This morning, I had my follow up appointment with my neurologist to find out what the MRI and spinal Xrays showed. I was so hoping that it could just be fixed with a shot. Not so much.
The doctor sat down, pulled out the radiologist's report and then told me that he agreed with the radiologist's findings. Good news and bad news....
Good news: There IS a problem. Actually, there ARE problems. Two of them. The first one is something called Arachnoiditis. Basically, the nerves around my spine and the covering around them are damaged, swollen, inflamed, and they are clustering and adhering together. This is something I had never heard of, but when he showed me on the spinal model and explained the issue, it totally makes sense. This explains the lower back pain, the pain in my hips, the backs of my legs, the prickly feeling I get in my legs, the numbness and tingling in my foot and toes. How can we help this? Well, I am not really sure right now, because we mainly addressed the other issue the doctor wanted to discuss.
He thinks I also have a condition called Tethered Spinal Cord. This is a congenital defect where, much like a stretched rubber band, my spinal cord is attached instead of being loose and being able to bend and move with my body. As a baby and child, it wasn't stretched, but as I grew, it tried to stretch with me. This explains why I started having pain in my teenage years. I had the hardware removed when I was 20 because of pain...and it helped....but I continued to have pain. Now it is progressively getting worse. It makes sense why it wasn't caught as a child...it wasn't an issue.
It also explains why I have so many urologic issues that my urologist has never been able to accurately identify. So many times I have gone into see him, with pain and pressure only for him to tell me that I do not have a UTI. All these nerves are responsible for my bladder as well. My doctor requested all the paperwork from my urologist to further study this.
So the doctor wants me to have a myelogram to confirm this, and see the severity of the Arachnoiditis and TCS. He explained that he can surgically go in, snip my spinal cord loose, and the issues shouldn't progress. They may even improve. But if nothing is done, it will only get worse. Um, this is bad enough. He told me this is a major quality of life issue.
I told him all the little details. I have always had pain, but in the last year it is getting worse. I can't sit for very long, stand for very long, lie down for very long. I can no longer sit on the floor with my kids. When I try to stand it takes me a while to be able to stretch back out to be fully upright. I have had to stop going to Body Pump and can no longer lift weights. I can still do zumba, but there are days when it hurts more than others. There are times when I cannot feel the ground under my feel. There are times when my entire leg tingles. There are times when I feel like jolts of electricity run down my back and legs. The top of my right foot and the first two toes are tingly and numb. Some days I wake up with pain, other days it begins later in the day, but by every evening, I am in pain. Some days are better than others.
I have a pretty high pain tolerance and don't like to complain, but this is no joke. Tuesday, after I did zumba, I was driving my boys for a playdate and my right hip felt like it was on fire for a good hour. It went away after I rested, but returned later that night. I can tolerate some moderate daily pain....I just make sure that I rest when we are out places. When we are shopping, I sit for a while, then get up again. When we were on vacation, I came back to our camper to lie down frequently. At Schlitterbahn, we swam for a while, and then I came back to lounge, then we swam, then I sat and so on and so forth.
I am going to continue to exercise as much as I can without doing the weight lifting and body pump. The walking and zumba are less impacting :) Let's hope next week we can get some more answers and ways to help take care of some of these issues.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Salt dough fossils...
It has been raining here for about 3 days now, and we are trying to keep busy while at home. We got out yesterday to find some school shoes and have a playdate with a friend, but today is an at home day. It's just too messy out. I tried to get my kids to go out and play in the rain, but they both said no. My kids must be the only kids in the world who do don't want to get dirty or play in the rain!
So as an extension of our trip to the museum over the weekend, we made some salt dough fossils.
These were a huge hit for my boys!
They went around the house looking for little toys that they could make impressions of. They made up the salt dough...which is incredible fine motor work for Jansen and great tactile/sensory work for Caleb, and got to work.
After a few hours baking in the oven, these fossils are ready to go!
Here is what you need to make your own:
Make the salt dough using a cup of salt, a cup of flour, and a little more than a half cup of water. Add all to a bowl and mix using your hands until the mixture is smooth like play-do.
