Babies in the Barn...

 

 

Our newest additions...Triplets born this week!

 

Hard to tell where one baby ends and the other begins.  It's a jumble of kids!  And, oh, so sweet...

 

 

From the top of their downy heads and silky ears

 

 

to the tips of their darlin' little hooves!

 

It's my favorite time of year.  Kidding Season.  Well, to be honest, most every season begs to be favorite.  But our baby goat season is the best!  It is new life.  Hope birthed in innocence.  Crazy, happy goat-kids leaping and bounding around the pasture.  And piles of soft, silken kid babies napping in the straw under mama's watchful eye.   

 

And in the midst of the happy, the phone's ring shatters the bliss  Stacatto message. Heart beats urgent..

 

Father-in-law... pneumonia... breathing labored .... lips tinged with blue... hospital rush.... 

 

We are on our way.  Heading north, racing the ice storm.  Praying, praying as we breath, let the oxygen flow in, sustain life... 

 

Be merciful...  

 

  

Life Can Turn on a Dime

One day you're up, the next you're flat on your back in a hospital bed...

Greetings from Denton Regional Hospital.  Mom was admitted yesterday. It wasn't the turkey, I promise! The culprit this time appears to be a roaring case of pneumonia.

She started feeling a little under the weather Friday, and rapidly worsened through the weekend. Her blood work has tanked, and she's getting 2 units of blood as we speak, along with bags and bags of fluids, and 3 different antibiotics.

Her White Blood Cell count is being particularly obnoxious and has dropped below 1.0. That's very low, as in the "Red Flag, High Alert, put her in the Isolation Room" low. She basically has no fight left in her immune system. So no new "bugs" allowed while she's battling the pneumonia.

Please keep her and dad in your prayers. This has been a rough weekend, and from the looks of things, we are heading into a long week.

Will keep you updated as I can. We cherish your thoughts, your hugs and your prayers, Always,
Jane

Here We Go Again

Is there ever a good time to go on vacation?!  We have been up in the air for over a week.  Mom insisted that we go, our gut said no, but here we are... spending a week visiting Leroy's family in Illinois, enjoying a great family reunion, cooler weather and sweet fellowship.  And all the while, worrying about mom.  With good reason.  She wasn't the picture of health when we headed out Friday morning, even though she assured us she was fine.  Should have trusted that gut feeling.  Saturday morning we got the dreaded call from Dad, "she's getting worse."  My brother, Dean, was there with her and he graciously sent a "guest blog" for me to relay to everyone.  So, here we go again...

Sunday, September 4, 2011...

Yesterday started off as every good Labor Day weekend should with a 6:52 tee time to beat the Texas heat. I even chipped in a birdie from 45 yds out on the 7th hole at Oakmont.  Around 10am I received a VM from Jane who has taken the week to travel with Leroy to the his family reunion in Illinois. Jane had told me that mom hadn’t been able to hold any food down and had been up through the night vomiting and asked if I could swing by and check on her. Since I didn’t check my phone until the 18th hole I figured I could finish my round and swing by. If you’re wondering I finished my round with a 91, respectable but still needing improvement.

When I arrived at Mom’s I found dad there which was unexpected since I knew he was scheduled to work yesterday. Mom later informed me she was feeling so icky she called and asked him to come home. Dad immediately punched out and made his way home to see how he could help. (major brownie points from Mom) Pat and Richard were also there finishing up a little steam cleaning in the bedroom. Turns out mom wasn’t able to make it to the porcelain throne to do her worshipping which left quite the mess. Thank you Pat and Richard for being such good friends and if you’re looking for any side jobs we have 4 kids and 5 pets over here at our casa, always looking for a good carpet cleaning crew.

After an hour or so of sitting with mom I requested that she call her doctor. She agreed    (shocking) and made the call. 20 minutes later his fill-in called and told mom to head to the hospital to get evaluated. (Dr code for pricked, prodded and probed). Pat helped mom pack a lite bag, I gathered her essentials – phone, i-touch, I-pad, kindle and chargers told dad to sit tight while I took mom to the hospital. As expected she was “evaluated” and also as expected was admitted to the hospital. Amazingly she is back in room 588 and upon arriving on the 5th floor almost all the nurses gathered in her room and started doing what they do best; take GREAT care of my mom.

