The Good and The Bad

OK which one do I start with?

How about the good news first. We went to the ortho doctor with Ty yesterday for the results of his MRI. There was good news there!! There is no other damage to the knee or the meniscus. It is however, EXTREMELY bruised, the bone and the tissues around it. The doctor said that you have to understand that was a hard blow for him to come down from in the air to land on that knee, all his weight and pressure! We are not quite 3 months from the accident and that is going to take time. That is good news, he WILL NOT have to have surgery on the knee!!! The main thing now is to just let it continue to heal, continue to go to therapy 3 times a week. Now he will return to light duty on Feb 8th, not exactly sure what he will be doing, I am sure they will find some stupid BS to put him doing, not that he is thrilled, but anything is better than sitting home being bored. Although I never seem to be bored there is plenty to do around here! Now that he is returning to work that only adds to more work for me...ugh, that means back to ironing those dang uniforms, something I have not missed! As far as going back to the motorcycles only time will tell, that was his dominate leg in holding up the bike the big question is will it be strong enough for him to do it with out a lot of pain.

On to the bad news....well it's not bad news its just news that I didn't want to really hear, but knew that it was coming.
We also went yesterday to get Amelia's counts done again. They are low still, but they are remaining the same for the past 6 weeks. Her white blood cells were at 3.9, her hemoglobin was 9.5 ( how she had the energy that she does is well beyond me a normal count here would be close to 13!!!) and her platelets were 18. Platelets are pretty much the same for the last 6 weeks too. I just worry about her with the bruising and all, I know the doctor keeps telling me to keep her as normal as possible for as long as possible.......easier said than done!
When I emailed Dr. J last night this was his reply:

I will check on what else needs to be done. As for cruise, you are ok I think. Obviously check out counts before you leave. Our devices to manipulate the marrow expire on April 15. While our goal is to get you in before that, we are working on plan b. The company is no longer manufacturing the device to remove the marrow T cells. To use the device the work up and chemo have to be done so transplant day is April 15 or before. There is another device but not approved by FDA. We are testing now. J
So as you can clearly see transplant will be on or before the 15th of April. We are making plans now for the 15th to be transplant date. That also means we are making plans to be in Minneapolis by April 1st, but more than likely we will be there a few days before the first. We need time before the 15th for work up week and then the week of preparation (radiation and chemo) Which would mean that IF everything goes smoothly we wouldn't be returning home till August 1st. God how I PRAY that everything this time goes smoothly. Please pray with me on that !!!!
The next 6 weeks are going to be a crazy blur to me, as it is I am wondering where the heck January went!!! We finally got our dates for the cruise. We will leave here on the 18th and then get to Disney for 2 days prior to the cruise, we board the ship and head out on the 21st of Feb. The ship will return to port on the 25th and then we will head home from there, or maybe hang out in Florida for a few days and then head home. Another prayer right now is that someone at the Sheriffs dept will have a heart and let him have his vacation that he had already put in for well before this accident happened!!! Please continue to keep us all in your prayers.
I gotta go check on Marshall, he is home today with his chest hurting and all congested....it never ends and how am I ever going to be able to leave him here even if it is for 6 weeks. (he will be able to join us as soon as school is out)

Keeping the FAITH....

First let me start by wishing the love of my life a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY...you old man!! hehehe, you know I'm just teasing you! I love you.

Yesterday we had court. Yes, I was amazed at the riff raff that goes through the city court. The lady who hit Ty was contesting her ticket and thought that there should be shared fault there. They thought that he should have had his siren on too. Legally he does not, the law states he must be either visual or audible...you do not have to be both. And out of respect to the family when doing a funeral escort, they only use sirens. Anyway the judge said that she was responsible, she did not get out of it, nor was there any fault put on Ty, he was doing his job and he has the right to be in the turn lane...she on the other hand did not. She kept referring to it as a merge lane and it is NOT, it is a turn lane! It was a least a little interesting. I for one had never been in a court room.

Today, even though it is the hubby's birthday...it is cleaning day for me, so sorry hun.

Tomorrow, however, is another busy day. First therapy and then we return to the doctor to see what the outcome of the MRI is and get a game plan in place. I know more than likely he has a torn meniscus, but the big question is where and what will they do for it. I am praying it is close to the end and that they can just go in and cut the torn part out. If it is in the middle they may go in and repair it. That would mean more time out to heal and as it is we are running out of time!!!
Time is everything! Time is what our life is all about, its time for me to leave with my little girl for transplant, but yet it could not come at the worst time ever. Of course, when really would there be a good time for that???
Anyway with time of the essence here, I am just praying that for once something can be simple in our life. If there really is such a thing as SIMPLE.

I know, I know...everything happens for a reason and everything happens at the time of Gods choosing, but it would be nice if I could be consulted with this timing thing!!!!

