i have moved

http://positivechaos.wordpress.com

Video of Great Grandpa and Silas

Click on the link below to see an adorable short video clip of my grandfather singing a Russian folk song to Silas.
My mom, the boys and I went to Ohio to visit my Grandparents just after Christmas.
Stay tuned for some cute photos of the boys with their Great Grandparents!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPE1ct-Kx2M
P.S. Excuse my obnoxious laugh:) in this video:)

An interesting twist

On Thursday evening after the kids were in bed I sat down at the computer with a fresh cup of Mother's tea and began my research. I was determined to find out more about the virus I contracted, coxsackievirus B4.
In the past couple days I would google this virus and get a whole bunch of information that just made no sense to me. Frustrated with not knowing what this virus is and how I could have gotten it i decided to search harder
So last night I goggled it again with just a little different wording and the first site I click I read the following...

Coxsackie B4 virus is a virus which can trigger an autoimmune reaction which results in destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, which is one of several different etiologies of diabetes mellitus.

"OH MY, I FIGURED IT ALL OUT" I proclaimed
"I'm so cool, I'm so cool" played in my head for several minutes while I i read and reread the above.
As many of you know Eric was diagnosed with Diabetes in Oct of 2004. Considering it did not run in his family and he was not overweight and did not seem to have any of the risk factors for type1 diabetes we ask his doctors how he could have gotten this and they said a VIRUS. We never pursued what virus, as we were not given the option.
So after reading the above last night, I immediately sent an e-mail to my trusty online doc and asked him the following.
1. Is coxsackievirus B4 linked to be a cause of viral onset type1 diabetes?
2. Is coxsackievirus B4 contagious?
Knowing this is not his area of expertise I hoped for the best:)
He replied stating that my findings were correct and that coxsackievirus B4 is INDEED CONTAGIOUS!
I cannot believe it. After thinking that how, when and where I contracted this virus from will always be a mystery, I may have just figured the mystery out all by myself without a day of medical school:)
Now do not get me wrong I am not at all 100% sure this is how I contracted this virus nor am i 100% sure this is how Eric got diabetes, but it sure makes sense to me!
Now this leaves me a little worried that i may still be contagious therefore worried that I may pass it to the boys. I am not supposed to see my infectious diseases doctor for 2 months but I may just need to put a call into him, just to ease my mind a little.

A Rarity

So it turns out that once again I am a rarity. As many of you know when I was prego with Noah my Hcg levels did not rise as they normally would making the doctor declare a miscarriage and wanted to do a D&C immediately. Since i had a gut feeling I was not miscarrying and had no symptoms of miscarrying I did a little research of my own and discovered that only 15% of women Hcg levels do not rise as they should. So I choose to get a second opinion instead of a D&C and thankfully I did as I fell into that 15% and my fetus was indeed thriving.

So I am now learning that only about 1000-1300 women are diagnosed with postpartum cardiomyapothy each year. When I came home from the hospital I started doing some online research and I found an online support group for women with PPCM. (postpartum cardiomyapothy)
Through this website I met a doctor who's practice is strictly for PPCM issues.
He has informed me that he would like my records to publish my case; because evidence is mounting that a virus like in my case may be the cause or trigger for PPCM. He told me it is very important to document cases such as mine so they can continue to see what exactly causes PPCM.
I am becoming quite passionate about this, as I have heard so many stories of women who died due to post labor complications such as PPCM, and other heart and lung issues. Dr. Fett(the online doc) says that most women have symptoms but ignore them as just part of the normal experience of pregnancy and giving birth. I cannot help but feel that if we educate women on these post birth complications, more women might take their symptoms seriously and be treated.

For the second time I am reminded how "trust your instincts" is really important. I trusted my instincts when they told me I was miscarrying with Noah and because of that I did not have a D&C instead I had my first beautiful baby boy.
I am told that if I would not have acted on my symptoms and gone to the ER when I did, my situation may have been much worse. Now my heart at least has a chance of repairing itself! Prasie God!

