More Spring Cuteness, Career Day And Good News!

Well, the good news is I went to the kidney specialist and they said there is no permanent damage to my kidney. All the inflammation on my left side is being linked to my spleen being enlarged. I had total peace about it yesterday before my Dr. appointment; I just knew my kidneys were fine. I did have another flare up on Monday with my spleen and lymph nodes in my neck so they started me on another round of steroids to get it all down. I think we are just now dealing with it all just taking time. Time for my body to heal, time for all the inflammation in my side to go down and just time to recover over all. I go see the RA Dr. on the 10th so I am hoping by then my spleen is behaving. Ha!

I have had lots of time to do crafts and fiddle around the house. I saw a banner like this in a magazine and thought,"Hey I can make that way cheaper!" So here is my version.

I went to Creative Journeys and used their dye cut machine to make the letters. Then my mom shaded them in and I just layered them with cute spring paper.

This little bunny family was on clearance at JoAnne's and was just begging me to bring them home.

Morgan was treated to a day/night at the fire station to shadow Dan and his crew. She took her camera and documented her time so she could write a report for school. Here are just a couple photos she took.
Morgan and a few of the guys.

I of course raised her right and so on the way to drop her off we hit up the bakery at Martha Greens and treated the guys to cookies, cupcakes, canolies, bite size cheesecakes etc. A little secret? If you are ever going to visit a fire station for any reason; bring treats! They love being treated to goodies and it makes them feel loved! :)

Morgan said she had a blast playing a game of baseball and she said she hit some good ones.

The ladder truck heading out on a call......

Be safe guys!

Sleeping in the pull down Murphy bed next to daddy in his chiefs office.........

Daddy even loaded her up in his chief's truck and treated her to dinner at the Soup Plantation. She is super excited to go back for another night this summer and hopefully catch some good fire action. ;)
Have a great weekend!

Something Easy For Spring.......

My mom and I had seen this material valance in a baby boutique and thought,"hey, wouldn't that be cute done in Easter colors!" So what better time to catch up on crafts since I am supposed to be resting. I just bought a bunch of mix match fat quarter's on sale at Joanne's and cut strips about an inch and half wide and then tied them to ribbon.

I love Spring and I love fabric so this was fun. It would be really cute for a babies room too. Or we were even thinking you could do 4th of July fabric for the summer.
I have a lamp craft I want to tackle while I am on the mend to so when I get to that I will post it as well.

Macy update: She turned 17 months yesterday and today when Dan put her on the scale at the vet she weighed in at 125lbs. Yup' that's 125lbs. of sweet, cuddly Dane love. :)

I go in this coming Thursday to see a kidney specialist. Praying it all goes well and there is no permanent damage to my left kidney. I am feeling better and stronger everyday. Still get tired easily so I have to pick and choose what I can do and how much I get out of the house. But over all I feel like my spleen is heading in the right direction and that would be down. Ha!
Have a great weekend!

Update.................

Whew! What a 15 day ordeal this has been! My brain is tired.
I had my follow up today to go over blood work and the praise report it there were no counts off, no weird diseases that they could see coming up. So two thumbs up for no new disease! ;)

My kidney is still enlarged but they don't know what triggered it. He is leaning toward a major flare up of my RA but is still going to send me to a urologist to have my kidney looked at closer.
He is also going to send me to a new RA Dr. to monitor me closer over the next several weeks.

Today is my last day of steroids so they are going to see if my spleen continues to go down or flares up more. So I am supposed to still lay low, rest, no lifting, no gym, no walking the dog.....no, no, no!
"NO RUPTURING YOUR SPLEEN this is serious." Were his exact words.
My exact words? "How long before I can go for a walk so my butt doesn't spread from here to kingdom come! Huh? Can you tell me that Dr.?" I didn't say it like that exactly, he-he!

I wonder if going to buy a pair of shoes counts as to much activity? I mean I have never met a cute pair of sandals that didn't make everything better. LOL!

Thank you again for checking on me. For praying. For the scriptures, phone calls, text messages, emails and everything! We are praying for complete healing this week and that it all just dies down and I can start on the road to feeling better.

I read this quote last week,"Faith is the refusal to freak out"-Martha Lloyd Jones
I love that! It is refusing to freak out when our life comes to a screaming halt and doesn't go our way.
I mean two weeks ago I was on my way to the travel agent with 10 other family and friends to book a cruise for next year and instead I landed in the ER. Can you hear the screeching breaks now? SCREECCCCCHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! OK God I'm listening what's up? You have my attention.

I told Pastor Brian yesterday that the last two weeks has me asking,"What happened? How did we get here? We were going along just fine, doing our thing, feeling healthy and now what, were dealing with kidneys that aren't working? Really?"

But refusing to panic is such a great goal. Refusing to let Satan get a foot hold or to have a say on how things will go down regardless of how scared you are. He doesn't get to say. God does. He's not in control. God is.
God is in the BIG and the small of it all, day in and day out. Refusing to panic and just allow Gods plan to unfold is easier said than done for sure. In regards to our health, our kids, our marriages, our finances, our ministries etc. But how we respond is what others around us see. That is when our true character reigns.

Truth be told I'm still a little concerned how all this is going to play out over the next week. I mean until they are convinced my kidneys are back to normal I'm a little on edge, a little on edge about my spleen still being enlarged; But all morning I just kept praying I would be a light in the Dr. office. That I would not let panic set in or my nerves get the best of me. Refusing to panic is hard work. Ha!

