hola family and friends...

welcome and thanks for visiting our blog!! feel free to read any and all posts!! this is where i will post what is going on in our FAMILY.....everyday stuff and exciting stuff!! so bookmark us if you wish so you can keep up with james, alex, matthew and me! :) i usually try to post SOMETHING at least a couple of times a week!!! these last couple of weeks since we went on our trip have been very BUSY!!! soooo, there is ALOT to read!!! i will also be adding pics every once in a while so keep visiting!! :)

if you are wanting to hear all about our vacation, you should start by going down to JUNE 19TH when we left!!! there are some pics in there and another account of what happened with mr matthew and the airlife. there are also pics of the helicopter!! you can also leave a comment if you wish at any of the post...down at the bottom of each post you will see a area where it says COMMENTS and just click on that and it will give you a comment screen to post!! :) please let me know who you are!! we would LOVE to hear from you!!!

if you are here to see some pics, look over to the RIGHT SIDE and if you go down a bit, you will see a rectangle with lots of little pics in it....you can click on that and it will take you to the flickr page and you can see all the pics up close and with my comments on it. you can also comment there on any or all the pics you see! if you would like to download any of them FEEL FREE!! :)

we are sooo happy you came to visit! please stop by often! we are all about our families and our life soooooo......ENJOY!!!

well, seizures seem to be....

doing BETTER! YIIIPPPEEEEE!! we are happy that since 7/10, he has NOT had another seizure, THANK YOU GOD! it has been really stressful for us when he sleeps...that is the time he seizes so we are sooooo careful during that time! but now that he has had his meds increased, he is more prone to be SLEEPY, a side effect of those seizure meds. and during the night, he now has to always be on the PULSE OXIMETER and OXYGEN because after a couple of hours into his sleep at night, he starts to get REALLY congested and he will start to cough and his oxygen sats will go DOWN!!!!! he get's into the low 80's to high 70's without oxygen and suction. so that is now a thing we will have to deal with and we WILL....just sometimes SCARY because we have not had to use either pulse ox or oxygen unless he is sick!!! :( poor baby! the one good thing is that is he sooooo zonked that when we do cpt on him at night or suction him, he doesn't even wake UP!!! really! he will cough for us when i suction him but other than that, he is OUT! until he wakes up in the am and then he is still REALLY TIRED and will usually go back down after 1045am or so for a 3-4 hour nap!! :)

anyway, we are gearing up for alex birthday part!! YIPPPEEE! he will be FOUR years old!! AMAZING!! we went to rent the place yesterday! HOW FUN!! indoor event this time around .....he is getting sooooooo big! he always TALKING and it's funny, he picked up a new thing....."what's a ......." it could be a PANCAKE or WHATEVER, usually things he KNOWS what/who they are but he just always ASKS!! TOO CUTE! and he is ALWAYS singing! we are really going to start on our number and writing etc now. i am EXCITED!! and he is a little GENIUS on the computer! :) smarty boy!

sooooo, we get ready for james to be leaving us again for a couple of weeks soon........it will be VERY NERVE RACKING because now with the added stress of the seizure precautions and all the night time stuff we have to do, we TONS of appts coming up! last week it was all about me and my dental issues and this coming week matthew has 3 appts!! and we just lost our PT person due to her having some serious personal health issues at home.....we have praying that all goes well for her and her family!!! so now we are having to wait to see when and IF he will be able to get a PT person to work with him.....GOD WILLING it will not be too long between his last PT session (6/28) and his next one....

matthews first ride...

riding....
Originally uploaded by queengonzo.

just a picture of matthes FIRST RIDE on his gator!! alex and cousin IAN are in front!!!

i was right!

yep, last night, about 30 mins after he took his meds, he started getting REALLY junky and congested and his oxygen sats went from 99% to 87%!! so we put him on oxygen last night at 1 liter and his oxygen sats only went up to 94%!! so, i called his pulmonologist and she agreed with me that he was SOOOOOO ZONKED OUT that he couldn't handle his secretions!! so they just went into his lungs excessively and he got junky! so she told me to call my neurologist, which i did and i now await the phone call back! i don't know what is going to happen. she said that IF they kept him on this does, it ment that he would need to be suction through out the night!!! :( bad for him and us! poor little guy! he just SEES the tubing or HEARS the machine and flips out!! GOD WILLING this will not be the case but we shall see!! :(

what a GREAT hubby i have!

yes, i survived my dental surgery on monday, THANK YOU GOD! and james did such a WONDERFUL job of taking care of me and our home!!! :) like i ALWAYS say, i am SOOOO BLESSED to have him as my hubby!!! :) he made sure that i had EVERYTHING i needed while i was laid up! he just did a GREAT JOB! the only draw back to that day was that seizure...

