One constant: Change.

I have been sitting here for a while trying to figure out how to start this post. So much has been going on the last couple of months. It is hard to know where to start so bullet points it is:

• Botox was a success but it only lasted for 4 weeks. The surgeon said that it could last anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months. Unfortunately for me it started to wear off at the 4 week mark (April 14thish), granted it was wearing off slowly but that is about the time I started to throw up again.

• April 11, Sean left to go to conference in South Carolina, My brother and my mom came in that day to visit. My brother only stayed the night and was off the next morning my mom stayed for 10 days to help while Sean was gone and Maia was out for spring break.

  

  Fun Uncle Brad

  

  Skyping with Uncle Brad's boys. good cousin time.

  
  

  

  Although these are out of chronological order we were all sad to see my mom leave.

  

  Kassia wouldn't stop crying that Nona was leaving.

  

  Maia did a little bit better with her goodbye's

• April 13th, our engine in our car blew and $2300 later we had our car back.

  

  I took the city bus to get to my Gastric emptying study since our car was in the shop but I just thought the trees were so beautiful.

• April 14th, I did another gastric emptying study and it came back improved. 

• April 19th My mom, the girls and I went up to Michigan to see my cousin and family. The Girls loved their goats and chickens.

Loving some goat time

Sweet cousins!

• April 20th, I met with my surgeon a week later to go over everything and he gave me 4 options: 1. Don't do anything, 2. Continue to have botox injections (problem is I would need them every 2 months and the longer you use them the less likely they are to work), 3. Have an endoscopic procedure, called a Per-Oral Pyloromyotomy (POP) to cut they pyloric valve and make it permanently open (I'll talk more about this in another post), 4. Have the Pyloromoyotomy done either laparoscopic or through an open surgery. 

• Because of the relief I felt and the improved emptying of my stomach, we have decided to move forward with the POP procedure and I am scheduled to have that done on June 6th.

• The end of April first part of May, I had my very good friend Katie come visit me from Texas! It was a wonderful visit and I love friendships where you can pick up like you haven't spent any time apart. Maia particularly liked Katie.  

  

  Maia spent a good hour plus reading with Katie

  

  When she got fidgety they did exercises

  
  

  

  We had a chance to go to the zoo and the girls were tired but Katie and I enjoyed our time there.

•  May 5th Sean and I took advantage of a deal OSU was doing for students at Cedar Point, which is an amusement park. We had a baby sitter for the kids and hoped the weather would get better. We ended up getting rained out but we gave it our best rode the 4 of the 7 rides that were open. Luckily we can go back any day this season since it was such a bust. 
  

• Since most people around us know it is time to let everyone else know. In March Sean accepted a full time tenure tract teaching position at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. He will be starting there in August so we have been spending the last couple of months taking trips up to Wisconsin to look for housing.

• We were able to stay at Sean's Aunt's mothers house and had a fabulous time with Sean's Aunt Debbie and the Girls love her! 
  

• On May 8th we made a trip to the Racine/ Kenosha area and were able to put an offer down on a house. Our offer has been accepted but since it is a short sale we have to wait for the bank to approve the offer. So the earliest we will probably find out if we can get the house would be June 14th. So we are hopeful but not getting too attached because there is no guarantee it will go through. 
  

• On May 11 I ended up in the hospital due to an Supra-ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) attack. My heart was racing about 240 beats per min and I couldn't get it to slow down. By the time I got to the hospital I was having a hard time breathing and my blood pressure was really low. They gave me some medicine to help my heart restart and it did the trick. They think the attack was caused do to dehydration but the interesting thing was I didn't feel like that dehydrated, and I know how my body normally reacts to dehydration. They kept me overnight to dehydrate me and keep an eye on my heart. I was discharged thinking that I was going to have to have surgery to fix the SVT before I could have my surgery to take care of my vomiting.

  

  Poor Kassia was there for the whole ER trip and luckily she is too young to really understand what was going on. She like seeing all the similar medical equipment that she used on her when she goes to the doctor. This was taken then next morning when they came to visit.

  

  The cardiologist drawing as to what was going on with my heart.

• On May 17th I met with a cardiologist who specializes in Cardiac Electrophysiology who explained that SVT's aren't dangerous but that unless I want to stay on medication for the rest of my life, I should get it taken care of through an Electrophysiology Study (EPS) and Ablation. This would in essence stop my SVT's from happening. I guess I have dealt with SVT's for a while it just hasn't been too bad and before I really only had a problem when I was pregnant. I started having more episodes since having the Botox and this last episode has us considering having the EPS done. 

  

  Waiting for my appointment.

• May 19th Kassia had her 8 month Cardiology appointment and she is doing wonderfully!! She is growing and as sassy as ever. She doesn't have any restrictions and doesn't need a follow up for another year! This day Maia also graduated from Preschool. She has had such a good time at head start and will be missed. Next year she will start a 4K program in Wisconsin.  

  

  Kassia helped put the leads on for her EKG

  

  She also helped take them off. She loved the nurse but then wouldn't say a word once the doctor came in.

  

  Maia was really excited to have Kassia and Sean and I at her end of the year party.

  
  
  
  

• Last Sunday Sean and I were both released from our church callings which we have loved but are looking forward to being able to focus on all the change going on in our lives.

• This week Sean went to Georgia for a Coaching Conference and was gone for about 4 days. We were very glad to have him back.

•  Throughout all of this Sean has been working really hard to finish his dissertation. He has to have his finally draft to his committee but he is trying to get it pretty much finished before I have surgery so he can focus on the family for a few days before he has to start prepping for the class he is going to teach this summer and prepping for 4 new classes he is going to teach this fall. 

I think that pretty much sums up all the crazy changes that have been happening in our life. I'm sure I have missed something but this should give you an idea as to what has been happening in our lives. I will hopefully post next week with more details about the surgery on the 6th. 

Here are a couple of pretty cute pictures of my girls that fit somewhere in the timeline above: