Heather's home

Ok. So my blog does not post dates I write entries (did not know, thought it did). I have had people ask me when all this happened. It was on monday July 27th. Heather stayed in the hospital until Wednesday night. She received a unit of blood, and some platelets. Then received another unit of blood today as an out patient. Last night I drove her home from her son's birthday party (she made just a brief appearance on her way home from the hospital). Her lips were so pale a shade of white/bluish purple. I knew she would need more blood. Then I saw a nasty infected spot on her legs. I called the doctor who said how do you know this is cellulitis? I played the NP card and said she needs antibiotics now. But they lady said just to come in tomorrow, which was today. So she got her blood today and some IV antibiotics, and goes back for more antibiotics tomorrow for the infection. She also had some arm twitching last night, I could not sleep all night worried she was going to have another seizure. She is on medicine, but you never know.

I have been working like crazy at my bran new job. Working 6 days a week and working two jobs on one day each week. I am ready for this summer teaching job to be over. Only 2 more weeks. It is too hard to do that now that I am working 5 days a week instead of 3. I have not been able to give my parents or Heather the help they need and probably won't be able to for a while until I am off orientation and back to working only 3 days a week. People always ask me if I am concerned about my pregnancy. I don't even have time to worry, which is actually really nice. I have my first appointment next week at Kaiser. It is just with an NP. Seriously? What do they know anyway? I want to see a doctor.

Heather's back in the hospital

Today I was supposed to work until 4:00 but we got done at 12:00. I went back to my parents house as Tristan and I have been staying there a couple days a week while I am working in Downey. On the way home I called Heather to check in like I do every day. She sounded great and said she felt better and was sitting out on the couch. Not even 30 minutes later my mom called and said Heather had another seizure and was taken to St. Josephs ER. Despite Heather's improved scans and walking more on her own. We have had suspicions for the last couple weeks that something was not right. She threw up the last two nights. She was scheduled to have a repeat scan the first week of August. However today she pushed them to giving her it early by having a few seizures. When I got to the emergency room (a while after Heather) she was awake and talking, but she was still seizing (her left arm was shaking/twitching). I asked if she had received any medication they said no. I could not believe it. I was so mad. It then started on her left leg and I grabbed somebody and said we need the nurse and some medication. He told the doc who came in and said somebody would be in to give her medicine. I was still mad this should have been done awhile ago. Heather then went into a horrible seizure where she was unconscious, foaming at the mouth and bleeding. I have seen a million of these but this was horrible and because it was my sister it was so hard to watch. I started grabbing emergency equipment: suction, oxygen etc. The doctor looked at me like I was crazy. There was no suction stuff I asked for some and he was a jerk and said oh you can't suction her while she is having a seizure. I told him I was getting prepared for when she was done seizing so I could suction her so she would not choke. She stopped seizing and wouldn't you know her oxygen levels dropped and he started yelling for suction stuff from the nurses. Hmmmm, guess they should of been prepared.

Anyway after finally getting some medicine it stopped. SHe got a head Cat scan and then she had another little seizure which they gave medicine right away this time so she did not have a bad one. RESULTS: some of the tumors on her right side of her brain are slightly bigger and with swelling around them. they are keeping her on anti seizure meds to hopefully prevent more, and are giving high dose steroids to help resolve the swelling. The neuro surgeon is to come tonight after he is done with surgeries and re discuss doing the gamma knife procedure to remove all of Heather's tumors. Just 6 weeks ago they had put the procedure on hold as her tumors had shrunk. Crazy to think what can happen in just 6 weeks. I will blog more tomorrow about what they say and her hospital stay.

NOT GOING PRIVATE YET so people can keep the updates on Heather.

Updates on everyone

Heather:

Needed another blood transfusion last week and had chemo this week. Has been in a lot of pain all week which she does not usually have. She thinks she did too much walking when she went to costco with my dad and did not have a wheelchair or walker. Hopefully it will resolve soon cause it is so sad to see her in so much pain. Her new chemo regimen will now be two weeks on and two weeks off. They are hoping this will help and she won't need so many blood transfusions.

Tristan:

Got a job a couple of weeks ago with a great ambulance company but they have still never called to say when he can start. All he had left to do was pass a physical and a background check. Perhaps I should be worrying about what is in that background check since they have not called him. Everytime he calls they keep saying we are processing it. This was to be a summer job and look summer is almost over. We also got him all registered for this semester. 16 units incluing anatomy and anatomy lab. GOODLUCK with that. We are also doing grad school applications right now and Tristan is studying for the GRE ( big nasty test he has to take for grad school. I took it years ago it was not fun).

