I would post pictures, but I am having a hard time finding my camera that I use to transfer my pictures onto the computer. When I do, I will post.

It has been awhile since I last posted. Thanksgiving has come and gone. The girls have both been home and are back in school. We thoroughly enjoyed having them home with us again. Our house is full of life when they are around. Mark and I are still learning to adjust to the coming and going of the older 2. We don't get a lot of time with the entire family together anymore. Even when we do, the dynamics are different. I think there was only one night when we had all of us together and even during that one night, Erin's boyfriend shared it with us. We didn't mind, though. He is a wonderful young man who treats all of the kids well. We all enjoy him. Even though it was only one night, it was one of the best I can remember.

We spent Thanksgiving with Mark's family. It was such a nice day. I love spending a day with the entire family around. My parents always travel to Florida for Thanksgiving. Both my brother and sister live there. It has been nice because Mark and I don't have to worry about which family we spend which holiday with. It has been very easy on us.

News on the kids.... Well.. when Emily was home, she raised up and hit her head on a shelf. Evidentally she hit it very hard. That was on Saturday night. Sunday, she spent as much time as she could sleeping. SHe had a horrible headache and a very tender head to the touch. We all felt it was just from the hit. Sleeping really isn't something we concern ourselves with. Emily and Erin are both power-nappers. Monday, she had planned on leaving for school. She was excited to spend the morning with me. She woke up around 8:00 to say goodbye to the kids. Then she laid down on the couch. The entire morning, she slept. I was a bit concerned, but felt if she was that tired, she needed to sleep (especially since she would be driving nearly 8 hours). She kept waking up and telling me she was sorry, but she was just so tired. He head was still in a great deal of pain, but she insisted it was just because of hitting it on the shelf. At noon, I said goodbye. By 1:30, she was calling me telling me that she didn't know what was wrong but she was fighting with all she had to stay awake. She stopped and got caffeine. She was stopping by a friends an 2 hours, I was relieved because I knew she could rest there or they could take her to urgent care or something. Long story short... she struggled staying awake for the entire drive, got to school safely and went to bed. She failed to tell me that she was dizzy, nauseous, and shaking a LOT more then usual (she told me she was shaking). The next day, she called me from the nurses office. The nurse wanted her to go to the ER. Once again, Mark and I were faced with decisions to be made 8 hours from our daughter. The doctor was not in, but called and told the nurse to just let her rest one more day. In the meantime, the nurse was very insistent that she would advice considering the ER, but the doctor was the boss. Em's roommate called and told me that she couldn't walk up stairs without holding onto something and when she laid down, her legs shook uncontrollably. Her head was throbbing, there was a "mushy" spot behind her ear and it was swollen, and she felt as if she was going to throw up all the time. So... a dilemma! Do we go with the doctor who said wait (but never saw her) or with the nurse and the scared roommate? So I called my doctor and got his advice. His was to send her to the ER. So we did. She went through a CAT scan and the conclusion was: concussion. So the first doctor was right... rest and sleep it off. As of yesterday, all symptoms were the same. She isn't any better, but she isn't any worse. I am so thankful that we know for sure there is no bleeding internally. I am so thankful that the next semester is her final one at BBC!

