Around the Home

Mazy was counting down the days until Halloween! This is a girl who spends every day dressing up, pretending, imagining, and now she actually had an EXCUSE to dress up! Not that she should ever have to have an excuse to be a kid, but the idea of walking around in a costume all day, sounded pretty good to her!

And if I’m honest, it seemed as if that was the focus of our week! I had 2 appointments in Ann Arbor this past week, which I will get to after these pictures…

There was no doubt who Mazy was going to be: Elsa! Mazy has these eyelashes that I’ve been dying to put mascara on, and now I too, had an excuse to put it on! I have to say, with her fair skin and a little make-up, she sure looks a lot like Elsa!

Those eyelashes…

Our first stop was Grandpa and Grandma Geurink’s house!

Second stop was Great-Grandma Bussis’ house!

I can’t tell this sweet little girl enough, how much I love her! When Dan and I found out we couldn’t have kids because of my heart, this was one thing I grieved – not seeing our child dress up for Halloween. It seems like such a silly thing to get upset about, but it felt like “one more thing” we wouldn’t ever see our own children experience. And now…what a gift! Things we don’t take lightly or for granted! Trying to take advantage of every little enjoyment in this life with a kiddo!

Dan took Mazy downtown Zeeland, trick or treating with some friends from church! It was freezing cold I’m told, and they were done in 30 minutes!

Then at night, we handed out candy from our little front porch with the heater nearby, and then Mazy and I headed out one more time around our neighborhood, until we both about froze. Needless to say, we have candy coming out of our ears, especially since it was so cold and we didn’t have the trick or treaters come like they did last year to the house! Set for life…

Like I mentioned earlier, I also had 2 appointments at Michigan. On Wednesday, I met with my heart failure doctor to discuss what’s next, and basically we are just trying to gain control of my fluid, kidney, and potassium levels. My TEE on November 12 will hopefully give them a clearer direction as well. Then on Friday, I met with my electrophysiologist and I will be having ablations done again. It was determined that after my holter monitor, that I had while I was in the hospital, it showed that my PVC burden was between 18-20%, even while on amiodarone, my strong anti-arrhythmia medication. Before, while not on a med, the highest it’s ever been is 16%. So there is some reason to be alarmed and the need to try and repeat the ablation procedure is very evident. An ablation is when catheters are inserted through the groins, and in my case, they will go into both lower chambers of the heart, and doctors/surgeons will try to cauterize any electrical areas of the heart that are misfiring. There is some risk with this procedure, as there is with any heart procedure, but we are completely willing to take it, since we know I can’t continue like this. The PVCs are so high, that they feel I don’t even need to stop taking my anti-arrhythmia for the procedure, which is not normal procedure protocol. Even while I was at my appointment, every 3rd to 4th beat was a misfire. But I’m thankful that they will keep me on it because I can only imagine how I will feel going off of it, if that’s what needs to be done. I would chalk up a hospital stay for sure! So we hope to get the ablations done in the next few months, most likely after the holidays. If things get worse though, they will bump up my case.

We are ready to take this step in hopes that it will help me feel better! I have so many little issues going on, that it’s hard to make sense of what is causing what. Are they all intertwined? Are they separate issues? Because there are so many issues, it’s hard to know. So we are hoping as the year progresses, that we will be able to figure some of that out.

I’m thankful that there is a plan and I’m thankful I’m not in the hospital. Some days are really hard and some days I feel like I can conquer the world. But any day that is hard, I always keep the perspective of gratitude that I’m not in a hospital bed!

So here’s to an uneventful week (hopefully)!