Going HOME! :)

Yes!!  Thank you, Lord!!!!!!!!  There is going to be one very happy family to be together tonight.:)  I have missed them so much and ready to be a mama and wife again.  Ready for some major snuggle time together. Ahh makes my heart melt just thinking about it.  I'm just waiting for the antibiotic to run through, then I'm dressed and out the door.:)

The Infectious Disease doctor came in yesterday and said my liver count was up. Well, today they were up even higher so he ordered an ultrasound of my liver along with some extra blood work and for me to be seen by my GI before leaving.  The nurse came in saying that since it has gone down a little they were going to allow me to go home. :)  So happy:)

Everyone here has been wonderful!!!  I pray that during my time here I was able to help them and let the Light shine in me.  Some even opened up asking me to pray regarding things they are going through.  I once again, through this stay, stand amazed and in awe of the power of God.  With the infection and sepsis both a week ago landing me in ICU, I very well could be not be here and be 6 feet under.  I don't want to take the small things for granted.  For it is the little things in life that truly mean a lot.    

Another Day in Room 421

Still camped out in room 421. Found out today that insurance would only cover 14 days of the antibiotic so they are having to send it back in and resubmit to them tomorrow for 21 days. Please pray that all goes thru tomorrow and quickly so I can get home. I am so ready!!!

I am very much missing my family. I know it's not easy for them either. I am so blessed with such wonderful children and the GREATEST Husband!!!! They have been thru a lot also.

I am just now getting rid of a headache and neck pain I've had the past few days. I am finally feeling relief. Ahh.

Been up walking the hallways and sitting in a chair most of the nite. Hope to get some good rest and be ready to go home tomorrow. Gonna go for one more walk right now and munch on a cherry icee. YUM!!:)

Thanks again for all your prayers!!

Love-Jamie

Still here

Quick update, because I'm beat.

The Picc Line did get put in :) Everything went well!!! A lot better than the first one. So thankful to God that all went smooth. They ended up having to pulling it back out a bit because the catheter was causing heart palpations. All is good though.

We are waiting for the preautherization of the antibiotic for home. That is why I am not home yet,but we are getting there! Hopefully tomorrow it comes through and we are homeward bound! At the latest, it should be Wednesday.

Thank you for thinking of me, and keeping me in your prayers.

Love-Jamie

Report from room 421

It was a surprising day today! I knew with church and all that Shane and the kids would not be making it up to see me today, which I understood. I knew with the way things usually go with 3 kids on Sunday and all, that it would be a bit crazy to try making it up here. But as I was just resting, in walks my Prince Charming. What a wonderful surprise for me! He said he was missing me...and I was definitely missing him!!! Ahh:) It was nice to just be the two of us and talk for a bit before he had to leave. Thank you, Babe, for being there for me always and for making my day:)

  Not too much going on medically. They are talking of doing the PICC line in the morning. I have had a nasty headache along with my blood pressure being high, so they gave me some Lasix to try to help things. They are concerned of doing a blood pressure pill with my pulse being low and also of the pill lowering my blood pressure too much. It is nothing too big for God, so I'm just praying it straightens up on its own.

I had to chuckle this morning. You know you've been in the hospital too long when dietary sends a note on your tray saying they are out of cherry icee (Italian Ice) cups. Oops;) That's my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack in betweens;)

I did get up and walk the hallway 3 times today:) It was one of those good but worn worn out feelings. No pain though, no gain. Hope all goes well for tomorrow and that we will be able to get HOME.

I am grateful to all the doctors and RN's and staff that have taken care of me. They have all been so wonderful and some have gone above and beyond!!! I want to continue to give God all the glory for HE has and is doing great things.

Love-Jamie

It's been a good day:)

Today was a special day for me. Shane brought the kids up around lunch and they had packed them a lunch to eat up here in the room with me. The kids were so excited and told me all about their week at school, we went over school work and read books. We went to the sunroom this afternoon so I could get a walk in and stayed there about an hour. The kids colored and I just enjoyed watching them from my chair. Afterwards, we played a game of UNO. That was lots of fun for all of us. I was pretty tired out by that point, so we came to my room and Kailey curled up in the bed and we snuggled together in napped. Shane was with Matthew in a chair and Kesley snuggled with my robe in another chair. Then they went and had supper, giving me a break and some more rest, then came back to pray with me and and say goodnight.:) What a wonderful day.:) Melted my heart to pieces.

