Windy State

We made the forever long trip down to FL. Avrianna had gotten off the bus and right into the RV as we were waiting for her at the bus stop. Once the bus stopped I think all the kids on it went up to the front to see our RV, it is was so cute. Off we went at 2:30 on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning we arrived at our condo door around 10:00am. We had anticiapted to drive all the way through (about 27 hours) but then decided it wasn't worth it. The kids did wonderful, even better then I, heehee. After awhile you feel like we're never going to reach the destination. The weather was great on the way down and we didn't hit much traffic except for in Chicago......I so much dislike Chicago!
The weather has been VERY WINDY n cool since we've gotten here but the rest of the week is looking like great weather. I hope that the wind dies down because every time I attempt to take Danny out once the wind hits his face he panics and freaks out. So we've been hanging indoors since we got here....mind you that's in the stores and resturants not just sitting in the condo, got to love that. None the less it's still wonderful here. Avrianna was nawing at the bit to get in the pool so yesterday she managed to take a dip. I was out of the pool watching her and I froze, she's crazy! I hope we can get Lil Man in the pool alil bit while we are down here but it definitely has to warm up and the wind needs to die down before that will happen. I don't need him getting ill while down here. Plus IF he stays well this will be the first Easter EVER that he will be healthy for, knock on wood quick and cross your fingers.
I really missed my girlfriend and neighbor here, it was so nice to see here once we pulled in. She's a wonderful person! Once we got inside I saw that she got goodies for the kids, us, and even had the refrig stocked with beer n dinner. Not only did she do that for us, she cleaned the condo for me. WOW, I owe her BIG TIME ~ LOVE you Linda!!!!
We don't have much planned other then playing each day by ear while here in Florida. I do have to say not having any obligations during the day is WONDERFUL, no appts, school, piano lessons, therapies, etc. The only real plans is no plans at all, LOL. We are going to go out to eat with the Speech and Physical therapists that Danny used to see when we were down here. I'm telling you the people down here are great ~ I LOVE IT!! We do and see so much while we are down here, as when we are in WI we pretty much are home bodies.
Once back to WI we have alot going on. Many dr appts for follow ups and to get him ready for the BIG surgery in May. Plus getting the outside ready for summer, not to mention redoing some things on the house. It will be so nice to not have contractors over ALL the time.
I am once again having a relapse, not sure what has brought this one on, as my mid back all the way down to my left foot has gone numb. It would come and go last week, but for the last 3 days n nights straight it has constantly been numb. They feel like your lip does after the dentist, tingly and prickly. I still have function of my leg n foot right now, it's just a very weird and unsetttling feeling. I've made a phone call to my Neurologist but I'm not sure there is anything she can do for it plus with me being on vacation I'm sure that doesn't help. We'll see!
Please don't for get to pledge your dontations to support the MS walk and ME! You can go to http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/WIGWalkEvents?px=7614457&pg=personal&fr_id=13753 to get to my personal page or click on the link to the left of the blog page. Thank YOU for your support in helping me raise money to help find a cure for MS. I can only hope I will be able to see it in my life time. The walk is 27 days away!

Wrapping up

Danny just had a 48 hour EEG done as the doctors feel he's "pain" might be seizure episodes. I hope they got enough information so we know what's going on with Lil Man on a daily basis. They want me to increase his meds once again, but I'm now in the prove it mode. His liver functions have gotten all out of whack with these meds before so I'm not too excited about increasing them unless we come up with some proof and possibly other alternatives. My fear is if we start screwing around with his liver functions now and if he should need to be back on TPN after his spinal fusion/rods in May we've just added fuel to the fire as TPN also effects the liver. UGH!!!
Here is his dread locks of wires, all 25 glue to his head with glue that's "better then super glue". When they flatten his hair up you really can see how small is head really is. The top is so small because his brain doesn't grow so there is nothing pushing out the skull. I have infant hats that fit!

This time around they gave him a bandana to wear around the bandage holding all the wires in place. Now instead of getting the looks as if he had brain surgery they think he's had chemo. I just want to have a sign out saying there are wires glued to his head .... that's it no biggy! Here he is so cool........ready for Harley ride, I think.

After washing his hair of all the glue....well I thought I got it out. It still looks as if I dipped his head in white paint. I'm going to try to wash it tomorrow with baby oil and see if that helps get the glue out, UGH!

We had Avrianna's conferences with her teacher this week. She is doing so well and just shining in school. I'm so proud of her! Her teacher says she's a model student and that she a joy to have in class. Boy does she have them all fooled, LOL. I can't express enough how happy I am that she is not only doing so well but enjoying school. She is also excelling in her piano classes. I'm in awe of the music she can play and how awesome it sounds. Danny just LOVES listening to her play so I think that's an incentive for her :) She's a great BIG sister!!!
It's approx. 72 hours and we'll be in the sunny state for some much needed R&R time for the Osero's. The bags are packed, the RV is almost ready, and we just have to get the odds n ends things together on Friday. I'm to the point with packing up Danny's equipment and supplies up where we need wait till the day we leave as I use it daily. It's been a year since we've been able to get down there and we ALL are excited to get there. It is going to be so nice to have no plans, no doctor visits, no therapy, no nursing, no contractors......just US. With the economy we've decided to hold on to our condo and see if it's a better idea to just rent it out once in awhile and that way we'll always have a place to go to.
Dan's getting ready for racing as when we get back he will be in full force. So the car is getting it's tweeks and repairs done so once the track is open he'll be ready, set, go.
Please don't forget to pledge dontations to the MS walk I'm doing in April. Ever little bit helps so please support the walk and ME. Click on the link to the left of the blog page and that will get you to my personal page. THANK YOU!

Looking UP

Well things are looking up in the Osero household :) We are ALL healthy (hear me knocking on wood). I have started to pack for Florida so I can only hope that we continue. BUT we have decided to sell our condo in Florida as keeping if for us to stay there 2-4 weeks a year just isn't feasible. Even though we won't have the condo there we'll still stay in that location for our vacations. It's such a nice area!
I can honestly say I am back to "normal" and the relapsing symptoms are in remission, whoohooo. My second round of labs have come back still with borderline hypothyroidism, which explains alot of the other symptoms that's been going on, SO I'm so glad I decided NOT to blame everything that is going on with me on the MS. I need to go in a redo the labs again in three months! It's amazing how great you feel (even when your not 100% yet) when you have felt so yucky for so long. I am going to see the DO doc again tomorrow and I'm looking forward to another back/neck treatment. I got the call today from my neurologist that the brain MRI I had last week does not show any new lesions on my brain. Whoooohooooo, Yeah me!
Danny is doing well, I guess. Unfortunately he has been having issues of pain lately, I can't pinpoint it yet where it's coming from. This is heart breaking for me to see my Lil Man just crying out and I have no idea where it's coming from or why. Today we had our new nurse start today, and she's going to be a great fit for our family :)
Avrianna is loving that the weather is warming up around here and the snow is gone. She is getting outside riding her bike n scooter and roller blading. Which makes it alot quieter in the house, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Talking about houses we were very lucky to found a lovely family for our old house before we even put it on the market. Another thing off of our to do lists. I'm so glad we don't have to worry about maintaining it for the summer. I'm going to miss that house.....I had really hoped that the house would have worked for our family and lifestyle longer. Our house now is getting a big spring clean as we cleaned ALL our linens, blankets, pillows, and with having the window open here in there we are slowly getting the winter blahs out.
Don't forget the MS walk I am participating in the end of April.....please sponsor me and pledge a donation. Every lil bit counts! You can click on the link in the upper left hand of the blog to my personal page. Thanks!

