the what happened?

So last Friday my vision started going a little funny looking. And it still is, so please forgive any typos The very center of my focal point was swirly and later Friday I started getting a killer migraine. By Saturday morning my focal point was now blurry & swirly and the migrain was from hell , and my neck was killing me. Nothing would shake the migraine, my vision was progressively getting worse, and my head felt too heavy for my neck. And I had no apetite because I was fighting nausea from the migraines. I love phenegrane. It basically just knocked me out so I didn't feel so bad and I slept alot.

Ben had been taking care of the kids for the whole weekend by himself. He was off on Friday, but had to work until 2 on Monday. Monday morning while Leighann watched the kids for me (and read phone numbers for me) I made 3 appts. 1st to an opthamologist Dr. Roten for my eyes 12:45, Chiropractor at 2:15 for my neck, and my internist Dr. Connor at 4pm for the migraines. Aubrey came over to watch the kids while i went to my first appt. and i insisted the kids take their nap (they didn't the day before & were horrid for Ben) and drove myself to my eye appt. That was Stupid! Especially when I easily could've put her kids's carseat in the van and had her drive me. So they do a little looking at my eyes and he noted my left eye was dilating a little funny and off center (what?! my vision has always been excellent. 20/13 to be exact) I ask him what time it is and make mention I have another appt. I need to get to. Then he informs me that I need to skip my next appt. and got straight to an eye specialist because he thinks I have psuedo tumors and my optic nerves are swollen. I agreed to go of course, but I had to wait for them to call Ben so he could drive me. So Dr. Roten called and got an immediate appt. for me with Dr. Fortin at Eye Center South. After getting over there, Dr. Fortin looks in my eyes and immediately says "yup, they're swollen, psuedo tumors, here's a note for your doctor. You must make your appt. and I strongly suggest he consider doing a n MRI." Called Dr. Connor's office and they said come on in early and put me in the hospital.

Apparently a medication I was taking caused an over production of cerebral fluid, it wasn't draining fast enough and created lots of pressure making my Optic nerves swell, migraine headaches, and the back of my neck/head sore & tender. The lumbar puncture was almost immediate relief! now I have to let my eyes heal and hopefully they will get back to normal. Dr. Fortin took pictures of my eyes and I'll see him again in 2 weeks so he can compare and see how they're doing.

Lost a Job... but not really!!!

Miracles truly do happen everyday. July 23rd, 2009 I received word from the management at the company that I work for that as of October 23rd, 2009 my position would be eliminated. Anyone that has been faced with this type of trial knows the weight that was immediately placed on my shoulders to find replacement employment to provide for my family. I started to beat the streets attempting to find suitable work. I sent resumes to probably 25 different businesses and organizations. After a month I started to get calls back and started negotiations. Two job offers then came before me. The first job offer was with a company that is very stable and the work was in the engineering field, which is what I want to eventually wind up doing. The second was with a much smaller home-grown company and was very similar to the job that I have now. I went back and forth between the two comparing salary and benefits. After praying about both jobs together a definite answer could not be found concerning which job was best for our family. As we were about to accept a job without really KNOWING if it was right, we had visitors at my office. The area sales manager who is my boss' boss and the southern division HR rep came to lay-off my current manager. In the meetings and conversations that were held concerning my manager, the topic of my employment came up. I was asked, "Have you made a decision yet about your future employment?" I replied "No why?" Well, there may be an opportunity to keep your position here and not go thru the layoff. Well to make this long story short, today I accepted to stay with my current employer. And in answer to our prayers, the answer was pretty much "DUH!", all the logic is telling you to stay where you are. We took it as a miracle and blessing that we were once again being looked after and blessed by the our loving Heavenly Father. I have been down and depressed for the past two months facing this trial, trying to make the best of it. Now a huge sigh of relief is being felt in our home. Tonight we celebrated with our favorite Subway sandwiches and spent time with our little munchkins. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

Family Reunion pics

I finally uploaded the pictures from the camera so I can post. During the reunion we had fun hanging out at my mom & dad's. They had some crafts which Carlise really got into. Here she is making a necklace all my herself. She did great!
Josie really wanted to go outside and play with the big kids.

Update: Kira

Kira is doing very well.

This is what the doctor is telling us right now...The CT scan came back normal, so no growth of any kind. The lumbar puncture went well. 4 tubes were drained from her spine, relieving the pressure behind her eyes. They did a MRI this morning to confirm the CT scan to double check that nothing is wrong. A neurologist will be coming by sometime today to check her out as well. Dr. Connor thinks that the cause of the accumalated fluid is from a medication that was prescribed to her for a sinus infection. She is on IV fluids for dehydration and we have switched pain medication from morphine to darvacet. That has made a huge change. Her headaches are all but gone and the nausea has subsided so that she can keep food down. He is prescribing a dieuretic to keep any further fluid from accumalating. That should keep this from happening again. Tomorrow they are going to get her up and moving. If all goes well she may get to go home tomorrow if not it will be Friday morning.

Thank you for all your help and prayers through this trying time in our family. It really means a lot to us right now to know that we have lots of support around us.