Hey y'all! Just wanted to give a quick update. Pax had his heart cath Tuesday morning. (I included a couple pictures for you. The first one is him in his big boy gown beforehand and the second is him trying to come out of lala land afterwards.) We went in at 5:30am Tuesday and they started about 8:00am. It only took about 1 1/2 hours and he did great during it. Other than having trouble throwing up afterwards there weren't any other issues recovering. They were unable to balloon anything unfortunately. The narrowing ended up being just below the aorta...basically it looks like its the aortic valve which is just below the actual aorta. The area he had repaired last August is just above the new narrowing and they said it looks great. The doctor was actually really impressed with how good it looked. The site where the coarctation was repaired during his 1st surgery has gotten a little narrow again, but not do much that they're concerned about it. The doctor said it could be a few years before he would have to balloon it. So back to the new narrowing...tomorrow is the big conference between all the doctors. They'll come up with a gameplan and then the surgeons office will call us to set up an appointment to meet. I've been told a couple different things regarding the possibility of surgery so I'll just tell you what is actually decided when we find out. I'm hoping I will hear about an appointment tomorrow afternoon, but it'll probably be Monday. It seems like each time we get a little more emotional than the last time. I just dread having Pax go through anything else as well as the effects that it has on the family. It's kind sucky, but I know that no matter what happens that God will give us the strength needed and we will come out the other side even stronger than before. Please keep our family in your prayers as we face the next step. Thanks!

Cath Scheduled

Alrighty, so here's the latest...I talked to Pax's cardiologist on Monday and the surgeons agreed that he needed to have the heart cath now. Dr. Madronero said they were concerned though that if the balloon can't be done that surgery wouldn't be the answer for him. I know his age and size factor into that, but I don't really know what exactly that means. She didn't go into any more detail about the meeting than that and I didn't ask because it doesn't matter...the balloon will work. His heart cath is scheduled for the 24th...arriving about 5:30am and starting around 7:00am & pre-op stuff the day before. Please be praying with us that the location of concern is located high enough that it can be ballooned. God has been so good and has brought him through so much already and we've seen Him do so many miracles in Pax before so we don't expect this to be any different. Also be praying that he stays healthy the next couple weeks so no scheduling changes have to be made. Thanks a ton!

Oh, I thought I'd include a funny picture for you. This past Friday Josh and I went to the wedding of some really close friends. I don't consider myself to be photogenic at all, but I'm pretty good at taking goofy pictures so here ya go. (The other woman is my lovely sister-in-law, Lish.)

And here's a picture I took of Pax and Kaiden playing in the laundry basket.

Gosh, it's been a long time since I last posted. Where have my days gone so quickly?

Well to start with, after 4-5 weeks I FINALLY got my biopsy results back. (They somehow got lost.) The mass was determined to be a thyroid benign cyst. So it's totally fine right now. Since it isn't interfering with breathing or swallowing or my thyroid function they'll just keep leaving it alone. I'm supossed to follow up on my thyroid numbers in a few months though and keep an eye on any symptoms in the meantime. So good news! Still taking the Prozac for now to help with the fatigue, which by the way that stuff makes you hot and sweaty, but it has helped so I'll keep taking it for now. Guess I'll stay warm this winter. Haha!

In May I celebrated my 29th birthday, which means only 1 more year of being officially "young". Although I don't think being in your 30's is "old" but being in your "20's" is just different. It feels younger. I plan to accomplish a whole lot this next year.

Josh and I celebrate our 9 year anniversary June 7th. It's hard to believe that next year will be 10 years. For the past 9 years we have jokingly talked about what we would do for our 10 year anniversary and now that it's only a year away I guess we should start saving for that cruise we wanted to take. Not to mention childcare for while we are gone. Haha! We had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary though without any kids, thanks to the in-laws. :) We went to OKC and went to the Bombing Memorial. Wow...such a heavy place, but so amazing to stand there. We went through the museum which made everything even more meaningful. If you ever get the chance, go to the memorial and museum. Do the museum though before going outside on the grounds. It makes it a much more profound experience.

One year ago this past Thursday Pax had his heart cath and we got horrible news that he would need another open heart surgery. This past Thursday he went for his cardiology check up and we weren't given horrible news, but not great news either. Basically his pressures have still been increasing. Enough so that his doctor is concerned now. Next Friday all the doctors and surgeons will meet to talk about cases and they'll discuss Pax then too. His cardiologist wants him to have another heart cath to determine exactly where the narrowing is located and get a better idea of how bad it is. The general area is the same place he had repaired last August, but they can't tell the exact location. If the narrowing is located far enough above the aortic valve then they might be able to balloon it during the heart cath, otherwise he would need another open heart surgery. So please be believing with us that they will be able to just balloon it open. His cardiologist is supposed to call me next Friday afternoon after the meeting to let me know how the meeting went and how soon they decided to do a cath. I know that no matter what God has been with us throughout everything so far and we've already seen Him do miracles in Pax so I only expect the same.

