I'm tired. It's late. I'm headed to bed....but wanted to let you know we made it home safe & sound from our vacation. Lots of details & pictures to follow on posts in the next few days.
(if you'd like to see the pics, email me & I will send them your way)
Eleven years ago today, I was holding my nearly 3-hours-old baby girl. I was a mommy for the first time and as I stared at this little angel, I had no idea how much a decade would change my life. (well...a little over a decade) It's amazing to see how much life can throw at ya in such a short time. While Savannah was a veryyyyy difficult baby & toddler & preschooler, she is such a sweetheart these days. Sure, she has the typical preteen quirks, but I really couldn't be more proud of her. She is becoming a beautiful Godly young lady and I'm honored to be her mama.
Today we started the day with our traditional birthday morning breakfast----cake! She opened a present from us (a Chicken Little soundtrack CD, magazine subscription & a giant Rice Krispy treat which she's saving for the trip) and then proceeded to get a full day worth of phone calls, emails, cards, etc. She was really blissed out when we went to the mall & she got three Neopets magazines for $6.50! (they usually cost $10/ea, but these were clearanced b/c they're out of date, which was just fine with her!) We went to Claire's & she got some funny little rubbery grassburr looking earrings. They're very interesting...ya gotta see 'em to really 'get' what they look like. Larry got some tennis shoes while we were there & I got one last thing I needed for the trip. Tonight when I tucked her in, she said "I don't want this day to end!".
Today we got all the carry-on bags packed (well, mine & the kids anyway...Larry can handle his own). We're packing up tomorrow & will be out the door earlyyyyyyy Wednesday morning. We're getting giddy around here!!!
Please include my mom in your prayers. Her name is Faye. She's having some health issues that are bothering her. I won't go into too many details here, but I know she'd appreciate your prayers.
First topic: death of 2 local firemen
Yesterday morning, our community lost 2 great men. Both of them are the family members of friends of ours. Austin Cheek, 19, and Kevin Williams, 42, were fighting a fire & lost their lives. Both were members of a volunteer fire department. Austin is the nephew of one my dearest friends and Kevin is the son of friends from our old church. We are shocked & blown away by their great loss. The whole community is grieving their deaths. Please join us in prayers for these two families. Their funerals are early this week, hopefully before we leave town on vacation. I really want to be there for both funerals.
2nd topic: update on yesterday's big oops
We went to mom & dad's tonight to borrow all their maps of the California to Texas drive we'll be making next week. It looks like it'll be about a 1500 mile trip & we have to drive it in 3 days. Larry HAS TO be at work Wednesday morning so we MUST be home by late Tuesday night. Ouch...that's 500 miles a day. Oh boy.
Let me just be honest here. I'm not a big fan of long drives (even less of a fan if I am the one driving, but thankfully Larry will do most of this drive). Road trips always sound fun in theory or on movies, but put me in a car/van/truck/whatever for a long day of driving and I'm usually clawing at the doorknob to get OUT. I'm not clausterphobic exactly....but I just hate to SIT for so long. It makes me a little nutty. I am doing my best to be positive & excited about this opportunity to spend time with my kids and hubby and get to see new parts of the country I've never seen before, but I'm really dreading 3 days in a car. I need some "alone time" to keep my sanity. Hmm....I think I'll pack some bubble bath for those late evenings in the hotels along the way. Please pray for an uneventful drive home with lots of laughter & giggles and fun along the way!
3rd topic: funny of the day
Today we were playing a Bible Pictionary sort of game. Larry was drawing a duck as part of some picture & after it was drawn, he said "Oops! I forgot to put the wing on it". Somehow I heard "I forgot to put the weiner on it." My eyes bugged out & my jaw hit the table as I asked him WHY he would say that. After we cleared up the misunderstanding, everyone cracked up. We haven't all laughed that hard in a while. We've teased each other all day about the duck missing its weiner. LOL! The kids are old enough to "get" the misunderstanding, and they all think it's really funny that mommy thought that's what daddy said. (Of course, we don't normally discuss things like this so that makes it even more giggle-producing for them.)
4th topic: God is good!
For a long time, every time someone asked what my 'dream vacation' is, I've said "to take my family to Disneyworld". I didn't know how we'd ever pull it off ($$$$!) but hoped that one day we'd figure it out. I realize we're not headed to FL, but Disneyland is the "original" Disney & I'm sure it'll be great too! I can't wait to see the looks on the kids' faces and to enjoy the magic of Disneyland w/ my family! God is good to work all this out for us!!!
I wrote this letter to Savannah's doc tonight. I editted it for privacy.
August 2, 2007
Dr. S____,
I wanted to fill you in on our attempt to lower Savannah's Zoloft dosage.
Week 1: On July 15, we began giving her 1/2 a pill each day (___ mg/day). The first couple of days were shaky. She was more moody & cried a lot, but we knew we should give it more time. I think that may've been a reaction to her fear of dropping the dose. She was worried about how she'd do. By days 3-5, she seemed to "level out". But on days 6 & 7 she had big "dips" again, very moody & crying all day long. Since the original plan had been to try a lower dose for about a week before dropping it any further, we decided not to mess with the dosage yet & give her a little more time on the smaller dose before making any further changes. She was still going up & down too much.
