Surgery Update

My pain pills just kicked in so if this is a random, loopy post I’m sorry.  :-)

Friday morning I was worried about the surgery because of cost and healing.  As I ran upstairs to grab my wallet I was thinking I would cancel last minute and RIGHT then I rolled on my bad ankle a little.  I chuckled at the perfect timing and so mom and I headed over to the Orem hospital for my surgery.  They did all the lovely prep work for the operation and then the anesthesiologist came in and talked to me about my heart and being put totally under.  He had talked to my cardiologist who gave the ok for the operation but I could tell the guy was worried about putting me under.  He asked if I’d be ok with just a spinal tap done and stay awake for the surgery.  I said no, and after all was said and done I’m glad I did.

Before they took me to the operating room they did an ultrasound guided popliteal fossa block that numbed my right leg from the knee down to the toes.  Once I was in for surgery it ended up being a little longer than thought because there was more damage that expected.  They ended up using a long cadaver tendon, and drilled through some of my bones to attach it.  The neat thing is all my discharge paperwork came with an address for me to write to thank the donors family for the tissue donation.  I’m glad I’m a donor, and so thankful for this donation for me.

The nerve block lasted till around 10am today so I was feeling pretty good, and then it wore off.  I could point to exactly on my cast where I think they drilled through the bone.  While the block was wearing off my entire calf kept twitching.  It was pretty cool till the pain hit.

I’m stuck in bed, only able to get up and use the bathroom, for the next 6 days.  After that he gave me a prescription for a knee scooter so I won’t have to depend on crutches too much.  You just kneel with the injured leg on the pad and walk with the other one.

I would write more but I keep falling asleep while typing.  Love you all.

 

Master Bodyworker Baby

Not only did I manage to pass all my classes but a miracle occurred and I got a 4.0 GPA as well.  How I found time to do the homework and study is beyond me.  I am SO thankful for all mom’s help watching the kids because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to finish up.  I’m just amazed how much new information was packed into the last 10 weeks and I feel like I gained a TON of experience that will help me excel in the field.  I’m so glad I went through the program and equally glad that I got the opportunity to meet a whole group of amazing people.  I know I’ll be keeping in touch with quite a few of them, and loved all I got to learn from them while we were in all those long classes.

After multiple interviews I did get the job with the Spa at the Hotel Park City.  The drive is an hour but so much more beautiful and relaxing than the hour drive to SLC has been for school.  Not to mention I’ll be getting paid.  The spa itself is so beautiful.  I can’t help but feel relaxed the minute I walk into the doors.  It’s a job I didn’t think I’d be able to get for quite a while and I am so thankful and blessed to have gotten it.  A lot of resort jobs require a lot of experience and I’m so thrilled that they are willing to take a chance on little ol’ me.  :-)  I will start training next week and will be working 4-5 days a week starting in June.

Jeremy started back to school on Monday and it looks like he will be writing for the U of U newspaper.  I don’t know all the details so I’ll let him blog about it later.  So far I think he likes his classes.  His work schedule is kind of off right now since he has to work from 3pm to midnight to make time for classes but we’ve LOVED seeing him during the mornings.  JD’s hero is his daddy so it’s just been a huge blessing to have him around more.  Jeremy is even able to be around for a lot of JD’s therapy appointments now which is great.  JD is a different kid around his dad so its nice to have his imput on things and so that the psychologist gets a good picture of how things are with the entire family.

