More Dad

Yesterday Dad was looking much better after his bronchoscopy the day before. He was a little more lively and he was able to get out of bed and take a shower. His blood sugar was running high because of the steroids, so he was given insulin to bring it down. His blood pressure has also run high since he's been in, so he was given extra medication to bring it down. Other than that, things went pretty well all day until dinner. For some reason, he didn't get his. By the time we realized that dinner probably wasn't coming, I went into the hall to find a nurse. I spoke with our nurse and she said there wasn't a tray for him and after making sure that he wasn't having any procedures done that would require him to have an empty stomach, raced to the downstairs cafeteria. The kitchen was closed, so he couldn't get his regular hospital dinner. But the nurse was nice enough to find him a sandwich, chips and iced tea.

Today, Dad was able to get out of the bed and sit in a chair! The blood sugar was still elevated, so he is still on some insulin. His blood pressure is slowly getting back to normal. His blood oxygen level is still lower than normal, so he's still on the oxygen to supplement it. He got a little bit of a yeast infection in his lungs from all the antibiotics, but he was given medication to get that under control. I had no idea you could even get a yeast infection in your lungs.

We got some really good news tonight......Dad doesn't have the swine flu! The results finally came back from the state and he was negative. This means that he will be taken out of isolation by sometime tomorrow. No more masks and gowns!!! The sample that was taken from his lungs isn't growing anything so far which is also good news. That means that the antibiotics that he is on are working. The doctor won't give final results on that for another day or two. It's going to be a long road to full recovery, but Dad seems to be on the right track. I'm staying here in Woodsboro until he comes back home. Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers!

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Dad

Yesterday I arrived in Corpus to visit Dad in the hospital. My mom wasn't sure if I would be allowed in, but they let me in because I was immediate family. They won't even allow flowers to be delivered to his room! He's currently in isolation because he has flu-like symptoms. They had a woman die of pneumonia a couple days ago (a complication from swine flu) so they are taking extra precautions. I had to gown up and wear a mask the entire time I was in the room and they told me that if I wanted to touch Dad, then I had to wear gloves. How scary is that? Dad looked extremely tired and was coughing horribly. He's on oxygen full-time because his lungs are too full of gunk for him to breathe fully. For whatever reason, he's on a liquid diet. The pulmonologist said that he could go back to regular food, but the orders didn't go through in time so poor Dad got liquids for dinner again. He was so tired of eating it, that he only ate half of a popsicle before we left. He wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight because he was getting a bronchoscopy in the morning. Mom and I stayed until about 7 o'clock. He got all his meds and then rested. We went to go eat at Chili's before making the hour drive home.

This morning, we headed back to the hospital. Dad was supposed to get a bronchoscopy so that they could look into his lungs and get a sample of the infection. That way, they can culture the sample and figure out what's causing the pneumonia. The pulmonologist told us that is was very unusual for someone Dad's age to get double pneumonia. It will be 2 to 4 days before they will get results from it, so it will be a hard wait. If nothing grows, then that means the treatment he's on (heavy antibiotics) are working. If something grows, then they will know the cause and an adjust treatment accordingly. While he was getting scoped, they also flushed out his bronchi with fluid. Dad said he was awake the entire time and it was weird, but not too freaky. When he got back in the room, the coughing had subsided tremendously (because of the flushing) and he looked okay. He seems to be feeling better today and he looked more alert. His flu test came out negative, which was no surprise. He had already been swabbed last Friday and that had been negative, too. He was tested for swine flu but that has to be sent somewhere else in the state and it takes several days to get the results. Even if it came out positive, I'm sure he's past the contagious stage anyway. His blood pressure was elevated, so he was given some medicine in addition to his regular blood pressure medicine. The best part of today was seeing Dad's face when they finally brought him some "real" food at 7pm. He was so excited to eat something other than soup or popsicles! Mom and I stayed with him until about 7:30 and then we headed out to get some food. We had only eaten breakfast this morning so we were starving.

We went to Olive Garden because that sounded good for some reason. Today is my Mom's birthday so I bought her dinner and then I got each of us a pint of ice cream to eat at home. We finished the night eating Rocky Road out of the container while watching the news.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate it! I'll update again when I can.

