a brief update... with a promise for more

Well, well, well... look who's back! I know you all think I've fallen off the face of the planet. And rightfully so. I was starting to wonder myself. Things have been really crazy with the holidays, trips to see family, work, and life. I know - what kind of excuse is that? But as my mom famously likes to say - it is what it is. So I know I have tons to catch up on. Since my last post, I've had a birthday (one more year in my twenties!), we celebrated Thanksgiving (my absolute favorite holiday and a blog topic all of it's own still to come), survived Black Friday (and we have pictures to prove we were there!), visited Blanco (twice), celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas, celebrated Mia's 2nd birthday (that kid is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!)... phew, I'm exhausted just trying to remember it all!

Well, there have been lots of things happening, but I can't get all in to one update. So I'll start with some of the biggies, and then I PROMISE, I will update with the latest happenings and goings.

Medical Updates:
- Mom is doing much better. You know that she had gallbladder surgery a while back. While she has some adjusting to do, she is feeling much better and is getting used to what her stomach can and can't handle. This wasn't, however, the end of her problems. She's continued to have tests after tests to no avail. Just before Thanksgiving, I flew into Houston to take her to the latest and greatest one - an endoscope sort of, but more in depth than the typical one. They put her out, stick a scope to look all through her insides to determine where bleeding is coming from and what needs to be done to fix it. This, mind you, is after the camera test (she swallowed a pill that is a camera that is supposed to travel throughout her insides taking video feed - creepy and amazing at the same time). Well anyway, after the camera test (which is supposed to be the end all to getting answers, and the endoscope (even more so the end all to getting answers), the doctor call me in to say that they didn't find anything that seemed to be a problem. Well this sounds like good news, and in a way it is, but in a big way it also was not. She is so tired of just not knowing what is going on and what she needs to do to be better. So she talked with her primary doctor (the one that did this last test is a rare specialist who she didn't particularly care for, but is one of very few in all of Houston that performs this test), and it was determined that since everything that is of real concern has been ruled out, she needs to wait it out and should get better with some time. I suppose this is good news - meaning that it's nothing serious enough to identify and need a remedy, but it's also a bit scary. So now we're waiting, and hoping for a little bit of time to do the trick.+
- I continue to do really well with my Lupus diagnosis. We've still had some ups and downs, and I've had to go back up slightly on the Prednisone, but still at a manageable, relatively small dose. I've been feeling pretty consistently well, and again am grateful to have great doctors, and phenomenal family and friends who check in on me, support me, and are constant rocks in an uncertain world. But, you know how I like to rock the boat, and these last few months were no exception. I went for my annual woman checkup at the end of October, and my test results returned some abnormality. Not very uncommon, and something I've had before. It just requires a minor in office procedure to determine if the abnormality is precancerous or of no concern, and my doctor expected a completely insignificant result. Unfortunately, the biopsy resulted in a little more concern than expected, and I had to have a second procedure done, just after Thanksgiving. Again, in office, and still very minor. All in all it took less than an hour. It's called a L.E.E.P procedure, and reading about it online was very interesting. It's actually a procedure that produces and electrical shock through your body that causes the cells to burst, and the doctor cuts a small portion of the uterus where the abnormal cells lie to get out any precancer cells. It's not even painful, but there was a very strange sensation from the electricity that goes through your body. Anyway, the biopsy results came back normal, showing that she got all of the problem cells out before they became a problem - yay! So that was my latest and greatest - I wouldn't even call a scare, but more of a nuisance. April was fantastic - taking me to my appt, and even going in with me so that another set of ears could take in what the doctor had to say (I'm so bad about remembering that stuff!) and that wasn't easy, but she toughed it out for me!!

So, all in all, we're all hanging in just fine and are happy to have made it to another New Year, though we sometimes wondered if we would. Hope everyone has had a wonderful, peaceful, happy holiday (whatever you celebrate), and have an even better New Year!