What a Way to End January

I had just sat down after getting my exercise in,
and started downloading a Beth Moore audio session for the current study I'm doing,
because I missed Bible study yesterday because...
these little guys weren't doing well.

Riley, the crab, wasn't acting normal,
and Tanner Riley wasn't handling the possibility of death too well.

As I was watching the green bar move, waiting to get the audio file downloaded,
the phone rang.

Jeff was on a bike ride with the kids.
I guess the plans were to stop by the dirt hills and let the boys do a few jumps,
ride to the park and let the kids play,
while Jeff reviews his message for Sunday,
eat a little snack
and then head back home.

They got to the dirt hills,
but no jumps were made.

From my understanding, Kaylie was off of her bike,
and somehow tripped,
(possibly on her RED cowgirl boots that are 4 sizes too big)
and then somehow the handle bar,
with the rubber part pushed back and the metal exposed,
came in contact with her face, right under her eye.

Jeff didn't see it.
A passer-by, who was walking her dog,
(which could be a reason Kaylie was getting up and maybe moving to fast...
you know her fascination with dogs!)
was coming up and saw what happened.

This lady, Bonnie, just happened to have moved here this past month,
and just happened to be a nurse.
She immediately put pressure on Kaylie's eye,
that was bleeding profusely,
and said she needed to get somewhere quick and get stitches.

That is where the phone call came in.
I had to change clothes,
grab things she may need, ie paper towels, ice pack, etc.,
plus things I may need, ie phone charger, book, make-up,

thought about my camera but didn't and later kicked myself for not.
(My plans were to stay around the house today, so no make-up, no fixed hair, bed-head in a clip, with sweats.)

Out the door I rushed to head down to the end of the bike trail by our house.
As I was pulling up, Landon was waiting, and Jeff carrying Kaylie,
Bonnie walking her dog and pushing Jeff's bike,
and the other two boys came around the corner.

Kaylie was thrown gently placed in the van,

and off I was to head to The Children's Hospital's urgent care.

We ended up with THREE stitches.

Kaylie gets to wear them,

but the rest of us were right there with her the whole time.

(1) The yellow around her eye is not bruising, it's from an eye drop that helps to see if there is any damage on the eyeball.

(2) Kaylie "icing" her eye to keep the swelling down.

(3) Her sparkly band-aid she received at TCH,

and the leftovers of her treat for doing so good, around her mouth.

Praise God...

there was no eye damage or bone damage,

that a nurse was right there,

for the kindness of another passer-by

who gave a handkerchief to apply pressure with on her eye rather then a thumb.

A Stone or Not a Stone

Last night I had an unexpected experience.

I woke up at 2:10, needing to go to the bathroom,

and when I laid back down I noticed my back was hurting,

and then my right side started hurting.

It started getting worse and then radiating into my back.

My first thought was, "Is it appendicitis?"

I got up to see if the pain would get some relief,

and that is when I noticed that it felt like a charlie horse in my back.

After starting to feel nauseous and having a hard time taking a full breath,

I woke up Jeff.

Tears soon followed, with "I don't know what to do!"

Kidney stones soon became a likely hood of what I was feeling.

Jeff thought we should go in,

so do we wake up the kids at 2:30 am and drag them with us,

or do we call somebody.

(This is the biggest downfall to being in Colorado, with no family around.)

Jeff called our friend Kevin, because he seemed like the most logical choice.

He works through the night many nights and

his wife was more then likely having to show up at work in the morning.

Marty answered Kevin's phone, but soon woke up Kevin and

I'm sure he hopped right out of bed and got ready to come over.

We headed to a hospital ER and we got right in.

From the get-go they thought it was a kidney stone also.

The CT scan soon showed we were all right.

We arrived back home around 5:30,

with kids still in bed and Kevin sleeping on the couch.

A HUGE thanks to Kevin for being such a friend,

to sacrifice his sleep to come to our house so our kids could sleep.

This morning, I woke up to a straightened living room and this sign:

A Year To Remember

(Taken June 22,2009, right before surgery)

A year ago today,
was the beginning of a summer we will never forget.

My parents' trip out to watch our kids while we went to a homeschool convention,
turned into a 6 week stay. (Bouncing between the VA hospital and our house.)

