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antibiotics through a PICC line

January 30, 2012 By 5 Comments

I keep trying to hop on and post so I can keep everyone up to date with what is going on but I can’t find the time. How hard is it to pull out my laptop and write something? I have a sitter so if I want to pass the baby off I can, and I do. However, I usually want to sleep. Or lounge back and read. It’s going to be hard to give up this recliner when I’m all better, but I can’t keep it. It doesn’t match and there isn’t really a “spot” for it. In the attic it will go.

I thought I might do a quick fly by post. As many of you know my rods broke at the end of December (at least we think that’s when it happened) and when they took them out there was a crazy-serious infection (I’ll get into that on another post).

The infection is so bad that we only had a couple of choices and one of them meant no breastfeeding. The doctors knew me well enough by then that they didn’t even present it as an option. I fought tooth and nail to make sure I was on safe pain meds, I was not about to give up now.

So my PICC line stayed. Maybe it would have anyways but it was certain now. We would be administering IV antibiotics 3X a day for the next 5-6 weeks? I can’t remember how long. It’s just a long time.
Let’s not talk about how much this would cost if it weren’t for insurance. Let’s just say that we are VERY fortunate and we are paying $0 out of several thousand. JUST for the antibiotics.

So are you curious to see what a ONE WEEK. I REAPEAT A ONE WEEK supply of antibiotics looks like?

One Week Supply of Meds

We have an iphone down for comparison. The white syringe is just saline to flush the line before and after the meds. They yellow syringe is heprin to lock the line after meds and the funny ball things are the actual meds. We use lot of alcohol wipes to make sure that everything stays very clean. The end of that line is very close to my heart.

So 3x a day I hook up and then disconnect and lock. The boys love to help and it’s great to have them involved.

We absolutely love our nurse “Jake” at the clinic we go to. SO thanks for all the training, you are awesome.

My PICC line

 

 

 

Filed Under: Family, wheelchair stuff

Coming home

January 23, 2012 By 14 Comments

I came home last Friday. This past weekend has been up, down, happy, sad, frustrated and a million other emotions.

I’m not going to talk about that part right now. I’m going to talk about coming home and what that was like.

When we got into the van I got a text from a friend asking if the boys knew I was on the way home or if she needed to not saying anything because it was a surprise.

I told her it was a surprise. My mommy brains starts churning and I ask her how late they can stay and run my idea by her and she says she’s in they can stay as late as we need them too.

So my plan is set into motion.

Charlie will get me home, comfortable in my bed and he will take Nathan and the VAN and head back out for my meds.

Our sitter also followed us to the house so she would know how to get here when she started back on Monday (today, yes, things are going well). She took a look around and left so as not to throw off our plan.

There were some ups and downs over finding meds (on time) but I’ll write about that another day.

I’m snuggled in my bed and everyone is gone so I text my friend that I’m ready. She knows I want her to just drop them and go like normal because as far as she knows I’m NOT there.

So mom and I quickly figure out WHY she’ll send them into my room. The door is closed and lights are off…

I here them come in and bye, thank you, see you later, blah blah.

Now we hear my mom asking them to go look for “that cat” in “your mom’s room”.

They walk in, turn the light on, and neither one sees me at first, they are half glancing for the cat and their eyes are still adjusting. Then slowly, Lucas looks up, his eyes get  huge and he yells “MOMMY” – Will glanced up and saw me just as the words were coming out of his mouth.

I wasn’t quite crying but my eyes weren’t dry and the boys were the same. They didn’t want to cry but they were so shocked and so happy.

They very carefully and cautiously climbed in bed with me, almost as if there were afraid but desperate to touch me. They wanted to make sure I was REALLY there.

They climbed in and I choked back more tears and just hugged and loved my babies. I missed them so much and it was good to be home. Good to be with my babies in MY bed.

I can’t imagine how confused and afraid Lucas must have been the last three weeks. He’s only 3 and it must have been so challenging to figure out why mommy, daddy and nathan left. He knew we were in a hospital and that hospitals are for sick people or people having babies. He knew we weren’t having a baby so why?  WHy were grandpa and grandma in our house all they time. Why weren’t they leaving?