It's ready to go.
Roll out sections as you wish and start pressing.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 3 hours until they are solid. Make sure you bake them on wax paper, or they will stick to the pan.
You now have salt dough fossils.
So as an extension of our trip to the museum over the weekend, we made some salt dough fossils.
These were a huge hit for my boys!
They went around the house looking for little toys that they could make impressions of. They made up the salt dough...which is incredible fine motor work for Jansen and great tactile/sensory work for Caleb, and got to work.
After a few hours baking in the oven, these fossils are ready to go!
Here is what you need to make your own:
It's ready to go.
Roll out sections as you wish and start pressing.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 3 hours until they are solid. Make sure you bake them on wax paper, or they will stick to the pan.
You now have salt dough fossils.
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Over the weekend, while my husband was off, we took a trip with the boys to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I haven't been there since I was a kid on some sort of elementary school field trip. Not much has changed although the exhibits were much more expansive and expensive.
Upon arrival, we noted that the parking garage fee was $20 to park!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow! So when we went inside to purchase our tickets, we were a little shell shocked by those prices as well. It was $27 for adults and $20 for children for each special exhibit (Titanic and the Warrior's Exhibits). There were three 3D IMAX movies to choose from (Flying Monsters, The Last Reef, and Tornado Alley) for $11 per adult and $9 per child. There were several planetarium movies to choose from (Mayan Prophecies, Cosmic Collision, Experience the Aurora, Led Zepplin Concert, Secret of the Cardboard Rocket, We Choose Space, Black Holes, Dark Side of the Moon, Night of the Titanic, Passport to the Universe, Starry Night Express, and Earth's Wild Ride) for $8 per adult and $7 per child. PLUS tickets just to get in the museum to see the regular exhibits were $15 for adults and $10 for children.
We had hoped to take the kids to do something that was not too expensive but would still be fun and educational. This was not looking like something we could do here.
So when we got to the box office and talked to the employee, she encouraged us to buy a year-long Family Members Pass, which would get all of our family members into the museum for free each time we came in.
Here is the low down on how much it would cost this family of 4 to participate in their events:
Upon arrival, we noted that the parking garage fee was $20 to park!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow! So when we went inside to purchase our tickets, we were a little shell shocked by those prices as well. It was $27 for adults and $20 for children for each special exhibit (Titanic and the Warrior's Exhibits). There were three 3D IMAX movies to choose from (Flying Monsters, The Last Reef, and Tornado Alley) for $11 per adult and $9 per child. There were several planetarium movies to choose from (Mayan Prophecies, Cosmic Collision, Experience the Aurora, Led Zepplin Concert, Secret of the Cardboard Rocket, We Choose Space, Black Holes, Dark Side of the Moon, Night of the Titanic, Passport to the Universe, Starry Night Express, and Earth's Wild Ride) for $8 per adult and $7 per child. PLUS tickets just to get in the museum to see the regular exhibits were $15 for adults and $10 for children.
We had hoped to take the kids to do something that was not too expensive but would still be fun and educational. This was not looking like something we could do here.
So when we got to the box office and talked to the employee, she encouraged us to buy a year-long Family Members Pass, which would get all of our family members into the museum for free each time we came in.
Here is the low down on how much it would cost this family of 4 to participate in their events:
- $50 just to walk in the door and see the regular exhibits
- $94 to see the Titanic Exhibit and $94 for the Chinese Warriors
- $40 to see one of the 3D IMAX movies
- $30 for one planetarium show
- $20 to park
This doesn't include extras like making your own geode, buying souveniers, or eating at their restaurant.
The 4 of us becoming members cost us $95 for a one time, year-long, unlimited use pass for the Houston and Sugar Land locations. It gives you free entrance for the regular exhibits (saving us $50 each time), instead of $94 for the special exhibits we would pay $42 each time we came, $20 for each IMAX movie, roughly $15 for each planetarium show, and $5 for parking. It also gives us a 10% discount in the gift shop.
