A Brand New Year

Well, it is a brand new year and already it has been full of adventures and trials. My family ended 2009 with a bang! Shane got a stomach bug about a week before the new year. It only lasted about 24 hours. About the time he was getting better me and Darein both came down with it at the same time. We were a little more sick than Shane but he was great at taking care of us. He got us Sprite and chicken noodle soup and came to check on us constantly. Damein stayed in his room from the time Shane got sick up until the last day when me and Darein were finally starting to recover in hopes that he wouldn't get it. Unfortunately, he came down with it the night that we had recovered. As you can imagine this put a damper in everyone's New Year's Eve plans. The kids had an annual event scheduled at their youth leader's house that they were unable to attend and me and Shane usually hang out with another couple on New Year's Eve and we had to cancel those plans as well. We made the most of it and only the kids though ended up staying up until midnight.
Because I got sick I had to cancel my appointment with my surgeon for my gallbladder which has postponed everything. They were unable to get me in until January 7th. However, thankfully I have not had any attacks and have been watching what I eat to help keep things that way. My appointment is tomorrow so hopefully they will be able to get surgery scheduled fairly quickly. We did go to meet Darein's new GI doctor earlier this week and we absolutely love him. I forgot to take Darein's new patient paperwork but thankfully we arrived for the appointment early and I thought enough to ask the receptionist for the paperwork so that I could get this filled out while waiting. I was able to get all of this completed. Darein has not been having any stomach problems since about 3 weeks before Christmas break and I couldn't figure out what had changed so drastically to cause her no more problems. However, when I was filling out the paperwork they asked about pets and allergies, etc and I got to thinking that we got rid of Trixie about 2 weeks before Christmas. Makes me wonder if since she is allergic to cats and dogs if it was affecting her stomach by breathing in the dander from the animals. So now I felt like a real idiot for keeping this GI appointment since she was having no problems. We went back and the nurse asked her questions and then the doctor came in. He asked why we were there to see him and I explained what kind of problems she had had and that these seemed to have resolved now but that I was wondering if it might have something to do with her allergies from the dogs. He didn't address the issue but continued to look over the information that I filled out and asked a few questions. There were some concerns that she might be leaking a little bit with her bowels and he wanted to make sure that that valve was working properly. If it isn't, it isn't a huge deal and is fixable but definitely something we need to check out and address if necessary. I explained to him that she was scheduled to see a urology surgeon in Kansas City, where he is from on February 5th and he assured us that we would like that physician very much. He instructed us to clean her system out with Miralax over the weekend when she has nowhere to go. She will get 10 capfuls of Miralax over the course of the weekend. If there is excessive bowels then we know that there might be a problem. If it is a normal amount then she is cleaned out and no problems. He assured us that this is totally safe and is similar to what they have patients do prior to a colonoscopy. Since I have been working out and watching what I eat as part of my New Year's resolution I am going to go through this with Darein so that I know what to expect and so that she doesn't have to do this by herself. She isn't concerned about it but I think it is good to be able to empathize with what your children are going through anytime that you can to help give yourself some perspective on what your child is going through. He also is going to talk to her urology surgeon and see if he can schedule to do a scope to look at her stomach at the same time as her kidney surgery. He says that this will allow him to tell if she has gastritis, gastric ulcers or other complications from her gastroesophageal reflux disease. I have to call and let him know how the weekend went and the results of Darein's cleansing and then call him back again after we meet with Darein's surgeon and then we will proceed accordingly. It was very nice to not feel like a total idiot when I walked in and said that she was no longer having any stomach problems. He really seems like he wants to get to the bottom of what is going on with her stomach even though it isn't a constant in her life. Since so little is known about her Antley-Bixler syndrome and all of the complications that it can cause and what if anything it is causing for her it is important to me that we have physician's that are in tune with making absolutely sure that her anatomy is the way that it should be and is functioning the way that is should be. If everything checks out well with all of the above then he will at least help us with her gastroesophageal reflux disease and help us answer questions in regards to making sure that we know what to look for if she starts having problems with her esophagus or the lining of her stomach from this problem.
