Merrick Turn's 14

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.

First Day of School 2023

 This was a BIG week for our family, the end of an era you might say.  This week the kids went back to school and, for the first time ever, all my babies went to fulltime school.  Merrick started his last year of middle school, Carrigan started her last year of elementary school, and Elsie started Kindergarten.  How did we get here?

Merrick has had mixed things to say about the return of school, but the girls have both really liked it.  Elsie in particular is loving kindergarten.  I was worried that she might have some separation anxiety with being away from me for the first time but she has done great.  The first day, we walked her in and got her settled.  I could tell she was a little nervous, but there were no tears when we left (I saved mine for the car ride home).  The second day, she stayed home because they do a soft start with only half the class attending for the first two days, but on day three she was all smiles about going and hasn't looked back.

Speaking of her day home with me, she had the whole day planned.  We played and painted each other's nails in the morning. Then we went for her favorite lunch (Wendy's) and then went to the library.  It was a great bonus day for the two of us.

Oh, one last thing about Elsie's first week of school, she came home on Friday with the most adorable family portrait she had drawn.  She put so much thought into it, picking each person's clothes and making us all just the right height. One of my friends pointed out that she might have drawn me yelling, but Elsie assures me that it is just my big smile.

Yesterday, we capped off the week with some other big changes.  We decided that it was finally time for Merrick (at 6'5") to graduate from a twin bed.  He got a new queen bed, the girls got his bunk bed, and the girls' daybed found a new home in the playroom.  All the kids are loving the new arrangements.  Merrick declared it the best night's sleep he has every gotten.

Clifford Vistors

 This week we have been super lucky to have Jeremy's parents and brother, Jensen, visiting from Arizona and New York.  We have kept it pretty low key, but have had a great time visiting, shopping, hanging out and eating (a lot).   We have been spoiled with yummy treats and new back to school clothes.

On Friday, Jeremy and Merrick went to the coast for a church activity so Saturday morning we all went out to meet them.  We started the day a Cannon Beach.  Jensen wanted to see Haystack rock and the famous Goonies location.  It was a cool morning, but not terrible as far as days at the PNW coast go.  After lunch, we connected with Jeremy and Merrick and went to the beach at Manzanita.  The weather warmed up and it was lovely.  Some off us played in the sand and some of us relaxed.  There may have even been a nap.  After Manzanita, we drove down to Tillamook.  We had dinner and then went to the creamery for a tour, some samples, and of course some ice cream.

 Everyone goes home tomorrow and we will be sad to see them go.  School starts on Tuesday though so I guess it's time to get down to business.

Unrelated to the Clifford's visiting,  Carrigan had her Activity Day Girls boating activity this week.  She had a blast and was proud of herself for being one of the bravest on the tube.  Also, this week, the girls had their meet the teacher day.  I neglected to get pictures, but I will make sure to take lots of first day pictures to make up for it. Oh, and Merrick finally got to take off his heart monitor!

Counting Down

 What to say about this week?  After the last few weeks, it has been pretty uneventful.  We are counting down the days until Merrick gets to ditch the heart monitor (1), the days until Jeremy's parents and brother, Jensen, come for a visit (2) and the days until school starts (9).

Carrigan had the most eventful week.  She spent the week in her happy place, at "Fiber Camp" doing all things crafty with her two of her best friends.  She made a pillow, headbands (which Elsie has been loving), countless needle felting projects, jewelry, embroidery, and a mosaic glass project.  It was the best camp she has ever attended and I am sure we will be seeking out camps there for many summers to come.  She also had a girls night and a birthday party.  It was definitely C.C.'s week.

 

After last week's update, I am sure many are curious about Merrick's week.  He is about the same.  He hasn't really had any big episodes, but the irregular beats are just constantly in the background.  He is very excited to get rid of the monitor tomorrow.  I also decided to try and get him in for acupuncture at my dad's college. Hopefully, I can get him in quickly and hopefully it is helpful for him.  Here he is practicing the "dad stance" with his cousin.

Elsie probably had the least eventful week.  She had a playdate and mostly hung out with mom at home.  That was ok with her though. Most of the week when I asked her what she wanted to do that day, she said "play at home".  We did lots of bicycle riding and playing with Barbies.  Late in the week, she did decide that she wanted to go to the arcade.  Merrick was happy to agree to that.

Only one more week of summer vacation, but with the family coming, it should be a great one.

Merrick Health Update

 Welp, I wish I could say I didn't get a chance to blog last week because we were on a fun trip for Jeremy and my anniversary (we celebrated 18 years last Saturday).  Unfortunately, the truth is that last Sunday I didn't get a chance to write the blog because I was in the hospital with Merrick.