Osteopathic wonders

I think I've got a good start to MY medical team, weird that I have to have my team now too. WOW is this exhausting, but it feels good to have a start to this process. Yesterday I went to see a D.O. other wise known as an Osteopathic doctor, still stumped? Cuz I was as I had no idea what kind of doctor they were, LOL. With the research I've done and after my appt with the doctor I can tell you that D.O.'s are a cross between a family practitioner, chiropractor, and homeopathic doctor. This doctor I felt REALLY listened to what I had to say and heard all my concerns with this disease and my forever depending lifestyle. I really left there knowing that this doctor is going to be a GREAT fit with how I want to tackle MS and live my lifestyle with more of a natural twist to it. Which is awesome as I don't want to be pumping my body with any more medications that give me out of body feelings. The doctor cracked my back and neck in ways that I was scared to even move and I had thought I'd never be able to move again. I can't imagine any ones body cracking and popping like that without permanent damage, LOL. But I walked out of there hoping for the best and anxiously waiting for positive results. I can honestly say the pain that I had in both my legs that last 4 days is almost gone today :) I can only hope that this is the start of something good for me. Tomorrow I have to repeat my labs as the ones I had I had done last week with my family practice doctor, as I couldn't take the pain anymore so I went in hopes she had some ideas for me, came back showing I have hypothyroidism. My thyroid levels are low and it was followed with low blood sugars. We'll see what tomorrow's labs come out as to see if it's confirmed or not. Now if I could only loss weight like you are suppose to with a hypo thyroid, LOL. Then on Friday I will have my first appt with my new Neurologist, which I've heard only POSITIVE things about her. I'm so excited to meet her and get her "Plan" with helping me. I will have in toe my timeline of the issues and concerns I've had the last month with the MS relapse and the way that the old Neurologist handled things. I can only look forward to a better positive tomorrow :)
The kids are doing phenominal!!!! Only real issues was when Avrianna's face met the snow ice hill this weekend which has left some road rash up her chin and upper lip, thank goodness we don't pictures in the near future, LOL. Avrianna is finished with her swimming and it's a nice change of pace around here to NOT have to go somewhere every day of the week. Danny is happy n healthy which make me alil nervous even bragg'n about it.
We are anxiously awaiting our trip to Florida on spring break, but we are still on reserve as we know all too well how fast some of us may get sick and then plans change once again. BUT lets not dwell on the what if's so we are going to plan like we are going to enjoy the sun and warm weather.

BLAH!

Sorry for the lack of updates....I got another NASTY headache (in addition to the one that has been hanging on over a month) that just got the best of me. It came on Friday night and by Saturday I couldn't get off the couch or see well. Unfortunately, my benefit of the doubt, I called the Neurologist to let them know of the severity of this headache to see if there is anything I could do as all the tricks I knew off weren't working. We'll three days later I called them back with a very disappointing voice mail (as you NEVER get to talk to a human in that office) requesting that the doctor sign over my care to another one that gives a darn about my care. Thankfully he did my request and I will be seeing a new doctor next week. BUT that still leaves me without care with this headache for over a week, UGH. Today I couldn't take it anymore and I went into see my Family Practice doctor in hopes that she would have some words of wisdom for me. She did some blood work to rule out any of the NOT obvious issues and then I got a shot in the bum with some pain reliever. It works alil but I can feel it coming back, grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Well see what the next few days will bring
Avrianna had her last day of swim tonight and for me it's a bitter sweet as it will be nice to have our weekday evening back to ourselves, but I will miss seeing her swim and compete. She continues to do great in school, but we are having some attitude issues lately. Like that isn't going to happen ever again, LOL.
Danny is rocking in therapy and in life in general. He is doing wonderful!
I will try and update more often, sorry :( I know I've been lacking on it. I'm almost done with me New story, I can't wait to share it with you.
Please don't forget to pledge donations for my MS walk in April. We NEED your help in finding a cure to this disease! Please click on the link to the left :)

Head's UP

Had to share........Danny during PT today !!!!!
Tummy Time
He had been enjoying Tummy time more n more lately :)

Woohoo Picking his head up all by himself!!!

He hasn't been able to do this in over a year ~ He's my HERO!!!!!!!!

I'm so PROUD of him!! ((HUGS))

Danny duplicated this about a half a dozen times in a matter of 30 minutes. In addition to holding it up for a peroid of time :)

Thanks to Avrianna the photographer as she took better pics then I did :) I LOVE my KIDS !!!!!

Wrapping UP

No NEWS is GOOD news!!!! I am starting to recover from my relapse, slowly but surely. I'm finding that the meds I was put on to "help" me has only made things worse. So I've started to decrease my meds and I've been doing better each day, Yahoo! I went to Physical therapy yesterday and got some great exercises to help my muscle strength as I have lost strength and balance in my right side. I know have some vision issues, but nothing that will really hurt my abilities right now. My left eye now wonders and I also see double vision in that eye. Now I just pray I can keep these relapses at bay for awhile.
Danny is doing well :) Knock on wood!! He is doing good with his therapies and he's started to be more social not only with the therapist but his nurses. I'm enjoying watching him trust and interact with them. We are excited (ok I am) about getting a new nurse and she is starting in the middle of next month. I think she going to be a wonderful fit to our extended family :)
Avrianna has her last week of swim and then we are going to take a break till next fall. She is doing phenomenal in school! I can't express how proud of her. I took Avrianna to Disney on Ice last week and we had wonderful time together just her and I getting some girl time :)
We are starting to talk about our vacation next month.....in hopes that I can keep ALL of us healthy enough to go down to our condo in Florida for Spring break. Cross your fingers!

