The Bristow’s dot COM

Last night we decided to continue our efforts to adopt two older children that we believe God wants us to adopt. There have been numerous ‘coincidences’ over the past few months that we just can’t ignore. And yes, we do have a baby on the way that will be born in just over 7 months. And, most people have viewed this as ‘crazy’. We have boarded the crazy train!

I will keep everyone updated on how this is progressing! We are very excited right now, as we expand our family!

Today Jaime and I officially learned that we are approved to adopt in the State of Florida! We also learned that the children that we had been hoping to adopt are available!

We talked with their case worker today and told her that we are pregnant and are not really sure what to do. We have also been invited to a ‘blind’ visit this Thursday evening. We are still not 100% sure what to do, so we have a BIG decision to make very very soon. So, please be praying for us. We want to do what is best for the children, our family, and follow God in all things.

Right now is a very exciting time in my life.

Yesterday morning Jaime had a gift bag for me that she was really excited to have me open. I thought it was a bit odd to give me a gift while I was rushing to get to work on time. I opened the gift bag and inside was a pen box. I thought “I don’t really need a pen… but something else could fit into this box….” I opened the box and inside was a pregnancy test that showed positive! Jaime is pregnant! I’m a Dad!

We estimate that the due date is around November 24th.

We are very excited about this news! And now we need to decide if this changes any of our adoption plans……

Yesterday my wife and I went shopping for a couple of shirts for me. The reason we were actually doing this is a bit silly. On Friday I took all of my work shirts to the dry cleaner, and they won’t be ready until after 5:00pm on Tuesday. And, well I need to have nice shirts for work on Monday and Tuesday. So, to solve this dilemma we went shopping. After trying on a few shirts it was very clear that I no longer wear a Large shirt. A medium shirt now fits me just fine!

I truly am shrinking!

Jaime and I also began the Couch to 5k Running Program over the weekend. To commemorate our running journey we both grabbed some new running shoes and hit the pavement. We completed the first two days of the program already, so all is going well. We also mapped out a 5k from our front door back to our front door, so it is neat to see the distance that we should be able to run in just 9 weeks. Crazy stuff.

Well, I had better get back to the task of shrinking.

Today I had my ’tilt table test’. The hardest thing about this was the IV they had to insert as a ‘precaution’. And they didn’t need to use it for anything, other than to cause me pain and stress (which is what I think the real purpose of an IV actually is).

I passed the tilt table test without any abnormal blood pressure changes and no passing out! I even received a letter from the Cardiologist that says explicitly that I can continue working out at the Gym without any supervision or changes in my routine. (My Golden Ticket)

I went over my workout routine with this Doctor (Dr. Priest) and he believes that the Leg Press was somewhat the culprit in what happened. He thinks that since I had done 45 minutes of cardio that my blood pressure had dropped a bit (he said this is normal when you do cardio). I then went to the Leg Press and exerted myself, forcing blood into my legs. The exertion also caused the veins to restrict helping keep the blood in my legs. I then went to the Incline Bench and exerted with my upper torso causing blood to need to go there. But enough blood wasn’t able to get there so my blood pressure likely went very high to get the blood upwards, which then caused my vagal nerve to halt this process from happening which caused my blood pressure to drop rapidly and induced passing out. Now, had I been on the floor I would have probably woken up within seconds or possibly would not have passed out at all, but since I was sitting upright it took much longer for blood to get to my head so I was out for a few minutes.

This is basically the theory that I came up with while being kept at the Hospital that several doctors didn’t think was valid. But Dr. Priest thinks this could actually be the real cause for why I passed out. Which basically means I did some exercises in an unwise order, exerted more than usual, and have nothing to worry about.

As far as the lower blood pressure results I have seen since the incident, he said to just be happy with them. He said they are not too low, that they are very good numbers that I should be pleased to see. He also said that some blood pressure machines shouldn’t be 100% trusted so the numbers I have may be flawed from the blood pressure machine. He said I should keep tracking my blood pressure and keep my eye on it, but to not be concerned about my current lower numbers.

So tomorrow I will be back at the Gym trying to not scare everyone who works there once again!