american idol

I am watching American Idol right now and I was just listening to their group number and I cannot take Adam Lambert's voice anymore. He does all this weird stuff with it. I have only liked a few of his performances. His type of singing and music does not apeal to me. I am just writing this to say, Cherise no likey!

Job update

Well my boss has not sat us down and told us for sure we are out of a job. 2 weeks ago she told us they were looking at it and it would probably happen. This week my old co worker(who only had a part time job with us and transferred to a different department to be full time)that barely escaped this lay off told me she was in a meeting for her new department and they announced that the picu Nurse practitioners would no longer have jobs and that she was lucky she transferred when she did. She went up to the woman after and told her that I was only told they were thinking about it. The lady said no it was a done deal and had been for awhile. So now I am ticked that my boss lied to us. I further investigated this and asked a physician I work with who runs our ICU. He said he knew nothing about it (although I was told that he had been in meetings about it for 8 months, so many lies) but would look into it. He came up to me yesterday and said he was really sorry that he could not help but that I would no longer be working in the PICU but they were trying to find somewhere else for me and my co-worker.

I am so sick of the lies that I don't even trust that they will find something else. I think they just told the doc that so he would not feel so bad. My co-worker seems to not care which makes me think she already has something lined up. I heard a rumor that they recruited her for this position so they could have an experienced nurse pracitioner and they promised her they would not lay her off since she has been laid off by CHOC hospital in mission viejo 8 times in her 25 year career. Apparently she has some type of contract with them. It is so shady all of it. I wonder when my boss will tell me I am getting laid off, probably June 30th which is supposedly my last day.

I am still hoping for a position at CHOC since I cant find any NP jobs in southern california. I really don't want to loose my long paid maternity leave either. Mean while Tristan needs a root canal, an implant for his other tooth ($3000.00) and now has some weird skin growth. I had a nightmare last night that he went to the doctor and it was skin cancer and we had no insurance cause I lost my job. Needless to say I have not slept in the 2 weeks since I found out I would lose my job. Moral to the story is don't marry somebody with bad teeth, you could have sent your child to college for the price of the dental work. SO single ladies in addition to a credit chceck, get his dental records too.

Oppostition in all things.

Here in the Terry home we have had some good times and some not so good times. A little over a month ago we found out we will be having our first baby, we were in shock. Of course we did not want to tell until the whole miscarriage thing was not much of an option anymore. I am over 9 weeks. We were not going to tell until after the first trimester, but Tristan is really excited and can't wait much longer. We had our third ultrasound this week and saw the heart beating and the arms and leggs moving around. The chance of miscarriage at this point is less than 5% so hopefully we won't be in that 5%. When we went for our first appointment the doctor said that either I was only 4 weeks pregnant (thought I was 6) or that the baby had already died. Great! He never even gave us a due date. He ran all the tests gave me prenatal vitamins, told me he was sure everything was fine and to come back in 3 weeks when I would be 7.5 weeks. But he really was not committed to this, I could tell. I went to a free clinic where they asked me to be an ultra sound model and we were able to go and have another ultra sound only 4 days after that first doc appt. In just 4 days the baby had grown. I was 6 weeks,not the 4 my doc said and we could see the heart beating. Well that was reassuring, but I still was not convinced everything would be ok.

Last week I found out I will most likely be losing my job in july. I am the provider and carry the insurance and I would get a 5 month maternity leave at my job that is paid cause I have so much vacation tme. Now I will have none of this. I have been looking for a job for a week and nothing, not even for regular nursing. If i can't transfer somewhere at CHOC (the hospital i work at) then I will have to find a job else where and loose my long maternity leave. Bummer. I have been really upset. So upset and crying all the time that we were worried the stress was too much for the baby. Luckily our ultra sound we just had on wednesday showed all is well. The doctor was surprised to see in the 3 weeks that the baby grew so much and I was 9 weeks instead of the 7.5 they were expecting. My new due date is Nov 26th which is Thanksgiving. Our perfect little plan was to get pregnant in May and have a baby in January so I could be off for 5 months and then Tristan would be done with school and could watch the baby while I worked until he started grad school. Then I would only work 2 days a week. So since we already messed up that plan by getting pregnant sooner than we thought I should not be surprised that rest of the plan is not working out.

Hopefully I will find a job or they will decide not to let us go afterall. It is really hard to be so excited about the baby when you are so scared and nervous about everything else. But we are really happy to have a little one coming into our family.

Super glue, Silly putty, plumbers tape????

Yes you read this title correct. What will keep Heather's head from leaking. She spent all that time in the hospital and has been getting IV antibiotics at home and the leak made its grand reappearance yesterday. It is small but she went immediately to the neuro surgeon's office where they think her body just needs more time to heal and more of the antibiotics. Luckily she has antibiotics already planned for through monoday. But her neuro surgeon said that was why he did not want her to have chemo last tuesday because her body needs to rest and heal. The chemo prevents her from properly making all the cells she needs to heal and repair wounds. At least she did not have any chemo this week. She goes tomorrow to have her blood and counts checked. It was so cute today Hannah came running up to Scott when he got home and said, "We forgot to take mommy to get her chemo today, its tuesday." That cutie knows the schedule but does not realize after two treatments Heather gets a week off. She is definitely aware of what her mommy is going through and all the doctors she goes to. Heather really needs a spirit booster, she is discouraged with the leaking again. But good news is she went to church on sunday and even got down the stairs on her feet with scott helping her. She opted to be carried upstairs,not ready for that yet.