I'll leave you with a few recent pictures.

I'm so excited about my life I could burst! My hormones must be flying extra high today allowing for this, but I'll take it! haha! I'm always excited and hopeful about life and what the future holds, but lately I'm extra excited. Here's the thing...I've been stuck at the same weight for about a year now. I have exercised on and off during that time and even started using "myfitnesspal" to track all my calories and exercise. For a few months I have been consistently exercising and eating around 1200-1300 calories a day and I wasn't losing anything! I was even getting headaches and have been extra tired. Thank the Lord for the internet! Last week I finally got frustrated and got online and did a little research and found that I was probably not eating enough calories and that my body was thinking it was starving. So I updated my fitness pal information and it upped my calories to 1530 a day!! All I had to do was update my information...duh! I wish I had done that sooner. So for the last week or so I've been eating those 1530 calories and occasionally I eat back a little of the burned calories and I have lost 3 pounds! In just a week! I am flabbergasted! Who would have thought I just needed to eat MORE?? I haven't lost that many pounds in a week since I gave birth to Pax! :) Finally I feel like I'm making progress and that I actually have hope of reaching my goal of being a size 6. It's a lofty goal and I haven't been in a size 6 since I got married almost 9 years ago, but I'm choosing to reach high this time. I believe I can do it and I'm going to do what I can to reach that goal. 

In other news, I had my biopsy last Wednesday and it went about a million times better than the biopsy I had 8 years ago. 8 years ago I just laid on a table while the doctor jabbed my neck with a needle over and over and over and over until finally I asked him to stop because I couldn't take it anymore. Beforehand I remember him going into this big explanation about how he couldn't numb me and why and he tried to prepare me for the pain I was about to endure. That experience was pretty traumatizing to both Josh and I. So I was pretty nervous going into this biopsy, but it was a complete 180 from last time. The doctor did it with the aid of an ultrasound so he could see exactly where he was poking and he numbed me. It still hurt, but instead of a screaming pain it was a dull pain and he only jabbed me 3 times and it was over. Have I made you cringe yet? haha Sorry, I tend to go into more detail than I probably should, but it's fun sometimes. :) I am still waiting on the results from the biopsy, but I have an appointment in 2 weeks to get them. I'm hoping they come back before then though. I hate waiting.

Thank you for praying for me! I very much appreciate it! :) Have a great Hump Day!

I was going to wait to post an update about my doctor's appointments until I was all finished with them, but it might be awhile. So in my previous post about it all I was going to be getting the results of my latest bloodwork. I got those results back and everything was completely normal. I'm not even the slightest bit anemic, which surprised me because I have always been anemic and especially since we rarely eat red meat anymore. I guess I get plenty of nutrients from everything else I eat. So basically they are stumped as to what has been causing my major fatigue along with other symptoms. The doctor told me that it's possible that I just have chronic fatigue and that they don't know anything about it really, but found that when those patients were put on Prozac they got better. So for now, that's the plan...take Prozac and vitamins. By the way, in case you have never taken Prozac, one of the major side effects is drowsiness. Hmmm...I'm supposed to be getting help for fatigue so they give me drugs to knock me out. Supposedly the side effects get better over time...we'll see. I will say that I don't get stressed out with the kids as quickly as I used to. So that's nice, but it's probably because I'm so drowsy I simply can't respond. Haha! Oh well.

As for the growth in my neck, I had an ultrasound done and now I'm being scheduled for a biopsy hopefully in the near future. If I haven't heard from them this week I'm supposed to call them. Hopefully I hear something Monday or Tuesday though.

I'm not too worried about all this though. I had it biopsied 8 years ago and it was fine so I don't expect this time to come back any different. Besides that, I serve a big God who's got my back. :)

Sent from my iPhone

Easter Pictures

Easter weekend came and went fast! Josh's show went very well although I didn't make it. I wanted to be there so bad, but I just wasn't feeling up to going. I'm feeling a little better today thankfully. I might even exercise...for...10 minutes...that's my goal! haha! We are going to Branson this weekend for a ministry trip/family trip/Dakotah & Kaiden's bdays. Tim is an avid bike rider and he's been promising to take me next time we went down. So it looks like I'm going to be putting my body through a crazy bike ride this weekend, so I better do some exercising this week to prepare for it.

Okay back to Easter weekend. I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures, but I did manage to get some of the kids doing to annual Easter Egg Hunt after church Sunday.

And here are a couple pictures of Kaiden after thoroughly enjoying a chocolate bunny. Unfortunately the pictures just don't fully capture the mess.