12.17.2009
12.14.2009
Father Christmas Came to Town 12.14.09
Ho Ho Ho...Happy Christmas! 
We had our family party tonight and just was we were finishing dinner, we welcomed a special guest. He explained that he left his reindeer tethered up at Brighton and walked to grandma's house to visit some special children.
We had our family party tonight and just was we were finishing dinner, we welcomed a special guest. He explained that he left his reindeer tethered up at Brighton and walked to grandma's house to visit some special children.
When asked if she'd been a nice girl and minding her mom, Elizabeth had to be honest and shook her head, "No." Santa will bring out the best in you! He knows the truth so no use lying about it. She promised to be really good for the next two-ish weeks. She asked him for some Chixo-s.
Hunter was startled to find that the thing attached to the trail of jingle bells he was following up the stairs and towards the front living room was in fact, a real live, in real life, life-sized Santa!! He made a bee line as far out of sight as he could get and hid. He cried for a bit and some of us thought that maybe his deeds he'd been wracking up on the naughty list were catching up to him and the guilt was just too much...but I think he just got more than he bargained for! He eventually warmed up and had an awesome time.He thought for quite a while and finally asked for a new Wii game.
On the way home he asked if he could call his friend Eric tomorrow because he had something important to tell him. We asked him what he wanted to tell him. He said, "I want to tell him I saw the REAL Santa!" It was a storybook moment!
Megan was shy for oh, 5 minutes and then she spent 10 minutes telling him about her day, her outfit, who was there and what she wanted for Christmas. She was interrupting Santa's story so Ashley was trying to get her to sit down with her and stop jabbering!
He gave them each a hand picked gift bag with lot of little goodies like pencils, notebooks, a bath loofa, candy and a special Santa ornament to remember the night.
He gave them each a hand picked gift bag with lot of little goodies like pencils, notebooks, a bath loofa, candy and a special Santa ornament to remember the night.
He told them a lot about Christmas, traditions, other country's traditions and even showed them a special clock that he sets so he can make it around the world to all the boys and girls in the whole world in one night. They played with his jingle bell strap and sang several Christmas carols. He spent almost an hour with them and with the rest of the family.
At the end he asked Hunter to climb into his bag. He got all the way in and he asked him if he wanted to go back to the North Pole with him and have Winkie, the head elf, show him the ropes...
He jumped out of that bag so fast! "No way!" he said, "I don't even know how to make toys!" I just love that kid!
Besides Santa and his helper, we were in lots of good company with Aunt Connie, Uncle Doug, Uncle Chris and daddy....
Aunt Karen, Grandma Walsh, Great Grandma Holmes, Grandpa Walsh..
We took a few family shots, for the blog and posterity and such.
Great Grandma sang us a little tune of "Up on the House Top" while sitting with Santa.
And as a final parting thought of the evening we needed these pictures taken. Grandma and Grandpa Walsh had given the kids their outfits especially for this party. We needed a picture of everyone still in them and clean and happy. Darling, just darling!! We missed the other two Walsh brothers and their families not being there so maybe another time there will be four more little faces smiling in the picture.Here is the last one of the night with Great Grandma joining the group.
It was really just a fun evening that glimmered with lots of Christmas magic.Thanks Mom and Dad Walsh for creating such wonderful memories for our children. I Believe!
Dance Recital 12.12.09
This year was the first year that Elizabeth's dance school attempted a mid-year recital. She has been doing tumbling this semester and seems to really have enjoyed it.
The theme of the show was none other than "The Nutcracker". They had adorable costumes: snowflakes, poinsettas, etc. 
Eliazbeth's group was the Ginger Bafoons. In the real Nutcracker they are these huge bears that do cartwheels and somersaults in little Clara's dream. Very appropriate I thought for the tumblers. The show starred way too many 3 year olds that stood there and looked cute but that's about it. I was proud of Elizabeth for actually doing the things she has been taught. Here is a very rough video of her routine. Enjoy! (Elizabeth enters from the right doing somersaults about 25 seconds into it. From the left at :37-:43 is her cartwheels--which she SMOKED! and the leap frog jumps. At 1:10 she jumps in doing her straddle rolls and at 1:58 is a run on all fours and then the end.)
Curtain Call....Great job ladies!
Utah Voices Concert 12.5.09
Utah Voices debut concert was on Saturday, December 5th.