Ty will have to return to work before the 8th of Feb. So we are sure that the doctor will release him to light duty, we won't know for quite a while if he will ever be able to return to the motorbikes, I really for his sake he can..he loves his job. We still need to also find out about our cruise and if he is going to be able to take the time off to go. If they refuse him we are going to make an appointment with the Sheriff himself. It's not like we just planned this. I was put into motion way before this ever happened!!!

Also on Wednesday we will get Amelia's counts again. I am praying they will just keep holding for a while. I am not sure though as she is starting to look really pale and her lips are loosing their color. It's looking more and more like sometime in March rather than April.

So with a lot going on (nothing new there huh??? life of constant motion!!!) I ask you to keep us in your prayers.

SUPER BOWL BOUND...................

I love the Saints! For the 1st time is franchise history they make it to the Superbowl!!!!

Geaux SAINTS!!!!!!!!!

This is the best yet!!!!!!

Sleep deprived....

OK seriously, we really try hard to get our kids to go to bed. We start at 8:00 preparing them for their bed. We must tell them at least a hundred time to go get back in your bed. As it is they are usually in the bed by 9 for sure, but they are not asleep most nights till well after 10:30. I swear to you some nights I think I am raising owls!

So what happens when you go to bed at 10:30/11:00 and then have to get up at 5:30am go to school all day and work hard (we all know that first grade is HARD) and then be picked up and take a long (30 minute) ride out to grandmas........

yep you get really sleepy and end up falling asleep.

In very odd positions............

I just had to take the picture, when we stopped I asked my mom if he was asleep and yep he sure was, sorry to say we just could NOT stop laughing at this.....sorry I'm really a good mom, but this was just toooooooo dang funny!!

MIA

Forgive me I will probably be Missing in Action for a while...it's tax time. Which now I know why I never finished school to become a CPA! I hate income tax time. I am knee deep in receipts and bills and other stuff that we claim off.....there is a pile of junk on the floor...

Here I'll show you....





See I told you....I'll be back when I un-bury myself.....

Quick update....

MRI went fine, just no results till the 27th. I couldn't get an earlier appointment. So now we wait.

Monday we go to court on the ticket that the lady got who is fighting it!! OMG!!

Well I am kinda happy to say that there is no news good or bad. The waters are still for now. Just wanted to give you a quick update!

Thanks Goodness the weekend is over!! Yeah for school....hehehe

Any way today is MRI day. please say a prayer that what ever damage is in there can be taken care of with a quick simple scope. I am not sure when we should schedule that? We have our Disney cruise set up and all. Not sure if we should do it before or wait till after. that will be one of the big questions to ask the Doctor, and the fact that he has to be back to work on or before the 8th of Feb. So many decisions to make! But I guess that is what life is all about. Decisions and forks in the road. Wouldn't it be so much easier if things would just fall into place and there would be no worries...Ha...that would be Heaven, but I'm not ready to go there just yet, so I'll take the hardships for now and well.....DEAL with them.

I'm off to get kids on the bus and run a few errands before the MRI. I'm not sure when we will find anything out from the MRI. I have to reschedule his appointment so as soon as I do I will let you know.

Hmmm.....

Well were to begin...so much going on in this house. We went back to the doctor for Ty on Wednesday. He has not been doing that great with therapy, and still walking like a pegged legged pirate, funny I know but not really. He is having an MRI on the 19th. It appears that there is some damage to the cartilage in there, probably a torn meniscus. Which his has been torn before and not needed surgery, so I am thinking that this time it tore more and he is going to have to have surgery on it. I know that a scope is a minor surgery thing and it will in the long run help him in therapy do more and get better faster, BUT and this is a freaking big but. His Family Medical Act Leave runs out on Feb 8th. Which still totally pisses me off that they made him take that! He got hurt on the job!!!! So this know means he has to be back to work before the 8th even if it is light duty, which obviously he has to do. I still think it is wrong that he had to take FMLA, no where in there does it say ANYTHING about taking it when you are hurt on the job!!!!!! So in order to not lose his current rate of pay and benefits he has to return to work before the 8th! If he does not return to work then he could take a $10,000 cut in pay...well hello we have a hard enough time getting by with his full pay! Surgery will have to be scheduled after his return, which they will make him use his vacation time for and then we still need to fight with them to let him off so we can go on our cruise as a family! I know it will all work out one way or another, I am just praying that it works out in our favor.
Then on top of all of this we get a subpoena to appear in court on the 25th. The lady that hit him is fighting the ticket! She was lucky she only got one ticket. They could have wrote her for 4 tickets. The wrote her for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

All the while Amelia's counts still continue to plummet. March seems to be getting here faster and faster. I feel like I am holding on to a bunch of ropes and they are slowly slipping out of my hands and I CAN'T get a grip on them.
I am trying to put things out of my mind and focus on the day to day...but some days there is a heavy fog here that I just can't seem to get it to lift. I keep telling my self we will worry about that when the time comes or when it gets closer...truth be told I think it is getting here faster and faster and I am just afraid to face reality!