Week 2 was rough. She seemed to do well in the mornings but by early afternoon every day (around 2:00), it was like the medicine had worn off & she spent the afternoons sobbing over little frustrations. On one day in particular, she spent over an hour crying about something silly. She actually came to me & asked if she needed to go back up on her dosage because she realized that she was getting upset over trivial things and was having a very hard time calming down after an anxiety attack. I was impressed that she could logically SEE this & was able to rationally understand that maybe a different dosage would be helpful. Through teary eyes, she asked for us to let her try the lower dosage for a 'few more days' because she wanted to make it work. She would like to get off the medicine completely, but she is aware that this may be a lifelong problem she must deal with. She's ok with that, but like a diabetic kid might wish not to deal with diabetes, she wishes she didn't have anxiety trouble.
I have a theory. I suspect that the first week or so, she still had a lot of medicine built up in her system & it pulled her through that first week without an extreme change in her mood/personality, but after that all wore off, she was only getting that little dose each morning & it wore off by afternoon, leaving her with that afternoon "low". Could that be possible?
Week 3 has been more of the same--a few good days & a few rough ones. This evening, I was watching her walk around in a 'gloomy' sort of slump. It reminded me of the way most kids act when they're sick. You know ...... when they don't have a particular physical ailment or symptom, but they're just dragging around with no energy or enthusiasm like they're on the verge of tears. Just feeling "blah". This is how she looks. Her mood is low, her energy is almost zilch & it takes a good deal of effort to get her to smile.
I fear that if we drop her dosage any further we will be in real trouble. As it is now, she's not at the bottom of the barrel so to speak, but she's not herself either. She seems sort of depressed & low and that bothers me. With her about to hit so many BIG changes in life (going into middle school, beginning the youth group at church, starting band at school, beginning dance class again, puberty, etc), I'm wondering if it would be wise to drop her dosage now. If the higher dose gives her that sweet perky personality that we've seen for the past few years, I'm all for staying at the higher dose.
While we haven't had the extreme issues this time that we had the last time we tried to wean her off the medicine, this time hasn't been positive either. I hate to see my baby girl looking so 'droopy'. She's just not herself. Larry & I talked tonight and made the decision to go back to the full dose tomorrow. We're leaving on vacation this coming week and want her to enjoy the trip---not spend half of it bummed out, crying & feeling down. Bottom line, I hate to give her more medicine than she needs, but the lower dose is less than she needs so we're going back up on the dose. I want my happy, sweet child back. Gloom & doom doesn't flatter her.
We're leaving on vacation ___day Aug __ & will be gone until __ Aug __th. Please give us a call & share your thoughts if there is anything we need to discuss before the next appointment.
Thank you for your time,
Liz Reeves
home: 903-___-____
cell: 903-___-____
email: Lizreeves2@aol.com
By this time next week, we'll be in California! We're soooo excited! Let me tell ya a little about God's goodness.
In 1998, we discovered that Savannah had a birth defect. She was about 18 months old before we really discovered it & immediately we found an awesome doctor to start treating it. Savannah had an eye muscle disorder that falls under the Strabismus umbrella of eye problems. (for more info, go to www.heatoneye.com & click on the "education" link at the top, then scroll down to "strabismus") Anyway, in beginning the process to treat her & knowing that surgery was part of what we'd be doing, I went online in search of someone who had "been there, done that" & could tell me what to expect with the surgery/recovery. A single dad from California wrote to me. His son, a couple years older than Savannah, had been through the surgery already & he filled me in on what to expect. We talked about our kids & how each of them came to have this problem, what sort of treatment they were doing, etc. Over the course of the next couple years, Savannah had 4 surgeries to correct it and eventually went to glasses (bifocals). During that time, this nice man remarried & added several other children to his family and we kept in touch. That was nearly a decade ago & we're still online buddies.
Last year, he told me that his son (the same one who had the eye problem like Savannah) was turning 13 in August of 2007 & he would be having his Bar Mitzvah. He invited us to be there! Wow! What an honor!
Without sharing all the details, God has really blessed us with the finances to go. Without HIS hand in all this, we could've NEVER afforded this trip!! We are so excited!
We'll be just outside of L.A. next week for the Bar Mitzvah & since we may never go back, we decided to go a few days early to do all the cool "tourist stuff". We'll go to Disneyland while we're there, the beach, up & down the Hollywood streets to check out stars' homes, etc. We can't wait! Don't worry...I'll take lots of pictures & will report in as soon as we get home. This is truely the trip of a lifetime for us. I've said for YEARS that my "dream vacation" was to take my family to Disneyworld....but Disneyland is just as good! :) And since we've obviously never seen a Bar Mitzvah, that will be a HUGE event for us--what a great experience for all of us!
We are sooo excited & just can't wait!! We've got 5 suitcases lined up in the living room waiting to get packed! We've got carry-on bags waiting to be filled. Oh the excitement is growing!!! WooHoo!
