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

Jack and Ella drew me a Get Well Picture!

First you have to eat cookies for drawing energy.

I hope to copy Ella’s fashion sense someday.

That’s a good looking train Mr. Jack. Just as long as it’s a choo choo outta here….

Mommy is a little stir crazy in the hospital so guess who suffers? ME! She thought we should have a Halloween fashion shoot.

Really Mom?

Where is my father??? Daddy! Come save me from this crazy lady!

Yes, I know I’m cute.

What do you mean I can’t have chocolate????

No more pictures until you put the hat on too, Mom!

No….smile pretty

Well, that’s a little better.

That’s my wheel…..and yes by being so squeeky, we did get a little greese. I burned my Polyanna pants yesterday and decided no more nice Mom. I am pleased to say it got some results!

As a compromise between staying a med course that wasn’t working and doing evasive ear surgery, we decided to culture her ear once again and see what else grew. Staph grew immediately, which we knew about but we’re waiting to see what other nasties are in there and then probably add another antibiotic.

Infectious Disease is now leading treatment direction which I feel very good about. Our head doc, Dr. Todd discovered the relationship between tampons and toxic shock syndrome back in the day. He’s responsible for that little warning on the side of every box (I apologize to my male audience for bringing up the ‘T’ word). So, I feel like we have the smarties on the team.

Other good news, Samantha’s triglyceride count was 10,000 yesterday….yes 10,000. People were lining up to pull her off the ketogenic diet. I asked to have it re-run and it’s 1,600. Yes, I know, screamin’ artery-hardening high but actually acceptable for such a high-fat diet.

That’s all the news. No word on when were going home. I raised such a stink about being discharged with a sick child that I’m afraid to ask when we can leave. HA!

Love to you all-
Heather and the gang