Thursday October 29, 2009 - Yesterday was my follow up with my family doctor. It was fairly uneventful. He said since the spots on my arms still have some pigment he does not think it is vitiligo but he is not sure. He said to watch them and see if I get more or if they get worse and then we will go from there. He asked about my mood and I told him it fluctuates a lot. Both he and my neurologist are not completely pleased with that. They both want to wait a little longer before we try different medications. With the Betaseron, and MS patients in general, there are lots of cases of depression so it is not a complete shock that I have mood issues. I will go back to see him in 6 months. So far the regular routine will be neurologist every three months and family doctor every six months.
We are all getting ready for the busy weekend. Tonight is Dylan's music program at school, Friday we may go to a football game with my mom, Saturday will be full of Halloween excitement and Sunday Dylan has a birthday party to go to. Then comes Monday all over again. :) Next Friday is our 10 year wedding Anniversary so Jerry and I will be taking a weekend trip to Fredericksburg to relax. I can't wait for a change of scenery even if it is only for a couple of days.
I hope you all have a great weekend. I will post pictures from the weekend in a few days.
Amanda
Fall Fun
Batman and Ariel
The light on this one came out strange.Monday October 26, 2009 - I have been meaning to blog for quite some time but have just not gotten around to it. Two weekends ago we went to Houston to celebrate Jerry's birthday and his brother's birthday. We were all so tired come Monday morning that the only person that got out of bed to go to school or work was Jerry. We have been busy in the yard since the weather was nice (until today). I think I finally have my garden how I like it. It only took 4 years. :) I am sure I will want to change it in the spring.
This past weekend we had some fall fun. We went to Emily's preschool for Trunk N Treat. We have wanted to do that for years but have never been able to go. We all had a great time. I kept telling the kids there was no need to go trick or treating now. That did not go over too well. ;)
This is going to be a busy week. I have a feeling that will be the case until the end of the year. Dylan has his first field trip of the year tomorrow and a music program on Thursday evening. Of course the most important thing is Halloween.
I have an appointment with my family doctor on Wednesday just to follow up. I do have a question about my skin for him so we will see if he can give me some answers. I have been getting these faint white spots on my arms. They look similar to vitiligo but I am not sure. Many people with vitiligo also have another auto immune disease.
I will see my ophthalmologist again next week. He is wanting to take pictures of my optic nerve to see the actual damage that was done to the nerve. I am very anxious to see how that looks. I have still not had any improvement in my vision and it has now been 5 months since my first symptoms.
The other symptoms; tingling and numbness are still better. I have just been very tired still. I am still spending about half the day in bed on my days off. I was talking to Jerry today about how there is no way I could work a full time job right now. I would probably make it through Tuesday and hit a wall.
Well I guess that is about all for now. I will post more pictures after our adventures on Saturday. I hope you all stay warm and dry.
Amanda
Thursday October 15, 2009 - The car is fixed. It ended up being the battery. :( I think that is the most expensive battery I have ever had to get. I am just happy we have the car back.
Dylan is still a little congested in the mornings and evenings but otherwise is fine. Emily is still congested and runny. I have not decided if she will go to school tomorrow or not. I really need to go to work though. I have not had anymore fever or achiness; I just have a headache today. It seems like I have a slight headache almost everyday along with a stomache ache.
I hope everyone is staying healthy or getting better. Have a great weekend.
Amanda
Dylan is still a little congested in the mornings and evenings but otherwise is fine. Emily is still congested and runny. I have not decided if she will go to school tomorrow or not. I really need to go to work though. I have not had anymore fever or achiness; I just have a headache today. It seems like I have a slight headache almost everyday along with a stomache ache.
I hope everyone is staying healthy or getting better. Have a great weekend.
Amanda
Updates
Tuesday October 13, 2009 - I have a few updates so I thought I would share them. Dylan and Emily's vitamin D tests came back normal, so we will continue on their multi vitamin and try to get as much into their diets as we can. Emily had her appointment with the ophthalmologist today. Apparently, Emily has the dreaded inherited astigmatism as well. She could wear glasses now, but it is not necessary. He said she will have to wear glasses sooner than later and probably earlier than most kids but we will wait another year and check again.
