And THAT's when I threw up on my grandmother. p.17: We're back!

[ashleypmo]

Sign me up.
Title got my attention.
Then I noticed we are only a year apart (I am older so feel young)
First trip was also at 4 but in 1971
Love the Bible verse in your siggy
And, I also home school my two children (18 and 15)
Haven't read all yet. I'll catch up a little later.
Looking forward to some more reading.

Thanks for joinin' in the fun, Shmu! I have the bible verse from my siggy painted on my schoolroom wall. When we are having a particularly rough day, I will often quote that verse, to which my children will add: "...not for nervouse breakdowns!"

 

[ashleypmo]

Stories of the immature men.....

Hope all is well w/ you.

Thanks, Jordan. Without going into all the details just yet (gettin' ready to join the family on the couch for some "It's a Wonderful Life"), I'm going in for a CAT scan tomorrow. I'll go into more detail in a few days, after the in-laws head back home & I have more time to post.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Maybe we will see you at Cindys. I had a similar experience when I made my ADR's for our May trip.

I had a very similar experience, I was finished making all my ADR's for our May 08 and just for kicks, asked the CM to just check for a table at Cindy's. I was thinking there is no way they have reservations, it was 7:20am. To my utter shock they even had the time I asked for. I guess we have to go now. My twin DS who are 5 can't wait to check out the princess'.

I just subscribed to your thread, it is a hoot and a holler!! Maybe we will run into each other during our vacations. Families of our size are pretty noticeable. We are chaos every where we go according to my DS. But she only has one DD, so what does she know.

I know we don't know each other but I will add your CAT scan to my prayer list tonight.

 

[ashleypmo]

Maybe we will see you at Cindys. I had a similar experience when I made my ADR's for our May trip.

I had a very similar experience, I was finished making all my ADR's for our May 08 and just for kicks, asked the CM to just check for a table at Cindy's. I was thinking there is no way they have reservations, it was 7:20am. To my utter shock they even had the time I asked for. I guess we have to go now. My twin DS who are 5 can't wait to check out the princess'.

I just subscribed to your thread, it is a hoot and a holler!! Maybe we will run into each other during our vacations. Families of our size are pretty noticeable. We are chaos every where we go according to my DS. But she only has one DD, so what does she know.

I know we don't know each other but I will add your CAT scan to my prayer list tonight.

Thanks for the prayers! I've always loved the writings of the apostle Paul, and one of my favorite verses is from Romans: "For when we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit intercedes for us with such groanings as cannot be uttered; and He who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit, for the Spirit intercedes for us according to His will." That verse has always been precious to me--more so even now!

It's after midnight, and I have to get to bed--I'm nodding off as I type! But just a quick post to let you know that my CAT scan came back NORMAL. I've been called many things, but normal...well, there's always a first time! It's a gland, not a tumor, praise God! I think the doc still wants to figure out what's up with this rogue gland, but I'm still just revelling in the "not dying of cancer" part of the whole thing. I still have the MS issue to deal with, but that's another post for another day...

'Night all!

 

[LaLaroo78]

Hi Ashley!

Your dad sounds like a real character to be around. When I first rode POC I was mad because I thought we were going to get wet. And I even said out loud like an idiot "Man I do not want to get wet. I wouldn'e have rode this if I knew we were going to get wet." Then I realized the waterfall was fake and boy did I feel stupid!

I am so glad to hear that your CAT scan came back normal. Now take a big deep breath in and let out a big sigh of relief. I hope everything else is going well for you and your family.

Take care!

~Michele

 

[ashleypmo]

Hi Ashley!

Your dad sounds like a real character to be around. When I first rode POC I was mad because I thought we were going to get wet. And I even said out loud like an idiot "Man I do not want to get wet. I wouldn'e have rode this if I knew we were going to get wet." Then I realized the waterfall was fake and boy did I feel stupid!

I am so glad to hear that your CAT scan came back normal. Now take a big deep breath in and let out a big sigh of relief. I hope everything else is going well for you and your family.

Take care!

~Michele

Thanks Michele! Yep, my dad was a real character. Everyone regarded him as this uber-cool icon of sorts. My step-mom's new husband was amazed at how everyone talks about my dad as if he were this larger-than-life person. It didn't always make him the best father in the world, but it makes for some good stories!

 

[ashleypmo]

Where to begin, where to begin! So unlike me to be at a loss for words!

These last couple of months have been kind of a whirlwind of doctor visits and tests. I mentioned back on page one that I'm in the process of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Now, usually when you are in the "process of being diagnosed," you don't know what you have. I mean, once you know what you have, I guess you're officially "diagnosed," right? Well, leave it to me to go about things a tad differently...