It was held at Libby Hall near the University of Utah campus. It was exciting getting all decked out and having so many of my close family and friends able to attend both at the Saturday night show and the Monday night show. The weather was pretty nasty that day and very cold. Parking for the show proved to be very crazy as the shuttle we thought would be running was not. We were freezing in our heels and just trying to get there on time for our call time without slipping on the stairs!
The hall was pretty neat. The choir sat up in the loft area above the orchestra on the pretty velvet padded benches. There was a beautiful pipe organ behind us that played during several of the choruses and some wonderful soloists in front of us. I believe they were hired because they were way professional and not from our group.
Since I had been out of town sitting with my mom, I had to ask permission to still be able to sing since I missed the dress rehearsal that week. They were understanding and graciously allowed me to do the performances. This was the choir's first time singing with the soloists and my first time hearing the whole Messiah. How cool was that in front of about 700 people!
It was held at Libby Hall near the University of Utah campus. It was exciting getting all decked out and having so many of my close family and friends able to attend both at the Saturday night show and the Monday night show. The weather was pretty nasty that day and very cold. Parking for the show proved to be very crazy as the shuttle we thought would be running was not. We were freezing in our heels and just trying to get there on time for our call time without slipping on the stairs!
The hall was pretty neat. The choir sat up in the loft area above the orchestra on the pretty velvet padded benches. There was a beautiful pipe organ behind us that played during several of the choruses and some wonderful soloists in front of us. I believe they were hired because they were way professional and not from our group.
Since I had been out of town sitting with my mom, I had to ask permission to still be able to sing since I missed the dress rehearsal that week. They were understanding and graciously allowed me to do the performances. This was the choir's first time singing with the soloists and my first time hearing the whole Messiah. How cool was that in front of about 700 people!
This is Dr. Huff at the end with the soloists out front (green and blue dresses then the Tenor and Bass are in tuxes on the other side of him.) He led the second half and the orchestra director, Dr. Baldwin, led the first half and played viola on the second half. That was so awesome to see him come out of the orchestra to take his bow at the end. It was pretty amazing with everything going on on the stage that at one point Dr. Baldwin ran out of hands to direct us so literally our cue was a raised set of eyebrows! So awesome!
This is one of my friends Kelli that is the ward choir director in the ward behind us. That is what got all of this started about a year ago. We have been friends ever since we had to come up with a Stake Choir for Stake Conference last April. There are several more gals in my neighborhood that sang with us during the Sunrise Service in July that carpool with us on Wednesday nights to Utah Voices rehearsals. It is really fun. They all have kids that go to the school where my kids go so that is nice to keep up with what is going on with our kids too.
Here are my biggest fans! They fought the cold and ice and came anyways! My father and mother in law, Bob and Sandy, my wonderful husband and my Aunt Belva and Uncle Dean. (My 84 year old grandma and my uncle Kelvin were also at the concert but they left before I came out.)
On Monday night our best friends from Arizona, Chris and Stephanie, were heading in to town for some work stuff so they made sure they booked their flight early enough to be able to attend my concert. That really meant a lot to me. They are the most awesome friends I could ever have asked for!
My wonderful sister-in-law Karen and my awesome cousin Wendy from Idaho were also able to attend. I was so happy to have their support and fortunate to be in the circumstances where so many people are so close and could attend. 
I love using my talents and rediscovering how much I enjoy working hard to acheive the next level. That music is HARD and sometimes it doesn't even sound like music there is so much going on! Despite the few mistakes I made, when it came together for the performances and the messages of the music hit home, it was really a wonderful sense of accomplishment.We'll begin working another set of music in January from the opera Carmina Burana
in preparations for our Spring concert April 30: "The Sacred and the Profane".
I believe the text is in German and Latin. I guess I'll be brushing up on my language skills:)
12.12.2009
Happy Thanksgiving/Mom in Hospital 11.26.09
After nine plus years of marriage, we finally spent our first Thanksgiving with the Walsh side of the family. We spent the day at Brandon's brother's house with his family, their parents and some friends of the family, Carol and Gram. My sister-in-law also had her sister and kids there with us too. It was a fun group and a really yummy meal. Here are a few shots from the day.
Chris, Brandon, Heidi, Paige, Bob, Sandy, Grahm and Carol. (Karen took the pic)
Megan and Lizard enjoying their feast!
Hunter and Easton digging in...
Hunter was trying to be patient for pie. That was definitely the kids' focus of the day! They had pumpkin, brownie, key lime, french apple, etc. Yummy!
The men of course focused on the football games...
Grandma had started her Christmas shopping and had a gift for everyone at the end of the evening.
