Medical Mystery and Craziness

As some of you know, Chad has been battling with different health issues for quite a long time. Years ago, while at seminary he started having issues with stroke like symptoms and migraines. They would eventually go away but no one could ever find anything that caused the problems.

The most promising thing we had was from a neurologist about 2 years ago. After visiting all other neurologists here in Columbus except this one we were afraid we were going to have to start asking for a referral to one in Atlanta. The neurologist that we visited then basically said that all of the medication he was on, and there was TONS of it, were not necessary. He told us at the end of the visit that he thought that the problems were due to one of two possible diagnoses. The first was Hypokalemic Paralysis and the other was ALS. When he said the ALS, we were more nervous as Chad’s maternal grandfather had this. However, he reassured us that he really didn’t think that it was ALS because Chad gets better and ALS patients usually only decline in health and don’t have improvements. Of course he wanted more tests, etc. to be run to determine for sure and then…..the insurance basically ran out. BCBS had basically increased the premiums for Chad’s policy to the point where it was almost as much as our mortgage payment each month and there was NO WAY we could afford that. We couldn’t continue with testing, etc. because of the lack of insurance. I started doing some research on Hypokalemic Paralysis and it started making sense. It’s basically a drop in potassium levels that cause the ‘stroke-like paralysis’ symptoms, headaches, etc. We started watching him more closely with diet, he stayed off sodas, drank more juices, and ate more foods with higher potassium levels and tried to also watch the carb intake. He still had some issues but they weren’t ever as long lasting as they had been in the past.

Back at the end of July he had a ‘spell’ and was having to use his cane for a couple of weeks. On the 27th we made a trip with our youth to The Basement in Birmingham and basically he said that “me and God had a conversation while we were there and He told me ‘All things are new!’ and from that point I felt immediately better and didn’t need the cane.” I just love miracles, don’t you!? He had been fine up until this past Tuesday.

On Tuesday (31st) Chad had a seizure like episode that caused a DRASTIC mood shift. Later that day he had another one (probably about an hour or two later) and things completely changed. His mood was better but we realized that he had basically no memory of anything for almost the entire past 2 years. He learned, again, that my stepmother passed away a year ago along with other losses in the family, births in the family etc. He didn’t even remember any of our church family from King’s Pasture (we started going there in October 2 years ago). He has been re-learning people, places, etc. We did have a couple of ‘breakthroughs’ this weekend with this memory loss. We were visiting with some friends and got to talking about allergies. Occasionally I will have a reaction to a spice or a combination of spices and it will cause my face to itch. Sometimes it is more severe than others. As we were talking about it Chad got to thinking and said “when was that last time it was so bad?” Then he paused a minute and said “I know! We were downtown somewhere, like at the Cannon Brew Pub…and we were with them!” (pointing to our friends from church that since Tuesday he couldn’t really remember). I thought about it for a minute and said that he was right. That WAS the last major one I had. AND it happened this past July…as a matter of fact, the Friday after our trip to The Basement that I mentioned earlier. Later on, we were discussing something that happened with a building in Columbus and he made the comment about ‘not knowing about those steel building people’ in a joking manner. One of our other friends from church that was with us actually does steel buildings for a living but we had not mentioned that to Chad at all when we were ‘re-introducing’ him to folks. So that ‘joke’ came from somewhere.

He went to work with his dad today and we still covet your prayers. (I was not able to convince him to let me take him to The Medical Center for a CAT scan because he didn’t want to deal with the bills later.) Pray for complete memory restoration and permanent healing so that we don’t have this situation, or worse, again.

CHANGES

WOW! Has it been a while or what? I always come up with things to say, or at least start, but never can seem to get everything in order to continue. I actually have several ‘rough drafts’ of things saved. This blog thing is harder for me than I thought it would be.

This has been a year of changes, trials, etc. for my family and for some of my friends. As I think about this I am reminded of a conversation I had with a sweet little 84 year old woman this weekend. I was in her place of business and she had opera music playing. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Then she said “I don’t really like opera music. I just try to listen to a little bit of it every day. It helps me grow. Yes, I still want to grow at 84 years old.” I don’t like opera at all to be honest so I could completely see this as a challenge for me if I were to have to do it even for a little while every day. If we don’t have trials and tribulations, changes and challenges there is no way we can grow in our faith in God.

When I look back at these things that have shaped who I am now compared to even a year ago I am amazed in some ways. I know some folks have been through more but this has been a lot to ‘take in’ in a short amount of time. It started with my stepmother getting that dreaded diagnosis of cancer a year ago in January. She made a ‘declaration’, if you will, that she was going to stick around to see her grandson, Brady born. Brady was born on May 17th 2009. We lost Teresa on June 6, 2009. Today is Brady’s first birthday. Gammie is SUPPOSED to be helping his mommy make his first birthday cakes.

