Smorgasbord Sunday

Smorgasbord, as defined by dictionary.com is:

1. a buffet meal of various hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, salads, casserole dishes, meats, cheeses, etc.

2. an extensive array or variety

I've decided to make Sundays a smorgasbord of stuff...pictures, writing about prayer points and plans.  Just an extensive array. :)

Firstly, the hospital trip that I talked about last week and then corrected to say wasn't happening because in my mind I'd skipped a week is happening this week.  Here's what I wrote last week without the edit.

This coming week we have one big appointment:  On Wednesday I head to London for an EEG (brain wave measuring thing) EEG's are fairly routine for me and this one is to monitor how my brain is doing in light of the medication switching that is happening and to follow up on Spot.  I'm thankful it's just an EEG for now and not an MRI, since I hate MRI's.  Prayers for safe travels and no snow storms would be great. (our last appointment in the city was a snow storm nightmare)  Also pray that the EEG would show good things about my brain, since I'm rather attached to it and we really don't want any more issues popping up.

The forecast for this week is predicting 10-15cm of snow for Tuesday and 5-10cm for Wednesday with temperatures hovering right around freezing, so there is a bit of concern about weather and travel.

For all of you who prayed for my back, it is doing much better.  It only hurts occasionally and typically after I do something silly like lift feed bags on my own. Much better than last week!

We sang this beautiful song in church this morning and it really touched my heart.  Our G-d truly does hide our souls in the cleft of the rock and covers them with his hand.  Here are the lyrics:

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.

Refrain:

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,

That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand. 

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away,
He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day. 

With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
And filled with His fullness divine,
I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God!
For such a Redeemer as mine. 

When clothed with His brightness transported I rise
To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I’ll shout with the millions on high. 

And a cute picture of a sleeping baby to close this Smorgasbord Sunday out:

He's so angelic looking when he's asleep...

Smorgasbord Sunday

Smorgasbord, as defined by dictionary.com is:

1. a buffet meal of various hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, salads, casserole dishes, meats, cheeses, etc.

2. an extensive array or variety

I've decided to make Sundays a smorgasbord of stuff...pictures, writing about prayer points and plans.  Just an extensive array. :)

I get the honor of hanging out with the cute, cheeky little boy a couple times a week. I get to play with him while his mama gets some work done around the house.  In the first two photos you can see that he had blueberries with his supper and was very blue.  We fixed that at bath time. 

This last was pretty low key without any major appointments.  The only real surprise was that I threw my back out mid week and could hardly move.  A trip to the doctor for some muscle relaxants and a trip to the pharmacy for the strongest pain killers you can get without a prescription and I got fixed up.  Today I actually haven't needed my painkillers or muscle relaxants and all.  Though I'm thinking I might take some tonight just to keep it from seizing up at night again. Prayers that my back would stay limber and not seize up would be great.

This coming week we have one big appointment:  On Wednesday I head to London for an EEG (brain wave measuring thing) EEG's are fairly routine for me and this one is to monitor how my brain is doing in light of the medication switching that is happening and to follow up on Spot.  I'm thankful it's just an EEG for now and not an MRI, since I hate MRI's.  Prayers for safe travels and no snow storms would be great. (our last appointment in the city was a snow storm nightmare)  Also pray that the EEG would show good things about my brain, since I'm rather attached to it and we really don't want any more issues popping up. *EDIT* This appointment isn't until next week.  I fail at schedule keeping sometimes. The appointment is the 27th, which is not this coming Thursday.  But you can always start praying early. *END EDIT*

I got a fish tank for my birthday in January and we had 4 fish in it.  3 goldfish and 1 loach.  One of the goldfish and the loach died this week.  It was very sad.  We got a test kit and checked water quality and learned that there was too many nitrites and nitrates in the water (and just about everything else was wrong too...except pH and ammonia). So now we are working to balance everything else.  The two goldfish in the tank seem to be pretty much indestructible. 

It was super cold this morning when we got up, so we had a wonderful hoar-frost.  For my non northern climate friends, a hoar frost is what occurs when fog literally freezes on to any structure it can attach to...trees, fence posts, fence wires, etc.  When the sun shines on it, it is wonderfully bright.  When the wind blows gently it starts to fall off and it looks like it is snowing.  By mid morning it is usually gone because the sun melts it.

Frost detail on the fence wire.

Front yard tree

Sun coming up in the bush

view out towards the road with the sun just starting to play over the tree tops. 

And we have an ID...

Shortly after my return to Michigan last week, I saw my neurologist.  For those of you who have been following this blog awhile, you are well aware of the struggles I have had with seizures and related neurological concerns.  My neurologist was very pleased with my progress and agreed with me that the medication seemed to be working well. (I'm currently 70 days seizure free for anyone who is counting with me).  However, after reviewing my MRIs, he was concerned about a lesion in my brain.  This lesion was not new, and had been there ever since my first brain imaging in 2008. Some of you may have heard me refer to it as "Spot" before.  Even though Spot was behaving himself, my neurologist still wanted it investigate further, partly because I was concerned about Spot, and partly because no one had ever been able to say quite what Spot was. So he referred me to a neurosurgeon.
I saw my neurosurgeon today, quite a nice gentleman.  I had no small amount of anxiety going into the appointment and am very grateful for the friend who prayed for me in the car before I went in.  The Lord has been so faithful in bringing wonderful friends into my life.  As I left the appointment I was both relieved and frustrated.  I was relieved because the neurosurgeon told me straight up that he did not believe Spot to be a tumor (something that had been mentioned earlier by other doctors) and reaffirmed that Spot was behaving in an acceptable manner.  Then he gave me what I had been searching for since the beginning of this journey: an identity for Spot.
The neurosurgeon is quite sure that Spot is something called an Arachnoid cyst. As far as I can determine, this has nothing to do with spiders, though the thought did bring a smile to my face. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines it this way:

"Arachnoid cysts are cerebrospinal fluid-filled sacs that are located between the brain or spinal cord and the arachnoid membrane, one of the three membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord."

Based on my symptoms and the onset of them in adulthood, I likely have what they call a "secondary" arachnoid cyst, meaning it formed later in life, rather than prenatally.  To read more about arachnoid cysts, click here.

In many cases, arachnoid cysts are removed, especially if they are on the surface of the brain.  They can grow and put pressure on the brain causing all sorts of trouble.  However, the neurosurgeon I saw today expressed concern about trying to remove Spot.  Spot is located in my temporal lobe, right on the hippocampus.  Getting to him to remove him would involving messing with a whole lot of brain and could make things much worse than they already are. However, he decided to refer me on to a neurosurgeon who specializes in surgery to correct epilepsy and is an expert in removing things such as this.  Thankfully, this particular doctor is back in Ontario, and will be covered.   Evenso, the neurosurgeon did stress that I might not be a candidate for the surgery, based on the location of the cyst. 

So the feelings of relief came from finally having an identity for Spot and knowing that Spot is not likely a tumor and is not malignant.  That is a huge relief as that has been a concern sitting in the back of my mind for two and a half years now.  The frustration is still not knowing, what, if anything, can be done about it, other than treating the symptoms as needed.  For now, life continues as it has, rejoicing in every seizure free day.

 For those of you unacquainted with Spot, he is the little white spot, about 6mm by 9mm circled in red in the image.