Knee Update

Ok. So a few people have asked about how Joshua's doing with his knee. He's been home from deployment for over a year and the VA has just this month given him an official diagnosis. He tore his medial collateral ligament/MCL (no surprise there) and has early signs of osteo-arthritis in his knee (ugh, something to look forward to). 

We've decided to go with a more conservative route of treatment because right now he has full range of movement-he just has a ton of pain with that movement. Conversely, if we have them go in and replace the MCL (with a cadaver piece-didn't know that was what they used until we saw the surgeon), his range of movement could be drastically effected based on how tight or loose the new MCL is and there's really no way of telling until after the surgery.

They've outfitted him with what I affectionately call his "Terminator" knee brace...it's a huge metal hinged thing that goes from mid-calf to mid-thigh and looks rather daunting. He says it's helping. Anything would be better the the itty-bitty, useless neoprene thing they gave him "over there" but hey, they also threw a few ibuprofen at him so I guess he was fine. He's also finally been set up with weekly physical therapy appointments and scheduled steroid shots. The surgeon has recommended going in and "scraping everything out" (doesn't that sound fun?!). Not sure when that will be scheduled but it's the best they can do short of replacing the MCL. 

So our journey continues.

Time Flies

Hello blogging world...you may (or may not) have noticed my total desertion of this page for the last month (and a half). To be honest, nothing major really happened to drive me away. I just needed a break. I needed to focus on my family and myself. 

Here's a (hopefully) quick breakdown to catch you up...

We cracked down on homeschooling and have officially decided to go with Classical Conversations next year and are super excited about it. 

We had a snow-pocalypse that was a ton of fun...

I got a new .22 rifle for Valentine's Day and we took some good friends shooting... (the boy and one of his best friends had a blast)

I escaped. I took a long weekend and flew down to El Paso (thereby leaving the children alone with Joshua for the first time ever!) to visit this awesome lady...

(cell phone pic...eh, sorry)

Joshua and I had a weekend away...hotel, theater tickets (Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan-I highly recommend seeing it!-that woman is in better shape at 60 than I am today!), dinner out...the basics

In related news, the boy also got to see Peter Pan as his first broadway show with his Grandma. He LOVED it!...he wasn't so much a fan of the pics I insisted we take before he left but I couldn't resist. I love my bow-tie-lovin', suspender-wearing little man!

Also, I've been on a sewing kick...big time. I made a couple new dresses for the girl...

(she was less than thrilled to do pics at that particular moment)

(I got the hat from Halo Heaven)

And finally, the biggest news (for me at least) was that I finally got my much coveted Brother PE-770 Embroidery Machine!!! I'm in love! This was the first thing I made...

So that's what we've been up to...kind of a crazy busy season for us but a good one. 

5 (Post) New Year's Wishes

I've been tagged. 

But it's actually pretty cool...JG from Me and My SoldierMan was tagged by Mrs Banana Pants to post 5 Christmas Wishes...that deadline passed and JG posted 5 great New Year's Wishes so now I'm posting my own (Post) New Year's Wishes. It was pretty tough for me to come up with them because I hadn't really given much (read: none, zero, zilch, nada) thought into a resolution. I'm not against resolutions in general, I'm just cynical about my own abilities to follow through and I can't stand saying I'll do something and then not doing it...sorry, therapy tangent. Anyway, here they are...

5. Be Nice. I should mention that I think I'm a pretty nice person by nature but there's a very cynical, sarcastic, sometimes hurtful side that bubbles over. It's not good. If I was totally honest, it's arrogance and it's rude. So, this is me pledging to be nice...even if you're the idiot hippie type of individual who feels it necessary to openly hate everything I love. 

This one's going to be tough to keep on Twitter.

4. Be Generous. With my time and resources. Specifically, I want to keep fostering puppy dogs one at a time...eventually (read: bigger house) we'd like to become Puppy Raisers who help raise and train assistance dogs. It's so easy to say this week isn't good for us or someone else can do it but if everyone says that, the problem of dogs being put down would only get worse. We lost our precious Murray a couple years ago and now with just our Bubba, we have the space and I can't begin to count the ways it has helped our children grow in empathy and understanding.

This one makes me glad we got rid of all the carpet in the house.

3. Be Together...as in with Joshua, just Joshua. He's home. We've given it time and the kids have adjusted really well. No one's nursing or pregnant (woohoo-my body is my own again!). Now is the time to embrace "us" time. Joshua and I haven't taken a vacation just the two of us (well, apart from a really great road trip to and from El Paso) since before our 4 1/2 year old son was born. This will be the year we escape. I'm not sure where we'll go or what we'll do but I do know we'll have a great time.

Thanks to my parents, we've already got three awesome date nights planned between now and May...for Christmas they bought Joshua and I theater tickets for three different shows...Jekyll and Hyde, Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan and Westside Story. SUPER EXCITED!

2. Be At Peace. I'm not very good with change...particularly change I have NO control over but we already know there will be a ton of changes in the year to come...like huge changes...changes that will effect our family forever. Intimidating changes. There's still a dozen things that need to happen before I feel comfortable posting any real details but I can tell you that I'm proud of my husband and I trust that God will open the doors that need to open and close the doors that need to close. In the meantime, I (gulp) choose peace. 

Ok. I'm a total control freak. This one's hard.

