Eight Hours Later

Mimi's surgery was yesterday. It was rough and didn't go as planned but I believe that in the end it went well. It was supposed to last about 4 hours but it lasted closer to 8. They ended up having to remove her entire colon.

The tumor was cancer so he couldn't take any chances. The good news is that it does not appear to have spread. The lymph nodes in surrounding areas were taken as a precaution. The liver and stomach were clean. The surgeon removed it all and did reconstructive surgery while he was there to make a mock colon so that she doesn't have to have a stoma (bag) put in. The surgeon explains that there is a 50/50 chance that it will take. If it doesn't, he will put in a temporary bag for a few months while it heals and then go back in and try again. There is also a high risk of bacterial infection. I suppose we will have to take this one thing/day at a time.

Right now she is in ICU. They had hoped she would be out of there tonight but it is not going to happen. She is still on a ventilator. They tried to remove it but she became distressed so they had to intubate her again. It is all so scary. We are praying for a speedy and as smooth as possible recovery. I hope to be able to see her tomorrow, I miss her. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

On the kid front--Gen and Bella are much better as far as I can tell! Poor Tyler is now fighting a stomach virus. Seems to be viral per the docs and his CBC , but it is just some more icing on the cake. My little guy is having it pretty rough. I We just want our kids happy and healthy and fast!

Thanks to all of our wonderful family and friends who have checked in on us and helped us through these rough times. Couldnt do it without you all!!

Mmmuuuaaahhhhh!
V

Another Sucky Day

I can't sleep....

Mimi was finally diagnosed though I am guilty of not understanding it all 100 percent. She has something called colitis sigmoid and some other things. Basically a good portion of her colon has to go. It is enlarged, infected and dying, the doctor explained it like gangrene, hence the fever and pain. The other portion of the colon has a large tumor on it so that portion has to go to. I believe she is looking at like 75-85 percent of it to be removed.

They really wanted to do the surgery ASAP but they couldn't because of her condition. They are trying to strengthen her with meds and such first. She will need a blood transfusion prior to the surgery as well so they are trying to locate blood for her. Her blood type is very rare because she does not have a spleen. They are shooting for Wednesday, after unsuccessfully shooting for today (Monday). In the mean time we sit and wait and she sits in fear and pain.

The kids have some minor issues but seem to be on the way to recovery thank goodness.

Have a great rest of the night,
V

Prayers Please

Everything has been a big old jumbled up mess! I don't know what the heck I am doing, much less where to start this blog! Let's see.......a recap............

Saturday:

Ty, Gen, and I woke up early and made a special Valentines Day breakfast to surprise Daddy! This was too cute and fun, and also marked the only good thing that happened that day.

Bella is terribly sick, this made day 4 on antibiotics and not much better, neither is Genesis. they had been averaging 103 fever all week. At about 3pm I am finally napping, (sleep has been non existent with sick kids), and John wakes me up in a panic telling me it was time to go. I am thinking, where the hell do you want to go? I beg him for 10 more minutes and he informed me that we had to go NOW. Isabella's fever was 106, and that was rectally. Mom rushes over and we are off! 12 hours later we were told how lucky we were that she didn't have feveral seizures, and what her results were. She has a pneumonia, respiratory infection, ear infection and raw throat. My poor baby. This ER trip was like ripping my heart right out of my body! They tried to draw blood but her tiny veins weren't cooperating, we held her down, and watched her fight, scream, and cry. Numerous times through out the night too, I am talking like 8 times too, not like 3. Her big grey eyes filled with tears looking up at me ever so helplessly as if asking, why are you letting them do this to me? All she had to eat all day was about half a piece of toast, she was tired, weak, and then to go through all that pain and fear. They had to get urine directly from her bladder with a catheter, that was so terrible too. I am an adult and I hate going through that, yet I had to sit there and watch my tiny baby endure that. Good thing though in the end I suppose, she really needed all those tests and especially that scan that caught the pneumonia. She even had to have a steroid treatment. It was a very scary experience for John and I and our hearts go out to all the suffering parents and children in the world. We know that at the end of the day, we are fortunate.

Sunday:

Gen is feeling pretty bad by this point, and now Ty was joining in. They both had a fever that we were able to control all week and Sunday wasn't any better. My family came for a visit which lifted their spirits though. I knew that I had to miss work on Monday because ALL three were sick and had to go to the doctor again and Isabella needed to follow up per the doctors orders. So, I stuck around the house all day so that I can be with the kids and John and then at about 8:30PM I went in to work to get somewhat caught up. Mondays are always hectic and I didn't want it more piled up than it would already be. I stayed until about 2:30ish in the morning.

