I love you babe!!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Happy 29th Birthday!
Happy Birthday to my dear husband who turned a big ol' 29 yesterday!! He think's he is old:) which I find kind of funny. Makes me wonder what he is going to feel like when he turns 50?? I doubt he will be doing any of the below picture.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Surgery
Ok, I know I should have updated this sooner, but its been a hectic week and I have a few minutes to spare so will quickly inform all my prayer warriors how Nick's surgery went.
Nick was wheeled away at 2:20pm and I went to sit in the waiting room. At about 2:45 I was called to the front desk to be informed that surgery just started and they would let me know when it was complete. I was told about 1.5 hours. So I played some spider solitare, talked to a friend on the phone and tried to keep myself busy so my mind wouldn't dwell to the "what if's". At 3:45 my in laws showed up with the boys and we sat and talked and waited for the surgery to be over. At 4:15 I was called to the front desk where I saw Dr. Miller who was the neurosurgeon. He had a smile on his face and at that moment I knew God had answered all my prayers and all your prayers....a perfect surgery. Dr. Miller said he was very surprised to find that the Herniation of the disk had more or less turned into a big buldge. (this means that it was not so big that it was touching the spinal cord causing the nerve to be pinched), but that it was still a good thing to have the surgery done as you never know when it could flare back up and cause pain again. So come to find out this explains why the friday before surgery nick commented "I dont' seem to have as much pain...what should we do...go ahead with the surgery"??? Even though we didn't have a second MRI we decided we would go ahead with this surgery since you never know when that pain may reoccur. Dr Miller continued to say nick did well and was in recovery and would be moved up to a room within the next two hours. So we continued to wait and about an hour later we were told he had a room. So we headed up to his room just as he was being moved onto his bed. We went in and he looked like he had just come out of surgery. Its a bit disturbing seeing the one you love to much look in pain and groggy and out of it. The boys were extremely quiet but oh so sweet. Caden walked up to him and started patting his arm and head and saying "you ok daddy". Elijah stood back quietly and looked quite sad. I soon noticed that his IV was bleeding out the end of the tube and so I called in the nurse. She proceeded to change the tubing and I think that was when Elijah got worried. Seeing daddy's blood was maybe a bit to much for him. I told him what was going on and told him it was ok and if he needed to cry that was ok too, but that daddy was fine. Elijah stuck his fingers to his eyes and held them over the corners of his eyes to keep from crying and then he came and sat by me and hid his face. I thought how precious it was that he was so concerned. Soon the tube was changed and the bleeding was done and the boys became their normal self.
Nick had not eaten all day and they offered him food and of course he was hungry but unfortunently he over did it and ate to much and threw it up later on that night. He slept like a log as he snored all night long:) I slept(or should I say tried to sleep in a hard pull out chair) as best as I could at 7 months pregnant. I was glad to see the sun rise in the morning:). Nick was dismissed the next day by 11:00am and we were home by 11:30. The doctor gave orders for him to not go back to work for 6 weeks....WHAT??? Nick said "that is not possible", you never told me I couldn't work for 6 weeks. Well, nick got him to drop it down to 2 weeks. Im not 100% sure he is going to follow doctors orders at this point. I think nick is hoping to go back late next week which only puts him at staying away from work for 1 week. I can't make him stay home, but I sure hope he doesn't over do it!!!!!
Anyway, thanks so much for your prayers and support thru this journey we had to take. We are both so thankful he is pain free in the leg with no sciatic nerve problems what so over...now he just has to let the incision heal and become pain free (that is the only pain he has). He still has 6 weeks of a 10 pound restriction which he must follow and he says he will. That puts us at 3 days before I am due....oh this could be interesting:)
Hope this wasn't to confusing...I tried to explain the best I could.