Still waiting for the final report to come back to get cleared for the PICC line. Most likely, it will be placed tomorrow.

Not too much else going on besides a very distended abdomen due to all the fluids and a major headache which could be from my blood pressure being up alot higher than normal.

Thankful to the Lord for being on my side and for saving me with this infection once again. Thank you for your prayers and encouraging emails.

Love-Jamie

Out of ICU and on the Regular Floor:)

I made it out of ICU today!:) Everyone was wonderful and they are some great nurses but it will be nice to be in a regular room where I can have my own bathroom and take an actual shower. I am in one of the new rooms which are nice and my view overlooks the river and "skyline" of Dixon.  Very pretty in the daytime seeing all the trees across the river vibrant in color. At night, it looks pretty with all the lights of the town glowing. Ahh sounds like vacation to me;) Just teasing, but you do have to make the best of the situation and that is what I choose to do:).

My preliminary report on my infection came back negative, but they are waiting for the final report to come back-hopefully tomorrow.  If all is clear then the PICC line can be put in on Saturday or Sunday.  They have a team of nurses who do them and one just came in a bit ago and went thru the process of the procedure with me so it helped ease my mind a lot.  The last one I had did not go well and they have changed the way they do them.

Last night was a bit rough.  After settling in for the night around 12 midnight in the early morning hours over the intercom was a code atlas meaning a patient was getting combative.  Shortly after that a code blue was called and you could hear the ICU nurse taking the cart down the hall.  All I could do was pray and have a heart of thanksgiving it wasn't me that was being worked on.  They brought her up and she was a little noisy and then they must not have thought there was enough excitement going on in the place because the lights in the hall were flashing and you hear code orange, meaning fire.  Whew- glad it wasn't a real on and we weren't having to go down the stairwell all in our matching gowns that are one size fits all and backless:) Ha!  Wouldn't that be something. :/

I did have an allergic reaction to the vacomyocin twice yesterday and so they switched it to penicillin or a type of it and had a delayed reaction to it so just praying that my body won't react to the next dose.

I am so greatful to the Lord for being by my side thru all this.  He's so faithful!!  Also want to say thank you for your continued prayers and emails of encouragement.  Helps the time to pass a bit quicker, especially when Shane and Kelsey leave in the evening.  Tomorrow, all my kiddos will get to be with me and I am so much looking forward to some mommy snuggle time with them.  :)  Again, thank you!

Love-Jamie

Still in ICU

Thank you for all the prayers, support, and, love.  I do believe that God is hearing your prayers, so keep them coming!  Thank you!!

The doctor came in this morning and said that I am doing better, but not out of the woods yet.  On top of the staph and sepsis, I'm having a drop in my hemoglobin even with the unit of blood I received.  So today they are giving me 2 units of blood.  So much can be applied spiritually to it ("that'll preach!").

Also so thankful to those who donate blood.  They are helping me in a mighty big way.  If you are able to donate blood, please go and donate a pint.  I understand if you are unable to, but how rewarding it makes you feel by doing it.  I use to donate blood and it was a wonderful feeling knowing you were helping someone else.  I believe that 1 pint of your helps to save 3 lives.

Hopefully tomorrow I can be moved out onto the floor.  I would love to take a shower and wash my hair. Thank the Lord I can at least wash up at the bedside in the morning and nite.

The care from everyone has been so wonderful.  So thankful to God for His love and Caring Hand upon my life and for once again saving me at death's door.

For some reason I can't get my comments to work, so if you want leave a message please leave it under my email j-pennington@live.com  Thank you!

Love~Jamie

In the Hospital

Yesterday took a quick turn for the worse.  Woke up with a normal 96 temp and within 3 hours was hitting 99 accompanied with chills, body aches and chest pain.  A quick call to the doctor's office confirmed the decision to get to the ER.

