How are you?  It feels like it has been forever since I have connected with you! We have been busy living life to the fullest it can be!  How about you?  Are you living life to the fullest? Honestly, I think because of our life circumstances, we have learned to enjoy the simplest of things.  I thought I would share some of the things we are savoring in life right now.

Savoring the Moments

• Wednesday evenings, we curl up in the living room and enjoy “The Masked Singer.”  We can’t wait to turn it on each week to see who is behind the mask.  Zine, Krisann, and Chloe enjoy guessing who each character is.  I don’t know enough pop culture to be able to guess, but I love the show.
• In case you haven’t heard, we have two new puppies.  We lost our sweet Lily back in October.  She shares a death anniversary with my mama.  Then about a month ago, we discovered that our other dog had a tumor that went from his sternum to his back.  His lungs had collapsed, and his heart was pushed from where it should be.  We weren’t prepared to say goodbye that day at the vet.  However, it wasn’t in his best interest to bring him home.  It was sad and lonely around here.  Crazy enough, I was the one that missed having a dog the most.  I couldn’t stand it.  My life was missing a substantial piece.  A few days later, I came across some puppies that I fell in love with at a local shelter.  We fostered them for a little while, and they officially became ours on February 13.  We are smitten with them.  They are beginning to get the house training idea.  They sleep in a crate, and some nights they sleep all night long.  Their getting up time is 6:00 to 6:15 am.  They are better than an alarm clock!

• Conner and Zine continue to savor their Saturday morning coffee dates.  Conner comes each Saturday, picks up Zine, and the two of them spend a couple of hours together.  I savor those couple of hours at home!  I love my husband with all my heart, but to never have a moment at home without him poses some challenges occasionally.

Life with MS

Life with MS continues.  There’s been no miraculously healing yet.  However, we still believe God has the power to bring healing at any moment.  We lived in such trauma for about two years; life almost seems a bit normal now.  Living with MS is never normal, though.

There is absolutely nothing new to try.  We have done all we can do to stop the MS progression. Research is being done on remyelination. However, it could be a long time before we have any drugs to remyelinate.  So, we treat the symptoms.

Zine takes a handful of medicine each day—a large handful.  Today at the doctor, we added a new drug that is to be taken three times a day.   We are hoping it will alleviate some spasticity in his hips that is causing some pain and making it harder to get dressed and harder to sleep well.

A new mattress is in the works.  One that will help prolong bed sores.

We also will be making a utensil purchase soon.  It is becoming increasingly difficult for Zine to get food in his mouth.  I have noticed that even how he holds his utensils has changed.  As he told the doctor today, “Do you know how frustrating it is to get your fork in your mouth, and it has no food on it?”  Zine was agreeable to what the doctor suggested, so I have the information to place an order.  The verdict is still out as to how much it helps.  The video the doctor showed us looked amazing.  It is hard to give up normalcy.  Zine doesn’t want different utensils; he wants normal utensils.  However, we see them as a way to be independent longer! Personally, I hope he falls in love with them!

The Other Medical Issues

Chloe continues to battle migraines every week.  Most weeks she exhausts her migraine medicine intake.  I think we are finally getting her on a good medication routine that helps some digestive issues she has.  We’ve been working on the right medicine routine for what seems like forever.  We have been seeing the gastroenterologist anywhere from one to three weeks apart.  We saw him one week, and he asked us to return the next week.  I was like, we ain’t got time for this!  🙂  But we made time.  Three weeks apart is much more my speed.  She still has a kidney stone in her right kidney, but it’s not moving, so all is good.  Hopefully, it will stay in her kidney forever.

Conner has been sick several times lately.  He decided it was time to go back to the immunologist.  Long story short, he needs to have two different vaccines to boost his immune system.  One of them he has had before, and he has had significant local reactions to it.  Therefore, we are not looking forward to him getting that vaccine.  The other he has not had before, so the outcome of that one is unknown.  We hope there are no reactions to it, but we almost know there will be.  We are looking forward to a more robust immune system, though.

Krisann is my well-child for the most part.  She has been sick more this school year than ever.  However, being in the gym three days a week where a hundred girls are in and out each day is most likely the cause.  It seems like her immune system is building, and she is developing some resiliency.

My heart continues to give me issues at times, but not enough problems to warrant another heart ablation.  I will continue to take medication and deal with it at times.  My kidney numbers were out of whack for a while, but at last check, they were good.  Thank goodness, kidney issues are one of the eating disorder problems that can be fixed.

I’ve shared a good bit about my eating disorder on my Instagram platform this week as it is eating disorder awareness week. I’m super grateful for all I have been learning about eating disorders over the last year.  I’m even more thankful that I had some medical people in my life that made me go to treatment.  Recovery has been hard lately, I will not lie.  However, there is a big difference now:  I know I have an eating disorder.  I think I will most likely always struggle with eating correctly.  Maybe in heaven, I will love food!

More Information

I would love to share more information with you, but I think this is enough for now!  I promise not to wait so long before I poke my head back in here again.