The Good (Elsie's B-day) and The Bad

 This week was a rollercoaster of epic proportions.  To be honest, I have been dreading this week for about a month.  I knew it was going to be a busy and stressful week, with Elsie's birthday, Merrick's surgery, and Jury Duty.  It turned out to be much more stressful than that.  To paint the full picture, we have to go back to last Sunday, shortly after my last blog post.

Sunday afternoon, Merrick had a basketball game.  It was going fine, other than that they were losing.  With just a few minutes left in the game, Merrick went up for  a rebound and came down wrong on his ankle.  Likely he would have been able to walk that off, but while it was rolled, a very large kid from the other team fell on it.  Merrick couldn't get up from that.  Instead he would have to be carried off the court and to the car following the car and we would head straight to the ER.

In the ER, they didn't see any obvious signs of a break but they were surprised at that based on the amount of swelling he had.  Ultimately, they sent him home in a boot and with instructions to be completely non-weight bearing until we could follow up with an orthopedist.  By the time we left, we had 57 hours until we have to be back for the next thing.

This situation complicated everything else that followed, in an already completely stressful week.  Tuesday, the only day he went to school last week, he had to be driven to school.  He needed help with things he would normally do independently, like taking a shower.  Things that he would normally help with around the house were, and continue to be, off the table.

We made it through Tuesday, and somehow, at the kids insistence, even found time celebrate our dog, Millie's 4th birthday that day.

Wednesday was Merrick's second heart surgery.  We had to be at the hospital at 6:00am for a scheduled 8:00 am surgery.  Again, everything was complicated by his foot.  He was in a wheelchair right off the bat.  Getting into the hospital gown, getting into the bed,  and getting up to go to the bathroom were all more difficult.  We had to discuss his ankle with every doctor and nurse and went back and forth about whether he should wear his boot during surgery about a million times.  In the end, we decided against it, and had to just pray that no one would accidently bump it during surgery.

The surgery itself went just about as well as it could have possibly gone.  It was scheduled to be a 2-4 hour surgery, but I think it ended up being just under 2.  They were very quickly able to determine that the SVTs were being caused by a problem on AV Node.  They were able to diagnose it as atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and ablated the site that was causing the issue.  Everyone was extremely pleased with the results and there is only about a 5% chance of the problem returning.  We are praying that we are in the 95% group.  We will follow up with the cardiologist in about two months.

Thursday was both Elsie's birthday and my jury duty.  We started the day with birthday cinnamon rolls and one present and then it was off to jury duty for me and school for her. Unfortunately, I didn't get called off from jury duty the night before as I was hoping, but fortunately they ended up having a bench trial that took priority and all jurors got to go home. 

After school we were in full birthday mode.  I picked the girls up from school and we were able to stay and play on the playground with friends.  This is something the girls have really missed since I started my new job, so it was a great birthday treat for Elsie.

That evening, we had homemade cheese pizza per the birthday girl's request.  She then opened the rest of her presents from us.  She got Barbies and other toys, but one present was a little wild. She really wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday, but after lots of research for a place that would pierce both ears at the same time, I gave up and decided to buy the things to do it ourselves.  My sister pierced her daughter's ears and I knew I could recruit her help. The jury is still out as to whether we will actually do them ourselves.  So far she hasn't had the courage, but we will see.

After our family time, the extended family came over for cake and ice cream and more presents.

Friday was supposed to be a recoup day from the week of crazy, but it end up being the day we had to follow up with orthopedist and that brought a whole new batch of stress and bad news.  It turns out that Merrick did facture his fibula, but the doctor was more concerned about the amount of swelling he still had.  That was not consistent with a fibula fracture.  She is much more concerned about potential ligament tearing.  He were sent home with strict instructions about icing and elevating.  He is to remain non-weight bearing and we will decide next Wednesday on the next steps.  She also dashed his hopes of playing in the first stated tournament next weekend and said the Bend state tournament in two weeks is highly unlikely.  This kid just can't catch a break.

Yesterday was Elsie's birthday party with her friends.  We had a Barbie themed party at our house.  We had 14 kindergarten girls here to celebrate.  They played Barbies, colored Barbie coloring sheets, had a Barbie fashion show, and played "Pin the Bow on Barbie".  Everyone had a great time and that's what's important, not the fact that for me it was the stress icing on top of a stress cupcake.

Today is the Sabbath, the day of rest, and I could sure use it.  To say that this was a stressful week for our family would be a gross understatement.  I am just so thankful for the outpouring of support and encouragement we got from family and friends.  Otherwise, we never would have made it.

2024 Day of Love

This week was Valentine's Day.  This is always one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my family.  I love all the pink, I love the heart shaped foods, I love the "love hunt" scavenger hunt tradition we have.  All around it's a great day.

