Neglecting My Family

Well..I have been kinda neglecting my family by updating on LaShae's progress and not letting everyone know what has been going on with us...

Maegen has finished swimming lessons on Friday. She had to miss Thursday because she was sick. Daycare called me about 9:30am and I walked across and picked her up. She had wet her pants..now this is NOT something that is a normal occurence..so about 10am she told me in hurt when she went to the potty so she just stopped it because it hurt sooo bad. I thought she might be chapped from wearing her swimsuit for the last 3 weeks..but..nope...she had blood in her panties..so a trip to the dr. She had a sever kidney infection...(yes she gets that from her mom and nana). To help her go the potty easier they gave her a Rocephin shot and it took 4 of us to hold her down on her tummy to give it to her in her rump. It was NOT fun..but by Friday she was feeling sooo much better. She should finish her antibiotic today (Monday) and hopefully will be all cleared up. I know EXACTLY how painfull those things are !!!

I took D'Nae to basketball team camp yesterday afternoon in Levelland. They had a game at 11:30pm last night !! Can you imagine playing basketball at midnight and then having to get up at 7am to go eat breakfast? YUCK !! She has 5 more games today and of course the last one is at 11pm tonight. Another midnight game..who makes these schedules???

Rhaeden has been going to work with his dad the last week. They have been hauling hay, bailing hay, chasing down parts, building a fence, and building a barn. When they get home at night they are completely starving and exhausted.

GOING HOME !!!!

LaShae is finally going home !!! They have removed the Central Line and are waiting IMpatiently for transport to take her to the truck. YEAH !!!

Not Home..

Well, they did the CT Scan this morning and found 2 abcesses in her abdomen. Oral antibiotics won't touch them so they have to treat them with IV antibiotics. They contacted the Surgeon and decided to do a needle aspiration to drain the abcesses. Mom just called and said the nurse told them they should be doing it in the next couple of hours. They will take her down to Radiology to perform the procedure.

At this point Her spirits are low !!! She is sooo tired of being sick and ready to go home. They thought she would be able to be home today...but...not yet. Will just have to see what tomorrow holds.

Home in Sight

Well, Mom just called me and said that they took the drain tube out this afternoon. YEAH!!! The Infectious Disease Doctor said that they will do the CT Scan on Wednesday instead of Friday and if everything looks good on the CT Scan she MAY get to go home Sometime late Wednesday !!!

Update

I spent a couple of hours with LaShae yesterday and she seems to be recovering very nicely. Her color was a lot better and she is off of the oxygen and IV fluids. She still has the central line because they are still giving her pretty much round the clock antibiotics. Yesterday she got up and walked the whole length of the hall down to the elevator (she is in the last room of the hall.) So, that was good. She still is not eating much...food makes her nauseated and nothing smells good or tastes good but they do not seem to be worried about that at all after what she has been through. She is still in some pain and they are primarily controlling that with a pill. Yesterday she slept about 6 to 7 hours. At lunch she was nauseated so they brought her some phenergan and it knocked her out !!!! The nurse said next time they were only going to give her half !!!

While I was in the hospital I visited with Ruby. She has been in the hospital since the last part of April. They are suppose to be moving her sometime this week out of the hospital and into their sister "special" hospital. The Doctors make rounds over there and they have an ICU and everything. Just basically a Mini-Hospital. I hope she will like it over there. Last night I was there when they brought her food tray so I kinda helped get it to where she could eat. She ate pretty good !! The nurse said she has been eating about 50% of her tray..which is just amazing !!! Mike, the kids, and I went and saw her Friday night and Maegen just drew her pictures and wrote little notes like "Do you have a dog?", "Do you have a cat?", and "The garden looks good?" Ruby seemed to enjoy seeing the kids. She has been in isolation and no one under 14 has been able to go and see her.

Out of ICU !!!

LaShae got to go to a room around 6pm last night and get out of ICU !!! YEAH !!! Hopefully now she can get some rest. I talked to her this morning and she got to take a shower last night and she said she washed her hair like 5 or 6 times !!! I had to laugh. She said the shower was wonderful !!! She also got to try and eat "real" food...not liquids...and NOT chocolate pudding for breakfast...YUCK !!!

The results of the CT scan showed that she still had fluid on her abdomen and they will continue to watch that and make sure it doesn't turn into an abcess. Her white blood cells were elevated yesterday morning so they are doing a culture to see what is going on there. She is still having some trouble with her breathing but it is MUCH better. She is still on oxygen with the nasal cannula. She is also still having pain issues and now that she is not in ICU she has to wait a longer to get her pain meds when she calls for them. I think Mom is having a harder time dealing with that situation..ya know Mom's tend to be a little impatient when their children need something that will help them !!!