Nick was wheeled away at 2:20pm and I went to sit in the waiting room. At about 2:45 I was called to the front desk to be informed that surgery just started and they would let me know when it was complete. I was told about 1.5 hours. So I played some spider solitare, talked to a friend on the phone and tried to keep myself busy so my mind wouldn't dwell to the "what if's". At 3:45 my in laws showed up with the boys and we sat and talked and waited for the surgery to be over. At 4:15 I was called to the front desk where I saw Dr. Miller who was the neurosurgeon. He had a smile on his face and at that moment I knew God had answered all my prayers and all your prayers....a perfect surgery. Dr. Miller said he was very surprised to find that the Herniation of the disk had more or less turned into a big buldge. (this means that it was not so big that it was touching the spinal cord causing the nerve to be pinched), but that it was still a good thing to have the surgery done as you never know when it could flare back up and cause pain again. So come to find out this explains why the friday before surgery nick commented "I dont' seem to have as much pain...what should we do...go ahead with the surgery"??? Even though we didn't have a second MRI we decided we would go ahead with this surgery since you never know when that pain may reoccur. Dr Miller continued to say nick did well and was in recovery and would be moved up to a room within the next two hours. So we continued to wait and about an hour later we were told he had a room. So we headed up to his room just as he was being moved onto his bed. We went in and he looked like he had just come out of surgery. Its a bit disturbing seeing the one you love to much look in pain and groggy and out of it. The boys were extremely quiet but oh so sweet. Caden walked up to him and started patting his arm and head and saying "you ok daddy". Elijah stood back quietly and looked quite sad. I soon noticed that his IV was bleeding out the end of the tube and so I called in the nurse. She proceeded to change the tubing and I think that was when Elijah got worried. Seeing daddy's blood was maybe a bit to much for him. I told him what was going on and told him it was ok and if he needed to cry that was ok too, but that daddy was fine. Elijah stuck his fingers to his eyes and held them over the corners of his eyes to keep from crying and then he came and sat by me and hid his face. I thought how precious it was that he was so concerned. Soon the tube was changed and the bleeding was done and the boys became their normal self.
Nick had not eaten all day and they offered him food and of course he was hungry but unfortunently he over did it and ate to much and threw it up later on that night. He slept like a log as he snored all night long:) I slept(or should I say tried to sleep in a hard pull out chair) as best as I could at 7 months pregnant. I was glad to see the sun rise in the morning:). Nick was dismissed the next day by 11:00am and we were home by 11:30. The doctor gave orders for him to not go back to work for 6 weeks....WHAT??? Nick said "that is not possible", you never told me I couldn't work for 6 weeks. Well, nick got him to drop it down to 2 weeks. Im not 100% sure he is going to follow doctors orders at this point. I think nick is hoping to go back late next week which only puts him at staying away from work for 1 week. I can't make him stay home, but I sure hope he doesn't over do it!!!!!
Anyway, thanks so much for your prayers and support thru this journey we had to take. We are both so thankful he is pain free in the leg with no sciatic nerve problems what so over...now he just has to let the incision heal and become pain free (that is the only pain he has). He still has 6 weeks of a 10 pound restriction which he must follow and he says he will. That puts us at 3 days before I am due....oh this could be interesting:)
Hope this wasn't to confusing...I tried to explain the best I could.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Snow Storm
Ok so a few weeks ago I posted about our snow day....well, I thought this would top that post! Now Im sure I will get a few laughs still at the amount of snow we all get excited about here, but trust me...this is quite a bit for Knoxville. In fact its the most snow they have had in 5 years!! So the most snow the boys and I have seen since living here. School was dismissed early on Monday due to all the snow, slush and slick roads and today school was cancelled due to dropping temperatures and all that slush out on the roads is now frozen. We are to get some more snow this afternoon and perhaps some more on Wednesday morning so Im not sure if the Elijah will be back in school tomorrow or not. I kind of hope so...
Caden on the backyard hill....kind of tough to climb this hill since the snow was so wet as soon as you touched it it turned slick, but it made for great body sleds. No sled needed they soon found out.
Elijah attempting the sled, but always seemed to slid sideways. He soon gave up as well and was belly sliding. Elijah and Caden made this snowman...I watched from the window:) I think they did a good job for their first snowman ever!! Below is a video of the boys body sledding down our hill in the back yard. Enjoy!!
Even though it was an extremely WET snow they had fun none the less and came in with EVERYTHING wet!! Our back yard hill really comes in handy for this type of thing. Here is our front drive and its still snowing out when I took this picture.