Monday:

We spent the day with the kids and then went to the Dr. in the afternoon. All three kids seem to be on the way to recovery which is great news though they weren't 100 percent yet. Tyler got a new antibiotic and we pray this one works. After the visit we decide to go get an early dinner. After dinner I grab my cell phone to fill in Mimi (my grandmother which is like my Mom and watches my kids for me) on what the doctors said on the way back home. Well, I had to make John turn the car around and drive me to her place because they had to call an ambulance for her out of nowhere. She had very sharp pains in her belly and was loosing blood when she went to the bathroom. I was able to make it there right with EMS and answer some important questions for her, and give her a kiss and tell her how much I loved her before they whisked her off. She was in so much pain she couldn't breathe, and she was so very cold to the touch. It was a scary night. They put her on morphine and did a series of tests. Her white blood cell count is through the roof, indicative of huge infection, and a scan revealed problems in her colon, but not enough to determine what. I didn't sleep at all that night. I stayed up until it was time to go to work in the morning.

Tuesday:

I come to work like a zombie. Now I am a sick zombie though. I was getting some sort of sickness probably from the ER or the kids, or God knows what. My throat is killing me and my cough isn't much better. The kids are luckily seemingly better. Mimi was still in the hospital in excruciating pain. I didn't sleep the night before and now I cant eat either. (hmm this may not be a bad thing though ;) After work at 6pm I head to the hospital to see her. It was scary because she is in some type of quarantine and she looked really, really bad to me. Clammy, tubes everywhere, and in lots of pain. No progress on a diagnosis though. I get home at about 11 and finally eat something. I was really wishing I could just sleep. That proved to be difficult again, but I did manage about 4 hours.

Wednesday:

Kids much better! Not me though, and now John is getting sick too, but the one that matters right now is Mimi. She is still over there suffering. I see her every day, she watches the kids, she cooks me dinner, does my laundry, she is my confidant, she gives me advice and takes care of us all-- I mean really, she is my angel in more than one way, always has been. I DO NOT know what I would do without her. And here I am at work feeling pretty helpless. She has an endoscopy today, basically where they put a camera down your throat to see what is going on in her stomach. That revealed some very small ulcers that the doctor is giving her meds for already but it didn't reveal the actual problem yet. She is still on good meds for pain, and has a colonoscopy on Friday. They say she isn't coming home anytime soon. Now I sit here wondering if I should go see her. I mean, I need to wear a mask or something bc of the germs I couldn't live with myself if I made her worse, but on the other hand I couldn't live with myself if something happened and I didn't see her tonight. So I guess I am off to see her right now. I hope to get home at least a bit earlier than yesterday. Truth is my kids and husband need me too and I miss them.

Meanwhile nothing on the job front for John yet. Right now all I have energy for is to pray that my kids get better, and especially Bella, that was quite the scare, and that Mimi can come out of this, whatever it is, and the sooner the better.

Mimi shared in Isabella's delivery with John and I. (yes I am that close to her) Though you cant see her in this photo, that is her holding Bella's hand minutes after she was born. If you were to see this picture up close you can see the intent that Bella is looking at her with. For me it is a beautiful picture. It captures a full circle moment for her as well as for me. Her hands tell a million stories. I treasure it always.

Weebles Wobble .....

..but they "still" fall down!!!!.......

Bella is walking!!! She has been taking a step here or there since mid December, but I think her big accomplishment was Saturday January 3rd, when she took 7 consecutive steps!

She is a trooper too, she gets right back up! If Isabella falls she doesn't just begin to crawl and give up. Rather, when she takes two steps and falls, she gets right back up and starts all over again, even if it is only for a couple more steps before she falls once more. She is diligent and eventually gets to where she wants to go. It facinates me to watch a baby learn how to walk.

Now, I am not a good video taker, especially not with my cell phone, but here is a video of Miss Isabella, walking it out! It is quite adorable and entertaining! This video was taken Saturday morning, the 24th of January. She almost has this walking thing mastered. Next time I will get lower to the ground--at her level--so we can see her cute face better.

Notice the morning bed head that she has going on. Have I mentioned how much hair this little girl has?

Happy Month Day Isabella Grace! You are 14 months old!

PS .. the "scary" monster sounds is Isabella imitating the dinosaur sounds Tyler makes when he walks around like a dino. Classic.