She found these adorable outfits for the girls to wear to the family Christmas party this week. They had fun trying them on and twirling and matching and generally being excited. Hunter got a cute church outfit too, just not a matching pink one:)
The moms all got the latest Holiday cookbook from Southern Living. Reminds me that I'm a grown up and that someday I will be able to throw a fancy party that is laid out in detail from cover to cover. Some day...
While I was trying to enjoy the day as much as I could, my thoughts were a million miles away worrying about my mom and her recovery from an emergency surgery she had on November 8th. She had been having back pain for weeks. She had gone to the chiropractor many times and there had been no change. She finally went to a Dr. on Wed, Nov. 4th who did nothing more than prescribe her some pain meds which, when taken together, kept her awake for more than 24 hours and did nothing for the pain. She sat in pain and was unable to make another appointment with a different dr. before Friday so she was stuck in her chair the rest of the weekend, suffering. By Sunday there were new symptoms...white lips, swollen legs, general deteriation. By late afternoon my brother had stopped by, checked her pulse which was racing at 140 and recommended a trip to the ER to get some blood work done. They gave her a blessing that the drs would be attentive and that she would get the help she needed. They were seen in under 10 min. They figured out she was bleeding internally because her numbers were pretty low. They did an endoscopy around 11:00 p.m. and that is the last update I got before going to bed November 8th.
The next morning (Monday Nov 9th) we got word that she had been in surgery all night...5 and a half hours. The endoscopy showed an ulcer and it looked like a pretty routine fix but when they got her into surgery, they realized that just 3 mm past where they stopped the scope was major arterial bleeding and acids from the ulcer were dumping out in to her body cavity. The tissues were so thin that when the surgeon tried to pull things back together, there was nothing there to piece together. They ended up taking out several inches of her upper duodenum and re-routing it to her stomach. They call it a J-G Ectmy. Several drains were placed in her. They did as much as they could and realized that my mom couldn't take much more sedation so they finished and hoped for the best. Her pancreus was as hard as a rock but had been protected from the acids by a layer of fat. It would be fine.
She was in deep sedation and a ventilator for three more days. They took out the ventilator and by sometime Thursday she was starting to wake up. The first time I got to talk with her was Friday evening. She was feeling better and I felt better just hearing her voice. They had put a feeding tube in her and another drain for the bile duct that inherently in this type of surgery, gets disturbed and has to heal itself. There is no more surgery they could or would have to do to fix it. She spent another week in the hospital recovering and getting stronger. My dad and brother's and my dad's sister took turns staying at the hospital and calling with updates. I spent a lot of time worrying, calling to relay information to my aunts (her sisters), my grandma (dad's mom) and others as well as trying to piece together the whole story of what was happening all those miles away.
They brought her home on Friday, the 20th. She had some really good days at first. After a bad and uncomfortable first night, they got a hospital bed for her and put it in the living room area. I talked to her one of those first days and she was happy to have recieved some cards from my kids and said something like I'll be way better in another week. But unfortunately, things just weren't getting better. All signs pointed to she was getting enough from the feeding tube, her blood levels were fine but she was still in a lot of pain in her back. She could go to the bathroom but getting there was another story. My dad said it would take them an hour round trip to go the 10 feet back and forth. She wouldn't let them give her the whole dose of pain medication because it was making her head swirly. She'd go from the cold washcloth to the ice chips and back. Thursday Thanksgiving, my brothers and their families stayed and visited with her. Friday she had a home health nurse come, they took some blood (it was really hard to get out of her) and then said she'd be back on Monday. She was really tired on Friday and it seemed that she was getting a little dehydrated. They were told to give her some extra fluids in the tube, she was eating a 5 lb. bag of ice in a day but there was nothing else approved to give her by mouth. They did the best they could with the information they had been given.
Monday morning November 30th my dad was assisting her to the bathroom when she just collapsed and fainted. He had it planned out in his mind that if she went down, he would catch her on his knee. He did just that in a reflex action and didn't let her drop. He was able to grab her and not jerk out any tubes and lay her on the floor. He realized his phone was in the other room. He ran and got a hold of my brother (who is a psysician's assistant) who talked him through keeping her comfortable and some how my other brother called an ambulance. The all called me around 11:00 as they were in their cars following the ambulance on the way to the hospital. No one knew what to expect. I went back in to my spinning mode of waiting for word. I tried to get a few things done that day but spent a lot of time on the phone, wondering what was going on.
