Oct 19, 2002 UNSTOPPABLE...

[Denine]

Julie: I am so sorry about your dad. How is he handling it? How is your mom doing? I know this has been a possibility for a while now. Too bad it had to come to it. Keeping you and your parents in my prayers.

Susan: Good luck today with your dad!

Barb: Have fun at the soccer game!

Heidi: Glad you got to go home early!

Another pretty day today.

Tomorrow morning Kaleigh and I have doctor appointments. I need new asthma prescriptions and Kaleigh has her well child check-up. I do need to persuade the doctor to give Kaleigh more antibiotics for her tonsils.

Doing the single digit Disney dance!

 

[Schrolls]

Julie - I have been thinking about you and your Dad all day. I hope the surgery went well. I know this has been a herd day for you.

My Dad's appt. was only so-so. His white blood count was up so he got a flu shot today. His hemoglobin is down to 8.0 again. They are going to check it again on Thursday and if it drops more he will go get a blood transfusion Thursday or Friday. They put him on a low dose of prednisone as well today. That's it for now.

Paul left at noon today to go to Maryland for work. His mom had her 2nd hip replacment yesterday and it went well. When Paul was around Richmond, VA he got a call that his mom had had a small heart attack at the hospital so he turned around and is heading to Myrtle Beach. He should get there around midnight. His sister just called and told me they took her down for a heart cath and we should know more about next steps later tonight.

When it rains it pours!!!

I don't dare say what else can happen because I'm afraid it might. Everyone hug their loved ones tight, say a prayer for each other and we'll see what we have to face next.

I am still so glad I have you, my friends.

Love you all!!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Susan - Oh my gosh, they saying is so true that when it rains it pours. I am sorry you are going through all of this stress. I am keeping you all in my prayers. Many hugs and positive thoughs your way.

Julie - how is your dad doing? I hope the surgery went well.

My mom really enjoyed the Baths in Tortola yesterday. They keep reapplying sunscreen but I guess they keep getting burned. Luckily they have rash guards and that helps. They got in late from their excursion and ate dinner at Topsiders. Ernan was up there and gave them wine on the house. They are really enjoying Ernan as much as Julie and I did! Sounds like they are having the time of their life.

 

[Denine]

Julie: How is your dad doing?

Susan: Hope your dads hct doesn't go down anymore. At least his WBC's were up! Pixie dust to your MIL.

Heidi: Ernan was too busy with Julie and Garry to give us the same service. Nice that he brought your parents wine on the house!

Back from our doctor appointments. I got Kaleigh more antibiotics for her tonsils. The doctor wants a second opinion from a pediatric ENT. Her tonsils have been swollen pretty much since early July. They go down and go up. Kaleigh is in the 75th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. Must be nice, tall and skinny!

 

[wildernessgirl]

Heidi: Ernan was too busy with Julie and Garry to give us the same service.

Come on Denine, he brought you a drink. LOL!!! Of course you were sitting with us.... LOL!!!!

Well, my dad's foot was taken off from the upper ankle down. They left it open to get all the infection out. He was doing OK last night, but this morning he was very hard to get up and lethargic so they have moved him up to Cardiac ICU to monitor him. He is SUPPOSE to have the longer more involved surgery on friday to close and reform the leg but... so we shall see.

Gotta run. I will keep you posted ....

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Julie -I am keeping your dad in my prayers. I wish I could give you a big hug. I hope you are doing okay.

Oh my gosh, I got back from lunch and had a missed call....It was my Mom!!!! I was so excited to talk to her! They are in St. Thomas now and having a great time.

 

[Mickey02]

Good Afternoon

Never did get a chance to finish my post yesterday. Glad Sandy is having fun.

Tonight is soccer. Pretty cloudy out right now.

 

[Schrolls]

Julie - Keeping your dad in my prayers. At least in ICU they get more personal care and attention. Hope the next round goes well and he begins his recovery soon.

Denine - Sounds like those tonsils may need to eventually come out. Glad you got another antibiotic.

Heidi - I'm glad you got to talk to you mom. Sound like they are having a great time. We miss them.

Barb - I'm glad you aren't working OT and missing soccer. I know you'll enjoy that and so will Ethan!

OK. Now my update.

