Matter of the Heart

I appreciate everyone’s prayers and kind words! It has been a tremendous encouragement to me. 

Yesterday Maddox had an appointment with the pediatric cardiologist. Some of you saw a couple weeks ago I took him to the ER due to a rapid heartbeat and chest pains. At that point he was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome, a specific electrical pattern QUITE CLEAR on any EKG/ECG. The simplest way of explaining it is that he as an extra electrical pathway in his heart that can cause shortness of breath, lightheadedness, fainting, SVT (rapid heartrate), palpitations, stroke, diseased heart from overwork, and sudden cardiac death. 

Many people are asymptomatic. This condition often results in teen athletes dropping dead suddenly when they start playing sports. Maddox has had shortness of breath, lightheadedness, fainting, palpitations and SVT. Having symptoms (and every time without provocation- he is at rest when they occur) puts him in a higher risk category that requires surgery very soon. Medicine was not even discussed.

Surgery is considered minimally invasive and very low risk. What is done is called “catheter ablation” or “cardiac ablation” which is using a catheter in the heart to send a radio frequency into the offending electrical pathway to destroy it. There are 3 distinct locations it could be in, and they won’t know until they are 2 hours into the procedure. They will stimulate an episode of SVT to find the pathway. Once located, they will ablate the pathway, and then stimulate the heart again (attempt another SVT event) to make sure it was successful. The biggest risk is if the extra pathway is in the center, which is located very near the tissue that stimulates a normal heartbeat. A mistake here would ablate the regular pathway which would require a pacemaker to keep his heart beating. This procedure takes about 4-5 hours and requires an overnight stay to monitor before going home.

 I have heard many stories from friends who have reached out to me in the last couple of weeks about how simple the procedure was and how the problem was corrected without reoccurrence. That being said, any procedure is not without risk, and given Maddox’s history with medical interventions I am nervous about any medical interventions, although the benefits far outweigh any risks. He has suffered arthus reaction, anaphylactic reaction, and rapid heartbeat in relation to all separate medical procedures or even unknown irritants. This makes him a higher risk for a “simple” procedure. It’s a lot for a mama bear to take in! I don’t like to dwell on worst case scenarios, but they do need to be thought through and considered.

So here is our plan of action:

1. He has an appointment Monday with an MD homeopath. This is the only thing in the world I can think of that has even the slightest chance of correcting his electrical pathway without surgery. And the chance is slight. This doctor told me very directly that if he is unable to correct it with homeopathic treatment very quickly, surgery is NEEDED. I agree. I am also very thankful to be working with a homeopath with the prospect of surgery on the horizon, as homeopathic support through surgery is so helpful for faster healing of the body.
2. I am waiting to hear from the cardiac surgeon to schedule with them. Most parents meet with the surgeon the day of the procedure. What the what? I think that’s insane. My hope is to meet the surgeon and then have the procedure another day.

Our family has also recently had our eyes opened to the devastation of the loss of a child, as Korbin’s friend from childhood recently passed due to a heart condition. It is unthinkable that these things happen. My heart hurts for their profound loss.  But those parents spoke out and said to their friends to PAY ATTENTION to those symptoms that seem insignificant. That made a difference for me. 

I am thankful for everyone’s prayers and encouragement, as well as the symptoms Maddox has had as a warning for us to heed. One other very interesting thing that happened this spring was that I was completely overwhelmed with my schedule and could not make time for Maddox and Korbin to run track. I felt GUILTY about that! And now I am reassured that Maddox was being protected.

It's been a long time! part 2

To continue the story of our family vacation last year, I will sum it up here:

Day 2:

We ate at a restaurant for breakfast and headed to the Scouting Museum. We got to it within the last month before they closed it down and divvied up the stuff to other places. It was actually fun to be there. There were interactive games and challenges that while broken down for the most part, there were plenty there to keep up busy. I could see how fun it would be to do with a group or at least while the museum was fully functioning once upon a time. The man who took us on a tour was a gentleman in his 90's who had worked at the museum for over 40 years!

We made a failed attempt at visiting the Five Sixty restaurant at Reunion Tower, as the restaurant was full. We didn't realize we would need to book ahead of time. (We were able to just walk in at the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio a few years ago.) We found a hole-in-the-wall pizza place and had dinner there instead.

Day 3:

We visited the Dallas Zoo. We learned about Opossums. I didn't realize that while they appear vicious, they don't cause the damage they are blamed for- it's usually a raccoon behind those things. They had a really cute Opossum they were rehabilitating and we got to watch her eat treats while the handler talked about her. After the zoo, we went "home," showered, and then met up with Jeff's cousins for a cook out. We had so much fun catching up with them!

Day 4:

We visited the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden as well as the Children's Adventure Garden. After that, we headed up to a birthday party for my niece's son.

M & L standing outside of the maze

Day 5:

We spent the day at the Perot Museum. While there, Lacey ran in to a friend of hers that has been in AHG with her since her Pathfinder (kindergarten) year! Afterwards, we went back to visit the cousins on Jeff's side of the family again.

