Test Results and Another Horse Show

 This last week or so has been a whirlwind. 

I will start with a follow up to my last post. Maddy and I have begun our homeschooling journey and so far it has been great. She is doing really well, has been incredibly cooperative and we are both enjoying the flexibility.

Alex went to support his roommate at his luncheon.

This past Friday we headed to Houston for a doctors appointment, horse show and a test to be done today. The horse show was very different from our "regular" shows. The Special Children's Committee of the Houston Rodeo go above and beyond to make this a special time for the riders and families. They provide meals, help load and unload the trailers, and make a big deal of all the riders regardless of placement. Maddy and I enjoyed time with our team and she loved getting to learn some new things and care for Quigley. The showing was a bit tough. The arena was very small and was split in half so that was a little tricky, but Maddy and Quigley did their best and each time they compete we learn a little more about what works best for him at a show. 

Braiding Quigley's tail before he headed home.

Scratches and love for working hard all weekend

Maddy and Katie taking out his bands

Taking out his ear plugs

Putting in his ear plugs

Lunging

Maddy and Mackenzie

Team Photo from opening ceremonies

Waiting for opening Ceremonies

Ready for English

Waiting on Showmanship

Maddy and Caroline

Maddy and Mackenzie

Always love for her sweet boy

Maddy and Suzanne who she started this journey with 6 years ago

Maddy and Jackie putting braids in to get ready to show.

Maddy and Gloria (another coach)

Today's test was a bit rough although not totally unexpected. Maddy had a tilt table test to try and get some answers for her daily dizziness and lightheadness. The way a tilt table test works is they hook up a ton of monitors: EKG leads, two blood pressure monitors (one normal and one continuous), one to measure the blood flow/oxygen to your chest, one to measure the blood flow/oxygenation to your upper body and one to measure blood flow/oxygen to your lower body and two monitors on your forehead to measure blood flow/oxygenation to the two sides of your brain. They monitor you lying flat for 7 minutes to get baseline numbers. Then they raise the head of the bed to 70 degrees so you are almost standing upright. They intend to have you stand for 30-40 minutes and then lower you back to lying. Maddy lasted standing for about 20 minutes before she suddenly became very hot, nauseous and started seeing dots. The doctor could see huge changes on the monitors and knew she was about to pass out so they lowered the bed quickly back to lying down. They spent about 20 minutes going over the results with us. She was diagnosed with severe autonomic dysfunction. She has two forms both Neurocardiogenic Syncope and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). There was a ton of info most of which won't mean much to non medical people but her baseline HR was too high at about 95. It actually rose all the way up to 147 doing nothing but standing! Her blood pressure (they were only monitoring the systolic or top number. At baseline it was okay around 100. Right when she started feeling bad it fell to under 50. She will be starting two new medications in hopes we can help alleviate some of these issues. They also gave us some recommendations on fluid and electrolytes to hopefully help.

We made it home this afternoon and will have to quickly get back in normal mode because we have a bunch more activities and appointments this week!

Thanks for always loving our family and walking through us with all the highs and lows!

Ali