Finallly...A Diagnosis...

Hi Friends and Family! It's been crazy around here and I've hardly had time to breath let alone post. We'll see if we can get that taken care of now.

As most of you know, I've had some chronic health problems for years now. I've been told that I have everything from chronic sinusitis to Epstein Barr to chronic gum disease. While I have the symptoms of most of those, that didn't explain the low-grade fevers, hair loss, swollen hands and feet, joint pain, and ever-present and debilitating fatigue. I've been a real pest to my family doc and had all kinds of tests but nothing definite came up.

Aaron's company does annual blood testing as part of their wellness program. We go every year, get our blood drawn, and then get the results soon after. When I tell the nurse that I have heart disease in my family they do a test for C-RP or Cardio Reactive Protein. It's a protein the liver produces when there is inflammation in the body. It doesn't tell you where the inflammation is, just that it's there.

Healthy people should have a C-RP level below 1.0. Low to high is 1.0 -3.0. Mine was 5.8 This is the third year running that my C-RP level has been really elevated so I got online and started researching C-RP and found several mentions of Lupus as a cause. (The Lupus arthritis causes the high C-RP level.)

I really wanted a correct diagnosis finally, but I know too much about Lupus to want it be that. Long story short, it is that. I told the doctor I wanted a blood panel done for Lupus and after getting the results he called back saying I have the early stages of SLE or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

In a nutshell, Lupus is an autoimmune disorder. Here is the definition from the National Lupus Foundation:

"Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect various parts of the body, including the skin, joints, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and brain. Normally the body's immune system makes proteins called antibodies, to protect the body against viruses, bacteria, and other foreign materials. These foreign materials are called antigens.

In an autoimmune disorder like lupus, the immune system cannot tell the difference between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues. The immune system then makes antibodies directed against itself. These antibodies -- called "auto-antibodies" (auto means 'self') -- cause inflammation, pain and damage in various parts of the body."

I keep trying to link to the site, but I'm having technical dificulties. Here is the address, you all can copy and paste it to your browser.

http://www.lupus.org/newsite/index.html

It's been really helpful to me to understand the disease and to know how lucky I am to have such a mild case of it. I don't want anyone to freak out or anything when they read about Lupus, keep in mind that my case isn't too bad right now.

What this diagnosis means for me is finding out all I can about the disease, getting to know some new doctors, lots of tests, and hopefully managing the disease and my life better. I've been living with this undiagnosed for many years now, so this is really a good thing! I want to be proactive and be as healthy as I can be under the circumstances and now I will have the tools to do that.

To all of you who've been so patient and supportive of me when I had to drop out of life for a while (now I know that those times where the Lupus flaring) I want to say THANK YOU! Also, I told you I was sick! Just kidding. :) I know how hard it was for you to rely on me and me not be able to fulfill me obligations at times. Thanks for loving me anyway!

I'll keep everyone posted but I hope that life will only improve for me and for our family.

Puppy Love...

We have a new family member to introduce, but first let's get caught up.

Nov. 9 was our Young Women Evening of Excellence. It was cool to see all the displays of our girls! They have been working hard this year on their Personal Progress. Rachel's display was of her Guys and Dolls performance at Dixon, her Junior High.

Rachel just finished her time in Joseph. She had a blast and the production was terrific! The whole family went to see her.
I was amazed at how much of a young lady my daughter is! I know I'm biased, but she is an amazing dancer, singer, and stage performer. It's been such a big part of her(rehearsing every day for three months)life that I know she'll miss it!

Thanksgiving was awesome. Lots of yummy food and the whole day spent in our jammies. Heaven! We missed all of you and hope your Turkey Day was as good as ours. We are very thankful for the many blessings we have and we consider friends and family to be right at the top!

And...Introducing...Simon!