Maybe if your really, really good I will document my 24 hour urine collection I have to do on Sunday. I'm thinking it will go something like this;

8am-Get up pee in jug
8:15am-drink water
8:30am-pee in jug
9:00am-well, you get the idea! Can you hardly wait? Please don't delete my blog...........

Made Up Reasons For Enlarged Spleen and Disfunctional Kidney...

So because I naturally have a warped mind and also because high doses of steroids makes you nutso and I mean literally N-U-T-S-O, I have lists.

Lists of reasons that could be what's wrong with my spleen and kidney.

List that are not rational of course.

Mostly lists that came to me in the wee hours of the morning which should tell you something right there.

Lists for lists. Sometimes the lists would get really irrational and sent to my mom via text at all hours who would then reply,"No sweetie I don't think you have feline leukemia."
What? We have two cats! It could happen.

Irrational Reason #25:
I used to LOVE that cheese in a can. I would squirt it on crackers and eat like half the can in one setting. It's been years mind you since I touched the stuff. Had interventions from friends and family etc. But maybe, just maybe that stuff settled in my system and morphed into some nasty fungus that has spread "cheese in a can syndrome" to my spleen. Seriously, that stuff is not food so it's bound to cause long term problems.

Irrational Reason #42:
Maybe when I was at my water aerobics class I was showing off to much for the old people and I pulled a muscle that cut off circulation to my kidney that sent blood into my spleen that caused the pain........it could have happened right? I mean have you seen those old people work out in the pool? Their maniacs!

Sleep Is Good!

I don't have any new news other than waiting for blood work and my Dr. appointment is like waiting for water to boil; the phone to ring or watching grass grow. Ha!

I am still laying low. Went to church Sunday which may have been a bad idea seeing that I felt like I ran a marathon afterwards.
I have been resting, resting and yes you guessed it resting!
I swear if everything comes back totally fine and all this was some fluke and I rested for nothing I am going to be so annoyed. LOL!
I can hear my mom now,"Your spleen doesn't enlarge and your kidneys don't quit filtering on a fluke, now stop fighting it and rest!"
Dan was gonna take a picture of me on our patio with my feet up yesterday and send it to my mom to prove I wasn't doing anything I wasn't supposed to be doing.

Truth be told I'm not really all that bored because even though my mind thinks of things I want to do like clean the carpet, fix a huge dinner or go shopping I really don't have the energy to do anything. So I feel like resting is good at this point.

I have one praise report though; I finally after 6 nights of insomnia SLEPT! I slept till' 3am and then was able to be still enough to fall back asleep till' 7am.

Sleep is good. It's what's right with the world. It's of God. Sleep is everything. A certain amount of sleep should be a requirement, the law in fact. People would be nicer, more patient. I think it could even cause world peace. Ha!
So now that I have gotten some sleep I am thankful that my head is clearer. I mean I have little control over my body at this point so I may as well have a brain that is functioning at full throttle.

Have a blessed day and later I will try and post some of the made of causes we came up with for my enlarged spleen. Like they might find a Great Dane paw print on it when the ultra sound comes back.

Update

I just wanted to update what I know so you can be praying. Hate to keep posting with downer stuff though. But I suppose that is just reality sometimes. I really feel like everyone praying is keeping me sane. Although sanity is highly over rated most days. Ha!

I got the results of my ultra sounds back and they are saying now it's my kidneys. My spleen is enlarged because my kidneys aren't working correctly. The problem is they sent some labs out to be tested and they won't be back for 7 days so they have no idea why my kidneys aren't working. Sigh.....so we wait................Dan and I are scheduled to meet with the Dr. at 8:30am on March 12th. So until then I just continue on the high does of steroids to keep the spleen and kidney inflammation down until they can figure out what is causing it.

Specific prayer requests (Since I kinda feel like being specific is important at this point. ;)

Rest; I have not slept in like 4 or 5 nights due to the anxiety the medicine is causing. I'm super restless and my heart races when I try to sleep.

Also we are praying it is not permanent damage to my kidneys caused by all the chemo treatments I had a few years ago when I was really sick with my RA.

Lastly, regardless if it's an easy fix or something more serious just clear heads and open hearts to what God has for us. Obviously we pick the healing and easy fix. LOL!

Thank you again for all the phone calls, texts, emails, babysitting favors and prayers!
As soon as we know any more I will post.
Right now we are in the "Keep taking the drugs, rest, waiting phase."

Update And Prayer Request...

First if in the last 96 hours you have emailed, text, called, brought us dinner or taken my kids
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We thought after the ER trip Monday we had the solution and I would start to feel better;
On Wed. I woke up feeling badly again but had my follow up appointment last night.
They discovered my spleen was enlarged even more and started me on HUGE doses of steroids to try and bring it down.
I have been in getting more labs done this morning to check my cell shapes and also have multiple tests scheduled for this afternoon to look closer at the spleen and kidney.
They are concerned that there is an underlying cause for the spleen being so large that has nothing to do with my RA. They think another immune disease may be trying to emerge.

Please pray for wisdom for the Dr.'s to get answers QUICK!
Patience for me as waiting is hard and I'm to treat my spleen like it could rupture.
NO ACTIVITY!
Thank you for praying for us.