There are still tests and more “evaluations” to be done this coming week including a scope of Moms stomach but for now she’s resting comfortably on her air mattress bed. Lisa and I will be checking in on her this afternoon to get the “Doctor” prognosis and make sure Jane has it to post soon. For now please pray that the doctors can find out what’s keeping mom down and correct it soon. A big thank you to Jane for allowing me to keep you updated and safe travels for her and Leroy. Until our next meeting, Hit’em straight and long!!!

Sending our Love and Prayers, Dean

Home Sweet Home

Mom is finally home from the hospital!

With her trusty pink bucket by her side.  It's been a rocky few days.  Stomach has been revolting big time.  But she's made a gradual  return to even keel and hopes to continue her recuperating in her comfy recliner.

Oxygen was delivered shortly after we arrived at home.  Michael from Lincare went over the uses of her portable oxygen tank and then did a great job setting up and explaining her new oxygen concentrater (with 60 feet of tubing - she'll be able to motor all over the house.)

Finally, exhaustion overtook her and she collapsed for a much needed nap.

She has thrown up twice since coming home, and my worry meter is off the charts, but she continues to assure us that the nausea is getting better.  My gut says something is still wrong, but I will bite my tongue for the night.  She's thrilled to be back home and sleeping in her own bed. How can you argue with that after 16 days in the hospital?

Continuing to pray for her recovery and a quick return to "normal."  For a settled stomach, renewed energy and wellness, this plea remains on our lips.

May sleep bring healing,  Sweet Dreams, Jane

A Flower Blooms

The last few days have been quiet and uneventful.  Well, as uneventful as you can get in the hospital!  Mom's condition is pretty stable. Lungs are improving by baby steps.  Each day shows a slight decrease in the fluid on her lungs, and yesterday, the pulmunologist gave the thumbs up on going home soon.  BUT... she will be going home on oxygen.  Her lung function is still too low.  He said it may just take time for her lungs to completely heal.  So, another bump in the road. On the bright side, her run of i.v. antibiotics will be finished sometime Monday.  Hopefully, they'll spring her soon thereafter!

I finally left the hospital yesterday evening for a weekend back home.  Dad will be spending today and tomorrow with mom at the hospital (say a prayer).  It's a funny feeling, walking back out into the hot, sunshine and leaving the rigors of the ill behind me.  Living at the hospital is sort of like living in a vacuum.  I feel just a tad disconnected with life!

It only took a few minutes, however, to catch up with the unrelenting Texas heat wave.  Very little relief seen in that department in the past two weeks.  As I rolled out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area north, the dry, parched pastures told the story.  Today, we mark 61 days of triple digit heat for the summer.  40 of those days were consecutive.  We had a brief shower several weeks ago that knocked the temp to 98 for a high, and then we were right back up over 100.  I like to think we're used to this heat, but, boy, this summer has been brutal.

I took the drive home slow and absorbed the impact.  This drought is taking a toll.

As I turned down the gravel lane to our place, I held my breath to see the pond.  And it wasn't pretty.  A stagnant green scum was all that was left.  The walking bridge is up high and dry. And the cracks are big enough to fall in!  Just Picasso designs in the dirt. This is the anatomy of a drought.
 

And yet, in the midst of such a scorched landscape, I came upon this beauty:

Blooming purple tendrils in a barren field.

A gift.

Tenacity and passion come together under a blazing Texas sun.  This flower is doing what it does best, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it.  Kind of like mom walking down this cancer wasteland.  Regardless of her circumstances, she still has the tenacity, the strength of will and the desire to be a thing of beauty where she is. 

And that she is and will always be to us. 

Beautiful.

Inside and Out!

From Mountain Top to Valley Low

The Polly Summer Birthday Bash 2011

A great time was had by all! It's so nice of everyone to have birthdays! A perfect occasion to get together and have fun! And we did. It was great fun watching Skylar and Autumn (our "babies") explore, play and amuse the crowd. Who needs entertainers when we have the most adorable children to keep us in stitches? Ok, so I'm partial... but, oh my, so cute!

Although, I must admit, as adults, we were all sadly lacking in baby linguistics... Skylar kept pointing to her diaper bag saying "NaPoon" (or maybe it was NaPoo)  We weren't really sure and her momma wasn't there to interpret!  So we got out every toy she had, but to no avail.