I didn't get a call until around 2:30 from my dad. He said that her kidneys had failed, she was dehydrated, that she had had a seizure and that they were prepping her to take a helicopter ride across town to St. Joe's Medical Center, where they have wonderful neurological teams. The seizure happened as they were running a few tests about 30 min. after they got to the hospital. Apparently it was pretty severe and my brother Mitch and dad who saw it still turn shades of white and green to re-live it. They said she flat lined right after it but because they were right at the hospital, they had the shot of revive stuff on hand and got her back. They started pumping her with fluids and did a CT of the brain. They found fluid on the brain and that's why they decided she needed a transfer. When I heard all of this I was like, "What else will she be called to go through? How much is too much? What was the Lord's will and did we need to let Him have her? How many more prayers could I pray to let her get better if that is not what He wanted?" A whole new unrelated set of symptoms had come on to the scene and a feeling of hold on to your hats, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
The rest of the day was a blur of phone calls, laundry and husband getting home early to help. I joke to myself that my house is cleaner than it has been in a while due to my extra energy needing to be funneled out. When it was clean, I would bake:) That night I had a decision to make...Was it finally time for me to go to AZ? I made a few phone calls to friends I thought might have a hook up for a last minute flight. I remembered that Sarah's mom worked for the airline and in a matter of minutes after sending her a Facebook message, I was on the phone making a reservation with her stand by voucher for the next morning's flight to Phoenix.
What a blessing!
Mom was admitted to the ICU and that night around 9:00 they put a drain in her head to get some of the fluid out slowly.
I arrived Tuesday, Dec. 1 around noon. It had already been such a tough road that this third round was just too much for those who had been taking care of her. The hospital actually provided my dad and brother Mitch a needed break in the 24 hour round the clock care that they had been providing the past 10 days. They were sleep deprived, stressed and generally wiped out. My brother picked me up and we went straight to the hospital from the airport. It was hard to see her laying there. I said hello and in her slurred, exhausted voice she read my name tag and said, "You're a hospital guest." I said to her, "So are you:)" I felt a little light headed and went and sat down before my knees completely buckled. They would come in every hour and ask her a series of questions like, "Can you follow my finger with just your eyes? Pull me towards you, push me away. Step on the gas, let go. Raise your hands high in the air (they would cover her eyes and see if they would still stay up.)." My dad was getting some lunch and came back briefly. He said she was excited to hear I was coming when he told her. He and Mitch went off to get some work done and I took a turn sitting with her. She was mostly asleep that day.
Soon after I arrived, my parents' sweet home teacher came up. I have known him through school since the sixth grade and feel blessed that he is the one taking care of them when I can't be there. We had a nice visit as I tried to catch him up to speed on what I knew. It was nice to have the support. After he left, two of my mom's lifetime friends came by. She recognized them and was like, "Oh HI! How are you?" She would always ask everyone how they were doing. It touching to us because that is just her, always being concerned about someone else first.
And then she would fall back asleep.
They didn't have her on a ton of pain medication but she was exhausted. At one point the next day we asked if she had any pain. She was like, "I have a headace. Why do I have a headace?" "Well, mom, it's hard to explain but they shaved your head a bit, drilled a hole and put a drain coming out of it." They would give her 1 or 2 shots of morphine on and off and that seemed to keep her comfortable. My brother and dad took comfort in the fact that she was resting and not wrestling her back pain. Meanwhile she had quite a team of doctors checking on her. A kidney Dr., an infectious disease Dr. (her white count was at 27, it's suppose to be around 11), a neurosurgeon, a general surgeon, and a nutritionist. All consulting with her previous Dr. about her other surgery. They thought for about 24 hours that she would need dialysis but her kidneys rebounded with good intake and output but it took several days to stablize her electrolyte levels. They were feverishly vigilant and would take labs every two hours to see what else they needed to tweek. They figured out the infection was from an antibiotic killing off the bad as well as the good bacteria from her colon so they were easily able to find an antibotic to help that rebound. The tricky part was her feeding tube. It had been turned off and clogged as a result of everything that had happened with the rush to the hospital. They tried to unclog it but later on Wednesday they took her in and just put her under a little sedation and switched out the hardware. That seemed to help a ton because by the next day she was wide awake. Everything was flowing and bringing her back up. By the time I left on Friday night, she had been cleared for popsicles and was awake for longer periods of time. Mitch had been with her during the day while I helped my dad at home. The first thing she said when I got there was, "When is your concert? It's not tonight is it?" She didn't want me to be there worring about her and miss my concert. I made sure I was going to be home for Saturday so I could sing. That was good to see her that way. When she heard she could have popsicles she was all, ""oooo...MMMbanana!" We found a vending machine downstairs and guess what it had...banana popsicles. My dad and I fed her the whole thing. She actually could take the stick and do pretty good for only being half propped up. I told her I had to go and she looked at me like I had just gotten there and so I told her I'd been there for four days. She got a little concerned look on her face and was like, "Oo, that's a long time."