The night of June 16, 2009 was when we spent all night in an ER
and finding out that dad had a mild heart attack,
which then followed with finding out he needed open heart surgery.

The weeks then followed with a few complications:

~the night after surgery his blood pressure was dropping dangerously low.
I remember clearly walking into SICU throughout the night to check on him.
He was trying to communicate but couldn't because of the ventilator.
I had the feeling of complete helplessness.
~a wound that needed a wound vac, and in-home nursing visits
~a blood clot in the lung, that required another week in the hospital
~having such thin blood,
because they were trying to regulate his blood thinner from the clot,
that we had to make another trip to the ER

A year later,
dad is doing well.

~He lost some weight.
~He is exercising throughout the week.
~He is on the go.
He used to drive us and sit in the car, now he is out shopping with us,
helping my sisters wash cars,
and doing other things like that.
~His attitude towards life and others is just a little better.

A couple of weeks ago was the first visit back to Colorado since the whole ordeal started.
Dad had some trepidation with coming
and I know the memories came flashing back as soon as he arrived.
As the week went on, I could tell that dad was becoming more relaxed.
Hopefully is won't be a whole year before they visit again.

(These were taken June 5, 2010 right before they headed back home.)

A Trip to Urgent Care

I shared about my "get-away" here, and I ended up getting home 1 1/2 hours earlier than planned.

I was exhausted!

Tuesday (April 20), prior to the trip, I noticed that Tanner's left calf was smaller than his right. I took note, but didn't dwell on it.

Wednesday (April 21), while sitting in life group, I noticed that Tanner was limping and it looked like his left leg might actually be shorter than his right. Because Tanner is sensitive/fearful of his health I was very cautious of not bringing attention to it, but I whispered to Jeff to kind of look and watch as Tanner was going about his business.

Thursday (April 22), Jeff used a cord to "measure" Tanner's calves and he estimated that his left calf was 1/2"-1" smaller around. I decided to call and set up an appointment on Monday. Jeff was hesitant but I then brought up the fact that both of his sisters had problems with their hips when they were kids.

Jeff then decided to do some investigating. He called his mom and both of his sisters to find out the "whole" story. They had S.C.F.E. (pronounced skiffy), and it stands for Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis. This is what we were looking for.

When I got home on Saturday (April 24), Jeff was sharing about how he about "freaked out", or "died" every time that Tanner would jump off of his bed, the top bunk, or when he'd run down the stairs, or wrestle with his brothers, etc. Me, being the ever calm, never fearing, person that I am (Ha! Ha!), reassured him that Tanner is fine, and that he's been limping for several days and he'll be OK.

I then came down to the computer and looked at the links that Jeff found on SCFE. I marched right back upstairs, and suggested we take him to urgent care to get some x-rays. After some debate, we decided that we were going to go ahead and do that.

We called around to find someone who could stay with the other kids, which Kevin and Marty (LOVE THEM!) were so kind to come over and stay here, which they were also beat from the weekend.

We got left around 7:30pm, sat in the lobby for an hour, set in the back room for quite some time, and then finally got some x-rays. They came back with no signs of SCFE, which is good! but the dr. said he needed to see an orthopedic dr. We finally got home about 11:45.

Monday (April 26), I already had a babysitter lined up for Tanner's appointment I set up with the pediatrician, but we decided there was no need to take him there since we were going to take him to an orthopedic dr. I prayed for God's favor, that we may get into the specialist that day, so we could take the other kids to the sitter, and so we wouldn't have to wait. My prayers were answered and we had an appointment set for 2:15.

I then got a call around noon from Children's Hospital, asking if we changed insurances. After a phone call on their part and a phone call on my part, we were informed that our health insurance had lapsed on April 1. That was a shock!

So the appointment was canceled, and we are still in the process of trying to figure things out. We are just praying for healing of Tanner's leg and we are keeping an eye on it.

Lucky for Tanner, I did have my camera, so I did get some shots of our evening at urgent care.

Praying...

For those not on Facebook...

Our brother-in-law (who is married to Jeff's older sister Jeanette) is in ICU and not doing well. If you read yesterday's post you saw he code blue'd. He has ended up doing it again, Jeff says 3 times total.