We have wanted a puppy for a long time. Allergies always seemed an insurmountable obstacle. After seeing the kids take care of Beatrice so well and knowing we would have to find her another home because our cat allergies are really bad, I really wanted to see if there were any breeds of dog that we could all have around and still be healthy. I had a Shih Tzu growing up and never reacted to him at all.

After many trips to the pet store we narrowed down possible non-allergenic candidates to Shih Tzus and Maltese. Both breeds were really expensive in the store and we weren't too impressed with the way they took care of their puppies so we looked around and found a local breeder who had our adorable Simon.

He is half Shih Tzu and half Maltese. His coloring, tale, and eyes are more Shih Tzu but he has a Maltese snout and is super soft. The breeder already had begun house training him and had socialized him really well.

He is pretty mellow at times and a fuzzy Tasmanian Devil at others.(In other words, a typical, healthy puppy.) Overall,he has behaved so well! No accidents in the house yet at all. He loves the kids and they cannot get enough of him. They knew this would be most of their Christmas the year but they don't care at all.

Grandpa Brown footed the bill for him, so he is the most loved and appreciated Grandpa in the world right now! Thanks so much, Dad!

Am I blue...

Nah, not really. I just was getting a headache reading my own posts with the black background. So, we'll try blue!
Andrew had the beginnings of a root canal today, so he's a bit black and blue.

Daniel is switching jobs and he is NOT blue about leaving Macey's grocery store.

Rachel has a dress rehearsal today and she's a little blue about missing Young Women.

Matthew is playing a little of the Blues on his trumpet.

Jacob will be wearing his blue Cub uniform tonight for Pack Meeting.

Aaron looks fabulous in blue and is wearing it today.

So I guess we are kind of blue, so it's all good!

Picture TAG! I'm it...

Christi G. tagged me so I get to play and tag some more people. The rules are that you go to your photos on your computer, chose the fourth folder, then the fourth photo in that folder. Then you chose the sixth folder and photo. Here are mine. (Keep in mind that there are way more photos of shoots I've done than of my family on my computer.)






My number one is: A black and white photo from a wedding shoot I did.
Number two is of Rachel at the Godfrey's photo shoot letting me snap pics of her to adjust lighting and so forth.




I'm done. Let's see...I tag TNT!

Our (kind of) Cat

Meet Beatrice. (So named by Daniel.) She is a very pretty, sweet, and persistent kitty that has adopted us. She hangs out in our all-you-can-catch mouse buffet(backyard) most days and goes nuts if she gets any attention. She must count anyone being home as getting attention because as soon as she knows we are here she hangs out by the doors meowing her head off.
Jake gave her a little milk today, so I think we are doomed. I took the camera out to take pics after I realized what had happened and just getting that close to her made me break out in hives and have trouble breathing.
Aaron has had a discussion with her and they agreed that as long as she keeps mice out of the house she can hang around. We just aren't feeding her or anything. Right.
Anyway, she really is a very nice cat and I guess she is kind-of ours.

Leave Your Print...

I had the opportunity this past Tuesday to be a poll worker for the election. My precinct was PR08 and my polling place was the Provo Library that is pictured in the slide show. (The gorgeous old Brigham Young Academy building that has been restored and added onto.)
I showed up at 6:00am, was locked out until 6:30am, but eventually got in and got situated. :) I really enjoyed this experience!
The flow of voters was steady but never too crazy. It was perfect because I was busy without being overwhelmed. For my first election, it was a terrific training experience.
Most of the voters were BYU students, many of them voting for the first time. They were so cute and excited to vote and their enthusiasm was contagious. Many were clueless as how to use the machines but we were able to take our time and explain in detail so I think most had good experiences.

We were out of there by 8:45pm, so it wasn't nearly as long a day as I thought it might be.
I am really grateful to be an American! I have even more respect for the process and those who get involved because it's a lot of work. It was cool to be there and see it all first hand.

Halloween Craziness...

What a week! I put all the photos in the slide show, so check them out.