We parked, saw all the regular exhibits, and saw one planetarium show this trip for a total of $130. This member pass will pay for itself with our next trip...for just the entrance being free! If we go twice in one year and don't even see any of the shows, it pays for itself. There are so many other shows we want to see so we can't wait to go back.
The boys were the most excited about the Hall of Paleontology. The museum has such an extensive collection of fossils, skeletons, and recreations that my boys were going crazy! They were fascinated by all the names, the set ups, and the sheer size of everything. Two enthusiastic thumbs up for the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Adventures in baking with a 7 and 9 year-old....
Happy National Sugar Cookie Day!!!!!!
In recognition of this wonderful holiday, we added baking to our schedule today! It's only 11:15 and we have gotten so much done today...on a Summer Monday. We woke up, had breakfast, took a quick swim in the pool in the back yard, I did 2 loads of laundry, Caleb has finished two 100 piece puzzles, and the boys have baked cookies.
This is the first time that they have made cookies from start to finish, completely alone. All I did was put them in the oven and take them out. I found a kid friendly recipe and printed it out for the kiddos. I just told them how to preheat the oven , spray the pan, find the ingredients, measure everything, mix everything according to the directions, spoon out the batter, and decorate.
It is so difficult to let them learn by making mistakes and creating a mess in the kitchen! I wanted to scream as Jansen was cracking the eggs and scooping out the shells!!!! Caleb almost made me dry heave when she was pouring sugar and missed the measuring cup all together. Ugh. But they did it!
I tasted one, and they weren't very tasty...but the boys think they are tasty so that's all that matters!
In recognition of this wonderful holiday, we added baking to our schedule today! It's only 11:15 and we have gotten so much done today...on a Summer Monday. We woke up, had breakfast, took a quick swim in the pool in the back yard, I did 2 loads of laundry, Caleb has finished two 100 piece puzzles, and the boys have baked cookies.
This is the first time that they have made cookies from start to finish, completely alone. All I did was put them in the oven and take them out. I found a kid friendly recipe and printed it out for the kiddos. I just told them how to preheat the oven , spray the pan, find the ingredients, measure everything, mix everything according to the directions, spoon out the batter, and decorate.
It is so difficult to let them learn by making mistakes and creating a mess in the kitchen! I wanted to scream as Jansen was cracking the eggs and scooping out the shells!!!! Caleb almost made me dry heave when she was pouring sugar and missed the measuring cup all together. Ugh. But they did it!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Today in reading comprehension...
My oldest son struggles with reading comprehension. He taught himself to read at 3 years old, which prompted us to question him greatly, and was always a very fluent and expressive reader. The problem is, he has no idea what he is reading. That comprehension aspect is a major issue for him.
This past year, his reading teacher tried to teach so many strategies to help him, and I really don't think a single one took. He will still look at you with a completely blank expression, or go back and re-read and still not be able to pick out the answer when it is written in black and white.
My concern was, that in the whole year he was in school, he is no better at comprehension than when he started. This is certainly not the school's fault. He was in tutoring, CEI, and I read with him every single day. But if he can't answer very basic questions where the answers are explicitly stated in the passage, then how is he going to be able to infer??? Inference is a huge skill...
So we are experimenting with graphic organizers and other methods to help him improve his comprehension. Today's lesson involved pictures drawn on the whiteboard.
We did an overview of the board, read a book, reviewed the board, and then answered the questions. I wouldn't say he was great at it, but I am really encouraging to mentally ask himself questions as he reads. My hope is that instead of reading and entire passage and then answering questions, that he can read one paragraph at a time, then look at the questions to see if that one paragraph had the answer in it. He simply cannot handle a multi-paragraph passage followed by 10 questions.
It makes me nervous for next year, especially since everyone in his ARD committee is new. My positive thought on this is that because this will be their first year, they will be very motivated to utilize all of his modifications on a daily basis. The power of positive thinking! New principal, new counselor, new speech therapist, new special ed teacher, new special ed aide, and three new teachers. I have been praying all summer!