The doctor says his heart is very weak and he won't recover. The dr. says Justin has maybe two days. Jeanette's faith is in God, not the doctors.

We are praying for them both. I wish we could be there, to be a support to Jeanette, but it's just not possible at this time.

Some background info...

Justin is 22 years older then Jeanette, and Jeanette is 8 years older then Jeff. That makes Justin 65, which his birthday is January 30th and he will be 66. (I believe that's right.?.)

My Year- May~Aug.

May- the flowers are here.



Flowers are bloomin' and fruit's a growin'.

The garden is growing.

A Day to recognize I have great kids!

Landon gets to play baseball.

We visited Wyoming.

June- A reminder that things can change quickly.



Kaylie said farewell to training wheels.

We had "unusal" weather.

Mom and dad come down for a visit to watch the kids.

A "visit" to the hospital for some heart fixin'.

Family time.

July- Living day by day.

A room for company.

Celebrated Freedom with friends.

Tanner breaks his arm again.

Mom's birthday.

Kaylie turns 5!

August- A time of rejuvenation.

Rewards!

A week away from stress and technology, at the cabin!

Enjoying the end of summer.

We celebrated 15 years of marriage.

Today Dad was admitted to the VA hospital in Wichita. He's been having trouble breathing ever since the blood clot. On July 27, the last dr. visit here in Denver, the surgeon said his left lung wasn't as open as it should be and dad needed to keep doing his breathing exercises and keep an eye on it.

Last week when they went to see his Primary Care Physician, she didn't like the sound of his left lung either. The blood clot was in the right lung. So she set up an appointment to get x-rays done but that would be another 3 weeks so she said that they could go to the ER in Wichita.

Today they went to Wichita because they had other tests to run and had the wound care people to see. So they stopped in at the ER and had x-rays taken. I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly happened, but they had left and was doing something else when they got a phone call that they needed to come back to the ER because they needed to drain the fluid. The dr. said it could be fluid, blood, or cancer, but she didn't think it was cancer because it wasn't there before (here in Denver.)

Dad got a CT scan and another set of x-rays. The CT scan showed that the left lung and between the lungs is filled with some kind of fluid, maybe blood, but there was no obstruction, which I'm guessing means cancer. They decided they weren't going to drain the fluid today so they admitted him to observe him through the night and then they'll drain the fluid tomorrow. Dad was NOT happy about this change of events, but who would be?

Us starting "school" was also delayed another day. The kids are excited to start. I am very tired and a little nauseous from this UTI/kidney infection so I wasn't up to it. But because of their excitement how could I NOT take advantage of this yearning to learn. So I did do a little math with Kaylie and then I get on the computer to show Preston how his Switched on Schoolhouse program has changed this year. It wouldn't let me on. I kept getting this error message and it said to call tech support and that is just what I did. After being on the phone for 2 1/2 HOURS they finally got it resolved and it was time for lunch. While on hold, I was able to do some "school" with Landon also. We also got out "new to us" Leap Frog learning books and they spent the whole morning reading and playing on them.

As it is said, "Tomorrow is another day!"

July 28 - A Typical VA Trip

After dad was released from the hospital, after his blood clot, he had to go to the VA to get lab work done and for doctor appointments almost everyday. The first day mom just took dad and I stayed home with the kids. It ended up being very stressful for mom so I offered to go along and help. From then on we, mom, dad, the kids and I, would load up into our van and we would start our 30 minute drive to the VA.

There were two different ways on how we handle things, if dad had an appointment to see a dr. or we knew it would be several hours. We'd go the the parking garage. Mom would go and find a wheel chair while the kids and I sat with dad and I then would go and park the van. (It usually was pretty busy and it could be hard to find a parking spot in the garage.)

If it was just for lab work to get dad's INR checked, we would pull up to the front door.

Mom would then go in and find a wheel chair. Dad would get unloaded with his oxygen and his wound VAC, which could really turn into quite an ordeal trying to keep all the hoses untangled.

Shhh...don't tell dad he's on here.

I then would drive to a little spot a block over and I would park and the kids would get out to play. Then mom would call me when they were done and I'd go pick them back up. We really got the system down by the end of the visit.