So its been awhile

What have we been doing over the last several months? Well a bunch of Dr visits, school work, and well just some hanging around...see??

We had Easter...we just hung out and watched conference together as a family and found eggs..nothing big but we had a good time. Please don't mind the mess in the background...we have our own Tornado whom we call "Emma" LOL. We can't keep ANYTHING clean when she is awake.

Here Dallin LET Emma color on his face...little did he know it was NOT washable marker LOL oh and this was the next day it was much worse hehehe

Between sick kiddos and Dr visits for other reasons..its been quite busy around here. Hopefully will update on that other stuff later as well get more answers :) Hopefully I can keep up with the blog this time....not promising anything though LOL

Update Time

I know I know I've been slacking yet again. I guess I just don't make blogging a priority when I have dishes overflowing in the sink and I'm wading through mounds of laundry. But I'm going to try to do at least ONCE a month...can't promise more than that LOL. So lets see what has happened since my last update?

The boys when back to school in August and Jordan started Kindergarten this year! Here are a few pics:

Jordan struggled the first 2 weeks but now he is doing GREAT! He is learning his sight words and is having fun! Emma and I spend our mornings getting eBay stuff and getting packages ready. She is loving Yo Gabba Gabba and her newest LOVE is Care Bear movies (thanks to Melissa!). She loves to dance and sing to them LOL.

Jeff started school again (shhhh don't tell him I told you!) he is going for his 2nd Master's! My husband the scholar LOL. I am debating about going back to school just to get my generals in January...depends all on how I'm feeling..speaking of..I was REALLY bad for about 3 weeks end of July beginning of Aug so after awhile went into the dr and she said I just had a viral infection. This thing literally put me on the couch for almost 3 solid weeks that is how bad I felt! She explained it to me as because of the CEBV (Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus) my body is more susceptible to viral/bacterial infections because it can't fight them off. So when I get them I get them BAD BAD BAD. I was tested for Step and other stuff but they didn't find anything. My dr suggested that really there isn't any more that she can do for me so she gave me a few suggestions of natural approaches. I think I'm going to look into seeing a Naturopath or Homeopath Dr. I have been searching but haven't really found much around me. I am really hoping I can find SOMEONE that can help me or give me suggestions to get me feeling better. I HATE feeling this way and it has been going on for way too long! Oh enough about that...

Oh and we got the kids a dog about 2 weeks ago. They LOVE her! She is part Chihuahua and part Pug..we call her a Chug LOL. She is about 1 1/2 years old and they named her Roxy. She is REALLY good with the kids especially Emma! She loves to lay in their laps and she sleeps with Dallin at night. She does have an issue with going #2 in the house. We take her out CONSTANTLY and she will go #1 but not #2? I don't get it! So we are still working on that..here is her pic:

We also went to Disneyland a few times since our passes are not blacked out again..love that place

Ok that is enough for now...til next time!

Jordan's Bday!

Wow I can't believe my baby boy is already 5 and going to start school in less than 2 weeks! We had a family party over the weekend and his big day was on Monday (the 20th). He has a new love for Legos so everyone bought him a set and we only had one duplicate! Not to bad! He ended up returning one of the duplicates and with the money he got from his great grandpa bought a bigger castle set and is in HEAVEN with all the legos he has to play with. We have so many legos now between the 3 boys that we have to make a bigger lego table LOL. Here are a few pics of the party:

The Lego Loot

A baby lizard that Uncle Mark found outside..

To top off the night the older boys decided to "camp out" in the backyard...they got wet when the sprinklers turned on in the middle of the night but they didn't seem to care since it was HOT that night! lol

Oh and I forgot to mention...Grandma Judy and Grandma Shirley came out to visit just for the big day! We were all so happy to see them and are sad to see them go today :( Hopefully we will be able to see them again soon!

Dr Visit

Ok so I went to the Dr this morning and hopefully got some answers. He said that the MRI looked good and that I just have some normal "wear and tear". He feels that I have something called "Piriformis Syndrome". Which basically is a nerve condition in the hip that causes pain and occasional loss of feeling in the back of the thigh. It involves compression of the sciatic nerve at the hip by the piriformis muscle. The piriformis muscle rotates the hip, allowing the thigh, foot, and knee to point outward. The muscle travels from the pelvis to the outer hip. The sciatic nerve usually passes the hip between this muscle and other muscles of the hip. Some common symptoms are:

*Tingling, numbness, or burning in the back of the thigh to the knee
*Occasionally tenderness in the buttock
*Pain and discomfort (burning, dull ache) in the hip or groin, mid-buttock area, or back of the thigh
*Heaviness or fatigue of the leg
*Pain that is worse with activities such as running, jumping, long walks, and walking up stair or hills, and is often felt at night or with prolonged sitting.