This past year, his reading teacher tried to teach so many strategies to help him, and I really don't think a single one took. He will still look at you with a completely blank expression, or go back and re-read and still not be able to pick out the answer when it is written in black and white.
My concern was, that in the whole year he was in school, he is no better at comprehension than when he started. This is certainly not the school's fault. He was in tutoring, CEI, and I read with him every single day. But if he can't answer very basic questions where the answers are explicitly stated in the passage, then how is he going to be able to infer??? Inference is a huge skill...
So we are experimenting with graphic organizers and other methods to help him improve his comprehension. Today's lesson involved pictures drawn on the whiteboard.
We did an overview of the board, read a book, reviewed the board, and then answered the questions. I wouldn't say he was great at it, but I am really encouraging to mentally ask himself questions as he reads. My hope is that instead of reading and entire passage and then answering questions, that he can read one paragraph at a time, then look at the questions to see if that one paragraph had the answer in it. He simply cannot handle a multi-paragraph passage followed by 10 questions.
It makes me nervous for next year, especially since everyone in his ARD committee is new. My positive thought on this is that because this will be their first year, they will be very motivated to utilize all of his modifications on a daily basis. The power of positive thinking! New principal, new counselor, new speech therapist, new special ed teacher, new special ed aide, and three new teachers. I have been praying all summer!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Summer school....
The boys and I have been working at a more relaxed pace this summer. Over the long summer months, the last thing we want is for our kids to lose their 9 months of school work, or to be so over scheduled that they never get a chance to be kids.
Each day, the kids get to pick one or two subjects that we work on in creative ways. For math, we play tons of math board games or the boys play math games on multiplication.com. For language arts, we do a lot of reading and acting out the story for increased comprehension. For science, we have 5 books of science experiments. For social studies, we actually go places for history lessons. Actually, the next place I want to take the kids is Jackson Plantation right down the street from us.
While Jansen is a more auditory style learner, Caleb is very visual. He likes to see all of his work together in one place. So I made him a binder that incorporates his love of Angry Birds. Each section has worksheets, blank sheets of paper for journaling, and resources for each subject.
So far, it has been very helpful for him in giving him just enough school work so that his mind doesn't turn to mush over the summer. Sure we want to swim, play games, be with friends, sleep late, and be lazy. I don't want to be super structured and be doing school work all morning long either.
Here is what Caleb is using this summer:
Each day, the kids get to pick one or two subjects that we work on in creative ways. For math, we play tons of math board games or the boys play math games on multiplication.com. For language arts, we do a lot of reading and acting out the story for increased comprehension. For science, we have 5 books of science experiments. For social studies, we actually go places for history lessons. Actually, the next place I want to take the kids is Jackson Plantation right down the street from us.
While Jansen is a more auditory style learner, Caleb is very visual. He likes to see all of his work together in one place. So I made him a binder that incorporates his love of Angry Birds. Each section has worksheets, blank sheets of paper for journaling, and resources for each subject.
So far, it has been very helpful for him in giving him just enough school work so that his mind doesn't turn to mush over the summer. Sure we want to swim, play games, be with friends, sleep late, and be lazy. I don't want to be super structured and be doing school work all morning long either.
Here is what Caleb is using this summer:
He thinks it is hilarious that each section has some sort of Angry Bird association. It is just a little something that helps motivate him to finish his work. We are also using the system that worked for him in school last year where I write out what my expectations for him are, and then he is able to spend 5-10 minutes drawing Angry Birds. So far so good. :)
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
MIA...medical goodness...
Well, I haven't been around all that much lately...not crafting, or experimenting with much. Honestly, I haven't been much into it. My back has become the bane of my existence!
In 1989, I was diagnosed with Scoliosis and began seeing a spinal specialist. He monitored my growth and watched the curve in my spine gradually get worse. In 1991, I was fitted for a brace. I wore the brace for over a year...during my prime adolescent years...and was told it was time for surgery. In 1993, I had a spinal fusion and rods hooked into my spine to immobilize my back. Everything was going well for several years until I started getting some back pain in between my shoulder blades. The doctor noted that the hardware used can cause pain and he has removed it from many people with lots of success. So, in 2000, I had the hardware removed.