Were finally getting somewhere

I received a call from my Doctor on Tuesday afternoon informing that I have Viral
Myocarditis.
I contracted the coxsackie typeB4 virus. When, where and how will always be a mystery. This virus weakened my heart muscle, making my heart not pump as efficiently as it should. They have still not ruled out postpartum Cardiomyopathy
as they are finding that viral Myocarditis is the trigger for postpartum Cardiomyopathy. This is about all I know right now. I have a doctors appt tomm and will hopefully find out more then!

Just a few of my favorites

smiley Silas

Never too young to order at the restaurant

Noah and Alexander with Grandma

"OH WOW, OH WOW, OH WOW" says Noah looking at the ornaments from under the tree with our family friend KJ

You know your orthodox if..................

The following was e-mailed to me today and I just thought it was great and all of you Orthodox readers would appreciate it:)

1. On Wednesdays and Fridays you eat sea food
2. You are more comfortable standing in church than sitting.
3. You can suck/vacuum up the crumbs of bread out of your hand without coughing.
4. You can sing ison to any song (and you know what an ison is… LoL).
5. Lent to you means peanut butter, tofu, soy, lots and lots of pita bread and hummus, and services at least five times a week.
6. You're used to skipping breakfast on Sundays.
7. On your first encounter with long words, you pronounce them stressing the 'next to the next to last' syllable.
8. You wonder why the Pope crosses himself backwards when you see him on TV.
9. You wear comfortable shoes to church, because you know you'll be standing a long, long time.
10. To you, a 'topless' gal is one without a headscarf.
11. You get great deals on Easter candy.
12. You spend time figuring out the best way to remove smoke stains from your ceiling and wax from your walls.
13. Before you pray, you say a prayer.
14. You don't flinch when someone throws water at you.
15. When you first tell people who ask what religion you are, at first they think you're Jewish. Oy!
16. You're experienced at removing wax from clothing.
17. The service routinely starts at least 15 minutes late and lasts 2 ½ hours — and nobody around you complains.
18. You consider any service two hours or under short/regular.
19. know you're in an Orthodox church when the priest says, "Let us complete our prayer to the Lord", and there's still half an hour to go.
20. At the end of Holy Week, you have rug burns on your forehead.
21. Your Easter isn't Easter without an all-night party (featuring 10 dishes of sausage with cheese).
22. Your priest is married.
23. You have seen all members of clergy in purple robes.
24. You can differentiate between the eight different chanting tones.
25. You typically celebrate a feast day by observing strict fasting.
26. You celebrate feast days the night before.
27. You address the City as Constantinople instead of Istanbul .
28. You can say "Lord have mercy" 40 times without making a mistake.
29. You can say "Christ Is Risen"/"Indeed He Is Risen" in a million languages.
30. You have tournaments of red-egg-cracking on Pascha... And you usually know who's being a wise-guy with the wooden one.
31. You have multiple priests' numbers in your cell phone.
32. You actually read the Bible in your spare time.
33. You've slept overnight in your church for a retreat.
34. You've grown accustomed to the taste of wine because you've had it since you were a baby.
35. Even if you don't speak the language fluently (i.e. Albanian, Greek, Russian, etc.) you could still carry on a decent conversation about food in it.
36. You've been or plan on going to Alaska .
37. You could write a book on the symbolism in an Orthodox wedding... during the wedding... because they are just that long.

an evening with Santa

Last year we started a tradition of going into the city the week before Christmas to walk around the Kris Kringle market, eat some yummy German food and then head to fields to see Santa.
Well this year I am very annoyed that it is now MACY'S. I was not so thrilled to have the boys see Santa at MACY'S - I want fields back:)
We noticed that Santa was at the market so we decided we will see Santa at the Kris Kringle market instead.
Noah was a little scared at first but then warmed up to him quickly.
Here are some pics from our fun family evening at the Kris Kringle market.



Noah was much happier walking around and splashing in the puddles