Shaun's Huge Heart

We seem to be doing things BIG at our house lately.  Shaun had a doctor appointment with our primary care doctor, Kellie.  (He just switched to her because the girls and I absolutely LOVE her.)  This was his first appointment with her and it was actually a telehealth video appointment.  He was seeing her for something entirely unrelated, but in passing mentioned that he's been having some on and off chest pain for a while.  She immediately jumped on that and ordered a stress test as well as a sleep study.  The sleep study came back showing severe sleep apnea, which with that we weren't at all surprised.  His stress test was pretty normal but Dr. Beard who performed the test at the hospital said he'd like to order an echocardiogram just to further check some things and he was certain Kellie would, too.

Fast forward to there being confusion in who was supposed to get results.  They went to Dr. Beard first and then we got it sorted out and had them sent to Kellie.  The results we got from Kellie were that Shaun's aortic heart valve is not functioning properly.  It's very enlarged and his function output is about 40%.  She said she was going to call down to the University of Utah to get him scheduled with a cardiologist and was going to push it to be ASAP, that we weren't waiting around for a far out appointment, which they would most likely try doing.  They were able to get us in a week later.  Dr. Beard's office had called Shaun and said that he wanted to see him ASAP.  He explained that he had an appointment scheduled with the U and they said based upon how soon they were getting him in, to go to that appointment and just keep them updated.  (More urgency= more scare for us!!) Kellie had mentioned that it would most likely result in surgery but that there's a procedure called a TAVR which has good results and a relatively quick recovery.  So we've read all up on it and on the condition.  WebMD, Google, Mayo clinic...thank heavens for these online sources, right?! It sounded like the TAVR would be perfect; it seemed to fit the symptoms.

We had the appointment yesterday with Dr. Goodwin and his cardiology team at the U.  They were very thorough and patient as we asked 100 questions.  The verdict for Shaun is different than we were hoping for.  The damage to his heart is more severe than we thought and he's not a good candidate for the TAVR.  Instead, he will be going in for open heart surgery on October 12th.  He has an aneurysm in his heart and severe aortic valve regurgitation.  The doctor wants some additional tests, a heart cath and CT scan, done prior to surgery just so he has a very clear picture of everything with his heart and can check for any additional problems he should be aware of.  This is something that has obviously been going on and worsening for quite some time due to the extent of damage.  

We are scared to death but know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of us!  I'll be forever grateful to Kellie.  She just may have saved Shaun's life and I don't take it lightly for that blessing in and of itself.  

Kambri's Scheduling

Kambri is kind of hard to get moving in the mornings.  So this is our conversation that we had one morning last week.

Me: It's time to get up for school Kambri.
(After stretching and rolling around a bit...)
Kambri: Just a minute, let me check my schedule. (She then goes under her covers.)
Me: You've got to get to school and you have dance today.
Kambri: I think my schedule just opened up.

She totally kills me sometimes with the grown up conversations we have, she seems years ahead of herself!  Oh, how I wish time would stand still sometimes, they all grow so fast!

It's official- he's a licensed driver!

It's been kind of an interesting process with how they go about the permit and license rules now as compared to when Shaun & I turned 16.  He's had his permit since July and it only allowed for a parent and immediate family to be in the car.  Then on top of that, he had to have possession of a permit for a full 6 months before he could get his actual license.

 

Here he is with his temporary license!  He's ready and rearing to drive by himself!  So the first time he took off out of the driveway to go to a friends by himself I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack.  We watched him until we could no longer see the tail lights.  I was the overprotective mom who made him check in everytime he got from one place to another so I knew he was safe.  He really appreciated that! :)  It seriously took me like a week before I could relax a little about him driving without one of us. 

 

We've basically given him the 2001 Oldsmobile Alero.  We bought a Honda Pilot a few weeks before he got his license.  He's been driving him and Hollie to school most days since then!  Now he's on the search for a job though as he sees that gas and insurance are going to cost some money! 

 

And the official license arrived in the mail...

 

 

Clear the roads Brigham City and make room for Taylor Bess!

How is it possible?! Taylor is 16!

We officially have a 16 year old & a licensed driver in our house now!  This seems so surreal.  I'm not quite sure how it happened that Taylor can possibly be 16, but alas, he is!

He chose Chinese for dinner and his girlfriend, Emilee, ate with us and spent the evening with the family! Among the many presents he received, we gave him a 'Do's and Don'ts of Dating' book.  As you can see in this first picture, he's pretty excited about that! :)

I decided it'd be a good idea for all the adults to give him a piece of advice for dating/being a more able teenager.  Things ranged from: date lots of girls so you can find the right one to marry, remember that your parents love you and want to be your friend- they do have some wisdom they can share with you, be respectful to all the girls, etc.  We did video most of his advice it which will be fun for him to look back on. 

Poor Emilee to have to sit through all of this.  But she was a great sport about it.  Throughout this little shenanigan there were 2 red faces though! :)

 

And his list of 16 things!!

 

1.  He is pretty smitten by Emilee!

 

2.  He has been learning to play the guitar and is really quite good at it.  It's fun to listen to him play and sing at the same time.

 

3.  He loves to sing and to belt it out when no one is looking.

 

4.  He is taking German this year and likes to talk to us like we have a clue what he's talking about.

 

5.  He is a wealth of knowledge.  He seriously knows something about everything.  He never ceases to amaze me.

 

6.  His cell phone is his most coveted possession.

 

7.  He has a lot of allergies and he's doing the allergy shot therapy once a week.  :(

 

8.  He has started coming upstairs out of his 'apartment' a bit more and we love it!

 

9.  He loves to continually point out that he's taller than me, which we all know isn't that hard to beat!

 

10.  He isn't picky about too many things like a lot of teenagers.  He's pretty easy going that way.

 

11.  He is involved in a lot of different clubs at school.  WDIR (We do it Right), German Club, FBLA and FFA.  I love that he's involved in a variety of things.

 

12.  We had a really hard time getting him motivated to study to get his Driving Learner's Permit, but once he had that in his hand, he wanted to drive ALL the time.

 

13.  He has a good head on his shoulders.  He has good friends, a cute girlfriend, gets good grades, and is an all around good kid.  He's always been a relatively easy kid for us.  We're lucky!

 

14.  He's a very loyal friend.  I've seen it time and time again- anyone is lucky to have him as a friend.

 

15.  He doesn't always love to help me around the house, but he is quite helpful if I ask something of him.

 

16.  He is turning into such the young man.  Like a normal teenager he values his sleep (during the day), stays up late, loves spending any chance he gets with Emilee, and still gets annoyed by his sisters!  We're loving our typical but unique Taylor!

 

 

Jordan World Circus

Here's a little secret.  Sometimes most of the time we're not all that exciting of a family.  We don't seem to make time for the fun things in life that create memories, but we've really been trying harder to do that as a family.  We decided the circus would be a fun place to start, as Shaun is the only one of us who had ever been. 

 

We had a great time and will definitely do it again!  It was well worth the money.  Plus we got to finish up the evening with dinner at our favorite place, Bella's! Yum!

 

The kids enjoyed watching the elephant rides and pony rides.  But no way were they doing the elephant ride. 

And we were lucky enough to get up right close and personal to the lion and tiger cages before we were told they don't like you up that close to them. 

It was nice to spend time with the family and do something fun!  Memories in the making....