Christmas letter 2010

Dear Friends and Family-

Well, God has continued to keep us on our toes for yet another year! Those of you who’ve read our past three Christmas letters know that we haven’t had a ‘slow’ period in our married life yet! Our 2007 letter was all about blessings and how grateful we were for all He’d provided—graduations, promotions, 1st home, marriage, travel, etc. And then our 2008 letter was about wondering where He was taking us as all the blessings seemed to be disappearing—unemployment, selling our house, and relocating to Texas.

Last year’s letter (2009) was proof that we had come through the darkness and back into the light—we’d bought a new house (our 2nd), both had jobs, Sena had finally gotten some health concerns resolved, we were able to take some amazing vacations (thanks KSA for the free flights to Ireland!), and we bought a dog (Georgia Mae). Life seemed as though we were finally ‘hitting our stride’ and we hoped that we’d be bored for the first time in our marriage--we wanted time to be spontaneous, to sit on our new front porch together, to enjoy family and old as well as new-found friends, to enjoy our neighborhood pool, etc. God, however, had other plans! In early 2010, we discovered Sena was pregnant! So what we hoped would be an easy, relaxed, bored year—sprinkled with lots of traveling—became the year of Preparing for Little Spofford.

While the pregnancy went well (as in, no complications or issues), Sena was SUPER sick throughout most of the beginning which made life with a new puppy while still working downtown at El Centro College incredibly difficult. At the end of spring semester, she was informed that there would no longer be a teaching position available for her (they were restructuring), and while angry at first, she’s been grateful to God for closing that door since about mid-summer. Once Austin was born, she switched careers from Stay at Home Wife to Stay at Home Mom (aka C.O.O.), and is loving it so far! Talk about change—three different positions in a single year!

Seth is still working at Michaels and thoroughly enjoys using his skill sets to help the company improve its operations in a variety of ways. It suits him well to be able to creatively problem solve different situations the stores might be facing all while getting to use an Excel spreadsheet to prove his point. ;-)

And while we didn’t get to take some of the big trips we’d hope to take (think: rented cabin on a beach somewhere by the ocean, New Zealand, long weekend to Seattle, trip with friends to Charleston, etc.), we did manage to spend time together doing a 9-day road trip in which we got to see some of OK, KS, CO, NM, and west TX. It was a great time, and since the theme of the vacation was relaxation as well as the fact that we were off-season, we got to spoil ourselves on some really nice hotels! We even went for a hot air balloon ride in CO!! Then, over Labor Day weekend, we drove down to Fredericksburg, TX (a quaint little town in southern Texas which is full of fun shops) for a one-night getaway. Thanks again to Seth’s job, we got to have a fairly cheap trip as he had hotel points to use, and so our hotel stay (and breakfast) was free!

We continue to love our church, our Sunday school class, our neighborhood, our house, our dog… our married life together. Both of us continue to be active in our surroundings—Sena’s involved in the neighborhood’s organization, we’re the Welcome Team co-chairs in our Sunday school class, Seth’s active in our neighborhood’s Crime Watch organization—as Block Captain and doing patrols, Sena participates in a monthly Book Club, and we both enjoyed our neighborhood’s pool again. Besides spending our time in all of these ways, we were busy prepping for Austin’s arrival which involved lots of time and gallons of paint!

The past year might not have been the bored, slow-paced life we had imagined, but it’s been wonderful just the same. God continues to show us that our life together is going to be one fun-filled adventure after another, we know He’s guiding our path every step of the way, and we wouldn’t change a thing! (But, is it selfish to hope for one year to go by without some major life change? ;-)

Merry Christmas and God Bless!!!

Medical Resolutions

The name of this post might be a little misleading. ... I simply mean that Seth and I have both had some medical issues resolved recently, but typing that as a heading didn't seem witty enough. :-)

Ok.. Seth first. For as long as I can remember, he had this semi-strange looking mole on his neck. I never thought much about it until the last couple years or so when Glamour kept doing stories on moles, cancer, and what to look for. Well, this particular mole was 2-tone, and wasn't round. According the the Glamour articles, these are two signs to watch for, so I mentioned to Seth that he should probably get it looked at. We discussed it fairly infrequently over the last year+, and then last spring his uncle said something about it.

We were at a family birthday celebration, and Seth was sitting on the floor (playing jungle gym with the kiddos, as usual) when his uncle (who was sitting on the couch behind him), made a specific mention of this particular mole by pointing to it and saying "You oughta get that mole checked out." (I'm not certain, but I believe this uncle has had his share of mole removal for cancer scare purposes, and well, frankly, he's the kind of guy who doesn't say something unless he's serious, so regardless of his experience, I launched into Further Pressure Mode.)

