Snuggles

Hopefully, there will be time to catch up on the overdue updates.  However, I had to share that I just received precious snuggles from my beautiful little girl!  Wow!  She usually gives a quick hug to Mommy and is off to Daddy's arms.  Tonight was different, she wrapped her sweet arms around my neck, laid her head down, and even played with my pony tail.  What a difference!!  Wow!!  What a precious gift!  This Mommy loved it and is still swallowing the lumps in her throat!!!!

Update on My Man

Hey Prayer Warriors!

We went to the doc yesterday for B & Me and received some updates.

In regard to B, he is a Rockstar!!!   When we left his test the doc that performed it said that he is "brilliant!"   Our neuro yesterday said the same thing!  They said he is truly above average and performed off the charts.  That's my man!

The doc performing the test & the neuro also stated that they did see "deficits" that made him normal!  Thus, he didn't score as high on certain areas of the test.  Those areas are indicative of the damage that they are seeing on the MRI.  However, they said that his "low" scores were actually normal!  Meaning that he scored in those areas what most "smart" people would score.  That was considered a deficit since he's brilliant!!!

So, the end result is that our neuro wants to run a few labs, looking for other things, and she wants to do an EEG (the test that I have done all the time with the electrodes attached to your head).  Otherwise, we have a follow-up appt next week with the doc that performed the test.  At that appt. she will be able to give us the entire report and then some "exercises."

Exercises-as we understand it, he will meet with this doc frequently to do mental exercises to help strengthen what has started to atrophy.  So, call it brain rehab maybe...Imagine if you broke your finger and had to do exercises to get it back in shape.  Then, imagine if you had to have your finger amputated and learn to use the other four to do what five were doing.  As I understand it, this is as if he lost a finger.  So, we're having to let the other four learn how to do the work of five. 

We'll tell you more once we understand it.  However, those are the basics as we understand them!

What Makes Today Special?

Many look back on this day eleven years ago and remember so many innocent lives lost.
In our family, there is a secondary reminder, one of life!  Yes, on this day, September 11th, 2006 (the five year anniversary of lives lost), a special man that I love, went in to surgery.  While he was still waking up from his anesthetic, his doctor told me that he had cancer.  To most of us, that is a bad word and it means death because we've lost someone to the yucky disease.  A few minutes later, my amazing husband woke up from his anesthetic and wanted to know about his surgery.  The doctor had not made it back in to the room and so I had to tell my hubby that he had cancer.  September 11th no longer meant death or fear.  The first words out of B's mouth were, "Cool, that means I get to be a cancer survivor!"  Yes, you can blame it on the anesthetic, but I blame it on a man that is completely sold out to his Savior, Jesus Christ.  He trusted and still trusts fully in the Lord and HIS healing power over B's life.

You can read more about that day here: Survivor
You can read more about the journey here: Psalm112-survivor.blogspot.com.

In the meantime, we both head to the doctor on Thursday.  The neurologist has told us to expect a long appointment.  We will be getting a preliminary update on B's test from last week.  That doc told us (what his wife already knew) that he is brilliant, but she can also see in the test scores the areas of weakness where the scans pointed to damage to the brain.  So, in the next few weeks, we will begin to learn what type of "rehab" will be required to strengthen those areas. 

We will also learn the next step that they want to take with me.  Last we were told, the next choice was chemo, but there was one other option that she was trying to look into...So, please say some extra prayers for wisdom for all docs involved and for us.  Please pray for P's protection amidst all of this chaos.  Please pray for B's job that he is able to continue working and serving others while still taking care of himself and the rest of us!  We love him SO MUCH and PRAISE THE LORD that HE chose to make September 11th a celebration of life for our family!!!

We love you, B & Daddy!!!

Psalm 112

¹ Praise the Lord.^[b]

Blessed are those who fear the Lord,
    who find great delight in his commands.