Other changes we have experienced are having a 16 year old in the house and a ‘tween’ as well. Our youngest, the ‘tween’, started at a brand new intermediate school. He has had many challenges himself this year learning how to control himself and deal with bullies. One of our other nephews started his senior year of high school and traveled through the journey of his parents’ divorce.

A friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been an amazing champion fighting each and every challenge as it comes. Her oldest graduates high school this week too. WOW! How time flies. I remember when he was in elementary school and his beautiful sisters were little.

Another friend has a toddler that has been battling cancer for quite a while. The little guy actually walked 3 laps at Relay for Life the other night; something they said he probably wouldn’t be able to do a year ago.

All of these trials and tribulations, changes and challenges have been shaping all of us into the people we are now and who we will become (good, bad or ugly). My prayer is it’s always the good for my family and friends!

Tonight at our women’s Bible study, we did a personality test that I had done a few years ago. I was a little surprised to see that my results had changed. The personality traits were related to animals (Otter, Golden Retriever, Lion, and Beaver). When I first heard our former pastor do the sermon series on these I was able to determine that, at that time, I was more of a Golden Retriever. After taking the test again today, I learned I am now a Lion. The other traits are still strong but my lion has come out more. I believe now that the reason I was a Golden Retriever then was because my husband was going through some major health issues and I was having to care for him, the children, etc. I didn’t have it in me to be a Lion (that is unless you were to mess with him or my kids). He is better now and I can definitely see where the Lion has roared back to life. Changes, changes, changes! Now I just have to learn to tame that Lion when necessary.

Take some time to reflect on where your life has been for the past year or two. What major changes, etc. have you experienced either directly or indirectly. Have you grown? Someone posted a quote the other day (they were talking about dieting though) “If it doesn’t hurt it won’t work.” Sometimes that is true in life. Some of these things we go through MUST hurt. Otherwise we wouldn’t find the arms of God necessary.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
1There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Attitudes

I found this, by Charles Swindoll on a quotes website:
"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than future, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable think is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."

Such wise words! The message yesterday at church was basically about this. The pastor discussed the positive and negative of magnets and related that to people. A negative attitude in a person can bring anyone near that person down to a level they don't want to be. "Negative energy attracts negative energy." Do you have that one (or maybe more) family member, friend, coworker that always seems to have the worst attitude about everything? They are usually also constantly talking negatively about others. This seems to be their way of trying to make themselves look/feel better or something. With family, sometimes it's hard to separate yourself from those situations without causing World War III or something. However, we can change the subject, try to gracefully leave the room, etc. This attitude is like a poison and can easily spread itself when allowed. I have tried to be more aware of when I allow this to sneak in on me and try to remind myself that there is ALWAYS someone somewhere that has it worse and that I have no right to behave that way.

The Little Reminders

Ever since I have known her, my stepmother had an affinity for owls. There's a collection of them in the den at my dad's. If you have ever tried to go looking for something that someone collected, you know that it can be difficult sometimes to find either one they do not already have, something that's 'different', etc. We lost Teresa in June after a battle with cancer. It has been devastating to all of us. The diagnosis in and of itself, a year ago this month, was a shock and then to lose her at such a young age was even more so.

Anyway, back to the owls. Over the years at one point or another, we have all tried to add to her collection from time to time. However, owls can be surprisingly difficult to find. When she was in the hospital on her birthday, for a chemo treatment, my husband, sons and I actually found a little candle holder that was an owl. Believe me! We snatched that thing up quickly! After she died, all of us have noticed that we seem to find things with owls on them, hear them around more, etc. I think it is a combination of the fact that we are more in tune to them now than ever before because they remind us of her AND that it is a sign that she is still with us even though we can't see or touch her.

We didn't think a lot about this until other things were mentioned recently, but back this summer after she passed away, Chad and I noticed that there was an owl somewhere nearby our house. We would hear it every night. It went on for quite some time. My sister-in-law realized that you could also find them on clothes and other items more so than ever before. At Christmas, she found our niece Madison a pillow shaped like an owl's head. Then one day she was in a store and found several owl ornaments. She bought them immediately and gave each of the families one at Christmas. This little reminder will always be cherished. In fact, when we took our tree down, our owl did NOT go in the decoration box to be stored away in the attic for another year. It went into a glass cabinet with other keepsakes that I like to display. Teresa's youngest son, Jonathan, went hunting just before Christmas. He said that there were numerous owls 'hooting' all around him while he was there. He said it reminded him that she is still with him even though he can't see her.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. This one was bittersweet for our family. It was my nephew Brady's first Christmas but it was also the first Christmas for us without his Gammie. Hold on to your loved ones a little more tightly this year and never forget to let them know that you love them.