It all started a little more than 17 years ago, right around the time of our wedding. My grandfather ended up in the hospital 2 weeks before the wedding, and he developed a bacterial infection during his stay and passed away 2 months later. During most of those 2 months he was on life support, and being that I was the only one in the family not employed, I stayed up at the hospital with him from 7 am until 7 pm.

I started having these excruciating pains in my legs, like I was being pierced with a skewer. I was worried that it might be blood clots, so I went in to the doctor. The doctor examined me, ran all sorts of blood work, and did some in-office tests. He took a rather lengthy history, asking me all sorts of questions about other symptoms. He told me it wasn't blood clots, but most likely a "neuro-muscular" disorder, and told me to start keeping a journal of every "symptom" I had. I'm like "Neuromuscular disorder? Whatsup with that?" I mean, you can't just go throwing around words like "neuromuscular disorder" and then say "Have a nice day! Go keep a journal."

That was back before Al Gore invented the internet , so I hit me the ol' fashioned stacks at the public library and piled up about 20 books on "neuromuscular disorder." Pretty soon, I noticed a trend: I would read through book after book, finding that only one disorder fit my symptoms, and it fit them to a proverbial "T": Multiple Sclerosis.

The next day I called the doctor, and he confirmed that he was indeed thinking MS, based on my symptoms, and on something called the Babinsky Reflex: basically, when the doc scrapes the sharp end of the knee-whacking-thingy across the bottom of your foot, your toes are supposed to curl down; mine--and those of individuals w/ MS--flex upward.

Now, for any of you who are thinking "Whoa! You can't cry "MS" based on leg pain and a Babinski Reflex, let me assure you I discovered that a laundry list of symptoms I had always chalked up to extreme clutziness (thanks, Dad! ) , hypochondria, or just general weirdness. Suddenly I had an explanation; not a very reassuring one, but one nonetheless.

The doctor suggested that the next step would be to have a spinal tap. Ummmm....nope! Sorry! Not signin' up for that ride! So that's where it ended for then.

Now, there's a long list of semi-dull developments which transpired over the last 17 years, but let me just say that somewhere along the way I did actually go see a neurologist, but after the guy went off on a rant about "self-diagnosis" and how maybe they should just hand out medical degrees to people off the street, I just decided to go back to my weird little dance, hovering somewhere between acceptance and denial.

So flash forward to this past August. I was feeling to see if my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen when I felt this mass.... a little larger than a pea, and hard as a rock. It was somewhat bothersome, to be sure. My cousin told me she had one before and her doctor told her it was nothing to worry about. That answer suited me fine. It's not that I'm really into avoidance, it's just that with 4 kids, I don't have time to go to the doctor. I know that sounds a teeny bit like an excuse , but it's true. Because of Ramie's nut allergy, I can't drop her off at a friend's house, and I"ve never really felt comfortable with a sitter here.

I just happened to be down visiting my sister near Austin and mentioned this thing in my neck, and my baby sister--the baby sister whom I helped raise after our Dad left-- she turns on me! I mean, she goes left! On and on about how "well-now-you've-opened-this-door" and starts telling me how everyone in the family--including HER IN-LAWS!!!-- is so frustrated that I haven't resolved this MS thing. Don't I realize that I have 4 children??? (No, I guess I hadn't noticed...after the third one, it all became a blur...)

So I was duly chastised, resolved to do something.....and then didn't. Thought about it, but didn't. Then my MOMs group at church started back up in the fall, and during prayer requests, I mentioned the situation to my small group buddies and asked them to pray that God will give me a good, swift kick in the behind to get me to take care of this.

So He struck me down flat with bronchitis.

"Well, as long as I'm here, Doc, there are a couple of things going on I'd like you to look at." So we talk about the MS, and he puts in an order for an MRI. Just like that. Proverbial piece-o'-cake.

Then I tell him about the thing in my neck (I'm getting tired of calling it the "thing." I really should name it. Any suggestions? Maybe I should do a poll.) I fully expect him to say it's no big deal. But he doesn't. He starts throwing out words like "lymphoma" and "biopsy" and "generally not good." And he sends me to a specialist.

So suddenly MS became no big deal.

All of a sudden, I was dying.

It's not that I'm afraid of death & dying. I have a deep and abiding faith in my God and Saviour. But I do have 4 kids. Not only that, we homeschool, and I'm pretty sure chemotherapy is fairly incompatible with homeschooling. Not to mention the little fact that Mason has Down syndrome. "Hey, God--what's up with that? You entrust me with this little guy, and then you take me out of the picture? Do you really mean to leave Gus alone to raise these kids?" No, not alone.

