Home again

My dad is home again. The folks at UVA sent him home yesterday. They monitored him and said that he has no seizure activity. They weaned him from all of the anti-seizure medicine and have sent him home. He and my mom are both very glad to be home. I hope it is for longer this time. He will go back to UVA for some more testing soon, but they felt that he can be treated while at home and didn't need to be in the hospital anymore. He has taken 2 long showers after so long in the hospital and says that he feels fine. The anti-seizure medicines were giving him terrible headaches, and those seem to be gone. Thanks for all of your prayers and concerns.

Now it's time to focus on getting these 4 boys to school. Chris's mom and sister and her family are coming up tomorrow to visit for the weekend. That would mean that today is monster clean day! I have been scattered to the 4 winds this week with so many things happening. Today I plan to just stay home and take care of things here. Of course I will need to venture out tomorrow to get food for us, but that gives me at least 24 hours here. We weren't able to get to South Carolina to visit Chris's family this summer, so I'm very thankful that they would take the time to come see us. We are going to take them to the zoo in D.C. Saturday. Our niece loves animals and she hasn't been there yet. It's such a fun place. My boys have been clamoring to go all summer, so now is the time.

Update on my dad

Just wanted to post a quick update on my dad. He was transferred last night to UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville. He went up about 8 last night. He didn't have a good day yesterday. Mom said that he was very quiet and when he did speak, he would say off the wall things. I talked with him last night before the transfer. He sounded o.k. Then he thought of something funny and started laughing. He was trying to tell me the joke, but he was laughing too hard and couldn't. He laughed for 20 minutes while I was on the phone, and then the nurse came in to get him his medicines. He could hardly stop laughing to take them. He laughed even as he was getting in the ambulance to Charlottesville. i think it was just tension release. He said he felt better! Today he had a cat scan and another EEG, which will stay on all night. He and Mom met the team of doctors that will be working with him. I'm so thankful that the transfer happened so quickly. I know it was God at work. Dad said as much to me last night. There is a hospitality house nearby where Mom will stay while they are there. It's only about an hour from their home, so she could drive home if she needs to get away for a bit. This hospital is where they took Christopher Reeve after his accident. It really is one of the best in the state. Thanks for all of your prayers. It is good that he is there and hopefully they will be able to get to the bottom of this quickly. My sister-in-law is planning on going up there on Wednesday, and I will try to go Thursday. It's about 90 minutes from here. I'll keep you updated. Now I have to take Peter to baseball.

Bad News

My dad was admitted to the hospital in Framville again late last night. Todd called today to say that Mom had taken him to the ER last night. He began having the little seizures again. They put him in I.C.U. there, but Todd said he thought he was about the same as he was when he was here in Fredericksburg. I am encouraging Todd to ask my mom to have them transfer him to a large hospital. If they couldn't find it here, they need to go bigger, not smaller. Hopefully they will send him either to Richmond or to Charlottesville. I know it would be harder on Mom, but if the seizures are not going away with the medicine he is taking, it would be better to have other specialists look at this. I'll keep you posted.

Friends from Afar

Angelina, Peter and Eleanor taking a break from running
The Price's and the Fulton's

Our friends, James and Polly, and their 2 girls stayed overnight with us Saturday. We went to church with them in Maryland and enjoyed their friendship. They invited us over for dinner, even with two small children, when they didn't have any. They even drove here with us and helped us move in when we left Maryland in 1999. Later that year, they moved to France. They live in Marseilles and work their. They come home about every two years, and in spite of the demands on their time, were able to make it down to visit. It had been a hard week with most of my days spent at the hospital with my dad, and I spent Saturday afternoon worrying about getting things done for our company. The day was so beautiful that we ate outside. I could just feel the stress fall away as we caught up with our dear friends about all that God is doing in their lives. Peter hit it off immediately with Angelina (7) and Eleanor (5). They played all night and then again all day Sunday. The girls didn't want to leave when it was time for them to go, and we didn't want them to leave either. Eleanor, with her red-haired braids and jeans, looked like she belonged on a farm! Despite my stress and worry about the visit, I'm so glad that we could spend time with them. It was such a blessing. And yes, it is nice to not have anything to do today as well!

