A Lifetime of Love

My anniversary is on Thursday. 9 years of marriage. I can’t believe it. I honestly can’t. No one in my family has been married this long, and it really isn’t that long. It still seems like just yesterday we “tied the knot” to each other, although I will be the first to admit that as time passes, the easier marriage becomes. I guess it’s because we mature spiritually and, in turn, our marriage matures. I can remember some of our earlier years, and they sure weren’t pretty. In fact, they were pretty ugly. On both of our parts, not just mine. I’m glad, though, that we’ve stuck together, committed to making our marriage work NO MATTER WHAT! We both come from divorced homes for various reasons and neither wants that for our kids. At the same time, we don’t want to stay together for our kids. No, we have a higher authority Who calls us to remain committed to each other, our children, and Him. I am thankful that we both agree to this calling because I think that is where so many families stru...

Erin had a rough night last night. Her heart rate dropped really low so the nurse put a heart monitor on her. It still was not back up to normal this morning so a cardiologist has been called in to examine her. Because of the heart issues, her doctor has ordered her to remain on the IV until they can figure out what's causing her heart rate to keep dropping. So, it doesn't look like she'll be leaving tomorrow or Wednesday after all, which is both good and bad. Good because we still don't know what's wrong with her and bad because she was looking forward to getting back to normal. This heart issue has me worried. I talked to Erin last night on the phone and her spirits were up and other than her weak voice, she sounded like herself. This morning when I called she sounded worn out and a little depressed. I think being cooped up in the hospital is beginning to take its toll on her, especially since she didn't get to see Kaylee yesterday and wasn't sure what tes...

Erin is doing okay. She went off the intravenous steroid and started an oral steroid yesterday for her lupus (although she hasn’t officially received a diagnosis, they are treating it as such). So far she can’t really tell a difference but it’s probably because the stronger intravenous steroid is still in her blood system. She also began physical and occupational therapy on Friday. She has lost so much weight (about 15 pounds) from a combination of not eating or exercising her major muscle groups and just laying in bed. My mom walks with her when she comes to visit to try to strengthen her muscles and lungs, but Erin is so weak that she has to stop to rest often. She can only make it a distance of about 7 feet before she has to stop, and only gets about 30 feet before she has to turn around and go back to her bed. Paul, her husband, flew in from Iraq today so he came to see her for about 3 hours. She was excited to see him and he’ll be able to stay for 2 weeks. Erin got the okay to see...

Sorry for not updating sooner but I really had no news to share until last night when I spoke to my mom. Erin is still about the same. While my mom was visiting yesterday, the internal medicine doctor (who is overseeing the entire team of doctors caring for Erin) came in to say he was releasing the infectious disease doctors and adding an oncologist. He does not believe Erin has cancer of any type, but he wanted some tests run to simply rule it out. Makes sense and we (my mom, sis, and I) feel better knowing that EVERY possible test has been done to figure out what’s wrong with her. So, more biopsies this morning of her lymph nodes (when she had the CT scan the other day, they found some that were enlarged but still within the “normal” range) and more waiting for results. However, the rheumatologist (specializes in Rheumatoid Arthritis) came in last night and said he is about 75% sure Erin has lupus. The preliminary tests all point in that direction, but again, more blood tests are ne...

My luncheon was awesome. It was held at a private banquet room located inside the State fairgrounds in Columbia. From the moment TJ, Th, and I walked into the building, we were treated like royalty, and although it was nice, I was very embarrassed by it. I do not like to be in the spot light and felt very uncomfortable. We were given name tags (Th felt so grown up writing his own name tag!) and immediately escorted to meet Senator Hayes, Radio, and Coach Jones (of the hit movie, Radio ). We mingled a bit, found our seats at our reserved table with Senator Hayes (which were right up front!), and the program began. Radio gave the blessing and we were ushered out the door to the buffet line. The food was wonderful, but unfortunately I don’t know what we ate other than the “basic” names- mixed veggies, baked chicken, squash casserole, potato salad, beef tips, dinner rolls, and of course dessert. I chose the chocolate cake (chocolate, of course!) and Th had a piece of pie. I don’t know what...

Erin is about the same. Still running a high fever despite being on a different antibiotic. She had her biopsy taken from two different places on her arm and has stitches at both places. She said they don't hurt but she's been on Tylenol for her fever so I think that may be masking some of the pain. She also had a CT scan done last night and received the results today. Thankfully my mom was there when the doctor came in so she could ask questions. Everything on the scan looked good (mainly her lymph nodes were checked to rule out lymphoma) but he saw that her lungs are beginning to collapse from the bottom up because they are not filling to capacity. The doctor explained that when a person breaths while standing and walking around, the lungs are able to fully expand. But, when a person is sitting or laying for extended amounts of time, the lungs cannot get as much air as needed and carbon dioxide builds up. So, Erin will now be placed on oxygen while she is in her room in order...

Erin, my sis, has been running a fever of 103 or higher since mid-May. She has gone to a doctor close to her home (NOT a military doctor- a private physician) several times, has had some testing done (i.e. an ultrasound on her kidneys and liver and other blood work) and has had no relief. She is weak and very tired. This past Friday my mom flew down to drive Erin and Kaylee back to Ohio so Erin could have help with the baby. Sunday morning she was so weak she could barely lift her head off the pillow. My mom took her temperature and her fever was 104, so my mom rushed her to the hospital. Because of her low blood pressure and high fever, she was seen immediately in the Emergency Room and was admitted to the Critical Care Unit (CCU) last night. At first she was going to be admitted to the ICU but because her blood pressure stabilized, they moved her up one level. She was given fluids for dehydration and an antibiotic to help reduce the fever. She was doing better until about 10pm when h...