Sunday, December 2, 2007
Halloween 2007
We took Kyle out for Halloween this year. He was a caterpillar. Hannah was a superhero. Here's some pics....
Lots of Updates
The car we got from my classmate worked well for a month or two and then quit out on us. We thought we'd just have to go back to how things were (me dropping Chris off at work each morning before going to school and him taking the bus home) but then a couple with a child in therapy with Kyle offered us a '97 Honda Accord for free. The Honda has been a real blessing. Right now it's having electrical problems but we're getting them fixed for a whole lot less than it would have cost for an entire car and we should have it back middle of this week. The Kia has also been a bit temperamental. There was a problem with the heating core but Chris and Steve Eloshway fixed it.
I'm still pregnant, of course. We had a bit of trouble getting on the medicaid for pregnant women but we've finally got it so I'm seeing Dr. Igel for my prenatal care. Last Tuesday, they did a comprehensive ultrasound including fetal echo. This is the second ultrasound. At the first ultrasound they ruled out twins and adjusted the due date to April 22nd, 2008. From the recent ultrasound, it looks like a girl (from the butt shot she gave them). Her first name will be Audrey. We're still debating about the middle name. Everything is going really well. They plan to schedule me for C-section a week before the due date (April 15, 2008).
School's still going well. Other than one B in Cardiac Pathology II, I've been maintaining all A's. We started our integrated clinicals which means I'm going to a clinical site once a week to observe and assist an actual tech. I am with a mobile tech who goes to several different sites during the week to do echos as well as general ultrasound. Who knows? Maybe when I'm settled in this career, I might cross-train for general. Six month full externship is supposed to start March 4th, but because of the baby, I'll be starting full externship after I recover from the C-section. Then six more months and I can graduate. I'm hoping to be able to extern at a pediatric cardiologist for my full externship since that's the specialty I want to be in.
We are still planning the Christmas party for this year. It will be December 22nd in the clubhouse here. We're just working out the details for the invites. As always, all are invited.
Hannah's been growing quickly and learning a lot. Kyle still gets his feedings from a tube. He's quite stubborn in that department. He's in speech/feeding therapy for that. He is able to roll over and stay sitting up if sat up by someone else. He's still not crawling, but we're working on it with physical and occupational therapy. It's all more about sensory input than physical capability. He can't take much sensory input. If there's a loud sudden noise by him, he screams worse than if he's hurt. He's learning new words every day though. He claps and says "clap" or "yea". He says Hannah, Mommy, Dadda, Nana, tickle, go, open, baby, Kyle, no, nap, nite-nite, hello ("ello"), etc. Cutest things so far is when he moves his fingers on you and says "tickle, tickle, tickle" and when he picks up a phone (real or fake), holds it up to his ear and says "ello".
I'm still pregnant, of course. We had a bit of trouble getting on the medicaid for pregnant women but we've finally got it so I'm seeing Dr. Igel for my prenatal care. Last Tuesday, they did a comprehensive ultrasound including fetal echo. This is the second ultrasound. At the first ultrasound they ruled out twins and adjusted the due date to April 22nd, 2008. From the recent ultrasound, it looks like a girl (from the butt shot she gave them). Her first name will be Audrey. We're still debating about the middle name. Everything is going really well. They plan to schedule me for C-section a week before the due date (April 15, 2008).
School's still going well. Other than one B in Cardiac Pathology II, I've been maintaining all A's. We started our integrated clinicals which means I'm going to a clinical site once a week to observe and assist an actual tech. I am with a mobile tech who goes to several different sites during the week to do echos as well as general ultrasound. Who knows? Maybe when I'm settled in this career, I might cross-train for general. Six month full externship is supposed to start March 4th, but because of the baby, I'll be starting full externship after I recover from the C-section. Then six more months and I can graduate. I'm hoping to be able to extern at a pediatric cardiologist for my full externship since that's the specialty I want to be in.
We are still planning the Christmas party for this year. It will be December 22nd in the clubhouse here. We're just working out the details for the invites. As always, all are invited.
Hannah's been growing quickly and learning a lot. Kyle still gets his feedings from a tube. He's quite stubborn in that department. He's in speech/feeding therapy for that. He is able to roll over and stay sitting up if sat up by someone else. He's still not crawling, but we're working on it with physical and occupational therapy. It's all more about sensory input than physical capability. He can't take much sensory input. If there's a loud sudden noise by him, he screams worse than if he's hurt. He's learning new words every day though. He claps and says "clap" or "yea". He says Hannah, Mommy, Dadda, Nana, tickle, go, open, baby, Kyle, no, nap, nite-nite, hello ("ello"), etc. Cutest things so far is when he moves his fingers on you and says "tickle, tickle, tickle" and when he picks up a phone (real or fake), holds it up to his ear and says "ello".
