Catch Up

Well, January is almost gone so I thought I would update you on the latest in the Shaw household. Meg is doing very well. She is on a gluten free diet since they now wonder if gluten is the trigger to her seizures. For various reasons, I have joined her on this journey to a new way to eat. We are learning new recipes and finding so many good foods to eat. Today I will make bread from sorghum flour. A few weeks ago I did know what that was, now a whole new world of foods are opening up to us. It is amazing how many foods we do not have in our American diet. I am excited to learn and hope it will also be the answer for Meg that we have prayed for.

Our care group is going well. I love the ladies in my group and we are all working on growing in one spiritual discipline this year. This has brought on lots of emails back and forth encouraging one another and sharing God's word with one another. It is so great!!! Our care group is also memorizing a chapter from the Bible together. My brain has to work hard on that one, memory isn't what it use to be!!!

Fred and I are going to Oklahoma City this weekend and I am so excited!!! There are many reasons for my excitement (I am sure some are wondering how one can be excited about a trip to Oklahoma). The main reason is that for a few days I will get to be with my favorite person and not have to share him with anyone else. Another reason is that we just need to few days away to relax. Another reason is that we are going to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Oklahoma City Art Museum. He is a world renown glass artist. I first saw his work, I believe at the in the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas. It was beautiful. Then I read about him recently in our Dallas paper and told Fred I would love to see his collection someday. Three days later, the trip was planned by my husband and we leave tomorrow!!! We will also go the the Oklahoma City National Memorial and for a hike at Thunderbird State Park. I will post pictures when we get back.

That's about it for now....

Maybe I am Fickle!

I crawled into bed last night and declared, "I am freezing!" My husband radiates heat like one of those heaters that hang at the doors of Costco so I snuggle up and then declare, "Promise me we will never live anywhere were the winter is colder than here. (Keep in mind it was 52 today). I won't be able to survive." He laughs. Then suddenly I realize that just yesterday I was missing Colorado where the high was 16 degrees! HHMMM Texas looks even better!

WAAAHHHHH!

For some reason, I woke this morning missing Colorado. Maybe it was reading a blog about Breckenridge or maybe it is that I am still a bit tired from last week, but I woke up missing our life there. I love my life here in Texas, I love having my girls near, my church and the friends we are building with. I am full of hope for the future and I don't want to be anywhere else. I guess I miss those who have embedded themselves deep in my heart and now live so far away. I miss my boy and him slamming the front door every time he came home and wore his shoes up the stairs as I would remind it to take them off. I miss the friends who knew me deeply and therefore would know what I needed whether it was a spanking or a run to Target. I miss Jenny not being near and I hate that I haven't met Isaac yet and I won't be able to see every little accomplishment. I miss the blue, blue sky and the mountains as I entered the neighborhood from the east. I miss how my husband loved the weather and how he would go ski for the day all by himself because he loved being out there so much.

It is amazing how good God has been to us that I can say that in each season and in each place, our life has been very full and rich and I have so much to be grateful for. Each place we have every lived holds ones that we love so much and holds so many special memories for us. That gives me such hope for the future. Like the hymn reads "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow." Someday, we will go on another church plant to some other city and I will cry because I am missing Frisco, Texas! Kind of ironic!

Day 5

We are going home. After much thought and questions we decided that we are going home today. She s exhausted after almost no sleep since Monday and the benefits of staying no longer outweigh the benefits of going home. It is not unusual for someone to not have seizures when they are here and if we stayed the weekend she would have to be moved to a different hospital and then moved back here Monday. Meg will continue back on hers meds and she will also be on a special diet that may help. We have some new things to consider and try and hopeful one of those will be our answer. Thanks for praying for us and caring for us. We are blessed to have you in our lives.

Day 4

Well, we are now in NO SLEEP WHATSOEVER mode. (They obviously don't know how old I am and how risky this is). They keep telling us many people ever have seizures while they are here, so I wonder why they do this to people? If there is no seizure activity by tomorrow afternoon, we have decide to take Meg home. There is a lot of reasons for this decision, too many to blog. But we do have some leads on how to go if all the tests are negative today. Please pray she can stay awake all day and all night tonight. It will be nice to be in our own bed soon. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I wish we had more answers to the source of the seizures, but we do feel hopeful that we have some things to try.