Come to find out the tube is still in the ear that was draining, so it did NOT rupture.  It was however the worst ear infection I’ve ever seen.  Poor kid survived but is now really jumpy whenever someone touches that ear.  JD is still going through the diagnosis process for the Autism.  It’s a long road but I have been so thrilled at the doors that have opened up for him since we have started this whole process.  The therapies are already making such a difference in our family and I am so optimistic about the future.  He amazes me daily with his intellengence, and he is so endearing.  There have been some hard days, and the tantrums are tough on me (more than anyone else I think), but I’m learning to get a tougher skin and not take everything so personally.  Much easier said than done.  We are quickly learning also that everyone has a oppinion about Autism and what they think it is.  It amazes me what people will say to us without thinking first if it might be offensive.  Like I said, I’m pretty sensitive about things still so I’m trying to relax but sometimes it just gets under my skin.  There are SO many stops along the Autism spectrum.  Sometimes I worry that JD won’t fit in with the Autism crowd or the other kids either, that he might be stuck in limbo.  The therapist says that hopefully we can work with him a ton now and help him to fit in with “normal kids” by the time he is in grade school.  He is on a waiting list for a pre-school that is apparently amazing.  It is all day and incorporates the different therapies in the morning and then in the afternoon they do things that teach the kids how to pay attention (HARD for autism), make friends, sit at desks, etc.  He won’t even be able to attend till next August and there is STILL a  chance he won’t get it.  I talked to one mom whose son was on the list for 2 years and never got accepted.  Tomorrow JD meets a new developmental therapist and next week he also gets a new speech therapist.  The therapist that had been working with him on speech is just going to focus on other areas now.  Right now JD is loving the therapy sessions, I hope it stays that way.  I think his favorite is the Psychologist because he knows we will stop at KrispyKreme and watch the doughnuts get made on the way home.  JD also had his first dentist appointment this past week.  I wasn’t able to go due to finals.  Poor Jeremy had to take him by himself and said it was a nightmare.  I think we may look into a pediatric dentist for him that might be used to working with kids, especially those that hate when strangers talk to them.  :-(

Since it’s been so nice outside we have spent a lot of time out there.  JD asks to go outside the minute he wakes up and doesn’t want to come inside for bed.  I’m hoping that next paycheck we can go get another little hard sided pool like the one we had last year.  He LOVED it and with it getting hotter it’ll be nice to let him cool off.  I have a feeling we will be going through a lot of sunblock this summer.

Gwen is doing amazing.  Her nurse came by today and she weighs 15 pounds exactly.  She is almost 6 months old and I can’t believe it.  We started solid foods and she is a champion eater.  So far she doesn’t like bananas or peas but adores carrots and sweet potatoes.  He smile and laughter are infectious and have actually kept her brother up a few nights now.  I will hear them laughing well past the time they are supposed to go to bed.  She likes to peek over the bumper in her crib and look for JD.  I’m glad they get along so well.  I honestly think the Lord sent Gwen to us to help her big brother.  She truly is a miracle baby and I love her spunky spirit.  She’s rolling over now and can almost sit up on her own.  Her eyes keep changing from blue to almost brown, then back to blue again.  We’ll see where they decided to settle.  She also hasn’t got enough hair yet to know what color it’s going to be.  I’m still rooting for dark hair like her mommy.  ;-)  Her favorite toy is a little Minnie Mouse that she got for Easter.  She loves to play with it.  She’ll squeal and then bite her nose.  It’s so funny!

So that’s the skinny on our little family.  We are as busy as ever but growing closer every day.

 

Home and Finally Updating!

I am finally getting a chance to update after a couple of very busy days.   The pediatrician came on Christmas Eve and told us that he believes Gwen has Colotis and Reflux.  He sent us home that evening and promised to call the next day with lab results.  Christmas morning started out well but soon she was vomiting everything she ate.  The doctor did call and let us know the cultures looked clear so far and told us to keep an eye on the vomiting.  By last night we were getting concerned about dehydration so we called him again.  He decided that we needed to get the Upper GI done asap to make sure there wasn’t a blockage in her stomach.  This morning we headed to the clinic to get her weighed then we were sent straight to Primary Childrens Medical Center in Salt Lake.  Since it was the day after Christmas and a Saturday we didn’t have a long wait.  The technician and doctor were amazing and they explained everything they were seeing and doing while I was in the room with them.  She was finally diagnosed with a bad case of GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease).  Since she is a preemie and so small she didn’t get time to have her bowels develop all the way.  You could watch the reflux happen instantly on the monitor.  It was pretty awesome to finally have a diagnosis.  There is still a good chance she has a food allergy as well so we are still dealing with that and the colitis but it’s been a MUCH better day today.

The GERD will mean she has to eat small amounts of food more often than she was before.  We will be keeping her on the $$ formula for now.  We also monitor all her “input and output” so that when the doctors ask when she ate, how much, etc we are ready with the answers.  Gwen will be seeing the doctor every couple of weeks to make sure things are still going well and that her weight is increasing.  Hopefully she will begin to outgrow this around 6 months of age.  It’ll just be a long 6 months. 