Free at Last

As I write this, my parents are going through the discharge process at Mary Washington. Yeah! Thank you so much for your care and concern. He is very tired, although he got two good nights of sleep, last night and the night before. When I got there yesterday afternoon, he and Mom were both napping. Dad had a good day yesterday with no seizures at all. Today he was anxious to get out of there. He looked very tired when I saw him this morning, but I'm sure after a night in his own bed he'll feel a ton better. They (or rather he) plans on heading home this afternoon. When they finish the discharge and get the meds he will need, then he plans on coming here to shower and then heading south. He has had a heart monitor on the entire time he was there, so he wasn't able to shower. They had some neat things to use to clean up, though, including a cap that has shampoo and warm water in it. You just put it on your head and rub for a few minutes. Viola--clean hair. And so this saga ends, hopefully for good.

I will go to VBS tonight and take Chris's place so that he can go to Fred's first football scrimmage. And so life continues.

Wednesday update

Well, this morning I was going to post, but I'm glad I waited. Todd, my brother, came up last night so that he could see my dad today. Mom was getting ready at 6:45 this morning when my dad called. He said that he thought he was going to have another grand mal and that she should get in there right away. If you know my dad, you know how that conversation went! I called him soon after they left and he was much better. He had had several scares, though, probably made worse by anxiety. Yesterday they started him on an additional medicine to help control the petit mals, but the warnings on that medicine were absolutely awful. Dad thinks that his throat swelled. He said he felt like he was being strangled this morning. I'm sure it terrified him. He also said he had the nurse from h-e-double toothpick through the night and today. He's working on about 2 hours of sleep per night as well. I was very concerned, but my mom called when she got there and he was much better. I guess he slept for about an hour this morning. They gave him a different medicine today, and he seems fine with it. When I got there at 1, he was sitting in the chair talking and laughing. He was able to get up and down quickly. He had one very minor seizure--he could talk through it and it was about 45 seconds long. But that was the only one he had for the 3 hours I was there, so we are praying that the combination of the medicines will now control the seizures. The neurologist came in today and talked with us. He plans to increase the second medicine over the next several days, but said that if all remains well, Dad can go home Friday. We are so hoping that happens. Today is day 7 at Mary Washington. My biggest prayer request at this point are that Dad would sleep tonight (the neurologist has ordered something to help with this) and that he wouldn't have any more reactions to the medicine he is on now. Thanks so much for thinking of us. Hopefully this saga is almost over. Time for football!

Some Good News

Today when I got to the hospital, my dad was sitting in the chair just talking away. He didn't seem to have any of the effects that we saw yesterday. He talked with my uncle on the phone for about 30 minutes and then talked with both of my brothers and my sister-in-law. He was soooo much better today. We are all so thankful. He is exhausted. He had two grand mal seizures in the night. The first happened just as my mom was getting ready to leave in the evening. That was the worst one. She decided to spend the night. He had another about 3 am, but it was less severe. Today at lunch he started to have trouble talking again and then for a couple of hours seemed to be having a few of the small seizures as before. He had another EEG that still showed seizure activity, so they upped his medicine to get it more quickly into his system. He seems to be doing better on this medicine. About 20 minutes after they started the dose, he was back talking again and not having as much trouble. Everyone there is so kind. We have a great nursing staff at Mary Washington. They did find a mass in one of his glands, and they are going to biopsy that tomorrow. While he's there, they may as well get it done. Dad said that the doctor told him that once you have a grand mal seizure you are in the hospital for 4 more days, so he may be there for awhile. We sure appreciate all your prayers. Mom is supposed to be coming home this evening to get some rest. We can all use some at this point.