General treatment is:

Initial treatment consists of rest from the offending activity and the use of medications to help reduce inflammation and pain. Stretching exercises of the muscles of the hip are useful. Injections with cortisone in the area where the nerve is being pinches may help to reduce the nerve inflammation and pinching. If this is not successful surgery may be necessary to free the pinched nerve..

So I guess basically I have a pinched nerve in my butt, LOL. I get to do lovely exercises at home, the Dr did want to send me to PT but I know that with PT you have to got 2-3X a week and I have a REALLY high co pay so I am opting to try and do it at home first.

MRI

So I went in last week for my MRI to determine if I do indeed have a Labral tear...got them today but don't see the Dr until Friday.

Findings are that they don't believe I have a labral tear, only thing they see is "degenerative signal within the posterior-superior labrum" and also "minimal eburnation of the underlying bone involving the acetabular aspect of the right hip join" what does all this mean you ask?? I have no clue either! I guess I will find out on friday! I really am hoping that this will explain my pain :((

My pain has been even worse since the MRI I am not sure if it triggered something or not. I have been spending almost half the day sitting on the couch with a heating pad on the area as that is really the only thing that is helping at this point. Well that and my meds I take for the FM but still that is only BARELY numbing the pain..even Ibuprofen isn't working anymore. This is just so frustrating!!

Ok vent over..I will update after my Dr apt on Friday

Dang!!

Has it already been a month since my last post? I told you I'm not good at this blogging thing LOL. Ok so some updates...I finally went to the Orthopedic and he believes that I have a Labral Tear (I guess that is a tendon that holds your hip in place?). I had an MRI with an Arhtrogram yesterday (NOT FUN!!) hopefully will find out the results soon..but probably not until Mon? I have no idea what the treatment plan will be...the googling fanatic that I am found that it depends on how bad the tear is. Being that I injured it clear back in January and it is still bothering me the Dr felt that it might be worse? If it isn't "that" bad they will treat it with PT and pain meds. If it is bad I will probably have surgery. I wish my wonderful SIL Kathy could do the surgery for me! I wish I could go to the dr that she works with but alas I have HMO and have to go to who they tell me to LOL. We have been going through ANOTHER round of Bronchitis at our house, thank heavens for me I only got the viral infection and not the actual Bronchitis which is a miracle since my immune system sucks!

Oh and at my follow up apt with the reg dr found out some interesting news from my blood tests. The dr had tested me for EPV and my results obviously came back as positive but they were very high. I guess a positive test result is anything above 1 and mine was at 5. My cholesterol was low which was surprising BUT found out that I "might" have something called Gilbert's Disease which basically is that your liver doesn't break down bilirubin properly and your bili levels can become high and you can become jaundice. Mine were at 1.5 where normal is 0.1-1.2 so she wasn't all too concerned. The dr wasn't sure it was this Gilbert's Disease or not because she told me that you are usually diagnosed with it as a child because you would have become jaundice. I of course being the googler that I am found out that isn't the case. Most are NOT diagnosed unless they become jaundice or by a random blood test as my case. It is nothing to be concerned about Gilbert's Disease is a harmless genetic condition that causes no major symptoms other than mild jaundice. Although it can cause Fatigue and stomach issues (which I have both of) so now that makes how many things that I have that cause Fatigue? LOL I think I'm up to 4 now..lucky me!

Hopefully I will find out soon about the MRI and at least get answers about that issue so that we can move on to other issues going on...fun times at our house I tell ya! So I will end with some cute pics of the kids at the park :)

Oh and I'm not sure I have ever posted this picture of Jordan, as he is a hard one to get to look at the camera and smile...unless he REALLY wants too LOL

So not much going on since the last update..I got my x-ray results and they showed nothing..(no surprise since we know that nothing is broken) Dr has referred me to an Orthopedic and Physical Therapy for the hip and Sciatic issues..hopefully they will be able to help. I have good days and bad...last week I had 2 days I could hardly move due to the Sciatic pain but I have learned that I can only do so much around the house or I pay for it the next few days. It gets really frustrating to feel this way and to not have a way to "help" myself. There is no "cure" for CFS or FM and add to that the EBV that I have it gets depressing. It seems that know one understands what is going on and some might even think of me as being "lazy" which is fine because I know that isn't the truth. The kids are still getting over the Bronchitis so we have a lot of coughing going on around here. I will update more after I see the Ortho and PT..until then enjoy these cute pics!!

Hunter getting his awards for scounts

The awards...