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More virus

Dad is being transferred to a hospital in Corpus today so that he can be near a pulmonologist. Yesterday he had pneumonia in one lung, but today it has developed in the other lung. He is still on full-time oxygen until he can breathe a little better. Please say a little prayer for him for a speedy recovery. Thanks.

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The virus that just won't end

Remember that my sister and Mom both had some weird virus that put my mom in the hospital for 8 hours because of dehydration? Well, yesterday my mom called to say that she took Dad to the hospital because he was still running fever after 7 days. They found that he had developed pneumonia and was also dehydrated so he was started on antibiotics and an IV drip. If all goes well, he should be home sometime this morning. Can you believe this virus?

I'm so thankful that neither myself, Jason or the girls caught it.

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Week with the munchkins Days 4 - 6

Friday started out slow. Hailey was still coughing so we decided to stay indoors. I forgot all about a bunch of art supplies that I had in a closet and when they were discovered, boredom was soon cured! The girls spent hours in the loft coloring, pasting stickers and cutting. Later that afternoon, we headed out to Becca & TJ's place for dinner. TJ bar-b-qued chicken and sausage and the rest of us brought the sides. We were supposed to take the girls swimming, but since Hailey was still a little sick, I conveniently didn't remind them about it. The girls played surprisingly well with the other little boy at the party, taking turns on the computer games and playing outside. We left pretty late and got them to bed late.

Luckily for me, they slept in late, too. Jason went to Pick and Pull on Saturday to find some parts for his project truck while us girls stayed home. I thought it might be a good idea to get out of the house, so I decided to take them shopping. We first went to Pier 1 since I still have a gift card that I keep forgetting I own. They did okay in there, but Target was a different story. Target started out well, but went downhill quickly. There was the poking, making faces and general sisterly fighting that ensued. They promised me they would behave, so we pressed on through more of the store. I think we went about 10 feet before one of them started pressing themselves in-between the clothes. It was so bad for a while there that I told them that they were going to make Aunt Stephanie cry if they didn't stop fighting. That seemed to work. They followed me silently throughout the rest of the store in fear that my second head would make it's appearance. We agreed that we would make chocolate chip cookies when we got home if they could behave.

They did. We came home and made our cookies with each girl taking turns measuring and stirring. They each got a beater to lick while I put the cookies in the oven waiting to bake. Not long after they had gotten a fresh cookie to try, Hannah gets in a foul mood and takes it out on me. I tried to talk to her, but she wasn't having any of it. She went to her room to go hide under her bed and pout. I then called mom telling her that I now realize why children don't come out of the womb as 7-year-olds and while I was talking to her, a note floats down to me from the second story.

My sweet little 7-year-old Hannah wrote me an apology note and this is what it said:

Sorry I mad at you. I won't do it a gen.
P.S. Hannah

Isn't that cute? Even though my nieces can be real turkeys, they can be equally as sweet. We finished up the night with tacos, a few more cookies and watched "Happily N'Ever After 2."

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to Jason's parents house with the girls since we couldn't meet my sister until around dinnertime. I thought the girls would get bored at their house since there are no toys, but I think they were really tired from fighting sleep the night before. Hannah spent most of the afternoon on the floor watching tv making me believe that she would take a nap. She didn't. Hailey spent the afternoon between the couch and the floor playing quietly with her toys.

Huh? Are these the same children I took to my home a week ago? They were pretty good all afternoon and the hour car ride we had to meet my sis was also pretty quiet. I was sad to see them go, but glad to have a quiet house back.

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Week with the munchkins, Day 3

Poor Hailey woke up coughing terribly Thursday morning. She had been on prescription cough medicine, but it stopped working for her. She was having trouble breathing. She got out of bed at 9, but I had heard her coughing since 8. By 9:15, I had called my sister and planned to take her in to the doctor. I got her in and they prescribed an inhaler and a liquid steroid. Her coughing was starting to get scary because it was constant and she was gasping for air. She wasn't coughing as much at night because we put her to sleep with a vaporizer in her room.