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Car Blessings
The few days after the car died were interesting. Chris and I both woke up an hour early so that I could drive him to work in downtown Clearwater and then drive myself to Tampa. This got Chris to work a full hour before he had to be and at the end of the day his boss was giving him a ride home from work so he had to stay a little late to wait for her.
Then Thursday came. My classmate Scott asked me if we had resolved our transportation issue and I told him how we were managing it. He told me he had a car that he would like to GIVE me! I felt completely stunned. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Sure enough, we made arrangements for Saturday to go to Naples to pick up the car. His reasoning for giving me the car was that it was a "karma thing" and he was just "God's mule". Saturday morning, Jenn joined me and Scott for a road trip. (Naples is officially the farthest south I've ever been.) We drove out to Naples and picked up the 1988 Cadillac Fleetwood. It was a little tempermental to start out since it hadn't been driven but once in a full year. But once the dust shook off the engine, it proved to be a real sturdy, reliable car.
We are so blessed to have people in our life like Scott who see a need and fill it. Many people would have tried to get some money for such a good car, but he just wanted it to go to someone who needed it.
Then Thursday came. My classmate Scott asked me if we had resolved our transportation issue and I told him how we were managing it. He told me he had a car that he would like to GIVE me! I felt completely stunned. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Sure enough, we made arrangements for Saturday to go to Naples to pick up the car. His reasoning for giving me the car was that it was a "karma thing" and he was just "God's mule". Saturday morning, Jenn joined me and Scott for a road trip. (Naples is officially the farthest south I've ever been.) We drove out to Naples and picked up the 1988 Cadillac Fleetwood. It was a little tempermental to start out since it hadn't been driven but once in a full year. But once the dust shook off the engine, it proved to be a real sturdy, reliable car.
We are so blessed to have people in our life like Scott who see a need and fill it. Many people would have tried to get some money for such a good car, but he just wanted it to go to someone who needed it.
One's on the way!
This could have easily gone under the drama post, too, but I thought it should get a post all its own.
Being two weeks late, I decided to take a pregnancy test just to be sure. I didn't think it would actually be positive. I picked up the cheapy off brand test from the store. After taking the test, I could see a faint line where there shouldn't have been but I thought, maybe it's just too cheap to give a clear negative. So I had Chris pick up the newest, most advanced pregnancy test -the new digital kind (As the commercial says, "it's the most advanced piece of technology... you will ever pee on"). There was not even a hint of "not" on the results. It was a clear, definitive "PREGNANT".
Needless to say, we're terrified.
I called around yesterday about getting an official pregnancy test so that I could get a note verifying the pregnancy for Medicaid and WIC. This is how I found out that the Pregnancy Center across the street from me with the big green sign saying "Free Pregnancy Tests" is actually a branch of the Pinellas County Pregnancy Center that I do the Walk-4-Life for every year. I had thought it was an abortion clinic because when I looked up pregnancy centers in my zip code, it came up with an abortion clinic across the street. There is an abortion clinic... It's behind the Pregnancy Center.
So I was able to get a free pregnancy test with a letter of confirmation to bring to Medicaid and WIC. My due date is estimated at March 28, 2008. My sister is pulling for March 31st (her birthday). I'm just pulling for a nine-month pregnancy! I've got to admit, I also would like a girl. It's so much easier for me to come up with girl names than boy names. I had a tough time coming up with four (Kyle, Robert, Frederic, & Dean) and now I'm all out of boy names.
Drama
Well, when I named Kyle I knew that "handsome, bright fame" would be the perfect meaning of his name. I could tell he was going to be a drama king.
Thursday night, my mom called me in a panic just as I was getting off work at 7:00pm. Kyle had yanked on his feeding tube and finally succeeded in pulling out the Mic-Key button (the part that is actually inserted into the stomach). I told my mom it wasn't that big of a deal. The nurses had all told us that it was likely to happen. They had explained that if the "peg" came out, we needed to get to the closest emergency room within an hour to be sure they could put in a new peg before the hole sealed up but as long as there was not a lot of blood, not to worry.
So Mom packed up the kids and headed to the Countryside Mease Hospital Emergency Room. I managed to get there just a couple of minutes after they did and Chris arrived a couple of minutes after that. But we waited another half hour before they called Kyle back.
