The evidence is all over your face!

William came into the living room yesterday like this. I asked him what it was and he said, "my lips." And at that time I thought it was lip gloss. A little while later I went into my bedroom to find my white duvet cover on my bed had pretty pink pictures colored by pink highlighter on it. As I gasped William immediately responded, "Harry did it!!"

I hate to tell you William, the evidence is all over your face!

Medical Update

Well the appointment I was really excited about, you know that one that I was on the waiting list for 6 months? Yeah that one. They called the day before and cancelled on me. The Doctor is sick and won't be back for a few weeks. They said they would call me at the end of the month and reschedule the appointment. So we are just waiting a bit longer.

In other news, I did go to the Gastroenterologist last Tuesday. I had an endoscopy of my upper GI tract yesterday. I was really nervous about being put under and was trying to not stress about it. The findings were: LA Grade A reflux estophagitis, Chronic gastritis (this was biopsied), Hiatus Hernia (stomach moves into the esophagus) and a biopsy of the duodenum. I won't get the results from the biopsies back for a week. He thinks it is possible the hernia is causing my chest pain. That's my update!

Archer Visit

Scott's parents came out a couple weeks ago. They watched the boys while we went on our cruise. Thank you so much Mom and Dad A for allowing us to have that "couple time" together. It was a nice getaway and we are very grateful to you for allowing us to do that. On a side note, we never found our camera with the pictures on it. We called Lost and Found at Six Flags several times with no luck. At-least we have some memories of it.

The last day Scott's parents were here, we went to the park. The boys must have run to the tree in the field at-least 30 times. I foresee future cross country boys here. They weren't tired at all. I don't get it. I wish I had a quarter of the amount of energy the have. They even got Grandpa to race with them.

Love you all!

Our Cruise

Last week Scott and I took a cruise on the Carnival Paradise. It was a local cruise. We left out of Long Beach and our ports were Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. Here is the bad part. We bought a new camera two weeks ago. I hadn't had time to transfer the pictures over to my computer yet and we took 99% of the pictures from this trip on that camera. Yesterday we went to Six Flags and what do you know? We lost the camera!!!! We went to Lost and Found several times and nobody turned it in. Scott believes he left it in the bin at the security check in but they didn't have it. So I just keep praying we get a call and somebody turned it in. I keep beating myself up for not transferring the files and it sucks we just bought the camera. In the mean time, here are the pictures we took with our cameras.

First drinks...

We ordered champagne and strawberries the next day. Look how pretty!

In Mexico, we purchased a joint excursion. La Bufadora (the blowhole) and a tour of a winery. Here are the views from the blow hole.

Oh yeah, the flea market while walking to the blow hole. OMG, there is a pharmacy on every corner and you don't need a prescription. It is too crazy for me.

The blowhole in action.

I took pictures of the pictures we had taken-ha. Here we are getting off of the ship in Catalina. We worked out every day on the cruise-yes we are dorks but with eating as much as we did, we had too-ha. The views from the gym in Catalina were worth working out :)

Our elegant night pictures. We actually dressed up every night and this cruise was very casual. But it is fun to dress up. I think we were the most dressed up on the cruise. The elegant night was fun. And I have to toot my own horn as I got "the best dressed" that night. It was fun receiving all the compliments after being a mom that doesn't get the opportunity much to dress up.

The cruise was a lot of fun. It was so nice to have the "couple" time we needed after Scott being away for work for three weeks. It was a nice break. The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and we are thankful we were able to go. Fingers crossed that I will have another post with more pictures but I won't hold my breathe. I think the other camera is gone for good :(

What an Adventurous Day!

Ok where to start. Scott is finally finished with all of his work travels and came home. My mom's extended visit (that went super fast) ended on Friday afternoon. I want to take a minute to thank my mom for all she did. My mom is amazing! She came for three weeks while Scott was out of town. She was slated to stay for two weeks but then I started getting more chest pains and she extended her trip so I wouldn't have to be a single mom and sick. She watched the boys while I worked at the church. She did all of the laundry, dishes, etc. She was an absolute lifesaver. Besides all of the work she did, we had such a good time together. I really wished she lived closer. The boys adore her and we miss her already! Thank you so much mom for all that you do!!!!

