Big Heart

Well the results are in from all of Christian’s cardiology testing.  I came home from work yesterday to a message on the answering machine from Dr. B’s office stating he wanted to see us ASAP, my heart dropped, I got on the phone right away but the office was closed…UGH!  I called first thing this morning and got an appointment for noon time (Rhino was at soccer practice all morning long!).

The news is…..no news!  Yep, really no news, which is good right?  All the tests came back great, no damage to Christian’s heart, all blood flow is flowing, no blockages, the only thing that Dr. B did find was that Rhino’s main chamber of his heart is SLIGHTLY enlarged, only slightly he kept emphasizing.  And really this is to be expected due to his heart working harder due to Christian having the hole, yada, yada, yada (this would not cause any of the problems that Rhino has been experiencing either!).  So where does that leave us?  Right where we are today….watching everything, taking life with each breathe at a time, day by day.

So we keep plugging along down the great path of Rhino’s life.

Enjoy your life Christian with each and every breathe that you take!  Don’t take anything for granted for you blink and it could all disappear! Stay strong, play hard, live harder!

I love you with everything that I am ~mom

New Beginnings

“A New Beginning” that’s what the back of Rhino’s warm up soccer shirt says.  And yeppers, that’s what this year has in store for Rhino a bunch of new beginnings.

First, tonight we got our new soccer sign for our front yard.  New design, all new sign, and Rhino’s full name!  Second, tonight was his first Sophomore season soccer game.  He got to start on the JV squad….hoping this is a trend that continues!

Rhino also went thru his nuclear stress test today at our cardiologist office (he’s been having some issues with his heart lately that he’s never incurred).  Everything went well as can be…he didn’t pass out, didn’t run into any unusual SVT (really high heart rate), etc, etc, etc.  It’s now a wait and see for the rest of the test results….UGH!  Could this lead to another new beginning?  A beginning that we have been blessed enough not to have to endure….surgery, medications, and/or both.  It’s been discussed also, with the cardiologists about pulling Rhino from sports again.  At this point in the game (no pun intended there!) Rhino’s cardiologist feels that he is still safe enough to continue to play soccer.  Rhino’s coaches have been informed of the situation and they monitor him as well.  I sit in the stands at every game and monitor my son too.  We’ve discussed as a family the probabilities of Rhino “crashing” on the soccer field and well…..we’re not going to stop him from something that he loves, that he finds joy in and quite frankly it’s like anything else in life….if we’d sit here and dwell on Rhino’s VSD and put him in a bubble he wouldn’t have a very productive life!  That bubble would burst some day anyways and he would of missed out on a life……..

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

So it’s a new beginning all around in the Teenage Rhino household, one that is leading us down paths of unknown but sometimes those paths take you to the greatest adventures you’ll ever encounter!

Testing to the Limit

All this week Rhino has some kind of medical testing to go thru. 

To begin with, he’s been having some minor complications with his heart.  At our annual EKG and Echo everything looked the same and we continue to say how blessed we are compared to other heart families, so maybe this is why it’s scarier, because we have been so blessed! (Now I’m not trying to take away from anyone else and I’m not trying to say that our situation is worse etc, etc so please don’t take it like that.)  The cardiologist feels that there might be some underlying problems that aren’t showing up on the “normal” testing so off we go for some extensive testing BUT then again this just might be “growing pains”.

Secondly, as previously mentioned, we head off at the end of the week to see the sub specialists for Rhino’s ankle.  She will be the one that will definitely tell us if/when surgery will ensue.  Rhino and I had a nice long talk about impending surgery, what he would like, what I would like and technically what is.  I’m thinking praying we are as prepared as can be.  I even went to the high school the other day to speak with them as to what mayhems would incur there…..oh this could be a long winter.  But as long as Christian remains as healthy as possible that’s what matters in the long run!! (and may I have a bottle of wine to get me through the long winter, lol!)

 

A Future Penn Stater

If you see us walking around, walk into our humbly hectic messy household, or heck even speak to us, you know our family is Penn State fans ALL THE WAY!  Christian has been wondering around Happy Valley (for those of you that don’t know that’s Main Campus, State College, PA) since the ripe old age of 2! We’d push him around in his stroller, bouncing him down the steps…his biggest thrill…feeding the squirrels the unshelled peanuts.  They literally come right up and take them out of your hand because they are so use to people and they would run up one side of Christian’s stroller take the nut out of Christian’s chubby little hand and run right back down the other side of the stroller…I can still hear Christian’s childish laughter, unfortunately we were such young struggling parents…no camera to prove it!

(Christian’s old favorite PSU hat!)

(Christian’s new favorite PSU hat!)

Christian has grown up with no pressure from us (other than stating you CAN NOT go to Ohio State!!!!) wanting to go to Penn State. I’d love to see this happen.  We try every year (recently most haven’t been successful) to go back for a visit and did just that yesterday.  Memories flood back every time BUT this time it was so different.  Christian is bigger, he’s the size of a college kid, he’s closer to BEING a college kid.

  I stopped and watched my little boy walk those steps that we used to stroll him in and I started to cry, right there and then.  Yep, the mom broke down like the biggest dork ever but it also made me realize thankful for what a wonderful child that I have!

Christian for whatever the future holds (again as long as it is NOT Ohio State, LOL) you’ve made us proud of who you are and who you maintain to be.  Keep walking that right path down that narrow slippery road.  And oh yea maybe there will always be some Creamery at the end for ya!

 

Only a mother could love this..

Yes, that is my 15 year old son with HIS new FAVORITE Penn State Nittany Lion hat.  We just got home from our trip down to PSU and we’re all exhausted, happily exhausted though but I thought knew I had to share this we you all first.  More photos and the story to come later.

Not Lost Just Playing Opossum

I know it’s been a long time since we’ve posted but as things here as normal as possible.  Christian has been doing his civil war re-enactment about every other weekend plus having soccer practice 2 to 3 times a week.  Soccer season doesn’t official start until next week and re-enactment will die down then so it’s all washing out.  I don’t know if Christian is as excited for soccer season as I am…..I just can’t wait to get back on those fields and root for our boys!!!

 

In other words, soccer season just might not happen either.  We just found out the Christian’s ankle that he previously injured isn’t “right” and we are more than likely (the orthopedic specialist is saying 100%) that he will be having surgery on it.  We go see a sub-specialist that just specializes in foot and ankle orthopedics the end of this month and see if she confirms this!  I’m hoping that we can talk her into letting him play out the season and then just to the surgery in October/November.  At this point he can’t do any more harm to his ankle so…….

 

Well stay tuned to see if the Rhino gets to charge the field…….or just gets to play opossum (or ride the pine) like here during a recent re-enactment.