"Precious Real Estate"

Well this last week has been a very busy one for us. Last Wednesday I finally got a call from my neurologist's office and unfortunately the nurse had no information for me. Guess I didn't understand why she called if she didn't have any answers. Maybe because I had called everyday for 5 day leaving messages, LOL. When I started bombarding her with questions on the phone she pulled up my record and she did tell me "oh I see you were suppose to be on Zantac while on predisone and Ibuprofen".......um, I'm almost done with the treatment and NOW you tell me that. Great! So all the questions I had left for them the last few days and including the ones I had just hit her up with on the phone still no answers for, so she was going to ask the doctor and get back to me. Well I wasn't holding my breath, lol. Surprisingly enough she called back the same day as the doctor wanted me to go in for a MRI, due the recent function loss in my legs (again left a message 5 days ago stating this, grrrrr). Thankfully the day wasn't a total wash as Dan & I had a date afternoon, we went out for lunch and then we went to see Extraordinary Measures, what a good movie. Some of the movie hit really close to home and it was heart breaking to watch but I thought they captured the aspects of being a parent to a chronically ill child and being a doctor to a chronically ill child very well.
On Friday I was able to get in for an MRI, which was terrible. I was actually looking forward to some down time (how sad it that) and maybe even catch a nap as the test was to be 1.5 hours, of which I can't move AT ALL. I got this terrible headache in there. I had thought my head was splitting open. I have a high tolerance for pain but this was unbearable. So I had them "pause" the testing and they were able to put a foam wedge under my head which helped enough for them to finish. PHEW! I left there in tears....tears of fearing what is happening to me, what are they going to find, what are the not going to find. A MRI is bittersweet with this disease, as you hope they find something so you have merit to feeling like you are losing you mind, soul and body BUT hoping they find nothing as this just means more damage. Stuck between a rock and a hard place!
Saturday Avrianna had a swim meet in Clintonville that the whole family went to go cheer her on. It wasn't the easiest feet to get everyone on the road at 5:30am but I did it. KEEP ON KEEPING ON! I'm so glad we did. She did awesome. Way to GO, Avrianna. Danny enjoyed getting out and watching he sister swim too. Plus we had Papa n Claudia show up so Avrianna had a nice cheering squad :) She was entered in 6 races and placed 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 14th, 22nd and only DQ'd on one...BUT the one she DQ'd on she got to the wall first so she won the heat :) After the swim meet Avrianna went to a girlfriends house for a sleepover. Dan and I went out to dinner with some friends and Danny hung out with his nurse. It was a busy but great day.
I got some of my books that I ordered for living with MS and changing my diet to a low fat diet to help with the symptoms. So I've been busy looking at recipes and reading up on challenges n changes in life with one that has MS. I'm not one to sit and await around, I don't have a life style for that, and I'm not one to throw in the towel when one thing doesn't work so I've been working and researching on how I CAN change my life. I know all to well how "accurate" these doctors are so I am not going to let this set back get me down. I will KEEP on KEEPING on till I get the answers that I NEED. With that being said, I called on Monday to see if the doctor had seen the MRI I had done on Friday. His office had called me after hours even, WOW, to let me know that he had and what he "saw". Well he didn't see any new "issues" with my spine or back, yea me. So I asked what about in my brain? Well they didn't do any images of your head.....WHAT? Now wouldn't you think that if I have known lesions in my brain and am having a major relapse that you would want to check it out? The nurse said "well the Dr says that the spine is "precious real estate" as he has probably told you already how important it is to have a clean spine image". Ok and my brain isn't? Where the hell do they get off? Plus thanks alot as I have lesions in my spine, but there just isn't any new ones with this replase, so glad you slapped that in my face. I then ask so where is this relapse coming from..........I get the brain as an answer from her. WOW ~ that took a college degree to figure out. I so can't wait to see the doctor for my follow up appt on Tuesday. I already have a 2 page list of issues that I have with his office and questions about my MS.....and believe me they WILL get answered when I'm there. Then I will make sure he signs over my care to another physician in his clinic as I'm done with these games. It's GO time!!!
Avrianna along the way had gotten this cough, that's just a cough, and won't seem to go away mostly during the night. She'll cough here n there during the day but at night it's the killer. Well I think she shared it with her brother. Gotta love that! Danny woke up very junky today, low sats, didn't tolerate Mr Jiggles well, very pale, and then to top it off he threw in a seizure a few times. There was no holding back today! Which is all ontop of a nasty ear infection we've been trying to clear up the last few days. Grrrrrrrr! She's sleeping peacefully and I'm hoping the coughing doesn't start up. He's now sleeping peacefully on 2 liters of oxygen and I'm hoping he improves by morning. Wishful thinking, I know but can't a girl dream?
Tomorrow Dan and I are going to try and spend some much needed time over at the old house. We have someone that might be interested in it and it's a disaster inside. With all that has been going on with me it just wasn't a priority lately. So I need to get it cleaned out and cleaned up alil before we let them in next week to see it. We pretty much just moved the stuff we we wanted to the new place and left the rest to be donated here there and everywhere in the old place. I would be so embarrassed if someone was to walk through it now, YIKES!
I have started another story about my life and where I am today in hopes that maybe it will help someone someday. I'm not a writter but once in awhile I get this wild idea and there's no holding back. I can't wait to share it with you. It's been great therapy to just write :) To see my first lil story click on the link to the left in Our Stories titled My New Dreams. I've titled my newest story My New DreaMS ~ The Box of Chocolates.
Don't forgot to pledge in your donations towards the MS walk I'm doing in April! Please click HERE and that will get you to my personal page where you can donate or join my team and help walk along with me to help raise money to find a cure for MS. I can only hope that I will be able to see it in my life time :)
Thanks for stopping by to check up on us! Please leave post a comment or sign our guestbook to let us know you stopped by. We LOVE hearing from you too. Happy Valetine's Day if I don't post before then
"Life is NOT measured by the breathes we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"

The Self- Healing Coach

I have forwarded this entry from one of the site I've joined....The Self-Healing Coach. It really hits home and is SO true to my illness. I have to say I LOVE this women! She is my inspiration! This is my new way of thinking a BIGGER and BETTER ME!!


The “Think Big” Uprising

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:01 PM PST

Which drug should I choose to manage my MS? (That’s a question from someone who’s thinking small.) When are they going to come up with a cure? (Another question from someone thinking small.)

I read versions of these questions every day from people with MS all over the country and the world. And to them I say: If being healthy is what you want, you’re thinking too small. It’s time to Think Bigger.

What does it mean to think big about MS?
It means that what we deem possible for our health must go beyond the limitations set by Western Medicine. In our culture, Western Medicine is our religion and our doctors are our shaman. We invest immeasurable authority in them, giving them the power to hex us with a death sentence, or conversely, praying to them to cure us. But when we give up our power like this, we are denying our ultimate responsibility to care for our own bodies and play an active role in our healing process. When we give up our power like this we forget that Western Medicine is just one model of thinking, it’s not reality.

