AAUGH!!! (like Charlie Brown says)

Remember when I forgot to mention in my last post that I made a new friend in the first month of this new year?  New friends are the best...they are fun, don't inflict any pain unless you want them to, make you laugh, and let you sleep at night (unless they're a really great friend and drunk-call you in the middle of the night).  Um, no.  Not this one.  This one is more like the snarky Lucy Van Pelt from Charlie Brown.

My new friend is a kidney stone, proudly revealing itself via CT scan at the ER on January 28th.  Yay for this friend.  It is NOT fun, inflicts severe PAIN, and makes me CRY!  The ER told me this friend was 4 mm big, supposed to pass over the next few days, and the pain would subside soon but I would now be susceptible tothem in the future so be sure to always drink lots of water.  A week later my pain had subsided and I figured it had broken up and passed through.

This friend had other plans and decided, unbeknownst to me, to hang out for a while, enjoying my kidney-shaped couch.   Well, this past Saturday, February 26th (one month later) it knocked on my inner door again and, when I didn't immediately answer, decided to ring the bell very loudly.  I was surprised that another would form so quickly and decided to ride it out with pain meds.  By Monday I had all the symptoms of a bladder infection and figured I better go to the doctor soon.  Saw one on Wednesday, was immediately referred to a urologist and seen on Thursday.  This guy told me the ER didn't give me correct info...it is 6 mm in size and I should have been referred out right away.  Apparently 5 mm and above can be dangerous, requiring surgery because they rarely break up on their own and pass.  Mine had traveled down to just above my bladder and decided to comfortably camp there.  I say comfortably meaning IT is comfortable there.  I am not comfortable with it there.  It's blocking the tube from my kidney so everything is backing up and causing swelling.  Again, yay.  I need minor surgery to get rid of it.  I'll spare you the details given by the doctor on how he will be approaching this friend.  Google it if you must.  I'm sure Wikipedia has a good description of how the procedure is done.  :::sigh:::

Anyway, I should get some sort of immediate relief (yay - as in 'there was much rejoicing...yay', like they do in The Life of Brian) and my friend will be gone soon.  It will be zapped with a laser (ack!) and ride through the stent tunnel with the backed-up tsunami that will come from my right kidney when it expresses it's sighs of "relief".  (again, yay)

(me) Hoping it doesn't happen again.  (me, again) Doesn't like the word "susceptible".  I'll let you know the "outcome".  The end.

I've decided that "GRRRR" is a word and is now my favorite...

Holy cow, I can't believe there hasn't been a new post on my blog since before my knee surgery in October!  It's been a busy past few months, lots has been going on, I guess I just haven't had time.  The end.

Sooo, knee surgery went well.  Instead of a full replacement, I had a partial...2 compartments instead of 3...and also got a new knee cap.  Recovery has been good, but I still have a little ways to go before all the muscle pain is gone.  Still need to stick to my exercise regimen.  :::sigh:::  It's easier said than done.  Oh, and did I mention...I'm now down 78 pounds?  (yay).

Jon is still unemployed.  Job finding hasn't been so successful.  He's looked and looked and looked up North to no avail.  Now we're looking for cities in other states that we'd be interested to raise our family in.  Idaho, Tennessee, Maine, Virginia, Utah, Washington State (snicker), Oregon.  Also looking in Canada.  Gotta go where the work is.  Please keep us in your prayers.  We honestly never expected to be out of work for this long.  It's been 9 months.  Sooo thankful for the unemployment extension and other benefits we're currently receiving.  Just wishing we wouldn't have to use them any longer!

Max is great!  His follow-up appts. with doctors at UCLA and here in December all say he's recovered completely from the meningitis.  His MRI showed no signs of brain swelling and eye exams confirmed only damage to his periferal vision in both eyes and 20/40 vision in his left eye.  Right eye vision is back to 20/20.  He wears cool specs now to correct the blurry left eye, but doesn't need them all the time.  Usually only when he's doing school work on the computer.  He's so fortunate to have come out of this illness alive, first of all, and second to only have small vision challenges.  We almost lost him twice and, until he got to UCLA, it looked like his vision wasn't going to return.  He's living proof that Jesus likes America too, and miracles happen in places other than The Holy Land.  Just sayin.  So, he's happily continuing with middle school at home through Odyssey Charter School, along with the occasional argument with his siblings.

Meghan.  Ohhhh Meghan.  How do I describe thee?  Let me count the ways.  She was officially dx'd with ADHD in September and was really struggling in school.  By December, she had fallen so far behind her classmates that Jon and I decided it was time to give her one-on-one attention and home school her.  We pulled her out of school right before Winter Break and enrolled her in Odyssey.  Because Max and Olivia have done so well in the program, I knew it would be great for Meg.  So far she's doing really well and has caught up in most of the areas she fell behind.  She misses her teacher and friends, but loves being home with everyone.

Olivia  has experimented with different hair colors.  Most girls/women try blonde, red, dark brown, etc., etc.  Our creative, eccentric artist goes a different route...blue, plumb, cotton candy pink.  It took me a long while to agree, and we started out with burgundy streaks.  That moved to other colors, which I have to say turned out pretty cool.  Never thought I'd like it, but now it's hard to picture her with normal, dark brown hair.  Currently she's hot pink...not my fave, the plumb/purple is, so we're going to go back to that this week.  She's loving being back in Odyssey for 10th grade.  We had her try public school at Chaparral for 9th and it was a disaster.  Grades are back up to where they should be and she has lots of time to work on her painting.  She also gets to work with a teacher friend at another school, who's taking her through an art program one day a week, kind of like an elective.

Ian graduated last June and has had some struggles, but is finally heading in the right direction.  He's got some tough obstacles to overcome, but will get through the rough stuff with our support.  He's got a great future a head of him and looks forward to college and studying to become an engineer, probably structural.

These are frustrating but exciting times for this Boardman family.  We've been placed in situations we NEVER thought we'd ever be in.  Our faith in God has been challenged and, I'm happy to say, we've had more success than failure in that department.  Our entire family has been forced to deal with the "product of our environment" issues and we're all on the road to healing.  Jon and I have been married 21 years this past January 20th, and just now feel like we have the beginnings of a good marriage.  It is so refreshing.  We've found a new place to worship closer to home, until we know what our future holds.  Will we stay here in Vegas?  Hope not.  Will we move to Reno?  Hope so.  Will we move to a completely different state?  Maybe.

Change came crashing down on us all at once, like a bolt of lightening.  We've weathered most of the storm, so far, and as we look back, we can see that a lot of it was necessary for specific changes to happen, and others had to happen in order to deal with illnesses and other events that were unforseen.  No regrets.  Now we're relying on faith that we're coming out of the woods and work for Jon is just over the foothill.