While we were in Salt Lake at the hospital it was great to see my cousin and his wife that are there with their little girl Baylee right now.  Hopefully they will be headed out of the hospital in a few more days and not need to go back for her treatments for a few weeks.

Thanks again for everyone’s prayers.  It’s nice to have pieces start getting solved and have her on the mend.  I’m sure the new schedule and everything will be hard for the first little while but we feel VERY blessed that it wasn’t something much worse.

ON A NON SICKNESS NOTE

JD loved his Christmas morning.  As soon as I get a second I’ll try to post the pictures.  He didn’t seem to like unwrapping anything but once it was out of the wrapping he just wanted us to “open it”.  I do believe his favorite gifts were a train from aunt Tracey and a truck from my mom because they both had lots of shape toys in them and he is SO into shapes right now.  He even knows what a octogon is.

His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds and I am so happy to be home with him.  He’s had a rough road recently with mommy in bed for 15 weeks then the hospital while Gwen was in the NICU.  This past week was kind of the last straw for him so we are fighting some tantrums but I can’t blame the kiddo.

 

Christmas Eve in the Hospital

This morning the blood in Gwen’s diapers was worse, and she started to vomit again. The doctor came in and decided to consult another pediatrian.

When they ran her lab work this morning they found that her bands had trippled. This can point to a bacterial infection. They took some urine and a lot more blood so they could culture it all. The cultures will take 24 hours so we will be in the hospital another night. As of right now we are unsure if it will be here or up at primary childrens. The pediatrician should be here anytime now and it will be his call. They also want to check out her upper GI tract but aren’t sure when that will be done since they will have to call someone in to do it.

As always I’ll try to keep you posted. My internet connection from this room isn’t the best.

 

Yet another night…

It’s late and I’m REALLY tired so this will be short.  I will spare you all the details of the day and just post on where we are at now.

Gwen is still in the hospital in American Fork.  When the doctor came and saw the blood in her diapers he decided to examine her.  While he was looking at her little tush she decided to poop everywhere.  This ended up being a good thing because it meant he saw that the blood was coming from internally.  Tonight they did a x-ray of her abdomen to rule out 2 different possibilities.  Things in the x-ray looked great.  They have put her on an even more sensitive formula that I hope helps, at the same time it is $50 for a 14 oz can so WOW!  They didn’t even have it here, they had to send down to UVRMC to get it.

Around 5am they will draw more blood and weigh her again.  Hopefully by the morning they will have all the results back including the results from the stool sample they sent to the lab.  If everything comes back clean than odds are good we’ll be sent home, if something isn’t ok then the doctor said he is going to transfer us to Primary Children’s.  Since he also said that yesterday I’m not sure it would actually happen.  We will see.

Gwen is quite fussy this evening so I hope she will still eat and not lose any more weight.

 

Gwen Hospital Update

I know it’s been far to long since I’ve posted any updates on our little family.  I do hope you’ll forgive me.  Not long after my last post I ended up contracting a Uterine infection (Endometritis) and shortly after that was finally under control I developed a headache/migraine that didn’t go away at all for over 10 days.  Needless to say blogging was not top priority.  About the time the headache cleared up we started to notice so issues with Gwen.

One day while changing her diaper we noticed a little blood in her stool.  I read online that it might not be a big deal so we waited until it happened again before calling the doctor.  When we took her in last Friday there was no more blood in her stools but she started to have diarrhea and was throwing up.  The doctor switched her formula and told us to watch her over the weekend.  We did and monday I took her back in because I wasn’t sure she was eating enough.  More than half of what she was eating she was throwing back up.  When they weighed her at the doctor’s office we were all shocked to see that in the past 72 hours she had lost 12% of her body weight.  Just imagine 12% of your body weight gone in only 3 days!  She was admitted to the hospital right away.  This was yesterday.

She’s been kept on the more specialized formula while here and I believe she’s finally getting used to it.  I don’t blame her for hating it, it smells nasty.  She’s only thrown up once since being here and is starting to gain back some weight.  I was optimistic that we’d be able to go home before noon but her lab work from this morning showed she was low on potassium so we may be here for another night.

