My Blog

I mad, MAD, MAD! I the maddest boy in the world!
-Peter

Mommy, my eyes orange? I make them orange eyes so I magic.
-Peter

Arghul. Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma. AAAAAAAAAH!
-Thomas

Mom, let’s just go later. Afternooze. It’s a little winter out now. Might snow. (8/25/11)

Thomas has figured out how to get around. He loves to be up and tall. He wants to be able to stand and run. One way to get taller is to sit on the trampoline. We kept seeing him up there but thought the other person put him there. Then I was alone and came in the room to see him proudly sitting there. The only little thing is that he hasn’t figured out how to get down yet. He’ll either cry or face plant.

Then I was able to witness just how he maneuvers himself up and on.

Thomas also enjoys standing in his crib. He’ll pull himself up and shake the bars. We now have to keep the curtain up so he doesn’t rip it off the wall. The problem with that is he likes to gaze out the window instead of sleeping.

We’ve been enjoying using the picnic table and grill outside. Dustin got and assembled adirondack chairs. They have been great to sit in and watch the boys cruise around in the grass.

Thomas, in all of his cruising, has found himself in some special spots. My favorite is when he crawls into the bottom of the exersaucer. He gets so confused like it’s not working right. There’s lots of space to go in and out and yet it’s like he’s in jail. Some day he’ll figure it out.

Peter got a jar with a caterpillar and a cocoon from Grandma and YaYa. The cocoon had been knocked to the bottom of the jar so we weren’t sure if it would survive. Well I walked by the jar the other day and I saw these black legs moving under a leaf. My gut reaction was to jump and assume it was a spider or a bug. After calming down, I looked closer and it turns out the cocoon made it and a monarch butterfly came out. I let him go in the porch so Peter could see later. Peter took a little while but then thought he was the coolest thing ever. We asked him to name the butterfly. He thought for a few seconds and said “Pants, his name Pants.” We even prayed for Pants that evening. Dustin and Peter decided Pants should be let free to find other butterfly friends. Peter was excited and said good bye to him but still talks about how he misses his Pants.

We will go back to pictures of the boys since they are too cute, especially in pictures when you can’t hear them or see the tornado that they bring with them.

We pulled out the old Johnny Jump Up for Thomas. He thought it was the best thing ever to be able to bounce. It would be even better if we had more places with trim so he wouldn’t be stuck in the hallway.

Peter had to get in on the action too. He can’t let his brother have all of the attention. He decided to pose for the camera and give examples of different emotions. My favorites that got captured are his mad face and his happy face.

Lastly, Peter just finished his swimming lessons. He had a class of four kids. He had a blast and listened most of the time. It’s just sometimes hard to remember that you can splash when you kick your feet but not splash people’s faces. Such small technicalities!

The results of the spinal tap are in. I have a demyelization disease. The spot in my brain is not just swiss cheese, it’s actually something.

The brain is made up of neurons firing electrical signals back and forth. Myelin is a coating that helps the signal get to where it’s going without being corrupted or interrupted.

In my head, my body attacks the healthy myelin. The result is the lesion and dots they found on the right side of my brain. As of now, that’s all it is. Down the road it could be more though.

Multiple sclerosis is the main disease dealing with myelin in the brain. Usually someone has a neurological event first, meaning something goes wonky for multiple hours. Their speech could be slurred, a limb might stop working right, or anything random like that. After two or more of these events, then they would officially say multiple sclerosis is in play. The doctor said that most people are in their 20’s when the disease starts without them knowing. Usually someone with MS would have at least two events and then go in and find some lesions. I may have just accidentally done it the other way around

I go in a little while for a second MRI to see how the lesion and my brain are doing. Then I’ll go back to my brain doctor and talk about where to go from here. We’ll talk about which MS medicine I will start taking and get a game plan. The medicine will hopefully either stop any neurological events from happening or at least lessen or slow them down.

It’s a lot to take in but I’ve had a little time to process and I’m doing okay. It’s not the news I wanted to hear but at least it’s something to go forward with. At least I’ll be proactive with the medicine and I’ll know what’s going on if something stops working. It will be okay.

I guess we will just start to support the MS 150. I don’t remember the last time I actually rode a bike to actually participate but if we have any bike riders in the crowd, this would be a good thing to try.

My brain is still a mystery. I know that could be taken many ways but today we’re talking about the lesion. The blood they took at the first doctor visit didn’t show anything.

I guess the deer ticks haven’t gotten the best of me yet and I am good on my vitamin B12.

I don’t have lupus yet but webmd.com pretty much says you could have lupus no matter what symptoms you enter.

The next step was a spinal tap. I did that this morning. Let me tell you that the stories that I heard and made up in my head were WAY scarier than the actual process. The attempts at drawing blood hurt much more than the lumbar puncture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doing laps at this point. In fact I couldn’t lift anything today and I have to take it easy tomorrow. I got three new holes in my arms from failed attempts at drawing blood though. If anyone is in the health profession- it is never okay to just slide the needle after you’ve inserted it, try again!

Now we’re back to the waiting game. They said it will take a week to have the results. I am no medical professional and only sort of grasp what is going on so I’m not positive what they are looking for. I know that this still won’t be a 100% diagnosis of anything, just leading me in the right direction.

I have the chance at still having a host of different issues or I may just be a true fan of swiss cheese. All I know is that it’s a bit scary to have to wait and not know. I’m trying my best to think happy thoughts.

So here are some of my happy thoughts for all to see:

So in all of my fun tree/ hospital experiences this past weekend, I had lots of tests done. They weren’t sure if I broke anything or whacked anything. Then the second hospital had to repeat tests. Regions tests must be better than Spooner tests?

All of my bones passed but my brain is another story. I have a lesion on the right side of my brain. It has nothing to do with the fall. It hasn’t caused me any problems that I know of and we may have never found it if I hadn’t tried to wrestle the trees.

I donated lots of vials of blood to test for a whole list of diseases like Lymes or Lupus. The doctor doesn’t think it’s any of those but needs to rule things out at this point. By the look of the spot, he doesn’t think it’s a tumor. Of course he can’t say 100% but that’s not where he’s looking.

At this point he is thinking it could be the start of MS. I go back in 6 weeks for another MRI to see if there are any changes to my spot. Then if the lab hasn’t given us anything, I’m going to have a spinal tap done. This can help determine if I’m going towards MS. That can’t proof positive diagnose me either. It can just give us another clue.

I could have a random disease, MS, or a spotty brain. I have tests and appointments made but really I just get to wait and see what happens. I’m not so good at waiting but I guess I’m going to learn.

First off, I promise there is a real post coming.  It takes awhile when you get so far behind and then have two little helpers.

Second, the last post was from Dustin.  He’s still at Donaldson but has a new cube and a new job.  He’s excited to do something different.  I’m still at the same old, same old although I did get hired for summer school.

Lastly, the quote of the week would be from Peter… “FARTS ARE NOT FUNNY DAD!”

And he is an awesome photographer!  Here is a sampling of the very many pictures he’s taken so far.

Also, Peter got a haircut.  He looks so grown up now.  Along with his new do, he pulled out his puddle boots.  He found a really nice puddle to test them out in while Dustin was finishing up in the hair salon.

We went to Donna and Pop Pop’s for a St. Patty’s day dinner.  Peter was so excited that the patio was dry so he decided we should go out and play.  The path going out into the yard was just too much temptation though.

And to round things out, here is one of my sad efforts at taking a picture of the two boys together.

We haven’t done a lot since we’ve had an awesome round of colds and then a wonderful round of stomach flu come through our house.

I thought I’d just share a few pictures to tide everyone over until there is actually something to post about.