What a range of emotions today! On the non-serious side, I had therapy this morning and then went to Evansville. My stitches were taken out and I got a good report. It feels soooo good to have those things out, my wrist had been itching like crazy. I'm much happier now :) I even got to have a grown up lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. What a treat for me!
Both boys are almost back to normal. They both still have runny noses and Eli has a cough, but they're both so much better. Zachary finally got to go to school for the first time since before Christmas. He took a long nap this afternoon, not used to getting up early anymore I guess!
Eli is a master at crawling & pulling up to his feet. He's really quite the character. He loves making us laugh and is full of surprises. The other day he climbed the stairs (9 steps!!!) without any problems. The farthest he'd gone before was two steps, so we didn't expect nine. His appetite is getting much better too. Hopefully he'll be over the last of his cold in the next few days.
The past two nights have been very emotional. Eli's heart surgery was one year ago today, Jan 10 (although it's almost midnight so it'll probably be the 11th by the time I post this). Putting him to bed last night was really hard. I kept thinking back to the night before his surgery. Bryan & I didn't sleep at all. We were so scared he wouldn't make it through the operation; the surgeon said there was a 30% chance he would not.
Normally if you hear there's a 70% chance of something, it's pretty good odds. A farmer loves a 70% chance of rain in the summer. Anyone would love a 70% chance of winning the lottery. Most people can appreciate a 70% chance of snow at Christmas. A 70% chance your 11 week old son will live is not good enough. It was the absolute worst night of our lives.
We were also told to expect that he would be on a heart-lung bypass machine IF he made it through surgery. Our baby made it out of the operating room and was NOT on the machine. His chest incision had been left open for several different reasons. It was covered with a clear dressing. When we finally got to see him, we just stared at his little chest, rhythmically rising & falling, rising & falling, rising & falling. Even with the incision, it was the most beautiful sight.
I couldn't sleep tonight. I keep reliving all those events and emotions of last January. Last night, I cried a lot while putting him to bed. It was hard to let go of him, even for the night. I lost count of how many times I crept back in to watch him sleep. The number of tears I shed last night is a small fraction of the tears I shed 365 nights ago. Tonight, I keep going back to check him, but I'm not as overwhelmed with emotion as I was last night. Tonight I can remember more of the happier moments, I'm not as focused on the fear. The future is still scary, but even if I could look into a crystal ball, I wouldn't do it. We just have to take things as they come and trust in His plan. I knew that before last January, but I REALLY believe it now.
Last night, while I rocked Eli & cried, he just stared at me with those big, brown eyes. His little hand touched the tears on my cheek and he smiled at me. He & I have had many bonding moments over the past two years (yes, almost two years; he lived in my belly for 9 months!). Some were the normal mommy & newborn moments. Too many have been in the hospital setting, but last night was one of the most special so far: As I was giving thanks for Every Little Beat of his heart, I realized that you just haven't lived until your baby plays with your tears of gratitude.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
One Year Ago Today
It's hard to believe that at this time one year ago today we were admitting Eli to the local hospital. He was 10 weeks old and weighed less than he did at birth. We were thinking he had stomach issues, little did we know what we were in for. I think you all know the rest of the story. It's been a crazy year full of stress, tears, prayers, and sleepless nights, but we've learned so much about ourselves & become a stronger family because of it.
The outpouring of support we received in those first few days was overwhelming. The support has continued (as has the stress) and we are so grateful to all of you who help us in so many ways. Thank you for caring about our family and our beautiful little boys. Thank you for realizing how difficult this has been on Zachary & for anything anyone has done to help him cope and adjust. Thank you for all the kind words, cards, gifts, dinners, handmade blankets, offers of help, monetary donations, hugs, and, most of all, encouragement. Most importantly, thank you for all the prayers. God is good. He's brought us this far, He won't abandon us. There's a reason Eli was made this way and a reason why he was given to us. We are so grateful that he & Zachary are ours.
