sick kids, strange pets, pineal gland....

First of all, all three of my boys are sick...VERY sick. De'Von called this morning in tears, saying he felt terrible and didn't think he could go to school. De'Von has never missed school due to being ill, so I knew he didn't feel well. He stayed home, and the middle one stayed with him because he felt sick as well. I received a phone call from the nurse at the middle school this afternoon saying that the oldest one had a fever of 103.4 and I needed to come get him ASAP. I'm so worried about my boys. I took the oldest one home and checked on the other two. They were both in bed, covered up all the way past their heads, shivering, but sweating. I asked De'Von if he needed anything, and he just looked at me, started crying, and said "no ma'am". How pitiful is that? I'm hoping their mom will take good care of them, or they will be coming over here!!!
Now on to our strange pets. We have one very dramatic dog! If she isn't getting the attention she thinks she needs, usually from Russell, she starts acting like she will be sick. She makes this terrible grunting noise and gets all dramatic, it's so bizarre. When we give her a little love, she calms down and is just fine. Such a manipulative dog!! Now, on to our cat, Maverick. He hates artificial light, isn't that random? He has broken three lamps, three! If we turn a lamp on, he will go up to it and knock it over if he can, and if he can't, he will just swat at it. If we turn on an overhead light, he will go to the light switch and turn it off. He just stands on the closest table or chair and stretch to turn the switch off. Last night Russell turned on the overhead living room light, but Maverick was unable to turn that light off. Instead, he went to where Russell keeps the flashlight and he knocked the flashlight to the floor. Is that revenge or what? He doesn't seem to dislike all types of light, though, because he will lay in front of the window and sun bathe all day. So strange...
Last thing, my mom has done a little research about the cyst on my pineal gland. Apparently it does not affect only birds. I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I think we will get a second opinion about the MRI results.

Dr. update....

I.don't.like.going.to.the.doctor!!!!!



Starting on Friday night, I had severe headaches, sezuires, and once again, lost my ability to speak. Russell paged the on call doctor with my neurologist office, and it happened to be my doctor that called back. Russell explained what was happening, and the doctor explained this is normal for my type of seizures (partial complex) and my migraines. So, he advised us to just wait it out. He said it could last any amount of time, so we had to just wait. My headaches persisted all weekend, and so did the seizures. I still can't talk normally, I sound like a robot. Luckily, I sound better each day, and the more I talk the better it sounds. I fell several times, and "zoned" out many more. The seizures and headaches are annoying, but the difficulty speaking are so frustrating!!! I sounded like a child just learning how to talk, which isn't good when I'm trying to TEACH!!! So, I decided it was time for us to go to the dr. to get my MRI results. Russell called and they said the first available appointment was April 7th. I was really upset, but Russell is so laid back, he didn't argue with the appointment person. So, I called my mom and she called for me. They got me in today, and my mom and Russell took me.

The doctor showed us the MRI, which showed three irregular things. Two of them I can't remember much about. The third is a cyst. At first he said not to worry about it, that this cyst only has an effect on birds. (UM...WHAT? BIRDS? BIRDS HAVE MRI'S DONE?) So, my mom asked more about it, then he said that it's actually still being researched. So, I'm not sure how I feel about that. He doesn't feel like that cyst is causing the seizures, so I don't know. We left with ZERO answers, ZERO!!! He just told us to come back when this happens again (the speech problem) and they will do a three day EEG (which I've had) and see what it shows. I've had the three day EEG done before, and it did show seizures. So, I feel like we are back at square one. Why go back and do the EEG again if it did show seizures? I have no freaking idea!! So, that's where we are. He even talked about taking me off the medicine, which is just unreal to me.

So, I guess we will just wait. I don't want this speech thing to happen again, so I'm not sure what to hope for. I do want answers, but I don't want to get answers at the cost of having this happen.

Valentine's Day

Today has been a great day! We had two basketball games, won once and lost once. The first game wasn't so great, and we lost. The good thing was that De'Von's teacher and another fifth grade teacher from his school came to see his game. I am very thankful they came to support him, and I know it means alot to him. This is the type of thing a kid like him needs from his teacher. We won our second game, so that was good.

We planned to go to a movie tonight at Movie Tavern, but I have a migraine, so we are enjoying a relaxing night at home. Luckily, this is what we enjoy more than anything, just an evening together at the house. Russell sent me two dozen roses to work on Thursday and got me a new pink and silver blackberry phone for Valentine's Day. I just ordered him his favorite brownies from his favorite bakery. He's not much of a Vday kind of guy, so I figured that was enough. The boys had to get stuff for their girlfriends this year. I have now realized how annoying I must have been to Russell as a teenage girl. Thank you, Lord, for still guiding his heart to love me enough to marry me. Teenagers, boys or girls, can be so crazy in love.

Some good....some not so good...

I have the flu, it's not so good. Yesterday when Russell got home from work he checked my temperature, it was 102!! I really don't like feeling this way, but I think I'm getting better. I'm glad it happened at the end of the week, so I have the weekend to recover. I was out of work yesterday and today, NOT a good thing this close to TAKS, but I didn't have a choice.

