UPDATE

I just got word about my cousin, Josh. He has been taken off the respirator and is currently breathing on his own. He knows who he is, but does not know what happened, where he is, or what year we are in. He recognized his parents today and was able to say 'pain'. The doctors are giving him a good prognosis but said it will probably be at least a year before he can actually go home. Once he is out of the hospital he will have to go to a rehab center and learn to walk again. PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS!!!

Urgent Prayer Request

I am asking you all to please pray for my family in Kentucky. I received a phone call last night informing me that my youngest cousin was involved in a massive car accident and he in is in critical condition at the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington. Joshua Ware is only 19 years old. He was on his way to help a friend when an oncoming car veered into his lane and hit him head on. The driver of the other car is dead and her two passengers are critical as well. Two hours after that happened his older brother, Robert Ware, was arrested for making bombs in his home. PLEASE pray for Josh's recovery and for my aunt and uncle as well. Here is a link to the accident. Here is a link to the explosives story.

Dreams

If I could live anywhere 'I' wanted, this is pretty close to what I would choose.
The road at the bottom is a road we pass every time we go to my mother's house in Blessing.
All the veggies came from her garden this year. And...she has chickens too. This is one of her chickens and fresh eggs. So I guess I am really a farm girl at heart. In my dream this is the house
that should be at the end of the road. This house would be somewhere that
has true seasons...the Carolina's, Tennessee or perhaps Kentucky:)

It is ok to dream as long as we do not become discontent with what we have.

Tuesday

Today was a day for doctor visits. We left home at 7:40 this morning.
Nick drove us to the Fannin South Park and Ride.
We paid three dollars for all day parking and then bought 5 tickets for the Metro which came to $6.25 for a total of $9.25 which is cheaper than the valet at the clinical building. You have to walk a little but it is fun and the kiddos always enjoy it. Isaiah loves the 'train with the dumbbell' (that's dumbbell not dumb bell)
We arrived at the West Tower took the elevator up to the third floor walked across the sky bridge to get to the other elevator to take us up to the 11th floor. Barely signed our name and they called us back. I met a lady today whose 9 year old son was born with only one kidney and where the other kidney should have been was just a huge glob of cysts. They got a great check up and do not go back for 2 years:) As we suspected Nicks blood pressures are running high again so his medication was increased. We are at 15mg and can go up to 40mg before we have to add another medication. It is also time to take a look at the 'possible aneurysm' again. They are going to try and do something less invasive this time around but we will just have to wait and see. After seeing the doctor we went back down to the 3rd floor for lab work. Then reversed all the previous steps. We stopped in Pearland and ate at Subway, then headed back to Lake Jackson for my appointment. My blood pressures are also running high and I too got an increase on my medications. My iron is down from 78 to 58. This is still in the normal range but if it continues to drop we may have to look at other treatments options:( It was POURING rain in Lake Jackson!!! Of course when we got home the was no evidence of even a drop. Oh well, our time will come. All in all we had a good day and no terrible news. Nick's doctor said 'if anything drastic is going to happen these are the years when is normally does'. Our family seems to never fall into the 'normal' range so maybe this won't be the exception.







^A top reason we are thankful to be able to
recieve care at Texas Children's!

^Nick and Isaiah waitng for the doctor.

^ This is what they do while waiting.

^This car was at the Fannin South lot when we returned.
I wonder if they subscribe or pick one up daily?

Points

This is what Isaiah does with his HEB buddy points.

Assistance

Our Wal-Mart is in the process of remodeling.
I could not find anything I was looking for.
But....I did find the place to go for assistance.
I waited and waited and waited and waited and waited...
No one ever came:(

Grannies

Today would have been my granny's birthday. I have such fond memories of her.
Born Zella Mae Lowery and becoming Zella Mae Peters after she married my pap paw.
She is my dad's mother. She had six living children and around four that did not survive. She named them all with "J's" Jerry, Judy, Janet, Jackie, James, and JoAnn. Jackie is my dad. My parents divorced when I was under 2 so I spent a great deal of time with my paternal grandparents. As I got a bit older she gave me jobs to do. One of those jobs was to wash dishes. If I did it well pap paw would buy me Fruit Loops from the grocery. (They are still my favorite) She held on to my parents divorce papers and I now have them. (She thought ahead that I might some day like to have them) We sang the old hymns together (the same ones I still enjoy today) She always drank Tab or Diet Rite. ( She was severely diabetic, which is what took her) I don't know if my granny was saved or not. I can only hope that I will see her in heaven. For some odd reason I don't think I have much family waiting is that Blessed Land but if I do I would love to see her again. She died a short time before we went home to visit, November 10,1998. We went home for Thanksgiving that year. She was looking forward to our coming. Some of her last words were "my girl's a comin". She was talking about me. Ohhh how we miss those that have gone. Today is that day for me. I loved my Granny!!!