I have been feeling a little better lately. I am still very tired but I am blaming the weather on that. ;) It is just too easy to stay in bed when it is cold and wet outside. I am still having some tingling in my feet and hands but it seems to not be as often. My vision has still not improved any. :( Some days I do notice that is it worse than others but I have gotten used to it for the most part. Other than that things are fairly normal around here. The kids are getting very excited about all the upcoming holidays and bouncing off the walls since they have not been able to go outside and play.
Today ended up being a bummer of a day. Dylan stayed home because of a cough and Emily has had a runny nose and cough. I started to feel bad so I took my temp and it was a little elevated. So we decided to go get dinner since no one felt like cooking. After dinner we stopped at Petsmart to get cat food and then the car would not start. ARGH! So we have gone from one car to no car. We had the car towed and had a neighbor come pick us up. THANK YOU Rita!!!!!! We are thinking the alternator went out and it is covered under the warranty. I am crossing my fingers. So to keep things as simple as possible Emily and I will be staying home tomorrow and Jerry has a co-worker that will give him a ride to and from work.
Hopefully we will get some good news tomorrow.
Amanda
I have been feeling a little better lately. I am still very tired but I am blaming the weather on that. ;) It is just too easy to stay in bed when it is cold and wet outside. I am still having some tingling in my feet and hands but it seems to not be as often. My vision has still not improved any. :( Some days I do notice that is it worse than others but I have gotten used to it for the most part. Other than that things are fairly normal around here. The kids are getting very excited about all the upcoming holidays and bouncing off the walls since they have not been able to go outside and play.
Today ended up being a bummer of a day. Dylan stayed home because of a cough and Emily has had a runny nose and cough. I started to feel bad so I took my temp and it was a little elevated. So we decided to go get dinner since no one felt like cooking. After dinner we stopped at Petsmart to get cat food and then the car would not start. ARGH! So we have gone from one car to no car. We had the car towed and had a neighbor come pick us up. THANK YOU Rita!!!!!! We are thinking the alternator went out and it is covered under the warranty. I am crossing my fingers. So to keep things as simple as possible Emily and I will be staying home tomorrow and Jerry has a co-worker that will give him a ride to and from work.
Hopefully we will get some good news tomorrow.
Amanda
MS Walk
Sunday October 11, 2009 - I want to thank all of you that have donated and all of those that came out to walk yesterday. We had a good time. It was a little cool but better than being 100 degrees outside.
If you want to donate it is not too late. You can still go to my page and donate online. Also, for those of you in the San Antonio area there is a walk at the AT&T center on March 6, 2010. You can sign up for the walk now. I am thinking of putting a team together and then you can sign up to be on my team. If anyone has a team name suggestion I would greatly appreciate it.
I hope you have all had a great weekend. The weather here has been nothing like they forecast but owell. I will take the rain and cooler temps over the heat any day. Have a great weekend.Amanda
Thank You BetaPlus, Again!
Monday October 5, 2009 - I hope everyone had a good wet weekend. It is nice to finally get some rain. I just wish it had come a few months ago when I was having to pay to water the grass. We had a great weekend. It was Jerry's' first weekend home in a long time. He has taken a leave of absence from his part time job. We tried to get a few things done around the house but played lazy at the same time. It was nice.
Today ended on a very good note. I was checking my email and had an email from BetaPlus. Due to the economy, they have decided that people that are on the $50 a month copay program or assistance program will be switched over to a $0 a month copay as long as you are on the medication. YIPPEEEE! So as long as I am on Betaseron I will not have to pay for it. I guess us switching insurance and not having them pay for it helped out in the end after all. So BetaPlus is sending the info to the pharmacy and I will not have to pay for my next shipment.
I sure hope the rest of the week is as good as today was. :) I hope you all have a great week.
*Reminder - MS Walk Austin is this Saturday. I hope to see you all there. Save The Date: MS Walk in San Antonio on March 6, 2010.