Paul's mom has a lot of blockages but is not stable enough to do bypass. They inserted a balloon pump for now. They are going to keep her in ICU, try to get her stable, work on recovering from the hip replacement, treat the heart with meds and then hopefully she will be in better shape for surgery in a few weeks. To quote the doctor "doing surgery now would be disastrous". Paul says his mom does not look like herself and is extremely disoriented. I wish I could be there with them.

My dad gets his blood checked again in the morning. Keeping my fingers crossed the count is not lower.

Turner's school has a major flu outbreak but they aren't closing the school. His allergies are bothering him (at least, I hop that is all it is). If he gets a fever he has to stay home. It has hit other high schools too. Half if his hockey team was not at practice last night and everyone is talking about how the flu is going around at their schools.

Oh well. Enough from me for now. Gotta take Turner to hockey practice. If I can get a wireless connection, I'll check back in and do a little farming too.

Love you guys.

Prayers and pixie dust to all my friends and their loved ones!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Susan - I pray his mom has a speedy recovery and the doctors are able to do what they need to do. I hope Paul is doing okay, I know it must be hard for you not to be there with him. You have so much going on in your lives right now. Too much stress. Keeping your dad in my prayers also, I hope his count isn't lower. The flu has started to hit the girls school as well. The family they babysit for all came down with the H1N1 flu and I was praying that they wouldn't pass it off to us this weekend. Hang in there, we love you.

Julie - How is your dad doing today? How are you doing?

Denine - Kaleigh is a lucky girl being so tall and skinny. I have always had large tonsils. My dentist always comments on them, even from when I was a kid. He is shocked they have never suggested taking my tonsils out with how big they are.

Barb - How was the soccer game? I bet they are so adorable to watch. Does Ethan chase after the ball? Little kids and soccer is so cute to me to watch!

 

[Mickey02]

Good Morning

off the phone for a few minutes. calls are coming in back to back and I have a zillion messages to take care of. Overtime again tonight then off to Villa for water aerobics. Bob is also working overtime right now. Tuesday Missy was going to meet me at Villa with Ethan since Bob was working and not going. I am working overtime until 5:30 and water aerobics starts at 6:00. I got a call at 5:26 and I knew it was a long one. I put my caller on hold and called out to Missy to let her know not to drop Ethan off. She was already on her way. When she told him I could not go he cried all the way home I knew he loved going to Villa but had no idea it meant that much to him. He goes there 2 to 3 times EVERY week! Last night he told me not to talk to customers so I could go to Villa today. Guess I will stop taking calls earlier today I have been told!

Julie & Susan- Hope your Dads & Mom are doing better.

Denine- I am sure I have missed your updates but how is Jazzy? Hope better.
Bet Kaleigh is getting SUPER excited for Disney.

Heidi-Hope things are good with you. I was bummed to hear Alaska. I have NO desire to go there. Hear it looks like Colorado but COLDER. Not my idea of a cruise! I really am unhappy to hear the new ship is taking the 3 & 4 day cruises

Hope everyone has a great day. I will try and get on this weekend!

 

[Denine]

Come on Denine, he brought you a drink. LOL!!! Of course you were sitting with us.... LOL!!!!

Well, my dad's foot was taken off from the upper ankle down. They left it open to get all the infection out. He was doing OK last night, but this morning he was very hard to get up and lethargic so they have moved him up to Cardiac ICU to monitor him. He is SUPPOSE to have the longer more involved surgery on friday to close and reform the leg but... so we shall see.

Gotta run. I will keep you posted ....

He loved you guys. We were just sort of there! "Oh, you want a drink too?" LOL!

I haven't had time to call you, but please let me know if there is something you need.

 

[Denine]

Susan: Becoming disoriented in the ICU is not uncommon, especially for older folk. There is so much going on ALL the time. Hope Turner does not get the flu!

Heidi: That is the thing, Kaleigh has never had large tonsils until she got sick. I think her doctor thinks they should come out, but the ENT we went to said he had no intention of removing them. The whole 5 or 6 times in 1 year thing. I would agree with that, but she doesn't have strep and they haven't gone back to normal size, so this is becoming chronic. I hope the Augmentin works.
I requested an apoointment with a pediatric ENT at University Hospitals. They have an office near us in Westlake. There are only 2, so hopefully we can get her into one of them when we get back from our trip.

We need to find out how to take Kaleigh's med with us on the plane and keep it cold.

I got a tetanus booster last night. I was going to do it at the doctor and I even mentioned it, but then we both forgot.

