Samantha’s Nonnie put together birthday highlights:

Well, it wasn’t a bbq in the backyard but we still managed to have a good time….

Birthday Wish…..

Miss. Colorado came to visit…..Samantha not so sure about any of this

Autographs for everyone….

Especially Great-Grandpa!

This is an understatement!

Tired big 3 year old.

Not an ideal location but a decent celebration. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Just when I want to get all pissy and sullen that we are in TCH on Lil’ Misses birthday….I get this sent to me from her Uncle Ryan, Aunt Jen and Honorary Uncle Joe. Happy Birthday wishes from the sites in Turkey!

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

S….

A….

M….

Wonderful!!! Thank you 🙂

Which got crazy Mama thinking….this is very last minute but if you have a second and want to send a birthday-wish photo to Samantha, send it to heather.schichtel@gmail.com and I will post your wish!

Uncle Ryan also sent Mommy a lovely new photo of herself

CHOMP!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl.

I am waging a war against these little bugs that keep infesting Baby Girl.

And oh yes, it’s very personal…

MRSA, Gram Positive Cocci, E-Coli…they are all on my hit list. At first I was somewhat casual about it. Bladder infection? Ten days of ammoxicillian? Well of course that should do the trick.

But now, after twenty days of infection and three return trips to the hospital, there is no more Nice Mommy.

It seems the infection has colonized…. Say the docs.

Colonized….I imagine little tribes of bacteria, hiding out in my daughter’s bladder, running and hiding when a big dose of ammox comes around and then resurfacing a day or two later.

“Whew! That was a close on wasn’t it Streptococcus?”

“Yeah, I think they got e-coli but we managed to escape.”

“Lets go find pseudomonas.”

Damm bugs.

So this last time we pulled out the big dogs. Two different kinds of I.V. antibiotics….vancomycin and clyndamycin…the nuclear warheads of antibiotics.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

And….Samantha is doing better. It seemed one more med made a difference. Her eyes are clearer, her color is better, she is sleeping better. Her blood and urine cultures are clean.

Thank God….

We also have her on a whooping dose of probiotics to try and bring back the GOOD bacteria.

The only problem is that a good General strategizes around the clock. Bacteria never sleep! We must be vigilent! Therefore, Samantha has been on a six hour med schedule.

We can do every six hours, can’t we?

Well, her meds take an hour and a half to deliver through her PIC line, which leaves four and half hours to sleep until the next dose is due, which means Mama has been a tired, cranky, General.

Today we had good news….it seems that the enemy is retreating. Today the PIC line was pulled and we are on an eight hour oral med schedule.

Eight hours is good.

Samantha is sleeping.

The General is going to bed.

There are days….

days when I’m rushing my daughter back to the hospital….

after having been out for less than 48 hours….

that I would like to morph into a Praying Mantis. You know, those neat looking green bugs that bite the heads off of other Praying Mantis’?

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp……

I’m not quite sure who would get it first. Would it be the driver in the left lane going 50 in a 75? Would it be the receptionist that can’t find our name on the schedule? Would it be the doc that questions why we are back?

Chomp, chomp, chomp……

I would only like it to be a temporary biting-off-of-the-head; maybe the head could grow back, maybe it could only be a nibble.

Chomp, chomp, chomp….

But if I did morph into a Praying Mantis we would be missing 90% of our medical staff (yes, at some point in time I have wanted to bite the head off of pretty much everyone who works with us) and that would be sad. They wouldn’t be around to do the wonderful things they did during this last stay…..

Wonderful things like get a PIC line placed for Samantha in less than six hours or push really hard to get us out tomorrow or coordinate home health care the day before a holiday so that we can go home.

Even if I only nibbled or if their heads grew back they probably wouldn’t be very happy that I decided to go all ‘Praying Mantis’ on them in the first place. They probably wouldn’t be very inclined to do all those wonderful things for us.

Pity….I do look quite nice in that shade of green….

It’s a delicate balance….what is rational…what is irrational….what is done out of love….what is said out of fear….how to keep my Mantis at bay….

Perhaps our doctors start to notice when I turn a bit green; when my jaw starts to lock and my eyes get a little buggy. Perhaps they speed things up, tell the receptionist to stay on the down-low, send the word out that this Mom needs some fresh air or at the very least….chocolate.

Thank goodness…we need them all…full bodied.

Chomp, chomp, chomp 🙂

This week…..

We checked back into Children’s on Thursday. Samantha had been on antibiotics for an ear infection. She wasn’t getting any better; perhaps a little worse. It was time, once again, to camp out on the 8th floor.

I called my parents and they expressed how sorry they were that we were back in.

“It’s okay,” I said, “we’ll get some answers and we’ll get her healed up.” I sounded slightly nonchalant and a bit blase’ about being back in. Have I gotten to used to this? Am I giving up? Just accepting that this is part of our life?

