First of all, Luke is doing great. His knees feel fine, they look almost normal now. He will still be on blood thinners until May, but hopefully his problems are behind us now. He is taking pictures of his sister's band tonight.
Tomorrow we have my cousin's birthday party, then Sunday we have an early Easter dinner with the Cowgar side.
We still need to take Avery's 3 month pictures, and take Lilly's 3 year pictures so we can order invitations for her birthday in May.
We sent away for a vendor's license, so the photography business is almost completely legal to operate. Luke has a wedding in April, and we need to figure out some advertising ideas for the business, especially since next years seniors will be looking for photographers soon.
I have a foyer full of boxes waiting for yardsale season. We have lots of other miscellaneous things around the house that need listed on eBay or craigslist. We are hoping to get rid of a few of the girls outdoor toys to make room for a swingset we will buy in April. It will be a big joint birthday present for the girls. Nothing too fancy, just a basic metal swingset with 3 swings and a slide.
We actually had snow on the ground this morning. A few inches it looked like. It's all gone now, but it's amazing to see after having 60 degree days last week. Hopefully that was Winter's one last stab and from now on Spring will move forward.
We got our Netflix disk in today for streaming on the Wii. It's pretty awesome, and Lexi has already figured out how to use it. It's great, because we won't have to pull the laptop out here for them anymore, we can access it right on the TV.
We had our first order for senior graduation party announcements. They turned out really nice. I think Luke's main focus may be seniors. We had 8 sessions in a matter of months last year just by word of mouth. We redesigned the website some and his portfolio prices are still good until July 31st, so we'll see how it goes.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Luke's Knee!
So, Luke's leg started swelling a little bit over the weekend, so he gave the arthritis clinic a call on Monday to let them know. They asked if he was available Tuesday morning, and they would just go ahead and drain his knee.
On Tuesday he goes in at 10:45AM, while leaving me with our 3 girls, plus I had Kendra and Kaden all day. He was gone for over an hour, but called and said everything went great. They drained his right knee and pulled out over 60ml of water, and they gave him a cortisone shot.
Today, his knees feel like a million bucks! Hopefully this continues, but they said if he has any problems with his left knee, they would drain it too, they just didn't want to do both in case he had a bad reaction, then he wouldn't be able to walk.
Hopefully his medical troubles are behind us now. We've certainly hit our medical deductible for the year already! I'd like to focus on getting things cleaned up from winter.
Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so we may head outside for a bit in the evening. We need to survey the damage on our gutters from the snow and ice over the winter. It looks like they have some bent and broken spots. We also have lots of small twigs all over the yard I need to gather up and hopefully burn, in our small firepit that I'm sure is breaking 20 city ordinance laws here in town :)
On Tuesday he goes in at 10:45AM, while leaving me with our 3 girls, plus I had Kendra and Kaden all day. He was gone for over an hour, but called and said everything went great. They drained his right knee and pulled out over 60ml of water, and they gave him a cortisone shot.
Today, his knees feel like a million bucks! Hopefully this continues, but they said if he has any problems with his left knee, they would drain it too, they just didn't want to do both in case he had a bad reaction, then he wouldn't be able to walk.
Hopefully his medical troubles are behind us now. We've certainly hit our medical deductible for the year already! I'd like to focus on getting things cleaned up from winter.
Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so we may head outside for a bit in the evening. We need to survey the damage on our gutters from the snow and ice over the winter. It looks like they have some bent and broken spots. We also have lots of small twigs all over the yard I need to gather up and hopefully burn, in our small firepit that I'm sure is breaking 20 city ordinance laws here in town :)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Some Good News!!
Yesterday Luke received a phone call from The Arthritis Clinic. They had a cancellation and wondered if he could go in now instead of his appointment on Friday. He took off real quick, seeing as they called him only 18 minutes before the appointment was supposed to start, and we were eating lunch. The verdict...
NO Lupus and NO Rheumotoid Arthritis! Apparently he has some general arthritis in his hands and knees and shoulder, and the X-rays showed some mild arthritis in his lower back. His neck X-rays look great, but he almost always has a stiff neck and not much range of motion there, so he was diagnosed with Spondylarthropathy, which is inflammation of the spine. He was put on Plaquenil to help with the arthritis stuff, but she said it probably won't do much for his neck. She wanted to prescribe Methyltrexate, but she said if there is any chance we may have another kid, he shouldn't take it, as it can have some serious birth defects. The side effects of that drug sound scary enough as it is.
So, he goes back to see her in May to see how he is doing, and if his knees still have some fluid, we will talk about getting them drained then. He should be off blood thinners by then, and the Plaquenil will have had time to take effect.
Overall some good news, now if we can keep it that way!
