My Karate Kids

The boys have a new sport! They’ve both played soccer, Tyler has played basketball and also continues with golf, and this fall Shawn played football. Now they’re both learning katas and earning belts. That’s right—they’re taking karate. Shawn had taken some in preschool, with the teachers coming to the school, and earned his yellow belt. He's basically starting over now, since it had been several months and is a different environment (though he’s proud to be wearing that yellow belt.)

Tyler has only taken classes for three weeks, but is proud to have worked very hard and earned three stripes. They have to have three stripes in order to test for the next level of belt. Today was the testing, and Tyler rocked!

He is so proud of that yellow belt. Now the boys are at the same belt level, so they can work together. Watch out, world, here they come!

From the hand to the mouth

It’s official--Shawn has been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder (SPD), a neurological disorder that makes in difficult for his brain to process stimulation through the senses. He has several unique (at least to us) symptoms that made us concerned that something was wrong. For one thing, he touches EVERYTHING. When walking through a store, he doesn't look with his eyes, he feels with his fingers.

He also chews. A lot. Those fingers that have just touched everything are typically in his mouth, which is not real good for him during flu season. His teacher is out of markers--he's chewed the caps off all of them. This summer he finally was able to stop sucking his thumb all the time (though he still does some), but now it's fingers and objects instead of thumb. Here he is during circle time with hands in mouth.

After starting some research into "oral fixation" as a guess for his situation, I found references to SPD or SID-sensory integration disorder. I made an appointment with a pediatrician, who wholeheartedly recommended occupational therapy testing (within only a few minutes of seeing Spark in the office--it was an enlightening visit!)

He loved the sensory testing process at the OT office, especially the trampoline and ball pit. I found the process fascinating, because some things we did not particularly consider a part of this disorder became obvious during the testing.

Our next step is scheduling the OT visits for sensory therapy. We'll get started after the first of the year. Fortunately, he sees it as fun--he can't wait!

Can I have a massage with some aromatherapy for my part of his sensory therapy?

Project Esther's House

Tyler, Shawn and I participated in a special program last night with our church children's choirs. Called Project Esther's House, it focused on an orphanage we're supporting in Malawi called Esther's House. The program included the preschool/kindergarten choir, the children's choir, and our youth outreach and dance team.

Shawn's group started the program. I was waiting in the wings with 1st and 2nd graders, so I didn't get to see it, but HoneyBear had the video and still cameras going. Apparently Spark spent most of his time turned away from the audience.

Once he got turned around, he enjoyed the clapping. (As always, pictures of him often show a blur when everything else is "normal.")The children's choir group came onstage next. Tyler did a great job!

The event turned out really well. Even though I felt ready to drop after it was over, it was hard not to consider the workers at the orphanage and all they have to endure. We are definitely blessed!

My MS Life Moves Forward

For the last several years I’ve been focused on my “MS life.” The acronym “MS” seemed to be dominating my life.

• I have multiple sclerosis (MS). Living with and dealing with MS takes a great deal of time and energy, and my physical health has been a huge focus for our family, often to the exclusion of all else.
• I work with Microsoft (MS). I am a certified Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS). I have been a Microsoft trainer for almost a decade.
• I work in a middle school (ms). As a curriculum technology specialist, I focused on middle school topics and needs.

Some of my "MS life" seems to be moving forward now. I still have MS (multiple sclerosis). This is not a disease that can be cured. I also have to be pretty careful, because when other illnesses hit it’s a total knock out to my body (the strong disease-modifying drug I take by IV once a month is an immune-suppressant, so my body is not as resistant to other illnesses. Even my usual allergies are harder to deal with due to their affects on my body). HOWEVER, the medicine I take is a miracle drug for my body, and allows me to walk without a wheelchair or cane. I don’t even need quite as much rest as I once did, except during situations with other illnesses. SO…we will never be rid of the disease MS, but we are at a point where it does not dominate all aspects of our family life.

I still work with Microsoft, and prefer a Windows PC over Apple. Even though my first use of a computer was an Apple II, I’m deflinitely an MS girl. HOWEVER, hubby and I are addicted to our iPhones. I'm also working with MacBooks at work, including Final Cut Pro. What an exciting new challenge!

The biggest change regarding my MS life is an upcoming change in my work assignment. I’m excited to be moving to a new school location–a junior high! The change allows me to be at one school full-time (for the past 3 years I’ve split my schedule between a middle school and an elementary). It allows me to be very close to our house at the junior high my boys will attend in not too many more years (uggh–can't think about that right now…). It gives me some new and exciting challenges with multimedia (yes, including some Apple components). Plus, it still lets me focus a lot on training and professional development. The transition makes me nervous (I’ll be covering THREE schools for the next few months, while most on my team just have one!), but the change is exciting! SO…I’ll still be a part of “middle level,” since many states and districts consider middle school and junior high together, but for our district I’ll no longer be a middle school (ms) technology specialist, but will be moving forward to junior high (I’ve graduated–yay!).

As my MS life moves forward, I’m excited to re-focus my “new” time in my life and see where we go from here!

Bring on the NEW!

It is November. It is the middle of the school year. Apparently, it’s also the perfect time for bringing on the NEW! A new sport, a new diagnosis, and a new blog—hold on tight, 'cause here we go!

UPDATE 1/4/10: I've brought over the posts from my old blog. There weren't many posts, but I thought it would be good to have them here. Any posts prior to  November of 2009 were originally hosted elsewhere.
Laura

Happy February

February is one of my favorite months. Even thought it's usually pretty cold and where I live we're starting to be ready for warmer weather, February is still a great month. It's also probably the strangest months of the year. It has the least number of days, of course, so it gets stuck with the extra day that leap years thrust on us every four years.

