good boys & sickness update

First, I am a lucky mommy. I had parent/teacher conferences today and the boys are doing soooooo great. Really excelling at school (some shameless bragging coming up- you’ve been warned- so stop reading now if you are not into that) in everyway. I was told that not only are they so super smart, but that they both have the market cornered on "thinking outside the box" which impressed their teachers to no end in 3rd grade. They have lots of friends in class and are just doing super overall. Jack’s teacher (my almost Aunt) has funny stories for me all the time about the things he said during the day, and Patrick’s teacher told me how upset she’s going to be next year when he leaves her. They both apparently keep their teachers on their toes and constantly surprise them with the "wise beyond their years" things they say. YEAH!!! A little brotherly love for ya. Jack was fatting out on the couch and didn’t want to be bothered with pictures.

As for my illness update…I have a new diagnosis for myself. I’m off the lymphoma kick (well, for the most part anyway) and now think I have Fifths Disease. Which is just a virus, ends eventually with no lasting issues. So that would be much better than lymphoma. I have all the symptoms and I’m thinking the rash wasn’t a reaction to the steroids, but the Fifths rash cause my cheeks got that crazy red. Went back to the doctor today and he really liked my diagnosis- he said that he was planning on testing me for that anyway. So he took another 4 big vials of blood (so I’ll have lymphoma, Fifths, and be anemic!!) and will test for Fifths among a few other inflamatory illnesses. The rash is totally gone now but my hands, wrists and knees are all kinds of swollen and arthritic feeling. They really hurt. So we’ll see on Saturday what it is I have. I am hoping for a concrete answer. He’s testing for Lupus and other auto immune diseases too, since I already have Raynaud’s syndrome. More medical fun…woohoo!