Family Vacation

Last Saturday we started a 4 day long family vacation! Our first ever with the girls! My mom and Jerry rented a cabin in Lakewood, and invited my family, and my sister's family to come up and stay with them for a few days.

We had so much fun!! We went to the zoo, went to the beach, went on boat rides, and hung out by the campfire. It was such a blast. The girls were well behaved, and I think they had tons of fun.

I did get teary eyed one time on a boat ride. I told Jason it made me think of my dad, and the tears just started flowing. I have so many memories of being on a boat fishing and camping with him. In fact, the beach we went to, I went to as a little girl with my family. So it was a little bittersweet. I wished it could have been a complete family vacation with my dad there, but he was with us in spirit. We told lots of funny stories about my dad around the campfire!!

Here are some pictures of our vacation:

I survived my spinal tap yesterday! It was not even half as bad as I thought it would be! I think the sedation worked by calming me down. I was alert the whole time, and remember all of it. But I didn't even know they were doing the procedure! The only thing I felt was when they took the needle out, and that just barely hurt!

Hoping within a couple weeks MS can be ruled out. My eye is still all flashy. I am going to start Valtrex tomorrow as an experiemental treatment.

I brought the girls to Bay Beach this weekend. It was so much fun! The girls had such a blast. McKenna, my little daredevil, would have gone on any ride I let her. She was bored with the boats and cars and ladybugs. She however loved the big slide and the swings. Macey on the other hand was more timid. She was very petrified of the carousel, which I kind of find funny in some weird way! But she had fun, and especially loved the train ride. The rest of the weekend she would randomly call out "choo choo".

Macey was so exhausted that she ended up falling asleep in the high chair at McDonald's. I thought it was hilarious!



I am very proud of my mom. She went on the Zippin Pippin rollercoaster! Her first time ever being on one! She said it was her last time too! But she was very happy that she did it! She has been trying to do something new everyday. She also cleaned fish for the first time last week! I give her so much credit.

I also went on the Zippin Pippin. I got to experience my neice Taylor's first time on a rollercoaster. It was great. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face! I think she kept her eyes closed the entire time. Love making memories with my family!!!

Still have a disco party in my eye. I talked to the doctor in Marshfield today, and he is going to wean me off of the steroids. He also agreed to try the Valtrex as an experiemental treatment. So once I am weaned off of the steroids I can try that. I really hope it works. Please say some prayers that it works. I am going crazy with this flashing! I am ready to declare myself a pirate and wear an eye patch every day!!

Nevaeh's Angel Anniversary

Today is 5 years ago that I lost my first little girl. I can't believe it's been five years already. The sadness and emptiness never goes away.

Please go out today and do a random act of kindness in Nevaeh's memory.

I am also delivering my first carepacks in her memory today. You can ready about it here:
http://nevaehsrainbow.wordpress.com/posts/

There never seems to be a dull moment in my life lately! I had Macey at urgent care on the 4th with a 103 fever. She was diagnosed with a double ear infection. After two more days at home (one day with me, and one day with her cousin Taylor) she was finally well enough to go back to daycare.

Last night I pick up McKenna and lo and behold she has a 103 fever. To avoid missing any more work this week, I decided to take her into urgent care. I thought maybe it was strep throat. But the rapid test came back negative, so most likely she just has a virus. Probably the same virus Macey had, but Macey had an ear infection with it.

So McKenna is home with my niece Taylor today. Thank god she is on summer vacation and she can help out!

I am just so sick of doctors, co-pays, medication, and taking PTO time for doctor appointments. Never did I think I would spend almost all my PTO this summer on seeing doctors - most of which trying to diagnose my stupid eye.

My eye is still not better. If anything, the flashing is getting worse. So I will try the steroids for one more week, and if there is no improvement or it seems to keep getting worse, I am going to ask to be weaned off of them. A certain peace has come over me about my eye. I guess I have just come to accept that I may have a permanent disco party in my eye. It's not the worse thing I guess. I mean at least I still have some vision. It could be worse. Just another bump in the road we call life.

On a happy note - my mom had a job interview last week. They called one of her references this week, so I think that is a good sign. Keeping my fingers crossed that it comes through for her!

So I am on my third day of the steroids, and so far no change in my vision. Kind of sad about that, but I wasn't very optomistic. I have been doing some research on line on this condition, and some people have had success in using Valtrex to treat it. Which is weird since it is a herpes medication, but what is weirder is I did have a cold sore the week before I lost my vision, so it is possible it could all be related. So when Marshfield clinic calls this week, I think I am going to mention it to him. I mean why not try it?

Yesterday I enrolled for my first classes at UWGB this fall. I am going back to pursue my Bachelors degree. It will be a Bachelors of Applied Science degree with an emphasis on corporate communication. I am very excited, but also very nervous! I work full-time and I am a mom, so I just hope it is not too much to handle. All of my classes will be on-line, so the good thing is I can always use my lunch hour if needed to do my classes. I am very excited. This is something I've been wanting to do for many years, and have finally just taken the plunge and decided it was now or never. It's funny, both my sister and me are going to college at the same time, pursuing Bachelor degrees. My dad would be so proud of us!!

Yesterday I went to Marshfield Clinic for my eye. The doctor there was really nice. He seems to think it is this very rare eye condition where a small part of your retina gets inflammed. He called it "retinaitis". He said he's only diagnosed two other women with it in his career, and both were pregnant. No, I am not pregnant (that I know of)! He said in both of their cases, it subsided once they had their baby. Since that is obviously not a possabibility for me, he gave me some oral steroids to try. He said he can't guarantee it will work. But he hopes eventually the condition will just improve on it's own.

He still can't tie this condition to all the other weird stuff I have been having such as the vertigo, weird perception issues, memory issues, and speech issues I have been having. So I decided I am still going to go forth with the Spinal tap. Just so I have peace of mind - knowing that everything is ruled out. I have that scheduled for July 20th.