All in all I knew I was more going for moral support for my dad and brothers. It had been an exhausting journey for them and they've had to stay strong and do things they had never done and dig deep into places they haven't dug in a long time. My dad just didn't want to go in and see her and have her think at any time that he thought things weren't going to be ok. There were days I thought my dad was going to be the one to pass out. He wasn't sleeping well after finally being off of the couch and in his own bed. He didn't want to be at home alone and I didn't blame him. It looked like a triage/waiting room. We spent time at Mitch's where his sweet wife made us dinners and let us hang out together and decompress the details of the week and day. I also took my dad with me over across the valley to see my best friends and visit for a bit. As the days went by we were able to keep the hospital covered and get the boys caught up on some business they were still trying to get done in the midst of all that was going on with my mom. Lots of days it was hard to focus but by Friday my dad was ready to let me help him at home. I went over and cleaned the bathrooms and did some laundry. We put the hospital bed into the other room and Mitch helped me put the furniture back to normal. Just tried to get it cleaned up so he could be comfortable and be able to work there. I helped him send some emails and faxes and get some of his personal stuff squared around. It was a good day to leave.
Her prognosis has continued to improve and late Thursday night (12.10.09) she was cleared by all her doctors as ready for the permanent shunt she will need that will regulate any more fluid that decides it would like to collect. We are just waiting for that to happen.
I know that God lives and that He loves us. He wants us to rely on Him and leave things up to Him. As my dad put it, it's hard to participate in a miracle... and all the little miracles that lead up to the big one. We are grateful for the miracles we've received and continue to keep positive that she will make a full recovery.
Chris, Brandon, Heidi, Paige, Bob, Sandy, Grahm and Carol. (Karen took the pic)
Megan and Lizard enjoying their feast!
Hunter and Easton digging in...
Hunter was trying to be patient for pie. That was definitely the kids' focus of the day! They had pumpkin, brownie, key lime, french apple, etc. Yummy!
The men of course focused on the football games...
Grandma had started her Christmas shopping and had a gift for everyone at the end of the evening.
She found these adorable outfits for the girls to wear to the family Christmas party this week. They had fun trying them on and twirling and matching and generally being excited. Hunter got a cute church outfit too, just not a matching pink one:)
The moms all got the latest Holiday cookbook from Southern Living. Reminds me that I'm a grown up and that someday I will be able to throw a fancy party that is laid out in detail from cover to cover. Some day...
While I was trying to enjoy the day as much as I could, my thoughts were a million miles away worrying about my mom and her recovery from an emergency surgery she had on November 8th. She had been having back pain for weeks. She had gone to the chiropractor many times and there had been no change. She finally went to a Dr. on Wed, Nov. 4th who did nothing more than prescribe her some pain meds which, when taken together, kept her awake for more than 24 hours and did nothing for the pain. She sat in pain and was unable to make another appointment with a different dr. before Friday so she was stuck in her chair the rest of the weekend, suffering. By Sunday there were new symptoms...white lips, swollen legs, general deteriation. By late afternoon my brother had stopped by, checked her pulse which was racing at 140 and recommended a trip to the ER to get some blood work done. They gave her a blessing that the drs would be attentive and that she would get the help she needed. They were seen in under 10 min. They figured out she was bleeding internally because her numbers were pretty low. They did an endoscopy around 11:00 p.m. and that is the last update I got before going to bed November 8th.The next morning (Monday Nov 9th) we got word that she had been in surgery all night...5 and a half hours. The endoscopy showed an ulcer and it looked like a pretty routine fix but when they got her into surgery, they realized that just 3 mm past where they stopped the scope was major arterial bleeding and acids from the ulcer were dumping out in to her body cavity. The tissues were so thin that when the surgeon tried to pull things back together, there was nothing there to piece together. They ended up taking out several inches of her upper duodenum and re-routing it to her stomach. They call it a J-G Ectmy. Several drains were placed in her. They did as much as they could and realized that my mom couldn't take much more sedation so they finished and hoped for the best. Her pancreus was as hard as a rock but had been protected from the acids by a layer of fat. It would be fine.
