Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Please Pray for my Friend's Little Girl!

Update 1-20


I told you before about Rowan's posturing, fever, etc? The Dr's think it might be something called thalamic storms. Which is apparently a misnomer because its not coming from the thalamus, but instead at the top of the spinal chord. Well, at least thats what I think they're telling me, and seeing as how I never took Anatomy, I'm having difficulty picturing whatever a thalamus is. It is the Brain Surgeons who are talking, and well, we all know what uber smart geek talk is like. Her EEG was pretty much a waste of time. It didn't show any seizures. Which would be awesome if that meant she wasn't having any. But because of the sedative she was on, a sedative which stops seizures, the EEG needs to be repeated. They are wanting to place a shunt in tomorrow. A shunt is basically a permanent drain running from her ventricles down to her stomach. The Dr who would be placing it does about 400 a year, so he knows what he's about. And it won't really negatively affect her life, tons of kids have them; its safe, its easy, and it will get those nasty drains out of her head and let her move around a bit (assuming, that is, that she'll start moving around).

We were told yesterday that it is pretty likely that as soon as Rowan is released from the hospital, she'll be going to a rehabilitation center. Not going home for a while.

If anyone wants to help, pray for our daughter. Put her on any prayer list you can think of.

~ Erik and Regan Wilkinson

Monday, January 18, 2010

Is technology hurting our connections or helping?

My friend Chris Boeskool is a super smart dude. "I like technology, I just don't like when it becomes (or appears to become) more important than real relationships or gets in the way of real relationships (i.e. A table of 6 people at a restaurant and 4 of them have their faces in their iPhones; a husband and a wife sitting on a couch all night stalking people's facebook pages and chatting with 3 different people each; or, people sitting in church feeling compelled to look at everyone's facebook)."

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Love over time is a fickle fickle thing

I'm about to quote someone I've barely met but his words were so true I couldn't help myself. This comes from my friend Ken's friend Lee.

"The idea is that once you get to know someone you start to realize that they have flaws, they aren't what they appeared and they have their bad moments. That's why a husband and wife can be completely in love with each other when they first get married and fighting like Smurfs and Gargamel on their 10th anniversary. The mystique is gone and it seems like there's not much left to explore....

So in love, I guess it's only really love when you know all the flaws of another person and have gone through that process of being so familiar with them that you aren't feeling the excitement of exploration or the desire to uncover their mystery. (Love is) What you are feeling is in spite of all that." ~Lee

I laugh now when people expect love and relationships to be easy. The naivety they exercise even in believing that something that easy would actually be fulfilling. The best, most loving, most passionate relationships are often very hard, suffer tragedy, and argue with intensity. But I don't think I would have it any other way. I would like to think that my relationship would be worth the effort of the argument, worth the pain of the tragedy, and worth the joy of the love.