Each day is hard, but at the same time, we don't focus on Eli being a "heart baby" every day. He's a normal little boy who loves to ransack the house, torment the dog & imitate his brother. People who don't know about his issues are surprised to learn of them because he looks so normal & healthy. We do that too. Most days are spent doing normal family things. There's always that fear in the back of our minds or that sinking feeling in the pits of our stomachs as we wait to see what unfolds next. It's difficult not to focus on the negative, but we have so many positives in our lives that we can't stay negative for long.
Thanks again for all the support over the past year. I wish I could write that "we're almost done with this journey" or that "Eli's heart is fixed" but that will never happen. We're in this for the long haul and I'm afraid of wearing people out with our story and prayer requests, but I won't stop! Thanks for caring and remember to treasure Every Little Beat....
The outpouring of support we received in those first few days was overwhelming. The support has continued (as has the stress) and we are so grateful to all of you who help us in so many ways. Thank you for caring about our family and our beautiful little boys. Thank you for realizing how difficult this has been on Zachary & for anything anyone has done to help him cope and adjust. Thank you for all the kind words, cards, gifts, dinners, handmade blankets, offers of help, monetary donations, hugs, and, most of all, encouragement. Most importantly, thank you for all the prayers. God is good. He's brought us this far, He won't abandon us. There's a reason Eli was made this way and a reason why he was given to us. We are so grateful that he & Zachary are ours.
Each day is hard, but at the same time, we don't focus on Eli being a "heart baby" every day. He's a normal little boy who loves to ransack the house, torment the dog & imitate his brother. People who don't know about his issues are surprised to learn of them because he looks so normal & healthy. We do that too. Most days are spent doing normal family things. There's always that fear in the back of our minds or that sinking feeling in the pits of our stomachs as we wait to see what unfolds next. It's difficult not to focus on the negative, but we have so many positives in our lives that we can't stay negative for long.
Thanks again for all the support over the past year. I wish I could write that "we're almost done with this journey" or that "Eli's heart is fixed" but that will never happen. We're in this for the long haul and I'm afraid of wearing people out with our story and prayer requests, but I won't stop! Thanks for caring and remember to treasure Every Little Beat....
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Here we go again...or still...
Eli had an ear infection/diarrhea/teeth cutting episode in early December. He recovered from that, we did the Holter monitor (see previous post for all that info), had Christmas and thought all was good. Since Christmas we've been a very busy group! The day after Christmas, Eli started with a runny nose. He progressed to a full fledged cold since then. His eyes get matted shut, he has a breakdown if he sees a Kleenex in the room because his little nose hurts so badly, and he's coughing so much that he can't sleep.
We started getting really worried yesterday because he wasn't even playing anymore. The poor baby just sat on our laps and whined. He's not normally a whiner, he usually just yells for what he wants then moves on! We went to see Dr. Amy today and found out he has another ear infection and red, swollen tonsils. Fortunately she didn't hear anything in his lungs, so we think the cough is from all the congestion. Good news is that he's gained another ounce this past month despite his decreased appetite lately. He's now 20 lbs 13 oz! Eli got a Rocephin (an antibiotic) shot in her office and started an oral antibiotic at home. As soon as we got home he went to sleep and has been in bed for 3 hours!
So, what does momma do when her baby is finally getting some sleep? She sits on the couch eating Oreos and watching mindless television. It was awesome :) I needed some downtime to rest my wrist. I had surgery to remove a cyst on my wrist 12/28. Things went well and I'm actually doing better than I expected. I start physical therapy tomorrow. I'm supposed to have a 5lb weight restriction, but that's difficult with a sick little guy around. Luckily, Bryan has been willing to take care of a lot of things and my mom & his sister Kendra have been huge helps.
Zachary had his first Snow Day today. Washington schools were on a two hour delay, which means that morning preschool was canceled. He needed to sleep in and "we-wax" some too! Right now, Zachary, Bryan & Kendra are in Indy at the Kids Club event. They get to play on the field and I think there are bouncy houses for the kids too. Some players come out later for autograph sessions. I'm sure they're having a good time!