well, we went to the neurologist appt on tuesday and basically all he did was change his meds...now my beautiful boy is soooooooo spaced out due to the INCREASE of seizure meds... he is now on 200 mg of ZONEGRAN up from 100 mg and they added KLONOPIN .5 mg pill at night and poor kids is ZONING!! this morning, he could BARELY sit! he was soooo tired that he kept falling over while sitting!!! he actually got up a little after 7:30am and went back for his nap at 10:45 am and didn't get up till after 2:30 pm!! so he is really tired from these drugs! tonight i will have to put him on his PULSE OX because last night he was REALLY junky sounding and i don't know if it is because his breathing is surpressed due to the drugs and he is just not moving things in his lungs....he doesn't have the best lungs to begin with sooooo, if this turns out to be the case, i will have to call the dr tomorrow to see hwat needs to be done!

anyway, all in all....just praying my little matthew keeps healthy and NO MORE SEIZURES!

another one....

OH GOD, i just don't know what to think anymore....matthew had ANOTHER seizure last night...i am getting worried that this will be an everyday thing if they can't get them controlled.

i had had my dental surgery early am yesterday and had been taken care of GREAT by james. he did such a WONDERFUL job taking care of me!!! I SO LOVE THAT MAN! he did a WONDERFUL job taking care of the kids too! :) he made mention of the fact that he was on his feet ALL DAY and cleaning and taking care of the kids and after the day was done, it looked like he never did anything!!! i told him WELCOME TO MY WORLD! that is something i LOVE about him, he admits stuff like that!

anyway, i had held off taking my night dose of my pain meds because i wanted matthew to be TOTALLY ASLEEP for fear that he would have another seizure and lo and behold he DID! i was laying there watching tv with my ice pack when matthew gave a cough, james JUMPED UP and ran over to him and our clue that he is having one is EXCESSIVE SALIVATING, and he WAS! i could tell this was going to be a BAD ONE so i told james to get the OXYGEN and we hooked him up to his pulse ox and watched him and talked to him.....we had to give him DIASTAT meds about 5 mins in and after another 8 mins, they stopped. why did we not call ems? GUT INSTINCT!!! i had a peace inside me that said he WOULD stop. and he did! maybe it was the fact that he did NOT clench and unclench his fist that clued me in, i don't know....but THANK GOD he went to sleep after wards. we kept checking him but he was truely asleep. we also had to give him a neb treatment because he was REALLY CONGESTED afterwards and we kept him on about .5 of oxygen but he did well the rest of the night. i have noticed that recently he has started whimpering at night....so maybe he is going thru a growth spurt? molars? something is triggering them!!! i will be calling the dr TODAY to get an appt!!!

and on another note, my CAP that they did on THURSDAY actually hurts MORE than what they did YESTERDAY!! so i will be calling my dentist too!! :(

more seizures...

i just don't know WHAT to think!!! matthew had done WONDERFUL after he got diagnosed with seizures back in 11/04 but now....since then, he had those big seizure in 04 then NOTHING thank GOD until 8/05 when he had that BIG hour long seizure...then only small LITTLE ones maybe 3 or so then 5/06 he had ANOTHER big 1 hour seizure and since then he had one 6/12 (15 mins), 6/21 (in MO for way over an hour), 7/2 (30-45 sec), 7/5 (not witness but had a WET shirt), & 7/9 (30-45 sec)....i just don't know WHAT is happening....i am starting to get concerned...they are ALL happening in sleep sooooo.....just something to think about now and to let the drs know.....i just PRAY that they resolve themselves and that they do no damage him in any way!!!

MATTHEW ISAIAH's quilt

MATTHEW ISAIAH's quilt
Originally uploaded by queengonzo.

matthew's quilt block finally got put in the CHD QUILT!! i am soooo excited and happy! they have done a BEAUTIFUL job with these quilt. just a VERY SMALL reminder of how many people are born with CHD....this is quilt #37.....his is the square that is 3 rows DOWN and 5 across....i can only imagine HOW MANY quilts there would be if EVERYONE born with a CHD had a quilt square...i want to say that it is 1 in every 100 births are affected by a CHD... such a scary statistic....and most do NOT have a genetic link to them!

waves of sadness....

last week, 2 more heart babies that i knew passed away.....one was not even a year old and the other was just shy of 2 years old.....i sit here and just think....wonder.....and GIVE THANKS to GOD that matthew is here with us....it could have EASILY been my family....my baby! i was passing by matthews little high chair and just these thoughts came to me of how it would FEEL if he was not here with us....never seeing him sit in his little high chair....never play with all his toys...never here him laugh or smile.....i couldn't stop the tears that came to me because it was SOOOOOOO REAL! i could FEEL such SADNESS and dispair and all he was doing was sleeping upstairs taking a nap!! i missed him SOOOOOOOO MUCH that i had to run upstairs and check on him to make sure he was breathing and just to reassure myself that he was THERE!!! how DEVESTATING it must be to lose a love one....a baby....my thoughts and prayers are with these 2 families and ALL families that have lost someone special.....i hope that everyone in the world realizes how EASILY things can change.....even a healthy person can be gone from one day to the next.....young....old....when GOD choses to take you home, it's TIME!