She had several visitors last night so the kids and I didn't go up. Maybe we can all go and see her tonight. Funny story...Maegen just couldn't understand why she couldn't go see LaShae when she was in ICU..and I was trying to explain it to a 6 year old that there are just too many really sick people and we didn't want her to get sick and she just wasn't old enough..well her response was with hands on hip: "When I'm 26 can I go see LaShae?" I just had to laugh...26....where in the world did she get that number from?

Update

LaShae didn't have a very good day yesterday. She is still in ICU. The Doctors called in a Pulmonologist because of her lack of breathing and he felt like she just had fluid on her lungs so he ordered Lasix and another X-Ray today so that he could compare the two and see if it is just fluid and if the Lasix was working. They took the X-Ray at 2am this morning. Her blood count was down again yesterday so they ordered another CT scan and 2 units of blood. Still not sure why her blood count is down and trying to figure that part out. They gave her 1 unit of blood yesterday and will give her 1 unit today. They couldn't find a vein yesterday so they had to take her down and get a sub-clavian (Central Line) put in. After they got the sub-clavian in they were able to get her back on her meds. The Lasix seemed to help tremendously. They were able to wean her off of the rebreather oxygen mask to a regular mask and now she is using the nasal cannula. Mom and Dad said that she looked sooo much better last night at 8pm when they got to see her. We still don't have the results of the CT scan but maybe Mom and Dad can find something out when they get to see her at 10am this morning.

I talked to LaShae this morning and she sounded better. Exausted....but her voice sounded better. Her Surgeon had already been in and said he felt like she could get out of ICU and go to a room. They were waiting on the other 2 Doctors to release her to the floor. She is still on the nasal cannula and her oxygen level was at 91. Her heart rate is still elevated but it is better..it is about 110-113...which is way down from 160 !!! Her blood pressure looks good..so HOPEFULLY today is the day that things will turn around !!!

Update on LaShae

Just a quick update on LaShae. Her appendix ruptured the Doctors think sometime Wednesday. She was prepped for surgery around midnight on Saturday and got out of surgery around 2:20 am Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon she was in a room and her heart rate was sky high around 138 and her oxygen levels were 77...so they moved her to Surgical ICU. Visiting hours in ICU are 10am - 12 pm, 4pm - 6pm, and then 8pm - 10pm then no one can see her until 10 am the next morning. So...Mom and Dad have been staying at LaShae's house in Lubbock and visiting her when they can. In ICU they hooked up a pain pump so that she can administer her own pain medicine when needed and she has been on Oxygen the whole time. Mom called the hospital this morning before shift change and spoke to a nurse who was reading from her chart and said that her pulse rate was down to about 110 and her oxygen level was at 90 and that she would be (HOPEFULLY) moved to a room sometime today. Will try to update again when I know something !!

Can you believe its July ???

Well, I just can't believe that it is already nearly the middle of July. So, here is just a quick review of what has been happening in the family:

Maegen started swimming lessons this week. She goes Monday thru Friday for three weeks from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. D'Nae has been taking her lunch from 1 -2 and taking her then I go and pick her up and bring her back to the office. I printed off some Dora the Explorer papers off of the internet one day and it pretty much keeps her occupied.

Rhaeden finished VBS last night. They had the program for the parents to see what they have been doing all week. It is always very cute and entertaining and Rhaeden did just wonderful !!!

LaShae has been sick for the last 2 days and Mom has been up at her house with her taking care of her. Hopefully she will be on the mend today and will get to feeling a little better !!!

D'Nae has been working at Higginbotham-Bartlett. So that pretty much keeps her busy Monday thru Saturday morning. She always has some entertaining stories to tell when she gets home because someone had asked for something and she has NO CLUE as too what they wanted !! Ask her about the "Macaroni noodle looking thing."

Mike has just been steadily working. He still has to go back to Oklahoma but maybe he will stay at home a little longer. He has more than enough work to do here, but I know he NEEDS to go finish the Oklahoma job. Not to mention: but the more he stays here the MORE I find he NEEDS to do around OUR house !!! ha ha

Mikes grandmother, Ruby, is still in the hospital and has been there for about 3 months now. Just seems everytime she takes one step forward she takes 2 steps back. It has been very hard on her and she still has an extremely LONG road to go !!!

Update on Major Key: He had his transplant on Monday and is doing very well !! His dad, Karroll, had a tougher time. He was in an extreme amount of pain and was not able to see him until Wednseday. It seems both are doing great !! Major has gotten his breathing tubes out and was able to sit up in the bed yesterday and play and talk. It is just an amazing story !!! You can follow his progress and see some before and after pictures on his COTA website in the links section !!!