1 week form today we will be in WDW! We are going to Rainforest at 3PM that day. Kaleigh's request. We will going to the princess breakfast at Epcot on Friday, Kaleigh's birthday.
I will have my laptop with me, but no farming will be done.

 

[Denine]

I just got off the phone with Julie. Her dad is not doing well. He has MRSA in his respiratory system as well as the leg and who know where else. He is confused as well. She doesn't know if they will be doing the surgery tomorrow or not. Her dad is in the ICU, not the CCU.
Please continue to keep them all in your prayers.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Denine - thanks for the update. Doesn't sound good. Keeping them in my prayers.

 

[Denine]

Forgot to mention that the confusion is as of yesterday morning. They did a CAT scan and found that he has had a stroke, probably 6 months ago or so.

I have to work tomorrow and I have a meeting after work.

Julie said she would keep me posted and I will keep you posted.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Denine - Have a good day at work, thanks for keeping us updated.

TGIF!!!! I wish I was with my parents today, relaxing at CC!

The weather next week is predicting a chance for SNOW on Monday morning. The high is suppose to be 58, yikes I am not ready for the snow yet!

 

[Denine]

OMG Heidi, don't even mention that dirty word. It is supposed to be 69 tomorrow but 80 on Monday here.

Haven't heard anything from Julie today.

Susan: How is your dad?

I am officially on vacation from work for the next 3 Fridays; 2 for vacation, 1 to get ready for Kaleigh's birthday party which is the Saturday after we get home.

Hi everyone!

 

[Denine]

An early welcome home to Ted & Sandy!

Doing a bunch of stuff this weekend to get ready for vacation.

If Julie doesn't call me today, I will call her.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Thanks for the welcome home Denine.

Gosh, I hated reading the thread. So many sad things going on here.

Julie, I can't say enough to say how sorry I am. You and all of the family are in our prayers. Bless his heart.

Susan, I am sorry to hear how much you have on your plate right now. It is so hard with one parent let alone going through major things with TWO parents. Ted and I have done it so if you need to talk, call me!

If it makes you guys feel any better Denine is soooooo right. It isn't uncommon for the older people to get disoriented in ICU. Wow, my dad and Ted's dad were bad. They said some crazy things! Tried to leave etc. They will get better!

Denine, I agree with Susan. I bet they take out Kaleigh's tonsils.

Barb, we need to see new pictures of Kara and Ethan!

The cruise was fantastic. Ernan is the most attentive person I have ever encountered on a cruise. We had Katerina and Savio as servers. Our stateroom host was Aldo. We pretty much only got our bed made daily. We had our drink glasses replaced about every three days. He had a surprise inspection by an officer in OUR room that we walked in on. He was going on his 8 week vacation after our cruise. I was SHOCKED how many cast members, crew members would walk up to us and remember us. These are people that we have never had before. It was shocking but honestly, fun, to be recognized like that. Even one officer approached us and talked quite awhile to us whenever he would see us.

Tortola was by far one of our favorite ports ever. The Baths in Virga Gorda was spectacular and snorkeling around and through was an awesome experience. The tour was through a private company. We had 21 DCL cruisers on the catamaran. It was like a private tour. We paid for half a day and got a full day. So glad they gave that to us as half day would not come close to being enough time to explore.

Hugs to all of you going through what you are. You remain in my prayers.

 

[Schrolls]

WELCOME HOME Ted Sandy. So gald yuou had a great cruise. We missed you so much and we all wish we could have been there too.

Thanks for the offer of support. The weekend was a big help it just wasn't long enough. Also, Paul came home last night for at least a few days. His sisters are with his parents now. His mom's hip is healing very nicley and she is much more stable. They did take the balloon pump out for now and they are trying to control her as much as possible with meds. Still no talk of when she could have the by-pass surgery. She sundowns bad in the evening but even during the day she is still talking as iff she was back in the 60s and 70s.

My dad has been feeling a lot better as far as pain goes. He is very tired. He will get his shot of Aranesp on Wednesday. Hopefully, he'll get a boost from that.

Thanks to everyone for you thoughts and prayers. You guys are the best.

Does anyone have an update on Julie's dad? I hope he has improved some. to Julie!

I'm supposed to go to Disney on Sunday with my best friend. She knows at the last minute I may have to cancel but Paul really wants me to still go and get a break from reality! I am hopeful that I can go and meet up with Denine too.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Love ya