This was another big week in our house. On Tuesday, Merrick turned 14. As birthdays go, his was a little bit of a bummer. We tried to celebrate on Monday (Labor Day) with a trip to Frog Lake near Mt. Hood to paddleboard. Unfortunately, the weather was cold here that day, which means it was freezing up at the mountain. It was about 45 degree and windy and sprinkled off and on. We lasted less than an hour and Merrick and Colvin (our nephew) were the only ones who actually made it onto the water.
Merrick's actual birthday, Tuesday, was a school day. It also happened to be the day we were scheduled to go back for a follow up with the cardiologist. Given that the appointment was right in the middle of the day and his birthday was going to be a bit of a downer, I did at least let him skip school. We started the day bright and early with cinnamon rolls before the girls went to school, hung out at the house in the morning, went to his doctor's appointment (more on that in a minute), and then to lunch. After lunch, we had some time in the afternoon. I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday. I shouldn't have been surprised by the answer, he talks about it constantly, but he said he wanted to practice driving. He and I went out for a secret driving lesson in our abandoned church parking lot. He was a little big jerky at times, but all in all he is not a terrible driver. He will get there. That evening we had dinner and then the family came over for birthday dessert. Since my nephew, Lincoln's, birthday was the next day, we celebrated both of them. There is a 3 year and huge height gap between the two of them.
Poor Merrick also didn't get too much in the way of presents on his actual birthday, but don't feel too sorry for him. Grandpa and Lollie got him new shoes when they were in town, he got a new phone that came the next day, and a completely custom baseball glove that will make it to him eventually. He also got gift cards, candy, and phone accessories from Nana and Papa, the Browns, and Ioapo's. I would say he did alright in the present department.
While, it might not have been the birthday he dreamed of, any day celebrating Merrick is a good day. He is kind of the best and we are so happy to have him in our family.
*Doc update before I go: We got the results of the heart rate monitor. We knew that if he was having greater than 20% PVCs in everyday life, we would need to intervene to prevent long term heart damage. The monitor showed, over the two weeks he wore it, about a 9% PVC burden rate. That means that we don't have to intervene to prevent heart damage. The doctor is concerned though that it is effecting him as he is really feeling the PVCs and so we can chose to treat to reduce symptoms. Our options are medication (beta or calcium blockers) or an ablation. Additionally, we could chose to do nothing and he could just live with the symptoms. We are weighing our options right now, and have differing opinions in our household about what is best. In the meantime, the doctor has ordered a stress test, since we just did a poor man's stress test in the hospital. We are pretty confident that we know what that will show, but just want the whole, clear picture. He starts basketball this week and we are all a little worried about that. Prayers that it will go well.
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