Please Exit the Ride to Your Left...

...and remember to take all of your belongings with you. Yes, the ride is over! A visit with my N-O (Neuro-Ophthalmologist) yesterday brought us the medical answers we had been searching for - I had a stroke. There is lots of medical speak in the Radiologist's report from my CTA but what it breaks down to is that I have a Dissection in my ICA, which is my Internal Carotid Artery. The ICA is in your brain and not your neck. My N-O explained it to the strokes for idiots students yesterday as the two parts of my vessel separated and caused a 50 to 60% blockage in my ICA. That in turn caused some "turbulence" in my blood flow resulting in the stroke to my optic nerve. It is pretty rare and I am very blessed that the stroke went to my optic nerve and NOT to my brain. The N-O explained that if the stroke had gone to my brain there most likely would have been much more drastic results. So I never thought I would be thankful for my vision loss, but today I am extremely grateful. I still have the blockage so we are on alert for any stroke symptoms but the N-O believes that the ICA will heal itself in time and I will be able to ride roller coasters again before too long.

Thank you God for bringing the answers to my questions and showing the doctor what the cause of my problem was. Thank you for letting me know that I am not going to go blind and that I will still be able to drive, see my children's faces, see my husband's face, see my grand children's faces, scrapbook, put on makeup, do my hair and all of the other silly things that came to my mind over the past couple of days. Thank you for protecting my brain during my stroke and I ask protection over my ICA until it has completely healed. AMEN!

Roller Coasters

Ask my husband or kids and they will all tell you that I am a huge roller coaster fan. I am the first in line and the last to cry uncle. G Man is my roller coaster buddy - when the ride is over we run around and get in line again. D and G are good for one ride and they are done and RJ is still too short so he is undecided but G Man can always count on me to ride until we drop. I started writing about roller coasters this morning because I decided yesterday on my way home from the 5th doctor I have seen since December that I feel like I am on a roller coaster and for the first time in my life - I WANT OFF!

In the last update I gave, my Neurologist had found my only physical problem to be a B12 deficiency so we started B12 shots given to me lovingly my G every month. Up roller coaster. In a follow up visit with the Neurologist he decided that he was not altogether comfortable with the B12 diagnosis and suggested that I see a Neuro-Ophthalmologist and possibly get a spinal tap to completely rule out MS. I put this off for as long as I could until I had an afternoon of Vertigo. That scared me enough to call and make the appointment. Down roller coaster. So off to see my 4th doctor, the Neuro-Optho...she conducted a visual field test in which the results verified the loss of vision in my left eye and a slight loss starting in my right eye. After a couple of hours with her she informs us that she thinks I might have Glaucoma. Finally! A possible diagnosis that makes sense. When I got home I looked up Glaucoma on Wikipedia and there it was - a picture of how a person with Glaucoma sees and it looks like an exaggerated version of my vision. The N-O doctor schedules some more eye testing with yet another doctor (the 5th doc) and sends me on my way. When I left her office I had a strange sense of relief for someone that had just been told they might have a disease that is the second leading cause of blindness in the world! I was just glad to possibly finally have an answer. Up roller coaster.

To shorten this story (a little) the eye doctor visit yesterday ended with the doc telling me that he doesn't think I have Glaucoma. As a matter of fact, he doesn't see any physical reason in my eyes that I should have the vision loss that I have. He recommended tests on my brain at which time I informed him that I had already pretty much every test on my brain known to man - and some of them twice! He then told me that sometimes we have physical problems that cannot be explained medically. He said doctors don't really like that explanation any more than patients do. Down roller coaster.

It's not that I wanted to have Glaucoma, it's just that I wanted some answers. I am afraid that I will go blind and never know why. And there you have it.

I have a follow up appointment with the N-O doctor on Monday to see what she has to say about all of this. I am praying that she won't give up until we have some answers and can bring the ride to an end.

Spring Training

I took the boys to see a Spring training game yesterday. Diamondbacks vs. the A's. G Man and D managed to get signatures from Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds and James Skelton. G Man really had to work for the Reynolds signature but he was polite and patient and finally successful. That was the best part of the day because once the game started the Diamondbacks looked like RJ's T-Ball team! Way too many rookies on the field. We had fun but the D-Backs lost.

Butterflies and Chihuly

The boys and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden on the first official day of their Spring Break. I addition to the butterfly exhibit that we were planning on seeing there was an exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass. It was really amazing and to my surprise, the boys enjoyed the glass exhibit as much as the butterflies!

