My face is back to normal now. Hooray. (She's says with lackluster.) At any rate, my brain is doing just fine. I just had my yearly MRI and the results are stable. What does that mean? Not a whole hell of a lot. The reason I have to have my brain looked at is that the disease progression of MS can be spotted on an MRI of the brain BEFORE it's noticed physically. But disease progression in other parts of the body that are controlled by the nerves in the spinal cord is usually noticed physically before you can see the progression on the spinal MRI. Are you confused yet? At any rate, I am STABLE and my brain more or less has the same amount of damage as last year. That being said, there is definite, noticeable brain atrophy, which gives more weight to the fact that I am losing my words more, and more often.
ALSO.
The disease progression has gotten to the point where I will need another surgery. They need to remove some of my esophagus and intestines, plus it's time to remove some old scar tissue courtesy of my handy dandy connective tissue disease. It will be awesome to not feel like I'm being squeezed all the time and I'm ESPECIALLY looking forward to less vomiting.
THEN, when THAT is done and over, I will be getting two more dental implants and another bone graft. I mean, can you even handle my glamorous life? I'm very excited about the whole teeth thing though because I've been waiting a long time. We had to get through 3 sets of braces and a wisdom tooth surgery before it was my turn. And our insurance resets on May 1 so there will be plenty of money for co-pays and such.
In non-Caroline news, we are getting Thaddeus ready to send in his mission papers. He has been working really hard to get things in motion, including setting up his own doctor appointments. It's super helpful because work is crazy for both me and Troy. (And there I go making non-Caroline things into Caroline-centric things.)
We are trying new meds for Blayne. We are switching to something a little stronger and hopefully a lot better at quieting some of the voices in our head.
Daniel is doing great. He has his appointment set up on his birthday to get his drivers license. If you can keep a secret, I've been letting/making Daniel drive people places instead of me. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU GET A LICENSE.
Taylor has been really getting into sewing and making clothes. She right this minute is making a gray bustier. She found a pattern she liked on Etsy, bought it, and immediately set to work.
Which reminds me that I have to work in a few hours, so I need to get some sleep. Man alive, life really just gets crazier and crazier the older the kids get.