Now I sit here and write this in my new recliner, so I can lay in the middle of all the noise and chaos that takes place in our family room, and just be. I am home again and I hope more than anything that I never have to unexpectedly leave my children like that again. I am so eager to be back to myself 100% so I can take my boys where they need to be and not depend on friends to help (and help they have – THANK YOU SO MUCH!)

I will never forget that look, of joy and confusion, excitement and a little scared, when they walked in and saw me. I wasn’t able toe capture that moment on film. I thought about having my phone ready, but I didn’t want to. I decided I wanted it to be all mine. Well, all mine and theirs. I didn’t want to share it with anyone else. I wanted to relish in that intimate moment we shared. It’s a beautiful moment I will go back to many times when I need a little pick me up.

I did, however, capture some snuggles the moments after, and those I will share!

 

Filed Under: Family, wheelchair stuff

surgery

January 10, 2012 By 13 Comments

This isn’t a real post and most of you are seeing this on facebook but ok they’ve changed the surgery back and forth a few times. Last we heard  it will be on WEDNESDAY, the 11th, at noon.

Charlie and I made a choice last night that may not meet the approval of everyone. We made the decision when we thought the surgery was today, but I thought it was even better when we found out it was moved to Wedneday.

I didn’t let Will go to school. I told grandma to keep him home. Daddy is on his way to get him and Lucas right now.

It’s my business if I want my child with me at a time like this.

I guess I am making a tiny big deal about this is because today was a MOCK test of the new STARR test. We all know what the school thinks about standardized testing, but today, I do not care.

My boys are the best medicine. When they are up here with me I feel calm and relaxed despite the drama and chaos when they get together in a small space.

I also plan to let him stay out tomorrow. That might change because surgery was flipped, and that was going to originally be my recovery day. Now my recovery day is Thursday so maybe we will come that day instead.

I just NEED my kids here. It calms me. It WILL make things go smoother for me.

Then, of course, there is the what if ? ?

Filed Under: Family, wheelchair stuff

I’m lost and broken

January 3, 2012 By 21 Comments

Literally, I am. In 12 years I’ve only had one other complication. I hate when things go wrong,

There is no need to read into the title of my post. I’m still me. I still love life and my family. I’m NOT depressed. or angry. I’m just in lots of pain.

It all started on the 29th (thursday)- it came on gradually and continued to get worse but I was able to sleep some. Friday morning, I was screaming in agony.

There were no if, ands or buts about it. I had to go the doctor and I had to go now.

Except I don’t have a “regular” doctor. I just haven’t had any needs to warrant a regular doctor.  My  ladies parts doctor took care of the major stuff at my annual. I guess I need to find a regular doctor. It’s at the top of my list now. Wherever that list is …

Back to the pain. The doctors are still at a loss (see they are kinda LOST) and aren’t 100% sure what to do so they are running ever test possible and contacting the part numbers to track down who my doc used.

Just an FYI – Its taken me 30 minutes to write this much. I can’t stay focused and I keep have DEEP sleep dreams that I think last at leas 1-2 minutes and the dream itself a bit longer). It’s a strange feeling. 

So parts. They are tracking down the part number of the rods in my back because they are broken — SEE BROKEN.

There is a good chance I will have surgery to remove all or some of the metal. (titanium to be precise .. IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BREAK)

It’s been a long 5 days.

It’s beoming really stressful. I can transfer myself because it hurts to Charlie has to do everything for me. It’s not really big stuff but it still sucks to need help with stuff.

I’m trying to do my scooting around and pressure relieving on my own.

It hurts if I move  or not and I haven’t been told to stay still, so I think wiggling is best.

I also had to take off all my rings today. I took them off before my MRI and then put them back on. It’s habit. They belong there. So I put them back on immediately. More talk about surgery made me try to get them off right away. I don’t want to know what fixing broken rings cost. They eventually came off but I was afraid we’d have to cut. We did not

I feel like post is all jumbled up and probaby sounds like I’m out it, and that would be because I am.

I’m so appreciative that my mom is here taking care of the big boys and they I have friends wiling too help with drop off and another with pick up.