As the kids were scheduled to go back to school this past Tuesday we received about 4 inches of snow which prevented them from starting back. Me and Shane dug Darein's 4-wheeler out and got it started and played in the snow with her on Tuesday. Darein wimped out on us early and said the bottom part of her face was cold. I offered to get her a scarf to wrap up in but she refused so me and Shane finished riding. Unfortunately, just as we were getting ready to put it up the chain broke. Shane finally found someone to work on it that is reasonable and honest and will be taking it over there today. The hope was to get it fixed before the next snow fall today and tomorrow so that we could purchase a sled and pull behind it and have all kinds of fun as we are supposed to get another 2-4 inches of snow. However, even though it may be fixed and even though we may purchase a sled it looks like it is going to be way too cold to actually play out in it. They are calling for windchills of 10-20 below zero tomorrow so I think we will stay in and drink hot cocoa instead. The kids have been out of school an extra week now and they are growing bored and mom is ready for them to head back to school now so that I can get into some sort of a routine.
All in all the new year has started off well and expectations are high for this year. Shane has his 20 year class reunion in June and I have a new year's resolution as most to lose weight. I have downloaded a calorie counting app on my Iphone and am watching what I eat and have purchased the Wii Fit Plus and Jillian Michael's Wii workout game as well. I purchased some 3 lb. dumbbells and a thick yoga mat so I think that I have all of the supplies I need and Shane is being supportive so I have a good support system at home as well. My goal is to lose 53 lbs. in 6 months. This is a very realistic goal and I am confident I will make sure that it happens. When I was working I kind of let myself go and didn't have a lot of time to focus on me. I was busy working for our family and taking care of my kid's needs in my spare time and somewhere along the way I lost me. I have learned since I have been home this past year that I have to take care of myself in order to take the best care of my children. I have managed to make all of my routine doctor visits last year, am continuing to keep those appointments this next year, am working on my weight and will even take some time to do a little tanning. I am starting to adjust to being home and had forgotten how much easier it is to manage my family, home and myself when that is all I have to worry about. Taking 8 hours or more out of your day to work really causes a person to have to limit what they can and cannot do for themselves and their family. It is kind of nice to have Shane work and provide for us while I am able to take care of everything and everyone else. He is still great to cook and grocery shop as he is very good at both of these things and I hate both of these things. I do grocery shop with him now but he is much more thrifty and gets more for his money. I have taken back over the household chores and even taken over the bills. It has been a little rough getting everything together and getting in the flow of things but things are starting to take shape and I am able to sit back and enjoy life a little more. I am still having those occasions where I ask Shane if I need to try to go back to work but he is doing well financially at work and we are able to maintain our lifestyle so he continues to tell me to sit back and enjoy it and he will let me know if our situation changes and I have to find a job. So in the meantime, I am doing just that and taking advantage of whatever time I have to be off of work to get my house in order, take care of my daughter, get my son ready for college and take care of myself. I feel so very blessed to have the support from my husband that I do as it just makes it so easy to concentrate on what is important. I still think often of what I want to do once my daughter is 18 as she only has 4 more years before she reaches that age. It is very scary to think about as I have no degree, no idea of what I would want to study if I did decide to go back to school, no idea of what I would want to do as far as a career or anything else. I guess, I will just continue to think about it, continue to throw ideas around in my head, maybe even try a few things here and there as the opportunity presents itself. I don't know what the future holds, Darein could still be living at home after the age of 18 and/or still need quite a bit of constant care and my life's work from now on may be to devote to caring for her and that is something that I am able to accept I think, even now. We decided when we had to face the decision of whether to abort her or not that she would be our lifelong commitment no matter what and that it was okay if we had to care for her for the rest of OUR lives and that decision is unwaived. We love her and all that she is and all that she hopes to be and will do everything we can to help her have the best life she can have and help her accomplish all of her dreams at all costs. As far as me and Shane are concerned that is just part of being a parent.
Well, I haven't written in awhile and sorry that this blog today is a little sappy but thought it was important to write about my short and long term goals as it is the start of the New Year and felt that this was an important part of maintaining some sort of commitment to my goals as they say it is important to write your goals down so that you can look back on them. I also figured it would help me put things in perspective and gives me a good overall bigger picture of my life and where my dedications lie. If you haven't already done this, I would highly suggest it. They teach us to do this in school but I think as we get busy with our lives sometimes we forget how important it can be to take some time out to list our short term and long term goals. After all, without goals what are we here for? I know I don't want to look back and say that all my life consisted of was getting up and going to work and doing a few fun things here and there. Life is short and should be fun but there should be some sort of purpose in everyone's life and in short, my purpose is raising my children to have the best lives they can hope for. :)