I-HES (Idiopathic Hypereosinophilic Syndrome)

Finally...my blood test results are back and now we know what kind of HES I have. It's I-HES, aka, Idiopathic Hypereosinophilic Syndrome. There's too much involved in explaining it, but I found a link that does a pretty good job. http://www.orpha.net/data/patho/GB/uk-IdiopHypereosinophSyndr.pdf
The results of this test were to determine what course of treatment (medicines) I should be taking. I will be taking a chemo called Hydrea and will start in a couple of months....or whenever I'm completely wheened off the prednisone. I'll update my blog when I start.
I've heard pretty good things about Hydrea as far as tolerance of it goes, so I hope that I'm one of those that tolerate it well.

Local blogger

I just wanted to point out something that Mandie, a local Spfd, MO. blogger is doing on her blog. Mandie started blogging about 1 year ago doing local coupons matchups. Her blog has been so helpful to me in that I no longer have to spend MY time doing that anymore and just visit her blog to see the coupon match ups and other great deals.
Well, Mandie started doing something new on her blog recently that I think is pretty cool. She now has a master list of prices on products and compares them to other local stores. Here's an example that I copied from her blog. This is for the frozen boneless/skinless chicken on sale at Dillon's this week...

If you buy 10 3lb bags of generic chicken at Walmart: $64.80
If you buy 10 3lb bags of generic chicken at Aldi: $62.90
If you buy 10 3lb bags of Tyson chicken at Walmart: $71.80
If you buy 10 3lb bags of generic chicken at Dillons now: $49.80
Possible savings: $22.00!!

Mandi does this with several other items too! I think this is so helpful. So, if you're one of my readers I highly recommend that you hop over to Mandi's blog at http://www.iheartcoupondeals.blogspot.com/ and check it out. When you're there just click on the "price check" tab at the top of her page to get to her price check book.

Resurrection Eggs

(I got this post from southernsavers.com)

This is a great Easter activity to do with your child/children. During this busy time of year, much like Christmas, the reason that we celebrate Easter can sometimes get lost in the fun of the Easter egg hunts, the Easter Bunny and of course, the candy. My kids have enjoyed doing this over the last few years.

What you will need:

5 plastic eggs of various colors
Picture of a donkey (print one from your computer)
Goldfish cracker, or other cracker your child likes to eat
2 small nails
Small rock (grab one from the yard)

Hopefully you should have most of the items already so if you have to buy the eggs the whole activity should cost around $1.

Open the blue egg. Let the child hold the donkey. (Use a picture of a donkey printed on
your computer to go in the blue egg) Read Matthew 21:1-9
Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for Passover. Some people cut palm branches from trees and
handed them out for people to wave. Some people laid their coats on the street like a carpet.
Jesus rode into the city on a donkey. “Hosanna! ” the people cheered as they waved their palm
branches. Some people cheered, “Hail to our King!” Jesus rode through the town on a donkey
because when a king rode on a donkey it meant he would bring peace. God loves us so much
that He sent Jesus to set us free and bring us peace.

Open the purple egg. Let the children eat the piece of cracker. (Use a gold fish, a ritz bitz,
or any cracker your child likes) Matthew 26:17-19, 26-30.
Jesus and His disciples (the 12 men who helped Jesus tell others about God) celebrated
Passover together. They went upstairs to a room in a house in Jerusalem. Jesus washed His
disciples’ feet to remind them that they were to care for others. Then Jesus and the disciples
shared a special meal. Jesus knew it would be His last meal with His friends. Jesus knew He
had to follow God’s plan for His life and die for our sins.

Open the yellow egg. Let the children hold the nails. (Show them how to make the 2
nails into a cross.) John 19:16-22
Jesus had to be nailed to the cross to die for our sins because it was God’s plan. The people
who loved Jesus were very sad. Jesus did not deserve to be punished. He had not done
anything. Jesus died so that we could be forgiven. The Bible says in John 3:16,”For God so
loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have everlasting life.”

Open the green egg. Let the children hold the rock. (Use a rock from your yard)
Matthew 28:1-2
After Jesus died one of his followers wrapped Jesus’ body in cloth and put it in a tomb. The
tomb was a special tomb cut into the rock in a hillside.. A big stone was rolled in front of the
tomb to close the entrance. Guards were posted to guard the tomb. Jesus followers were very
sad that Jesus had died.

Open the orange egg. It is empty. Matthew 28:5-8
Early the next morning a lady named Mary Magdalene went to visit the tomb. When she came
to the tomb the big rock had been rolled away. The tomb was empty. It was good news! Jesus
was alive! Jesus went to heaven to be with God. Jesus was punished for our sins so that some
day we will get to go to heaven to be with God and Jesus.

K Mart Super Doubles!!!