She was in deep sedation and a ventilator for three more days. They took out the ventilator and by sometime Thursday she was starting to wake up. The first time I got to talk with her was Friday evening. She was feeling better and I felt better just hearing her voice. They had put a feeding tube in her and another drain for the bile duct that inherently in this type of surgery, gets disturbed and has to heal itself. There is no more surgery they could or would have to do to fix it. She spent another week in the hospital recovering and getting stronger. My dad and brother's and my dad's sister took turns staying at the hospital and calling with updates. I spent a lot of time worrying, calling to relay information to my aunts (her sisters), my grandma (dad's mom) and others as well as trying to piece together the whole story of what was happening all those miles away.
They brought her home on Friday, the 20th. She had some really good days at first. After a bad and uncomfortable first night, they got a hospital bed for her and put it in the living room area. I talked to her one of those first days and she was happy to have recieved some cards from my kids and said something like I'll be way better in another week. But unfortunately, things just weren't getting better. All signs pointed to she was getting enough from the feeding tube, her blood levels were fine but she was still in a lot of pain in her back. She could go to the bathroom but getting there was another story. My dad said it would take them an hour round trip to go the 10 feet back and forth. She wouldn't let them give her the whole dose of pain medication because it was making her head swirly. She'd go from the cold washcloth to the ice chips and back. Thursday Thanksgiving, my brothers and their families stayed and visited with her. Friday she had a home health nurse come, they took some blood (it was really hard to get out of her) and then said she'd be back on Monday. She was really tired on Friday and it seemed that she was getting a little dehydrated. They were told to give her some extra fluids in the tube, she was eating a 5 lb. bag of ice in a day but there was nothing else approved to give her by mouth. They did the best they could with the information they had been given.
Monday morning November 30th my dad was assisting her to the bathroom when she just collapsed and fainted. He had it planned out in his mind that if she went down, he would catch her on his knee. He did just that in a reflex action and didn't let her drop. He was able to grab her and not jerk out any tubes and lay her on the floor. He realized his phone was in the other room. He ran and got a hold of my brother (who is a psysician's assistant) who talked him through keeping her comfortable and some how my other brother called an ambulance. The all called me around 11:00 as they were in their cars following the ambulance on the way to the hospital. No one knew what to expect. I went back in to my spinning mode of waiting for word. I tried to get a few things done that day but spent a lot of time on the phone, wondering what was going on.
I didn't get a call until around 2:30 from my dad. He said that her kidneys had failed, she was dehydrated, that she had had a seizure and that they were prepping her to take a helicopter ride across town to St. Joe's Medical Center, where they have wonderful neurological teams. The seizure happened as they were running a few tests about 30 min. after they got to the hospital. Apparently it was pretty severe and my brother Mitch and dad who saw it still turn shades of white and green to re-live it. They said she flat lined right after it but because they were right at the hospital, they had the shot of revive stuff on hand and got her back. They started pumping her with fluids and did a CT of the brain. They found fluid on the brain and that's why they decided she needed a transfer. When I heard all of this I was like, "What else will she be called to go through? How much is too much? What was the Lord's will and did we need to let Him have her? How many more prayers could I pray to let her get better if that is not what He wanted?" A whole new unrelated set of symptoms had come on to the scene and a feeling of hold on to your hats, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
The rest of the day was a blur of phone calls, laundry and husband getting home early to help. I joke to myself that my house is cleaner than it has been in a while due to my extra energy needing to be funneled out. When it was clean, I would bake:) That night I had a decision to make...Was it finally time for me to go to AZ? I made a few phone calls to friends I thought might have a hook up for a last minute flight. I remembered that Sarah's mom worked for the airline and in a matter of minutes after sending her a Facebook message, I was on the phone making a reservation with her stand by voucher for the next morning's flight to Phoenix.
What a blessing!
Mom was admitted to the ICU and that night around 9:00 they put a drain in her head to get some of the fluid out slowly.
I arrived Tuesday, Dec. 1 around noon. It had already been such a tough road that this third round was just too much for those who had been taking care of her. The hospital actually provided my dad and brother Mitch a needed break in the 24 hour round the clock care that they had been providing the past 10 days. They were sleep deprived, stressed and generally wiped out. My brother picked me up and we went straight to the hospital from the airport. It was hard to see her laying there. I said hello and in her slurred, exhausted voice she read my name tag and said, "You're a hospital guest." I said to her, "So are you:)" I felt a little light headed and went and sat down before my knees completely buckled. They would come in every hour and ask her a series of questions like, "Can you follow my finger with just your eyes? Pull me towards you, push me away. Step on the gas, let go. Raise your hands high in the air (they would cover her eyes and see if they would still stay up.)." My dad was getting some lunch and came back briefly. He said she was excited to hear I was coming when he told her. He and Mitch went off to get some work done and I took a turn sitting with her. She was mostly asleep that day.
