Best day EVER!

Friday, July 11th was my 48th birthday. One of my love languages is definitely gifts! So I have harassed Scott a little bit about the lack of acknowledgement last year on my birthday. This year made up for any lacking EVER:)

I woke up for an early morning potty run and returned to my bed to find a card and gift number one. I was barely awake enough to process it but Scott wanted me to know right away that he had planned everything, ahead of time.

For lunch the five of us (Jake is in Ames) went to lunch. I was greeted with two more gifts. A lovely Vera Bradley makeup bag from Noelle. And the greatest gift...EVER! (Sensing a theme here?!) Scott, with lots of help from Noelle got me tickets to see Cher in Chicago!!!!!!!!!!

I seriously could not decide whether to pee or cry. Part of it is excitement for the concert and part of it is the complete surprise over the effort and the idea!! So nice to be loved.

Then Teme went to a friend's house and Noelle watched Sabrina while Scott and I got away for a whole 20 hours!! We had a couple's massage, dinner, overnight at a hotel, farmer's market...so amazing!

Thank you Scott and Noelle for making my birthday so unbelieveably special. Love you both to the moon and back!

Surgery scheduled

We have scheduled Noelle's exploratory surgery for Tuesday. Please pray with us for her safety during the procedure.

More pain:(

I haven't updated on Noelle in a while. She is struggling with three major issues currently.

The most intense is pain associated with her period. Please pray for our decision making as we see the doctor today. It seems very possible that this is endometriosis. There have been links between Endometriosis and auto-immune diseases, like Lyme disease. The only way to verify this diagnosis is through laparoscopic surgery. During this procedure, if they find evidence of endometriosis an effort can be made to "clean it up". This procedure can help with the pain. Hard for me to believe that my daughter may have TWO different pain causing diseases that are difficult to control. Poor baby!

The second issue is weather fronts. We have had thunderstorm after thunderstorm. The changes in barometric pressure intensify Noelle's Lyme pain drastically. One of our biggest issues with her pain has always been finding pain relief. Nothing works. She allows herself to take an Oxycodone every three days at the most frequent. And even that, diminishes but does not take away her pain. Hopefully our weather will soon turn into a regular Iowa July, lots of sun.

Third remaining issue is with emotional struggles. There are situational responses and then there are days when she doesn't know where the crazy emotions are coming from. We will address this with her doctor today as well. I read an interesting article in Prevention magazine that talked about the impact of chronic inflammation on depression. This doctor suggests that using something like Celebrex along with an anti-depressant can yield better results. This idea is something I will be talking to the doctor about.

There are improvements since Arizona. Her leg pain is much improved. She has not used a wheelchair since sometime in Arizona. She has rarely had migraines since her treatment. Please pray with us for continued healing and answers to the above complications. As always, thank you so much for joining us in praying for Noelle's healing.

:)

After getting her hair "softened" by Noelle. She loves it! Though it is not as easy to comb as I had hoped. Getting it trimmed tomorrow and hoping that will help.

The girls did each other's makeup one day:)

Hero worship!

Teme has been able to attend two wrestling camps so far this summer. The second camp featured one of the best, Anthony Robles. If you are not into wrestling, Anthony is a NCAA wrestling champion that happens to have one leg.

Hopefully, like Anthony Robles, Teme will be "Unstoppable"!

Sabrina is 7!

June 24th our tiny Ethiopian turned 7! We took her and three of her friends to our local water park, Lost Island! It went as well as could be expected, especially since Sabrina decided to deposit her lunch on the concrete:(

We cannot imagine life without this crazy, crazy girl!

Jake's health scare!

Overnight June 12/13th I received a phone call from Jake. He had been taken by ambulance to the emergency room in Ames after passing out while studying. The person that called emergency services did not wait for the EMTs so we actually had little information. After a CT scan and some blood tests Jake was released and I took him back to his house to rest and then we brought him back to Waterloo.

Friday Jake had a good day. He just rested. And we attended Sabrina's dance recital that evening. Saturday morning about 5 a.m., I heard someone up and decided to investigate. Jake was up with a severe headache. Since he had passed out the night before, I took him to the E.R. again. They did another CT scan. Jake had begun to be very confused. Unable to answer simple questions, like his name. It was very scary. Apparently our local hospital does not have a neurologist on call on the weekends. So Jake was moved by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals. (The same hospital Noelle was taken to when she was having seizure like symptoms in November.)

As soon as we arrived they gave Jake another IV and starting treating him with heavy antibiotics in case it was Bacterial Meningitis. The ER doctors gave us three scenerios: Bacterial Menengitis, Viral Meningitis or a brain bleed. All very scary. Jake had his third CT scan in less than 48 hours. They did a spinal tap, on the third try:( Jake was still very confused. At last we received the news that Jake had Viral Meningitis, the least scary of our options.

Jake was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be four days. Part of the reason that he had to stay so long was due to one of the antibiotics he was given. It formed crystals in his kidneys and we had to wait for proper kidney function to be restored. They also did an EEG and MRI. The EEG showed that Jake had had a probable seizure Thursday night in Ames. Due to Iowa law, Jake is now unable to drive for six months. He was also put on anti-seizure medications for 6 weeks. The MRI showed that Jake had incurred no permanent brain damage. Obviously, a huge relief. He was very scared when he could not answer questions properly.

Jake spent his 22nd birthday in the hospital. The last time he was in the hospital he was not even a year old.

So thankful for the way God took care of Jake!