I was seriously disappointed in the emergency room at this hospital. Maybe I've just been spoiled by All Children's Hospital but when we're brought into a patient room, I expect a hospital bed. I do NOT expect to see bloody gauze on the floor! We had a couple of nurses come in, each asking why he was on a feeding tube in the first place and who seemed to be confused by the whole concept of a Mic-Key button. One even asked if he pulled it out of his nose. I explained that it was not a NASOgastric tube.
After nearly three hours in the room without seeing an actual doctor and with nurses saying that they didn't know if even their pediatric floor had Mic-Key buttons, I was pushed to my limit. I called Kyle's pediatric gastroenterologist's on-call doctor. The timing was great. Just as the doctor finally came in, I was talking on the phone with the nurse practitioner from GI. She told me that what they had to do was to put in a foley catheter to hold the hole open and to use as a feeding tube for that night and I would need to go in to have the hole dilated the next day to put in another Mic-Key button. I handed the phone over to the doctor so they could repeat what they had told me. He was saying how hesitant he was to put in the foley since this wasn't something they were accustomed to doing and he was concerned that damage may have been done when the button was pulled out but the GI nurse practioner explained the process.
So, three hours after the button was pulled out, they finally brought in a foley catheter to put in its place. The doctor first tried the 14 french size (the size of the mic-key button) catheter but it was too big. The doctor commented that the hole was really small and I muttered that it was much wider when we got there. He finally was able to get the 12 french size catheter in. He insisted on putting some dye through the catheter and taking an X-ray to make sure the hole was still good and it wouldn't leak into the abdomen. Kyle was not amused. Dye does not rest easy on the stomach.
The X-ray techs were all impressed by how calm he was and how still he lay there while they took the X-rays. It was nothing new for him.
Yesterday morning I called the GI's office to see about bringing Kyle in for having the mic-key button put back in but I got a very different story about what to do. First, they told me that we had to order a new Mic-Key button and wait for it to come in the mail. Then, they said that since the doctor put in a 12-french catheter instead of 14-french, that we'd have to wiggle the catheter around twice a day for a week to dilate the hole before they could put in the new button. I do not feel comfortable going a week with this tiny foley catheter. There's really nothing to hold it in place (except for the ton of tape I have in place) and I'm worried that he'll pull this out too. One thing's for sure... If he does pull it out again, we're going straight to All Children's. The half hour extra drive is worth the extra timely care.
Thursday night, my mom called me in a panic just as I was getting off work at 7:00pm. Kyle had yanked on his feeding tube and finally succeeded in pulling out the Mic-Key button (the part that is actually inserted into the stomach). I told my mom it wasn't that big of a deal. The nurses had all told us that it was likely to happen. They had explained that if the "peg" came out, we needed to get to the closest emergency room within an hour to be sure they could put in a new peg before the hole sealed up but as long as there was not a lot of blood, not to worry.
So Mom packed up the kids and headed to the Countryside Mease Hospital Emergency Room. I managed to get there just a couple of minutes after they did and Chris arrived a couple of minutes after that. But we waited another half hour before they called Kyle back.
I was seriously disappointed in the emergency room at this hospital. Maybe I've just been spoiled by All Children's Hospital but when we're brought into a patient room, I expect a hospital bed. I do NOT expect to see bloody gauze on the floor! We had a couple of nurses come in, each asking why he was on a feeding tube in the first place and who seemed to be confused by the whole concept of a Mic-Key button. One even asked if he pulled it out of his nose. I explained that it was not a NASOgastric tube.
After nearly three hours in the room without seeing an actual doctor and with nurses saying that they didn't know if even their pediatric floor had Mic-Key buttons, I was pushed to my limit. I called Kyle's pediatric gastroenterologist's on-call doctor. The timing was great. Just as the doctor finally came in, I was talking on the phone with the nurse practitioner from GI. She told me that what they had to do was to put in a foley catheter to hold the hole open and to use as a feeding tube for that night and I would need to go in to have the hole dilated the next day to put in another Mic-Key button. I handed the phone over to the doctor so they could repeat what they had told me. He was saying how hesitant he was to put in the foley since this wasn't something they were accustomed to doing and he was concerned that damage may have been done when the button was pulled out but the GI nurse practioner explained the process.
So, three hours after the button was pulled out, they finally brought in a foley catheter to put in its place. The doctor first tried the 14 french size (the size of the mic-key button) catheter but it was too big. The doctor commented that the hole was really small and I muttered that it was much wider when we got there. He finally was able to get the 12 french size catheter in. He insisted on putting some dye through the catheter and taking an X-ray to make sure the hole was still good and it wouldn't leak into the abdomen. Kyle was not amused. Dye does not rest easy on the stomach.
