superbowl. Over the past 6 weeks she has been in and out of the hospital. 2 weeks ago they discovered a mass in her abdomen. After a few biopsy's of the mass, it was discovered it was cancer. A few days after that they discovered it was sarcoma. (Sarcoma is a nasty, fast moving, aggressive cancer that tends to not respond to any chemo or radiation). They went in to remove the mass and found that the cancer was quite widespread in her abdomen. She had her surgery last Thursday. They were hoping she would recover quick and therefore possibly have a few months left before the sarcoma came back. However, she has not had the recovery expected. They were going to be admitting her into hospice today. She has gone from possibly a few months to live, to a few days.I found out all this news last night. I knew she had been in and out of the hospital, but I also know how private of a person Kay is, so didn't push her when she didn't respond to me. However, since she has found out it is cancer (2 weeks ago) she is finally allowing visitors. So, after speaking with her husband on the phone last night, I knew I needed to go to the hospital today. I took the girls to the office to hang out with Daddy and others while I went to see her. When I arrived, the doctors were doing rounds. She is in the Critical Care Unit (CCU) so when doctors do rounds, everyone gets kicked out. So, I met her husband and sister in the lobby and we had to wait in the waiting room until rounds were over.
She is on morphine, but I was surprised that once I saw her, she immediately asked me how Courtney is. I also told her that Kasey turns 1 next week, and she remembered. I only stayed with her about 5 minutes. She is sleepy (from the morphine no doubt) and there were other friends arriving to see her. I just had to go see her to tell her how much I love her.
Kay came into our life when Courtney was 4 months old. Kay was Courtney's day care person at her first day care. Kay and her sidekick Nancy are the most amazing people in the world. They are so good at what they do. I never worried about Courtney when she was in their care. The best thing was that I felt that they loved Courtney as if she was family, as they did with all their kids. Kay doesn't have kids of her own, but she really loved caring for everyone else's kids. As my friend said last night, "she is gifted and amazing at what she does". She is in the perfect job for her.
Kay and I connected beyond day care. We both LOVE Bon Jovi, in fact she went to the 3rd Bon Jovi concert I went to with me, she drove. She came to Courtney's first birthday party, and a New Year's Eve party too. She came to see me in the hospital when Kasey was born and a few weeks later too. We often emailed or chatted on Facebook. I invited her to Courtney's 2nd and 3rd birthday parties as well, but she wasn't able to make them.
Kay loves the color purple and she loves the drink Tab (remember that drink?). I made her a purple quilt that had a few Tab squares in it for her a few years back, to thank her for all she does. She also loves Cajun cooking, being that she is from Mississippi.
She is just that fun, loving personality. She just oozes love. I never saw Kay mad, or heard her speak a bad word of anyone. I was really hoping that Kasey would get to know her. It was a hard decision to stay home and not put Kasey up with Kay, but had I gone back to work that is exactly where Kasey would have gone.
I am sad that Kay is dying so suddenly and so fast. I am going to miss her so much. I am still so shell shocked from all this. I am happy that I got to see her today. I hope it wasn't the last time, but we just don't know. I really just hope she knows how loved she it. Not just by me, but by all the kids and parents lives she has touched.
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