My(Blaine) Dad

Forewarning, this is a LONG post!!

Some of you know, some of you may not know.  My dad has been ill for a while now, with an unknown diagnosis. Around the first of October he was having trouble seeing, along with other things.  He called me on a Friday...he was waiting on his sister to come get him and take him to the ER because they thought he might be having a stroke.  They ruled out the stroke, but had no clue...sent him home.  Sunday night, he went to St. Dominic's in Jackson, MS.  They immediately ran multiple tests, including spinal taps and tons of blood work, MRI's, you get the gist.  The initial was to to rule out things, (however, they did find a small blood clot on the back of his brain) mainly Multiple Sclerosis (MS).  They really weren't sure what was going on and nothing was making him better.  He stayed in the hospital for quite a while, and then eventually was sent home for two weeks to see if any improvement would occur. 

He went back for his checkup, got more MRI's, blood tests, spinal taps, etc., as well as a second opinion.  This doctor was sure that it was MS, that the blood clot was old and that he had probably had it for a while.  7 years ago dad had an episode, they diagnosed him with Gilliam berea, a rare auto-immune disease.  She was positive this was really MS, just misdiagnosed.  So, her suggestion was plasmapherisis (a blood cleaning treatment).  This would take place for 8 days, treatment being every other day and lasting for hours each time.  This made him feel terrible, but what do you do?!  After this treatment, they sent him home to "rest".  They are still on the hunch that it was MS but not 100% because the plaque that normally builds up on the myelin sheath wasn't there.  Every day he felt like poo, nauseated, dizzy, still terrible vision, etc. 

He went back for a checkup, the blood cleaning treatment didn't work, therefore it was back to the drawing boards.  They did say his vision up close and directly in front of him wasn't all that bad but that he had no peripheral vision which is why he has been stumbling, etc.  They ran more tests and discussed more treatment options, mainly steriods but since the last treatment didn't work, they would have to be agressive in their approach.

This past Monday, January 21, 2013 he went in to talk with the doctors about the aggressive treatment...chemo for 6 months.  This was not what I was expecting to hear.  They said that since the plasmapheresis didn't touch the MS(yep, back on that), that chemo was the only option.  They are guessing he has had MS for at least 20 years...untreated so that is why it is so bad.  MS is worse for men anyway, and definitely worse that it's been untreated for so long. So yesterday he went for his first treatment, it took about 5 hours, he is taking cytoxan intravenously.  He called me during treatment, sounded pretty run down.  He is taking this junk day by day, every day he is alive is one more day that "he's made it".  I spoke to him again after treatment and he was excited they were going to let him go home.  He had a terrible headache, I'm sure one of many side effects that he will have.  Last night was rough, didn't sleep well and just feels yucky. 

I am positive this will work, only way I can be.  Keeping faith in HIM is what will get us all through this.  Hardest part is being 6 months prego and 600 miles away from my Daddy.  Please feel free to say a prayer for my family during this time as we really need them.  Sorry for the long post, it's good therapy for me :)!

Yuck! Glucose(27.5 Weeks)

I don't remember the glucose drink being quite so bad!  Maybe having my appt after lunch wasn't such a great idea!  When I arrived, Amy (receptionist) gave me my wonderful orange drink and said, "You have 10 minutes to finish it". 

It was cold-positive, but still wasn't very tasty.  It just sat on the top of my stomach and in my throat.  The rest of my appt was good, the lady that took my blood did a great job-I didn't even know she had stuck me!  Hopefully results come back ok!  Here are some belly pics of me...27 1/2 weeks:

Glucose Testing & Other Things

So today is the lovely glucose testing day, I get to go sit for an hour after drinking the wonderfully tasting drink.  I guess it's a good thing, means I am entering the 3rd trimester!  Things are going well, I did go to the dr. last week and was diagnosed with a sinus infection but am feeling much better, modern medicine is a marvelous thing!  We haven't done anything in the nursery in a while, Casey is working to get the massive desk I had to have out of there and then things should start falling into place.  We do have furniture though and bedding!  

Names are tricky...Casey originally liked Maryn(pronounced like Karen), and I was ok with it but he wants the middle name to be Laine and that's where the problem came about.  I don't love Maryn Laine.  So then I started saying the name I liked, Malli...it has grown on Casey and now I think we've "officially" decided we will name our precious bundle Malli Laine Hamilton.  Mayci on the other hand, up until last night has disagreed and been referring to the baby as Maryn.  This is an advancement from Minnie Mouse and Pudding Tang!  I know I shouldn't put a whole lot of weight on my stubborn 3 year old but I do want her to call the baby what we name her and not something completely different!

Baby Ham #2!

We are expecting again and oh so excited!  We told Mayci by showing her a picture of the sonogram...she replied saying it looked like mud.  She was more excited to know that it was a baby in my tummy.  She has been going around telling everyone that she also has a baby in her tummy.  I am about 16 and a half weeks, due April 21, 2013.  Hopefully I will be better about staying updated this go round.  Here are our announcements that we posted on fb:

Mayci Turns 3!

So today we had Mayci's 3rd bday party.  She wanted Minnie Mouse(same as last year), so I convinced her to do Mickey and Minnie...it was really cute.  We had a great turnout, about 50 people! The kids played on the swingset, drove her camaro around, tried to smash the pinata, decorated their cupcakes, and much more.  Mayci is one special little girl to have such great people in her life.  She's been begging for a pink kitchen, For Kids Only has one in their store and she just loves it so that's what Casey and I got her.  She was definitely excited and has been making us all sorts of things since.  Kyler, Windee and Gary stayed the night with us.  Kyler helped Mayci check out all of her new things, they had a blast.  They danced with the Wii for a while too.  It was nice to catch up and let them play just like old times.

Jacket & Texan Football(ALL in ONE Day)

Stephenville played in a classic in Duncanville today.  Simone rode with Mayci and I.  It was an awesome trip of course!  Mayci wanted to eat at the "cow place", more commonly known as Chick Fil A.  Simone isn't very good with directions, and well I've been known to go the wrong way before myself.  We finally found one, ended up being a few miles away from the stadium so it worked out.  The game was awesome, but HOT!  We had some great weather, temps had dropped but I guess being a 1:00pm game the sun was out and pelting on us.  After the Stephenville game, Mayci and I headed to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.  Tarleton was playing in the LSC Showdown @ 4:00pm.  We barely made it.  It was an amazing game, there were over 12K TSU peeps there!  We ended up losing 24-21...BOO!  Mayci rode home with Nonna and Papa which meant I got Davin, Morgan, and Joseph.  Pretty sure I got the short end of the stick!  We met @ Braums in Benbrook, had dinner and then headed home.  It was a long but fun day full of football! I am so fortunate that my child likes football, sure makes things easier.

Mayci Started CDC

So last year Mayci went to Faith School, she loved every minute of it.  At the time we had to make a decision whether or not she would be enrolled this year I was still @ Peaster so we opted to enroll her @ CDC to help with my mom taking her.  Now that I am at Dublin, Faith would be convenient but they have no openings.  Drop off time isn't early enough for me to be able to take her so Nonna takes her, it works since she works right around the corner.  She went right in, was excited about her locker!  I got to pick her up, she was pretty quiet they said, didn't eat much but it's all new...