Sparring

While at a friend's graduation party (Will Kermott) the "kids" sparred with foam swords.

Matt also tossed the football around with Ian (a friend of Zach and Sam)

 Ian asked Sam to keep score of who caught the most.  Matt won, but Ian vehemently disagreed!

New hairdo

Love my new summer do!

Matt's surgery.

Matt had a cyst on the back of his head for as long as I can remember.  It was pea size for the longest time until recently when it got to the size of a ping-pong ball.  It was starting to become uncomfortable for him so he got it removed.

Weekend in Wausau

We spent this past weekend in Wausau.  Our main purpose for the trip was to visit some of my old girlfriends from HS.

Oh, and Matt got to visit his mistress, Veeta (the dog). 

It was such a great time!  I miss these girls already.  Can't wait to do it again.  Can't believe how big everyone's kids have gotten.  

Zach's allergies were so bad the entire time that he spent most of the time on the couch.  Over the counter medications didn't work.  He even said his lips itch.  Getting him to the doctor as soon as I can and will update on that later.

Sam brought Lily with her so she could have someone to hangout with.  The girls slept at my sister's house since her new house has guest bedroom in the basement.  The basement also has a theater room which they enjoyed immensely.

Before meeting up with my friends, we went to Owl Ridge where my dad showcased his Camaro during their Family Fun Day.

 Along with some other cool cars.

The event gets bigger and better every year with a petting zoo, bounce house, great food, and car show.  If you have a change, get there next year.  It's worth it!

Sunday morning the men helped my grandpa Mathie in the sawmill.  Zach helped too but with a mask on.  He said most of his allergy symptoms went away because of the mask except for his itchy eyes.  

Matt and Zach found wood ticks on them.  Luckily they hadn't latched on yet and we were able to burn the little suckers.  It's fun to burn them.  They pop like popcorn.  Burn.  Burn them all!!!

The afternoon was spend on Rib Mountain State Park.  

Playing on the ski lifts

After we had a late lunch we raced home because Matt had a meeting for Salvation Army where he has been volunteering with the kids.  This meeting was more of a concert and awards ceremony.  The kids and I stayed home since we are all sick.  Girls and I with a cold and Zach with his allergies.

Latest Neurology appt.

Went to my first appointment with my new neurology doc, Dr. Luzzio.  Matt went with me, cause he's awesome.  Driving that far wipes me out now.  I haven't seen a neurologist in about 3 years.  I haven't had much happening on the MS front so I put it off.  Plus, my favorite neuro doc, Dr. fleming, retired and it really bummed me out.  I remember Dr. Luzzio from when I was on the HINT trial - I saw him occasionally.  I like him. He's funny and personable.  He had a student shadowing with him.   Pretty cool kid.  The student (I think his name was John. I'm going to call him John.) did the preliminary exam.  Asked what my symptoms have been recently and all that.  

If you are interested here is the list:

• dizziness/vertigo
• tingles all over
• left leg going limp occasionally
• cognitive issues.
• forgetfulness
• speak delays
• fatigue

Luzzio wants me to get a new MRI soon and on some MS medication.  He said he doesn't know if there will be a HINT trial again or not.  Other countries have approved the treatment, but not the good ol' US of A.  Thanks FDA!  Insert expletive here.

Luzzio didn't prescribe me anything.  He wants me to find out what my health insurance covers first. There's no point in prescribing me something I can't get.  He writes down some suggestions of meds, tells us to find out what I can have, and to call them with what I want.  He tells me to stick with my vitamins, eat right, exercise, and keep my stress low.

The appointment ended around 1pm so we decided to grab some lunch.  Matt drives around for a restaurant and I call our insurance company to find out what meds are covered. Get a head start right?! HA!  FOOL!

Pandora's Box, aka, health insurance company can't help me  --> sends me to prescription insurance.  "Oh your 'special prescriptions' that's a different company" ---> transfers me to said company that I've never heard of.  I finally talk to the right person...I think.  I explain that I just need a list of  Multiple Scleroses meds that are covered under my insurance.  Nope, she needs me to list each one of the 12 individually.  Okay, fine, I'll list them and just tell me yea or nay.  Ha ha no.  After each one she tells me that I need a doctors prescription and about how much it costs.  Yeah, after the 4th one I was done, cranky and hungry.

My blessed hubby took me to Claddagh Irish Pub - Yum.  Two thumbs up.  You should go there if you haven't already.