anyway, i can only hug and love my family and PRAY for health and safetly......i just hope that everyone realizes how BLESSED they are to have their family/friends in their lives RIGHT NOW!!

pictures to the RIGHT!

hello!

just making sure that everyone notices the PICUTERS from flickr (HEY BEKKI I FIGURED IT OUT!! :) they are from our VACATION!!! enjoy!

and on another note...i am going to have DENTAL SURGERY on monday! WOOOOPPEEE!! i know ya'll are just wishing ya'll were me, right?! NOT! but hey, i get to use vicodin for a peroid of time!!! j/k

anyway, it will be EARLY in the AM and james had to take off because they are going to sedate me and all! ohhhhh the JOY of it all is almost too much to bear!

dentist!!

man, i HATE the dentist!!! but there i go! my teeth are a MESS and i have no one to blame but myself! oh well! :( so, today i had a INTERMEDIATE CAP placed and tomorrow i go for a consult to a oral surgeon (2 wisdom teeth need to be removed, YAY!! ), then i have to schedule that surgery to take place....THEN, i have a consult for the ENDODONTIST for a root canal that was done on one of my tooth that was not done PROPERLY and THEN, after i have healed from the wisdom tooth and root canal, i get to see an ORTHODONTIST!! can you say YIPPPEEEE!?! man, i guess, if don't have ENOUGH on your plate, a little more is thrown on it! but that is ok...i need to finally take care of myself and some of my issues that have been put on the back burner with my health...the dentist, my vision, and most importantly my FIBROMYALGIA...it has been flaring up....and then there is this wierd swelling on my hands/feet...could be excema?! tomorrow i go to the dr for the illness part........

new song....

well, i changed my song today!! this is one of my FAVORITE songs! when someone tells me, "you are SO LUCKY" i ALWAYS respond that i am not LUCKY but i am "BLESSED"...GOD has blessed me with SOO MUCH in my life. He has been there for me thru EVERYTHING that has happened in my life. i know i am BLESSED because HE is in my life and HE is the reason i am HERE TODAY.....my family, my friends....ALL OF IT is thru HIM.....THANK YOU GOD!


SO, this song is by MARTINA MCBRIDE and it is called "BLESSED"....this song is how i feel...sooooooooooo BLESSED.....THANK YOU GOD for EVERYTHING good and bad in my life!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!! wow, james taught that to alex and he kept saying it ALL day long!!

since things are messed up with some of the family, sadly, james and i decided we would celebrate here with just our little family! it was SOOOO NICE! james BBQ brisket, i made, beans, rice, salad, potatoe salad some chips and salsa and SWEET ICE TEA!!! MY FAV! anyway it was really nice!! then we just hung around. it rained so we didn't want to chance getting caught out there in this weather, so we just dropped some bbq to my mil and came home and put the boys to bed and james and i watched the SEA WORLD fireworks from our upstairs window! CLEAR SHOT! IT was really a nice display! i LOVE that about our house! we can see sea world clearly and we have a GREAT VIEW cause we are a slight rise! so we see all the way around!!

anyway, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!

DRAMA...all in the family...

well, my hubby was put in the middle....there was some issues with another person in the family and they put hubby in the middle....he HATES when they do that! it is so unfair! he wasn't even THERE!

anyway, drama again here in the family....it kinda messed up 4TH of july plans..had a nice BBQ set up and everything... mil was VERY UPSET and crying etc....not fun.....i wish i could say more about this because i REALLY want to, but .....you never knows who reads you know! but does it matter? it is no secret.......hmmm...i will think on this...

another SEIZURE....

YEP, today is SUNDAY and matthew was taking a snooze upstairs. i had been checking on him CONSTANLY (every 5 mins) running up and down the stairs. well, my mil was coming over and i had to run upstairs to change, well, as i was walking by his crib, i looked down and he was SEIZING AGAIN!! i told james, as i am running to the oxygen tank, HE IS SEIZING!! james is like, WHAT?!?!?!? so i start talking to matthew and am getting the oxygen set up. as i am putting it around his face and on his nose, i think i STARTLED him out of it!! he started to SCREAM when i put it in his nose and he felt the oxygen going in! and HE STOPPED!!! i know we caught it RIGHT when it started because there was only a LITTLE bit of wet spot on his jammies! THANK YOU GOD it stopped!!! it gaves a bit of a rush there but MAN that was CLOSE!