Typing this was difficult enough. I’m NOT proofreading it. sorry. I’ll conclude for now.  Hopefully I will eventually be better again and back to me. It’s hard to be me with all the “good stuff”

h=

 

Filed Under: Family, Networking, wheelchair stuff

2011 in review

December 28, 2011 By 14 Comments

I rarely write based on prompts. Maybe I should do it more, maybe I should keep finding an excuse not to do them. However, I wanted to come up with a review of my year of sorts, maybe shed some light on a few posts that were ignored or maybe you missed just because you were busy like me.

Sooooooo, when I saw Mama Kat’s latest prompts I decided to dive in. In case you get bored between now and 2012 why not take a look at my favorite posts from the last year?

January –  I’m 30 today. It’s the first time I talk about Kona (and my 2nd trip there) and well before I meet all my fellow Austin bloggers.

February – It turns out that I absolutely can not pick one. We can’t forget my SITS day because it was when we announced we were having another sweet baby boy. Then there was also the post about my amazing husband; after reading about a women venting here and a woman venting there I decided that the internet need more posts about how we LOVE the man that provides for us and allows us to stay home and blog. (I mean stay home and take care of the kids)

There was also one about my sister, who I miss dearly.

March- I couldn’t decide what to share. There wasn’t much “good” stuff. Hmmm, I mean there was but not like February. I picked this one. It’s a cheap trick and I don’t care if you like it or not…. I’m just throwing it out there.

April - Oh, boy. April was another good month. I need to learn how to space my stuff out better. I had my feature with Scary Mommy. That was a tough post to write but I learned a lot about myself and the words just flowed. It’s a great post if I do say so myself.

As I go through April, I realize there is much I would like to share again, so I’ll just let you look at everything if you feel so inclined.

Yes, I know I promised a “how do you do it” series that I never even touched. It’ll come. I think.

 May –  Maybe this recap thing wasn’t a good idea, or maybe it was just what I needed. I’ve been thinking to myself that my traffic is fairly low, so I must not have that many “good” posts. However, I now realize I do. I have amazing posts. I love how I’m documenting MY FAMILY on my blog. It’s for me. It’s not for you. Sure, I share it with you, but I’m not changing to keep you or to bring more of you in. I’ll be grateful if I do, I’d be lying if I said having readers and comments wasn’t exciting. The bottom line is, it’s not why I do this. May was another good month. Check it out.

I do this because of my boys. This past May my baby turned 3.

June – This was an exciting month because that baby became a BIG BROTHER. It was a fun month because I was honored to be a maternity model at a photograhy workshop and a sad month because it marked 6 years since I lost my Daddy. I also talked about my husband, again. You can find those posts here.

July – I didn’t post much in July. I wanted to focus on my sweet new baby, but I did have guest posters help me out. I’d love it if you would check them out.

 

August – I had more guest posts, another photography session, my baby started first grade and I spoke of struggle and voiced my opnion. Loud and clear. Wanna see?

September – I thought September was a “Calm” month until I looked at the posts. It was another sad month, as it marked 2 years since Cancer stole my mother-in-law. It was a fun month because my biggest baby had his first spelling test (which he aced) and joined cub scouts (where I promptly became a den leader while my husband was away on his first business trip to NEW YORK) and he knocked out a tooth at his “girlfriend”‘s birthday party.

It was a history making month for Texas. My state burned. A lot.

It was also a month of reflection. My “anniversary” is in September and this year marked 12 years since my injury.

October – I had the chance to preview an Extreme Makeover episode before it aired, I posted the final maternity photo session, I had a slight panic attack after being up close and personal with a star flight helicopter and I reflected on my pregnancy with Nathan and how it almost wasn’t. I also gave a cool recipe storage tip. Wanna see all of them?

November – This month was a bit calm, but not entirely. I talked about meeting Brooke and Laurie. This is a must. If you don’t read any other post, read this one. I talked about my struggles with my oldest and Lucas having his first sleepover away. There were also a couple of old papers I wrote when I went to Coastal Bend College.

You can read everything if you want.

December – December came far too quickly. This was a fast year. I hate that. Every year gets faster. Bleh. My little baby ate his first solids, I was stranded in a bathroom, my biggest baby turned 7, I celebrated 9 years of marriage and had an amazing dinner out. I’ll make you work for the rest. :)  but if you have any guesses as to where I was when I had my bathroom mishap, feel free to shout it out.