The Perot Museum has such an interesting look!

take 1.

take 12. Korbin was so done. 😂

K showing M&L how to drive the robots

Kai building a circuit

3-d show

AHG friends for 6 years!

Day 6:

We visited the Bush Museum and the GeoDeck at Reunion Tower. That evening, we spent time with my sister and the cousins.

9/11 tribute

Oval office replica during Bush's presidency

    

Day 7:

We drove home. The kids had such a great time. They are still talking about it fondly almost a year later.

Duchess loves riding with the family!

It's been a long time!

April 29, 2018 

Last year Hurricane Harvey hit us during the time I started blogging about our summer. Even though we personally did not suffer flooding in our home, the devastation around us and that our friends suffered was emotionally draining. Going outside to milk the goats during the storm was dreadful to me. My rain boots sunk 10 inches deep in some places. Our 5th wheel sank a couple of inches and I had imaginings of us all falling into a sinkhole. It was just so miserable to see so much rain. Rain was dreadful for some time after. Each time I have sat to finish this post I have felt blocked- either the words wouldn't come or the pictures just won't load for some reason. Working through this post is helping me to overcome that sense of dread that I have held on to for far too long.

August 29, 2017
As I feverishly plan out our school year (too much thinking and too little doing, lately) I wanted to take the time to share our summer fun with you.

We started the summer with a mother/daughter retreat to a beautiful place north of us. There were tons of things to do. The girls worked on bb gun shooting and had plenty of time for water fun. Kailyn and Lacey were in different groups, so I got most of my pictures of just Lacey.

Lacey and Kailyn both shot the water bottles they were aiming for!!

Kailyn paddle boarding 

Lacey paddle boarding

Lacey and I canoeing



The girls and I stayed in one of the coolest rooms in the retreat center. We had a nice loft above us, which many of the girls enjoyed hanging out in. I brought all my pretty purple stuff, including my diffuser, as well as some sweet luxuries, such as my foam mattress pad and my tiny lamp to make it really cozy.

I was quite comfy! I used the tote to bring my stuff and as a nightstand.

There was a vaulted ceiling up there. That light is the sun through a window.

Maddox joined a new Cub Scout pack. It is a very hard thing to change groups. I have been with that group since Korbin was 6 years old, which was 11 years ago! Our pack was just so small that Maddox was missing out on the social aspects of scouting. It is simply more fun with more people. I did love the quiet and close-knit group we had, but most of them aged out this year, so I made the hard decision to move on to a larger group. Over the summer Maddox and Lacey have been to a nerf gun battle as well as the Federal Courthouse and US Marshall's office downtown. I'm still mourning the loss of my tribe, as Korbin will officially age out in January, but here's to new beginnings!!

Tranquility Park across from the federal courthouse in Houston

Judge Hittner's courtroom

like sardines in the elevators and rooms between hallways

US Marshall Blankenship's office

holding cells for inmates awaiting their hearings

The US Marshalls enter codes on each doorway. There is a network of hallways leading to courtrooms.




In August I hosted a shooting sports day for the older girls in our AHG troop. We finished up most of the bb gun shooting requirements.

I really enjoy going to Houston each summer to watch the Shakespeare plays put on by U of H. They always put on a comedy and a tragedy. Jeff isn't fond of them, but agreed to at least go to the comedies each year. Even though I really wanted to go see Richard III this year, I agreed to take everyone to see A Comedy of Errors. However, when we arrived, I thought it was a mistake that my ticket said "Richard III." Then we took our seats and noticed...this was no comedy! Mummified body bags were hanging all over the stage. It was so funny. It was not at all what I had expected. We stayed for the play, and I'm glad we did. We actually begin our year in school reading Richard III. I think next year I'll just plan to see them both. 

Richard is finally dead. Once his body was raised on the cable, the rest fell to the ground. Well played.

The week that school started back here was the week we decided to take a family vacation.

DAY 1:Moving this RV is just a nightmare to me. It was slightly better this time than it was when we took it in for inspection last month, but it's going to take me a LONG time to get over it. Jeff is a really good driver! But the angles we have to navigate to get this thing out of the driveway are really difficult. Event the delivery driver was scratching his head.  And for the record- I haven't even attempted driving his truck yet- other than pulling forward about 20 feet into our yard, which hardly counts for anything.

When we left, it took us roughly 40 minutes to back it out of our driveway. We need to widen it; that would make all the difference in the world. We left at roughly 8:30 and got to the RV park in Dallas right at noon. We took it slow and steady.

Once we checked in and parked, we set up electricity and headed to the Astros game at the Rangers Stadium. We got there an hour before the game to enjoy the many food offerings provided there. The Astros won the game, and then the kids ran the bases after. It was the first baseball game for all of them except Korbin!

After the game we made a stop at Walmart to replace the water hose we broke when we left and the sewer elbow we left behind. Then, we headed home, finished setting up, and I took Maddox and Lacey to the pool. I honestly think the pool was one of the biggest highlights of the week for them! The teenagers never even looked at it. 

to be continued...