Western Medicine seeks to eliminate symptoms of disease primarily with the use of pharmaceutical drugs. It views the various systems of the body as distinct and separate from each other. It’s only now sorta kinda beginning to recognize the profound connection between the body and the mind. Western Medicine does not concern itself with detoxifying, balancing, and strengthening the body. It’s a useful model – an invaluable one – in certain areas like trauma, injury, and acute infection, to name a few. But it is a limited model, especially so in it’s ability to treat chronic illness, and when we believe blindly in it, we allow all other possibilities for healing outside of this model to fade to gray. The rules of Western Medicine’s reality become our rules, and with an illness like MS, which is said to be “incurable”, this blind faith keeps us from believing that getting well is even possible. What could be smaller thinking that that?

So how can we begin to think bigger?
Step 1: Commit: Your new mantra should go something like this: I commit to healing and being healthy. I commit to the stubborn, irreversible decision that I will heal, no matter who tells me it’s impossible. I commit to healing no matter how badly I may feel in any given moment. I commit to healing no matter how slow my progress toward health may seem. I commit to this state of endless possibility. I hold this commitment to myself sacred and I commit to doing whatever it takes to achieve my outcome.

Step 2: Become Singular: If you truly want to get healthy, then you must make everything in your life equal healing and everything else must be subservient to that. If you’re stressed about something, ask yourself what it is teaching you about being healthy, despite seemingly doing the opposite? If you want to get well, you need to constantly re-frame everything in your life to equal healing, and you must put your health first. Think your kids come first? Think your job comes first? You won’t be able to take care of your children or work if you’re sick. This may seem blasphemous to you as you read this. If so, I bet you’ve spent your entire life putting other people’s needs ahead of your own. And getting “selfish” is going to be the healthiest – and likely the most profound – thing you can do.

Step 3: Develop your health category: For most people with chronic illness, their definition of health is being without the symptoms of disease. But this is thinking small. If you want to think big, you need to grow your definition of health bigger. You need to have the greatest appreciation of health than anyone you know. You need to have a vivid vision of what health looks like. You need to spend time imagining the feeling of health in your body. When was the last time you remember feeling vibrantly, robustly healthy? Go back there. Revisit it, run it through your body, feel it again, refamiliarize yourself with that feeling. Spend a lot of time here. Remember, you have a huge category in your mind for disease. If you want to get well, you need to create an equal and opposite category for health.

Step 4: Take Action: Another mantra: I will look beyond the boundaries of the standard Western Medicine treatment for MS, searching for any healing modality that I believe could assist me in achieving health. I will explore all options I can find with the dedication and fervor of someone who believes the word impossible is a synonym for challenge. If you haven’t yet watched the David Blaine video I recently posted, watch it now. Use it as inspiration. Blaine is a man who doesn’t believe in the word “impossible”. Neither should you.

Experiment, Revise, Repeat: It took you many, many years to develop your illness. It will take time to unwind that and recreate a state of health instead. Be patient, but be persistent. Try as many new treatments as you need to, track your results, revise as needed, and continue exploring until you reach your goal and beyond. With every new treatment I tried, I found something that helped. Sometimes it was one small change, one small addition that made me feel a bit better. But when you stack enough of these on top of each other, you will have tipped the scales in favor of health. Don’t discount anything. Wisdom and healing come from places you don’t always expect, and enough subtle adjustments can lead to massive change. I will be posting soon about all the discoveries I’ve found that have worked for me so far. That’ll be a good springboard to start from. But I’ve just scratched the metaphorical surface. The possibilities are many.

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Fear of the Unknown

The last few days have been more difficult then I had ever anticipated. I guess I had this misconception of "treatment means recovery". You would assume that with everything else I've dealt with that I would know the cold hard Truth. Treatment doesn't mean recovery and I'm NOT invincible! Hard words to swallow and except, but true. I might not get better, I might get worse....it's ok to not be ok! Unfortunately I have found no relief from my relapse as of yet and sadly I have gotten worse with each waking day.
With the 3 days of IV steroids, 2 days of oral, and I started another Medicine to help with my nerve endings (Neurontin) I continue to have this headache for 10 days now, I have wibble wobbly legs that feel like they are going to give out at any moment, my arms are weak, and my body just aches. BUT I will remain positive that this is running it's course and one day I will wake up regaining some of my functions back instead of losing. This is so unbelievable that I'm finding it hard to wrap my brain around what has all happened ....and in such a short amount of time. Like I don't know how fast things can change, BUT it's not suppose to happen to ME, RIGHT? I'm suppose to be the strong, protective, and nurturing one instead of being the one that is dragging behind.
I've been exceptionally spoiled by having Dr Kasper in our lives for Danny as the "regular" doctor/patient relationship I forgot that exists out there, sucks. So I'm finding my patients running very thin with my Neurologist. Call me crazy for wanting just a phone call back (when I called at 8am to let them know I wasn't doing well) to see what I could be doing. So here I wait over the weekend wondering what I should be doing and getting pissier! The office did call into the pharmacy for two prescriptions .... one that I can't even take as I get sick from it and the other I'm not really sure what it's suppose to do, as again I got no phone call or direction, UGH! I can't wait for Monday's phone call to the doctors office, :) I won't stop here and just wait around so I'm going to start looking elsewhere for a doctor that I feel is hearing and treating my concerns.
I was able to get out for lunch with my girlfriend on Friday. I was so nice to get out and be "normal" for awhile, talk to another adult (one that gets it), and just shoot the breeze. I'm so glad I did as honestly I don't think I could do that today, I've gotten so .... NOT ME!
By Saturday I was very weak, but I signed Avrianna and myself up to go to a 2k walk/run fundraiser for her school. I went but thankfully was able to just sit and watch the kids run around the track, phew! As it took everything for me to walk in to the field house :( Another big one to swallow, sitting on the side lines, isn't something I like to do! Thankfully we had nothing planned for the rest of the day and we sat around the house watching some movies :) Then in the evening Dan and I had some friends over to give me some tips on changing over to a better diet. Guess it's time to step up and take care of myself? It was great bouncing ideas off of her and getting some of her wonderful recipes was a great start. She has fibromylacia (which has some of the symptoms as MS). So with both feet in I am changing to a healthier diet. With the way I'm feeling I'll give almost anything a try. I'm anxiously awaiting some MS books that I purchased online that will hopefully give me alil more direction.
Danny has been doing great! He's been such a good, healthy boy lately (knock on wood)! It's as if he knows somethings up with me, weird? But I'll take it. He's happy and healthy so I'm all game for that. We've gotten Danny on the schedule for his back surgery in May. With talking to his Doctors and some other parents I feel the surgery would benefit him greatly, but I still have a few loose ends that I need to wrap up so I have all the info I need. To make things even more exciting, I've changed Danny's nursing so this last week it's been alil different around here, but I think it's all changes for the better :) Danny and I need more consistancy and dependablity so I'm hoping that we'll have everyone on board, trained, and comfortable before May 14th.
Avrianna has been awesome also! She's been selling Girl Scout Cookies. She has already met and surpassed her personal goal.....YOU GO GIRL! This is her first year and she's loving it. We just got report cards for her and she's AMAZING. She's doing excellent in everything ~ I'm so proud of her! Avrianna has another swim meet this next weekend in Clintonville, where the coaches have her entered in 6 meets. GO AVRIANNA GO!

