Meet my Family, and Spoons!

Hello! I hope you are all well. I survived a week of school preparations, orientation, and meet the teachers the last week. And this weekend were both my daughters' birthdays. The youngest one turned four yesterday and the oldest one turned ten Sunday. And we still have to set up their birthday parties. I was able to go food shopping to get lunches, snacks, and some easy things to make dinners and frozen dinners in case I get too tired.

Last post, I forgot one other invisible illness I have. I forgot because it is not symptomatic. I have two leaky heart valves and I'm followed by my cardiologist every 6 months. I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse when I was young. But it isn't that. They are leaky valves. They just need to be watched, no medication is needed.

So, I said last time I would introduce you to my family. I posted family pictures at the bottom. But I labeled them wrong, but I think you can figure out who is who.

 I'm going to start with the little one first. K is four and just started pre kindergarten. She was born by emergency C section at 30 weeks and weighed 2 pounds 7 ounces. She spent 130 days in the NICU and after that, life has been quite a battle. I almost died during the pregnancy from preeclampsia, HELLP! And vasa and complete previa of my placenta. I also vomited the entire pregnancy, and not normal, but excessive- hyperemesis. 

K has severe oral feeding aversions and has a G/J feeding tube to give her the nutrition she needs since she eats less every day. She suffered from severe gastroparesis (stomach paralysis), but is now healing from it. But she still struggles to even maintain weight.

My older daughter A is 10. She is super intelligent, very flexible, and absent-minded all at the same

time! She was a great baby and swallowed down her bottles in about two minutes flat and weighed 7
pounds 12 ounces at birth. She also wound up in the NICU for breathing difficulties. They were
quickly resolved and I took her home at 5 days. She caught the normal kid illnesses, plus strep and pneumonia twice. I caught it early since I had taken nursing when I was just out of high school and remembered the signs! 

A is helpful around the house, but also feels the stress of my illnesses and her sister not eating. I try to make sure I pay her special attention and compliment her whenever I get the chance on things she does. 

Lastly, is my husband of almost 7 years- P. I've known P since 2000 and we finally married in 2007. We did things a bit backwards and did the marriage thing after having A. But I think we got it right now! P is super intelligent, from India, and is a hard working computer engineer. He takes good care of all of us. 

I know P gets very stressed when I don't feel well and he works so hard already and has to come home and finish getting the kids ready for bed, give them their bath, make lunches/snacks for school, follow up with teeth brushing, etc. by the time he comes home, I'm so tired most days I can barely even talk. 

So, that is my family!

Now, I want to talk to you about spoons. Here is the link to the story I am talking about, and then I will give you my example. I hope it will WOW you!

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/

Here is my spoon story. I start the day out with 12 spoons. But, I only slept two hours last night. I lose one spoon already because I know I will have to plan the day that doesn't involve much energy
and much driving since I am tired. A is giving a hard time about getting on the bus and is having a
shouting match with P. I start to get a migraine already. Take away another spoon. I got K ready for
school, but she has an accident on the way out the door. Back inside, and it's a huge cleanup and re dress, etc. minus another spoon. 

Before I even leave the house, how many spoons have I lost? Three! I also have to take A to dance class after school. Minus another spoon. Oh no, there are no more frozen dinners left. I have to prep dinner after dropping K off at school and have it ready to pop in the oven after dance class. Take away two spoons because standing in the kitchen making a meal makes me very tired! Plus, tonight is bath night for the girls. Another spoon gone. After dinner, I have to put the  food in containers and try to wash some of the dishes and load the dishwasher. Take away another one. How many are left? Four! 

I still have to make A's lunch, get K's snack ready, get my clothes ready for the next day, make sure alarms are set, and maybe try to fold some laundry. Now, my spoons are gone if I did all that!

If P came home and helped with any of the night routine, I might have a spoon or two left at the end of the day. But, it's rare. If that happens, maybe I will stay up another hour and go online and watch a movie with P or call a girlfriend on the phone or my sister. Lately, I am just able to put pajamas on and go to bed.

So, what do you think about Spoons now? You've got a whole new twist!

My two positive things today- I'm blessed with two beautiful girls both special in their own way.  We've been blessed from the kindness of strangers throughout K's illness. 

I have a bunch of doctor appointments coming up, so I will update you as I get any news. 

Please feel free to leave comments, questions and I will address them in my next post.

This is a picture of the whole family last Easter. I'm in the blue dress. Since then, I've lost about 15 pounds and look pale in my face and have weird bruises on my legs. 

Till next time! Thanks for reading!

Lisa