Amanda
Today ended on a very good note. I was checking my email and had an email from BetaPlus. Due to the economy, they have decided that people that are on the $50 a month copay program or assistance program will be switched over to a $0 a month copay as long as you are on the medication. YIPPEEEE! So as long as I am on Betaseron I will not have to pay for it. I guess us switching insurance and not having them pay for it helped out in the end after all. So BetaPlus is sending the info to the pharmacy and I will not have to pay for my next shipment.
I sure hope the rest of the week is as good as today was. :) I hope you all have a great week.
*Reminder - MS Walk Austin is this Saturday. I hope to see you all there. Save The Date: MS Walk in San Antonio on March 6, 2010.
Amanda
Busy Day
Thursday October 1, 2009 - Today was a very busy day for us. I had an appointment with the dermatologist just for a follow up - everything looks good. After that I took Emily in to have blood drawn. I have been putting it off for a week. She did GREAT! She didn't cry or anything; she just watched the guy stick her and take her blood. I think the kids seeing me stick myself with a needle has made them a little more tolerant of the doctor and shots and such. Then, Emily and I headed to the grocery store where we spent 2 hours shopping. UGH! That is what happens when you have not been shopping in about three weeks.
We got home, unloaded the groceries, ate lunch and started some laundry. Then I went an attempted to get new glasses with very little luck. Emily was tired, so she would not listen to anything I said. So of course as soon as we got in the car she fell asleep. When we got home it was time for Dylan to get home from school and then I took him to have his blood drawn. He did GREAT as well! I think it helped that Emily told him about it before hand and made it sound like no big deal; so he had to be the big boy since his sister did not cry.
Then we were off to pick Jerry up from work and try once more to get my glasses. I picked out the glasses I wanted and then went to sign in to wait for someone to help me. We waited for 45 minutes. Two people that came in after me were called first. I went to look at the sign in sheet and they had just completely skipped me. So we were there all that time for nothing. We got up and left. Very frustrating! Now we are trying to get homework and showers done. It is way past bedtime.
* I had Emily and Dylan's blood drawn to check their vitamin D levels. There are new studies that show vitamin D deficiencies may be a contributing factor to developing MS. You get vitamin D from sunshine and from milk. Nowadays kids are not outside as much and drink skim milk more; so they have lower levels of vitamin D. My neurologist highly recommended getting them checked so if it is low we can make sure we either spend more time outside or supplement them. Having a parent with MS makes them more likely to get MS and since Emily is female she is at greater risk. If there is anything I can do to make those risks lower I will do it.
I hope you have all had a great week and have a good weekend. Don't forget Austin MS walk is next Saturday in Round Rock. Hope to see you all there.
Amanda
We got home, unloaded the groceries, ate lunch and started some laundry. Then I went an attempted to get new glasses with very little luck. Emily was tired, so she would not listen to anything I said. So of course as soon as we got in the car she fell asleep. When we got home it was time for Dylan to get home from school and then I took him to have his blood drawn. He did GREAT as well! I think it helped that Emily told him about it before hand and made it sound like no big deal; so he had to be the big boy since his sister did not cry.
Then we were off to pick Jerry up from work and try once more to get my glasses. I picked out the glasses I wanted and then went to sign in to wait for someone to help me. We waited for 45 minutes. Two people that came in after me were called first. I went to look at the sign in sheet and they had just completely skipped me. So we were there all that time for nothing. We got up and left. Very frustrating! Now we are trying to get homework and showers done. It is way past bedtime.
* I had Emily and Dylan's blood drawn to check their vitamin D levels. There are new studies that show vitamin D deficiencies may be a contributing factor to developing MS. You get vitamin D from sunshine and from milk. Nowadays kids are not outside as much and drink skim milk more; so they have lower levels of vitamin D. My neurologist highly recommended getting them checked so if it is low we can make sure we either spend more time outside or supplement them. Having a parent with MS makes them more likely to get MS and since Emily is female she is at greater risk. If there is anything I can do to make those risks lower I will do it.
I hope you have all had a great week and have a good weekend. Don't forget Austin MS walk is next Saturday in Round Rock. Hope to see you all there.
Amanda
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