A few hours after she left, Scott's parents came in. Yesterday was "Farmer's Day" at the LA Zoo. So with Scott's badge, we got in for a very discounted price. We also didn't have to wait in the huge line and we got a free walking tour. The boys are very happy to have Scott home. They missed him dearly.

This Komodo dragon laid 28 eggs last year. 26 of them hatched! And one of the ones that died in the shell had two heads. There were only 5 babies left at this zoo because they are in high demand from other zoos. Well right after her babies were shipped off, they just found another 24 eggs! She is a very busy lady!!!

Funny story about the Giraffes. They recently sent one of their giraffe's to the Santa Barbara zoo. That is the zoo we regularly visit and I post about. Well the day after they dropped her off, the new baby giraffe (that I posted about last week) was born. Neither zoo knew the other giraffe was pregnant. They went in to check on the LA Zoo giraffe and there was a new baby there just waiting :) How funny is that?!

Here is where things get interesting. We skipped lunch at the zoo and decided to head to our favorite restaurant, Los Torros. On the way, Scott's dad asked, "how many miles are on this truck." We have had really good luck with the truck for having 157,000 miles on it. Well not two minutes later, we broke down!!!! Our transmission went out! So we had to call a tow truck and a cab. The boys really enjoyed seeing our truck on a tow truck and daddy in the front seat. It was a nightmare. We broke down in not the nicest area and then had to wait forever. We did make it to Los Torros but hours after we planned. And Harry was happy that Fernando was there to sing him the Chicken Dance :)
It was an exhausting day which explains why I actually went to sleep before 10pm!

The Jump Around

My mom and I took the boys to The Jump Around yesterday. It's good that I only had to pay for the boys and adults are free because you would think by the pictures that the boys and I took Nana to The Jump Around.

Nana on the slide Nana Jumping.

Nana racing the boys.

Nana in jail.

Nana playing games.

The boys had fun too :)

The race is on. Who wins?

Jumping

Falling

Air hockey

And beating me up!

Long overdue Medical Update

Ok, lets see if I remember everything as I try to keep this as short as possible. And I'm not sure where I left off really either. Ok, so I saw a neurologist late last year for my autonomic dysfunction (postural tachycardia). She ran a ton of tests (blood work and 7 MRIs and MRAs). The most interesting things that came back were that I once had Mono and a very severe case of it. There is no way of knowing when that was though. But it is weird to think I was so sick and didn't know it. Maybe that can explain one of the times I was completely exhausted but who knows with all of my medication. The other thing is that I failed the physical exam for Multiple sclerosis (MS) but it didn't show up in the MRI. I had a low image MRI that doesn't pick everything up (because I have a copper IUD I couldn't have the normal resolution MRI). Sometimes symptoms of MS will cause autonomic dysfunctions like tachycardia. So I have to repeat the MRIs in a few years. Also, I have bulging discs from my T5 and T6 vertebrae which also can cause tachycardia. But the only way of fixing that is through spinal surgery and I am not down with that. I'm going to blame the spinal problem to being dropped on my head in college by a good friend Nathan while Swing Dancing. Thanks Nathan :)

Onto the electrophysiologist: I'm not exactly sure if I liked this guy. It was hard to take him serious when he was at-least 4 inches shorter than me. Moving on. So I definitely have an arrhythmia. But the bigger concern for him is how often I have tachycardia without the arrhythmia. He believes that my tachycardia is triggered by an adrenaline problem. But in order to "fix" the arrhythmia, they have to go through the adrenal gland. So it is a catch 22 and it can cause more problems. The key is to try to fix the tachycardia first. So he put me on a 6 month lifestyle change. Exercise obviously, medical compression stockings (I feel 80 years old), diet and then the stuff that is so unrealistic: taking my medicine laying still in bed first thing when I wake up. For one, I am not going to leave my medicine on my nightstand when I have toddlers. Also, not elevating my head for 20 minutes after taking my medicine. Do you think my children allow this in the morning??? No. And of-course more medication, more medication, more medication. I hate medicine.