MS DreaMS

What a reality check the last few days has been for me. Since my Diagnosis of MS, this summer, it really hasn't effected me other then just an increase in fatigue and some added aches, but you all know me I keep on keeping on. Well since Thursday my life has been in a sudden free fall. It's amazing how fast your life can end up in a tail spin OVER and OVER and OVER again and you wonder when are you going to hit the ground. Just when you think you've been through the ringer enough in your life, BAM another mountain we're climbing.
I look at this face and know we are climbing this mountain together more then I had ever thought we would. My New DreaMS !! I am suppose to be the strong one, pulling him through and being his only true one given in life, but this last week scared me to the depts of the deepest hole. How long will I be able to really BE THERE for him? My biggest fan :) I love you Buddy more then you'll ever know.

Here's MY newest hardware..........do to the intense and sudden relapse of MS symptom this last week I have to go to the hospital for three days to get Big Dog steroids via IV and then I will be going on a round of oral steroids afterwards. This will hopefully settle the inflammation that is occurring in my brain and spinal cord giving me my symptoms of headache, blurred vision, body aches, and a MS hug wrapped around my chest. I can only hope that this is just a temp relapse and there hasn't been more permenant damage. My next MRI will show whats going on in there.

It's got me wondering what will be taken from me and when? I had thought I would be Lori who happens to have MS but lately I feel like MS. Once again have been rocked to my inner core wondering if "Can I do this". I truly am scared to death to even comprehend "What else" could my family endure. I know this is really my first experience with the hard core symptoms of MS but I can't help find myself drifting to those questions of WHAT will really be taken away from me with this disease and WHEN. I'm finding out you'll never know till it happens with this disease....one women woke up and couldn't see anymore and another had her legs just stopped working one day. Maybe this would be so much easier to deal with if I was older in age or maybe if I didn't have those two blue eyes in the wheelchair looking at me and depending on me for EVERYTHING. I know it won't be an easy road for Avrianna or Dan to watch me on my bad days and to watch the wife and mother their use to deteriorate, but they will go on, they are strong willed. I can only hope that I can go on living with just headaches, body aches, and blurred vision.......don't take ME away, please I'm begging you. I had someone ask me early on when Danny was born what was I truly afraid of.....Danny dieing first or me dieing first. That was a no brainer....ME first, as I knew he would be taken care of as long as I was around. Now I might be around and still not be able to take care of him....this is killing me.

I laid in bed the other night with my head hurting so bad I thought someone was using a screw driver in there. So am I getting the headaches because I can't focus right visa versa or are they just two different symptoms. I can't take a deep breath as I have this MS hug which feels as if I have weights on my chest. Then my body aches so bad there isn't enough Tylenol in the world to give me any relief. I laid there wondering is this MS or is this something else I should really be concerned about, is blaming the MS the right thing to do. I don't know! Am I have an aneurysm? Do I have a brain tumor? Am I having a heart attack? Will I be ok when I wake up in the morning or will I be very different? Will I be here in the morning?

BUT this is just a bad day with a full relapse so my fears and frustrations are at their peak. I WILL fight this with every sense of my being........because I am a mom of two wonderful children that need me! I need to be strong for their sake. I want Avrianna to look back at her mom knowing I was a good mom that tried to fight MS. This poor lil girl has to see and endure so much in her "normal" life, she deals with her brother being different and a mom who is "sick". Where's the justice in this, why does she have deal with this. She is growing up faster then she needs to, and for that I truly am devastated. Will it make her stronger person? Maybe, I can only hope there is some good that can come out of ALL this.

Today is a NEW day and they are working on cure for this disease everyday, I can only hope I will be able to see it in my life time. Until then I am going to work hard at making my life choices better and try to fight this! I am going to do some research on what kind of diet I can do to improve my symptoms. I will continue to take my medicine and treatments when things get bad. I am Lori who just happens to have MS, I will NOT be MS!

I hear all the time ..... I know so n so who has MS but you'd never know it. I hope I can be that MS person that others talk about, but please understand some days it's all a front and I am just hurting inside. I can't be everything, every time, and I will need help not only physically but emotionally. You my dearest friends and family will be my UP. Please pick me up when I've fallen on the ground. Please pick me UP when my emotions have just crashed. I know I can count on you to be my support and sounding board, but PLEASE don't pity me. I will be strong!!

Relapse

Well this latest stresser has put me into a full relapse with my MS, UGH! I can't see well...very blurry and can't focus, my headaches are pretty intense, I've experience my first MS hug (which is very uncomfortable)...it feels like a tight weight across my chest not allowing me to take in a deep breath. I've called the doctors office and looks as if a round of steriods are in my future today. UGH!!!! I will update more later.

80* stresser

Danny and I drove down to Milwaukee on Thursday to tackle the dreaded follow up appts. It was too be a pretty low key uneventful day for us, BUT once again DANNY has a different idea of uneventful.

Our day started at 4:45am which much to my surprise when my alarm went off that Danny was awake already at that time. Oh well guess I don't have to wake a sleeping baby, right? Everything went well as the drive started; no traffic Danny's watching the TV, I have my coffee, so far life is good......then I get a call from my husband trying to locate a T-shirt that Ms. Avrianna NEEDS to wear to school (or life would just end, don't you know), UGH. As I'm telling him wear to find this shirt, at 7am, my phone beeps in and it's the mother of the friends whose house Avrianna was to go to after school, as I didn't think I was going to be home in time before school let out. Well her daughter was staying home from school as she was sick, so obviously Avrianna wasn't going there. Dan was leaving after she got on the bus in the morning to go cut wood with the guys for the weekend, so I needed to find somewhere for Avrianna just in case I got stuck in traffic cuz I knew it would be close. So my dad was "on call" if I needed him to meet Avrianna when she got off the bus after school, phew! Once the daylight started to peek up in the sky and we got closer to Milwaukee I was not impressed with the amount of traffic that the highway was acquiring, ugh how can anyone want to live and drive in that crap every day. Fortunately we only were at a slow creep for about 2 miles, yea me.