I'm so excited! If you haven't heard already, K Mart will be having a super doubles coupon week starting April 4th! They will double coupons up to$2 meaning a $2 coupon will be worth $4.00! There are many deals where you can score some completely free or incredibly inexpensive products. Unfortunately, unlike previous double coupon days, K Mart has put a limit on the number of coupons you can use to only 5 per day. Also, you have to have a K Mart rewards card in order to qualify for doubled coupons. So, I suggest going out right now, before April 4th and sign up for your rewards card. Then, keep an eye out for any high value coupons that you see for products that you would like to buy. www.coupons.com has a great $2 coupon for Nivea body wash today. I don't know what the regular price is, but I'm sure that this would make for free or close to free body wash!

Pizza Crust Recipe

We love homemade pizza at our house. It's filling, inexpensive, and easy-to-make! Best of all, though, in our opinion, it's so much better than carryout or frozen pizzas!
I've tried many different pizza crust recipes and this one is not only our favorite, it's also one of the quickest to make. The pizza, from start to finish, can be ready to pop in the oven in less than 30 minutes.

Pizza Crust: (this makes one pizza crust..I always double this recipe)
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface .
Knead into a smooth dough (five minutes or so).
Roll out and press down onto a greased pizza pan.

Add toppings. (Have fun and be creative with this! Our favorite variety is salsa or barbecue sauce, diced cooked chicken, and cheese.)
Bake at 450 degrees F. for around 12-15 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.
Bythe way, you can make up a double or triple batch of the pizza crust dough and freeze the extras if you don't need it. This speeds up the preparation even more as all you have to do is pull out a bag of dough and a bag of chopped cooked chicken in the morning and then put the pizza together right before you're ready to eat. You can also freeze the pizzas already cooked but I doubt it would ever stay uneaten long enough to make it to the freezer around here!

2 new recipes

I have 2 new recipes to rave about. Today, I decided to get creative and made my own homemade croutons. I'd been planning on making them for weeks. I've been saving the heels from our bread and finally accumulated enough to make croutons with. I didn't have a recipe so I just winged it and here's what I came up with.

Melt 1/2 stick (really depends on how much bread you have) butter in a 9X13 casserole dish. Add garlic salt, garlic powder, parsley to taste. Toss uncooked bread crumbs in butter mixture. Cook in oven @ 200 degrees until dry.

I also wanted enchiladas yesterday. I really didn't want to go buy enchilada sauce so I went online and looked up some recipes to make sauce. I didn't have everything they called for so wound up experimenting again. I'm happy to say that I've come up with an enchilada sauce that is VERY, VERY similar to Mexican Villa's enchilada sauce. I think I'll keep this recipe to myself, but for immediate family members that really want it let me know and I'll email it to you. I think I could bottle and sell this stuff!

Latest update

I heard from two of the doctors in Cincinnati today. There are four doctors working on my case. All four of them have agreed that I do have Hypereosinophilic Syndrome (HES). The biopsies of my upper and lower GI's have shown significant infiltrations of eosinophilis in my stomach, esophagas and intestines. The colon was fine. There was evidence of ulcers and inflammation caused by the eosinophils in all those areas as well.
My heart looks great! I do have a minor heart murmur, but they don't think my disorder has caused this so that is a HUGE praise!
I'm still continuing to wheeze and have shortness of breath. One doctor thinks this could be caused by inflammation in my esophagas, the other doctor thinks that it's reactive airway caused by the eosinophils in my lungs (this is what I think too). The only way to know for sure is to do a lung biopsy and I don't think we'll be doing that.
So, what does all this mean? What course of treament will I take?
I'll try to summerize what I've been told and add today's update to that....

HES is as close to Leukemia as you can get. There are 3 types of HES. I will have one more blood test to determine what type I have. I'll have the blood drawn here and then sent to a lab that specializes in looking at chromosones/genes/cells. There are different treatments for each type. I'll have some kind of chemotherapy for treatment (most likely Hydrea or Gleevac). I will stress that HES is NOT curable. It does NOT go into remission. I will ALWAYS have to take some form of medicine (chemo's and steroids) for the rest of my earthly life (that is if the Lord chooses to not heal me). I'll start treatment as soon as the blood test determines the type that I have...those results will take another 2-4 weeks.
They're also trying to decide what to do about my wheezing. Right now I'm on inhalers for that. I should know more on that in a few weeks too.
In the meantime, my doctor wants me weaned completely off of the prednisone that I've been on for 5 years! Yay! I can't tell you all how happy that makes me! : )

Well, that's it. When I find out more in a few weeks I'll be sure to let you all know.
Thanks so much for keeping me and Brian lifted up in prayer. I was really stressed about this a few weeks ago, but the Lord has washed me in His peace and I'm so thankful for that!

Here's some HES info. links:

http://www.aaaai.org/patients/gallery/hypereosinophilic_syndrome.asp
http://www.apfed.org/hes.htm
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/202030-overview
http://hypereosinophilia.info/FAQs.htm
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/e/eosinophilic/about/default.htm