It really did help. I had several years with very little back pain. I mean, really, with having two surgeries, I expect to have some chronic pain.
About a year ago, I started having some pretty significant lower back pain. I dismissed it for a while, because of all of my surgeries. As the year progressed, it got more and more painful. The pain spread to both sides of my back, down both hips, and down my legs. On a side note, I began experiencing some numbness and tingling in my right foot and toes, have a weird prickly feeling in my extremities, and am dealing with a lot of imbalance. Not dizziness...the world isn't spinning, but I am being pulled in one direction.
About a month ago, while at my in-laws home, I was walking down their hallway to the bathroom and I ran into the wall. Several months ago, while washing dishes, I reached to my left to grab a glass and fell taking most of my dishes with me. While eating dinner with my husband, we were seated in a booth just talking, when I looked down at my menu and felt myself being pulled down. I sometimes will stand and try to take a step and either have a shooting pain down my legs, or will not really feel the floor beneath me. It is very strange.
So today, I had an MRI of my spine, and some Xrays of my back. Holy Claustrophobia Batman....that was crazy. They gave me a CD of my MRI and of course, I looked at it when I got home. Here is what I saw.....
Now, I am no doctor, but something doesn't look right here. On the side view, I can clearly see two vertebrae at the top of the image, but nothing after that. It looks like a tornado in there!
So, my appointment with the neurosurgeon is on the 13th. I am no longer doing Body Pump at the gym because I just can't lift weights like that right now. It is too much for my back. I am able to do Zumba and really enjoy it, so I am going to try to just do Zumba Tuesday and Thursday mornings and nights. I have to be able to exercise!
Maybe being at home more will give me more opportunities to craft. That does make me super happy!
In 1989, I was diagnosed with Scoliosis and began seeing a spinal specialist. He monitored my growth and watched the curve in my spine gradually get worse. In 1991, I was fitted for a brace. I wore the brace for over a year...during my prime adolescent years...and was told it was time for surgery. In 1993, I had a spinal fusion and rods hooked into my spine to immobilize my back. Everything was going well for several years until I started getting some back pain in between my shoulder blades. The doctor noted that the hardware used can cause pain and he has removed it from many people with lots of success. So, in 2000, I had the hardware removed.
It really did help. I had several years with very little back pain. I mean, really, with having two surgeries, I expect to have some chronic pain.
About a year ago, I started having some pretty significant lower back pain. I dismissed it for a while, because of all of my surgeries. As the year progressed, it got more and more painful. The pain spread to both sides of my back, down both hips, and down my legs. On a side note, I began experiencing some numbness and tingling in my right foot and toes, have a weird prickly feeling in my extremities, and am dealing with a lot of imbalance. Not dizziness...the world isn't spinning, but I am being pulled in one direction.
About a month ago, while at my in-laws home, I was walking down their hallway to the bathroom and I ran into the wall. Several months ago, while washing dishes, I reached to my left to grab a glass and fell taking most of my dishes with me. While eating dinner with my husband, we were seated in a booth just talking, when I looked down at my menu and felt myself being pulled down. I sometimes will stand and try to take a step and either have a shooting pain down my legs, or will not really feel the floor beneath me. It is very strange.
So today, I had an MRI of my spine, and some Xrays of my back. Holy Claustrophobia Batman....that was crazy. They gave me a CD of my MRI and of course, I looked at it when I got home. Here is what I saw.....
Now, I am no doctor, but something doesn't look right here. On the side view, I can clearly see two vertebrae at the top of the image, but nothing after that. It looks like a tornado in there!
So, my appointment with the neurosurgeon is on the 13th. I am no longer doing Body Pump at the gym because I just can't lift weights like that right now. It is too much for my back. I am able to do Zumba and really enjoy it, so I am going to try to just do Zumba Tuesday and Thursday mornings and nights. I have to be able to exercise!
Maybe being at home more will give me more opportunities to craft. That does make me super happy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)