New Chairs!

We Finally bought chairs for our table. This table really belongs to Richard (Russell's older brother) we have had the table for along time now and have only had one broken chair!
We finally went to the D.I again the same place we bought our dresser from a couple of weeks ago, it was so nice to finally eat dinner at table tonight instead of on our bed where we usually eat. hopefully soon we will be able to buy a few more chairs so we can have company over to eat!

The Doctor Said

We made it to the doctor yesterday. We returned to Dr. Skuster, who I had gone to when I first had seizures. Back then, I thought she was nice, but she was totally against me dating my boyfriend at the time. Being young and foolish, I decided I wanted to switch doctors. We found Dr. James and started going there.

Looking back, I really shouldn't have ever gone to Dr. James. Her office staff has always been amazingly unhelpful. With this last go around and worrying about seizures, they could barely be troubled to call in a prescription, let alone get Dr. James to call me.

With my seizure on Sunday, Russ called around on Monday to find me a doctor's appointment. I had found Dr. Skuster's number on the Blue Cross Blue Shield website and we lucked out with being able to get in for Wednesday - there was a cancellation.

Our office visit was so nice. The nurses took my weight and my blood pressure and actually cared about how I was doing. Dr. Skuster was very attentive when
she met with me. She was asking a lot of questions to find out how I was feeling and what I needed from her. We talked a lot about the medication and how I will have to take Lamictal for the rest of my life. I hate being on medicine, but the good news is that a very low dose has been able to control my seziures. With such a low dose and Lamitcal being a safe medicine for pregnancy anyway, it means that I shouldn't have anything to worry about when I do get pregnant.

Dr. James has said that I was going to be fine off the drugs. We stepped down my dosage under her supervision. She never took any tests; then again, she never seemed to care either. Just six months after I was off the medicine, I had a seizure.

Dr. Skuster was very helpful. She felt that if/when I do become pregnant that I should come to see her more often. I will probably have to be on medicine forever. She didn't see the need to run more tests since the brain does not redevelop, and that the lamitcal was able to control any seizures, she determined the best was just to go back on the lamitcal.

When the time comes that I am pregnant, Dr. Skuster wanted me to register on some website with Harvard to help track any effects that could be connected. Again, Lamitcal is the safest medicine they know of, but there is always some risk I suppose.

I am glad my sweet husband was there with me at the doctor. I am thankful that we were able to get in so quickly and that even though I don't particularily enjoy the outcome, I am glad that we have some answers.

Thank you for your support lately. I appreciate all the responses to the last post. I love you all!

Blessings of a Hard Day

Hello everybody. Today, we have a bit of a change of sorts. I am Russell, Mikelle's husband. She asked me to write this note and post it about our day.

For those who have not heard, Mikelle has had seizures throughout her life. The two big ones were back in March of 2004. These two big seizures were what brought her home from Snow College. Mikelle has been on medication since that has controlled them.

Recently, Mikelle was able to slowly step down her dosage and eventually stop taking the pills, all according to doctors' guidelines. We were told she would probably never have a seizure again.

My day began with a fright today as I heard Mikelle scream. I thought she was having a nightmare and got scared enough to yell. I shot awake and threw off my covers as I turned to face her. I was now realizing what was happening and quickly grabbed hold of her. She brought her arms down and began to shake, though not with much force. I also reached up my hand to her head and gave her a quick priesthood blessing. Her body went back to sleeping after about a minute and then she quickly awoke to my speech.

She was responding to me, but refused to use any words. She kept to simple Uh Huh and Nut Uh responses. She was being quite affectionate, but when I asked her what my name was, she gave me a very puzzled look. She did not know what had just occured. I called her parents house (it took me six calls to reach somebody) and finally got in touch with Maura. I was very persistent in asking Mikelle to use her words to talk to me, but she was very stubborn. Finally, she rolled over and fell asleep for about ten seconds.

When she turned back over, she was much more coherrent and immediately began talking to me again. She had completely forgot the previous ten minutes. She knew all normal information and told me that I was Russell. I told her a few times that she had gone through a seizure, but she did not seem to mind. I thought this was strange because back in February when we thought she had a seizure, she was quite upset with the whole thing and cried for a solid thirty minutes. She was talking well with me and had no complaints about her feeling sore or tired.

Mikelle and I kept talking for about thirty minutes, both very sleepy and Mikelle dosing in and out. Eventually, Myrlynn called up and talked to Mikelle. Mikelle was very concerned when Myrlynn told her that I had called them and told them about her seizure. She had dismissed the last forty minutes as part of her dream.

Mikelle seemed much more able to handle the news this time of actually having a seizure than last times possible seizure - which we now believe did not happen. While she did have a bit of a crying session and felt a little depressed about the situation, I feel that she is handling it well. Her neck and head hurt and she feels like she has a bit of a fever, but I think she will recover just fine. We have her back on her medicine and it has been able to control them in the past.