Once I got to the ER, my temp had already climbed to 102 and blood pressure was in the 70's.  Blood cultures and labs were drawn and I was sent to ICU for Sepsis.

Today, I have had one unit of blood due to my Hemoglobin level being at a 7.1, antibiotics, TEE to look for any infection in the heart, nuclear scan to rule out blood clot, and finally had the Hickman line pulled this afternoon due to blood cultures showing both Staph and Sepsis both.

Now I can hopefully get some rest.  Still in the ICU, so it's a bit loud, but hopefully can be out in a regular room by tomorrow.  Everyone here has been great, but home is calling me.  Can't wait to be with the kids again.

My new Christmas Tree!!

This was all running at the same time!

Behind on posting:)

Thank you for all of you who have waited so patiently for me to post and for those who have emailed checking on things.  I have had a bit of a rough week, but things could be much worse.  Praise the Lord they are not!! :)

I am having some issues with my line, but hopefully here in the next few days they it will be much better.  I have been to the ER last Saturday nite and then again on Wednesday evening.  Before long, they are going to start thinking that I'm trying to take up residence there! :/ Yikes!  Not good, cuz I'm not.  

I am taking it easy because it seems like for right now with my body that I take 1 step forward and 20 steps back.  I get tuckered out and for the most part taking 2 naps a day.  I better be careful or Shane will be putting me in the nursing home. ;) At least I'm not in bed 24/7.  

I did begin my new TPN and it is going well, I think.  I began Sunday and with the way I have felt this week I can't tell a difference, but I have gained some weight!! YEA!!!  I am down from 20 hours a day to 16 hours.  That  has already made a difference in me not having to lug the backpack around:)!  It can be a bit heavy carrying at the beginning of the first several hours of the infusion.  I was incorrect about the color.  The TPN is not a Mountain Dew color, but it is clear like a bag of IV fluids.  Even though I add my vitamins to it, there is not enough there to change it to that yellow color.  Sorry to disappoint you:) Ha!  I do the white bag of lipids along with the bag of TPN once a week.  To anyone who would like, you are more than welcome to carry the bag for me that day.  I had to drag it to the restroom the first time I got up because it was too heavy to carry.  Where there is a will there is a way.  I do have a new backpack to use on that day so it can hold both bags of fluids and 2 pumps also, and maybe a Jolly Rancher or two:).

Kailey celebrated her 9th birthday this week!  Last year around this time I was sick with staph and sepsis and had just came home from the hospital a day before her birthday, so we didn't do a party.  This year I tried to make a bit special for her.  I think she had a great day!  With her money she got, she is going to get a bigger bicycle.  My oh my!  I am so thankful for each of our children that we have been blessed with.  Kailey has so many times brought such joy to our home.  I love watching and hearing her get tickled over the little things.  She wants 100 cats when she grows up.  I'm praying that changes (quickly)!! :)  My prayer is for her to continually seek the will of God for her life.  To have a servant's heart and to love God and Truth all the days of her life.

I had the enjoyment with some help making one of my favorite things!!  I made caramel apples!  I made 9 pounds!  I did some that were apple pie flavor, some dipped in white chocolate and drizzled in milk chocolate and semi sweet and some in milk chocolate then in white chocolate and semi sweet.  Also did some dipped in Heath bar. When I make them, I even make my caramel homemade:).  What a pleasure it is for me to at least make them for others and know that they are enjoying them!  Somebody might as well, right?!  

Living and loving life:)  I like this saying~The smile on my face doesn't mean my life is perfect.  It means I appreciate what I have and what God has blessed me with.  Love-Jamie

Home and Comments

It feels so good to be in my own bed and at home with my husband and 3 missed kiddos.  We got home around 2pm on Wednesday.  We couldn't get home quick enough.  Shane was fighting a head cold and little cough and I had a sinus headache and sore throat and my GP symptoms.  Usually, I am prepared in case I have to get sick all of a sudden, but not Wednesday. Thank goodness there was a cup handy.

