It's HOT, HOT, HOT!!

Wow - it's hot out there. This is a picture taken of our Garden Thermometer Reading on Thursday, June 25, right at noon (even though the clock is not set right).



Can you believe it!! nearly 112 degrees!! Crazy isn't it. It's 10:30 am right now and it's 107 degrees in the garden.

I was telling someone how HOT it was here and they told me I was wrong. The official temperature was only 101 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. May be very true and I'm still not wrong. Why? The thermometer recording that temperature at the airport is in the SHADE. LOL... yes, in the SHADE. In FULL SUN, where my poor little ole vegetables are and where YOU go when you walk out into this heat to get into your EVEN HOTTER vehicle, is a whole lot HOTTER than the SHADE.

So - if you're a kid out of school, it's SO HOT and you're bored, what do you do?



You make up an excuse to play in the water - how about washing Mom's car? sounds like a good idea.



Maybe threaten to spray your Mama!! :-)

UPDATES to the Ongoing Family Health Escapades

John -

Had his knee surgery on Friday morning (while I was in Minneapolis, mind you). Praise God  - All went well. His best friend, Rene, came over and got him to the surgical hospital at 5:30 am and his surgery was at 7:00 am. He was on the way home by about 9:30 am. His meniscus tear is now fixed. However, found a little surprise during surgery. It would appear that John has been suffering from gout (hate when I'm right!) off and on for awhile and the doctor was able to see the crystals that have formed in the joints very clearly (and we have a picture).  

I thought that was probably the case when his ankles or hand would swell up unexplainably.  I had seen it in a former colleague who was a big football player guy as well and he developed it. But, John being a stubborn male, never really did anything to figure out what it was. It would just go away and all was better in his mind. Clearly not so much. The doctor told him to reduce the intake of several of his favorite items - meat and beer. We'll see how this goes.

Stephen

Stephen is doing fine right now and has no additional fainting episodes other than just feeling lightheaded at times and a general fatigue feeling.  He (and therefore we) are actually doing pretty ok with him not on meds.  AMAZING!!  I was truly scared about taking him off his ADHD meds for very long because he really has the Hyper part of the ADHD along with the Attention Deficit part.  It plays in to behavior problems and causes struggles in our family.  BUT.. I am so happy to report, that so far, it appears Stephen is managing pretty well from that perspective without it.  Maybe we'll learn something new in all this.  

As for the Heart issues - we have some good news.  Remember I said in moments like this, we start pulling strings with anyone possible as an advocate.  I'm pretty good at being persistent as is his dad.  We've had a few opinions from our doctors and doctor friends and was really uncertain as to the next steps, the travel that is set for July and a few other items.  So, Stephen's Dad, Rob, called his primary doctor who is a VIP type doctor (they agree to maintain a low patient base in exchange for an annual membership fee that is somewhat significant at $1300).  That annual fee means you ALWAYS have access to him whenever you are sick or in need to talk with him, no waiting.  Pretty nifty if you have the bucks.  

Their office called over to Tx Children's to the cardiology department and requested a cardiologist to reread the EKG, set an appointment and advise whether Stephen was cleared to travel.       Happened in one day on Friday.   To put this in perspective, our pediatrician's group, who is a part of Texas Children's, doesn't move this fast and so far, I haven't even heard from them yet with a number to call to even make the appointment.  

Bottomline for now - He's clear to travel and has an appointment with Tx Children's on August 6.  Not an urgent issue.  We are to keep him supervised and notify if anything were to change.  YAY!!      Good stuff. 

Rachel

I think I mentioned that a week ago we had Rachel in the ER Clinic around the corner from us.  She was having some pain in her abdomen that looked and sounded like maybe gall stones, kidney stones, appendix??  something that was an 8/9 on the pain scale for her (and she's a pretty tough cookie on pain).    A week ago, nothing showed up on the ultrasounds/CT scans, etc.  So, home we go just hoping it goes away.  It did pretty much apparently until yesterday, of course, while I'm in Minneapolis and John's had surgery.  She had those pains again, but not as low.  If they ultrasound of her gall bladder had not been clear last week, I would swear that was what it was given all the history of all the females in our family having gall bladder problems.  With it clear, not sure what it could be.  The ER docs had said maybe an ulcer or something.    Gave her some meds and sent her to bed.  Waiting to see this morning how she is feeling.   Guess we'll be taking her to see Dr. C early next week as well.  

What is it with all these health issues???   

MA