Soon after I arrived, my parents' sweet home teacher came up. I have known him through school since the sixth grade and feel blessed that he is the one taking care of them when I can't be there. We had a nice visit as I tried to catch him up to speed on what I knew. It was nice to have the support. After he left, two of my mom's lifetime friends came by. She recognized them and was like, "Oh HI! How are you?" She would always ask everyone how they were doing. It touching to us because that is just her, always being concerned about someone else first.
And then she would fall back asleep.
They didn't have her on a ton of pain medication but she was exhausted. At one point the next day we asked if she had any pain. She was like, "I have a headace. Why do I have a headace?" "Well, mom, it's hard to explain but they shaved your head a bit, drilled a hole and put a drain coming out of it." They would give her 1 or 2 shots of morphine on and off and that seemed to keep her comfortable. My brother and dad took comfort in the fact that she was resting and not wrestling her back pain. Meanwhile she had quite a team of doctors checking on her. A kidney Dr., an infectious disease Dr. (her white count was at 27, it's suppose to be around 11), a neurosurgeon, a general surgeon, and a nutritionist. All consulting with her previous Dr. about her other surgery. They thought for about 24 hours that she would need dialysis but her kidneys rebounded with good intake and output but it took several days to stablize her electrolyte levels. They were feverishly vigilant and would take labs every two hours to see what else they needed to tweek. They figured out the infection was from an antibiotic killing off the bad as well as the good bacteria from her colon so they were easily able to find an antibotic to help that rebound. The tricky part was her feeding tube. It had been turned off and clogged as a result of everything that had happened with the rush to the hospital. They tried to unclog it but later on Wednesday they took her in and just put her under a little sedation and switched out the hardware. That seemed to help a ton because by the next day she was wide awake. Everything was flowing and bringing her back up. By the time I left on Friday night, she had been cleared for popsicles and was awake for longer periods of time. Mitch had been with her during the day while I helped my dad at home. The first thing she said when I got there was, "When is your concert? It's not tonight is it?" She didn't want me to be there worring about her and miss my concert. I made sure I was going to be home for Saturday so I could sing. That was good to see her that way. When she heard she could have popsicles she was all, ""oooo...MMMbanana!" We found a vending machine downstairs and guess what it had...banana popsicles. My dad and I fed her the whole thing. She actually could take the stick and do pretty good for only being half propped up. I told her I had to go and she looked at me like I had just gotten there and so I told her I'd been there for four days. She got a little concerned look on her face and was like, "Oo, that's a long time."
All in all I knew I was more going for moral support for my dad and brothers. It had been an exhausting journey for them and they've had to stay strong and do things they had never done and dig deep into places they haven't dug in a long time. My dad just didn't want to go in and see her and have her think at any time that he thought things weren't going to be ok. There were days I thought my dad was going to be the one to pass out. He wasn't sleeping well after finally being off of the couch and in his own bed. He didn't want to be at home alone and I didn't blame him. It looked like a triage/waiting room. We spent time at Mitch's where his sweet wife made us dinners and let us hang out together and decompress the details of the week and day. I also took my dad with me over across the valley to see my best friends and visit for a bit. As the days went by we were able to keep the hospital covered and get the boys caught up on some business they were still trying to get done in the midst of all that was going on with my mom. Lots of days it was hard to focus but by Friday my dad was ready to let me help him at home. I went over and cleaned the bathrooms and did some laundry. We put the hospital bed into the other room and Mitch helped me put the furniture back to normal. Just tried to get it cleaned up so he could be comfortable and be able to work there. I helped him send some emails and faxes and get some of his personal stuff squared around. It was a good day to leave.
Her prognosis has continued to improve and late Thursday night (12.10.09) she was cleared by all her doctors as ready for the permanent shunt she will need that will regulate any more fluid that decides it would like to collect. We are just waiting for that to happen.
I know that God lives and that He loves us. He wants us to rely on Him and leave things up to Him. As my dad put it, it's hard to participate in a miracle... and all the little miracles that lead up to the big one. We are grateful for the miracles we've received and continue to keep positive that she will make a full recovery.