 She finally gave up and let Sami and Amanda take her to play outside.

It was half-way thru dinner when Steve had a light-bulb moment and realized she was asking for her Winnie-the-Pooh (which they had left at home...)  He shouted Winnie-the-Pooh outloud and Skylar lit up in a huge smile!

 Finally, the adults got it! We're a little slow sometimes, but if you give us enough rope, we'll eventually hang ourselves!!

And mom enjoyed it all. Here she is with the Summer Birthday Honorees:

It's wonderful to be surrounded by family. And I know that we're blessed to all be living so close. We don't take a minute of that for granted. We hug a little closer, and smile just a little more often. Mom has a beautiful framed piece in her home that speaks to me every time I see it. It says,

Our Family
is a circle of strength
and love. With every birth
and every union the circle grows.
Every joy shared adds more love.
Every crisis faced together
makes the circle
stronger.

Yesterday's Birthday Celebration simply reinforced that circle. Adding more joy and laughter to the long list of memories that make our family stronger, closer and truly grateful for one another.

Which is a good thing.  Because by Monday morning we were making a fast trip to the Emergency Room.

 
After Dad had left for work, Mom had gotten up to go the bathroom, but was too weak to get back to bed.  She slide off the toilet and lay on the bathroom floor for awhile before finally gathering enough strength to crawl back to bed.  Which is where we found her, too weak and groggy to even call for help.  I can hardly type that without feeling the icy hand of fear strangling my insides.  One of our worst nightmares to be sure.

We whisked her off to the Emergency Room where she was promptly admitted and run through a battery of tests.  She was scanned, radiographed, poked and prodded all day.  Initial diagnosis is low blood counts (need a blood transfusion), dehydration (start the saline fluids), and high white blood cell counts that indicate infection somewhere (add antibiotics).

 Oh, and did I mention adding oxygen because her oxygen saturation levels were well below normal (84-86%).  It was an all-around crummy, miserable day.

Saturday we were enjoying a lovely Birthday Dinner and by Monday she was laying in a hospital bed being offered a clear liquid diet.  A quick slide from that Beautiful Mountain Top to the Valley Below.

Yesterday, we got the results of one of mom's blood cultures.  And if I was a pessimist I'd say that things went from bad to worse...

The culture turned up positive for a bacterial infection, and probably not a good one. The preliminary culture result shows a gram-positive cocci baccillus infection. This is a broad culture, and could be any number of bacterial infections, from a staph infection to pneumonia to botulism and even tetanus (okay, that's being really pessimistic).

We are still waiting on more tests to determine exactly what we're dealing with and where it is localized.  The doctor doesn't like to speculate, but is narrowing in on her medi-port and/or her lungs. A chest x-ray yesterday showed a patchy, hazy area in her right lung. Not calling it pneumonia, yet, but will be repeating x-ray in morning.

In the meantime, the doctors have added another antibiotic to the mix. It's one of the Big Guns, Vancomycin. And the optimist in me thinks we're getting ready to turn the corner. The blood transfusion was successful and raised her hemoglobin 1.5 points. It's still in the low range, but close to normal. That did help with her energy. For about an hour... then she nose-dived with this infection. At one point last night her oxygen saturation dropped to 80%. The nurses and techs hovering over her in the dark were not impressed. I can do without that kind of excitement, thank you very much.

And I have come to some very deep philosophical conclusions about this illness.

Cancer sucks.

Hope I can say that and not offend anyone. But it's true. Just when you scratch and claw your way over one hurdle, another appears, whether you're ready to run it or not. And the other thing, it would seem that the treatment for each cancer patient is sort of trial and error. Nothing hard and fast about it at all. What works one week, fails miserably the next. Kind of like throwing darts in the dark. Hopefully, we'll hit the bulls-eye, but could just as easily hit the wall.

Okay, is that too pessimistic?

Well, I can say, without a doubt, that the one truly great thing about this whole journey are the hands and hearts that have held us through it all. Your love, support, prayers and encouragement make our day. You can't begin to imagine what it means to mom to read your notes, see your texts and emails, and get your calls. It is the one thing that puts a smile on her face. And right now, we live for each smile.

Will keep you posted with new results as we get them. Until then, hunkering down in Hospital Central,

All My Love, Jane