The X-ray techs were all impressed by how calm he was and how still he lay there while they took the X-rays. It was nothing new for him.
Yesterday morning I called the GI's office to see about bringing Kyle in for having the mic-key button put back in but I got a very different story about what to do. First, they told me that we had to order a new Mic-Key button and wait for it to come in the mail. Then, they said that since the doctor put in a 12-french catheter instead of 14-french, that we'd have to wiggle the catheter around twice a day for a week to dilate the hole before they could put in the new button. I do not feel comfortable going a week with this tiny foley catheter. There's really nothing to hold it in place (except for the ton of tape I have in place) and I'm worried that he'll pull this out too. One thing's for sure... If he does pull it out again, we're going straight to All Children's. The half hour extra drive is worth the extra timely care.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
What a day!
Yesterday started out on a heavy note just for being the day after the anniversary of Eric's death. From there, the day just went downhill. First of all, I forgot about a homework assignment that was due that morning. I had stuffed it behind another homework assignment that's due later in the month and I forgot all about it. So when I got to school and a classmate reminded me I tried to quickly complete the assignment but I did not get a chance to finish (or even really get halfway through) before the teacher gathered up the papers and she said that if I didn't hand it in right then, I wouldn't get any credit for it. This irritated me because it wasn't even a hard assignment. If I had had 10 more minutes, I would've had it done. So I was angry with myself that I had forgotten such an easy assignment (especially since I spent so much time during the weekend working on another assignment that's not due until next week).
That was just the beginning. Chris called me a little while later to inform me that the power had been shut off for non-payment. This wasn't surprising since we have been behind on all our bills this month. Chris has been out of work for a week and the check we get from All Children's to reimburse us for Kyle's health insurance each month was very late this month, so things have been pretty tight. We borrowed some money and were able to make the payment needed to turn the power back on but since it took a while, my mom took Hannah and Kyle to her place after Kyle's physical and speech therapy. My dad had been in the hospital during the morning for a procedure that ended in the removal of a small tumor.
Next, I had to call Kyle's pediatrician to get approval for switching him from Neosure formula to Pediasure as the nutritionist had recommended last week. However, they couldn't approve the change without Kyle coming in to see the pediatrician and I needed the approval before Wednesday's WIC appointment so I had to do some schedule juggling.
The real fun happened on the drive home, though. Before leaving school, I finally put a couple quarts of oil in the Civic (something I should have done long ago - the light's been on for a while), but apparently I was too late. There was a horrible rattling noise and just as I was getting on the Courtney Campbell Causeway, the engine died out. I managed to get it to start up again but it barely allowed me to pull to the curb before dying out again. One of the Florida Highway Road Rangers was kind enough to stop and help me try to figure out what was wrong with the car. He said it looked like it was just needing more oil so I called Chris to have him come with oil for the car. The Road Ranger had to be on his way so I waited for Chris to arrive.
When Chris got there, he put a couple more quarts of oil in the car but when we attempted to drive off, the car died out again - but this time, the engine had siezed up. We pushed the Civic(with the Kia) into the boat dock parking lot along the Courtney Campbell and called my dad. As much as we hated to disturb him while he was recovering from the procedure earlier that morning, my parents have roadside assistance on their cell phones that work on other people's cars. My dad, being my dad, didn't hesitate to come to our rescue, despite his own rough day. So Chris and I waited for my dad to arrive so that he could call a tow truck out for us while we got devoured by mosquitos.
During all this, I spoke to my mom and found out that she had grabbed the wrong power cord for Kyle's feeding pump and the battery had run out so Kyle had not gotten any formula since the start of his feeding at 5:00pm. This was around 9:30pm. (Kyle normally gets his overnight feeding from 9:00pm-7:00am.) So on top of everything else, I was feeling like a neglectful mother.
Apparently I was to blame for the death of the Civic, as well (vehicular homicide?). The engine had seized as a result of going too long with too little oil (so... vehicular negligent homicide?).
Then, on the way to meet us, my dad's car started overheating (low on water) so he just barely made it to where we were. I headed out in the Kia to get water for my dad's car from the Ben T Davis beach access water spigot. But, alas, it was past sunset and the beach access was closed so on an almost empty tank, I tried to find a gas station to get water at. Note: Courtney Campbell does NOT have convenient gas stations nearby! I had to head back emptyhanded for lack of enough gas.
