Saturday, May 30, 2009

Update 5-30-09

YAY!!!! God is so good! Mom's out of ICU and has been moved to a critical care step-down unit. She is still taking her antibiotics for pneumonia, but it is improving each day. Her pain is much better now that she is on pain meds...she was able to turn her neck today for the first time since the accident! When we left her room tonight, she was wrapped in the beautiful Prayer Shawl from McFarlin, tucked in for the night and surrounded by gorgeous flowers and cards from family and friends!!

Now our agenda is to get her strong enough for back surgery on Monday morning. My sister Laura will be back tomorrow and we will prepare for the next hurdle, surgery and recovery.

Continued prayers for Dad as he recovers with aches and pains in his neck, back, and leg, though praise that it's nothing too severe.

Matt made it home with the babies, safe and sound. Whew. I'm now hypersensitive to car trips. Please, everyone, be safe, don't fall asleep, don't talk without a hands-free device, and be alert while driving! Prayers for him, G&A as they re-adjust to life at home.

Thank you all, my dear loved ones, who keep us in thought and prayer...it is certainly being felt!!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Update 5-29-09

Just a quick entry as I am about to leave for teh hospital...

Mom is doing much better! She remains in ICU only because they do not have a bed available for her in the "step-down" unit. Her pneumonia is reducing, her O2 stats are 95-100% and her bulging disc in her neck will heal on its own we hope. She is still in intense pain and is surviving the healing process on Tylenol and a Lidocaine patch alone, but her spirits are good! She will move to a new room hopefully tomorrow where we can be with her at all times. Surgery for her fractured back is planned for Monday morning.

Dad is still hurting lots but well minding the two "drill sargents" (Laura and me). He spent most of the day today resting on ice if we weren't at the hospital.

We have been blessed with hot meals and love! Gotta run, more news tomorrow I hope.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Update #2

The most wonderful blessing through all of this is being showered with love and prayers. I feel the hand of God through our family and friends!

As of an hour ago, Mom was doing much better today. She remains in ICU after overmedication and aspiration two nights ago, but she showed great improvements! We are hopeful she will be moved to a regular room tomorrow. Her pneumonia spot has reduced by 50% after strong antibiotics. They removed the C-PAP (sp?) hockey mask as her O2 stats are much better and replaced with the nostril plugs for oxygen support. Her pain is still very intense and they are waiting for results from her neck MRI taken this morning before prescribing any additional pain meds (to make sure she doesn't have additional neck fractures on top of the back fractures and to prevent furthur overmedication). Her back surgery is tentatively scheduled for Monday pending her stability from pneumonia. She was much more alert today; she is definitely "with it" indicated by fussing at my dad at the last ICU visit!! She was cracking jokes and very emotional about this whole event.

Dad is still sore, but improving daily...if we can keep him on his rest and ice regimine. He wanted to mow the grass yesterday....shouldn't surprise anyone who knows him!!

JJ asked what to pray for so here goes...prayers that Mom will be healed from the pneumonia and headed for surgery soon...prayers for continued healing for Dad's back...prayers for relieved pain/effective pain medication for Mom and wisdom for her medical team to do what's best for her...strength and courage and peace for Laura and I as we advocate for Mom's needs and wishes.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Update

Just wanted to update everyone and say thanks for all the prayers, thoughts and offers of help. They are much appreciated.

There has been good and bad events in the last 24 hours. First the good: Dad went in for an MRI of his back, legs and head, and was able to review them and get results from the Dr this morning. While it appears he has a couple of compression fractures to his vertebrae, the Doc feels comfortable treating it with rest and pain meds for now.

Now for the bad, Mom had a very severe reaction to her meds very early this morning, which included a severe drop in her blood oxygen content and unresponsiveness. They were able to stabilize her, and have moved her into ICU for closer monitoring. She has developed pneumonia, and is on a constant supply of oxygen and aggressive antibiotics. They are putting in a port to make the delivery of meds and the sampling of blood easier to accomplish. They hope to get the pneumonia out and the oxygen content stabilized. Unfortunately, this greatly limits her visitation, but she definitely needs the additional rest that brings.

On the Oklahoma home front, Matt will be picking up G&A this weekend and returning to Norman with them in tow on Sunday. Thankfully, we were able to get them into our church's daycare next week on an emergency basis.

Please keep praying, and thanks again for all the words of encouragement.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Please pray for our family...

I hate to dissemenate information via the internet, but in stressful times, it can be a way to get info to people we love in a quick manner.

My mom and dad were in a bad vehicle accident on Friday morning while traveling to Houston where they were planning to help take care of G&A while Matt and I were in New Orleans. Mom was driving the truck pulling their travel trailer and lost control, slamming into the concrete walls three times. The truck and trailer are likely totalled and they are lucky to be alive. Dad was treated and released from the hospital on Friday; he is banged up and very sore from the accident, but no major injuries. Mom was admitted to the hospital and transferred via ambulance back to her home hospital where she will be for a while. She has a compound fracture to her vertabrae and a head contusion. She already needed back surgery for another back problem, so we are potentially facing a more immediate surgery. She is in intense pain but has been trying to keep her spirits up despite ineffective medication.

This is going to be a long journey for Mom and Dad and our family. Please keep them in your prayers and thoughts.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My Faux Tweeting

It's 10:30pm and we are under a tornado warning with a donut-shaped formation headed for Norman. My husband decided it was a good idea to plant the beans now.
Where is my cow flashlight and helmet????????

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Twin Invasion Scenes

Here are a few snapshots from the AR weekend....L's pics are waaay better, but there are a few cute ones!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Twin Invasion and Mother's Day

Let me begin this post by saying that I have not taken any pics in the past week...we've been very "present" in life.

Secondly, I could not do a better job than our buddies Lauren, Kendal, Carlisle and Jackson Camper of detailing the events of last weekend on our visit to their house. We had a blast and Lauren captured fabulous pics! Go to her blog, The Holy Lands, at the right of this page. Thanks for being such amazing hosts and we love you more than you know!

Thirdly, yesterday was a great Mother's Day. Unfortunately our plans of going to the OKC zoo were rained out, so we hung out at home after a morning of church. Matt cooked a fab frittata with fresh swiss chard from the garden and the babies...er....twins slept for 2-3 hours. Our big outing was to the grocery and to eat Firehouse BBQ for dinner (Misty's parents new restaurant in Slaughterville....YUMMY!!). Yes, our children ate smoked chicken. We made a big parenting decision to be the "occasiona-tarians" which means that our default menu will be vegetarian but we will eat meat occasionally. Plus, G&A's stomachs need to be able to digest meat so they don't puke when Grandpa gives them ribs (wink, wink!).

We are home today with upset tummies again. Good news is all allergy and seliac's (sp?) testing came back negative. Who knows....could be the ton of mucus they have ingested in the past few days, teething (we know G's entire fist will fit in his mouth), or a stomach bug.

So here's one to the readers who are parents with outside-of-the-home employment...what do you do when your kids are too sick for daycare? Do you take off work and stay home until they are well? Do you hire a private babysitter and go back to work? That has been a big question over the past few months...would love to hear some insight!