news from New Mexico

I hate Windows vista! I had started typing a big long entry yesterday on our laptop at the cabin with the intention of then saving it and going into town, finding some WiFi and posting it. anyway, the stupid computer decided it didn't want to keep word open. Nor does it want me to reopen it and access my partially saved document. And now the newer version of Word on this computer does not want me to actually TYPE in it. That would be silly. So I am typing this in the notepad program. Hopefully it will work.


Anyways, to resay all that I had already said yesterday, here is what's been going on on our vacation so far (and it's almost over, boo-hoo):

- We left Big bend last Monday, drove to Guadalupe, spent the night and went to Odessa on Tuesday for my doc appts. No big news there. The baby was sitting cross legged, so no genitals could be seen in the ultrasound. Have to waittil Aug 10th, that's my next U/S. The high risk doc talked breifly about putting me on blood pressure meds, but after talking it over with the reg OB, they decided I don't need them just yet.


- Tuesday night we found out that Iffy did not get the job he applied for at Guadalupe. Oh well, that's ok. The promotion would have been nice, but neither one of us were dying to live there again. Something better will come along. We're gung-ho on Bandelier now because it is only 100 miles from our cabin and then we could come here all time! The person who did get it is already a GS-11 somewhere and has 5 more parks under his belt then Iffy. i don't know where he is coming from, but I am curious to know where is so crappy that you would be willing to laterally transfer into Guadalupe...


- We arrived at our cabin on the 1st of July around 5 pm. After some unpacking we had dinner going by 8ish. While Iffy and i were busy doing other stuff, Sara was keeping herself busy by playing with a goddamned box of rat poisonthat the previous owners had left behind the stove. Iffy and I freaked out, since she wasn't observed, we didn'tknow if she had eaten any or not. We had no phone, no cell coverage, no neighbors were around so we decided to start driving in the direction of the nearest medical clinic and call 911 when we got a signal. The ambulance cameto meet us there, and basically all the EMTs did was weigh her and call poison control. In the end all turned out well. Poison control told us that she would have had to eat 5 tsps in order to have taken a lethal dose, and to watch her for signs of bleeding over the next 48 hours, as that is how long it taked to workit's waay into their system. The cure would be a megadose of vitamin K, to get the clotting system back on track.Sara is fine. But it reminded us of last year when we came to look at land, our first night here was spent with meexperiencing horrible pain in my lower right abdomen, freaking out that it was my appendix about to burst in the middle of nowhere, and driving back to the Albuquerque ER the next morning to find out it was an ovarian cyst. Apparently Chama does not bring us luck in the emergency medical area. Anyways, the number for poison controlis 1-800-222-1222. Put it in your cell phone now, you never know when you might need it.


- In other slightly scary medical news, I got a message on my phone on Wednesday A.M from my doc asking me to callhim back to discuss the Quad Screen results (the screen for Down's Sydrome, spina bifida, etc.) he said "it'snot TOO bad, but give me a call anyways." Nice message to get while you are on vacation right? I couldn't get a hold of anyone on Wednesday, so it wasn't until Thursday am, I drove out as soon as they were open to a spot with cellcoverage, pulled over on the side of the road to hear him tell me that my risk of Down's Syndrome came back as"slightly elevated" My risk is 1 in 237. The cut-off for the "normal" risk is 1 in 270. So basically if my numbers had been just slightly different, he wouldn't have even called me, and we wouldn't have been having thatconversation. Of course the only way to tell for sure, is with an amnio, and he quoted me a risk of 1 in 200 for subsequent miscarriage. Mathematically speaking then, the risk of a miscarriage is greater then the supposed risk of an affected baby, so I'm not doing it. Those tests are rather notorious for yeilding false positives, and even if it had come back normal, there is still a risk, there always is. I was doing some reading and came across some research showing that the same hormone that, if elevated, is responsible for showing a greater risk for DS, tends to be elevated in women who later develop preeclampsia. So maybe it's just a sign of things to come. Who knows.


- In better, happier news, the cabin is awesome. We have been spending most of our time around the house doingrepairs, building railings, painting etc. We run into town frequently to get supplies and groceries. It's nice tobe only 17 miles from town. Iffy has gone fishing a couple times, and we look forward to getting a boat in the future when the kiddos are bigger and not such wiggle worms. Right now, taking Sara on a boat would probably be oneof the less fun things I could think to do. A trans-Atlantic flight would be worse, but that's about it.


I will post some more house pictures when it doesn't look like a tornado went through it. In the meantime here are some others. Tata for now. We will be back home on Wednesday, to rejoin our regular life already in progress.