I hear a baby starting to wake up so I'll end this update for now. Hopefully the nap did him some good and he's ready to eat a little. Please pray for a good night for him, he hasn't slept well for two nights because of coughing so much. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and we wish everyone much happiness & health in the New Year!
We started getting really worried yesterday because he wasn't even playing anymore. The poor baby just sat on our laps and whined. He's not normally a whiner, he usually just yells for what he wants then moves on! We went to see Dr. Amy today and found out he has another ear infection and red, swollen tonsils. Fortunately she didn't hear anything in his lungs, so we think the cough is from all the congestion. Good news is that he's gained another ounce this past month despite his decreased appetite lately. He's now 20 lbs 13 oz! Eli got a Rocephin (an antibiotic) shot in her office and started an oral antibiotic at home. As soon as we got home he went to sleep and has been in bed for 3 hours!
So, what does momma do when her baby is finally getting some sleep? She sits on the couch eating Oreos and watching mindless television. It was awesome :) I needed some downtime to rest my wrist. I had surgery to remove a cyst on my wrist 12/28. Things went well and I'm actually doing better than I expected. I start physical therapy tomorrow. I'm supposed to have a 5lb weight restriction, but that's difficult with a sick little guy around. Luckily, Bryan has been willing to take care of a lot of things and my mom & his sister Kendra have been huge helps.
Zachary had his first Snow Day today. Washington schools were on a two hour delay, which means that morning preschool was canceled. He needed to sleep in and "we-wax" some too! Right now, Zachary, Bryan & Kendra are in Indy at the Kids Club event. They get to play on the field and I think there are bouncy houses for the kids too. Some players come out later for autograph sessions. I'm sure they're having a good time!
I hear a baby starting to wake up so I'll end this update for now. Hopefully the nap did him some good and he's ready to eat a little. Please pray for a good night for him, he hasn't slept well for two nights because of coughing so much. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and we wish everyone much happiness & health in the New Year!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Good News...?
Busy couple of days around here! Took Eli to our local hospital to be set up with a Holter monitor Wednesday morning. He screamed when they put it on him. It doesn't hurt, it's just stickers on his chest, but I swear he has "flashbacks" to his hospitalizations and he knew he didn't want those on him. Once he had a shirt covering them up he was fine. He spent the next 24 hours with a trail of wires coming out of his clothes attached to a recording device (about the size of a small cell phone). It was like a tail. Overall he did really well with it, much better than I had anticipated, but it was still stressful. If he saw the wires on his chest he would frantically start pulling at anything he could grab (wires, feeding tube, etc) so if he had to have his clothes changed it needed done very quickly!
Thursday morning, a little over the 24 hour mark (we're overachievers!), I took the unit and stickers off of him. I thought he might do better with just me doing it instead of strangers at the hospital. He still cried and fought me but it was over pretty quickly. When we returned it to the hospital they reviewed the recording to make sure it was good enough and then it was processed and sent to our doctors.
Today Eli & I went to Evansville (what a madhouse! You'd think it was the only mall for miles & miles around. Oh, wait...). Eli was fine when we got there but turned on his screamer when they tried to do crazy things to him, like weigh him, take his blood pressure, and O2 saturation. Heaven forbid they try to listen to his heart with a stethoscope. We also had to do an EKG. He turned into a double octopus on crack. We didn't give up and finally got what we needed (mostly).
Dr. Steinberg was very pleased with Eli's progress and weight gain, and asked several questions about his activity level, sleeping habits and overall health & attitude. He had reviewed the reports from the Holter monitor & the EKG; they showed that Eli's average heart rate is 71, much lower than that of a normal 13 month old, and his rhythm is still junctional. Everyone agrees that if he was going to return to a normal rhythm on his own it would have happened by now. He needs a pacemaker.
The good news is that because he is doing so well, we can wait longer before doing it. Dr. Steinberg thinks we could possibly wait until Eli's third surgery and do both at the same time. If he starts having trouble gaining weight, is easily agitated (without medical personnel bothering him), or just has general problems, then we'll re-evaluate. For now the plan is to see Dr. Kumbar at the end of February to do an echo (ultrasound of the heart and its vessels) and then back in June to see Dr. Steinberg again. We'll probably get to repeat the Holter monitor prior to that visit as well (oh joy of joys!).