Caden on the backyard hill....kind of tough to climb this hill since the snow was so wet as soon as you touched it it turned slick, but it made for great body sleds. No sled needed they soon found out.Elijah attempting the sled, but always seemed to slid sideways. He soon gave up as well and was belly sliding. Elijah and Caden made this snowman...I watched from the window:) I think they did a good job for their first snowman ever!! Below is a video of the boys body sledding down our hill in the back yard. Enjoy!!Tuesday, January 27, 2009
God Answers Prayers
Recently I've been asking for prayers on behalf of Nick and his back and that we would know if the Dr Miller that he had an appt with today would be a good Neurosurgeon. When moving to a new area finding random doctors is always hard and you never know who you can trust and who is good.
(*this could become long*)
Ive been asking around for recommendations and have never gotten any and in fact was advised to go to Nashville for a great Neurosurgeon for nick. Well, we couldn't get into nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital for 2 months so nick looked up the UT Medical Neurosurgeons here and took the first available doctor. (dr. miller)
On Monday I help teach a class called "just moved". Its for those who are new to knoxville and its a great class that helps you meet knew ladies and find different things going on around town. Monday was our first class for this semester and a gal named Christy walked in (been here 3 months). She overheard me talking about nicks back and how we are seeing a neurosurgeon here. She got into the convo and to make this portion of my story short basically said "I know of one neurosurgeon here that would be a good fit. He is very conservative and doesn't do surgery unless very necessary and he is a christian man". I simply asked for his name so incase Dr. Miller didn't work out we had another name to fall back on. Well, much to my surprise his name was Dr. Miller!! I was simply thrilled that one day before nick's appt I find out that Dr Miller is a great doctor... so she says.
Well, at the end of this class we are able to give prayer requests. So I brought up my prayer request that we would know if Dr. Miller was a great doctor and that we could trust him and that we want to know for certain if surgery was the way to go for nick's back....thats when Dana(who has lived here for several years and helps teach the class spoke up). She said that two semesters ago we had a lady named susan miller in our class and that she was certain her son was a neurosurgeon here. No one knew for certain so that night I called Susan Miller (I had her phone number from when she was in the class) and I talked to her on the phone last night with much excitment as I found out that Dr. Joshua Miller was indeed her son. Found out that he was the top of his neurosurgeon class and has won awards for being a great neurosurgeon!!!
Thank you LORD for showing us all this prior to our visit today. God truly is amazing and answers many prayers.
The visit went well today, he was extremely nice, and encouraged us that since nick has already taken the conservative treatment approach by seeking chiropractic help and has tried other measures of healing like prednisone and traction that surgery was probably the best choice of action to take at this time. So on Feb 9th nick will be having his back surgery and we can't wait for that day to arrive so he can be instantly pain free!!!
Side note #1: of course I told dr. miller that I had spoke with his mother on the phone the night before and that I know who she is. He seemed thrilled to know we knew his mom.
Side note #2: one of nicks questions to the doctor was..."will I be able to ski and do water sports this summer?" Doc replies "of course"!!!! Nick smiled from ear to ear!!!
Thanks one and all for your prayers. They have been answered! We are now praying for a safe, successful and uneventful surgery on February 9th.
(*this could become long*)
Ive been asking around for recommendations and have never gotten any and in fact was advised to go to Nashville for a great Neurosurgeon for nick. Well, we couldn't get into nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital for 2 months so nick looked up the UT Medical Neurosurgeons here and took the first available doctor. (dr. miller)
On Monday I help teach a class called "just moved". Its for those who are new to knoxville and its a great class that helps you meet knew ladies and find different things going on around town. Monday was our first class for this semester and a gal named Christy walked in (been here 3 months). She overheard me talking about nicks back and how we are seeing a neurosurgeon here. She got into the convo and to make this portion of my story short basically said "I know of one neurosurgeon here that would be a good fit. He is very conservative and doesn't do surgery unless very necessary and he is a christian man". I simply asked for his name so incase Dr. Miller didn't work out we had another name to fall back on. Well, much to my surprise his name was Dr. Miller!! I was simply thrilled that one day before nick's appt I find out that Dr Miller is a great doctor... so she says.
