Unintentional Life lessons

OP medical center ER 

Wolfsons always a smile 

This weekend was filled with some unintended life lessons. When we got back from Disney World on Friday night we all got settled in for the night and my eldest daughter had her first ever seizure.  We had to take a trip to the ER and then onto the children's hospital. After the initial terror of seeing my eldest experience two seizures and the beginning of all the needed medical tests I began to thank God that I began college with a premed (till I realized I would have to deal with throw up) intent because the questions came in rapid succession from my girls. 

Doctors and hospitals can speak in a foreign language at times with more anachronisms then the military MRI, CAT, ECHO, EEG, EKG ect. 

First was the diagnosis of Epilepsy with my eldest. That was pretty easy explanation - When the electrical impulses in your brain misfires and goes nuts for a few minutes. 

The things that got crazy to keep up explanations for were all the tests. First test was the EKG or Electrocardiogram it measures the hearts electrical activity. They did four of these over the course of our stay so that they could compare the PQRST waves of her heart to make sure that they were not the cause of the seizures. She did have a slight lengthening of the Q wave so we are going to have to follow up with the cardiologist but they think that is because of her thyroid issues. (The DNA she got from me stinks lol ) 

This is an image of the Echo 

The Q section of her heart beat had a slight delay before R 

The next test was an Echo cardiogram which is an ultrasound picture of the blood flow and structure of her heart. Thankfully her little heart is awesome just like I always thought ;) 

Then we had to wait two days to get an MRI a Magnetic Resonance image of her brain. It is a detailed picture of her brain. The second seizure left a little section with what they equated to a  brain bruise. They said her brain was good and everything checked out normally other than the little bruising. 

On Friday we take Annie in for an Electroencephalograph or EEG which measure the brains electrical activity over a period of time and hopefully it will tell us what part of her brain is going nuts when she has a seizure and how we can avoid certain triggers that will cause future seizures. 

Thankfully we are home and Annie is on anti seizure medication. This weekend opened up a whole new dramatic chapter in our lives. Between Daddy's cancer battle and all the other issues we have had my girls will come out of childhood with a firm grasp on medical terminology. 

I guess that is one of the benefits of homeschooling we can take any of life's circumstances and turn them into lessons. Thanks to their natural curiosity every day is a learning opportunity. 

I also think they like to shock the nurses too, when they go to explain something in simple terms and my girls whip out the right verbage and make the nurses look at them weird. 

Oh in case you wondered DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. I could always remember what it stood for because it is fun to say :) 

Fibonacci sequence and Occam's razor

Two fresh topics of exploration. These are Mommy's questions the girls really didn't care but where Mommy's inquiring mind goes theirs has to follow.  It was interesting investigating these two topics. We found out that they are not new ideas to us just new names for old ideas.

Occam's razor: This is a principle used in problem solving that states that of all the differing hypothesis out there it is the Hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected. In other words if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is probably a duck. My father the Marine used Occam's Razor under a different name he called it the K.I.S.S (Keep it simple stupid)  method.

The philosophy in Occam's razor is used in every area of life. The area where we have first hand knowledge of Occam being wrong was with my husbands cancer diagnosis. They were looking for the simplest answer but in fact the cancer that he had was extremely rare and extremely lethal. The awareness ribbon for his cancer is Zebra print because they of the way the medical profession analogizes Occam's razor. They say that when you hear hoof sounds outside your window it is most likely going to be a horse not a zebra. Unfortunately in life there are the occasional Zebras.

I think that even though the idea behind this philosophy is not a 100% it is still a great way of thinking. The simple answer is generally the best answer in just about every aspect of life.



Fibonacci Sequence: The Fibonacci sequence is names after Leonardo of Pisa who was known as Fibonacci. By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.

So the Fibonacci Sequence written out is - 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. 13, 21 and so on and so on. 

There are a bunch of things that I run across and have to look up and when I do I file the information away for when a child asks me about it later or the random game of Trivial Pursuit. 

This got my attention because one website called the Fibonacci sequence the thumbprint of God. They stated that the Fibonacci sequence can be found all though out nature and that it must be the finger print of God. 

 In this picture you can see the Fibonacci spiral in everything from a snail to a fetus to the galaxy

 The Bible says we are made in the image of God so it makes since that the creators finger prints are all over his creation. Here is the Fibonacci swirl in a finger print.

 This picture amazed me honestly. The Fibonacci sequence in the measurement of the bones in our hands. To me that is spectacular. God is definitely in the details.

Until I researched ole Fibonacci I didn't realize that I used his principals when I made icing roses for my decorated cakes. When you make an icing rose you start with one mound of icing and then wrap another.. Well here watch this. Can you spot the Fibonacci sequence in what you see?

Youtube video on Rose making

He took half the video to show you how to fill a bag but when he got down to it he did it right. One  center, One wrap around and then three leaves and then five leaves and so on and so on. 

I hope you find our discoveries as cool as we have found them. At the very least I have helped better prepare  you for your next trivia game. 

The exploration will continue this week when we try and I reiterate the word try to make Hydrophobic sand (thanks to Latin class I didn't have to explain what Hydrophobic was) and making our own breakable glass.

Mapping the parts of the body

The older girls have a body part quiz in class tomorrow so we decided to have a little fun and diagram little sister :) Please forgive the spelling. I am not only horrible at spelling I was being kicked and punched my a willing but VERY ticklish anatomy dummy. We all laughed so hard and I do not think any of us will forget the basic parts of the body anytime soon. :) This is what I like to call hands on learning. Or I guess you could call it messing with the little sister but hey either way it is a fun way to spend a rainy night.

We tried to label the abdomen but I even got close with the pen she busted out in hysterical laughter. The thought was even ticklish to her. I like to think nights like this they will remember when they sit around the table as adults telling their kids how crazy Grandma was. 

The Knee or the Patella 

The Ulna 

The Radius 

Humorous 

Tarsals,metatarsals and phalanges

You can tell by her face here she was having a ball helping to diagram the body

Tibia and Fibula 

Cute little nose 

Carpals, Meta carpals and phalanges

Summer of exploration

The last few years of our homeschooling journey have been challenging to say the least. The struggle to find the balance between all the storms life threw our way and maintaining their education has been challenging to say the least. 

I think the girls have done a great job working extra hard to catch up on their education. We have all worked very hard this year. 

This summer I am not going to take any classes at the University and they aren't  going to be doing anything but math this summer so I decided that we are going to get back to the basics this summer and so I have declared this summer a "Summer of Exploration." 

The idea of summer of exploration is simple any new topic that any of us want to explore we are going to explore. 

The first thing on our exploration was a topic that has eluded me since grade school. The poetic form called Haiku. 

A Haiku is a Japanese poem that is three lines long the first line is 5 syllables in the first line 7 syllables in the second and 5 in the final line. 

So far Cassie and I are the only ones that have managed to create a Haiku. My Haiku was a reflection on my thoughts toward the second birthday of my husbands since he passed away and Cassie's was a reflection of a weird news story about walking fish.

Birthday Haiku

Birthdays come and go

You will never leave my heart

I love you always

Cassie’s Haiku

Snakehead fish are weird

Snakehead fish can live on land

Snakehead fish are weird

The other topics on our agenda this next week is an exploration of the Fibonacci sequence and odd and probabilities in regards to a contest on a soda bottle. The bottle said one in ten are winners and the girls want to get 10 bottles so we can test to see if the odds are correct. 

It should be a ton of fun exploring new things this summer. I hope that maybe a summer of exploration can rekindle the joy of learning in us all.