End of Day Entry

Spent a good portion of the afternoon with Kendra at the hospital.  She is doing well, but was running a fever this morning. Dr. Cartwright wants to keep her there until at least Friday morning to be sure they have her on the right antibiotic (we are waiting for a C & S result). 

As things stand right now, she should come home on Friday (crossing fingers).  She probably won't be ready to go back to school for at least another week after that. 

I contacted the "pupil services" at the district offices to see about a home tutor for the time she will be home, but unable to attend school.  I was told that she needs to miss 15 days before she is "eligible" for home tutoring....  WHAT THE F<<<???   Seems to me by the time anyone "qualifies" they are going to be back in school before it is even worth having the tutor.  WHATEVER!!  I'm going to send off some e-mails to Kendra's teachers in the morning, letting them know what is going on.  I will also be stopping by the school on Monday with her note from the doctor and I guess maybe I can get more guidance on her lessons at that point.

Now.. let's talk about me.  I tried to go up to the hospital prepared for the day with snacks and drinks to meet my dietary goals (avoid fatty foods).  I did alright.  I found it hard to focus and I did have lunch in the cafeteria yesterday.  But this morning on the scale I had not gained anything .

This morning, I woke up with enough time to do my workout.  I am starting a 12 week "Project:You" program with Kathy Smith.  So.. today was day 1 on the workout.  I made it through all the moves and I think the exercise really helped my mood and my stamina today.  But I think I'm going to be sore in the morning. 

I felt great all day, but to be honest.. I've been feeling some soreness in my chest and arms (today was upper body/abs strength training) and also in my abs since I've been home.  I think some motrin and a large glass of water before I go to bed is in order. 

 

The details on Kendra

Yesterday was an incredibly long day.  We had to leave here at 5:30 AM, to arrive at WRAMC for her "show time" of 8:00 AM.  They finally came for her for the surgery (we were waiting in the surgery waiting room, talk about your cattle call) at 11:00. 

From there they ushered us into another waiting area, in which she was placed on the gurney, the IV was started, final information was taken and received.  Anesthesia was started just before 11:45 and I was sent off to the waiting room.  I was anticipating the surgery to be 3-4 hours long.

The surgery lasted until 5:30 PM.  The surgery was for the removal of bladder stones. Kendra is susceptible to growing bladder stones because her bladder was augmented with bowel tissue.  This bowel tissue continues to produce mucus and the mucus becomes an irritant to the bladder.  The bladder then secretes something to bind up the mucus and eventually a stone is developed (think pearls in an oyster). Much of this can be avoided if the patient flushes out the bladder routinely to remove excess mucus, but Kendra doesn't do this as often as she should.  Normally we catch this problem early enough that they can go in and pluck these things out through a catheter.  But this time these stones had been less painful for Kendra and had reached the size of eggs.  And there were several of them in there. 

Dr. Cartwright wanted to try to remove them intact (without breaking them up with lasers) to try to avoid leaving any "sand" behind to become new stones.  But once she made the incision, she discovered that they were even too big to slip through the opening she had made and she didn't want to make the opening any larger (not wanting to compromise a lot of the work that has been done over the years), so she had to resort to breaking up the stones.  AND there were far more stones in there than she anticipated. So the whole thing took longer. 

In post-op because of the size and composition of the stones, Dr. Cartwright is worried about infection as well as whether they did manage to get all the "sand" out with the stones.  By breaking them up for removal, the stones became less stable, so when they were nabbed to be brought out, they would break up even further.  Kendra currently has a supra-pubic tube in place (this is because of the surgical opening of the bladder, it allows for everything to heal before she uses her stoma again.  The tube is large and Dr. Cartwright intends to have Kendra's bladder flushed with saline through out today to hopefully bring out any residual "sand".    When Kendra does come home, she will have the supra-pubic tube still in place, making school attendance uncomfortable and darn near impossible. 

So.. what started as a "quickie" surgery has become a rather complicated situation.  Before I head back up to the hospital today, I need to call the school education office and see about arranging a tutor for Kendra for next week when she is finally home.  If there is any paperwork required from her doctor, I need to know this now, so that I can get it from her while I am there today.

 

 

End of a long, long day

Kendra is resting fine, but the surgery ended up being far more complicated than expected.  She will be in the hospital at least an extra day.  My head hurts, I am tired. I will write more later on this.

Another WRAMC run

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 A.M. Kendra and I head back up to WRAMC.  Kendra is scheduled for surgery around 8 A.M.  I spent today putting things in order around the house so that Kim and Mac can function while we are gone.  There is no school tomorrow so Kimberly is home with her brother.

I really like this surgeon and I feel comfortable with everything that has been discussed.  But I always worry about "what will they discover that we didn't think about?"  It never gets easy when your children need medical intervention.

I am bringing along snacks and water so that I can keep the opportunities to eat poorly to a minimum, but it's still going to be a long day.  They do intend to keep Kendra overnight, so once I am comfortable with her and how things are going in the hospital, I will come home and take care of Kim and Mac.  Hopefully things will go well and I will go back to the hospital on Wednesday just to bring Kendra home.

 

I almost wallowed

Yesterday was a long day.  I had to take Kendra up to WRAMC and do all the pre-op orders for her surgery on Tuesday.  It's a long and tiresome drive up there, but at least it's routine now.  We don't get lost anymore.  We talk about things and then we listen to music and sing together.  Kendra has the best voice.  She used to be in the school choirs, but she elected not to do that this year.