1. Be Aware. I'm blessed. I stay home with our children and we've chosen to home-school so I get the pleasure of spending a lot of time with my children but I've noticed it's easy to go through the steps of life while letting it pass me by. My son will be FIVE in June. My daughter will be TWO in July...it's surreal. I want to really see what they become next. If my son will continue to be overprotective of his sister. How he'll assert his individualism. It goes beyond if Batman and Capt America will still be his favorite super heroes or if he'll still insist on wearing a bow tie as often as possible. It goes to his core...the kind of man he will grow into. I see glimpses of it every day. These years are so precious. And our daughter...wow. She's just at that stage where her personality in all it's glory is really starting to show through and I can't wait to see what aspects are solidified and what traits fade to the background. We call her our little daredevil but she's deathly afraid of water. She's pensive and observant before she declares her opinion...but when she's made up her mind, watch out, there's no stopping that child.

These are the days I wish I could freeze time altogether. It goes too fast.

My Dysfunctional Veteran

It's been a couple weeks since I somewhat mysteriously disappeared. I mentioned that we had some medical issues to deal with and to be honest, as much as blogging saves my sanity, I just didn't have the energy for it. 

I need to back up.

During the deployment, Joshua's knee crapped out (that's a medical term you may not be aware of but it's totally scientific). So, around the end of July, Joshua went to the VA and the first thing they did was a basic check up including blood tests. Well, that first set of tests came back a little off so they took some more blood and when those results came back, they ordered an abdominal ultrasound which showed some irregularities with his liver.

More blood tests...those were especially fun because when the nurse took them, she was kind enough to share with us that she'd worked as a nurse for 15 years and had never run that particular blood test. 

So reassuring.

The next step, two weeks ago, was a liver biopsy. 

My husband is 31. He's too young to need a biopsy of anything and it was nerve wracking. The results came back (two days after they were supposed to be in but that's another story that ends with me rolling my eyes at the VA) and thankfully it doesn't look like the worst case scenario. We still don't technically have a diagnosis but we're hopeful that the abdominal CT scan Joshua had on Friday will give the doctors enough information to go forward. He has a consultation with the liver specialist next week to go over everything and it can't get here soon enough. 

Meanwhile, all this came from a simple blood test because his knee was hurting. Last week also brought a diagnosis on that front. Patellofemoral with a tear in the medial meniscus. After a quick Google search when Joshua texted me the diagnosis, I was able to translate that to mean torn cartilage and bone on bone pain. He's scheduled to see the ortho specialist in early December. 

Knowing is such a relief. Yes, Joshua will probably have surgery on his knee and possibly on his liver but we have direction. We have some answers so I'm thankful.

Even without answers, I'd be thankful...I have these three hooligans...

(cell phone pic...he saw this hat at the VA while waiting for his liver biopsy and HAD to have it...the print is small but reads "Dysfunctional Veteran Leave Me Alone"...he's classy like that)

Strong Bonds Marriage Retreat

Last weekend Joshua and I went to a marriage retreat put on by the Army...frightening, right?! At least it was for me before we got there. I was having nightmares of death by power point and rooms with hundreds of men dragged by their wives couples. For the record, Joshua is the one who signed us up.

Confession: I was that annoying kid who enjoyed sitting in the front of class learning new things. I liked to know the answer. Joshua, on the other hand, was less than a stellar student growing up and based on the amount of inappropriate laughing at the yellow ribbon events, most of the soldiers in his unit were also familiar with the back row antics of elementary and middle school but I digress.

This weekend wasn't really what I expected at all. Yes-there were power point slides but they weren't overwhelming and the class was small, only 24 couples (although they had apparently been approved to fund up to 100...but more on that below). The small size, for me, really kept the intimidation factor down. Another thing we found helpful was the lack of uniforms. Everyone, even the chaplains who ran it showed up in civi's which automatically made it more relaxed. The classes were good and the chaplains were both funny and helpful. 

The retreat was at a nice hotel about ten minutes from Bricktown (for those unfamiliar with OKC, Bricktown is the downtown area popular with restaurants, clubs and entertainment). Classes began on Saturday morning with several breaks including a long one for lunch and we were out by 4pm and strongly encouraged to go on a date...which we did and it was excellent. Then, Sunday, we had classes in the morning and were able to leave after lunch. The classes covered half a dozen different areas and although we used a workbook, we didn't go through the whole thing or even try to. We skipped around but still felt that we got a well-rounded and whole experience.

The only real downside (aside from the frigidly cold conference room-like put on a parka cold) was that so few people even knew about it. Originally the retreat was unit specific but because they didn't get the response they had expected, they opened it up to the entire 45th and yet, still only 24 couples went. The main reason, in my opinion, wasn't a lack of interest (because let's face it, at worst it's a free night at a hotel) but instead a lack of awareness. We basically stumbled upon it but I'm glad we did.

So, if you or your spouse is in the Oklahoma Army National Guard, know that there are Strong Bond Marriage retreats for you (you must be married not just engaged or dating and I have no idea how the Army handles same sex marriages). Whether you want to learn to communicate better, are in a good place and just want to make your marriage stronger or things aren't going so well and you need a good place to start contact your chaplain or the main chaplain office and sign up. There's another Strong Bond Marriage Retreat this fall and we were told they plan to apply for funding for a Strong Bond Family Retreat sometime in October (no idea if or when that funding will be approved and the retreat will take place but we're more than likely going to attend because let's face it, kids are a major area of stress on a marriage, even if your marriage is rock solid).

In a nutshell...

Would I do it again? Yes.

Would Joshua recommend it? (I specifically asked him before I wrote this post) Absolutely.

Did we learn new ways to communicate effectively? Yes.

Did it help our marriage? Most definitely.