At our first appt which is office the hospital campus at another clinic, the ortho appt, they wanted more xrays on Danny's hip and spine so I asked if they could include the KUB that urology needed later in the day for that appt. But if they couldn't no biggey as we needed to be in radiology anyway for a renal ultrasound in the afternoon. Much to my surprise they were not only able to include the KUB, they had an ultrasound tech there on site and they got it all done right there. Whoo hooo ~ it's going to be a great day! After the xrays were done we went right into a room and talked with the Ortho doctor. First words out of the doctors mouth was....."So where are you at with Danny's back?". Ok I'm very stumped right now as I wasn't planning on a back talk I thought we were going to talk about his hip (which by the way was confirmed a total failure, but we knew that already, UGH). So I come back with "Well were is Danny at with his back?", I thought that to be a better question. STOP RIGHT THERE.......if I could only retract that one simple question. The answer I got caught me off guard and I just wanted to throw up. 2010 was to a very boring year as 2009 ranked right up there with 2004 as being the worse years ever, but I'm thinking 2010 is going to be right up there too, sigh :(

Danny's Spine/trache/puck/hip hardware/and extreme gas filled intestines (yikes~ please don't "unload" here on the table Lil Man)Then I was shown this image......with the statement "grossly curved". Well I guess my Lil Man had a big growth spurt this fall with his back "going" with him. Less then a year ago his was sitting around a 52 degree bend in his back, in July the bend was about 67, and now he's over 80 degrees. This film was taken with Danny laying straight on the table, doesn't look like it on the film does it? His bend is ALL in the lumbar area scrunch'n and push'n things around in his tummy. Only positive here is the bend isn't in the chest area push'n on the heart or lungs. BUT it still needs to be addressed, UGH. We went through Danny's options and the more we talked the more I thought I was going to pass out, I'm just sick about it. We can do nothing and make him "comfortable" as symptoms arise ie: position issues, skin break down, difficulty with cares and pain. We can fuse his back with permanent rods implanted which will be one BIG surgery & recovery taking care of the problem, but his torso will no longer grow (staying smaller isn't the worst and he is already at levels of puberty as a 12 yr old so the growing should slow down?). Look at ALL the hardware he has inside him already (we set off the airport alarms just driving by them, LOL) so how much more do we need to add? None of these decisions are wrong, right, or easy...................this SUCKS! The feeling of helplessness and a failure just consumes you after you get this kind of news. Even though I know I'm a good mom, you can't help feel like the WORST ever. Especially when either way you know your son is going to go through hell! WTF ~ when will the insanity stop? They give your options and send you out on your way to function "normally" for the rest of the day. I was on pause after that appt, but still had two more to go, UGH! All I wanted to do was run far far away and hide with my Lil Man. But forward we went ..... and onto the next appts. We drove to the hospital from the off site clinic without getting lost, yea ME.

The urology appt went relatively well. The ultrasound confirmed that he still has a 1.19cm stone IN his kidney, and with that I mean growing in the tissue of the kidney NOT floating around in there. Really, why does that not surprise me. Danny do something text book, now that was surprise the hell out of me. So the doc just wants to monitor it every 6 months with an ultrasound and as long as it doesn't grow quickly, get infected, or cause Danny discomfort we are going to just leave it alone for now.

From there we went to the rehab dept to get his ITB pump refilled. We were early as after the last two appts I didn't want to do or visit anyone cuz I was just PISSY. Plus I was hoping to get in alil earlier and then be home for Avrianna when she got off the bus from school. So we waited 40 minutes in the waiting room for our appt to come, and then go by. 25 minutes after our scheduled appt we were called back to a room, for us to wait another 40 minutes in the room, before I came out LIVID to complain to the nurse and find out HOW MUCH LONGER! By this time the is no way I'm going to make it home for Avrianna so I called my dad to make sure he could be there, THANKS DAD!!! I swear the doctors think you have no other life when you take on the special needs mom role, I have all the time in the world to wait for them to figure out how a schedule works....believe me a let them know that too. I so can't wait for Danny's normal pump doctor to come back, we miss him so very much! Once I know he is seeing his patients again, I'm so out of the CHOW rehab dept! Danny got his pump refilled and we were so out of there. I did find out that the pump still have 42 months left on the battery life :) and that if we elect to do the spine surgery they will be re anchoring his catheter (this time properly) back up into the base of neck so he can get the effects he is suppose to get from the Interthecal Baclofen with possibly even a lower dose :)

Well that's alot for me to process at one visit, sigh. Oddly enough I was so engrossed in thought I don't remember much of the drive home. Except for when I'm 10 miles from home (trip is 200 round trip) the traffic on the hwy is at a stop. UGH!!!!!!!!!! Avrianna I'm coming, I promise! (mind you she is going through some serious anxiety with us going to CHOW because of this summer, she thinks "they" are going to keep her brother again) Poor thing!! A milk truck was broke down on the side of the road and they brought in another to pump out the milk from the truck to the other......really? It's F'n cold here ~ the milk can't sit in a truck on the side of the road till they move it out of the way?

I got Avrianna and went home to just go numb, well except for the headache that I had. We went to bed and all I hoped for was a better day today. This morning I woke up an emotional wreck! I get so disappointed in myself when I become a bumbling mess, but the tears wouldn't stop falln. After I watched Avrianna fall down on the ice walking to the bus stop by herself, I ran out, in my socks, to pick her up and wipe her tears. The bus pulled up she got on and I just unleashed my emotions. There it's done and out of the way, or off my chest.......now I'm back and in GO mode trying to find out what's the best decision for Danny. I've asking some questions I forgot to answer yesterday and awaiting the answers. I talked with his nurse and we talked with Dr Kasper in length when we took him in for his weekly labs today (plus 3 vaccines, can you say human pin cushion today). All the labs are not in, but the ones that have come back are "normal" ...... well Danny's normal, heehee. My gut says we'll be doing the fusion with permanent rods sometime in May. I'm not planning this surgery before our scheduled trip to Florida during spring break and it will work better then for his home nurses schedule too. We'll see what the next few days bring.

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, words of wisdom, and with helping pick me up when I was down this morning. I don't know where I would be without you guys!! It's time to sing off and hit the hay. Here's to better day tomorrow!!

:)

Avrianna's wall of Ribbons..... I'm so proud of my baby girl! Way to GO Girl! She's only gone to 4 swim meets and look at all of her ribbons :) She has one more meet in Clintonville before the season is over. I think this will be the last meet till Fall, but who knows she might want to do the summer season too.
Here's Danny's ambition level after PT Peter's work out this morning, heehee. Danny did wonderful and tolerated alot more then I thought he would :) He sat upright 90 degrees, laid flat on his tummy, moved his head to the left (elective), and not to mention all the stretching. I guess he's entitled to a nap. WAY TO GO, Lil Man..... shhhhhhhhhhh :)My lil chatter box! My biggest fear of having the trache done this summer was that I would no longer be able to hear that beautiful voice Danny has. Well he LOVES to prove his mother wrong.....listen to this music to your hears. I LOVE this boy so MUCH!!!!!!


