Thurman Family of Five: July 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

My MRI results

As many of you know I have neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). This is a genetic disorder in which tumors grow on my nerve tissue..if you remember I posted a video of a precious little girl that was on the Today show for all of you to see.

Well lately I had been having a lot of headaches. What would be an inconvenience for most, is more than that for me. Frequent headaches for a person with NF does not automatically go to lower your stress level, wear your glasses more often, get more sleep, take a pill, etc. It automatically has to go to lets get an MRI to make sure nothing is happening in your head. I have become quite familiar with that big cylinder they call an MRI. (I hate being in tight spaces, but have found if I count the time I am in there off by minutes it makes it easier on me..might not work for everyone, but it works for me.)

I am very happy to report I have no tumors on my brain..not even a little one! (And that I now have more positive proof there is a brain up there!) There are a couple of little fibromas in the proximity my cervical spine..but they are very very tiny and of no concern. They are no where near pressing on anything.

I had one of my lumbar and sacral spine a couple of months ago. It was clear except some scalloping of the lumbar region. This basically means that little sac of fluid that everyone has around their spine - well mine is quite a bit bigger. I also have a slight scoliosis in that area..but both things are fairly common with NF1 and are of no danger to me. The doc even said that because of all that space I never have to worry about degenerative spine problems :) .

It turns out my headaches are just migraines after all, and I now have medication for that. Lack of sleep (imagine that with 3 kids 5 and under) and stress may make the headaches worse..but hopefully the preventative medicine will help.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers that my results would come back good! Prayers were answered! Praise Him!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Savannah helps bake her Daddy's Birthday Cake

July 14th is John's birthday. He will be 35 this year. Savannah will be in Memphis with her grandparents and cousin on his birthday, so we had a birthday party for him this weekend. Savannah helped make the cake. Here are the pictures.

Pouring in the mix

Adding the water

Adding the applesauce (we substitute it for oil)

Adding the eggs (I did not let her crack them - just pour them in)

Using the mixer

We let it cool overnight, so she has a different outfit on now..but here she is putting on the frosting..

Here she is adding "sprinkles". As you can see she has already sampled the frosting..

Here is the cake

Here is Savannah giving the cake to Daddy

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Savannah makes a pizza

Savannah helped make dinner tonight. We had pizza! (We cheated and used a pre made crust and spaghetti sauce)

Putting on the sauce

Putting on the cheeses

Putting on the meats (pepperoni and hamburger)

The finished Pizza before it was cooked

The pizza after it was cooked

Eating the pizza

In honor of the 4th of July

Savannah learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. Here she is saying it. (She was shouting..turn down your speakers)

Friday, July 3, 2009

We celebrated the 4th by making a major purchase..

Fitting 3 kids into the 4Runner has not been an easy task. Poor little Caroline gets tortured by her well meaning big brother and sister, who are only trying to play with her. That is no longer an issue now as we are now owners of a 2005 Toyota Sienna. We are very proud of the mini-van and are very grateful for the room it affords us! There are seats and room for 8 people!

Here are some pictures:

Here are the front seats..

Here are the middle seats

The middle of the middle seats will slide up and put the baby in reaching distance of the front seats. The seats also will come out if needed. They also will fold over and make a table of sorts for the backseats.

here is a picture of the seat as a "table"

Here is the back row of seats. The back seats also fold under to make more storage/towing type space if needed.

Here is the storage behind the backseat.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A segment from the Today Show

This morning the Today show had a segment on a little girl with Neurofibromatosis (also called NF). The reason I am blogging about this is as many of you know I have this disease as well. Savannah inherited it from me. The other 2 children to do have any signs of it. The video gives a good explanation of it and this little girl is just precious!