⁷ They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

Thanks and Update

Many, many thanks to all of you for praying for M yesterday.  These last few days have truly been difficult as it seems the seizures just won't stop.  We did have home health come in and do IV medication yesterday morning as we will sometimes see good results administering M's anti-seizure medicine this way.  While not a sure thing in stopping the seizures, we can usually get some reprieve.

M was able to get some rest throughout the day and some much needed reprieve for most of the day after getting the IV.  PRAISE THE LORD! While the day did progress better than it started, the seizures unfortunately returned by bedtime with M having a few around going to bed and during the night.

Pleas be in continued prayer and, in addition, pray for our Neuro, Dr. S.  We have an appointment later this week to go over some additional thoughts and possible future treatment.  We too are very much prayerful about our upcoming appointment.

Thoughts:  Since we were not able to get out to church yesterday due to the chaos that ensued, we had our own little church last night.  Our time had us in a familiar passage, James 1:2-8.

Consider it all joy when you face trials of of many kinds....

A very good point that I don't think we really considered is that JOY does not necessarily mean happiness.  Unfortunately, circumstances that are not always in our favor do happen.  BUT God can make good from our trials.  Our focus should not be on the trial or tribulations, but rather we are to look through the circumstance.

Your thoughts?  For more insight we would encourage you to also listen in to the message we listened to.  Look through the trial and trust : Message by Pastor Brian Fisher, Grace Bible Church, College Station, TX 09/02/2012

Emergency Prayers

Prayer Warriors!  Please continue to pray for M.  It is just the early morning here today, but already M is at 4 seizures since midnight and 5 in just the last 12 hours.  Please pray for her healing and rest as she is incredibly tired and we all are just floored by how bad the seizures have become this month alone.  M is averaging nearly 4 seizures per day right now.

Since this morning has been crazy, we will be doing medicine with home health and trying to make sense of things and hopefully get in contact with her doc.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

Quick Update/Prayer

We've held off on posting about this for a while. 

Many of you know what an amazing and "soft" heart B has...

We found out a few weeks ago that his brain seems to be softening, too.  He was starting to behave a bit differently and I just told myself it was my seizures and I was seeing something wrong.  Well, Mom finally asked one night at dinner what was different about him.

I brought it up to him that night.  He had noticed some minor things.  He then became a patient with me at my next neuro appt.  She ordered an MRI.  The MRI showed a really big word that means softening/atrophy of the brain usually following an NFL concussion.  We're still waiting on the NFL disability payout!!!  Right?

Anyway, doc has ordered a test that looks at overall brain performance.  It is an all day test.  So, we are down in the hospital world today.  As far as we know, we won't have any real results until next week.  We just wanted to get those prayers headed to the Lord for B's healing!

B with his girl!!

FIRST Day of Preschool

It's so hard to imagine that our little angel is growing up so quickly.  Today was her first day of preschool!

Sitting down to pose as soon as I saw the camera!!!

Showing off the dress that Gamma bought for the first day of school!

Snuggling with Daddy before school!

Daddy made Mommy pose even though she didn't have on any make-up!!!

Getting out of the car to go meet my friends at school!

Good Morning to the squirrel!

Already starting to play!

 Pray that it's a great day!  She seemed to enjoy it when she arrived!!!  We hope she loves the entire day!

Important Business with Winnie the Pooh

We would love ideas from all of you experienced parents on the next car seat for our girl!!

P is about to need to get out of the infant car seat...what is the best seat that could be forward or backward facing?  She's still a skinny little thing and so she's supposed to be backward facing for now.  However, she's getting a bit too tall for the infant carrier.

This is serious business, folks!  I have to sit in this seat while I take care of important phone calls with Pooh!!!

 

Just kidding!!!!  Will you come sit with me, too?  We could have fun playing with my Pooh phone!

Mommy and Daddy sure would love help on picking the right car seat, though!!!!  We had great advice on the infant carrier and have loved it.  Now we need to find something new for our growing girl!!!

Y'all were incredible with the advice on the diapers at bedtime.  We switched to night time diapers and we've only had one morning that required new sheets!!  Thank you!!!