When we got home and unpacked the car, I went straight to bed and stayed there till the kids came home from church.  I had one that clung to me when she got home and was all smiles.  Ahh:)  We quickly jumped back into routine again with school being the next day.  Morning went well with smiles on faces.  It is so good to be back home and back into the groove of things here with the family.

We are going to have a special afternoon today since the kiddos get out at noon.  I have some pretzels in a can that we can bake and put some cinnamon and sugar on and play Pictionary with fall ideas and maybe some 'Apples to Apples'.

I have been having several issues with people leaving comments saying they are unable to or they are not showing up.  Just to make things easier for now till I know how to fix things, we'll just use my email for the comments.  My email address is j-pennington@live.com.   Sorry if you were one who had a note that didn't get to me.

Looking forward to this weekend!  Can't wait to have some family time.  To relax and enjoy the family and the fall weather. :)  God is so great!!! Enjoy your weekend and count your blessing!  So much to be thankful for!!

Just about home

Yesterday was a busy morning.  Shane got up at 4 am because he couldn't sleep.  He woke me up at 6:30 am to get ready for the day.  We packed and left the hotel around 8 am and was at the Clinic around 8:30 for an appointment with a nurse for 9 am.

With Cleveland now managing my TPN, we had some training we had to go through.  She said it would take a couple hours to go through it all.  I had to show to her that I knew how to change out the end caps to my Hickman Line and Shane had to show how he does a dressing change.  She gave us both a few tips of things we can do to make it easier and better.  I now will have to record all my intake and outputs daily and send them in weekly.  They are wanting to wean the TPN down from 20 hours a day to about 12 hours.  They are also changing the TPN and only doing lipids once a week.  So instead of my TPN being a white milky color it will be a neon yellow.  Maybe like a Mountain Dew or Mellow Yellow color.  I think they said they do it this way to protect the liver.  I felt bad because both Shane and I sat in the room and we both were beat.  I kept yawning and had a hard time trying to stay focused.  Before we could leave, she sent me down for a chest x-ray to see where the placement of the Hickman Line tip in correlation to the heart.  

By the time we finally got out of there it was close to 1pm.  By then Shane and I were exhausted.  My body ached and I had a sore throat.  Shane was driving and so tired and I was not any help.  I tried to stay awake for him, but I couldn't and fell asleep.  We ended up getting a room for the night in Elkhart, Indiana.  There was just no way we could drive the rest.  We pushed it just to make it this far.    Nothing like going to sleep at 8:45 at night.  Ahhh!  It felt good!  Down side to that is I was wide awake at 11:45 and felt as though I had a full nights rest.  I laid there for a long time listening to the guy in the next room snore.  Seriously-it sounded at times as though he was in our room.  I think with me being a light sleeper that ear plugs would be a good investment.

So thankful that God has given us a safe trip and beautiful fall weather.  I'll enjoy the colors again the rest of the way home today.    God is so good!  I have so much to be thankful for!
Love-Jamie

It's been a good day!

Wow!!  Where do I start?  My mind is all over the place-mostly from exhaustion.:)  Neither Shane or I slept well at all last night.  Don't know why exactly, but this body needed more than just an hour of rest after making the trip here.

This morning was a bit rough start.  I was ready to leave for the day and was getting ready to do my hair when I noticed that the front of my shirt was all damp and so was my skirt.  In checking things out-my TPN had a hole in the cartridge so it was leaking all over me.  Agh... the stuff stinks too.  Thank the Lord I had only been hooked up to the bag for about an hour and so I didn't loose a lot.  I had to hurry, clean up and change clothes and do my hair all in 20 minutes.  We had to be in the lobby to catch the shuttle for Cleveland Clinic.  We got down to the lobby with a few minutes to spare and sit and relax.

We got there and took another shuttle to another building.  This place is huge!!! It is like a city within a city.  We got to the building and checked in where I needed to be.  Since we were early, I went to another area to thank a lady who helped me with the appointment and getting to see the doctor that I needed to see.