On the drive home I started feeling very overwhelmed and broke down and cried.  So much for keep the stress low.  Matt told me I wasn't allowed to research anymore tonight because of my breakdown.  The fun will have to wait until tomorrow.  Oh joy.

Spelling and grammar errors will happen when I blog without glasses and very emotional.  Deal.

Milwaukee Public Museum

We drove Karen to the Milwaukee airport yesterday for her trip to CA.  Lucky brat ;).  Since we have never been to the Public Museum in Milwaukee we decided to check it out.  Totally worth it!  We had so much fun that I almost forgot to take pictures.  Here are the only two I took.

Kids posing with the mummy, Djed-Hor.

Zach in "The Streets of Old Milwaukee" exhibit.

We also went to the planetarium.  The special effects were neat and all, but my vertigo kicked in to high gear.  By the time it was over I was in the bathroom wishing I would have skipped it.  Plus, it was more like a history lesson than learning about the stars.  Ironically, the planetarium at Wausau West is better.  This experience was more like going to a movie as we zipped around through "time" and learned about how different cultures viewed the night sky.  We spent more time learning about the cultures and "star-gazers"  than the stars.  That was fine and interesting and all but, it wasn't what I was hoping for.  The Wausau West planetarium gets dark, like super dark.  Those of you who went to school there or visited it know what I'm talking about.  You actually get to learn about the night sky.  Granted, the Milwaukee planetarium did have a different showing about the Wisconsin night sky and maybe that would have been more to my liking, but it was playing at a later time so we pick the "Ancient Skies" showing instead.

All in all, I would definitely go again.  There was a lot we missed, but by the time we were done, we were exhausted!

Easter 2015

It's hard to blog when you don't have a computer.  I tired doing it once on my smart phone but it was such a pain I gave up.  Anyway, we recently bought a desktop so I will try and update more often.  At least when I can get it from the kids, sigh.

Easter was absolutely gorgeous this year. Not just the weather but the company too.  Matt was a culinary master and did most of the cooking all weekend.



His shrimp linguine was yummy.  I didn't eat the shrimp, but it gave the noodles a delicious flavor.

The next day (Monday), I had little white sores in my mouth and my lips burned,  since I get cold sores and canker sores easily I recognized these were different, so I used webmd.com and it thought it might be thrush.  Looking at the symptoms it matched.  So, I got unrefined coconut oil to help heal it. It helped sooth my lips so I thought I was on the right path. Cue the leftover shrimp tainted linguine for supper...YAY!

Tuesday: My lips were swollen, felt like they were on fire and tinted orange.  The sores were worse, and now my throat hurt and it was hard to swallow.  I just thought the "thrush" was working it's way through my system and there have been colds going around so I attributed the sore throat to that.  Sure enough the swelling went down through out the day.   Since it hurt to eat it was yogurt and soup for me that day.

Day 3, Wednesday morning, I woke up with still painful swollen lips, the sores in my mouth multiplied and I could barely swallow.  I had to work at the YMCA that morning and the members all noticed.  They made me promise I would go to the doctor.  Luckily, my shift ends at 8am so I was able to get to the doctor rather early.

When she looked me over she said I definitely showed signs of a food allergy and prescribed me an Epipen.  Shrimp is our best guess since I was only introduced to it recently.  I had the same shrimp linguine at my friend's house about a month ago, but the doc. explained the symptoms of a food allergy increase with each exposure.  She said I most likely didn't notice the first time.  Now that I think back on it, I did get a nasty sore on my chin around that time but I dismissed it as just a cold sore.

She said what probably saved me was the fact that I didn't eat the shrimp directly and on Tuesday night I took Benadryl which kept my symptoms down - especially in my throat.  The doctor was baffled that up to this point in my life I'd never had shrimp.  Technically, I still have never eaten shrimp.  When I said I grew up Kosher she was confused because she thought that only had to do with eating pork, LOL.  I had to explain Jewish/Old Testament eating customs.  That piqued her interest in reading the Bible.  The Lord does work in mysterious and wonderful ways!

Since my symptoms were on the mend by the time I saw her, she recommended I just continue with the Benadryl for a while.  They scheduled an allergy test in May to see if there is anything else I'm not aware of because of my Kosher upbringing.  So far, I'm improving everyday and I thank the Lord for keeping me safe.

Samantha learning how to use an Epipen with a "practice" Epipen.