The most fun I've had in a long time!

Remember my post about a couple of weeks ago when I said I was getting to go meet my friend, Kristen, her husband Mike and there daughter, Cayman? Sunday, the day finally came! I jumped on a plane and headed to Detroit. Our plane didn't land until 11 pm; but Kristen, Mike and Cayman were there waiting for me! It was going to be a whirlwind of a couple of days, but they were totally up for the challenge. Sunday night Kristen and I stayed up until 4 a.m. talking. Monday we did let ourselves sleep in a bit; we were up and at 'em with the kids by 10 am. Cayman and Matthew became fast friends: For the longest time, Kristen and I have jokingly decided that Matthew and Cayman should be married. It looks like it will work....

I also got the opportunity to meet Kristen's mom and Kristen's sister Madison right before lunch. Kristen's mom brought over whoopie pies (yum, by the way) and then Mike came home for a quick lunch (which he'd made himself the day before). After lunch and some more playing, Cayman and Matthew went down for a nap and Kristen, offered to give me a massage. How could I refuse?? Kristen is a licensed massage therapist; and I received the best massage I've ever had. (truly!) Mike's mom came over for a bit and we had a nice visit. Before we knew it, Mike was home for the day and it was time to pack up and head to Adrian, MI. One of the reasons for my trip was to visit Cayman's naturopathic doctor for Matthew. As most of you know, who know me or read my blog, I tend to gravitate toward the natural spectrum of things. Kristen has been talking to me for a long time about naturopathic care and how much Cayman has benefited from it. I have looked around this area, and visited with a few naturopathic doctors, but have not found one that I am comfortable with. I've visited with Greg (Cayman's naturopath) on the phone and have felt at peace with his care. He is intelligent and the things he talked about made scientific sense to me . I wanted to give this a shot for Matthew. I was very impressed with his knowledge and things that we can do for Matthew. I will be excited to see if we will be able to see some measurable improvement for Matthew.

After our appointment, we went and had the most AMAZING sushi I've ever had. I even learned to eat with chopsticks! Then we were off to Detroit again. We had decided with my early flight out, it would be best to get a hotel and crash there so we could spend the maximum amount of time visiting (and it was supposed to also allow us to get a good nights sleep...but, that didn't happen...we slept for just over an hour!)

I had an absolutely amazing time. We were treated like royalty; I mean, really; great food, hospitality, a MASSAGE!, and a free chauffeur...it was absolutely amazing. And even if none of the previously mentioned had happened, I still would have had a awesome time. Kristen and Mike were the absolute complete picture of the Christian family. I am blessed to know them and be able to call them my friends!(Thanks again Mike and Kristen...I love you guys!)

Kristen was the photographer for the trip (I'm terrible at picture taking) and if you want to see the photographic story of our days; click here

Sniff....

As of August 19; I now have 3 kiddos that are school age...unbelieveable

(oh, and ignore the chipping pain on our rail..we've been busy..and Ihate to paint!)

80th birthday

Well I finally (after much work) figured out how to get my pictures to download again from my computer. So now I can blog again :) Here are pictures from my grandma's 80th birthday party 2 weeks ago. We had such a great time!

The Birthday Girl-my Grandma-at a young 80 years old!

My dad and Megan snugglin' during the party

Matthew enjoying all of the attention he recieved

My grandmas party was held at my uncle Craig and Aunt Katie's house and this it the view from their backyard...isn't that cool, they love baseball and my uncle actually is an umpire at this ball diamond. The name of the street the live on (too cool).....' PopFly Lane'

My Grandma and Grandpa and their kids:

L-R Uncle Dave, Aunt Denise, Grandpa, Uncle Craig, Grandma and my mom (Sue)

I am SO excited!!

Okay, so I haven't been posting for awhile, I have pictures from 2 weeks on my camera; but I can't get them off. It will have to wait till I have some time to diagnose the problem. Until then; I have some FUN news! I found a kicking good deal on some plane tickets and Matthew and I are going to see Kristen, Cayman's mommy, and blogging friend of mine in two weeks!!!Kristen and her husband Mike have VERY graciously offered there home to me while I'm there. It is going to be a very short trip, and I probably won't sleep at all while we're there; but seriously I am STOKED. I can't wait!

So sorry this took so long

I know I've been gone for awhile. I apologize. I left you all hanging with the last news that I was worried about Matthew. Here is the story for those of you that don't have facebook :)

I talked with the doctors Monday morning about what we'd been seeing with Matthew. Everyone involved agreed that he needed at least an EEG. Omaha, however, could not get him in for EEG until Thursday. His doctors in Minnesota and I both felt he couldn't wait that long. If the 'episodes' we were seeing were indeed seizures, then Matthew was seizing a good portion of the day. None of the medications we had given him seemed to help these 'episodes'. So by 5:30 we had approval from Minnesota to be admitted there the next morning. Monday was a stressful day; filled with phone calls and tears. For awhile we thought maybe we'd get to go to Omaha, that they'd squeeze us in; but with no luck. Then the possibility of flying also came up; but we decided driving was better. Then we found out we had to get approval from Matthew's insurance to go out-of-state; and I didn't get this news till 2 o'clock. I was glad when Matthew and I were finally packed in the car for Minnesota.
We left about 9:30, thinking Matthew would sleep most of the way. WRONG. Many stops and lots of screaming ensued for the next 6 hours. I finally gave up getting there at 3:30 am and just stopped and got a motel. Matthew never did sleep that night; but I crashed for about 3 hours. We had to be on the road again by 7:45 to make the final trek.
Tuesday was filled with more xrays, tests and EEG's. In Minnesota, they have the ability to do 24 hour EEG. After some time hooked up to EEG, it was determined that he was not having seizures, but was definitely in pain, and was also having a neurological response to this pain. So we had to figure out where that was coming from. They did do hip xrays along with other bone xrays; and all looked good. We decided it would be best to give him some relief from all of the chaos going on in his body; and gave him a strong dose of Valium. This, however, did not make him sleep, but did calm his raw nerves and helped him relax.
After 48 hours of EEG and numerous tests, nothing could be found, except one thing: on one xray, it showed that Matthew had a belly FULL of air. Dr. D, Matthew's epileptologist, said that we could possibly just be dealing with some very painful gas. Seriously??? Gas????? He said that there was also a possibility that he was having some teething pain, which caused him to cry, and swallow air, which gave him more pain, when caused more crying....you get the drift. A vicious cycle. So we started a regime of venting his g-button (which lets out trapped air), ibuprofen and orajel (even though his gums look no different than they did 5 months ago....I'm not sure I believe the teething thing). and guess what, my sweet baby came back! As for all the jitteryness and rhythmic twitching that everyone, pediatrician and neurology nurses included, thought was seizure activity; well, it's not. What it is, we don't know. But, if it's not seizures, then we won't give him any additional medication.
I was a bit embarrassed to think we traveled 6 hours for gas pain, but Dr. D. reminded me that even the doctors back home thought he should come, so not to blame myself. It's sometimes hard to figure these things out when Matthew can be such a complicated little guy.
We were dismissed Friday, but instead of coming home, we went to my parents house and Steve and the kids met us there. My grandma had her 80th birthday party (that is my next post) and we got out of the hospital just in time. Then we drove home late Saturday night. Oh, does it ever feel good to be home! I can't wait to crawl into my own bed; which by the way, I should do (especially if you see what time I am typing this)