It was a very emotional ride. But in the end, it all came down to this: who do I trust more to take care of my kids? Me, or God? He brought me to this beautiful place of peace and trust. It was as if I became keenly aware of my place in the middle of this great adventure, and I realized that He would put me exactly where He wanted me to be in order to work His perfect plan. I'm going to try to express it the best way I can, but it's really beyond words for me: It's like this: If what God wants to accomplish requires me to be out of the picture, can I trust Him enough to believe that his plan really is perfect?
Not to say I wasn't sad about the prospect of dying, because I was, but He just gave me this beautiful, divine perspective, and I knew everything would be okay, no matter what.

Well, the short of it (oops--too late for that!) is that one MRI, one really terrifying dye-poisoning scare (did you know that if your kidneys and liver aren't functioning optimally and you have a contrast MRI, you will develop an incurable, untreatable, fatal form of blood poisoning from the dye? And that the way they make sure your kidneys and liver are working is by ordering bloodwork, and that if they drop the ball and forget to order the bloodwork and go ahead and inject the contrast dye anyway, you then have to go in for emergency bloodwork, and while you wait for the results you have to watch and see if your skin texture changes to resemble that of an orange peel, which is evidently not all that unlike the texture of skin when winter hits and all the humidity is sucked out of the air. Hypothetically speaking, of course--NOT!!), and one CAT scan later, the mass in my neck looks to be not-cancerous, from what they tell me. Evidently the guideline has to do with size, and mine is within the parameters for "normal." Imagine--me, normal! Whodathunk? We still have to figure out what it's doing there, and watch it to make sure it doesn't grow. But for now anyway, I'm not dying of cancer! I tell you what, the feel of my babies' hair against my cheek as I tuck them in has never been sweeter!

Back to the MRI: I have two brain lesions, consistent with MS. Eeeewww! How icky is that? Lesions, on my brain? I'm like, hey! TMI! Just tell me MS, and leave out the icky part, okay? For cryin' in a bucket... But I'm not really too freaked out about it. I mean, I was kind of expecting it (the MS part, not the brain-lesion part). And from everything I've heard and read, because I've actually been symptomatic since the age of 13 and I'm still ambulatory (fancy word for "I walk pretty good"), my prognosis is pretty favorable. I do tend to push myself too hard most of the time, which has probably been my way of not "giving in." So now I have to quit being a fool and cut that out!

Am I ever going to get to the stinkin' point? You know, the one that finally ties in with this being a trip report? As in, eventually doesn't it have to have SOMETHING to do with Disney World? Yes, grashopper, it does! (why is there no KungFu smilie...) None of us has a guarantee. We just have to live, love, laugh, and make memories with the people we love. That's what this trip is to me. It's entirely possible that the next time we are able to go to Disney World, I could need a wheelchair. Or not. But for now I'm healthy and I'm going to celebrate it in the Happiest Place on Earth!

Until next time (oh carp, Ashley! Let us recover from this longer-than-any-post-has-a-right-to-be installment before you start talking about "next time!"), enjoy your CHRISTmas season!

 

[jordanyosh]

Can you be out of breath from writing a post?

I love your attitude

Of course, I would like it if you had more regular DR visits...just playing mom here.

 

[ashleypmo]

Can you be out of breath from writing a post?

I love your attitude

Of course, I would like it if you had more regular DR visits...just playing mom here.

No joke! I'm exhausted!

 

[ashleypmo]

Lookie! My pre-trippie hit the 1,000 view mark while I wasn't watching the odometer!

 

[jordanyosh]

Lookie! My pre-trippie hit the 1,000 view mark while I wasn't watching the odometer!

I think your title intrigues folks to stop by.

 

[ashleypmo]

I think your title intrigues folks to stop by.

Like I always say, nothin' like a good throw-up reference to pique the public's curiosity!

So yesterday's post was sooooo heavy (or didn't you notice...). I'll have to come up with something cute & fluffy next time. I think I've played out all my childhood trips. I'll need to do some "thinnin' " (that's my Ricky Ricardo Cuban accent) about DH's first trip to WDW....surely something interesting happened on that trip. I mean, I've never taken a trip in my life that turned out serene & uneventful. If there's any potential for drama or a bit of slapstick shenannigans (did I spell that right? I don't have any Irish blood, so I'm not sure), then it's gonna find me and fall in my lap, so there's bound to be something good from that trip. I'll sleep on it and see what I can come up with.

G'night all!

 

[jordanyosh]

It was heavy, but written by someone who has the right perspective, although I would like you to have more regular Dr visits...