Now on to the good news, a "perfect match" has been found for a bone marrow transplant for my mother-in-law, Penny!!! All we know about the match is that she is in her early twenties. She will be going through some physical tests over the next few weeks to make sure she is capable of going through the transplant. Hopefully by March we can start with the process. Having a match this soon is a huge blessing!! They are going to test one more person that is a possible match to have a backup just in case that is needed. We are incredibly thankful for this news.

Russell spoke with the nurse about my MRI this week. Apparently going to see the DR about what he saw on the test can wait, which is good news. I won't be taking off yet another day to go see a doctor. He did see something on the MRI, which does concern me, but it's not life threatening, so that gives me peace. When I went to see my regular doctor this week about the flu, I asked him about it, asked what the MRI could show that wouldn't be a big deal, but could cause seizures. He said his best guess would be a cyst. We will see if he's right or not.

Busy weekend!!

We've had a busy weekend!! Let me start with an update on my mother-in-law, Penny. Her illness is very complex to me, so this is directly off of her caringbridge.org website blog.

"We had very good news at our appointment on Friday. My bone marrow biopsy taken the week before showed that I was still in remission (hooray!) and the blood work from Friday showed that my counts were good and holding. So the doctor said that I would not have to undergo follow-up chemotherapy at this time (hooray!!). The bone marrow process is moving along. Three of the first four candidates contacted were not available, but one of them was tested and we should know something next week. Two additional donor candidates have been contacted and one of those has agreed to be tested next week. According to the doctor it will take about four weeks from the match and approval to transplant.
If we can find a match quickly, I may not have to go through stop-gap chemo before the transplant. He told me to enjoy this period of grace because it won't last for long... and week one of the transplant will be chemotherapy (just hoping to avoid chemo in the interim). So we came away with the best we could have hoped for including a cute new celebratory hat for me ( an early Valentine gift from my loving husband) from the gift shop in the cancer center (just trying to do our part to keep the economy going).
We continue to thank you for your support and prayers as this journey continues. We have donors, doctors, nurses and many others to pray for as we go forward. I am so thankful to all of you and also the many professionals that I can't count them all. I can feel your prayers and know that the love and strength of God will get me through this.
Love and many thanks!
Penny"

This is all great news!! First of all, she had great news at the doctor, AND her spirits are up!!

Russell spoke with the nurse last week about my MRI results. She stated that the MRI did show "some things" that the doctor needed to see us about, but none was "immediately life threatening". What in the world does that mean? Does this mean it's really nothing at all, or something, just not super major. I left the nurse a message and asked if I needed to make an appointment prior to Spring Break. First of all, I really don't want to take more time off from my kids, but I also hope to get some information out of the nurse about what's going on. She never called back on Friday, so I'll give her another call tomorrow!!!

Now to our busy weekend. Saturday started out with a nail biter basketball game. We had terrible referees, so we weren't sure that we would be able to win. Honestly, the game wasn't called very fairly. We were able to win, 23-21, and the kids were so excited. We left the game and went to sweet Jameson's first birthday party. Kasey and Lee did a great job planning the party. Jameson is just so precious, we probably could have had the party in a cave and still had a great time watching him be so darn cute. De'Von and his oldest brother, Tron, joined us for the party. Jameson likes to follow them around, which is pretty cute to watch. Here are a few pictures from the party...

He likes looking at himself in the mirror. Who can blame him? He's just so darn cute!! :)

Today is our oldest boy, Tron's, birthday. Since today is the Superbowl, we decided we would celebrate last night instead of tonight. While we were at Jameson's birthday party yesterday, the boys were playing on the playground equipment, which included some small rock climbing walls. The boys were so excited about these 5 foot rock climbing walls, so I thought that rock climbing might be fun for his birthday. Last night we went to eat at Red Robin with all the boys, Kasey, Lee, and Jameson, and then off to rock climb. I was slightly unsure how the boys would do rock climbing, they tend to get bored a little easily. We got to the rock climbing place a little after seven, and were there until closing at 10. They are all so competitive and athletic, they had a blast the entire time!! It's something we will do something again for sure!! Here are a few pictures from our rock climbing night. I meant to get one of all three of them together, but then I forgot. Maybe I'll remember the group shot next time! :)

The middle one - Ja'Vontray - giving me a look while I lecture him about not giving up on the rock climbing. He wanted to come down off the wall, but I was telling him he couldn't.

Not a flattering picture, but proof that my nagging works!! He made it to the top of the wall and was able to ring the bell! :)

Tron taunting De'Von because he was beating him up the wall. These pictures are so blurry...sorry...I blame Russell! :)

His taunting only made De'Von more determined to beat him up the wall...De'Von eventually caught up and beat him to the top. We are very thankful that Tron is competitive, but gracious. He doesn't mind being beat by his younger brothers.

The look I was getting while I was telling De'Von he could not give up on the wall and was not allowed to quit. This is the same look I get during basketball games while getting onto him. I think he's probably saying "Please be quiet, you're embarrassing me" in his mind. :)

It paid off, he made it!

Russell had him wait up there so he could get a picture from farther back...

All in all, it was a great weekend, but we are pretty tired. I'm looking forward to next weekend so I can rest, and this hasn't even started. That's probably not a good sign!!