New Season, New Stuff

Today we had fun hiking through a state park a few miles from our house. Sadie found a geode, and the kids became professionals at identifying deer tracks. We also found some cool striped sedimentary rocks. Sadie just studied the difference between sedimentary and igenous rock in school.
The kids found this huge fallen, log that had a perfect child sized seat hollowed out of the middle. They decided to name it Picklebot Log. Which reminded us of the whimiscal names from LOTR. Buckleberry Ferry?

In other news, I recently went to see a neurologist about some weird pressure headaches I have been having for a while now (our insurance doesn't require a referral so I skipped the general practitioner step).

.

The doctor thought what I was describing sounded like exertional headaches since they get worse or are triggered by coughing, sneezing, singing, etc.

He scheduled an MRI just in case. They started occurring after Violet was born so he wanted to rule out a blood clot.

.

Yesterday we got the results back and they found that I have something called a Chiari 1 malformation. Apparently it's a problem with my brain and spinal cord. The brain slips down and presses on or shares space with the spinal cord. Which may account for the pressure headaches I was having.

.

Sometimes people are born with this, and sometimes it forms later in life. They don't know what causes it, although there are a few theories floating around on the interweb.

.

I have an appointment on Monday to find out more, but for now I think they are just going to monitor me to make sure I don't develop anymore symptoms that indicate it's getting worse. The doctor also wants to get me on a waiting list to see a neurologist in Iowa City. That wait can be up to 6 months.

.

Eventually I may need to have a surgery where they remove a small piece of my skull near the base of my head to make room for my...brain, I guess.

But for now, it's not an emergency or anything.

.

Prayers would be appreciated. Hopefully it won't get any worse and I won't have to undergo the surgery.

(I don't know why I can't make new paragraphs without the periods!!)

.

On a lighter note, having an MRI is a lot like listening to this song by Thom Yorke (although a lot louder and with more strange noises).

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7nz6-UVrmU