We started off with our ward Halloween party on Tuesday. The YM/YW were in charge of the game booths and helping to decorate. Rachel manned the Fishing Pond.
Matthew won the costume contest for his age group (he was a ghoul) and Rachel won the most "green" costume because all of her costume pieces were recycled from past Halloweens. Jake was an adorable nerd. I was a princess and Aaron was a really tired database administration dude.

On Thursday we carved pumpkins. Daniel and Andrew are too cool to carve now, but Matthew and Jacob really got into it. I cleaned out Rachel's pumpkin for her and she carved it when she got home from musical rehearsal. I love watching them create their masterpieces.

On Friday there was a costume parade at Jacob's school. A lot of you will recognize one of the teachers that I snapped a pic of. :)

Daniel got to dress up for work and originally wanted to go as a disgruntled worker. I suggested we just punk him up. He did the faux-hawk thing with his hair and we added some eyeliner and about 12 fake piercings and he was good to go.

That afternoon Jacob and Matthew and I were off to Aaron's office to trick-or-treat. We got a lot of comments from Aaron's co-workers that Jacob was dressed up as his dad. The kids got tons of candy, as usual.

Rachel had a party at a friend's house and Andrew was on door duty. Aaron took Matthew and Jake out with a bunch of friends and they cleaned up! They were gone for 2 1/2 hours and did a lot of walking to earn their candy.

Now we just have to endure the sugar highs for the next few days. Rachel is the only candy-hoarder, so the others should be out pretty soon.

We hope you all had a great Halloween too!

The Slide Show Pics

If you hold your cursor over the photos the captions will come up. I took the fall photos of sites around Provo last autumn. It looks pretty much the same this year. You can get an idea of our scenery!
Also, the red shirts we wore for Youth Conference where designed by Andrew. We were the Immovables since the theme for the Youth this year was Steadfast and Immovable.

Starting a blog...again....

I think it's time to try this again. :) I am guilty of visiting a lot of blogs but not having one of my own!

Life right now is fun, crazy, and full.

Daniel is working full time and saving for his mission. He doesn't like his job much, but is hanging in there. He turns 19 in February, so he's in the homestretch. In the meantime he's involved in the Young Single Adult activities. I am too young to have a kid this old!

Andrew is a Senior and working hard in school. He is in Speech and Debate and has his first debate this Friday. I know how good he is at debating, so I know he'll do really well.

Rachel is practicing every day after school for the school musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. She gets to sing and dance, so she's very happy. I can't wait to see the show and I know she can't wait to perform!
Rach is in choir also and has her fall concert today.

Matthew is liking junior high. He is learning to play the trumpet and is really good at it.
He (we) also just finished his science project all about diamagnetism. I didn't know that when water is exposed to a strong magnet it is repelled by it, did you? I didn't think so. :) We took photos of his experiment and they are in the slide show.
Matthew is also loving Scouts. He is almost done with his bicycling merit badge and I'm proud of him because that's a hard one! He needs to complete his 50 miler, and then he'll be done.

Jacob is loving his new school. He has already learned all about the Northern Flying Squirrel, some Utah history, and fossils. He goes early two days a week for choir and has a really good director who teaches them well and doesn't underestimate the abilities of these young kids.

Aaron is working hard at his job and is never bored. He's been with Nature's Sunshine for 8 years now. He also is the Sunday School President so that keeps his weekends busy.

I am having a blast being a full time mom. Life is crazy and never seems to slow down, but it's fun too.
I still do regular photo shoots for friends, family, and their friends and family. I think I will always love photography and need the creative outlet. There is just something about capturing memories for me and for others. It's very rewarding.
I am the Secretary in the Young Women Presidency now and still Ward Choir Director. I love both callings and they keep me really busy. Working with the young women has been so fun and I've learned so much! Their energy is contagious. It's great to be with my girls!

That's a quick update on us. I hope to keep this current so friends and family can check in and see what we are up to!