Turkey for me
Turkey for you
Let’s eat the turkey
In my big brown shoe
Love to eat the turkey
At the table
I once saw a movie
With Betty Grable
Eat that turkey
All night long
Fifty million Elvis fans
Can’t be wrong
Turkey lurkey doo and
Turkey lurkey dap
I eat that turkey
Then I take a nap

Thanksgiving is a special night
Jimmy Walker used to say Dynomite
That’s right
Turkey with gravy and cranberry
Can’t believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry
Turkey for you and
Turkey for me
Can’t believe Tyson
Gave that girl V.D.

White meat, dark meat
You just can’t lose
I fell off my moped
And I got a bruise
Turkey in the oven
And the buns in the toaster
I’ll never take down
My Cheryl Tiegs poster
Wrap the turkey up
In aluminum foil
My brother likes to masturbate
With baby oil
Turkey and sweet potato pie
Sammy Davis Jr.
Only had one eye

Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants
Are corduroys
Gobble gobble goo and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey
Only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Compliments of Adam Sandler 🙂

I have made my mama paranoid. Any cough, gag, complaint is reviewed, recorded, consulted, etc.

Yesterday I was cranky and woke up at 5:00am. Today I was cranky and woke up at 3:00am with a vengeance. After repositioning, cuddling, singing, bribing and calling the nurse, mama decided that six hours of fussing was not normal. She tossed me into the car (in my pajamas no less!) and took me on an impromptu field trip back to TCH.

After consulting with the doctor about what it COULD be the doc said “Well, let’s take a look at her PIC line.”

Mama and the doctor undid the bandage over the line and……ahhhhhhhh…..I stopped crying immediately.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Mama said. Well no Mama, my bandage was too tight and it huuuurrrrttttt!!!! If you take it off, I stop crying. It’s that simple.

So, the bandage stayed off because……the doctors decided the PIC line could come out!!! YAY! It took two seconds and I didn’t cry at all. It took a little drama but I got exactly what I wanted.

So that’s what I’M thankful for on Turkey Day. Mama too I think, she can now sleep through the night. Daddy too probably…..the Schichtel household has been a cranky, sleep-deprived place.

On a serious note….our Thanksgiving has been a little derailed. My G.G.’s (great grandma’s) sister died yesterday. I never met great, GREAT Aunt Mavis but I heard she made wonderful peanut brittle, was a cross-stitch diva and a good sister.

Her service has people from all over the country dropping their turkeys and flying to Plano, Illinois to say goodbye. That’s a loved lady.

G.G. is very sad because this is her last sister but I say you never have a last sister….My Mama claims to have ‘sisters’ all over the place. So, G.G. you’re not sister-less! You’re never sister-less. My mama says so.

And to Aunt Great, Great Mav….I wish I would have met you. Peanut brittle sounds quite tasty. Have a happy Thanksgiving in the land of big, white, fluffy mashed potatoes and golden, crispy turkeys oh, and send a word to my Jack-a-rino.

Happy PIC-less night!

Princess S.

Yesterday Samantha and I spent the afternoon at TCH. She had a CT scan on her ear to make sure the infection in the bone was clearing up.

And the good news…..YES! The pockets of infection are getting smaller and it looks like the antibiotics are working. Which hopefully means no surgery and that Samantha gets to keep her mastiod bone.

On another good note, Samantha’s med schedule has been changed from six hours to eight hours which means we don’t have to get up at 2 am to give IV drugs. This new schedule makes the Schichtel household a happier place!

Samantha is doing really well. She is interactive, cuddly and stronger than she’s been in months. This improvement makes us think that the infection has been brewing for a while. We’ll work with Infectious Disease to map out a long-term plan to keep Sammers healthy.

Oh, and Samantha says to sign her guest book! The latest is from our favorite monkey. All the way from Seattle! He’s a very cosmopolitan monkey. We love you Mr. Spankey!

So I have been home for a week. I have to say…..this home thing is pretty nice.

No beepers, no buzzers, no doctors, no nurses, just Mama, Daddy and Me…..nice.

Mama took me back to the doctor today and my ear looks good…nice and dry. Dr. Elias kept commenting on how fantastic I look. Well of course! I always look good but some days are better than others.

It was very nice to walk into the TCH Penthouse and walk out an hour later. Adios Docs! No one’s keeping me in!

On a very annoying note, I have become ticklish. I don’t know when this happened but my face scrunches up and I get this very cute look on my face. My parents are very easily entertained and have made tickling me their new life’s passion. Help!

I have eluded them though….Mama spent the good part of an hour this afternoon trying to capture my tickle face on camera but I was too quick for her! Ha ha Mama! No pictures of the elusive tickle face! Now leave me alone.

I do have to send a word out to my Mama. She is the PIC line queen….midnight, 3 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon…she is there with IV meds and a syringe of saline. Go Mama!

I’m watching ER. I’m not sure why because it hasn’t been the same since George left (maybe ten years ago?) and some of those medical procedures are a little too close to home. Maybe it’s in honor of Michael Crichton who created ER and who I’ll miss. Remember the first time you saw the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park? Classic.