I gave her the inhaler and hoped it would work. She had already told her mommy that she was going to take a nap when she got home from the doctor's office. She was so worn out from coughing. The first round didn't help very much, but when she got the second round 4 hours later, she took a nap and woke up sounding much better.

I made dinner and told both girls that I had a special surprise dessert for them if they were good. Bribery always works and I'm not above it. This is what we had:

Banana "Ice Cream"

First, you freeze several bananas. Always peel them before freezing and it helps to cut them beforehand as well. Put them in a food chopper and add a little milk:

If you're lactose intolerant, just use water or Almond Milk or whatever's appropriate for you. By the way, I got this idea from LovIN My Tummy who pulled it from some raw foodie's blog. I'm by no means a raw foodie, but this sounded so yummy. Anyhoo, blend those bananas and milk until you get this consistency. It may take a few minutes.

Doesn't that look yummy? Just like ice cream, but healthier. Now don't get me wrong, I can EAT some ice cream when the time calls. And none of that fat free/sugar free crap. I eat the real stuff.

We spooned the ice cream into bowls and added some fresh strawberries for more flavor.

And then we added dark chocolate syrup. Yup, I went there. Healthy went out the window.

And it was good. Just see these faces for proof:


And that was the end of a nice day. Hailey's cough was a little better by the time she went to bed. I'm sure the chocolate had something to do with it.

I mean, chocolate cures everything doesn't it?

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Week with the munchkins, Day 2

On Wednesday, Hannah woke us up at 7:30am. It was so nice to sleep in on Tuesday and we were hoping to follow that trend, but.......

Hannah's an early riser. Jason couldn't believe that she would actually come wake us up, but I had to remind him that that is what all children do. She was up and ready for breakfast and someone needed to make it! We got the girls dressed and headed out to Natural Bridge Caverns. I went here when I was a kid and thought the girls might enjoy it since they are a little older. We went on the original Discover tour which runs about 70 minutes and is 3/4 of a mile long. Here's the girls waiting to start the tour:


This is the natural bridge for which the caverns are named:


The tour started just past that point. We started the tour and we tried to keep the girls in line and walking slow since they were in flip flops and the cave can be slippery. One of the first things we saw was this wall:

It's called St. Mary's Hall and was named after the school that the original explorers attended. A short walk later, we saw this cool formation that I thought looked like a skull:

The first room we stopped in was the first point that both girls got bored. According to Hannah, the tour guide talked way too much. I did get their picture with their Uncle Jason. Hailey wasn't looking, but to give her credit, she couldn't see me very well anyway.

After the first room, I heard a lot of whining and complaining about how long it was and "I'm hungry" and "I'm tired" and "When is it over?" Hailey started to really enjoy it when we got to the second room. My camera battery said it was getting low, so I turned it off. Both girls remember the bacon formation, the chandelier and the King's Throne. Hannah even thought she saw Santa Claus. And of course, they remember seeing bat poop. What kid doesn't remember some type of poop story?

We exited the cave with more whining from the little one and then my brother called. I had terrible service in that area so I ran outside to catch the call. My phone dropped it and luckily he called back. (Remember he's in Afghanistan) I got to talk to him for a little bit before his phone dropped the call. He said he was doing well and things were okay. By this time, the girls and Jason had headed toward the car, so I got their picture with "Grendel" the dinosaur.

We left to have a late lunch and let the girls play and take a short nap. Hannah still says she didn't have a good time. Hailey liked it. Oh well, you can't win them all.

That night, we took the girls to Godai for sushi, or as Hailey says, shushi. We ordered them some edamame to snack on and they loved them! My mom said they don't like soy beans, but I told her it's all how they're packaged. They ate their fill on sushi. Hailey started sneezing, coughing and having a horrible runny nose. It was so bad that Jason retrieved the Puffs from the car and we asked for a trash sack to dedicate to her nasty tissues. Regardless of all this, she ate a ton and had fun. Each girl was given child's chopsticks so they were able to pick up their sushi like adults. We came home and got them bathed and let them watch a little TV. Hailey then went to bed without a fight meaning she felt horrible. They went to sleep within minutes!

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