Danny and I have another trip down to Milwaukee this week. A fun filled day of appts.....Ortho, Urology, and rehab to have his pump refill. I see the weather is suppose to cooperate for the drive down, whooohooo.

Playing around

Foxy is a new friend that has found our yard to be it's play area. I've seen him the last two days walking in our backyard. Well this morning I found Bailey chasing it, UGH! Now I'm concerned that these two are really going to tango or that Foxy will be around when Avrianna walks home from the bus.Amazing how fast your thinking can turn to a thought of beauty n awe to fear.

Here's Danny playing around with his newest PT. It's so cool that PT Peter is working once again with Danny.....as Peter was the first PT ever to work with Danny in the NICU when he was first born. Once again I'm amazed with my Lil Rock Star! He's holding his head with awesome control, interacting with us, and sitting/standing like NEVER before. Danny looks SO BIG, when did my Lil Man grow up? Where did the time go?

I just LOVE looking at this picture!Danny's facial expressions say it ALL. ..... you want me to do what?Danny is playing his tricks that he's got up his sleeves once again. Since Monday nite he has been bleeding from his trache (Tuesday he was alot) so Aleana (RN) and I took him to CHOW to have him assessed. This was the first time he was back to this hospital since his summer "camp" and he was NOT impressed when we got in the front door. He got very upset, turned red, and became super duper spastic. He knew exactly where he was and didn't like it :(. I tried to reassure him we weren't staying but NO GO so I had to give him something to calm him down or his would have worked himself into a serious tizzy that could have made us stay, I was NOT having that! But after his meds he calmed down and he really had a great appt. Here Danny is chilln out listen to his iPod waiting for the doctor to come in and scope his trachea.

The low down on today was......Xrays showed nothing exciting :), the aspirate cultures grew out only spit but they still did a new culture in the clinic just to be sure :), the docs down in CHOW are now not so excited about the bleeding once they saw how awesome lil man looks :), they were able to get an ENT to come in and do a scope down the trachea to see if they could find any issues :)

Issues with bleeding could be due to (best to worst) ~ pneumonia which we ruled out, granulanoma (scar tissue) due to suctioning or rubbing of the plastic, or from a blood vessel. Of course with the scope they found Danny's issue to be ............ a Blood vessel, BUT it really isn't too bad as it was small and the irritation is located in the opening of the trachea so they were able to easily cauterize it. Hopefully that will take care of it. The theory is it's because of his sensitivity to foreign matter (plastic of the Trache) and the skin broke down. The ENT doc said that Danny's lower trachea area looked awesome especially with how sick he has been. Next visit with the Trache team will be in 3 months :)

Other then the bleeding issue Danny has been doing WONDERFUL! He had a GI appt here in the FV clinic and we got good reports there :) Next specialist appts will be next week,Thursday, back in CHOW to see the Ortho to address Danny's pain, hip, and kyphoscoliosis ~ Urology to address Danny's kidney & Bladder issues ~ and Danny is going to have his Baclofen pump refilled with the Rehab doc.

Tomorrow is another bright n early day as Avrianna and I will be leaving the house around 6am for a swim meet in Green Bay. She is due in the water by 7am and she is entered in 6 races so we'll see what her energy is like in the afternoon, LOL. We are driving with another mom and Wave swimmer so it should be a nice trip. Go Avrianna!

We DID it!

With MUCH reservation and nerves the whole family went on our first "vacation" since Danny's trache surgery. We spent the weekend in Wausau to cheer on Avrianna at her swim meet. I wasn't sure I was going to even get to go there, as Friday morning Danny wasn't being himself and was in some obvious pain, but obviously I couldn't find it (which is happening more n more, sigh). I have an email into the doctors about that! But after medication and some time Danny relaxed and we went (packing everything including the sink, heehee). I thought we had alot to bring before but that was nothing compared to what we need now....the full size van was PACKED! Unfortunately whether we stay one night or 5 I need to bring EVERYTHING. Thankfully the nurse was there Friday to help me make sure I had everything. Our "vacation" went OK, by Saturday at 1am I was ready to go home already. Danny decided he needed to be up, he was acting like he was having reflux and then started to tremor with discomfort. He and I finally fell back asleep around 6:15 to be woken up at 7:30 to get ready to go watch Avrianna swim, UGH! Then when we were getting him ready he decided to have a repeat of this episodes of pain and needed to have additional meds :(. He did calm down before we left for the meet and was a prince the rest of the day. With the cold temps and the van being parked outside the lift didn't work properly all day so I'm VERY THANKFUL Dan came with us or I wouldn't have even been able to get out of the hotel parking lot in the morning to get Avrianna to the meet,UGH! Saturday night was more "boring" and we got to sleep in more.
Here's my lil swimmer at the swim meet in Wausua.....she rocked the pool once again :) Avrianna got 4 out of 6 ribbons.... she placed 10th in the 25 back & 50 free, 7th in her first ever IM relay, and 8th in the 25 free. She DQ'd on her 25 butterfly (but the coach and I are not sure why) and on one of her backstrokes (if she wouldn't have gotten DQ'd she would have placed 9 & 6th for those)
Coach CurtAvrianna's BIGGEST fan club!

Now don't they look like trouble, heehee. Unfortunately the seating in this school is upstairs and they don't have an elevator, BUT we were able to sit in the corner of the pool entrance so WE got a front row seat, :)My two fish!

This next weekend I will be taking Avrianna to Green Bay for another meet but just on Saturday. She needs to be in the water at 7am (wow, they obviously don't know I'm not a morning person) so we'll have to leave the house around 5:30. She is entered in 6 races for that day so she is going to be on tired lil girl when she is finished :)

While we were in Wausau we got a chance to meet a wonderful women, Annie and her son, Zak. She found us actually by going through our house this summer in the parade to get some ideas for her two children that have special needs, and I've been chatting with her ever since. I'm so glad we finally got a chance to meet in person. Annie is a remarkable women and Zak was an inspiration, not to mention alil sweetheart. I can't wait to meet the rest of the family, I think we could do some damage putting our idea together, heehee. To follow their story click HERE

This week is pretty busy for us. Today we had the vision teacher stop by to see Danny and Avrianna has piano tonight. Tomorrow we are seeing Danny's GI doctor here in Fox Valley in the morning, I'm really interested in seeing what he has to say with Lil Man, then PT in the afternoon...... Avrianna has swim tomorrow night. Wednesday afternoon Avrianna has a dentist appt to get her teeth cleaned, which is normally a chore as she's not a fan of the dentist. Thursday Danny is going to have a private PT coming in to the home and assess him then we can get him on the books to come work regularly with lil man. Then Avrianna has swim at night. Friday Avrianna gets out of school early, swim in the evening and Danny has therapy in the afternoon. WOW ~ and the next week isn't looking too boring either, lol. I guess it keeps us out of trouble being so busy.

