Thursday, November 17, 2011
I Thought I Could!
I just KNEW if I played around enough I could find a way to make our blog look better and I did it! Hopefully I'll remember how I did this so that it can be changed periodically ;) Thanks for reading and keeping up with our crazy life!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
So Many Things....
Wow, it's not been that long since I've written but we have a lot of updates to give!
First of all, back in September while Eli was still in the hospital, we got some great news from Bryan's sister that she & her husband are expecting their first child! We're so excited for them! This will be our first chance to be aunt & uncle to a little one (my sister's almost step-child no longer counts since he's 15 & won't let me swaddle him anymore...Love you, Aaron!). Last week Cara & Andrew had an ultrasound and now we know the baby's gender and, much more importantly, that the baby's heart is okay. Because of Eli's condition her doctor wanted to do a more in-depth ultrasound for the baby and so far all looks good :) We are so relieved and excited.
Next bit of news, at my yearly physical I had several things to discuss with Dr. Amy. One item was some shoulder & neck discomfort that goes down into my chest and left arm. Yes, I realize that sounds like a heart attack, but seriously I can tell it's just tight muscles, however when I'm stressed out all the time and let my mind wander I get a little freaked out about it. Given our family's history Dr. Amy said I should have an echocardiogram (ultrasound to check the structures of the heart). I had it done and a few days later we got the news that everything was normal. I honestly wasn't too worried about it until it was done and we were waiting for the results. I wasn't even worried about me, but what would happen to my guys if something happened to me? Realizing I'm mortal put a damper on my mood.
Then...
At Zachary's 4 year check up, his heart murmur was still pretty loud when she listened to him. He'd had an echo done at birth, when his murmur was discovered, but he SCREAMED through the entire thing so we're not sure how accurate the findings really were. For most four-year olds this isn't a major concern, but Zachary has a brother with some pretty serious cardiac problems so, to be on the safe side, we had another echocardiogram done. Now this time I was extremely worried. What if Zachary had something seriously wrong with his heart too? How much could we really handle? You can imagine all the questions & fears we had. As most of you know, I use this blog & Facebook and am pretty open & detailed about our issues, but for some reason I didn't put any of this info out until we knew more. Now, many prayers later, we have the results: normal. THANK YOU, GOD!
Next on my list is my wrist. Several years ago I had what's called a ganglion cyst removed from my right wrist. I have one on the left wrist as well but it doesn't bother me much. The one on my right wrist got pretty big and made my hand, wrist & arm sore. It wasn't a sharp pain or anything like that, but it ached a lot and made detailed tasks difficult (holding a pencil, writing, buttons, typing, etc). I had it removed nine years ago. Since then it's slowly grown back and is now bothering me a lot. It isn't as bad as it was before but I don't want to let it get to that point. I went back to the orthopaedic doctor last week and they ordered an MRI. I had that done today and it confirmed that it is another ganglion cyst in the same spot as the one removed nine years ago. They explained today that there was a 1% chance of that happening in the same place. What do you know, I made the top percent in something! I just laughed and told them that's the kind of year it's been for our family.
The MRI also shows the cyst is very deep and putting a lot of pressure on my carpal bones (wrist bones) which explains the discomfort I've been having without seeing the large lump on the back of my wrist that was there before. The only option is surgery again. I'm not concerned about the surgery itself but the recovery kind of sucks. I know it sounds like a simple cyst and what's the big deal, right? The surgery involves a lot of manipulation of the bones to try & get all of it out. The last time I had a weight restriction and physical therapy for several weeks after surgery. I had a desk job and no kids or dog to take care of back then, so you can see why I'm getting stressed now. Even typing is getting difficult. I've taken four breaks typing this and that's been over several hours. I guess I'll have the surgery after Christmas, Bryan's got some time off & his sister Kendra will be home from college and can help with the boys. I'm not happy about this and will probably try to change my mind several times, but I know it won't be long until I start dropping things again because I can't get my hand to work right.
Our bright news is that we're all actually doing really well. Zachary LOVES preschool and has a Thanksgiving program & dinner next Tuesday that we're really excited about. Eli is growing well, his last weight check was 20lbs 8oz! He is starting to put a lot of weight on his legs when we stand him up and is so close to crawling that Albert has his suitcase packed & is ready to go (to explain: Eli loves Albert and Albert loves Eli, but Eli's love for Albert is usually shown in a pinch or slap. Albert is wonderful with him, but is not comfortable with this new mobility Eli is experiencing since he remembers what was like with Zachary).
A side note, I have no idea what I've done to make this look so different from my other posts. I'm too tired to mess with it any longer. I'm not very computer savy and I think this is a prime example. Other blogs I read have really cool backgrounds and banners and other things I like, but I have NO idea how to do that so for now we're all stuck with the boring look until I stumble upon a way to look like the cool kids!