So, this summer, Seth finally had a physical for the first time in about 5 years. He's not generally ill, and hasn't had any specific complaints during that time, so he wasn't willing to sacrifice the time and effort to go. Well, upon getting pressure from not only me, but his uncle too, he made an appointment. The Dr (a family doc) recommended he see a dermatologist about the mole, and referred him. (And, as expected, the rest of his physical was perfectly normal. :-)

He went to the dermatologist for an Allover Mole Check appointment. She immediately removed the mole from his neck as well as one from his back and sent them both to 'the lab.' I was both saddened and thrilled with this news. I was saddened because I had encouraged him to make this appointment and he left shy of some skin and several hundred dollars (so, I felt like Great, what have I done to my husband!?).  The back one came back fine, but the neck one came back "Pre-C-word." This made me even more glad he'd had the appointment, but I was now facing some fear because they wanted to take more of his neck's skin as a result.

He went back this past Monday for the second appointment, and they performed his neck surgery. We had been jokingly calling it his "Neck Hacking" appointment, but all humor left the situation when he came home with a swollen incision about 2.5 inches long and a bit bruised and woozy. So, if you see him in the near future and wonder about the huge bandage on his neck, don't ask to see what's underneath. He goes Monday to have the stitches removed. I believe that all things Seth-mole-related are finished now and that taking the extra skin was just a precaution and that the Dr. considers this case closed. Thank God!

Now onto me. ... I asked for prayer regarding my medical situation last week, but was intentionally vague about it. A lot of faraway family and friends read my posts and though I was worried enough to ask for prayer, didn't want to broadcast news until I felt like I had news to broadcast. Hopefully that makes sense. And I haven't posted an update since then, because I felt certain family members needed to hear it directly from me, and not passed from one family member to another from what they'd read on Facebook.

Anyways... So, for as long as I can remember, I've experienced what felt like a double-beat to my heart. It's like: beat, beat, beatbeat, beat, beat, beat. It wasn't very often, and never caused any problems other than my needing to catch my breath directly afterwards. I mean, this happened so infrequently (like once a year or something) that I'd never mentioned it to any Dr. Ever. I think I might have only ever told 2 people about this, period, because it just seemed so insignificant. Seemed (past tense) being the key word here...

Over the last few months, it had been increasing in frequency to the point where it was happening several times a week, and leaving me more out of breath than 'usual.' Part of the increasing difficulty to catch my breath is obviously because my lungs are being squished from the inside, and I assumed that the increase of the double-beat was also related to pregnancy. One night while laying on my left side (which they recommend for pregnant women), it happened and it took me so long to recover that Seth told me I had to mention it to my OB.

I mentioned it to her at my next appointment by saying that I was fearful I hadn't been completely honest with her about my medical history, and that there's something I need to talk with her about. I tell her basically what you've just read and her immediate response is that she's going to refer me to a cardiologist. So, my non-routine appointment last week was with this cardiologist. (Before I go on, I must mention how perfeclty wonderful this Dr. and his staff were to me. If anyone in DFW needs a referral to a heart guy, this guy was AMAZING!)

So, I get there, and they do an EKG (which was a much-less complicated test than I imagined it would be). The Dr. comes in and says "You're too young to be here, what seems to be the problem?" I explain the increased double-beating, and he starts going over a laundry list with me of things it could be. Genetic this, genetic that, this other thing, and oh, unlikely but there's this to look for too, etc. He pulls out the results of my EKG (several squiggly lines on a piece of paper), and points to all these different parts of it which assure him that I don't have this or that or this other thing. "This is very good news!" I'm thinking. He then says that there's one more thing he'd like to check for and wants to know if I have time for an ultrasound. "Just like your other Dr. does, but I'll be aiming a bit higher up" he says. (Told you he was great!) But then I'm thinking "Oh, not so great news."

So, I'm swooped off to the sonogram station, and the tech does all sorts of angles, getting all sorts of measurements and readings and whatnot. I'm sore from laying on the funny bed thing (it had a part where the bed gives way so she can get to the left side of your body while laying on your left side. if that makes any sense..), but otherwise feeling perfectly fine. I'm then escorted back to my room, and he quickly comes in to go over the results. It's again more of this is fine, and this is perfect, and this is exactly how it should be, etc. So, I'm wondering... where does that leave me? What's causing the double-beat thingie that I experience?

He flips over my results and starts to draw what he calls 'the crudest drawing of a heart ever' (but it was actually oblong like an actual heart, not like the love kind of heart, so that seems like a great drawing to me!). He explains that there's this part of the heart responsible for directing the heart (like a conductor of an orchestra, he says) telling the heart when to beat, and keeps everything on schedule. This is called something-node. And he explains that sometimes another part of the heart can put out a half-beat in between the regularly-scheduled beats and this is what I'm experiencing. It's called PVCs--premature ventricular contractions. Because this little half-beat is off schedule and not full-strength, I experience the shortness of breath.

He assures me that there is 1) nothing to worry about and 2) it will likely subside to pre-pregnancy frequency post delivery (it's just that my body has more strain on it in general that's causing it to happen more often) and that 3) if I'm ever annoyed enough by it to want to do something, he can prescribe 'an old beta blocker' that will clear it up. I'm glad to know that my heart is perfectly normal, and I assure him it's not annoying enough to want to take medicine for; I'm simply glad to hear there's not something really wrong with me. He promises that it's not going to lead to increased risk of heart attack or stroke or any other such thing, so I feel MUCH better about the whole thing. I do look forward to it going back to pre-pregnancy frequency, though!