 

[ashleypmo]

It was heavy, but written by someone who has the right perspective, although I would like you to have more regular Dr visits...

Hint, hint, eh? Actually, I go in tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 11am to the specialist for TTIMN (The Thing In My Neck. Still haven't named it). I'm dropping the two older kids w/ another homeschooling friend, because I haven't told them what's going on, and Riley is a real worrier. Actually, after the first few doctor appointments, they're like "Ohmygosh! Mommy's pregnant!" Any more kids and we'll have to trade in the Suburban for a 15 passenger van! I had to convince them that no, I was just going for check-ups. I will have to discuss the MS stuff with them at some point, because that will probably require more regular doc visits.

I'll post an update on what the doc says. I'm thinking it's basically going to be "we'll keep an eye on it," but I'll letcha' know.

Buenas noches!

 

[jordanyosh]

Hint, hint, eh? Actually, I go in tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 11am to the specialist for TTIMN (The Thing In My Neck. Still haven't named it). I'm dropping the two older kids w/ another homeschooling friend, because I haven't told them what's going on, and Riley is a real worrier. Actually, after the first few doctor appointments, they're like "Ohmygosh! Mommy's pregnant!" Any more kids and we'll have to trade in the Suburban for a 15 passenger van! I had to convince them that no, I was just going for check-ups. I will have to discuss the MS stuff with them at some point, because that will probably require more regular doc visits.

I'll post an update on what the doc says. I'm thinking it's basically going to be "we'll keep an eye on it," but I'll letcha' know.

Buenas noches!

Keep me updated so I know how to pray a bit more specifically.

 

[ashleypmo]

Keep me updated so I know how to pray a bit more specifically.

Thanks Jordan! One can never have too many prayer warriors!

 

[jordanyosh]

Thanks Jordan! One can never have too many prayer warriors!

I hear you sister.

 

[ashleypmo]

So I had my appointment w/ my specialist today.

The mass in my neck is most likely a non-event. He's not really sure what it is, and thinks maybe it is just a protrusion of a bone in that area. But he does want to watch several other lymph nodes in my neck that he observed as enlarged at my last visit a couple of months ago which are still enlarged.

But in the category of "Gee, I find that mildly disturbing," he mentioned that my MRI had shown a cyst on my pineal gland. I will need to consult w/ the neurologist about it; that's all he said. I did a little research; half of the research indicates that a pineal gland cyst is probably no big thing; the other half indicates that it can cause many potentially serious symptoms, including death . I like the first group of researchers better. One consistent finding among all is that between 20-40% of autopsies reveal pineal cysts, and that these cysts show evidence of flouride accumulation. Our water has only been flouridated in this country since around 1954, so that's one of those things that makes me go "hmmm...." But it's probably not a huge deal unless it's, well, huge. Otherwise, it's one of those things that you watch w/ regular MRIs (oh, joy. yippee.) But it seems to be less serious than about a bazillion other things that could go wrong.

What I did find out from my research is that the cyst may or may not be to blame for these really intense migraines I've been having several times a month. And that they are considered untreatable due to the pineal gland's location deep within the brain. The exception is if they cause a blockage and cause...hydrocephaly??? fluid accumulation, basically.

Also, I have a 2cm bulging disk in my neck, again an issue to discuss w/ the neurologist. Are you getting the feeling that I'm not going to be able to put off this neurologist appointment thing? Rats! I was really hoping to ignore it for another 17 years! (Just kidding Jordan!). Now I'm ready to call the neurologist and go address the issue of the brain lesions (ick!) and this cyst.

So that's where I am today. I would so like to wrap up this post with something resembling some closure of sorts, but it just ain't there. BUT... I DON'T have a tumor in my neck! So that I'm not dying anymore, I guess I have to get caught up on my , because I am absolutely-I-know-you-think-I'm-kidding-but-I-am-so-serious about 12 loads behind. As in "Honey, what color is the bathroom floor, anyway?" Or, "Have you seen the laundry basket?" "Yes, dear. See that 4 foot pile of clothes against the wall? The basket is under that pile....somewhere."

You know, I've been thinking....a trip to Disney World is a lot like a Christmas Tree...(I was going to say it was like a box of chocolates, but that's been done already...)

 

[jordanyosh]

Phew. Glad things are.....okay for now.

12 loads of laundry...good luck to you and to your washing machine as well.

 

[ashleypmo]

Phew. Glad things are.....okay for now.

12 loads of laundry...good luck to you and to your washing machine as well.

Thanks Jordan! You're a sweetheart!

As for the washer, well, we were going to buy a new one until a certain unexpected expense came up....stupid deer...