Elsie started us off feeling the love with a special V-day themed sidewalk chalk drawing.  She got a little assist from Carrigan in drawing the hearts, but she colored them in and wrote the rest of the words herself.  She was pretty proud of her accomplishments and want her picture taken with her work.

As I mentioned, one of my favorite parts of Valentine's Day is the themed food, it always comes back to the food for me.  This year, we have had a lot on our plate and I didn't really plan a special breakfast.  I got up to start working bright and early like I always do and I had the idea to make heart shaped breakfast cookies.  I was able to pull it off in time before the girls had to leave for school.  They were a hit.

Dinner also had a heart-shaped component with heart-shaped homemade soft pretzels.  Soft pretzels are a favorite around here and are often requested for holidays and special occasions.  I was happy to accommodate with a Valentine's Day version.

As for the love hunt, it was a good one this year.  As the kids are getting older, I tried to make the clues more challenging so they would have to put some thought into them.  The funny thing was that I routinely stumped the older two, and it was Elsie who figured out the clues each time.  It had Jeremy and I both cracking up.  In the end Merrick got an AirPods  case, Carrigan got a dice game call Left, Center, Right, and Elsie got a Barbie crafting car.

All in all, Valentine's Day was another memorable one.  Maybe someday Jeremy and I will actually get a chance to go out on a date and celebrate too.

Fun times

 It's been a quiet week.  We are all just keeping our heads down and plugging along until the crazy hits.  This week Merrick got his cousin Christmas gift in the mail.  They had ordered it well before our cousin gift exchange in Arizona, but it didn't end up arriving until shortly after our plane took off back to Oregon, so they had to ship it up here to us.  It's call Boxbollen, and it's a ball attached to a headband by a string.  You punch the ball repeatedly as it moves towards you.  It is supposed to improve hand-eye coordination.  Since it's arrival, it has provided many hours of entertainment.  Merrick is rocking it with a high score of 84.  I have a score of 35 and Jeremy is at 45.

Friday night, the girls' school has a PJ movie night.  Despite the fact that they were showing a movie that we have seen a million times, Elsie was super stoked to go.  Carrigan was less excited and didn't go initially, but once I got there and told her that her friends were there and wanting her to come, she had Jeremy bring her down.  Elsie thought it was hilarious to be at the school at night in her pajamas and wanted me to take her picture in front of the sign to commemorate the occasion.

Today is the Superbowl and we are doing it super low key style this year.  I can't remember the last time we didn't go to some kind of Superbowl party, but this year we are just kicking it at home.  The girls are into it in a way they never have been before with the possibility of Taylor Swift being there to support her man.  My crafty C.C. girl even crafted a Superbowl lunch for herself with football shaped beans to eat with chips.  That girl never misses a chance to craft.

Next week is the last week before all the crazy happens.  We are trying to soak the normal while we can.

Life

 I saw a meme the other day that said "Whew, January was a long year, but we made it through".  That pretty much sums up my feelings about January and I'm afraid February is going to be even worse.  It feels like we just got back from a basketball trip in Arizona and now Jeremy and Merrick are off at a basketball trip in L.A.  I also, just yesterday, booked our trip to Bend for basketball in just a few weeks.

If it was only just basketball making our life crazy, that would be one thing, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately.  A few weeks ago, we got word that while Merrick's surgery was successful at resolving his PVCs, he is now having a different type of irregular beats, originating from the upper chamber of his heart, called SVTs.  These irregular beats have been more erratic and causing a lot of anxiety for Merrick.

After discussion with the cardiologist, Merrick has, yet another, ablation scheduled for February 21st.  In the meantime, he has started medication as a bridge to control symptoms until we have the ablation.  To say that Merrick's heart journey has been a wild ride would be the understatement of the century. We would, once again, ask for your faith and prayers on his behalf.

I look ahead to February with a lot of anxiety.  We have all the normal stressors, plus Valentines Day, Elsie's birthday, Merrick's surgery, Merrick's currently scheduled to get braces (we may end up postponing this), and, just because life is terrible sometimes, I have jury duty.  Can someone please just wake me up when February is done?

Back to present day, the girls and I stayed behind from L.A. so that Carrigan could participate in Honors Choir.  They had a performance yesterday.  I was so proud of her, and the group as a whole.  They worked really hard and sounded AMAZING.  She is now really looking forward to middle school choir.  I just wish all future choir performances could be as good as this was.

Elsie has also been a busy girl with birthday parties almost every weekend and sometimes two in a weekend.  I usually don't end up getting many pictures from these parties, but last weekend's farm party was a rare exception.

I think that just about catches us up.  Assuming I make it, see you next week.