As for Erin... well.. that is another story. They won their game in Indiana. We LOVED watching her play. She did an amazing job. She scored the first goal in a very, very tough game. They made it to Nationals and traveled to Alabama. She was able to come home (Emily picked her up). We met the team in Ohio and put her on the bus to Alabama. They played their first game Tuesday. It was very exciting. We were able to listen to it. Due to technical difficulties, the video was not working. She gave it all she had (the team did too), but they lost by one. My heart ached for her! Our team dominated nearly the entire game... but that is how it falls sometimes. Anyway... they headed back to Houghton Tuesday night but stopped in Louisville Ky for sleep. I was able to make an appointment with the doctor for her knees. We have been trying to see him for the past month. If we couldn't get her in then, we would have to wait until Dec 29th just for the evaluation. Then we would have to try to fit things in before she went back to school. As it panned out, it was a huge blessing for her to be able to be seen yesterday. I met the bus on an exit near our home and grabbed her. It worked out perfectly. We saw the doctor and found out that she has a torn meniscus (again) so she is facing surgery in that knee. But ... worse and far more complicated.. is the issue she has in both knees. She has patella tendonosis in both! Normally, the doctor would take platelets our of Erin's blood and inject them into the tendons in hopes to promote healing. But.. Erin's are in or near the "severe" case. The doctor came in with a smile on his face and said "do you want to see the MRI?". Then as we walked out of the room, he looked at another patient and said "these are fugly". I guess he was excited because they were cool to look at. He showed us were the tendons have huge amounts of scarring from tears. Behind the patella, there should be a completely empty black space (between the patella and the tendons. In Erin's case, the first couple of views are black, but as he began to rotate the knee (on the MRI), the completely black spot began to show white "hairlike" images. As he further moved, the entire spot began to fill up with the image. It was that way in both knees. He looked at me and said "she isn't faking it, mom". She is in A LOT of pain. He confirmed it all! So... the answer isn't simple or even at the point of trying the injections. The answer is to make in incision in the front of the knee, cut the tendons, go behind them and scrape it clean, bleed the patella (I guess the bleeding helps for healing of the tendons), then sew the tendons back up and then be in a straight leg brace for 1 month and therapy for about 6 months total.

Well, did you catch that she will be in a straight leg brace for 1 month? And did you catch that this is in both knees? And did you catch that it is a 6 month recovery period? Well.. with soccer and school... we are on a pretty tight schedule. AND.. if you remember, she has to have her shoulder worked on. Let's talk about crutches and a shoulder that is completely immobile?! This will get tricky! But what a blessing that we can get it figured out and started now.. and before the shoulder surgery (otherwise she wouldn't be able to use crutches for the first 4-5 days that he wants her on it.

So, at this point, here is the plan: Surgery on the meniscus tear and the incision to repair the tendonosis of the same knee on December 16th (if he can schedule it then and she can get out of her final exam for that date. That will give her 6 days of being able to use the crutches before her shoulder surgery. At that point, she will have surgery to repair the shoulder and will be in a sling (unable to use that arm at all) for 6 weeks or so (total recover - 4 months). She will be home and will not have to return back to school until the 10th of January. She will go back in a brace and will have to deal with her room on the 3rd floor (elevator not working) and the ice and snow of Houghton (carrying books). If she hadn't been seen yesterday, she would not have that long break at home to recover at least a partial amount before having to face all that. 2 months after the first surgery (sometime in February), he wants to repair the 2nd knee. That means a trip back home and send her back to school dealing with a great deal of discomfort and facing the same thing. He has to wait 2 months so that the first knee can heal enough to be able to deal with supporting her body with the other knee in a straight leg brace.

And all this needs to be done so that by soccer season next year, she can be ready (as ready as possible) to play. The doctor is amazing. He is the doctor that works on the knee of the CREW soccer team. So we hate to have anyone else work on her. It will just not be a lot of fun for her. It may mean we run into issues with her being in New York, but I think the doctor will work with us as much as possible. So.. prayer is the only thing I can think of. Please pray for her body, her surgeries, her healing.

Erin ended up taking my van back to school. She is only there 2 weeks before coming home for Christmas break. It seemed the most logical choice in order to get her to be able to see the doctor yesterday. But.. when she began heading back, there were snow storms that the entire route seemed to be bracing for. It was snowing as she left. Time wise, she would be traveling through Erie at the exact time they were expecting 4-8 inches of snow. And... she would be doing it alone... at night. It was a stressful night for us. But God is faithful. I had a lot of people praying for her. She never faced any real amounts of snow and only ended up adding an extra 1/2 hour-45 minutes to her trip due to traveling at a slower rate. God is so faithful. I am confident He will be faithful with her surgeries as well.