The week before last he spent the week at church camp and had a great time, but apparently he started having a situation on Tuesday were he felt like his heart was racing non-stop.  That continued throughout the week.  He never told anyone, except a couple other campers.

When he got home on Saturday morning, he mentioned briefly that he felt like his heart was beating fast, but he didn't give me the backstory and Jeremy and I were on our way out the door for an anniversary date.  When we got home, he again mentioned that his heart was beating fast.  This time I took the time to ask some follow-up questions.  When he really explained the situation to us, we were concerned enough that we decided to go to Urgent Care.

At Urgent Care, they discovered that he had a "regularly irregular" heartbeat.  Every third beat on his EKG was irregular (a PVC).  The doctor was concerned and wanted him to be seen by a pediatric cardiologist, but at that point, thought the situation was not serious enough that if we went to the ER that they would bring in a cardiologist on the weekend.  He told us if things got worse though, we should go to the pediatric ER.

Sunday morning, Merrick woke up worse.  The irregular beats still continued, but he also felt like someone was sitting on his chest.  He walked from the couch to the table and sat for a few minutes before saying that he felted completely "gassed".  We decided it was time for the ER.

Merrick and I spent the next 30 hours at Doernbecher Children's Hospital.  We started in the ER and then we eventually were admitted.  Over the course of our time there, they did EKGs, a chest X-ray, an echocardiogram, all the blood and urine tests they could think to do,  and a nasal swab to check for Covid or any other respiratory virus. Everything came back normal except for these consistent PVCs.  To make things even stranger, while conducting a stress test, they discovered that as his heartrate increased, the PVCs became less frequent and once his heartrate crossed 130, they stopped completely.  As soon as his heartrate came back down, however, the PVC's returned.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was stumped.  They ultimately admitted Merrick for observation as there were no more tests to run but they also didn't feel like they should send us home.

Monday, after visiting with all the cardiologist again, including the pediatric electrophysiological cardiologist, they decided to send Merrick home with a heart monitor.  They have given up on trying to find the cause of these PVCs (which he is still having just as many of) and now were are trying to determine the percentage on abnormal beats overtime and in real life to determine what, if any, intervention is needed.  If his abnormal beat load is between 10-20% they will most likely just continue to monitor him.  If his load is greater than 20% they will have to intervene.  Mostly likely that would mean putting him on Beta Blockers, to control the PVCs.  Right now Merrick, in theory, has no physical restrictions, however, if they have to start Beta Blockers, it will put an artificial ceiling on his heartrate and he will most likely not be able to play sports.  Those of you reading this know just how crushing that would be for Merrick.  We are very actively fasting and praying that that will not be the case.  There is no identifiable reason why he is having this problem, so there is no reason why it couldn't simply go away?

At this point, we are midway through our monitor time.  A week from tomorrow we will take off the monitor and mail it in to be read.  On September 5th, his birthday, we will once again meet with the pediatric electrophysiological cardiologist and decide on what the future will look like.  We really need that visit to be positive.  If you are so inclined, we could really use your prayers that the load will decrease and there will not be any need for intervention.

Summer at home

 After being gone all week last week, this week I have just wanted to be home.  We did a few things that took us out and about, but we also did lots of playing at home and riding bikes on our street.  

Both girls made big strides on their bike riding this week.  Elsie is now independent in her riding.  She learned that she can start and stop on her own and can turn around on our street while continuing to ride.  Carrigan it turns out has been afraid to ride her bigger mountain bike.  I knew I hadn't really seen her ride it, opting for a scooter instead, but I didn't realize until this week that that was because she was scared to ride it and in her mind she had decided that she would just never ride a bike again.  After lots of persuading, I was able to get her to try it out.  Turns out that she loves it and has been on it every day since.  Merrick continues to love his e-bike and will take any excuse to be out on it.

I spent a lot of time in the yard this week.  There is always much to be done.  Right now we are enjoying our hydrangeas in full bloom as well as our lilies.  I don't know what variety of lily they are but they are about 7 feet tall and absolutely gorgeous.

While hanging at home is fun, we also certainly had our bored times.  The kids got creative with wall ball and my personal favorite, trying on an inflatable unicorn Halloween costume.

We did venture out a bit this week with a birthday party for some of Elsie's friends (twins).

Also this week, we made a few trips to the river.  The boys all went on Wednesday for a Young Men's church activity. Then, on Friday, we went as a family with some friends of ours.  Carrigan's good friend, Taylor, moved away at the start of the month, but things didn't work out with the move and they ended up coming back.  We met them and another friend of C.C.'s at the river Friday evening.  Merrick brought a friend too, just to make things fair.  Elsie didn't have  a friend, but was very contented playing in the sand and trying to build a sand castle.