Update

I started to do this earlier today, but there was a glitch. I'm so glad, because earlier today was BAD. My dad seemed to be going crazy--literally. He had some very bizarre behavior and didn't seem to be able to talk well or even know what was going on. The doctor was in this morning and discounted that this could be related to the anti-seizure medicine that Dad had been taking. I went on-line and looked it up, and he had about a dozen of the severe allergic reactions to that medicine. They seemed to coincide with what were seeing in him, including his swollen glands and sore throat. I'm so thankful that this could be what is going on and that we stopped the medicine immediately. It was a difficult day for all of us, especially my mom, with my dad's erratic behavior. I keep reminding her that it's the medicine and not him. But they are starting him on different anti-seizure meds tonight, so please pray that we will know right away if he is sensitive to this medicine as well, and also pray that the other medicine leaves his system quickly and he returns to normal behavior. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement. It means so much.

A Bit of Excitement

The last several days have been very different than what I had planned. My parents stopped here on their way home from Ohio. They came to the swim banquet with us on Wednesday night and planned to leave for home Thursday morning. If you know my dad, you know how anxious he was to get back home to his dog and cats and favorite chair. We were sitting on the little round stools of the middle school cafeteria. My mom left the room for a minute, and I was talking with a friend. My dad took his glasses off, and then looked at me as if to get me to look behind me. It seemed that he wanted me to look at something without anyone knowing. I was confused and looked around and asked him what. After about a minute, I realized that he couldn't speak or move. I called 911 and someone got my mom. While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, my dad regained the ability to talk and move. The rescue squad came and checked him over, and then took him to the hospital just to check him out. He is still there. He had a 24 hour EEG on Thursday to Friday to determine what was going on. The doctor was not sure that what he was having were seizures because there was no shaking involved. Yesterday afternoon, however, after the neurologist viewed the tape of the EEG, he said that they were seizures on the left side of his brain, but not the right. They started him on anti-seizure meds immediately, and performed several more tests last night to determine the cause of the seizures. The possibilities include an infection or a mass. Since my dad has wires in his spine from the spinal cord stimulator, they can't perform an MRI, so they had to settle for a CAT scan. When I talked with him this morning, he said he felt better than he has for a very long time. He got a good night of sleep, and the anti-seizure medicine is helping. So for some time he has been affected by whatever is going on in his brain. Please keep him and my mom in your prayers. Hopefully today we will find out what the cause of the seizures are and be able to treat that as well. He has resigned himself to staying in the hospital, and this morning even admitted that it was better to be here and find out why he's having the seizures than to just get some medicine to stop them and go home, which was his motive since Wednesday night. Mom is a rock. She has been staying here at night, so is getting good sleep. But she is at the hospital much of the day. They want to observe him on the medicine to make sure that it is the right kind, so he may be here until the middle of next week. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Anniversary!

It's been a long day!

Together at last!

19 years later

Yesterday, August 5th, was our 19th wedding anniversary! I have officially been married as long as I was single. That is just so amazing to me. I've had the privilege of spending half of my life with this wonderful man. And if you can do math you realize that I was just 19 when we were married. My parents never said a word about how young I was, for which I'm very thankful. God had a plan for me and protected me from much heartache, I'm sure.

Chris, I love and respect you so much. You are my best friend. You listen to me, you love me, and you put up with me. You are the best man I know. I appreciate that you think things through where I tend to rush in. You are steady and wise. You aren't afraid to try anything in order to care for your family and home. When we came home from Ohio to a flooded laundry room, you rerouted the water pipes and gave us water again, even though you had never done anything like that before. I can trust you. I love that you still love to be with me and that working at home has been a good thing for both of us. Happy Anniversary! I am looking forward to the next 19 and more! I love you!

blogging

Pressure! I feel the pressure to blog. But nothing intersting is happening today. I never thought I would be at a loss for expressing my opinions, yet here I am. I feel a certain responsibilily to fill this little space. I have no new pictures, no exciting news, just the same.

I did have an awesome Sunday, though. I'm helping lead a small group study this summer with the youth from our church. We are plowing our way through the book of Revelation. They all wanted to do this study, so the youth pastor agreed. It has been fabulous! This Sunday there were about 15 students there, ready to talk about the woman and the dragon and the beast. We are using the New Inductive Study Series from Precepts. There are no commentaries, no other sources, only the Bible. What a blessing it has been to see these kids take the time each day to do the homework (30 min. a day) and come to learn more and share what they learned! I come away every week on a cloud. Heaven is greatly on my mind lately. I just can't wait.....