Monday

Ok, at this moment I have nothing else to do. I am literally hiding out from the Kirby salesman that has been at our house haggling with my husband for the past 3 hours (no joke). MSRP of only $2500.00 but he will offer us a great deal today for about $1100.00. Oh sure like I want to spend the next 3 years paying for a vacuum cleaner. We just bought a brand new $400 vacuum (we did not spend $400) so he said he will actually taking that $400 off the MSRP. Reason #1001 God gave women husbands.....haggling with salesmen. UPDATE: it is now after 10pm and they are still talking.............. UPDATE:it is now 11:20 and he is gone.


Anyway, Nicholas is doing well and the Shingles are starting to crust over. This means he is no longer contagious. Victoria is healing quickly. She sees the surgeon on Thursday and we are praying she gets released. If she does, my husband is taking off Friday (since Jaime is off as well) and we are going to celebrate Father's Day together on Friday. The plans are to visit with my in-laws, go to Matagorda beach, then a nice diner and a movie. (Gifts will be in there somewhere as well) There is not time to do all those things between church services on Sunday and Jaime has to work on Saturday so we are hoping for Friday. If she is not released we will just have to roll with the punches. She is not supposed to be out (However we did sneak out to a new park in Angleton today for about 30 minutes. There was no one else there so we felt fairly safe).

Nick got to drive Jaime around for the first time so it made for a fun trip.
That has been our day in a nutshell.

Not for the faint (photos)

Victoria is doing very well. I took her to the
doctor's office today so the nurse could
show me how to change and clean her wound.
NOT HAPPENING!!! I really thought I
was going to be able to do it myself....
until I saw the nurse pull the (shoestring)
out of the hole. I hit the chair and was literally wet
with perspiration. So...needless to say
a nurse will be coming to our house twice
a day until it is healed. For those of you who
are interested below are pictures. On
another note, Jaime has an ultrasound
of the kidneys done today.
PLEASE pray about those results.
We should know something on Monday.

MRSA

My dear friends, most of you are already aware of the details in this post but I wanted to give a bit of information to you all. Wednesday of last week Victoria complained of a mosquito bite. Nothing unusual. Thursday the kids and I went to the beach. By Saturday Victoria's bite was hurting and looked similar to a chicken pox. Sunday she was running a temp a fairly large area under her left arm was red hot and inflamed. I had an appointment scheduled for Monday and did not feel it was good to make her wait until Tuesday to see the doctor so I took her to the Urgent Care Center between church services. The Nurse Practitioner said it was an abscess and more than likely Staph. They swabbed it poked it and started her on two antibiotics. Today (Tuesday) it appeared considerably worse so I took her to see our pediatrician this morning. She in turn sent her over to see the surgeon. Who in turn told us that she actually tested positive for MRSA which is basically a severe staph infection that is resistant to most antibiotics. (Probably caused from bacteria in the water at the beach which got into the mosquito bite). The surgeon recommend a procedure that will be done under general anesthesia in the morning. They will make an incision (probably 3-5 inches) drain out as much infection as they can and then scrape out the rest. (He said he feels like it is very deep) She will be given IV antibiotics and pain medications. The wound will be left open, packed with gauze (to keep it from closing) and a drain tube inserted. The plan is for her to come home tomorrow. They are trying to work with our insurance and see if they can have a nurse come to our home twice a day for wound cleaning. Please pray for us during this time. If insurance refuses I will have to do it myself. I am sure I can but am a bit nervous about it. This all happened VERY quickly and has really caught us by surprise. Thanks to you all for your prayers.

Requested Results

A dear friend had requested my biopsy results so here they are......everything is normal!!!
I had a SBFT (small bowel follow through) yesterday, that lasted about an hour, and will see the doctor on the 18th for those results. Seems like everything is checking out good so far. And....my periods are virtually nonexistent at this time which should start helping with the anemia problem. I have my blood levels checked again on the 24th. Thanks for caring and sorry I have not been consistant with my updates.

Saturday

Isaiah's catch of the day!!!!
Doesn't he look happy?!?