They did an ultrasound this morning to check her Pyloric Sphincter in her stomach to make sure it wasn’t enlarged and causing the vomiting.  They believe it is not the problem.  Now we are looking into the fact that she may have a sever milk protein allergy.  This is different from a lactose intolerance.  The good news is that most children do outgrow this before they reach the age of 5 years old, how we handle it now can help her to be ok with the milk later in life.  Our family doctor happens to also specialize in allergens and testing so he has been a huge help.

The doctor had originally told me to stop pumping breast milk for her but now they have me on a restricted diet and they hope in a day or two I’ll be able to supplement a little milk with the formula to help her during flu season.

That is all we know for now.  I will keep you all posted as we know more.  THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the prayers headed our way.  Our thoughts have been with my cousin’s little one Baylee and her struggles up at primary children’s hospital.  I feel like what we are dealing with here is hard enough and my heart just goes out to HD and Brittany.  Love you guys so much.

 

One Call

Jeremy was enjoying using my old blackberry without the problems I was having with it.  Then one day he wasn’t able to navigate using the track ball or keys anymore and had to go back to using his old phone.  Technically I knew the phone had a 90 warranty since it was a replacement but I wasn’t sure if they would honor it since I wasn’t the one using it anymore and they processed the new phone for me.  ONE phone call later Jeremy had them sending him a replacement overnight and a promise that if it broke down in the next year they would upgrade him to the next level blackberry free of charge.  Lesson to take from all this; I am no longer calling about problems, I will have Jer do it!  It took me 6 weeks and countless hours on the phone to get them to upgrade the phone and give me a discount!

Life with the new car has been wonderful.  For the first time since June I haven’t regretted getting a 2nd car.  I am no longer terrified to drive and JD loves it.  Every day he brings me his shoes and socks asking to go in the car.  I can’t say enough about Josh at Murdock Hyundai in Orem for working with us and taking such amazing care of the situation.  They didn’t have to do all they did and we really appreciate it.

After signing the paperwork for the new car on Wednesday night we took JD to the park to enjoy it before we start getting snow.  He had a blast with his daddy there to chase him around.  We picked up KK on the way there so she could play too.  JD just loves his cousins!

On Thursday Trish and I headed to the health department to get ourselves and the kids vaccinated for H1N1.  We showed up about an hour before they opened and were probably about 200 people back in line already.  By the time we left the line wrapped around the parking garage!  Once they opened the doors they were sure moving people through there fast.  Poor Deeds hated the shot and hid his little face in my shirt after they gave it to him.  When I was putting him back in the stroller he just kept rubbing his little thigh.  He did like the little sticker they gave him.  We go back in 4 weeks for his second dose.

 

6+ Pounds Later

Here is a quick rundown of the past weekend up to now:

• I got a stomach bug on Friday afternoon
• Friday night I started to have contractions and we had to go to the hospital.  They were able to stop everything with an IV that had fluids and antinausia medication in it.
• Friday later night/Saturday early I still “dealt” with the stomach bug, while trying to stay hydrated so I wouldn’t have to go back to the hospital.  Since I don’t normally throw up unless I am pregnant I remember asking Jeremy to kill me at one point.
• Saturday… ya… still sick.
• Sunday finally kept some food and liquids down, on the mend except for the bizarre back muscles I pulled thanks to all the intense sickness.
• Monday, other than the muscles I felt better than I had in days.  Even ran out with mom to buy JD’s diapers.
• Monday late……. Jeremy gets the stomach bug….
• Monday later/Tuesday morning neither of us get a lot of sleep due to Jeremy being sick.
• Tuesday early I finally convince Jeremy to call in sick to work, something he NEVER does.
• Tuesday afternoon I went to the cardiologist only to find out that I may have to switch high risk specialists and OB this late in the pregnancy if I want to keep my new cardiology team.   I have some decisions to make, ick.  Got my flu shot and found out that over the course of the weekend I lost 6+ pounds because of the sickness.
• Now, blogging and dealing with JD refusing to go to bed praying he doesn’t get the stomach bug since I’m still pretty queezy.

Aren’t you SO happy I caught you up?

 

Maybe she’ll blog more?

Now that I’m supposed to be on bed rest I’m sure you’ve been wondering if I’ll blog more.  Apparently not.  Here’s the rundown on life since I posted last.

