all new, all good

T had a great first week of school. Right off the bat she has a three-day weekend so I'm letting the kids stay up late! The week or so before school started we tried to get out and do fun stuff but the weather was horrible. We did make it to the orientation for Little K's preschool and decided she may as well just go there again, until Christmas at least. No need for any big change at this point. I can still be a teacher's aide, bring snacks and make playdough.
After Labor Day, both girls will continue with ballet, start the new soccer session, the big joint birthday party happens, T has Day Camp at school, LittleK will start school on the 11th - which is the same day T joins a new Brownie Scout troop and also auditions for this year's production of the Nutcracker. My head may go spinning directly off of my body by the end of the week.
K is now in hunting mode so that means alot of single-parenting until he pulls into the driveway with a dead elk in the truck bed. I'm grateful for the meals it provides but the cost adds up with all the driving & time away. I'd almost rather buy a side of beef or fill up the freezer with bison meat from the farmers' market.

Today the kids and I bought more birthday party stuff and also printed up some of the pictures Grandpa J let me scan onto a CD a few years ago. Our living room has plenty of my relatives' photographs but none of K's... we also need Grandma R's family represented. I love old pictures.









This is K's Grandma Minnie on the left, with my Great-Grandma Ida on the right.

Thursday morning, K and I took the two younger kids to Cheyenne and we saw my doctors. The rheumatologist and I didn't have much to discuss - he had some labs done which we'll know results of next week. The pulmonologist answered many questions, including:

• what NYHA functional stage am I classified in? Stage I- Stage II (explanation here)
  
• should I be trying NAC (N-acetylcysteine)? No
• did I have sleep apnea back when we did my overnight pulse-ox test? No
• should I be tested for steroid-induced diabetes? Yes
• should I start Pulmonary Rehab? Yes (but it's not available in our town)
  
• did my lupus inflammation cause the fibrosis, in turn causing the hypertension? Yes, sort of...
• should I have a right heart catheterization done? No, not with my high pressure levels
• and of course, how long could I live? It's hard to say with lupus complicating things, but she thinks I have a good chance of surviving to see my kids head off to college!

Thursday was also the day we attended the funeral of a local assistant professor/pilot... and the night I was supposed to have a 'Girl's Night Out' with my friends, but I was wiped out by that time and the kids were bonkers anyway.
So there you have it. Things are looking up. One of the best things on Tuesday was being told I can now taper the prednisone down to 10 mg for two weeks starting Monday, then 5 mg after that, and possibly go off of it completely. Goodbye, 5 o'clock shadow!!