Got back up to the waiting area and I was really early but they still took me back and did vitals and all that good stuff.  She went ahead and put me into a room where we waited a little bit.  The nutritionist came in and spent an hour going over things with the TPN and background on everything.   Afterwards,  the doctor came in and we spent an hour with him.  He was so nice and understanding.  He had studied my records and knew everything ahead of time.

The game plan is for me to get built up in weight.  He wants to increase the calories a lot more.  He said basically my body is in starvation mode and that is why I'm still so easily tired.  Before I could say how I feel and things he was describing things just how I felt.  He wants to see me in 3 months and have gained some weight by then and be fattened up.  When I come back, we'll talk about a smart pill that takes measurements and things of the intestine. Last resort, which he said I am a candidate for, would be an intestinal transplant.  He sounded very promising on it even, but it would be a last resort.  Just the weight gain with the TPN he said will help make a difference.

I have an appointment with a nurse tomorrow to go over TPN and some ethanol locks we'll do to help prevent any line infections.  I think things are heading in the right direction.  We are so glad that the Lord opened the door for me to come and to God be the glory for all He has done!!!  Thank you for all your prayers!!!  Love-Jamie

I have arrived!!!

I am curled up with a blanket in my room at the hotel here in Cleveland!!! :) I wasn't sure if I could handle too much longer in the car!

It was beautiful seeing all the colors in the leaves.  God is an artist.  It was gorgeous seeing one tree three shades of color.  It is for sure a fall day with the bit of drizzle that was in the crisp air.

I do have to say that Cleveland is a bit scary.  In less then 10 minutes, we saw 5 cop cars all in different spots.  Thank the Lord for them, but WOW!!  I don't even see that many in Chicago the trip there and back home.  The hotel is nice and the bed seems comfy.  We'll see when I wake up in the morning how things went.  I do have another room at another hotel reserved for tomorrow, just in case;).

It was a rough morning getting ready for church and having one child crying :(.   She has an extra tender heart and when we are away at the hospital and things, she gets upset.  She has a right to be, considering how she has seen me at some pretty rough bumps in life when I was wondering if I would even make it. Please remember to keep the kiddos in your prayers this week also as it is hard on them too!:(  Thank the Lord for a wonderful brother and sis in-law to take 3 extras in.

I'll update the blog sometime tomorrow to let you know how things go. We will take a shuttle to Cleveland Clinic.  I have my first appointment at 11:45 and see the doctor at 1 pm.  Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support for me!!!!!  Love-jamie

We leave tomorrow for Cleveland

We leave for Cleveland OH tomorrow after Sunday School.  Still trying to finish up a few things here and there around the house and put everything into the suitcase. Getting ready to play Apples to Apples with the kids then we have Family Prayer at Church.:)  Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll keep the blog updated as much as I can, that way I'm not making so many phone calls. :)

It's been a bit rough, but God's still good!:)

I'm still recovering from my Hickman insertion.  You won't hear me say too often that ice feels good on it. ;0  It's still swollen a lot and is starting to bruise.  But all looks good and it's to be expected I'm sure.  I felt going into surgery that all was going to go well-boy was I wrong, but thank the Lord He was with me watching over me with the doctor and staff there!  I am sure the Lord kept His hand on me from so much more that could have gone wrong.:)  I am BLESSED!!

I am trying to, little by little, get the kids packed and things ready for Cleveland.:)  We are leaving out after church Sunday afternoon.  That will give me time to rest and be ready for my appointment on Monday at 1pm.   I need to finish getting my charts all put together and ready.  Slowly, but surely, I'm getting there!  We won't know until after my appointment Monday of about how long we will be staying.

The kiddos have Friday off! YEA!  I plan on doing some special things with them  before leaving.  I know it will be hard for all of us.  Matthew keeps asking when he gets to take his trip(meaning to my brother and sis. in-law's)  He is so funny:)  He is looking forward to playing with his cousin.

I am trying to stay out of the ER and stay well.  We went Tuesday nite, they think it may be an inner ear problem causing some dizziness.  I am doing better tonight.  Since the surgery it just hasn't taken much to make me feel exhausted, but I am getting there!:)

Just wanted to keep you updated and thank you for all your prayers!!!    LOVE YOU-Jamie:)