Cherise: I have been deep cleaning my whole house while off work, only to get a phone call this week from my OB's office saying they called about my ultra sound and I definitely have partial or complete placenta previa. Not the marginal they were hoping for. It does not change the plan, it just makes it more likely that the placenta won't have moved on the repeat ultra sound. They also gave me a list of things I am not to do until my 30 week ultra sound. The first thing she said is no exercise other than walking or swimming. NO problem there have not been doing anything. Next, no big house cleaning or lifting. OOPS just did that for 9 days while washing walls, baseboards, and rearranging furniture. I even lifted 2 couches with Tristan. Oh well nothing happened and I will just be careful after that. I got lots of instruction on what to do if an emergency (bleeding) and I have to see my OB again this month. If I still have this problem at 30 weeks then I will have more restrictions. I hope not bed rest. How boring!

Today Tristan and I went to the temple with a lot of my family. It was so nice to see everyone in the temple and made for a great day.

20 weeks and counting

Today I had my 20 week appointment. I got my results from the last of my blood work for the state genetics test. It was all normal. My big ultra sound I had last week also showed that everything was fine with the baby. The doctor said the baby is on the low end of normal for its size and is smaller than most at this stage, but is ok. Unfortunately I have a low lying placenta according to the ultra sound. It also showd that I have some degree of placenta previa. They were unable to detect the degree of the placenta previa. This is where the placenta is over the opening of the cervix. It was not clear if it was marginal, partial or complete. The doctor said no point in worrying which it is now because no matter what I have to get a repeat ultra sound at 30 weeks. If it is still even marginal at that time, I get a free ticket for a c section. Also, they take the baby around 37 weeks in this case as the placenta starts to rip and bleed as you dilate. How exciting. Fortunately only 10% of women who are diagnosed in the second trimester actually end up having placenta previa in the third trimester because as the uterus grows the placenta rises too. So I am hoping that it rises and my 30 week ultra sound shows all is well.

"B" is for BOY

Yes it is official, we are having a little boy. We had some guesses from other ultra sounds that it probably was a boy, but so many people told us about how their ultra sounds were wrong that early. We have been waiting patiently to see what our baby is. I am just glad he decided to cooperate this ultra sound. I had a dream a few nights before that his legs were crossed and we could not see anything. Now it finally feels real that we are having a little one. We can actually plan things now for this baby like the nursery, a name etc. I am finally starting to show, but most people say it just looks like I am bloated or ate too much, not that I am pregnant. I still have not felt the baby move, but my doctor said to give it until 22 weeks and I am 19 and a half right now. I am still sleeping on my stomach pretty comfortably and am enjoying feeling like myself again. We are slowly making our way through a book of baby names. Do you ever really agree on one????

Last day of work

Yesterday was my last day or work. It was bittersweet. I will miss the nurses and the physicians I have worked with greatly. As a nurse practitioner you don't bond with the other nurses like you do when you are a bedside nurse. you are in an office, or too busy to talk to them and they are with their patients. But over the 16months I have been at this job I have really made some great friendships. Some of my closest friends are still my old co-workers whom I spent 5 years working with at UCI. It was hard to say goodbye. I got teary eyed when I had to say goodbye to one of my favorite physicians I work with. She is amazing and I learned so much from her. One of the male physicians whom I have become very close with brought me a huge bouquet of the most gorgeous flowers I have ever seen. He also brought a card and had everyone sign it and he bought ice cream and threw me a surprise good bye party. He loved me from the moment he heard I was LDS. Apparently all his friends from med school were LDS and he spent years playing basketball with church members. Who would have known that that alone would get you a best friend at work.

Well after getting a lot of run around and applying for a billion positions at my job even with big paycuts, I was unable to retain employment there. Everytime I applied for something they would call me and say we are no longer hiring for that position, we are cutting it completely due to the budget. I am so sick of hearing that. Luckily, I was able to find a job at Kaiser as a regular bedside PICU nurse. It is not ideal, a $10.00 an hour pay cut, and having to drive all the way to bellflower to work, but it is a job and I get benefits quickly. I will have the standard maternity leave of 6 weeks paid by the state since I will only be employed there 4 months before I deliver. That is the hardest part to get over, I had 5 months paid leave at CHOC.

I still have my teaching job 1-2 days a week until August 12th and I will be starting my new job at Kaiser on July 20th. I am really excited to be working with 5 other girls I worked with at UCI. Thanks to them I got this job.