Life As We Live It.....: A Great Escape

I am writing this in 2012, trying to catch up blogging, so my recall may not be so great….. We had yet another health scare with Michael….actually a couple. One that I think, happened around August 2011 and September 2011. To make a couple really long, stressful situations short, both times we had problems with Michael running really high fevers. The second time, he had to be hospitalized up the the U. His fever actually reached 106.2! It was CRAZY! They had all sorts of theories they were following, everything from a “thyroid storm,” a condition that can occur as a result of the damage he’d previously had done to his hypothalamus when he had his Acromegaly, to just being a virus….which I had no stock in. They ran tons of tests, only to conclude that they were confident it wasn’t life threatening, thus resulting in releasing him from the hospital and sent him on his way claiming it must therefore be viral. That was a joke. Even the baby was healthy. If he had a virus, someone in our house would have it also. This I am completely confident in. They did manage to find, however that Michael has heart problems now. Not only did he get lucky enough to inherit the bad bicuspid heart valve problem ( as opposed to a healthy tricuspid valve), but they also discovered that he has a dilated aortic root. Oh, and did I mention they say his heart’s “squeeze strength” is weak. This is not good. It’s amazing to me that someone like Michael, could survive testicular cancer and a brain tumor and have had years and years of CT Scans, MRI’s and blood work and we are just discovering this. It’s only further reiterated my belief that you are your strongest advocate when it comes to your health. If a DR isn’t specifically looking for a problem, he can miss it. So…..point being…….we had a couple scares, but I think it was a blessing that he ended up hospitalized because it helped make us aware that there are further serious health issues for Michael to deal with . Hopefully making us aware, we will be able to stay on top of it and see to it he receives the medical care he needs to keep him healthy and strong. The treatment conclusion……they put him on a heart med called Lisinopril, which should help shrink the dilation, and took a baseline scan which we will compare to 6 months later. We’ve both resigned that this will unfortunately be Michael’s lot in life, but I’m so grateful we have modern medicine and we are blessed to have found these issues so we can be aware. He’s such a strength and example to me. He never complains. He just rolls with the punches.

Did I say I wanted to make a long story short? Not doing too well at that, I’m afraid! Back to the great escape! We had plans to take the kids to Southern California to visit their grandparents and take them to Disneyland, which had to be postponed because of all the DR appointments and scans. We did make it in October, and the kids had a great time! We were able to visit the “usual” spots; the Long Beach Aquarium, and Disneyland! I had never been to Disneyland at Halloween time. It was fun to see it decorated with all the jack o lanterns and to see the Haunted Mansion decked out. I liked it better, with all its happy, vibrant colors. It made it much less morose! The boys also enjoyed their chance to become “Jedi’s In Training,” and battle Darth Vader. That was the first time we were able to get to the right place on time to have them be selected and it was so cute!

Michael always humors me and goes to Disneyland. I appreciate it. I love that place! I think I have as much fun as my kids! OK……maybe, more! Before we left we were able to spend more time with Michael’s Grandma Coleman. She took us out to her favorite Mexican Food around the corner from her house and it was nice to see her! We also were able to spend a little time (not as much as we had hoped) helping Michael’s parents with a few around-the-house projects. It was a nice visit.