I guess I have rambled on long enough. I hope everyone has a good weekend !!!

Trip to Ruidoso

Ruidoso, New Mexico Mountains !!! Just Beautiful !!!

Thursday July 3rd Granny, PaPa, Mom, LaShae, D'Nae, Rhaeden, Maegen and myself headed to Ruidoso, New Mexico for the weekend. Mike and Dad were going to join us on Friday after they got off of work. For you who do not know...I LOVE RUIDOSO !!! We rented a three bedroom three bath house with a pool table and it was just very relaxing. Forget hotels...rent a house !!! The trip was NOT without complications from the very beginning. Mom, Rhaeden, Granny and PaPa stopped in Brownfield to pick up LaShae (they were in PaPa's pick-up). Guess what happened next....It started POURING down rain !!! So between Brownfield and Plains Mom and LaShae had to get out and put a tarp over their luggage. I wasn't but about 15 minutes behind them so at Plains we stopped, yet again, to put their luggage in my suburban, still in the rain...The rain finally subsided and we eventually made it to Ruidoso !!! Yeah !!!

On Friday morning after breakfast PaPa unfortunately started getting sick. So he and Granny stayed at the house while the rest of us went and played Put-Put golf, rode the go carts and of course the bumper boats. FYI...the bumper boats spray water !!! So be sure and empty your pockets BEFORE you get on them !!! Somehow I think Mom came up on the short end of the stick this round. D'Nae came out the driest (her hair was barely wet) apparently her boat had the best gun on it !!! Oh yeah...I had to miss the bumper boats and hold the drinks, purses and camera while everyone else had all the fun !!

Soaking wet after the bumper boats !!!

After we went to the house and everyone took another shower and cleaned up. LaShae took PaPa riding around while the rest of us went shopping. We met back at the house and cooked steaks and hamburgers on the grill and about halfway thru getting it prepared Mike and Dad showed up. Just in time to eat...imagine that huh?

Saturday morning PaPa was still feeling sick so Dad and Granny stayed with him while the rest of us went to the horse races. It was just a beautiful day to go to the races. Their was a slight cool breeze and it wasn't too hot. By mid afternoon PaPa was feeling better so they took off on another trip just touring Ruidoso and finding some amazingly beautiful homes. This time Granny was the one wanting to get her feet on flat ground. Dad took them to the top of a mountain on a very steep winding road.

On Sunday it was time to pack and head home. On the way out of town we stopped at the museum first. The next stop would be a fruit stand to get some cherry cider !!! My favorite !!!

I have made a slide show of some of the things that we did. There was just too many pictures to put them on here one at a time. There are a few pictures of some deer that came up right up to the house. It was just amazing to stand on the porch or look out a window and see 8 to 10 deer just a few feet from you.

Sorry...but I don't know how to put a slide show into the blog itself so you will have to scroll down to the bottom of the page. I apologize for the inconvenience !!!!

Happy Birthday Bailey and Kayla !!

Well...Sunday we all went to Mike and Stacy's for Bailey and Kayla's birthday family party. Mike cooked fajita's with all the trimmings and then we had Chocolate Cake for Bailey and White Cake for Kayla (of course you had to try both of them) !!! ha ha

Rhaeden and Maegen ended up spending the night and they had a lot of fun !! Stacy was sooo kind to take pictures and video's so that I would have something to put up here for you to see !!! On Monday morning a scavenger hunt was on...A clue was out at the lamb barn so Bailey and Rhaeden took off towards the lamb barn: ENJOY !!!! Maegen said "He runs like a duck !!"

After the scavenger hunt they spent the day in Lubbock. Just a little back ground...Mike has been asking Maegen when she was going to get her ears pierced and I keep telling him when HE takes her to get them done. I didn't take D'Nae and I wasn't going to take Maegen. Well, Kayla got her ears pierced about 8 weeks ago...soooo...Of course Maegen wants hers done. Stacy volunteers to take Maegen (she made sure it was fine with me) since they were going to the mall anyway. Here is what took place:

Then came the fun part !!!! ICE CREAM !!!! YIPEE !!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAILEY AND KAYLA !!!

Baseball is Officially Over !!

Well...the baseball season has come to a close for another year. The kids had their closing ceremonies and trophy presentation. Rhaeden had the chance to meet some new kids (since he doesn't attend school in Post...he doesn't know a lot of the kids that play). The Coach, Lucas, is the same Coach that we had last year and he is just GREAT with the kids.

THEN THE ALL IMPORTANT SWIMMING PARTY !!!!

FUTURE DIVING CHAMP ???

Maegen and Emma

Rhaeden and Colton