Well, at the end of this class we are able to give prayer requests. So I brought up my prayer request that we would know if Dr. Miller was a great doctor and that we could trust him and that we want to know for certain if surgery was the way to go for nick's back....thats when Dana(who has lived here for several years and helps teach the class spoke up). She said that two semesters ago we had a lady named susan miller in our class and that she was certain her son was a neurosurgeon here. No one knew for certain so that night I called Susan Miller (I had her phone number from when she was in the class) and I talked to her on the phone last night with much excitment as I found out that Dr. Joshua Miller was indeed her son. Found out that he was the top of his neurosurgeon class and has won awards for being a great neurosurgeon!!!
Thank you LORD for showing us all this prior to our visit today. God truly is amazing and answers many prayers.
The visit went well today, he was extremely nice, and encouraged us that since nick has already taken the conservative treatment approach by seeking chiropractic help and has tried other measures of healing like prednisone and traction that surgery was probably the best choice of action to take at this time. So on Feb 9th nick will be having his back surgery and we can't wait for that day to arrive so he can be instantly pain free!!!
Side note #1: of course I told dr. miller that I had spoke with his mother on the phone the night before and that I know who she is. He seemed thrilled to know we knew his mom.
Side note #2: one of nicks questions to the doctor was..."will I be able to ski and do water sports this summer?" Doc replies "of course"!!!! Nick smiled from ear to ear!!!
Thanks one and all for your prayers. They have been answered! We are now praying for a safe, successful and uneventful surgery on February 9th.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Snow Day!!
Well, today is Martin Luther King Day and the kids are out of school. As we woke up this morning Elijah and Caden came running into my room exclaiming "its snowing out, its snowing out...can we go out and play in it"?? So I got myself out of bed, proceeded to get them their breakfast and make them clean up a few toys first as the house was a disaster!! Then bundled them up and got them their sled as they just HAD to sled down our hill in the back yard. They were out there for nearly an hour playing and having fun. I know...don't everyone laugh at once when you see this. It amazed me that they could think that playing in this amount of snow would be so fun. I am anxious for them to someday get to play in "real" snow and do some "real" sledding!!! Enjoy the pictures:)
Notice....Elijah has a pair of boots and he said he had to wear them....I just about laughed at that thought....does he think he needs boots for this amount of snow??? Of course I let him wear them...gotta get some use out of them before they get passed down the line of boys.
Currenlty it is still snowing, however it is no longer sticking as the ground is just to wet. I think its suppose to snow pretty much all day, but with no accumulation Elijah will be back to school tomorrow.
Notice....Elijah has a pair of boots and he said he had to wear them....I just about laughed at that thought....does he think he needs boots for this amount of snow??? Of course I let him wear them...gotta get some use out of them before they get passed down the line of boys.Currenlty it is still snowing, however it is no longer sticking as the ground is just to wet. I think its suppose to snow pretty much all day, but with no accumulation Elijah will be back to school tomorrow.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Results
Hi fellow bloggers...
I just wanted to update you all on a few of the results we got back in the last couple of days. First off we will discuss nick's results... He has a torn disc. 9 times out of 10 the tear is located along the edge of the disc, however, his tear is exactly in the back of the disc behind the spinal cord which makes for a more complicated procedure if surgery is the way he would go. However, we are at the point where we are against putting nuts and bolts into his back as over time artheritis will set in causeing more of a problem in the future if nuts and bolts are to be used. We are currently looking into a surgery called Microdiscectomy. This would not include nuts and bolts and could possibly be the best and quickest fix. Until then Nick continues his chiropractic care 3 times a week(actually this week its been every day!!!) and he will continue getting decompression done on his back 3 times a week for 30 minutes now instead of only 10 minutes which is what we have been doing for the past month. Of course we are also going to other doctors to see what they suggest and of course all medical doctors say pretty much the same thing "a chiropractor isn't going to help this". But that is to be expected as most Dr's aren't fond of Chiro's. Nick has also been perscribed numberous medications. One being Prednisone to reduce swelling in the back/disc area so that healing can start to take place and scar tissue can form over this tear. He is also going to be on a pain killer as he needs to get back to work and yet his pain is far to much for him to bear. Nick however did go to work around 1:30pm this afternoon and will make it a short day and leave work around 4:45 to make his chiro appt.....I told him that if he is "so in pain" that he should come home and not over do it as we really need his back to heal and any kind of wrong move can make his healing process all that much longer. So as you can see we don't really have much answered over here but it is good to know exactly what we are dealing with and now to find a solution to cure my man???? Any advice is appreciated if anyone reading this has gone thru similar situations. Thanks!!