We have so much to be thankful for this year and I just want to take this chance to thank all of you who take the time to read about our family. Your care, concern, prayers, comments, etc means a lot to us and we are thankful for all of you.
First of all, back in September while Eli was still in the hospital, we got some great news from Bryan's sister that she & her husband are expecting their first child! We're so excited for them! This will be our first chance to be aunt & uncle to a little one (my sister's almost step-child no longer counts since he's 15 & won't let me swaddle him anymore...Love you, Aaron!). Last week Cara & Andrew had an ultrasound and now we know the baby's gender and, much more importantly, that the baby's heart is okay. Because of Eli's condition her doctor wanted to do a more in-depth ultrasound for the baby and so far all looks good :) We are so relieved and excited.
Next bit of news, at my yearly physical I had several things to discuss with Dr. Amy. One item was some shoulder & neck discomfort that goes down into my chest and left arm. Yes, I realize that sounds like a heart attack, but seriously I can tell it's just tight muscles, however when I'm stressed out all the time and let my mind wander I get a little freaked out about it. Given our family's history Dr. Amy said I should have an echocardiogram (ultrasound to check the structures of the heart). I had it done and a few days later we got the news that everything was normal. I honestly wasn't too worried about it until it was done and we were waiting for the results. I wasn't even worried about me, but what would happen to my guys if something happened to me? Realizing I'm mortal put a damper on my mood.
Then...
At Zachary's 4 year check up, his heart murmur was still pretty loud when she listened to him. He'd had an echo done at birth, when his murmur was discovered, but he SCREAMED through the entire thing so we're not sure how accurate the findings really were. For most four-year olds this isn't a major concern, but Zachary has a brother with some pretty serious cardiac problems so, to be on the safe side, we had another echocardiogram done. Now this time I was extremely worried. What if Zachary had something seriously wrong with his heart too? How much could we really handle? You can imagine all the questions & fears we had. As most of you know, I use this blog & Facebook and am pretty open & detailed about our issues, but for some reason I didn't put any of this info out until we knew more. Now, many prayers later, we have the results: normal. THANK YOU, GOD!
Next on my list is my wrist. Several years ago I had what's called a ganglion cyst removed from my right wrist. I have one on the left wrist as well but it doesn't bother me much. The one on my right wrist got pretty big and made my hand, wrist & arm sore. It wasn't a sharp pain or anything like that, but it ached a lot and made detailed tasks difficult (holding a pencil, writing, buttons, typing, etc). I had it removed nine years ago. Since then it's slowly grown back and is now bothering me a lot. It isn't as bad as it was before but I don't want to let it get to that point. I went back to the orthopaedic doctor last week and they ordered an MRI. I had that done today and it confirmed that it is another ganglion cyst in the same spot as the one removed nine years ago. They explained today that there was a 1% chance of that happening in the same place. What do you know, I made the top percent in something! I just laughed and told them that's the kind of year it's been for our family.
The MRI also shows the cyst is very deep and putting a lot of pressure on my carpal bones (wrist bones) which explains the discomfort I've been having without seeing the large lump on the back of my wrist that was there before. The only option is surgery again. I'm not concerned about the surgery itself but the recovery kind of sucks. I know it sounds like a simple cyst and what's the big deal, right? The surgery involves a lot of manipulation of the bones to try & get all of it out. The last time I had a weight restriction and physical therapy for several weeks after surgery. I had a desk job and no kids or dog to take care of back then, so you can see why I'm getting stressed now. Even typing is getting difficult. I've taken four breaks typing this and that's been over several hours. I guess I'll have the surgery after Christmas, Bryan's got some time off & his sister Kendra will be home from college and can help with the boys. I'm not happy about this and will probably try to change my mind several times, but I know it won't be long until I start dropping things again because I can't get my hand to work right.
Our bright news is that we're all actually doing really well. Zachary LOVES preschool and has a Thanksgiving program & dinner next Tuesday that we're really excited about. Eli is growing well, his last weight check was 20lbs 8oz! He is starting to put a lot of weight on his legs when we stand him up and is so close to crawling that Albert has his suitcase packed & is ready to go (to explain: Eli loves Albert and Albert loves Eli, but Eli's love for Albert is usually shown in a pinch or slap. Albert is wonderful with him, but is not comfortable with this new mobility Eli is experiencing since he remembers what was like with Zachary).
A side note, I have no idea what I've done to make this look so different from my other posts. I'm too tired to mess with it any longer. I'm not very computer savy and I think this is a prime example. Other blogs I read have really cool backgrounds and banners and other things I like, but I have NO idea how to do that so for now we're all stuck with the boring look until I stumble upon a way to look like the cool kids!
We have so much to be thankful for this year and I just want to take this chance to thank all of you who take the time to read about our family. Your care, concern, prayers, comments, etc means a lot to us and we are thankful for all of you.
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