At that point we'll begin discussion about a heart catheterization prior to his third surgery. That surgery is called a Fontane completion. The surgery he just had in September is called a Hemi-Fontane (the two are essentially the same surgery but it's too much to do at one time so it's done in two stages). If given the chance to schedule, they don't like to schedule the Fontane procedures in the winter months because of the increased risk of respiratory complications. After today's appointment it looks like Eli could have his Fontane completion by the fall of 2012. Nothing is set and we'll have to see what happens over the next few months. Of course if Eli's condition changes, they can always proceed with the pacemaker.
So, our expected news is that, yes, he needs a pacemaker. Our good news is that we don't have to do a pacemaker as soon as we were anticipating. Our not so good news is that his third surgery may be sooner than we were thinking (we were hoping for 18-24 months after the second one, which would have been summer 2013-ish). That isn't a huge deal, I suppose, but it seems like 2011 was filled with major surgeries, procedures, & really heavy stuff. I guess I was hoping for a little "time off" before the final stage. We know he has to have it done, so in the long run, when it happens doesn't make a big difference. As long as he's growing and functioning well, we're happy.
Overall today was a very good visit. I had fully expected to leave there with a date set for pacemaker placement so to find out that can wait indefinitely was very uplifting. Dr. Steinberg said something very nice and encouraging as we were leaving..."Keep up the good work." Dr. Amy says that to us a lot too. Eli does all the hard work, but it does feel good when the efforts Bryan & I put in are acknowledged. We're just so happy that he's here to keep us up at night, drool on our furniture, and torment our dog! We're very blessed indeed.
Thanks for checking in! I'll get another post up about our Christmas festivities, but until then we'll continue to cherish Every Little Beat...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thursday morning, a little over the 24 hour mark (we're overachievers!), I took the unit and stickers off of him. I thought he might do better with just me doing it instead of strangers at the hospital. He still cried and fought me but it was over pretty quickly. When we returned it to the hospital they reviewed the recording to make sure it was good enough and then it was processed and sent to our doctors.
Today Eli & I went to Evansville (what a madhouse! You'd think it was the only mall for miles & miles around. Oh, wait...). Eli was fine when we got there but turned on his screamer when they tried to do crazy things to him, like weigh him, take his blood pressure, and O2 saturation. Heaven forbid they try to listen to his heart with a stethoscope. We also had to do an EKG. He turned into a double octopus on crack. We didn't give up and finally got what we needed (mostly).
Dr. Steinberg was very pleased with Eli's progress and weight gain, and asked several questions about his activity level, sleeping habits and overall health & attitude. He had reviewed the reports from the Holter monitor & the EKG; they showed that Eli's average heart rate is 71, much lower than that of a normal 13 month old, and his rhythm is still junctional. Everyone agrees that if he was going to return to a normal rhythm on his own it would have happened by now. He needs a pacemaker.
The good news is that because he is doing so well, we can wait longer before doing it. Dr. Steinberg thinks we could possibly wait until Eli's third surgery and do both at the same time. If he starts having trouble gaining weight, is easily agitated (without medical personnel bothering him), or just has general problems, then we'll re-evaluate. For now the plan is to see Dr. Kumbar at the end of February to do an echo (ultrasound of the heart and its vessels) and then back in June to see Dr. Steinberg again. We'll probably get to repeat the Holter monitor prior to that visit as well (oh joy of joys!).
At that point we'll begin discussion about a heart catheterization prior to his third surgery. That surgery is called a Fontane completion. The surgery he just had in September is called a Hemi-Fontane (the two are essentially the same surgery but it's too much to do at one time so it's done in two stages). If given the chance to schedule, they don't like to schedule the Fontane procedures in the winter months because of the increased risk of respiratory complications. After today's appointment it looks like Eli could have his Fontane completion by the fall of 2012. Nothing is set and we'll have to see what happens over the next few months. Of course if Eli's condition changes, they can always proceed with the pacemaker.