Hogle Zoo 11.25.09
The day before Thanksgiving was free admission to the zoo. Despite a bit of snow it really wasn't too bad for walking around and seeing some of the animals there. A lot of them had indoor viewing areas so we weren't outside the entire time and didn't get too cold.
Amazon habitat... lots of birds
Porcupines snuggling...who would have thought!
Big Horn Sheep perched on the rocks above us
The giraffes were amazing...they even had a baby one...
Of course my little monkeys LOVED the monkeys and monkey-type animals. I think these are the lemurs behind them.
This is the momma elephant and her 3 month old baby Zuri.
She was eating snow! Just like a kid would!
This was a cute backdrop but hard to read"Best Wishes for a Happy Holiday Season from Utah's Hogle Zoo"
It was a fun day and a not too crowded day to have some fun and begin the holiday season.
11.23.2009
Sunshine in the Snow
"There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King,
And Jesus listening can hear
The songs I cannot sing.
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine
When the peaceful happy moments roll.
When Jesus show his smiling face,
There is sunshine in the soul."
--Hymn #227 There is Sunshine in My Soul Today
There was a pretty good storm last night that brought the snow down sidewaysand I woke up to snow covering the ground.
It is ironic that this song from yesterday is still in my head.
Ironic ...
but a reminder tome as I put on the extra pair of socks and the extra blanket to go to sleep with that it may be cold outside, but my heart can always be warm because I have faith in Jesus Christ.
"There is music in my soul today"
Music filled my soul to the brim yesterday. My ward choir sang a beautiful number that was well received (besides the fact that people showed up...that always fills me up as their director!) I practiced "Praise to the Man" with the Elder's Quorum, this song was the closing song in Relief Society and I got to end my day at rehearsal for Utah Voices singing the Messiah (a carol to my King). It was wonderful!
Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing.
I cannot sing the song of "my mom has a feeding tube and is recovering from surgery and is a billion miles away".
I cannot sing the song of "my dear aunt has cancer and it is hard to see her suffer as she gets treatment that is suppose to make her healthy." How can I stay strong for these ladies that have been my strength? "
I cannot sing the song of "I can have a conversation with my grandma but if she is having a bad day, she won't really remember what we talked about".
I cannot sing the song of "why do we struggle to do the little things?"
He knows when we hurt and only He can truly empathize with what each of us is going through. The sunshine represents happiness. True happiness is knowing that only Christ through his infinite mission and sacrifice can save us and send us the warmth and comfort of the Holy Ghost.
He cannot be with us all the time but the Holy Ghost can.
So just remember that on a cold day, there is hot chocolate but true warmth comes from the inside!
May you be filled with His light and let your sunshine out today!
A carol to my King,
And Jesus listening can hear
The songs I cannot sing.
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine
When the peaceful happy moments roll.
When Jesus show his smiling face,
There is sunshine in the soul."
--Hymn #227 There is Sunshine in My Soul Today
There was a pretty good storm last night that brought the snow down sidewaysand I woke up to snow covering the ground.
It is ironic that this song from yesterday is still in my head.
Ironic ...
but a reminder tome as I put on the extra pair of socks and the extra blanket to go to sleep with that it may be cold outside, but my heart can always be warm because I have faith in Jesus Christ.
"There is music in my soul today"
Music filled my soul to the brim yesterday. My ward choir sang a beautiful number that was well received (besides the fact that people showed up...that always fills me up as their director!) I practiced "Praise to the Man" with the Elder's Quorum, this song was the closing song in Relief Society and I got to end my day at rehearsal for Utah Voices singing the Messiah (a carol to my King). It was wonderful!
Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing.
I cannot sing the song of "my mom has a feeding tube and is recovering from surgery and is a billion miles away".
I cannot sing the song of "my dear aunt has cancer and it is hard to see her suffer as she gets treatment that is suppose to make her healthy." How can I stay strong for these ladies that have been my strength? "
I cannot sing the song of "I can have a conversation with my grandma but if she is having a bad day, she won't really remember what we talked about".
I cannot sing the song of "why do we struggle to do the little things?"
He knows when we hurt and only He can truly empathize with what each of us is going through. The sunshine represents happiness. True happiness is knowing that only Christ through his infinite mission and sacrifice can save us and send us the warmth and comfort of the Holy Ghost.
He cannot be with us all the time but the Holy Ghost can.
So just remember that on a cold day, there is hot chocolate but true warmth comes from the inside!
May you be filled with His light and let your sunshine out today!
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