Now onto results of my ultrasound that I had today. Previously I had written about the "bright spot" on our little boys heart that was of concern. Today they redid an ultrasound to see if that "bright spot" was gone. It currently is still there, BUT my doctor is in no way worried about it any longer. She said many children are born perfectly normal with a "bright spot" on their heart and sometimes that "bright spot" shows up and means nothing. With the fluid being perfect measurement, the baby being perfect size for the stage Im at, and the movements of the baby are great and his heart beat is prefect and my test results for chromosome disorder (which is what the "bright spot" can mean) came back negative my doctor said "no worries". So with that being said, I am going to just continue praying for a healthy little guy to arrive pretty much on schedule as Im measuring 29 weeks:) He weighs 2 lbs and 10 oz currently and is VERY active. I only gained 5 lbs this past month so that was encouraging, however I still think I'll reach the weight gain I did with my other two boys. Im currently at 25 lbs gained which seems like a little, but in reality its quite a bit!!! But I usually gain 40 so Ive got myself a little ways to go yet.....and I have 2.5 months left!!!
Today I decided to walk thru the baby isles at target. Ive not done that yet since Ive gotten pregnant and decided to just look and see what is new out there or what I need to get or should I say "want" to get:). Nothing caught my eye and I walked out empty handed amazingly. I might swing by there a few more times in the near future and prehaps find a few things that I should get. This poor little fellow is going to have nothing new as he has all his hand me downs from his brothers!!!! Might just have to splurge and get a few things just cause:)
Thanks again to all those who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Of course nick isn't out of the woods yet, so continued prayers for his back to heal are much appreciated. And I haven't delivered a healthy baby yet, so continued prayers for a healthy baby boy is much appreciated too:)
Have a wonderful day y'all.
I just wanted to update you all on a few of the results we got back in the last couple of days. First off we will discuss nick's results... He has a torn disc. 9 times out of 10 the tear is located along the edge of the disc, however, his tear is exactly in the back of the disc behind the spinal cord which makes for a more complicated procedure if surgery is the way he would go. However, we are at the point where we are against putting nuts and bolts into his back as over time artheritis will set in causeing more of a problem in the future if nuts and bolts are to be used. We are currently looking into a surgery called Microdiscectomy. This would not include nuts and bolts and could possibly be the best and quickest fix. Until then Nick continues his chiropractic care 3 times a week(actually this week its been every day!!!) and he will continue getting decompression done on his back 3 times a week for 30 minutes now instead of only 10 minutes which is what we have been doing for the past month. Of course we are also going to other doctors to see what they suggest and of course all medical doctors say pretty much the same thing "a chiropractor isn't going to help this". But that is to be expected as most Dr's aren't fond of Chiro's. Nick has also been perscribed numberous medications. One being Prednisone to reduce swelling in the back/disc area so that healing can start to take place and scar tissue can form over this tear. He is also going to be on a pain killer as he needs to get back to work and yet his pain is far to much for him to bear. Nick however did go to work around 1:30pm this afternoon and will make it a short day and leave work around 4:45 to make his chiro appt.....I told him that if he is "so in pain" that he should come home and not over do it as we really need his back to heal and any kind of wrong move can make his healing process all that much longer. So as you can see we don't really have much answered over here but it is good to know exactly what we are dealing with and now to find a solution to cure my man???? Any advice is appreciated if anyone reading this has gone thru similar situations. Thanks!!
