October Update

Wow, I knew it had been quite a while since I wrote my first post, but I didn't realize it had been over a month.  There have been a lot of things going on and I have been too tired to write regularly. So, time for an update.

Marissa is not any better yet. In fact she is worse.  She had another Dr. appointment two weeks ago and her medications were changed. They took her off of one that was making her blood pressure too low. They changed her anti-biotic and tried hitting the headache hard with oxycodone for one day. Other than making her sick that did not do anything, and her headache remains the same. She has had the headache for almost a year now. It started in the middle of October last year.

Marissa made it to the first three days of school and then has only made it a few hours since then. The teachers, councilors, and administrators have been very willing to work with us and try and find someway that Marissa can participate. We set up a 504 plan for her and at this point have withdrawn her from all but two classes. Unfortunately she was not even able to attend these two classes this past week.

If she is up to it she is allowed to participate in color guard. She has only made it to a couple of practices, one football game, and one competition so far. She is very disappointed about this because she loves color guard. She also misses school and her friends. There is not much she can do, and she is bored of sitting in front of the t.v. and playing on her i-phone.

Ericka is doing great is school. She has adjusted well to high school, has some nice friends, and is doing well in her classes. I think Biology and Art are her two favorite classes at the moment.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I have been very tired. I was so tired I was yawning constantly and almost unable to take care of my family.  I finally went to a new doctor and the lab results showed that my iron is VERY LOW.  I also was diagnosed with Lupus on Thursday. Some of you know that my mom suffered for years from Lupus, so it is a little scary, but I have been diagnosed very very early and a lot of new things have been discovered since my mom passes away 14 years ago.  I will see a rheumatologist soon and get more information and a treatment plan. It was kind of weird to me that I got my diagnoses on the day of the anniversary of my mom's death. In addition I have something going on in my "lower left quadrant". I have pain and the doctor can feel some sort of enlargement/mass. I go in for an ultrasound on Thursday to find out if my fibroids have grown, if I have ovarian cysts, or if something else is going on.  Surgery may be in my near future.

So, the stress level has been pretty high around our house, but we are managing. As the saying goes, "God doesn't give you more than you can handle".  Sometimes it feels that way though. My friend Krista reminded me of this twist on that saying.  "If God doesn't give us more than we can handle, then apparently, God must think I'm a real bad-ass." This has helped me keep my spirits up the last couple of days. It amuses me, because I don't think anyone who knows me would use the term "bad-ass" to describe me.

We are having a small family birthday party for my dad tomorrow. (74 years) Ericka has been helpful today getting the house cleaned up. I have cheesecake in the oven for dessert tomorrow, and Marty is going to make part of dinner with Marissa's help.  My sister is bringing another part. So we should have a nice time without to much overexertion and stress. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope to have better news next time.