Ok so that was all late last year. I have done really well with the exercising, diet and medical compression stockings. Not a lot has changed medically in that regard. More recently, I have had terrible chest pressure, pain and nausea. My tachycardia is still really bad in the morning but I am in bradycardia in the evening (low heart rate). The pain in my chest has gotten so bad that it knocks me on my knees and I can't move. It has woken me up at night and I have had many sleepless nights. It is so scary. It is very debilitating. I was in the emergency room last Friday for it because I couldn't handle it anymore. Oh, let me back up. I have fluid around my heart. When the inflammation gets bad, that is when the pain is at the worst. I'm not sure if that was in a previous post or not. Ok, so ibuprofen was not working. So the emergency room treated me for pericarditis, chostochondrotis and acid reflux. Pericarditis is the fluid around the heart. Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone. It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. And obviously you know what acid reflux is. The three together are not fun and are what is causing so much pressure and pain.

Onto this Wednesday: I met with my cardiologist again. He put me on a new additional medication for the pain (Indomethacin). He is comfortable saying that he doesn't believe the pain and pressure are part of my heart condition. So that is a big relief. I need to see a G.I. doctor for the acid reflux as it is pretty bad. And that is with me taking Prevacid daily as it is. I take so much medication that I have to take Prevacid to coat my stomach. Also, he referred me to a Rheumatologist. A lot of the pain I feel mimics heart problems but they don't link together so hopefully a Rheumatologist can offer new insight for the pain problem.

Big news: I FINALLY got an appointment with the UCLA doctor. I have mention this before. There is a doctor at UCLA that is a neurologist but she studies the part of the brain that controls the heart. This is the team of doctors Cedars Sinai and UCLA referred me to. She is supposedly the best and the most sought after for mystery heart conditions. And that is why I have been on her waiting list since September!!! My appointment is March 15th!!! And my G.I. appointment is March 14th. So please pray for some answers in my future appointments. And some relief from the pain and pressure I am feeling in my chest.

So all in all, I am a big medical mess. I have been depressed and scared. At 31, I wouldn't think someone would be in so much pain. My comfort to myself is that I look back to my horrible migraines that started in 2003. I went to a neurologist every 2-4 weeks and tried over 20 medications for migraines. I remember having a migraine every day and still trying to function. My comfort now is that I only have them 2-3 times a month now. I look back at that time in my life and wonder how I did it. So I know that there is a time in the future that I am going to look back to this part of my life and be glad that I am past all of this. The question is when? But there has to be a when, right?! I think that is it.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A fun conversation we had:

Me: "William, what do you want to be when you are big like daddy?"
William: "I want to be a trailer truck driver."

Me: "Harry, what do you want to be when you are big like daddy?"
Harry: as he holds his guitar, "I want to rock!"

Santa Barbara Zoo

After church on Sunday, we took a drive to the zoo. The monkeys were having a snack. This guy was scared to touch the water. It took him a while to actually grab the orange. His brother enjoying his snack.

"He's awake! He's awake!" We have visited this zoo for over two years. Every time we have come, the snow leopard is ALWAYS sleeping on the rock. Well this was the first visit he was awake and the boys took notice!

These guys were so cute. They were scratching each other.

The gorilla had a bad gash on his forehead. He kept picking at it and eating it-yuck. The boys really wanted him to have a band aid. I did notify the staff and luckily I did because nobody had told them yet. They called the Zoo Keeper right away. William asked yesterday if we could call the zoo to check on him. What a sweetie!

You have to look close (behind the fence). The zoo has a new addition that has not yet been introduce. There is a new baby Giraffe that was just born.

There was someone gliding over the zoo.

Feeding the goats.

And the fish...

William was posing so that you can see his butt. I don't get it but he really wanted the picture.