Anyway some guy on the show had seizures so they called for so many milligrams of Ativan. Hey, good choice. Samantha responds well to Ativan Then another man who was living on the street came in with an infection and the doc called for Vanco and Ceftriaxone. Ahhhh, he must have a staph infection with something else bacterial. But should they give a homeless man IV antibiotics? Maybe there’s another choice

Then I heard a voice….turn the channel or read a book!

So I turned to the news who reported a nurse in Boulder who switched out a pain med, fentenol (sp) for saline during patients recovery from surgery. Ow, Ow, Ow!

Enough! I turned off the TV and reached for my book….Anna Karinina…..Tolstoy. It’s a crazy night when Tolstoy is lighter entertainment than NBC. Stay away from the medical shows….away from the medical shows…aaawwwwaaayyyy…..

My mama is crazy about this man. She ran around the house last night hooting and crying….I thought oh no, we’re going to have to call 911 again. She talks about change and how important it is right now. I automatically think it’s about something in my diaper but I guess it’s a different kind of change.

So Mama drug me out yesterday to do this thing called ‘vote’. I didn’t think it was too exciting. I did get a sticker though!

Waiting in Starbucks for my free tall drip after I voted!

What do you mean I’m not old enough for my free tall drip??!! And they call this a democracy!

We are home 🙂 Did I tell you we’re home? Hey, guess what???? We are home!!!!

We checked out of the TCH Penthouse yesterday with a book full of appointments to make, things to watch out for and care for Samantha’s PIC line.

I gotta tell you, the PIC line has me a little nervous. Samantha has a feeding tube which goes into her tummy but the tummy is kind of a dirty place anyway. The PIC line sends meds directly into her heart….her heart…that little ticker….important place….must keep line clean….

I am now a hand-washing, alcohol swabbing, purel-ing fool! I went through care procedures about 20 times in the hospital. Our lovely nurse finally patted me on the back, told me it was time to go home and I would be just fine.

Our home nurse met us at 5:30 to go through med procedures. We now have saline, heprin flushes, syringes, and a small fortune in Vancomyacin sitting next to the cottage cheese in our refrigerator. We don’t have an IV pump, we have these cool balloon looking things that slowly release the med into her PIC line….pretty cool.

Samantha is doing great. She is sleeping soundly, very relaxed and obviously very happy to be home.

Thanks for everything 🙂 Don’t forget to vote! And for you Coloradoans out there….Yes on 51!

Love,
Us

It was a party in my room today!!!!!

My Hip Cousins 🙂

Fresh air for the first time in two weeks! I was so overwhelmed I took a nap 🙂

Cooper is four years old and the nephew of my friend Bree. Bree called her sister (Cooper’s Mom) Saturday morning and ended up talking to Cooper….and then Bree and Cooper ended up talking about Samantha.

Cooper was very worried about Samantha being in the hospital and wanted to give her something. He only had two pennies. Luckily his Auntie Bree was throwing a jewerly party that night and Bree just happened to have a beautiful bracelet on a special Cooper clearance….. the braclet cost just two precious pennies. Cooper also thought that Samantha would like something with frogs…..Samantha is now wearing her beautiful pink bling braclet with princess frogs wearing golden crowns.

I have met Cooper once and I adore him. I adore you Cooper!

The complete story is on Bree’s blog which is below:

http://dew2be.blogspot.com/2008/11/she-likes-frogs-right.html

I am always touched by the kindess of others….especially the simple beauty that comes from these kiddos. Thank you Cooper.

Speaking of the kindness of others, our friend Pat brought us yummy stir fried shrimp and rice last night.

Thanks for dinner Pat!

And thanks to everyone for the cookies, the jam, the Wahoo’s, the coffees, the visits and the notes. The hospital can be a rotten, nasty place and it’s always wonderful to see familiar faces. We love, love, love you all.

We’re hoping for a hospital discharge by lunchtime. Keep your fingers crossed!

Love,
Us

We have good friends who have been wonderful to us during our (many) times of need.

The last time we were in the hospital for an extended period, our friend Susan whipped up a dinner of pork roast, roasted root veggies, gnocci and gave it to Bart to bring down to the hospital…..mmmmmmmm gnocci. This time Susan gave Bart yummy homemade chili. MMMMMMMM….chili.

To sweeten the deal, Susan’s husband works for New Belgian. A local brewery that makes fabulous beer mmmmmmmm……beer….. Susan brought Bart a six pack of wheat beer to go along with our tasty chili. YUMMMMMEERRRRSSS!!! Hurry Bart! Get to Denver with the chili and beer!!!

The beer was placed in the community frig until it was time to head down. At 5:00 Bart went to collect our goodies. Much to his dismay…….our fabulous chilled beer was gone….stolen out of the refrigerator….gone….I am now very sad.

So, Mr. Beer Stealer….you have THREE bad karma strikes against you!

1. You stole our beer
2. You stole our GOOD beer
3. I don’t use this one very often but I’m going to! You stole beer from parents of child who is in the HOSPITAL!!! FIE! FIE! FIE Mr. Beer Stealer! 3 bad karma strikes!

Okay, I’m done. Otherwise we’re doing well. Samantha’s nasty ear is drying up and we’re working on a discharge plan. Keep your fingers crossed!

Love,
Us