Busy Week

This week was full of extremes and opposites. I attended a deep brain stimulation surgery on Wednesday, which was a story all on its own, and then the next day found myself cleaning out a freezer at work tossing 12 year old saliva samples. Kyan was a little devil at school 2 days this week and today he was a little angel. Either the house was really loud, or completely silent. One day I was trying to figure out how I was going water my flowers with the water conservation and by the end of the week I was wondering how to drain some of the water out of the rain barrel. If I could just get the house to change from messy to clean........

The highlight of the week was definitely the brain surgery. Not many people get to see a surgery, much less neurosurgery. And since I am in psychiatry, it made the whole brain thing even more facinating. The idea behind going was to get a feel for the process for the procedure. We are going to be starting a clinical trial testing deep brain stimulation for major depression. In order to better be able to explain to the patients the procedure and write the consent form, it was important to really see what happens, how long it takes, etc. The surgery I saw was DBS for dystonia. The surgery is very similar, but of course the area of the brain is different so the holes are closer to the front of the head in depression to stimulate the area 25. The patient is awake the entire procedure, but feels nothing. The patient has to remain awake to be able to communicate any sensations that better tracks the target. Everyone's brain is slightly different just like fingerprints. You have a general idea, you get a better idea through scans, but when it comes down to mm. you really have to get readings. Just facinating and something I won't soon forget. If anyone is interested in hearing more, feel free to ask.

Nashville is still recovering from the flood. What a mess. I am so sorry for all of those who have lost so much. Our little musty smell in the sunroom is trivial compared to losing your home.

This and That

The English Only Amendment Failed for Davidson County tonight. Thank goodness. Nashville is diverse and we need to keep it that way.

Tonight Arran's Covenant Group from church met at our house. Kyan and I played with Lego's and had a really fun time.

The weather is going to be nice tomorrow and I plan to leave work early to enjoy some of it.

Too Much Stuff

Feeling cramped is one way to describe how I have been feeling especially with being cooped up inside when it is this cold. We have a garage at one house FULL, we have way too many toys for Kyan, Kyan has the tendency to pile his toys on us when we are sitting on the sofa, and it just isn't the way I like to live. Kyan was very good tonight with going through and picking out some of his old toys to take to Marilyn's to play with over there during the day and to share with the other kids. I think she he believed they weren't actually getting out of his control, that it was OK. After 2 big boxes and a scooter were staged to go in the sunroom, it still didn't look like anyone had moved anything. The boy has too much!! I can't believe it isn't bothering me more than it is, but I am doing fairly well considering there are boxes in the utility room that haven't even been opened.

Speaking of cramped up.... We woke up to Kyan crying last night around midnight. After about 5 minutes of Arran trying to figure out what was wrong I got up and went in there too. I finally got Kyan to tell me his left leg was hurting. We had him walk on it, we massaged it, I convinced him that Tylenol would make it feel better, and finally after 45 seconds following the swallow of the Tylenol he was cured!! Well, all of that food over the weekend has led to some GROWING PAINS.

Kyan and I had a discussion about his behavior at Ms. Marilyn's tonight. He has a problem with hitting, pushing, and such at times. He hit his friend Ethan and Ethan cried, partly becasue it hurt, but also because Kyan is his friend and he adores Kyan. I told Kyan that IF he hits tomorrow there will be no chocolate milk tomorrow night and he will only get water. Several times before bed I asked him what will happen tomorrow when he gets home from school IF we hear he had hit someone. His response was, "No Choc Choc." That's right young man. We will see how this works. We have punished him before by taking away chocolate milk and he didn't fight it since he knew he did wrong. He is a smart little boy and does take his punishment pretty well.

We will see....

OBAMA DAY

I woke up to a sunny morning with a smile on my face knowing that W would be leaving DC! I watched a little of the Today show before work and then put on a white T-shirt, blue sweater, and a red necklace and left with my 3 inch TV.

I think to myself that Kyan will never understand that there was really a time where minorities (like himself) felt limited in what they can achieve as an American. He is witnessing a minority become President of the United States. Even though Kyan can't become President (at least not yet) because he wasn't born int he US, he can really be whatever he wants to be. That makes me proud to be an American.

The innaguration was great and was really a red carpet event in so many ways.

WOW what a day in history.

After we got home from work and school Kyan helped me toss about 20 rolls into our woods. The bag burst in the deep freezer and I was ready to see them go and figured the animals would appreciate them. Kyan has seen Mr. Fox that lives back there and was very eager to give Mr. Fox some. Luckily, he didn't come up to get one while we were back there. Kyan is convinced that instead of the pumpkins we tossed back in there, rotting, that they fox ate them. He sure is a hungry little fox.

Some of us actually get a day off.

Yes, some of us actually get off for MLK Day (like Arran). Arran left for Carbondale yesterday afternoon with a load of furniture to take to the Ranch up there. I felt horrible all weekend with back pain, shoulder pain, flu symtpoms, and several others that I contribute to the Enbrel I started about a week and 1/2 ago. I have horrible swollen red spots where the injections were and just YUCK. I still don't feel great. The doctor wants me to hold off on the next 3 injections to see if I get to feeling better and then we can see about starting it again to see if that was what actually caused it. Fun Fun.

This weekend we also took Papa (my dad) to breakfast for his birthday. Kyan was the entertainment at IHOP of course. He actually ate like a real boy and said his eggs were yummy. He has eaten a lot over the weekend and he must be ready to grow a little more.

Arran gets back tonight to get Kyan on his way back into Nashville. I can use a little break to get some rest.

Hello There

Now that life has settled down somewhat from all the drama of the last couple of years, I figured it would be nice to blog about how we are doing. I blogged during the adoption process to keep everyone informed of the progress (or lack there of, at times) and it was fun - so here we go again.