Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Chiari, Gall Bladders, Wildfires, Fevers, Mold and the RED SOX

It has been a crazy week for our family. . .



Mom underwent surgery on Monday for Chiari Malformation. She was diagnosed a few months ago due to dizziness, headaches, neckaches and various other symptoms. This is somthing she has had her entire life, but because of recent changes in her spinal canal, she has had the recent onset of severe symptoms (other lifelong symptoms include incoordination and balance issues). The cerebellum part of the brain has herniated below the skull and limiting the flow of cerebral spinal fluid to and from the spine. Coincidentally, Extreme Makeover Home Edition featured a family on Sunday night who all suffer from this condition. The episode was very informative and educational, so check it out if you want more information. You may need to download the media player in order to watch it, but the entire episode is featured in the link below (copy and paste).

http://ll.static.abc.go.com/streaming/move/00070006/static.html?d=20070521&aff=abc&wrapped=1

Something the episode really highlighted was how hereditary this condition can be. With Melanie and Kylie having some similar syptoms, I thought it would be important to have them evaluated as well. We made an appointment with a neurologist in Boston several months ago and that appointment is tomorrow.

Mom's surgery seems to have gone fine, but Dad has been struggling with stomach pain and issues for a couple of weeks. He has avoided going to the doctor because he wanted to wait for Mom to get settled. But yesterday the pain was too intense, so he finally visited the doctor who ordered a sonogram. He was immediately hospitalized and will undergo gall bladder surgery this morning.

Eric was in San Diego for work through all of this and was affected by the wild fires. His meetings were canceled and they were afraid they would get stuck there, but he was able to get out and back to KC ok (he mentioned his rental car had 1/4 inch of ashes on it).

Kylie woke up last night with a fever of 103 and was miserable. We canceled a bunch of activities today, but she seems much better. She ate 3 pieces of toast this morning and two full cups of pink milk. For those of you who know her well, you know that this is more than she usually eats in a whole day. I think she's feeling better!



This all comes just after we had the Disaster Specialists at our house for four days completely cleaning our new basement of mold damage from a toilet overflow. We had to throw away a ton of stuff. All in all it was about $8000 worth of damage but luckily our home owners insurance covers it.

Soooo, with all that going on the RED SOX start playing the ROCKIES tonight. I have to say the Rockies are probably my favorite National League team because of my large family contingent in Denver who are ALL avid sports fans. So, Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob, Cindy, Kenny, Todd, Kim, Ryan, Kelsey, Lauren and Erin. . .check out the impression one Cape Cod guy has about the Rockies team and Coors field. . .it's kind of funny, but don't take it personally! I know that where the Rockies play is much more urban than where we live. I love the fake mountain in the background!

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/MEDIA0302/71023008

Tom was able to go to the last two playoff games against the Clevland Indians and had a blast. He may be able to catch one World Series Game (he's got a connection). At the playoff game on Sunday night, Tom ended up visiting and hanging out with Trot Nixon's wife for several innings. His friends took pictures, but I haven't seen them yet. If I get some I'll post them to the blog.

1 comment:

Sassy Frass said...

I'm praying for your mom and dad, and for the girls' testing. I love ya!

Aim