At any rate, we left home around 7:00 AM.  We talked with Dr. Cartwright about what would be done on Tuesday (they are removing bladder stones).  We went through all the choices for how to do it, as well as discussing what would happen if we elected NOT to remove them (not a good choice, but an option).  We finally decided on the method and discussed that thoroughly.  Now that Kendra is 18, she speaks up a lot more and she absolutely MUST sign off on anything they want to do for her.

Then it was off to the pre-op ward and taking care of all the paperwork before the surgery.  They have set it up as a "one stop" area.  We see the finance officer to confirm insurance coverage, we see the lab techs for all the preliminary blood work, and finally we see a surgical nurse to go over the final consent forms and sign them.

When all is said and done, we finally left WRAMC at 3:00 pm and arrived back home after 5:00pm. 

So.. last night after arriving home was when I really felt the need to wallow.  I miss my real-life friends in Germany.  I haven't yet made the kind of friends here that I had there.  I knew that if I was back at Illesheim, Sara and I would be out on the balcony, sipping some white wine and commiserating on the tediousness of the day. 

Here it's just me and the kids.  And while my kids are great, I don't like dumping my concerns on them.  Especially when some of the concerns are brought on BY them. Anyway, I know that I could call some of my friends but most of them have bigger worries than I do and I hate having to share my whine time with someone who really has something to whine about.. I know.. selfish.. but OY... I just didn't want to have to shoulder someone else's much bigger issues lastnight.

Paul called me about the time I was getting ready to really start the pity party.  Being able to share with him my worries and concerns helped.  He managed to stay very neutral so that he didn't feel like he was being picked on. (one of my bitches was being tired of single-parenting when I have a partner).

And once we were done with the nice parts of our conversation, I felt so much better.  I let him know that, too.. that just being able to talk to him really made all the difference.

Gnu Bar review

Remember the Gnu bars I ordered last week?  Well, they arrived on Tuesday.  In the rush and bother of my household I forgot about them yesterday. 

The 4 different flavors available at this time are Chocolate Brownie, Cinnamon Raisin, Orange Cranberry and Banana Walnut. I ordered some of each flavor so I could try them all out.

Today I had the Orange Cranberry bar for my morning snack. It was good.  I loved the texture of the bar, it was soft and flavor-full. I probably won't order this flavor again because I thought the Orange was a bit too strong.  But if you are a seriously big fan of oranges.... I think this would be great for them.  No funny after taste with this bar.. just lots and lots of orange.. almost to the point of overpowering the cranberry.

Stay tuned... I'll review the other three flavors as they come up in my menu.

Donde esta, Papa?

                            

                          

 

In Loving Memory of Virgil Wayne Carpenter

September 13, 1932 - December 17, 1991

 

Today is the Day of the Dead.  For those of us from Mexican families.. it is a day in which we honor our loved ones whom have passed on.

I miss my Dad.  After he died, my sister and I were talking about various things ... our memories of him.  I always knew I was his favorite... even though I frustrated him at times.  I still knew I was his "little girl".  Well.. this was one of those things I never said out loud because I didn't want my sister to feel like she wasn't any body's favorite... but after Dad passed away and we  were talking, Susan said.. "You know.. I always felt like I was Dad's favorite."  I was so thrilled to learn that she felt that way... because.. well.. I was his favorite, but it was nice that she never felt like less than that.   But of course, the really amazing thing is that Dad managed to make us both feel that way.  I don't know how he did it, but what an awesome gift he gave to us... two daughters who grew up feeling like Daddy's Little Girl. 

When Kendra was little, her and my dad were thick as thieves when it came to sneaking candy from Grandma.  He'd send Kendra in to the kitchen, where she would look up Grandma with those big green eyes (the same green eyes that my dad had) and ask if she could have some "red candy" please (they were the hard candy that is strawberry flavored, wrapped like strawberries).  My mother couldn't resist that little girl and she'd give Kendra a few pieces...  then Kendra would climb up into Grandpa's lap and they would share her booty.  LOL.. they would go on like this all afternoon.

My parents both worked when we were in school.  My mother worked the swing shift at the hospital and my dad was a mail carrier.  The only time that we had a sitter was during Christmas, because my dad would put in a lot of overtime with all the extra mail that comes that time of year.  We had a lot of face time with our parents.  I know it was motivated by the savings of not having daycare for us, but the positive side to them working different shifts is that we were always with one of them.

When we were young, he'd take us shopping for our mom at Christmas time.  He would let us pick out what we thought Mom would like.  He never limited us to just perfume.. and he NEVER bought something for her from us without us being there.

Dad met my mom while he was in the Army.  He was stationed at Ft. Huachuca with my mom's older brother, Chan. On the long weekends, Chan would bring my dad home with him to stay with my mom's family.  When my dad separated from the Army, he asked Mr. Acevedo for my mother's hand in marriage.  He got permission and they were going to be married in a year, during that time, my dad was supposed to be working  and saving up for that day.

But just a few months later, when my mom's sister was getting married, my dad came back to attend the wedding and see my mother. (She was in Arizona, but my dad had gone back to Washington state to live with his Aunt while he worked).  Seeing my mother again made it very difficult for him to leave without her, so they eloped that weekend after her sister's wedding.

He said he couldn't live without her any more.

One of the best legacies that my dad gave me was being a positive role model of what a loving husband should be, and what an involved father should be.  Because of the love that I saw every day of my life, I was able to pick a good man. 

I miss my dad.