So, our expected news is that, yes, he needs a pacemaker. Our good news is that we don't have to do a pacemaker as soon as we were anticipating. Our not so good news is that his third surgery may be sooner than we were thinking (we were hoping for 18-24 months after the second one, which would have been summer 2013-ish). That isn't a huge deal, I suppose, but it seems like 2011 was filled with major surgeries, procedures, & really heavy stuff. I guess I was hoping for a little "time off" before the final stage. We know he has to have it done, so in the long run, when it happens doesn't make a big difference. As long as he's growing and functioning well, we're happy.
Overall today was a very good visit. I had fully expected to leave there with a date set for pacemaker placement so to find out that can wait indefinitely was very uplifting. Dr. Steinberg said something very nice and encouraging as we were leaving..."Keep up the good work." Dr. Amy says that to us a lot too. Eli does all the hard work, but it does feel good when the efforts Bryan & I put in are acknowledged. We're just so happy that he's here to keep us up at night, drool on our furniture, and torment our dog! We're very blessed indeed.
Thanks for checking in! I'll get another post up about our Christmas festivities, but until then we'll continue to cherish Every Little Beat...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Monday, December 12, 2011
~It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!~
Merry Christmas! The Christmas Spirit is starting to work its way through the Veale house! We've gotten a lot done, but as usual, there's still a lot to do. We made cookies this weekend (a lot, I haven't even counted!). Zachary loves to decorate a cookie then eat it before the icing is dry. His version of "helping" is definitely that of a 4 year old!
Bryan and I got an early Christmas present for ourselves. We got a new dining room table & chairs. The set we had was given as a wedding gift and it was used long before that. The chairs were coming apart and it was getting scary to sit in any of them so we splurged & got some new pieces. WE LOVE IT! I'm posting some pictures later in this blog but I won't have any of the table this time because it's too covered with cookies & other half-finished Christmas projects. Definitely will get some up later because I want to brag about it :)
I'm working on getting our Christmas cards out. That's a big job, but I do love sending and receiving them :) Zachary's helped wrap a lot of presents and we've got them under our trees. Yes, I wrote trees, plural. We were pretty sure Eli would pull down our big one that we normally put in the living room so we bought a small, pre-lit white one and put it on a table. We put a bigger one up in the dining room and he hasn't found it yet. That's where the gifts for the four of us will go and gifts for extended family go with the living room tree. So far he's left things alone but, frankly, I don't trust him.
Eli has been very busy cutting teeth. His top front four are all in and he's working on molars now. He had several nights of fighting sleep for several hours, but that's starting to improve. Cutting those teeth has been hard on his body: He's had loose stools, a runny nose, a cough, both ears are red and he just generally doesn't feel well. Despite all that he's playing well and has mastered crawling in the past week. His appetite has fluctuated as he hasn't felt well but he's trying lots of new foods and overall doing very well. He's definintely on the mend now. At his check up last week he weighed 20lbs 12oz. When we're holding him on a sleepless night he feels like he weighs 45lbs!
Zachary has written his letter to Santa and his big wish this year is for Imaginext Dinosaurs. Go figure, the kid wants dinosaurs. I tried to explain Santa's naughty & nice list to him and I think he "gets it." Occasionally he'll ask me which list he's on that day. So far it's been nice all the way! Even more important than Santa, he's really into the fact that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus being born. I love hearing him say "Bethlehem," "frankencense," "gold," and "myrh." Bryan & I can't believe that Christmas decorations are enough for Jesus' birthday. We're still figuring that Jesus will need a dinosaur party and we'll have to incorporate that with our trees, but for now that idea hasn't occured to Zachary. There's still time!
We go to see two of Eli's cardiologists this Friday. At that appointment there will be more discussion regarding a pacemaker. As we've said before, we're not going to stress over this. It's something that will help him and at least we have an option for this problem. We'll save our big worries for the problems that don't have any options. I'll post again sometime after that appointment to let you know what we find out.