We are very thankful that it happened on a Sunday. I work every other day of the week and finding somebody to cover shifts is not always the easiest. We are glad that I was there and that we know rather than simply guessing and worrying. We can address the problem and get past it. Special thanks go out to my mother who went to the grocery store for us today to pick up Boysenberry Syrup for Mikelle's pancakes.

We are thankful for our knowledge of the Gospel and the peace and strength it brings in hard times. We do not know why Mikelle has seizures exactly. We do not understand why God chose Mikelle for this trial. We do know that God loves us and He has a plan for us. Bumps in the road help us to remember to trust Him. We are not worried about what is to come. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13) We will be okay. Most importantly, Mikelle is okay. She will be just fine and we will get back to enjoying life.

Photo Tag

My friend Lizzy photo tagged me... open the 6th folder take the 6th picture and post it!! Russell and I went bowling for a pizza hut party... I tag anyone that feels like doing this tag...

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

First off I just want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful amazing father!!

Second yesterday My sweet husband and I now own both our cars now, we just finished paying off my car!! We are VERY excited about this!

Third the DI by our house has new furniture that are very nice so we bought a 8 drawer dresser (posted above)

Cancuners!

Here this is all wrong I was having trouble with my pictures and going in the right spot and everything so there is a bunch of pictures then all about our trip at the end!!
Here we are in the car!! Here we are at chichen itza

yoga worrior pose in the warrior place
Here they played a game with six players in the middle one captin on the sides the winner got capated it was an honor to win!!!

Main tower that we cant climb anymore

Here we all are!!

and again

That's right, we are Cancuners now. We've been; it rocked. Never has there been a time in the history of this Family of Baldwin's when running down the beach was more exciting. Never has a cab ride ended in ruins such as this. Thrilling times in Mexico. Intrigued? You should be. Enthralled? You will be!

First off, I was sick going down there. Travelling while sick is not cool, but I was NOT going to miss my chance to go to Cancun. My sweet husband went to Walgreens - which he says is evil - at 1 AM to get me medicine, even though we had to be at the airport very early the next morning.

We actually ended up oversleeping. Dad was a bit stressed and we were scared. We did make it though. Robert, Russell's older brother, was driving their Mom and Grandpa to the flight and was able to grab us as well. Our house was a bit messier than we wanted it to be, but whatever, I was sick.

The airport wasn't bad. We got boarded quickly and we were on our way . . . to L.A. We had a short layover, barely long enough to switch planes, and then it was onward to Cancun. Our flight was boring and the onboard entertainment system was broken!

Cancun was so warm. Oh yeah, and Justin had to get searched through customs. Hehe. We had a van waiting to pick us up, thank goodness, and we were off to the hotel. Our first night we ate at Captain's Cove and we saw a crocodile!

Sunday was pretty lazy. We slept in late and ended up just hanging out on the beach. Russ and I got to play in the water together a few hotels down. (Which reminds me: Russ fell into the ocean by some rocks and got a few nicks and scratches on his hands. He was laughing about it, so it is okay.)

We went shopping on Monday and ended up buying a few bracelets and a very pretty ring. They wanted 4300 pesos for the ring, but we worked them down to 2500!

Chichen Itza is a must when you visit Cancun. We spent most of Tuesday there. The ruins were amazing and we had a lot of fun. You can't climb the main temple any more, but we still had so much to do. My two new necklaces were purchased from a vendor there. He wanted 200 pesos for one, but Russ got him down to 160 pesos for both!

Wednesday was a day for the pool. The best part was when I got to get a massage on the sun deck. I have been wanting a massage for awhile and I am so happy that Russ bought me one. It felt so nice.

Xcaret was Thursday. Another high on the list attraction. Xcaret has some ruins and has been built into a mix between a zoo and a beach park. We went on a raft ride on the Paradise River. You could see itty bitty fish in the water and we got to see some other animals too! We spent a bunch of time at the beach and walking around the main center. We ended the evening at the big show that they put on in the theater.

Friday was our trip back home. We wanted to go to the ocean, but ended up sleeping in quite late. Thankfully, I have a crazy husband who loves me very much. We got all ready to go and we ran down to the beach when we only had like forty minutes until we left. We finally made it and got to play for maybe fifteen minutes. The waves were HUGE on Friday morning and we had a lot of fun. The good news, Russ did not fall on slippery rocks this time. We left Cancun with salty hair, but very satisfied with our adventure.

The flight home was so much easier. The onboard TVs were fully functional this time AND I GOT TO WATCH TWILIGHT! We landed way early, so we had to wait a little bit for Richard and Charisse to pick us up. It was nice to be home, the actual travel part of travelling, not so cool.

All in all, we had a good trip. I am not sure when we will do it again, but we would like to someday. I love my husband; he is so cute.