Day 3 part 2

Hi Everyone, Well the story gets even better. It was not an infection I had this morn, but. alas, a kidney stone! Fred picked me up this morning to take me to the doctor because I knew something was wrong, was having a little discomfort ;). While in the office I passed a stone! So, I am now back on Mother Monitor Duty and the patient is eating chips and is cheerful. She will be deprived of sleep again tonight (so will I :)) and hopefully tonight she will show us her greatest seizure. Thanks for praying for us, keep it up, we don't want any more chapters to this saga.

Day 3

Good morning from the holy child (since they are yet to find anything wrong with me)
After staying awake all day yesterday they let me sleep from 2am-6am. I thought they were the nicest people. Until Speaker Mama wakes me up and continues to do so every 13 seconds until she's convinced i'm not still sleeping even with my eyes open. I thought about setting traps for them around the room for when they come in, but those technology addicts can watch my every move so what's the point in trying to surprise them? I also thought about running into the bathroom and just sleeping in the tub. That one's still an option...
I'm also thinking about getting my video camera out and recording them every time they come in.
So this morning my mom woke up sick. Thinking it might be an infection of some sort, and since she's in a lot of pain, she left to go to the doctor. Pray for her if you will.. she's in a lot of pain and pretty exhausted after being awake for so long with me.
Today I'll be awake all day (or so they think) and if something happens i'm pretty sure they'll let me sleep through the night tonight. Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement. I'm blown away by how thoughtful everyone has been!
-Megan

Big Brother is Watching

I feel as though I am in an Orson Welles novel. A while ago Meg closed her eyes and this voice comes out of the wall..."MEGAN YOU HAVE TO STAY AWAKE....MEGAN OPEN YOUR EYES" Then a while later..."MAIAIAIAIAGN, MAIAIAIGAN ARE YOU CHEWING GUM? NO GUM CHEWING." I am about to laugh so hard, but, alas I, too, am on camera and everything I say is heard, so I grab my laptop and pretend to laugh at something there. Meg smirks. I think I am slap happy from a lack of sleep. Can't wait to see how we are tomorrow.

Day 2

Well, last did not produce any seizures, so today we begin sleep deprivation. Every time she closes her eyes this voice calls out "Meg you need to stay awake." She is on video surveillance 24/7. She will not be allowed to sleep at all now. (guess I won't be sleeping either). This will be hard since she always has been a sleeper. Sometime today they will do the strobe lights again and more hyperventilation. I will let you know what happens.

Day One Part 2

It is 4:45 pm and she is feeling fine still, though tired. Tonight after dinner the fun begins. They will be using photo lights and strobes to try to bring on a seizure. Please pray they find something while we have our disco party.

Day One

We are here at Presby Hosp. of Dallas. We arrived at 7:45 and by 10 am Meg was all hooked up to the monitors. She has been taken off all her medications, so she probably won't feel well by this afternoon. She is doing well, our church has been so kind. The care group we lead has blessed her with gifts and all sorts of offers, the care group we were a part of have told us they are on call to serve in any way. Many have offered meals or what ever we need. We feel very cared for. I know we will need to call on those around us to help and they have made it easy for us to do so.

The phone number to our room is 214-345-5214. Feel free to call.

More later....

Happy New Year!!

Ok, so the emails roll in that I am lame for choosing to set the typical goals for the New Year, but it is true that those three things need help in my life. Anyway, I could come up with some really lofty goals like learning Greek, getting down to my premarriage weight, have more children or going back to school and becoming a CEO of some corporation, but I have realized that my lame, reasonable goals are hard enough to achieve, so I am sticking to my guns. My goal is to walk 4 times a week (I mean more than from the couch to the frig) and do yoga or Pilate's 3 times a week, lose 10 lbs. and have my home in order by the end of March. If I can do all this it leaves me the rest of the year to eat, sit around and mess up the house!

Anyway, for New Years Eve we went to Craig and Ginger Cabaniss's house for a small party. we played games, ate tons of food, played Wii, popped party crackers and toasted in the New Year with champagne from Albuquerque(???) and all in all we had a wonderful night.

Oh yeah, we also had a morning visit from Violet...