The four of us went to Washington's Christmas Parade yesterday. We think it was Eli's first parade. It was a good day for it, temps in the low 40's and it wasn't windy at all. We had Eli bundled up like Randy from "A Christmas Story" but it's hard to keep those cheeks covered! Zachary was nuts with excitement and we all had a good time. When we got home we started decorating some of the cookies we'd baked the day before.
We hope all of you are enjoying the Christmas season and thanks for reading!
Bryan and I got an early Christmas present for ourselves. We got a new dining room table & chairs. The set we had was given as a wedding gift and it was used long before that. The chairs were coming apart and it was getting scary to sit in any of them so we splurged & got some new pieces. WE LOVE IT! I'm posting some pictures later in this blog but I won't have any of the table this time because it's too covered with cookies & other half-finished Christmas projects. Definitely will get some up later because I want to brag about it :)
I'm working on getting our Christmas cards out. That's a big job, but I do love sending and receiving them :) Zachary's helped wrap a lot of presents and we've got them under our trees. Yes, I wrote trees, plural. We were pretty sure Eli would pull down our big one that we normally put in the living room so we bought a small, pre-lit white one and put it on a table. We put a bigger one up in the dining room and he hasn't found it yet. That's where the gifts for the four of us will go and gifts for extended family go with the living room tree. So far he's left things alone but, frankly, I don't trust him.
Eli has been very busy cutting teeth. His top front four are all in and he's working on molars now. He had several nights of fighting sleep for several hours, but that's starting to improve. Cutting those teeth has been hard on his body: He's had loose stools, a runny nose, a cough, both ears are red and he just generally doesn't feel well. Despite all that he's playing well and has mastered crawling in the past week. His appetite has fluctuated as he hasn't felt well but he's trying lots of new foods and overall doing very well. He's definintely on the mend now. At his check up last week he weighed 20lbs 12oz. When we're holding him on a sleepless night he feels like he weighs 45lbs!
Zachary has written his letter to Santa and his big wish this year is for Imaginext Dinosaurs. Go figure, the kid wants dinosaurs. I tried to explain Santa's naughty & nice list to him and I think he "gets it." Occasionally he'll ask me which list he's on that day. So far it's been nice all the way! Even more important than Santa, he's really into the fact that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus being born. I love hearing him say "Bethlehem," "frankencense," "gold," and "myrh." Bryan & I can't believe that Christmas decorations are enough for Jesus' birthday. We're still figuring that Jesus will need a dinosaur party and we'll have to incorporate that with our trees, but for now that idea hasn't occured to Zachary. There's still time!
We go to see two of Eli's cardiologists this Friday. At that appointment there will be more discussion regarding a pacemaker. As we've said before, we're not going to stress over this. It's something that will help him and at least we have an option for this problem. We'll save our big worries for the problems that don't have any options. I'll post again sometime after that appointment to let you know what we find out.
The four of us went to Washington's Christmas Parade yesterday. We think it was Eli's first parade. It was a good day for it, temps in the low 40's and it wasn't windy at all. We had Eli bundled up like Randy from "A Christmas Story" but it's hard to keep those cheeks covered! Zachary was nuts with excitement and we all had a good time. When we got home we started decorating some of the cookies we'd baked the day before.
~It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!~
We hope all of you are enjoying the Christmas season and thanks for reading!
Our new tree in the living room.
Albert completing his annual "present sniff"
Our dining room tree
Some of the cookies we baked and decorated this weekend.
Waiting for the parade to start. I promise both boys had fun, Eli just didn't want to sit on the sidewalk for a picture!
Mommy & Eli waiting for the parade to start
Daddy & Eli all snuggled up
Excitedly waiting for candy
Part of Zachary's "The Parade's About to Start!" dance
Just in time for Christmas, Eli has become a pot & pan drummer
Some of Eli's crawling skills
Mamaw Betty helping Zachary write his letter to Santa
Zachary & Eli played in a laundry basket for about 45 minutes the other day. The basket was a boat, a train, then a boat-train. Eli had a blast with the special attention Zachary was giving him.
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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