Dad and Chris told me to go ahead and drive home to get the power cord and they'd meet me back at Mom and Dad's after dropping the Civic off at my uncle's auto shop. Just as I arrived at home and grabbed the power cord, Chris called me to tell me that between the boat dock and the auto shop, my dad had stopped at the gas station for water and his car has a tendency to autolock the doors at inopportune moments so his keys had been locked IN the car. This left Chris outside the auto shop in the rain and Dad at the gas station. So as soon as I got to my parent's house, I had to drop off the cord quickly (Mom had offered to keep the kids overnight since they were asleep anyway), borrow Mom's keys and run out again to rescue the guys. It seemed only fair since they had each rescued me that night. I picked up Chris at the shop and we dropped off the keys to my dad and managed to make it home after midnight without any more drama.
I kept low profile on my birthday, hoping to avoid a day of catastrophe like last year had been. It looks like it was just delayed a month and a half.
That was just the beginning. Chris called me a little while later to inform me that the power had been shut off for non-payment. This wasn't surprising since we have been behind on all our bills this month. Chris has been out of work for a week and the check we get from All Children's to reimburse us for Kyle's health insurance each month was very late this month, so things have been pretty tight. We borrowed some money and were able to make the payment needed to turn the power back on but since it took a while, my mom took Hannah and Kyle to her place after Kyle's physical and speech therapy. My dad had been in the hospital during the morning for a procedure that ended in the removal of a small tumor.
Next, I had to call Kyle's pediatrician to get approval for switching him from Neosure formula to Pediasure as the nutritionist had recommended last week. However, they couldn't approve the change without Kyle coming in to see the pediatrician and I needed the approval before Wednesday's WIC appointment so I had to do some schedule juggling.
The real fun happened on the drive home, though. Before leaving school, I finally put a couple quarts of oil in the Civic (something I should have done long ago - the light's been on for a while), but apparently I was too late. There was a horrible rattling noise and just as I was getting on the Courtney Campbell Causeway, the engine died out. I managed to get it to start up again but it barely allowed me to pull to the curb before dying out again. One of the Florida Highway Road Rangers was kind enough to stop and help me try to figure out what was wrong with the car. He said it looked like it was just needing more oil so I called Chris to have him come with oil for the car. The Road Ranger had to be on his way so I waited for Chris to arrive.
When Chris got there, he put a couple more quarts of oil in the car but when we attempted to drive off, the car died out again - but this time, the engine had siezed up. We pushed the Civic(with the Kia) into the boat dock parking lot along the Courtney Campbell and called my dad. As much as we hated to disturb him while he was recovering from the procedure earlier that morning, my parents have roadside assistance on their cell phones that work on other people's cars. My dad, being my dad, didn't hesitate to come to our rescue, despite his own rough day. So Chris and I waited for my dad to arrive so that he could call a tow truck out for us while we got devoured by mosquitos.
During all this, I spoke to my mom and found out that she had grabbed the wrong power cord for Kyle's feeding pump and the battery had run out so Kyle had not gotten any formula since the start of his feeding at 5:00pm. This was around 9:30pm. (Kyle normally gets his overnight feeding from 9:00pm-7:00am.) So on top of everything else, I was feeling like a neglectful mother.
Apparently I was to blame for the death of the Civic, as well (vehicular homicide?). The engine had seized as a result of going too long with too little oil (so... vehicular negligent homicide?).
Then, on the way to meet us, my dad's car started overheating (low on water) so he just barely made it to where we were. I headed out in the Kia to get water for my dad's car from the Ben T Davis beach access water spigot. But, alas, it was past sunset and the beach access was closed so on an almost empty tank, I tried to find a gas station to get water at. Note: Courtney Campbell does NOT have convenient gas stations nearby! I had to head back emptyhanded for lack of enough gas.
Dad and Chris told me to go ahead and drive home to get the power cord and they'd meet me back at Mom and Dad's after dropping the Civic off at my uncle's auto shop. Just as I arrived at home and grabbed the power cord, Chris called me to tell me that between the boat dock and the auto shop, my dad had stopped at the gas station for water and his car has a tendency to autolock the doors at inopportune moments so his keys had been locked IN the car. This left Chris outside the auto shop in the rain and Dad at the gas station. So as soon as I got to my parent's house, I had to drop off the cord quickly (Mom had offered to keep the kids overnight since they were asleep anyway), borrow Mom's keys and run out again to rescue the guys. It seemed only fair since they had each rescued me that night. I picked up Chris at the shop and we dropped off the keys to my dad and managed to make it home after midnight without any more drama.
I kept low profile on my birthday, hoping to avoid a day of catastrophe like last year had been. It looks like it was just delayed a month and a half.
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