So I guess I really didn’t follow the rules, but I loved writing this post. It cleared things up for me. I love blogging for me and my family and I love the friends I’ve made along the way. I’ll probably never make money doing this, but that’s ok. It’s not my goal. I enjoy the SWAG I get when I go somewhere like the Beef Council event and I love writing reviews that are unprompted by businesses and friends I love. I don’t see myself writing many (if any) sponsored posts unless it’s already a company I believe in and would have written for anyways (more coming on that next year). I WILL continue to make friends through social media and to spread my word. I’m paralyzed but I’m still a mom. I still do everything you do, I just do it sitting down. If I can do it, so can you.

Rule or no rules, you can play too. Mama Kat and I would love to see some of your posts from the last year.

Filed Under: Family, Networking

sleepless nights and potty training

December 27, 2011 By 2 Comments

The last week my husband has been home. It’s been great. I’ve loved almost  every minute of it.

This week has also been quite exhausting. My sweet tiny boy isn’t really sleeping. I think he’s teething. Maybe he just has allergies.

Look at this sad little face. You can tell he doesn’t feel well.

sweet boy

I want to think it’s teeth. The orajel seems to make it better. We’ve been so fortunate to have little ones that usually sleep well and this is just dragging on a bit longer than I remember. I am sure it’s probably quite similar to how it was the other two times. Hopefully the new year brings new teeth.

Potty training. No, we are not potty training Nathan. Yet. We are still working on Lucas. He’s close. He’s doing great. He’s not there yet. He’s wearing underwear at home. NO PANTS. Pants seem to backfire and we have accidents. Pooping is totally hit or miss. He’s even run to get a pull up and pooped in it. He doesn’t want to ruin his underwear but he doesn’t want to poop in the potty either.

We even made this:

Poopy Treasure Box (ignore that it's a BAG instead)

 (made with long discontinued Laura Bansiak digital scrap goodies)

It’s starting to work. We just need to be consistent and loving. I am pretty sure Will was on of those rare overnight kids that trained instantly. Lucas is not. That’s ok. Lucas has more patience overall with life so I shouldn’t be complaining. I’ll keep you posted. I’m sure you are eager to know the continued success (and failures) of my son’s pooping matters.

Filed Under: Family

vacations and breaks

December 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

Will is out of school until January 4th and Charlie is off from work until January 3rd. We will have a lot of time to “just be”. It should be nice. I hope. I hope we all still like each other by the end. We’ve never spent that much time, day in and day out together. Well, I have with the little boys but not with daddy, not even before we had kids.

I’m really looking forward to it.

We also took an official break from Tae Kwon Do. Will’s heart is just not in it right now. Charlie and Will are both only about a year away from being black belts so they are not quitting. Our Tae Kwon Do family has been instructed to pester us and annoy us and not let us forget that once school is out we should be BACK on the mat.

Will and Nathan had well checks. I can’t believe my biggest baby is 7 and that my littlest is 6 months. How is he 1/2 of a year? How?

Will is staying steady in the 75 percentile for height and weight. I’m assuming considering how thin he is the weight is directly related to the height …

Nathan has moved up a bit. He was hanging out in the 5th percentile and he jumped into the 25th.

I’ll be “around”, but my social media presence won’t be as strong. :)

Filed Under: Family

Kona Grill amazes me

December 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

My kids love Scooby Doo. They are obsessed. Lucas more than Will, but that doesn’t matter. We have around 15 Scooby Doo movies on our Tivo.

One of the many is called Aloha, Scooby Doo. It’s about a little Hawaiian Island that they think is haunted and it, as expected, turns out to just be one of the natives.

Scooby Movie screen on my tivo. exciting stuff.

There is a little lady, I think she’s a witch doctor, or she thinks she is, I can’t remember, that makes a mean macadamia nut pie. Well, I assumed it was good. It made Shaggy’s mouth water and convinced Scooby to lure the bad guy, so it had to be good.

I like to bake. Really. I do. I had no desire to seek out the recipe for Macadamia Nut Pie. I just didn’t have it in me.

Well, because I’m an all time Konavore, I get Kona Grill emails. You should sign up. They will feed you on your birthday. Seriously.

No I do not get a kick back if you sign up. I just think you should. You get free food.

Anyways, back to the emails. A few weeks back I get an email that talks about a new temporary menu. They call it Bliss.

