Happy 2009!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Things have been crazy since Thanksgiving…..

My health:  I actually spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. I had a minor outpatient procedure a few days before and things went awry and I ended up in an ambulance to the ER the night before. I got home Friday before noon and have since recouperated fairly well but not yet at 100%.  No sense of smell yet and no indication that my pituitary function is getting better. The diabetes insipidus (the reason I am taking the intranasal desmopressin) is something I will just have to live with.

My family: Kids are fabulous. Rowan just went back to school after being home for 2 weeks and when we were on our way, I asked if he was excited and he said yes. He took some chocolates for a few of his teachers (he asked to do that!). Encsi’s language skills are phenomenal. She puts lots of words together, understands everything (and only response favorably to what she likes!) and wields words that it seems a 2.5 year old shouldn’t even know! Such a remendous pleasure they are. More beautiful by the minute.

They enjoyed having family here for the holiday. We made everyone stay here with us – not the Hilton but we had fun! My parents came 19-26th and Khaled, Mervie, Kaden, Kyan, and Kellan came 23-28th. The kids had a blast playing outside togther. Uncle Jani built fires in the pit a few times so there were plenty of s’mores -Kyan made one for his mommy, myself, and nana (this was her first ever!).  I took everyone (except Auntie Mervie – I’ll get to that in a minute) for a ride in the sticks on my Recon (the 4-wheeler). The stories I heard from each kid were quite funny. Kyan (aka “rubbermade” because he is adventurous and indestructable) was the first to hop on with me. He saw a dead fish hanging from a tree and we decided it was there because someone was trying to lure a bear in to catch it. Kaden continued that story line by saying that someone on his moms side of the family has a deer head mounted on their wall and so he thought that was why they wanted to catch the bear.  Mom was disgusted because I don’t wear googles. Apparently Walker isn’t to thrilled about that either and I think he mentioned wearing a helmet. A helmet I get, but goggles?  It isn’t like I’m going on the road and cruising fast. Just leisurely meandering through the trees I love so much. I can still imagine how nice it smells.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. Between Papa shopping everyday and Nana trying to keep up with the supply and demand by cooking, we ate like royalty. I couldn’t smell the apple strudel but it tasted pretty good! Our neighbors, the Adamses, have an incredible display of Christmas lights and blow up decorations on their lawn. So Christmas Eve, I loaded the kids and Auntie Mervie (for crowd control – she is little but she does teach high schoolers and so learn fast that you DO NOT want to see her mad) into the van and took them to see it. Khaled took nana and papa. Uncle Jani stayed behind to keep an eye on the stove. When we returned about 15 min later, Uncle Jani was sweeping the carport and moved ahead of me when I pulled in. Since it was dark, all the Christmas lights were so pretty and we could see the lights on the Christmas tree that was in the window of the dining area just ahead. Well, what we saw then was truly spectacular! Santa Claus was putting presents under the tree! So I pulled forward a bit and before you could say Ho-Ho-Ho, all 3 kids in the back had their belts undone and were plastered against the window of the van waving at Santa! He winked at us, quickly finished putting the gifts under the tree, and then before we could back up, park, and get my slow derriere into my chair and out of the van, he had slipped out the back and on to the next house. Wow! What a cool thing to have gotten a glimpse of! Our kids must have been REALLY good this year. And I think it probably took him longer to put all the gifts there than it did for the kids to unwrap them! No such thing as taking turns when you’ve got ages 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 5, and soon to be 7!! Auntie Mervie made nana this cool bracelet with black and white pix of each of the grandkids. Well, there were 6 frames. Uh-oh. We are hoping that clump of cells in that ultrasound image is XX and not a fourth XY!! So a very Merry Christmas was had by all!!!

So I’m going to flash back for a moment – last December I was still in the hospital. Nicle and Dave came to see us and we all went to the museum together. They moved from Seattle to Minneapolis and are doing well. Bill and Rachel from Seabrook, Tx came with their kids to see us and bring the proceeds from the generous auction/party that Susan and Kevin held for me. Christmas was lovely. I got to spend it with Jani and the kids and my parents. Todd and Megan not only loaned us their house, they put up a tree and loaned Jani a car to get me there and back. I had a “day pass” from Shepherd. I remember the kids running around, my mom in the mitchen, and Jani outside manning the BBQ. I remember Encsi trying to climb up next to me to get on the couch and when she couldn’t and I wasn’t strong enough to help, Rowan hopped off and gave her a boost. I read the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to them. The gifts we received from so many people. Thank you again. I may not be able to adequately express my gratitude but I will certainly always remember.  Many of the nurses in the hospital commented on how many visitors, packages, and mail I got. They said there were people there that had none of that. Some families can’t afford the time or money to leave their lives to visit a loved one in rehab. I will never forget all of you and I will never stop being thankful for each of you. Even those I have not yet had the chance to talk to. There are friends of mine from Ionia high school like Cathy O’Malley, Cindy Bollinger (now Munchy), and Rob Banhagel that I have been in touch with through e-mail or phone messages but not actually connected to – yet! Please don’t give up on me!! Rob, if you see this please call me again! I lost your number!!  One thing I need everyone to understand is that things take me longer. I am busy with my family and work but what is really limiting is that since I need my hands to move, even though I carry my cell phone with me everywhere, I can’t walk and talk like I used to. I do text people often because I can do that in an elevator since it is short and quick. E-mail too since Jess gave me her old Dell Axim PDA that goes everywhere with me too.

I’m not even going to say it was too short because that is given and when you think about life, the good times ALWAYS go too fast.  I’m just glad there are good times.  Things could be so much worse. I certainly have my moments. There is so much I need and want to do. Even though this is very difficult and some may wonder about my quality of life, if you lived a day in my shoes, there would be no reason wonder. Rowan just got home from schol and Jani took him ice skating. I remember Christmas of 2006 being up on the island and getting skates for Rowan and Kaden for Christmas and going to Kingston to sakte in the town square. Hope and Jay were there with Jed and Aiden and then Hope came to the Toucan to hang with us a bit.  So yes this really  hurts because I can’t take Rowan skating anymore. But I will watch him, encourage him, and expose him to as many of these fun things as possible and watch him take ownership of whatever he enjoys. Encsi too. They are such wonderful little monsters and I am glad to be their mom and I will be the best I can.

Work stuff: I resubmitted a manuscript to AJP-Heart&Circ in early Dec and got it back a few weeks later.  They didn’t accept or reject it. They want me to respond to comments and they will send it back to the reviewers. So we’ll see.  Also, I submitted a grant to NIH today and so that is a huge load off. Bob helped tremendously with that and he and Jian are co-PIs on it. Now we have to wait until July for the review. Time will fly between now and then though. Here is a snapshot of what 2009 has in store : Jess is in the process of writing a pre-doc fellowship proposal to submit to AHA at the end of the month; Kaden will be 7 on Feb 6th; the McDevitt’s are coming Feb 11-15th; Hans is coming at the end of March; I get to teach endocrine and reproductive to the med students (3 weeks total in Mar-Apr); Jani is turning 40 on May 25th and so hopefully he’ll celebrate with his family in Hungary; Kellan will be 2 on May 4th, Rowan will be done his first year of school June 9th; Khaled and Mervie will be celebrating 10 years together  on June 23rd which is also Kyan’s 4th birthday; Encsi will be 3 July 24th; Mervie is due in early August , then Rowan will start 1st grade in late August….and so goes the cycle of life!!!

So this is all I have time for right now. My resolution for the new year is to make more peace with myself on this and be positive for those that love and support me. Thank you for being one of those reasons for why I am here and want to be strong.