Today I got to get me a dog, she is a beautiful husky with blue eyes. I got to take some pictures of her and I love her already. She is part of my family now, just me and her. We have already taken walks together and even took a run. She can shake your hand, sit, and lay down, and I am going to train her to do more. I can't wait till it snows so the we can go out and play in it.
My mom and I started off having a great mother daughter relationship. She would spend time with me, my brothers and my sisters sitting at home watching movies and making popcorn. My mom would make the best of every situation and there were many times that she had to do so. There were times that she pulled two or three jobs just to provide for us kids.
I remember one Christmas when we were so bad off that we could not afford anything, not even a Christmas tree, much less ornaments to put on it. I took it upon myself to go find us a Christmas tree, so I went out in the woods and found a small branch or limb of a pine tree and brought it home to my mom. She came up with a great idea, popped some popcorn and showed us how to string it. That year we had popcorn garland for the tree. Another one of her great ideas was pine cone ornaments. We had gathered some pine cones and took them to the house. Her idea was to take some nail polish and paint the tips of them, tied some yarn to them and hung them on the tree.
As the years went by my mom and I grew apart and had our disagreements. Some of witch was times she should have stood beside me and she did not do so. I know there are situations where kids think their parents should have stuck beside them, but this is a case where any parent should have been there for their child. My mom and I went about six years where we barley talked to each other. I would call her and it was like she did not have time to talk to me. I had forgiven my mom for the way she had done me. The day that it all changed is when she called me up and told me the she wanted to apologize for how she had handled some situations between us. I told her I had already forgiven her and had moved on. She told me she knew that but just wanted to tell me she was sorry and that she wishes she had handled things differently. We both shed a few tears and our mother daughter relationship is improving.
Now has come a time when my mom needs me, and I am going to do my best to be there for her as much as possible. She does live about two and a half hours away, but I am going to give her all the love and attention that I can. She has been helping her husband, witch is a diabetic and has had to have both legs removed from his knees down and is on dialysis, and now he is in the hospital having heart complications.I would like for every one that reads this to send positive energy, prayers and hopefulness my mom’s way.
So many thing have happened this weekend to make it interesting. It first started with my car, then the phone call for Ang, Angela and the hammock, the breakfast conversation at my moms, my mom and Greg's dogs, then Pride, Taco bell road rage, and Denney's with Steph and Cass. This is just the beginning, there was also kitty cat rampage, playing sing star, jumping on the trampoline, the awesome dinner that Cass made, and then on top of it all, Angela and her broccoli.
This is just a summary of the weekend, I plan to have individual posts for every event.
As I was growing up my dad thought he new everything. There were numerous times that he just knew, or thought he knew, what was going on or what happened. He would come home with a beer in his hand, holler for all us to join him in the dining room. It would all start out with him sitting his beer can on the table and telling us, his children, to line up against the wall. I remember what he accused me of, as he took his firm index finger and poked me in the chest as if he was trying to Pierce it. He would pound on my chest with every word, saying I know you are out there sleeping with all the guys, I do have to say that he was wrong. He was always quick to jump to conclusions. That is one thing that has drawn all five of his children away from him.
He was also quick to draw his belt and start what he would call whipping us with it. I am not writing this to make my dad look bad, I know that he loves us. When you treat someone like this for so long they tend to want to get away from you, so the push themselves away from that individual. To this day one of the main reasons His children want to stay away from him is because he always thought he knew what was going on or that he knew what we were doing but he was wrong many times. I know that I would have loved a dad to show to everyone and not be afraid of him making a big scene.
In a few of my previous blogs I have written about my sister and her heart condition, here is the latest news.
Ok so the MRI I had at BAMC the end of April showed all the things we already knew and then one more interesting tidbit of information. They figured from the MRI images that 20-30% of the blood that my heart is pumping is coming back into my left ventricle instead of being pumped through my arteries. We already knew that there was backflow but did not know how much until we got the results from this MRI. Dr Scally (my cardiologist) and Dr York (the cardiologist at BAMC) both agreed that this is a moderate amount of backflow. They also said that since this causes a significant amount of stress on the heart, that a lot of doctors go ahead and recommend the surgery be done so the extra stress does not end up doing permanent damage to the heart.
Also, I had to stop going to cardiac rehab because the exercise was causing problems with my blood pressure and was making me feel terrible. Dr Scally said that the combination of what they found on the MRI and the problems at rehab are enough concern to go ahead and refer me to a surgeon. He has referred me to Dr Ganzel, a surgeon at Jewish hospital. Dr Ganzel is reviewing all of my information. His office will be contacting me soon to set up a consult appointment and get the ball rolling on the surgical stuff.
We now have to work on this from the military standpoint as well. We have several different ways that we may be able to work this out where Jeremy can be there for me when I have my surgery and recovery. My doctor recommends that the military reassigns Jeremy to Ft Knox temporarily; however, while his recommendation is very helpful, the final decision is not up to him. Jeremy's chain of command has to approve this and then it must be approved by several other people as well. Please keep this in your prayers.
They live in Texas, Iand I miss them very much.
My mom is always looking to make the holidays enjoyable, so she came up with karaoke Christmas. She called up all of the family and invited them to come.