Now onto results of my ultrasound that I had today. Previously I had written about the "bright spot" on our little boys heart that was of concern. Today they redid an ultrasound to see if that "bright spot" was gone. It currently is still there, BUT my doctor is in no way worried about it any longer. She said many children are born perfectly normal with a "bright spot" on their heart and sometimes that "bright spot" shows up and means nothing. With the fluid being perfect measurement, the baby being perfect size for the stage Im at, and the movements of the baby are great and his heart beat is prefect and my test results for chromosome disorder (which is what the "bright spot" can mean) came back negative my doctor said "no worries". So with that being said, I am going to just continue praying for a healthy little guy to arrive pretty much on schedule as Im measuring 29 weeks:) He weighs 2 lbs and 10 oz currently and is VERY active. I only gained 5 lbs this past month so that was encouraging, however I still think I'll reach the weight gain I did with my other two boys. Im currently at 25 lbs gained which seems like a little, but in reality its quite a bit!!! But I usually gain 40 so Ive got myself a little ways to go yet.....and I have 2.5 months left!!!
Today I decided to walk thru the baby isles at target. Ive not done that yet since Ive gotten pregnant and decided to just look and see what is new out there or what I need to get or should I say "want" to get:). Nothing caught my eye and I walked out empty handed amazingly. I might swing by there a few more times in the near future and prehaps find a few things that I should get. This poor little fellow is going to have nothing new as he has all his hand me downs from his brothers!!!! Might just have to splurge and get a few things just cause:)
Thanks again to all those who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Of course nick isn't out of the woods yet, so continued prayers for his back to heal are much appreciated. And I haven't delivered a healthy baby yet, so continued prayers for a healthy baby boy is much appreciated too:)
Have a wonderful day y'all.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Prayer Request
Hi y'all,
Awhile back (in october) I had asked for specific prayers on behalf of Nick who had been having back pains from a pinched sciatic nerve. Well, I thought Id let you know that we thought we were on the mend. The past two weeks were great, he was feeling almost normal. However sunday morning he woke up unable to move again. He came to church with the boys and I, but I ended up having to help him get around church. He came home, and layed on the couch the rest of the day. He is currently getting an MRI (as I type this) to see exactly what is going on and what can be done (minimally without a major surgery). Please pray that God would lay his healing hands on his back and take away this pain that has been so bothersom to not only him, but to his boys as they don't get to rough house with him and tackle him on the floor like they would like to and me as I have to do heavy lifting which I shouldn't be doing but someone has to do it. We would love for this to be healed in time for our little boy to arrive, but only God knows what is best and I just pray that it is his will to heal nick soon!!
Yesterday as Elijah, Caden and I were walking out of church Elijah asked "is dad going to have to be in a wheelchair"?? It broke my heart to think that Elijah was thinking about stuff like that. Poor little boy wants his daddy back to normal!!!
Thanks for your prayers!! I'll keep you updated as to what the next step is in this long drawn out process of recovery.
Awhile back (in october) I had asked for specific prayers on behalf of Nick who had been having back pains from a pinched sciatic nerve. Well, I thought Id let you know that we thought we were on the mend. The past two weeks were great, he was feeling almost normal. However sunday morning he woke up unable to move again. He came to church with the boys and I, but I ended up having to help him get around church. He came home, and layed on the couch the rest of the day. He is currently getting an MRI (as I type this) to see exactly what is going on and what can be done (minimally without a major surgery). Please pray that God would lay his healing hands on his back and take away this pain that has been so bothersom to not only him, but to his boys as they don't get to rough house with him and tackle him on the floor like they would like to and me as I have to do heavy lifting which I shouldn't be doing but someone has to do it. We would love for this to be healed in time for our little boy to arrive, but only God knows what is best and I just pray that it is his will to heal nick soon!!
Yesterday as Elijah, Caden and I were walking out of church Elijah asked "is dad going to have to be in a wheelchair"?? It broke my heart to think that Elijah was thinking about stuff like that. Poor little boy wants his daddy back to normal!!!
Thanks for your prayers!! I'll keep you updated as to what the next step is in this long drawn out process of recovery.
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