Dannys labs from Friday still show his liver function going in the wrong direction so we once again tweeked some of med dosing and we'll repeat labs again some time this week. Of course Danny needs to keep it exciting and added to the ever growing list....... his blood sugars decided to drop, not sure why but again we'll recheck it this week. It's never a dull moment!!

Thanks for stopping in and checking in on us!

Upward strides

Just hanging around......Avrianna thinks it's cool to travel through the house on Danny's liftHey....what are you doing?!?We decided to have a SPA day here the other day........Yeah even Danny got to enjoy it and be pampered! Oh tis the lift :)

Today marks the 1st complete week Danny has been OFF OF OXYGEN 24/7. I'm so excited! He's ALWAYS needed alil help at night since the first illness the beginning of October so this is WONDERFUL :)

Tuesday, yesterday, we had PT Dan come to the house and "work" on Danny. My boy shined :) He held his head up high the whole time he was suppose to and even was able to look side to side then bringing his head back to midline. PT Dan also put Danny on each side and Danny rolled on his own from BOTH sides to his back. WAY TO GO, Lil Man! With Danny back to his base line I have started back up therapies, starting next week. Cross your fingers we make it longer then a week without him getting sick again. I'm also looking into getting some private physical therapy for Danny, one that has more of the medical twist to it. I believe Danny will benefit from more PT.

Danny has to go back into see Dr Kasper on Friday for more labs.....his liver functions were still off from last weeks so we are going to redo them, see what comes from these labs and possibly adjust some of his meds AGAIN. Next week we see Danny GI doctor here in the Valley and I'm really excited to FINALLY show him a WELL BOY :) I hope we get good reviews from GI this time around.

Avrianna has another swim meet, this time in Wausau this weekend and we are making it our first FAMILY function since Danny has been trached. Well see how Danny does cheering on his Big Sis!

Thanks for checking in on us. Please sign our guestbook or post a comment to let us know you stopped by, we LOVE hearing from you too.

What's up

Danny had a doctors appt this morning and we are finally to the point where we can start to back off some of his treatments, Yahooooooooo! Danny's lungs haven't sounded so good in a VERY LONG TIME. I'm hoping this means he has finally kicked this bug and I can ONLY HOPE that is stays away for an even LONGER TIME. So far Danny's blood work has come up great but we are still awaiting his liver function and med levels. I'm going the with the theory that everything has gone well today so the rest will too :) Dr Kasper was going to refer us back to the local physiatrist so she can follow Danny's tone and therapies and we don't have to travel down to Milwaukee to have him seen. Danny's right hand/wrist is definitely in the beginning of a contracture so I would like to try a slow the process down as much as possible. I have call into Danny's PT to see when he can come out and what he recommends the next steps in caring and maintaining Danny are.
Avrianna is having a blast during winter break, playing with her friends, and sleeping in! Tonight she is having 3 girlfriends sleep over, god help me, lol. So the preparations have begun to have a great slumber party, which is keeping her pretty busy. I can't wait to see how she is going to be like when the regular school routines start to kick back in this weekend, UGH I might need some serious backup, lol.
Dan was able to go the Packer game on Sunday with his buddy. They had a great time and what a great game to be at :) It's way too cold for this beach bunny to go out and watch a football game so I'm glad Dan was able to go with his friend. Dan has been able to spend some quality time at the old house to get it prepared to go on the market soon :) That will be nice to get that off of our plate of things to do.
The New Year is going to be another low key holiday for us. Which isn't too surprising as we are not big in the "Amateur" night festivities. We are going to have a close friend over for dinner, a couple cocktails, and then possibly a movie. I'm sure as years before I won't make it till the ball drop....funny thing is the new year still comes when you are safe and warm in bed. PLUS I don't feel like crap this next day. I HOPE that 2010 is a low key and HEALTHY year for The Osero's. We've had alot happen in 2009 so it would be nice to just have R&R year.
Please keep Danny's BFF Griffin in your thoughts as he is still recovering from a bilateral Pneumonia.
Please keep our good friend Mattman in your thoughts n prayers as he coded yesterday and is in the Children's ICU floor in St. Louis.
Please keep the Arnoldussen family, Dan ~ one of the contractors that worked with our new home, in our thoughts as his funeral is on Saturday.
And please keep my Brother in Law's family (the Dederings) in your thoughts as his Uncle Mike lost his life the day after Christmas.

Earth Works

You will be missed Dan! This last weekend, a very special friend of ours and a great contractor who had a HUGE hand in making our Dream House develop, passed away. Dan was a wonderful man and I am honored that I was able to meet him. He would have taken the shirt off his back if you needed it, if you ever had the opportunity to meet him would know what a wonderful man he was. He showed compassion and joy to my son when not many would show the time of day. He is very special to our family and he'll never be forgotten. My thoughts and prayers are with his family! Dan heroically saved his daughter life the day he lost his...to see the story CLICK HERE .

The Osero's Christmas

Our Christmas tree in the morning....PHEW, Santa cameLooks like we were Good this year

Where's Danny?

Avrianna's stash

My two favorite Dan's!Ah ~ so sweet

She looks sweet and innocent in these pictures.......Boy does she have you fooled! LOL My mom got her this formal dress for her dress-up box. She and her friends wear it all the time.

Here are the socks I cross stitched for each of us

Avrianna helping Danny by reading him the Title of the movie he got

Avrianna got the Digial Piano and the Wii Disney Sing It so she has been singing and playing her lil heart out. Dan got the Wii hunting game and he's been shooting things left n right. I got a coffee/cappicinno (all in one) machine so I've been drinking alot of caffine, heehee. I also got a digital picture frame so I'm really excited to get all my favorite pics together and showcase them off in there.

We had a very low key Christmas once again this year. It was just us four and we hung around in our jammies, played with our toys, cooked together and ate like royality. IT WAS AWESOME! We had no where we had to be and I just loved not running around like crazy people for the holidays. This will DEFINITELY be our tradition for many years to come.

Avrianna has off of school this whole week and she is counting down the days she has "left to play". She is having a great time playing with the neighbors :)

Danny managed to stay well over Christmas and I can only hope this continues into the New Year. He will be going back into see Dr Kasper later this week for labs plus I want him to take a look at Danny's right hand/wrist. It looks to me like he has a contractor there, UGH! Never a dull moment with this BOY, that's ok it keeps me out of trouble. LOL

I am going to participate in a MS walk April 2010 as many of you know I was diagnosed with MS in June of 2009. If you'd like to pledge a donation in my honor please click on the link in the left column or click HERE. You can help walk the journey with me and join my team, My New DreaMS also by clicking HERE. Thanks for your support!