NO Lupus and NO Rheumotoid Arthritis! Apparently he has some general arthritis in his hands and knees and shoulder, and the X-rays showed some mild arthritis in his lower back. His neck X-rays look great, but he almost always has a stiff neck and not much range of motion there, so he was diagnosed with Spondylarthropathy, which is inflammation of the spine. He was put on Plaquenil to help with the arthritis stuff, but she said it probably won't do much for his neck. She wanted to prescribe Methyltrexate, but she said if there is any chance we may have another kid, he shouldn't take it, as it can have some serious birth defects. The side effects of that drug sound scary enough as it is.
So, he goes back to see her in May to see how he is doing, and if his knees still have some fluid, we will talk about getting them drained then. He should be off blood thinners by then, and the Plaquenil will have had time to take effect.
Overall some good news, now if we can keep it that way!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Lexi's Birthday Weekend
On Saturday, Alexis turned 4 years old. On Sunday, we had her party, and I actually got Luke to do pictures for the blog! Now if I can only tie him down so we can put up a bunch of randoms over the past few months.
Lexi had a blast, she got lots of Disney Princess and Spongebob, a Melissa and Doug dollhouse, lots of Auto B Good DVD's, crayons, art sets, play-doh, and of course clothes. Thank you to everyone that could join us! She made out with $45, so that combined with whatever Lilly gets, will buy them a swingset as a joint present, and we will make up the difference, and I think Nana and Papaw want to help out with it too. Hopefully we can get it next month as long as the weather stays on the path to warming up.
She wanted a Spongebob cake this year.
An Ariel Barbie Doll
Spongebob DVD
A Bambi Book
Her Melissa and Doug Portable Dollhouse
Lexi and Lilly goofing off.
I was trying to get them to hug each other. Silly girls!
Lexi had a blast, she got lots of Disney Princess and Spongebob, a Melissa and Doug dollhouse, lots of Auto B Good DVD's, crayons, art sets, play-doh, and of course clothes. Thank you to everyone that could join us! She made out with $45, so that combined with whatever Lilly gets, will buy them a swingset as a joint present, and we will make up the difference, and I think Nana and Papaw want to help out with it too. Hopefully we can get it next month as long as the weather stays on the path to warming up.
She wanted a Spongebob cake this year.
An Ariel Barbie Doll
Spongebob DVD
A Bambi Book
Her Melissa and Doug Portable Dollhouse
Lexi and Lilly goofing off.
I was trying to get them to hug each other. Silly girls!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Meaning of Life
On Monday, Luke had a visit with the rheumotologist to try and diagnose his knee problems. She ordered a ton of blood work, and he is to see her again on March 12th. His ANA test came back positive, which she said "Your Lupus test came back positive." The other blood work ordered corresponds with trying to identify an auto-immune disorder. It's hard not to worry about it until next Friday, but with the research we've done so far, it does sound like he has quite a few symptoms of Lupus, though Lupus does act like a lot of other auto-immune disorders, so it could be something else disguised as Lupus. We won't know until his next appointment. It's hard to imagine for both of us that he may have some kind of a "disease". I guess growing up, you never really plan on being with someone who has problems, or imagine yourself as the one with problems, so it's a little hard to swallow on both of our ends. The important thing is trying to figure out what we can do to keep his symptoms low-key, so he can have the most normal life we can provide, whatever the diagnosis may be.
Life tends to look a little different after something like this happens. We think back, that if he hadn't finally called a doctor, that clot could have killed him. With that in my mind now, I don't feel nearly as stressed about housework, or getting ready for Lexi's birthday party this weekend. There are things I want to get done, no question, but I won't be nearly as upset if they don't get done, because in the end, who wants to remember nothing but house projects and stress. We will both want to remember fun times with the girls, and the laughter and joy we can all bring into this house. So the work will get done when it gets done.
I've had problems lately enjoying being home with the girls. Not many people have this opportunity, and I feel horrible that I don't enjoy it all the time like I think I should. Looking at life with these new set of glasses is slowly teaching me that I will love it more, when I don't stress about the small things.
So excuse the dirty dishes, the pajamas worn all day, and the tangles in the hair. Please excuse the clutter messes, unswept carpet, and toy covered living room. We are a family that is home together all day, every day. We live here, it is our home, and it is full of life and excitement.
Life tends to look a little different after something like this happens. We think back, that if he hadn't finally called a doctor, that clot could have killed him. With that in my mind now, I don't feel nearly as stressed about housework, or getting ready for Lexi's birthday party this weekend. There are things I want to get done, no question, but I won't be nearly as upset if they don't get done, because in the end, who wants to remember nothing but house projects and stress. We will both want to remember fun times with the girls, and the laughter and joy we can all bring into this house. So the work will get done when it gets done.
I've had problems lately enjoying being home with the girls. Not many people have this opportunity, and I feel horrible that I don't enjoy it all the time like I think I should. Looking at life with these new set of glasses is slowly teaching me that I will love it more, when I don't stress about the small things.
So excuse the dirty dishes, the pajamas worn all day, and the tangles in the hair. Please excuse the clutter messes, unswept carpet, and toy covered living room. We are a family that is home together all day, every day. We live here, it is our home, and it is full of life and excitement.
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