Seriously. They call it the The Bliss Menu.

Yes, I used the word Bliss in my 9 year anniversary instagram picture and I’m just now realizing how perfectly fitting this is.

Back the the pie.

Macadamia nut pie is on the BLISS MENU!!

I immediately tweet out that I would totally be willing to review the pie (which was aaaaaaaaahmazing) if I could try it for free.

A few emails and tweets here and there and I’m told to email Scott at my local restaurant and he’ll hook me up.

I email Scott, tell him I have reservations for 6 on my anniversary and we’d love to try the pie. Done.

I email him back and ask him if they have champagne, but he doesn’t see it before we arrive. No biggie. If they do, they do; if they don’t, they don’t.

Traffic and parking sucks so we end up running just a little late but as soon as I roll in I am greeted with the Kona smile and directed to a table.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the entire table. It was lovely.

There was already a chair removed just for me, they had a beautiful display of pink roses, 2 champagne glasses, and an awesome card signed by the staff.

While I didn’t capture the entire table, I do have this picture of the flowers.

Pink roses given to us by the staff at Kona Grill in Austin

Our server, Christie, approaches and our lovely evening begins. I won’t bore you with all the details but we are treated to champagne and Scott’s personal favorite sushi roll. It’s not on their menu, but I was instantly blown away. It was probably the 4th or 5th roll I tried and the only one I’ve loved. I can’t wait to have it again.

I was also shocked when Christie asked if I wanted one of my favorites. I usually order their sweet and spicy shrimp AND the tomato bisque soup. When I didn’t order the soup, Christie asked if I would be having that as well. She remembered!! Now that is service!

I know the beginning of this post was all about the pie, but as I continued to write and think I realized it was much more. It was about the power of social media. It was about the connections that can be made between managers and customers. It’s an amazing thing.

Anyways. Pie. We were almost to full to try the pie, but we were not disappointed. It was a very generous serving and we even had some leftover for the kids to try!

They loved it to.

I forgot to take a picture of the pie, but it was definitely deserving of being on the “bliss” menu.

 

This post was 100% my opinion. The only “compensation” I received was a lovely night out at Kona Grill. I did receive flowers, champagne and one sushi roll COMPLETELY free but it was nothing more than kindness of the manager. I wrote this post because I truly love good service and appreciated the effort to give us a lovely anniversary night and good service deserves to be talked about!

 

 

Filed Under: Family, Reviews

He’s Seven

December 8, 2011 By 2 Comments

My first baby is 7 today!! How is that possible?

 

Here is his first picture, ever!

 

William in 2004

 

and here he is today.

William today - Heavenly Peach Photography

 

He’s come a LONG way from that day.

He’s now a very smart 1st grader and loves reading.

He wants every Titanic book he can get his hands one.

He loves legos and playing.

He adores his baby brother and tries to tolerate his other little brother.

He’s hard headed and far too stubborn for his own good, but he can be the sweetest, most sensitive little boy ever, all in the same day.

Here is a letter i wrote after he turned one but  regretfully didn’t finish:

 

February 21, 2006

 

Dear William

 

It’s February and you are just over one year old and such an amazing little boy! I read on a website that I should write you a letter every year on your birthday and I think that it is a fabulous idea. So here is letter one, just a couple of months late!

 

The last year of my life has been one of the best in my life. It’s had it’s sad moments, but what year doesn’t? No matter how much I miss your Big Grandpa I am eternally grateful he had the chance to meet you and give you lots of love.

 

You grew especially close you’re your girlfriend-sister-cousins (Brittany was your favorite, but she also took you from the other girls more).

Filed Under: Family

9 years

December 7, 2011 By 4 Comments

It’s been NINE years since we said “I DO”. Have you ever read our “Wedding Story” ?  Well, why not? :)

It’s been a quick nine years.

It’s been an AMAZING nine years.

It’s been a fun nine years.

We’ve had 3 children in nine years.

We’ve lost 2 parents in nine years. (one each)

We’ve lived in 3 different places in nine years.

Between the 2 of us we have driven 6 different cars in nine years (Miata, Xterra, G20, Sentra, Quest, & M3).

Charlie has worked at 3 different places in nine years.

 

Here we were NINE years ago.

2002

and ….

Here we are today. (well a few weeks ago)

 

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