• I graduated!  YAY!!  It was a good day, but sadly it doesn’t mean I will be able to work very much.  I am however certified and hope to be licensed in a week or three so call me if you need any minor work done.
• I’m supposed to be on bedrest, kind of.  “Relaxing and keeping your feet up” is how the doctor put it.  This is VERY hard with a toddler.  I am usually only in bed or resting when JD is napping.  It’s just the way the cookie crumbles right now.
• Our car got fixed!  YAY, until yesterday when it started to act up again.  I’m beginning to wonder how long the dealership is going to keep fixing it before they realize the car is just a lemon?
• I have been going to the wound clinic at the hospital for the biopsy on my leg that never healed.  As of this morning I’m in a semi-hard cast/compression wrap that goes from my knee to my toes.  Oh it’s a load of fun.  Apparently they doctor there believes that the wound isn’t healing because of the edema (excess fluids) in my legs.  I go in once a week and they scrape, clean and measure the sore.  I’m hoping that maybe when I go in next week I can avoid a huge wrap on my leg.  I’m really missing taking showers!
• My cardiologist is giving me whiplash.  I wont post a lot about it here but lets just say I go in one time and everything is ok, and he doesn’t feel like he needs to see me again anytime soon.  Then I’ll go in a month later and the world is coming to an end, I need to terminate the pregnancy and everything is bad news.  I have finally decided to get a second opinion from a cardiologist up in SLC.  That appointment is next Tuesday.
• JD went through a phase where he stopped calling me mom or mama and just called me Bobbie.  It was cute but I’m glad it didn’t last too long.  It was a good sign that he’s starting to pick up a bit more vocabulary.  His favorite thing to say right now happens to be “is it?”.  We’re trying to get him to say what is it but I’m happy with “is it?”.  Funny thing is he usually whispers it.
• Jeremy is working harder than ever and we are lucky to see him on Sundays.  Life just keeps getting more and more expensive and job compensation doesn’t seem to be meeting the task.  It’s why we were hoping to sell the car (I know we JUST got it) but I don’t feel good selling someone a lemon so we’ll see what happens with the dealership in the next few days.  Hopefully I will be able to work soon after the baby is born to help our family get back on its own two feet!

That’s the long 411 for our little family.

Peace, love and gimpy legs.

 

No Car

The car started acting a bit odd, or as I like to say possessed, 3 days after we got it.  I called the dealership to let them know ASAP and they said to bring it in to have it checked out again.  Problem is it would never act up when I wanted to take it in and the one time I did just take it in they couldn’t find anything wrong with it after waiting for almost 2 hours.  Then yesterday I was taking JD to an appointment and it was driving terrible, the check engine light finally came on so I called Jeremy and let him know.  On the way home from the appointment it was a whole new pain in my tushie.  It would take me up to 10 seconds to accelerate from 0-15 mph (so I wasn’t shooting any gaps).  If you think that’s not too long, next time you are turning left on a green light or even just going through an intersection count the time it takes you.  It was actually quite scary with JD in the car.  Once we finally headed up the hill to the house I had the gas to the floor and couldn’t get it to go above 20 mph. and then almost couldn’t get it into the driveway.  Needless to say it’s currently back at the dealership and we are waiting to hear from them about what the heck is wrong.  The awesome news is we’ve been told if it’s not going to be able to be fixed they will put us in another car and not stick us with a lemon.  I’m hoping they can just find the problem and fix it but it’s their dime to fix it so it’s up to them.  I’m not paying a penny.

On the mole removal front, 2 of the 3 moles they removed last week came back with cancer cells.  They know they got everything with one of them and the other they are choosing to just watch for now since the biopsy they did on my leg is just refusing to heal.  When I took the stitches out of the one on my leg it opened up after about 10 minutes.  The skin on my legs (or really anywhere) is just not elastic and so it pulls too tight and didn’t heal properly.  They tried to glue it back together and that lasted about 36 hours.  Now I just have a hole the size of about a dime and have to “watch it for infection.” and wait for it to heal on its own.  Yay for funky scars.  I’m really just happy they have been able to catch everything without it being full blown malignant melanoma.

Only 3 weeks left of school… WAHOOO!  I do need to get studying for my nationals certification exam, and I’m trying to decide if I want to take it the week before school is out or the week after.