Field Trip!

The next time I mention to you that I am going to chaperon a field trip please give me the V-8 bop on the noggin!

It was mostly fun if you don't count the school bus ride with loud children and a strict bus driver that felt the need to pull over every time it got noisy on the bus. Ummm - you really need another line of work if you can't handle the sound of an excited bus full of 5th graders on a field trip. It was still mostly fun unless you count the large amount of kids that have not been raised to respect adults (or even teachers) so they talk back to pretty much every adult that asks them to do anything. It was still mostly fun unless you count having to listen to the 5th graders in the back of the bus have a suggestive conversation with each other in front of you until you tell them that they need a new subject to discuss! It WAS downright funny when a 5th grade girl ended up educating all of the others about when a girl "gets her period and blood comes out" during our discussion about how much blood your heart pumps. She then went on to inform all of us that she had "gotten her period"! WOW - I decided that 5th grade ain't like it used to be in the 70's when we were all reading "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?"

I really did have fun with G Man. It is always nice to see how the kids are interacting with the teachers and other students. G Man is a nice young man with pretty good manners when he remembers. I am still waiting for him to ask me what a period is but I am hoping he wasn't paying attention for that moment of TMI. We were highly entertained by our 78 year old tour guide especially when she led all of us in our 6 minutes of exercise. No one was more shocked than her when the little girl started talking about periods!


G Man and Me!


G Man's teacher - Miss P rolling down the big hill with the kids!

Opening Day of Baseball

What an exciting day it was! It started around 7:30 with pictures and opening ceremonies for G Man and ended when RJ's game was over around 1:00. A great time was had by all. Grandma and Grandpa W came from Flagstaff and Mr. J a close family friend was there for all of the festivities as well.

G Man's game was exciting immediately as he was the lead off batter and on the second pitch he hit a home run. We are trying to keep his ego in check by telling him that it should have really been a double - but it did go to the fence he will let you know. G Man pitched well and without pain which was a relief since he hasn't pitched for about a year because of a couple of broken bones last year. After the game the coach awarded the game ball to G Man for setting the tone of the game with his lead off home run. The Mets (us) won 11-2.

RJ's game was fun! Fun is a nice word to use in connection to baseball anymore. When they get to G Man's level it is more intense than fun - so fun was very nice. You gotta love T-ball with rules like - no outs, everyone bats and everyone plays. RJ was the last batter in the first inning so that meant he was the home run hitter. He was excited to have a home run just like G Man. It was T-ball so everyone won the game! The kids were most excited to get snacks and RJ is already talking about his trophy.

As a fun side note to RJ's T-ball team - turns out a childhood friend of mine from Flag lives in the neighborhood next to mine and her daughter is on our T-ball team! We went to school together from Kindergarten all the way to graduation and haven't seen each other since. It really is a small world sometimes.

Here is a slide show from opening day. Love this service (Slide) since sometimes you want to post more than one picture from an event but you don't want your blog post to be a mile long!

T-Ball Dress Rehersal

RJ is starting his first season of T-Ball. They passed out uniforms at the last practice so of course we had to try it on. On the way home from practice RJ explained to us that he wanted to be #3 but someone "stole" it. When we asked him why he wanted to be that number he told us that Babe Ruth is #3 and he wants to "be like that guy". Never underestimate the power of animated movies like Everybody's Hero where your child can learn about Babe Ruth. At least they only show the G rated parts of The Babe's life! RJ never ceases to amaze us with his retention ability. Not much gets past him mentally - the baseball field is another story. So far every ball that rolls his direction goes right between his legs! We are grateful that he doesn't cry every play that he doesn't get to touch the ball like D used to when he was 5. When D played T-Ball we actually pretended not to know who's kid he was because he would throw himself down and cry after every play when he didn't get the ball. Sorry to rat you out D but that is the purpose of blogging - memories!

Tea At The White House

This year on Feburary 20th, G and I were invited to Tea at the White House! We were treated to a performance by the 5th graders at G Man's school. They were dressed like past Presidents and First Ladies. We all said the Pledge of Allegiance and the kids sang patriotic songs paying tribute to God, The United States and the all of the Military branches. It was refreshing to hear the kids singing about God and our country and the ACLU didn't even show up! Our G Man was quite a cute Thomas Jefferson.