Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Atlas has turned 5! My Dad came to help us celebrate. Cosby reaped the benefits of cake baking while Atlas wrestled grandpa nonstop.


We went to a place in Lake of the Ozark's called Miner Mike's. It was basically a glorified arcade with a few rides and a play place, which ended up being really fun for Atlas even if he was way too cool for the bumper cars.





On his actual birthday we went the The Magic House in St. Louis. The boys were obsessive with this giant pin toy. That is an impression of Atlas's body.


He climbed in this tunnel and just posed like this out the window. He's been doing a lot of "cute faces" for me lately. He says he is cute to make me happy.


Cosby loved the water table, but only because he was trying to drink the nasty water all the kids were playing in.


Atlas is under the car here. Kids are helping him fix it.




The electrostatic room!



We went home and had birthday cake. It was small and nice. I don't think I am going to be able to talk this kid out of a birthday party next year. He's been begging, but he was a good sport about it this year.


A few days later the Hall's came from Cincinnati for a visit. We went back to St Louis to show them the City Museum.





Then we just sort of hung out for a while. The weather was perfect.



Atlas and Cosby are quite a team. They follow each other everywhere and make each other laugh (and scream and cry). I love when they are laughing at each other in the car, especially on long rides to St Louis. They both have adorable laughs, even their maniacal ones.



Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I met with the neurosurgeon. The condition I have is usually caused by trauma (a car crash or something), but can lay dormant a long time. Since I haven't been in a car crash or bad snowboarding accident for years, it is most likely they are not growing very fast. The operation to remove them is so tricky they want to put it off as long as possible. I will be getting periodical MRI's to track the growth. It is something that is part of my pain and exhaustion, so next stop, chiropractor to see if I can get any relief. Also they are testing me for lyme since I lived in RI. A couple more pokes and appointments and then hopefully just time to go to the gym to get some exercise in to help make me feel better. I'm on some medications that are helping, and springtime is coming.  I just bought everything for our garden. It is so nice to be able to go outside and see the sun. Everything is looking fine.



Friday, March 7, 2014

I had the ultrasound and MRI. The ultrasound on my thyroid showed a lot of small growths, they called them "nodules," but found them all to be benign. The MRI was a crazy experience. I was in the machine 2 straight hours. My neurologist had ordered the MRI because I have intermittent numbness in my face and parts of my back. They were looking for a recent hemorrhage or infarct. While I was in the machine the radiologist wanted to take more images then were ordered. They weren't looking for this, but they incidentally found that I have syringohydromylia, that definitely isn't helping me in everyday pain and exhaustion.  Syringomyelia are growths called syrinx's inside the spinal column, the hydro part means excess fluid and dilated spinal column. They also found cavum septum pallucidum, which is basically a Harry Potter spell meaning I have a gap in the middle of the two hemispheres of my brain. It's not a big deal, but it has been linked with all sorts of mental disorders. In President Holland's most recent conference talk he reassures people with depression that it is real, and akin to having any type of malfunction in another organ. I know that is true, but it's still hard to not feel like you are making it all up and it's all your fault and why can't you snap out of it. So, in a way it was sort of comforting to know that. Anyways, the next step is meeting with a neurosurgeon to discuss if and when I need surgery on my spinal column. The timing depends on how fast the syrinx's are growing and since I have only had one MRI my neurologist said the neurosurgeon will most likely want me to repeat the MRI again in a few months to see how quickly the condition is moving. Having all these tests done have really taught me a lot about my body. I wish every ten years everyone could just have a full CT and MRI just to get checked out. I feel really grateful to have insurance and be able to dig into what is causing me my daily symptoms. Neurosurgery is no walk in the park and there are a lot of things to be nervous about, but I am glad we are slowly finding answers. The word Syringomyelia above is hyperlinked to the wikipedia page, for my family members who like to do their research (Ryan :))