Freebies

It has been a good while since I posted about any freebies,
so I thought I would post some from today.
I always scan my CVS card when I go in. Sometimes I even stop
just to scan our cards.(Yes, we have several between us)
Last week I had two prescriptions to fill and I
had a coupon for a free $25 CVS gift when
you fill any two prescriptions.
Today I recieved a $3 off $15 in my e-mail.
So I made a trip to CVS to see what I could come up with.
I bought all the items seen below and spent $00.00
out of pocket. The coffee will be on its way to Kentuckiy
in the morning. It is going to my aunt that makes my quilts.
She loves Maxwell House, so this should be a nice surprise.

Thank you CVS!!!

Thursday

Today is Nick's last classroom day of Drivers Ed. He has to schedule 6 driving days and then he will be totally done. Jaime has and appointment today with the doctor. Nothing is really wrong but he has been experiencing extreme fatigue and he decided it was time to check it out. This will be his first time for him to go to the doctor alone. I have been reading a book about a man and his dogs titled: Rescuing Sprite A Dog Lover's Story Of Joy And Anguish by Mark R. Levin.
I came across a quote out of that book last night that I thought was very thought provoking.


"Five hundred years from now, none of us existed. The moral for me is that your family is the most important part of your life. It is your legacy and your immortality."

More Results

Ok, so after a very loooong and stressful weekend, I had more exams this morning. The diagnosis at this point is Colitis. Which is kinda funny because the very last thing the doctor said to me before the procedure was " Don't worry Mrs. Sanchez, Colitis isn't contagious". Hahahaha (As most of you already know, my husband has battled with Coltis for about 10 years now. Thankfully he has been in remission for a good while at this point.) I was started on a steroid and strange cholesterol medication. Two "suspicious" spots in the colon were biopsied and I see the doctor on the 4th of June for all the final results.

Some Results

The above picture is a Helicobacter pylor. This is what was found as a result of the upper GI that was performed last week. This requires a very strong regime of antibiotics (which will probably make me very ill). My first option is a no no because it contains penicillin, which I am highly allergic to. The second option contains tetracycline which is a no no for kidney patients. So.... do I want to go into respiratory or kidney failure. We have decided to go with option 2 and pray that things go well. I will take my first dose tonight. Three pills of a triple theropy antibiotic (Pylera) four times daily for tens days. Add to that the Omeprazole (2), Inderol (4), Lisinopril (1), Iron (10) ,B-12 (1), and the daily Multi vitamin (1) and that puts me up to 31 pills a day for the next 10 days:-( Oh well it could be ALOT worse....at least I'm not taking cancer drugs, I still have all my limbs, and my Kidneys are still going, I can see and hear, touch, taste and smell. I am one of the few in the world that can actually read, my HIDA scan said I had a 55% Gallbladder which means no operation....get the picture? Anyway please keep praying and know that I really do appreciate them.

Unexpected Blessings

I have been blessed in ways I never dreamed.....




I have a full day a testing scheduled for today.
This brought up an issue of whether or not to make our three smaller
children wait in the waiting room for hours on end.
A very special young lady has agreed to come to our house and sit with them.
(Although for some reason I don't think there will be much sitting being done)


Then, the doorbell rang....... it was my dear neighbor on the corner.
Doris, knowing that I have not been feeling well, would be gone most of the day and that a young lady was coming to watch the kiddos, brought us homemade beef soup with garlic bread
and two pies!! Chocolate and Apple!!!
She has been a great blessing to our family in many ways
and is always willing to help.

Happy Wednesday

More campout pictures???? click here Marina summed it up very nicely!!

Tuesday Updates

After a rough week I went for my Endoscopy yesterday. Everything turned out well just as I suspected it would. I do not have stomach pain!! I have constant right upper quadrant pain. Per insurance requirements I had to do the Endoscopy in order to advance to the next test. I am scheduled for a HIDA scan on Thursday as well as more extensive blood work (CBC,PT,PTT,INR comprehensive Profile,lipase,amylase, and Liver Profile). Then I am also scheduled for a lovely test on the 26th.

I was very sick on Sunday (dizzy, double vision, and weak). My blood work from last Friday shows that my Iron levels have basically bottomed out again. Thus all the symptoms on Sunday
:-( We must find out why my body is not absorbing the iron. My kidney function dropped 4% in less than 30 days. The doctor said IF it continues to drop at the same rate in 6 short months I will need a new kidney or dialysis. We are praying that if we can get my body to absorb the iron it will slow kidney decline.


Today has been a good day. I was able to get up and I made breakfast (apple pancakes) lunch (hot dogs) and dinner is cooking (beef stew). For me that is a tremendous feat.

Thanks to everyone who have kept me in your prayers through all of this.

For Grammie Kim

Kim,
This was taken yesterday at the church campout.
Alisa is one beautiful little lady. She makes you work
pretty hard for a smile though. (Heather is quite special
as well.)