This is my sister (left) and my brother (right) The girl in the middle is my cousin Ashley.
If anyone was to meet my mom, they would see why I am as silly and goofy as I am. This is my mom in her Mimi outfit. The song she is singing is, You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man.
This is when we first all arrived and we were all sitting around. My mom wanted everyone to feel liven up, so she got some palm palms and ran around the room cheering. Come on everyone get up, lets go, lets go.
I had to remind her it was Christmas and not Easter, lol.
Then my step dad decided to dance with my mom.
My sister found out today that she has a bicuspid aortic valve. This will tell you a little about it.
BICUSPID AORTIC VALVE - SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT By Adam Pick, Patient & Author Of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery
Bicsuspid Aortic ValveThree Cusps (Normal) vs. Two Cusps (Bicuspid)
Aortic Bicuspid Valve Symptoms And Treatment
A bicuspid aortic valve occurs when the aortic valve does not fully develop while the baby is in the womb. That said, bicuspid aortic valves are one of the most common congenital heart defects affecting about 1-2% of all children. What Is A Bicuspid Aortic Valve?
A bicuspid aortic valve is a heart condition that is due to a congenital deformity. A normal aortic valve has three cusps to manage the flow of blood through the heart. A bicuspid valve, however, only has only two cusps. As you can see in the diagram below, the bicuspid aortic valve has conjoined cusps. This can limit the flow of blood across the aortic heart valve.
The impact of a bicuspid aortic valve significantly varies from patient to patient. There can be severe aortic stenosis at birth. Or, aortic stenosis can also develop during childhood or during adulthood. Typically bicuspid aortic valve symptoms peak around the fourth decade of life. Aortic valve leakage (called aortic regurgitation or aortic insufficiency) is less common during early childhood but can also develop over time.
Symptoms Of Bicuspid Aortic Valves
Some of the most common heart valve symptoms (for bicuspid aortic valves and other heart valve defects) referenced by The Cleveland Clinic are:
*Shortness of breath, especially with exertion or when you lie down
*Fatigue, especially during times of increased activity
*Cough, especially at night or when lying down
*Heart palpitations — sensations of a rapid, fluttering heartbeat
*Swollen feet or ankles
*Chest pain (angina) or tightness
*Dizziness
Many patients with bicuspid aortic valves will require surgical treatment during their lifetime. Treatment may consist of heart valve repair or heart valve replacement.
For all of you that does not know I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I have just found out recently that my sister is having health issues. She is only one year older than me, turning 28 in April of "08". This is her story...Okay so just when you think life is good and finally going the right direction that is when you know to cherish every moment because soon the bottom is probably going to fall out and everything is going to come crashing down on you. This is a lesson I have learned very well recently and unfortunately had to learn the hard way.
For those who do not already know, what started out to be a trip to the doctor the day after Thanksgiving just to make sure I didn't have strep throat snowballed into a major ordeal for me. My doctor noticed my blood pressure has been running high, so he put me on a strict diet and exercise plan and a 5 day blood pressure check to see if I was going to need medication for my blood pressure. Thankfully the diet and exercise have been helping with my blood pressure, but on the day of my follow up another problem was noticed. At this point I am told I have a heart murmur, not to worry because it could really be nothing and we are going to run a few tests just to be on the safe side. What started out as a couple tests then turned to three, then four tests. After that a trip to the cardiologist where I find out that my Aortic Valve is not closing all the way and it is allowing blood that has been pumped into my artery to flow back into the left ventricle of my heart. This means that eventually an open heart surgery will have to be done to replace my valve with another valve and that my entire life is going to have to change in major ways. In my case I will be having surgery probably within a year or two so that it can be done before the valve does damage to my heart. Thankfully so far it appears that there is no damage yet and my heart is handling the extra work just fine.
Some how in all of this every moment of your time, every bit of energy and focus you have becomes about your health issues. The way you eat, sleep, exercise, think, everything you do and think changes. Also with concerned family members to call needing updates, every conversation you have seems to be about your health or somehow involve your health issues. For the last month every moment of my life has been consumed by my health to the point that it's almost impossible to get the chance to just be me instead of a person with a serious health issue. Sometimes you aren't even sure who you are anymore because somewhere in all the madness you just get that lost.
So, to all my family and friends I am begging and pleading! I love you all dearly and appreciate the concern, but this year for Christmas I am only asking for one little thing. All I want for Christmas is 2 days to completely forget about my health issues, and get to enjoy being me again. For December 24th and 25th please respect that I do not want to discuss my health issues or anything related to my health issues. It would mean the world to me!
And to each and every one of you please have a blessed wonderful merry Christmas!
As a sister I am very concerned for her health, I ask that everyone to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. When I read the last paragraph I could not keep from crying. When Angela asked me a while back what I would like for Christmas, I did not really know what to tell her. If I was to be asked now I would say that I would like for my sister to be back in good health and for this to have never happened to her.
My nephew lives in Texas, and he just had a birthday last month. I was not able to go, seeing how I live in Kentucky, so my sis sent me some pictures of the party. 
1st picture is the birthday boy, 2nd is the cake, 3rd the treasure map ( it is like pin the tail on the donkey ) and the last picture is Seth enjoying his party 
I am sweet and innocent.
