Almost Friday!

I always love Thursday since it's the day before Friday. And I especially love it during this time of year when I know we can spend some time outside and have fun. Brandon is still on the hunt for that big one he saw last weekend so hopefully he will get it. Me and the kids are going down to mom and dad's Saturday morning. I am going to take my machine and retreat to mom's sewing room/ upstairs bonus room and she has promised to occupy the kids. She also offered to cook my dinner if I bring her ingredients and a recipe! I could go on for days about how lucky I am to have all the help I do from my family. I absolutely could not do it without them. Well, I probably could, but I would certainly not be sane!
I'm not sure if I said that Mason is back to his old tricks and was diagnosed with a double ear infection last Friday. His eye is also infected again. I took him to the ENT but he still wants to wait another 6 weeks before we do tubes to see if the fluid clears. The pediatric eye specialist at Vanderbilt said to get through his entire course of antibiotics and if he still has the infection, then he will see him. But he really is a trooper and he's been eating, sleeping, and playing great. We're still waiting for that first step. And for him to say "mama" instead of "da da da da da" all the time. Ellie is getting a little sniffly too but I hope it's just the cooler weather and she can get through it. She pointed out a house this morning and told me that's where she and Bob live. Bob is her imaginary "baby's daddy". (These are her own words. I could not make this stuff up!) She said "See that white car? That's Bob's." So I asked why he wasn't at work and she said that he rides with his friend. (Hmm...this sounds oddly familiar...Brandon carpools to work...) I said "Is his friend's name Jim? Jim Dpeadin?" (this is a joke about my brother-in-law Tim Dreadin who happens to be Brandon's carpooling friend) And he answer was: "Yes. But Bob and Jim aren't at work yet. They had to go to the store to get milk and bread." My goodness. I really need to record this so she believes me when she is older. Maybe this blog will still be around then.
I talked to my cardiologist yesterday. He said everything looks good and is pretty much just as he thought: my pulmonary valve is leaking as a result of my surgery in 1996. He said the course of action is to keep an eye on it with a follow-up MRI every year or so. He said he thinks we are looking at more than 2 years before we will need to discuss surgery, but we may have to look into replacing the pulmonary valve. I could wallow in this news and worry about it. But I won't. I have a beautiful family and I want to enjoy and appreciate every day. I trust in God and my very smart (and handsome) doctor and feel like for now I have done all I need to do. However, I must lose some weight. I did ask Dr. Prudoff about losing weight and would that have a significant impact on the progression of this issue and he said in general losing weight would be good for my heart health, but for this specific issue, it would have little to no impact. I am going to switch to a dr who specializes in adults with congenital heart conditions. The dr is a colleague of Dr. Prudoff's and I talked with him about me switching and I have decided it would be best to go to someone who works with patients like me every day. Dr. P really went above and beyond in researching and talking to his colleagues to be sure the course of action he took was the best, but he is more accustomed to working with strictly adults issues and I have learned in my 33 years of dealing with this heart thing that there is a WORLD of difference between congenital conditions and adult conditions.
PS Everyone can leave comments now. I can't wait to see what you've all been wanting to say!