I don’t feel blase’. As I strapped on my big-girl undies, I felt like I was doing what was best for Samantha. Everytime we are back in, we move forward on the radar. We get more answers about tests, we push a little further.

Don’t get me wrong. I hate being in the hospital. But I think one of our greatest accomplishments as a family is that we have figured out how to be in the hospital. Our life does not stop.

This weekend I went for two 25 mile bike rides. I reserved a sleep room and got eight hours of sleep while Bart took the night shift. Bart went for a run and had a beer with my dad. We got out, we laughed…we had a decent weekend.

Samantha was exercised as she felt better. She was read to and cuddled for hours by her daddy.

Perhaps this works because we have to make it work. As I was riding today, I felt the warm wind in my face, the sweet scent of fresh mowed grass and marveled at how comfortable I’m feeling on my bike. I felt soulful, peaceful and strong. This is our life after all and we have to keep on living.

Speaking of life and growth….Samantha is growing MRSA in her ears and bladder. Infectious Disease has ordered more tests to determine how well her white cells are working since she gets infected so often. Hopefully, this will give us some answers.

She is comfortable right now and looking a little snarky. I think she’s feeling better 🙂 We’re hoping to go home tomorrow. She knows she is adored, not only by us but by all of you who keep sending good thoughts and prayers.

Thank you 🙂

Princess Samantha gets many requests from her fans. This latest was a little hard to decipher…it was all the way from our friends in France! Fortunately, it was from one princess to another….princesses speak the same language.

Here was the message from Princess Abigail……

I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !! I WANT MORE PICCIES OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS !!

Quite subtle, don’t you think?

What’s a girl to do?

I’ve been busy….keeping my father in line!

It’s a tough job.

Grandma Lyn came to visit!

We had several long chats.

Mom felt it necessary to take me to the eye doctor.

She then whooped it up with friends at her 20th high school reunion!

I didn’t know people could be so old!!!

They keep me busy…what could possibly be next????

The Sammer Hammer of course!

Me, Pop and Daddy!

Crazy, crazy Mama.

Me, my Aunt Poling, my lovely cousins, and Grandma Lyn!

Love my Daddy.

The Sammer Hammer raised $2,200 for epilepsy research. What a team!

Snogs to our friends across the pond!

XO-
Princess S.

So, I am soliciting donations…yet again.

“But Heather”, you say “I just gave to the Sammer Hammer Walk for Epilepsy in April. In February, I gave to the Children’s Miracle Network. What more can you ask for?”

And to that I say that I cannot, in good conscience, ask for another penny from you.

So, I am asking you in bad conscience.

In July I will be riding 157 miles through the Colorado mountains in order to raise money for The Children’s Hospital. The race is called the Courage Classic and I am captaining a team called Summits for Samantha. If you have a nickel (or more) left for a Samantha cause you can donate at: http://www.couragetours.com/2009/hschichtel. Or just visit the page to check out why we choose to ride for Children’s. It’s good coffee break reading. Do to technical difficulties, I have also posted a direct link in the nav bar of our blog.

Because lets face it, Samantha has more causes than a Berkley hippie…

on a Greenpeace boat…

with Al Gore…..

We can rally behind many causes….so we do…and yes, we take you with us…you lucky, lucky people!

A big hurray goes to Aunt Tracy and Uncle Scott who are the first donors. Thank you, thank you for starting us off. Tracy also makes the amazing brownies when we are in the hospital….mmmmmmm…brownies.

Love you all….thanks for being on the boat with us

I am suffering from an acute case of stay-at-homeitis followed by the what-did-I-do-today flu.

Perhaps it’s a lack of focus, perhaps it’s the weather…maybe I need a hobby.

I have too many hobbies; perhaps that’s part of the problem.

When I was ‘working’, I had a project or several projects that I was seeing to completion. Someone would come up to me and ask what I was working on and I had action items, lists, agendas, meetings, conference calls….all intended to complete this project.

Focus.

And I had cute little shoes, a matching handbag and a lunch date.

My action items were never interrupted with a never-ending pile of laundry, dust bunnies and a gaggy, cranky two-year old or even more distracting, a cuddly, warm, smiling, adorable two-year old; this turns the action items into more of a wish list.

This does ensure job security.

Which is a nice thing in this economy. But my lack of accountability has left me wandering….searching for my focus….perhaps it’s under the couch….with my dust bunnies.

There’s been a lot of talking and a lack of pics on Mama’s blog! So I’m taking over….yet again. Princesses need to be seen!

A couple days before Easter…still in the hospital with one of my HUGE bunnies.

While in the hospital I developed quite an affinity for my balloons.

Gettin’ ready to break out of the ‘big house’

Tickled to be going home!

At the park and even cute having a little fit!

Fortunately Daddy was able to calm me down. I have become quite the Daddy’s girl as all good princesses should be!