Remodeling Update

Somewhat accurate accent wall color Master Suite>

Master Suite from doorway

Master Suite from opposite the doorway

Bathroom with tile and lights woohoo

Update to the post below

Well, we have finished the testing. The positive news is that she does not have Myathenia Gratis. The working diagnosis is pseudotumor cerebri. We are spending the next couple hours monitoring her & waiting for an opthalmologist from Lutheran General Hospital to give us another opinion. She gets to go home today and we should be home by dinner. They are putting her on a drug called Diamox to help subside the headaches and double vision. Attached is a website that has a little bit of information on Pseudotumor Cerebri. The doctor said this is the best website for information but be warned it has very limited info. We do not know if this is a permanent or temporary situation. Time will tell based on how she reacts with the medication. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/pseudotumorcerebri/pseudotumorcerebri.htm Thanks for all your prayers and support. We love you all.

Prayers Are Needed

Elizabeth Brian's cousin is in need of prayers and I figured this was the easiest way to let you all know what is going on. She is now 13 holy cow we are all getting old ...most of you remember her from this...

Elizabeth is the one on the right. But this was five years ago she is such the young lady now!!

6/10
Elizabeth's right eye began to stop tracking in the last 3 weeks. Her eyeball is focusing inward(towards her nose), she has been having headaches & double vision. Sometimes the headaches are bad and other days they are bearable. We have taken to for several tests to determine the cause & are getting closer. We took her to the optometrist who referred us to an Ophthalmologist. She has had a brain MRI, bloodwork for diabetes, thyroid, etc and that all have come back negative. Fortunately - no brain issues. Monday we took her back to the Ophthalmologist and they gave us the following information: She has Sixth Nerve Palsy (not weary eye or lazy eye). Why? –don’t know. We will need to go to Children’s Memorial to see a Pediatric Neurologist to confirm that she should have the two tests our ophthalmologist recommended:
Tensilon Test (IV to inject meds to see muscle reaction)
Lumbar Puncture (spinal tap). They want to rule out Infection or Myathenia Gravis (neuromuscular disorder). At this point the doctor thinks it is temporary and will not need surgery. To tell you the truth, we truly do not understand this completely but hope to gain more insights soon.

6/17 Next Update-
She saw the ophthalmologist yesterday and her eye is not getting better. The ophthalmologist had hoped to see some improvement. We go back in 3 weeks.
We cannot get Elizabeth into the pediatric neurologist until July 21. The ophthalmologist is calling them to see if they can push up the date on her appointment.
She is still handling it extremely well.

6/18
The ophthalmologist got Elizabeth into the pediatric neurologist today (Dr. Ikramuddin of Lutheran General - one of the top childrens hospitals in the area). The cause for her double vision is undetermined. He is running some tests – lumbar puncture (spinal tap), MRI, MRA, blood work, and nerve and muscle test. They want to rule out pseudo tumor cerebri (basically the body thinks there is a tumor on the brain but there is not one - we have not looked this one up or asked too many questions about it because we wanted to wait for the doctor's determination first) and myasthenia gravis among other things (diabetes being one of them). In order to do this she has been admitted to Lutheran General Hospital for the night. Julie and I are both with her. She is very upset that she is not having fun on her first day of summer. She feels fine and is watching a movie & playing games n the internet.

6/18 PM
Elizabeth had the spinal tap tonight and did really well. Because they sedated her for the spinal tap they do not want to risk over-sedating her for the MRA so they are going to do it in the morning. She will have the MRI/MRA and the nerve/muscle test in the morning.

Hopefully we will know more by the weekend. I would be terrified at 13 and having all these test run she is being such a trooper!!

Maggie from today

Brian was getting Maggie ready this morning, and came into the bathroom and said she just broke his heart I thought she was being terrible and two but she was being sweet. I don't recall the complete conversation but she said "but Daddy your my best friend" it was too cute. Then tonight as I was taking tis picture Maggie said she wanted to take a picture so I let her with my camera which is way to heavy for her but she can get a picture I just don't think this is what she intended!!

Happy Father's Day!

How can we thank God enough for you and for the joy and delight you have given us? I Thessalonians 3-9 TLB

My Friend, My Friend

Maggie has a new friend and when she sees her she always says my friend, my friend , lets go see my friend mommy. So we always have to go across the street to see our new friend. Recently we discovered that these two are going tobe in the same grade when they start school at the same school so we (collective parents) are going to be in big trouble living across the street from each other. So here is a photo of Maggie and her new friend.

Finally A Picture

Since I last posted we have had lots of things happening. Sunday night Maggie fell off of a chair and landed on her head, she has a concussion but she is ok the dr said to keep her off bikes and the like. So for the next two weeks we will do our best to keep a two year old off of anything she isn't supposed to be on HA! I started two more classes so right now I have 5 classes and these two are going to be doozies!! It is kind of funny that my higher level classes require less than these two lower level classes but maybe it is the content and these classes are shorter. OH well it will all get done in time. OH something else, Maggie did #2 on the potty last night woohoo hopefully it will happen more often after what happened with the poo sunday night. I was down stairs looking for something and I here a sort of thud (this was before the chair incident). So up I go, Jamie said she was in the potty, so I went in search. Before I could get there though out she comes with no shorts on. She had pooped in her pants took them off emptied them flushed it down and came in search of me. It was hilarious.

Maggie update

An update well we tried potty training on Memorial Day weekend, which didn't go to well but we were on the go and her first go at it. So on saturday morning we got up and got ready, she said she wanted to wear panties, I figured what the heck we really didn't have anywhere to go so we tried it again and behold we are doing really good. I am probably going to jinx myself but two days no #1 accidents #2 that is a different story but she is getting it slowly. Then tonight she only cried for 7 or 8 minutes before she laid in her own bed and put herself to sleep our girl is getting so big. To big too fast. She has been sassy and crazy lately but still adorable. I can't believe she is almost offically 2 1/2 it just goes by way to quickly!