It's a month of pink and white and red, of roses and of chocolate and other candy. It's a perfect month for a romantic. In my life, it even has three separate days for romance. Not only is Valentine's Day in February, but HoneyBear and I celebrate officially starting to date on February 12th and the anniversary of HoneyBear proposing to me on February 16th (the following year, in case you're wondering).

Unfortunately, my life has another anniversary of sorts marked each February--my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. Just like the anniversary of our change from best friends to dating and the anniversary of our change from dating to engaged, this anniversary changed our lives dramatically.

My MS Life

I have multiple sclerosis. I have a chronic, incurable neurological disease in which my body attacks its own central nervous system. I was diagnosed in February, 2006. This is the story of my diagnosis.

February of 2006 followed a time of high levels of stress in our lives. I was in graduate school while working full time and also being mother to 2 small children, ages 5 and 2. HoneyBear had changed jobs in order to prepare to return to school himself, so finances were starting to become more strained. We had some other challenges that caused us to meet with a counselor. My job, particularly my relationship with my boss, had been a daily challenge, enough that I had recently quit and taken on a graduate assistantship--a good move career-wise, but certainly not financially. On top of all of that, HoneyBear had not too long before spent 8 days in the hospital, which I did not handle well emotionally. The multiple stresses finally caused my un-diagnosed neurological condition to go into overdrive.

I had already been having some problems, such as changes to my vision in my right eye (later determined to be optic neuritis, a common early symptom of multiple sclerosis). The summer before my diagnosis I had enough pain with the vision problems that I had visited a neurologist, who assumed it was migraines and tried treating me for that with no real improvement. The intensity of the problems abated, though, so I didn't pursue any further treatment.

One day in early February, with all of life's concerns weighing on me, I was planning to visit my ob-gyn due to some other problems I had been experiencing. Instead, I found myself in my doctor's office with complete numbness on the left side of my body, some difficulty talking and walking, and lots of fears. My doctor made arrangements for an emergency MRI under guidance from a neurologist, and I was also worked in to an appointment with the neurologist to read the results. Though the first thought was a stroke, that was a low probability because the muscles in my face still worked, they just felt numb to me.

When I arrived at my neurologist appointment, I was put through several physical tests--tests I have become accustomed to at each neurologist visit since my diagnosis. These tests confirmed changes to sensation in my left foot and changes to my reflexes on my left side, along with a significant foot drop on the left side when walking. Apparently, these were simply confirmation for the neurologist, who had seen my MRI scan already.

It turns out I was very blessed to have been connected to this neurologist, as he worked extensively with patients with multiple sclerosis. When we arranged for the MRI, he requested a specialized type of scan known as FLARE. This type of scan was apparently the best type of MRI for discovering the lesions associated with multiple sclerosis, but was not the standard scan used with MRI. When he showed us the results, there was little question--I had several places on my brain and a couple on my spinal cord indicative of my body attacking itself.

In diagnosing MS, however, several criteria had to be met. First, there had to be more than one location on the brain or spinal column of damage--literally multiple areas of sclerosis or scarring. There was also a time factor, in that there had to be multiple times of being affected by the disease. Though I had multiple lesions, since we could not absolutely state that I had experienced previous occurrences (though in looking back we knew absolutely of several times of illness that could be attributed to the disease), I was diagnosed as "probable MS," a scary and unsettling diagnosis. The disease itself was fearful to discover, but for the diagnosis to still not be definitive was difficult to handle.

Lots of corticosteroids got me through the initial attack, which lasted about two weeks, the "typical" length of time for a relapse. I soon started a disease-modifying drug and began the roller coaster of living with multiple sclerosis, including some eye scans and tests and an additional MRI, which gave enough evidence of activity that my diagnosis changed to "definite MS."

Now there are days that seem impossible. There are many more days, though, that are just days. Our family has been affected by this disease, but we have also learned to flow with it in many ways, trying to choose joy and continual hope. This is my MS life.

Ice Ice Baby

We'll probably be talking about the January, 2009, ice storm in Northwest Arkansas for quite some time. With 4 full days out of school and lots of damage, it is not something that will easily be forgotten by those in the area.

We were fortunate to know that winter weather was imminent earlier in the week. We were released from school early on Monday, January 26, 2009, to try to avoid any travel problems getting home. By the time I had picked up the boys, I was very glad we had gotten out early.

By the next day we had quite a bit of ice built up and it was still falling.




Unfortunately the weight soon had tree limbs and branches buckling. This photo was taken early in the process, so it doesn't do a great job of showing the extent of the damage.

HoneyBear was working a Friday to Monday schedule, so he was home with us on Tuesday while we waited out the storm. We spent the time playing video games and other fun things, so the first part was actually fun.

Unfortunately, most power lines had a heavy accumulation of ice. Once limbs, branches and even trees started falling, they were in trouble. Our power started cutting in and out as power lines all over the region fell. The biggest frustration with that was that we were playing a video game that required reaching specific locations before saving. We consistently reached just steps before the save point in our game when we would lose power.

Eventually, our power went out and stayed out. Our house was not well-insulated and got cold very quickly. With my condition, temperature extremes are problematic, so we started getting concerned. We also had a young pug pup we'd been warned to keep out of cold temperatures due to a high risk of pneumonia. (With noses that short, there's not much before air hits the lungs!) So we escaped. We packed up a few things, our boys, our pugs, and headed to Little Rock to wait out the storm as refugees.

While our house was coated in ice and without power, we enjoyed an early spring break with temperatures in the 50s. What a difference 200 miles can make!