Heather's home

Heather came home monday night. She is doing well. I forgot to mention on the previous post that she received two units of blood while in the hospital. Her red cells and hemoglobin have been running low and they gave her one shot a couple weeks ago to stimulate them to grow but it only helped a little. Boy what a difference that blood made. She has more color, more energy and more strength. She was able to get herself (with her walker) out of bed to the bathroom and back to bed. She is even dressing herself all the way. She is so much stronger with getting up and down. She will be receiving IV antibiotics at home fore the next little while. She was able to get her chemo today. The neurosurgeon and the oncologist discussed it yesterday and the neurosurgeon was not sure he wanted Heather to get chemo yet with her being on the antibiotics and the possible infection. However her oncologist said that with her aggressive cancer it was not a choice, it had to get done. The surgeon was ok with it if the oncologist was. So we checked her counts today and blood work and all was good for her to get her chemo. Tomorrow will be her injection to get the white blood cells stimulated and then she will have next week off. The doctor told me to go everyday and check Heather's incision site and that he would not trust anyone else. Talk about some pressure.

As for Tristan and I we are doing the same old stuff. He is working hard at school and studying for lots of tests. I continue to work both my jobs and am looking forward to Tristan being done with school for the summer so my long list of chores and repairs can get completed.

Heather update

Heather had her procedure done on Friday and the neurosurgeon thought the fluid in her brain looked suspicious for infection and wanted her to stay overnight to receive IV antibiotics. The next day the infectious disease specialist came by and wanted Heather the stay until monday to make sure she received several days of IV antibiotics as he was concerned she may develop meningitis. She does not have other symptoms of meningitis, but they wanted to make sure it does not develop. So far it looks like the sample they sent is just growing your regular skin bacteria, but the infectious doctor today said he wanted to look at the fluid and make sure.

Heather was in good spirits today when i visited her after work. My mom was sitting with her and we had a good visit. She is looking forward to coming home tomorrow.

Fixing the leak today.

Well we have had a busy week. On Friday my brother Fred who lives in Utah and his family came down to visit for spring break. They spent a log of time with Heather but managed to squeeze in a Disneyland trip. We had a lot of fun and even had family dinner with our entire family on Sunday. We celebrated Easter early and has the dinner at our house. THat is the most people we have ever had in our home. It worked our really nicely. People from my parents church brought in the food which was really nice. After dinner we were able to have a family portrait done. Our wedding photographer grew up with Scott Heather's husband and offered to do a complimentary portrait when Heather was in the hospital. We have been waiting for her to get better and for Fred's family to come down so we could do it. We really appreciated Michelle doing that for us and on such short notice. We even had a family night at the park one night with Heahter's family and Fred's family. So much fun to have everyone together.

On Wednesday when Heather went back to have the one little stitch checked where they had sewn her up last week, there was still a little spinal fluid leaking out. Infact Heather's neck and face are swollen and I wonder if fluid is collecting in their as it has nowhere else to go now that the hole is sewn up. The doctor arranged for Heather to be admitted today through the ER and have the same procedure she had done a bit ago on her other incision. They will open up this incision (it is the big one from where her tumors were removed), and clean it out and re seal it and sew up back up. Heather does not have bone right there and so they seal the part of her brain they had to cut into and the doctor thinks that from the radiation it came unsealed and the fluid is leaking out and collecting under her skin. THen it builds up pressure and forced it out this tiny little hole. So they will be resealing her brain and sewing up her skin. Heather has been doing so well, and I am so sad that there is another set back. But at least it really is a minor one. I would rather have this happen than another seizure or her not being able to get around like she is. She is at the hospital now and hopefully everything will work out well.

She sprung a leak!

Well this week was an adventure as usual. Poor Heather just can't go a week without some new problem. Well this weak she sprung a leak in her head. On Tuesday she thought she was periodically having sweat run down the back of her cute little bald head. But it turned out to be clear fluid coming out of a pin sized hole where her original stitches from her brain surgery were (not from he newly fixed area that was gaping open). Scott put gauze on it and the neuro surgeon wanted Heather to get a cat scan to evaluated for hydrocephalus (swelling of your brain due to accumulation of your spinal flui) and then to see the doc after. It was completely clear fluid which is exactly what spinal fluid is. The scan ended up being normal, thank goodness. But when the nurse practitioner took off the gauze Scott had put on her head, the fluid just poured out like a waterfall. Even he was impressed. It would not stop trickiling out after that initial pouring, and they ended up stitching up that tiny tiny hole. Poor Heather she was so brave and ended up with a soaking wet shirt. So that was our adventures tuesday and wednesday.

Thursday brought a check up with the doc, I was working and was so busy that I did not get to go see her. But turns out her blood work showed her hemoglobin and hematocrit were low = anemia. So she had to go back today and get another injection this time to stimulate her red blood cells to be made. Her other injection she gets after chemo is to make her white cells. This will likely still hurt her bones just as much as you also make all these cells inside your bones. And then its start this cycle all over again on tuesday with chemo. And still Heather always smiles. What an inspiration she is and so strong.

I hate when people gush about their hubbys but I must say I got a good one. He has helped my dad get Heather up or down the stairs, or both for pretty much every trip they need to take. He text me once to say "your dad is so cute with Heather, you can see how much he loves her." Boy ain't that the truth. He goes over their everyday and takes her to all her appointments so that Scott can do his job and be the provider. What a team this whole family works as!