I don't want to keep sounding like a downer so I'm just gonna go for now and try to enjoy the next few days...I'll be back again. I let you know what we find out from the MRI.

De Stressing....

Sorry an update is coming but I am trying to de stress and get my thought clear here! Way too much going on in the next month...I don't even want to think about it all. The hubby went back to the doctor today so I am still processing that news too!! UUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH

I'll hopefully get to it some time tomorrow! I'm also trying to get our tax stuff together and that may take me at least a whole day!!!

Sorry I for got to update on Amelia's counts. We had a crazy weekend that started Friday with the cancellation of school. They were worried about black ice on the roads and didn't want to be responsible for the kids. Any way it was a good thing Nate wouldn't have been able to go. He woke up with a tummy ache at about 5 and then he threw up, thankfully he made it to the bathroom and thankfully it was only once! I then gave him some phenagren and then he went back to sleep for a while. He didn't throw up any more, but he was mopey all day long and I knew he was sick when he didn't even want chocolate to eat!!! Most of the day he just laid in my bed watching TV. Saturday was much of the same... he stared to perk up on Sunday and started to eat too.
Ok on to missy prissy...we got her counts done again on Thursday afternoon, we needed to check her ANC count if it was around 500 we needed to give her a shot of GCSF to boost those white cells to help her fight infection. The last time we did her counts the ANC count was 575 and thankfully she wasn't in school with that count...they like the counts to be above 1000. Well the good news was her White cells were up to 4.5 and her ANC was 1095! The other counts were still holding....platelets were 19 and her HGB was 10




The rest of the weekend was kinda boring we really didn't do much. Marshall had choir practice on Saturday at church from 9-3.

Today I'm sending them all to school and I am off to the gym, after I bring the hubby to therapy. So hopefully the day will go smoothly. I'll let ya know......

My Sister's Keeper....

I did it, I probably shouldn't have...but I did! I watched My Sister's Keeper. It was a pretty good movie. Every one warned me...make sure you have plenty of tissues...it will make you cry through out the whole movie. Well I didn't have the tissues, I didn't cry through the whole movie....(am I cold hearted?) I don't think so...I just have/am living that movie. The only part that I cried in, is when the sister died. Not because she died and not because of the movie. But because....I REALLY don't want to be that mom. Meaning, I don't want to loose my child, I just don't know if I could ever let go or get over it. When I tell you that I am scared....scared doesn't even begin to describe the fear I have...the tears that I have shed when no one is around. I'm not ready! With Marshall we didn't have years to prepare and know that this was coming, we went, it was our only hope and chance. With Amelia we've know for 9 and half years now..does it make it any easier to know that far in advance....HELL NO, I think if anything it only makes it worse...you know it is there and you are continually trying to push it away....make it go away. I so wish that I could make it all go away. I know that she too is scared and not knowing what to expect, I can tell it is bothering her in the way she is acting. I am praying to be the mom that she needs me to be and the strong one in front of her and yet cry my eyes out behind closed doors...

Please pray for her we had counts done this afternoon..as soon as I get the results in I'll post them.
Thanks again....

Good news finally!!!

Ok, finally some good news. Marshall does not (at this time) need any surgery or other interventions. Here is the low down. There is a plate with a screw holding the plate over the "hole", which has healed completely, it has been 7 years on Monday!! Sometimes the screws can back out, and in this case it has a little bit and that is why he is feeling it now. Plus there are a lot of nerve endings there and he can feel it more now. The screw could come out more and if that were to happen they would go in and remove it. Also if the pain were continuous and excruciating then he would do something. As of right now we just document the pain/complaining. The doctor asked him if it hurt really bad and all that and he said no, he just knows that every now and then it would hurt and he just wasn't sure what was happening and well now he knows and we both can watch it.
I feel so much better now that we know what is going on in there! Just one less load off the camels back!!

The doctor today just looked at him and said 7 years and shook his head. He is completely amazed at how well he is doing! Seven years ago this doctor wasn't sure this child was going to make it through the night and here he is at 16 and a half years old doing pretty dang good!!

I also have two other prayer request first tomorrow we are going again to get Amelia's blood counts, we are hoping that her ANC count is raised up some so she will not have to get a shot of GCSF.
Also I would like to ask you to keep my step daughter and her husband and new born son in your prayers. Barrett was just born on Dec 30th and Brandon (dad) will be leaving to be deployed to Iraq for 400 days on Friday. These past few days have truly be an emotional one for both Tara and Brandon.This whole next year is going to be so tough on all of them. Please pray for his safety.

I skipped the gym this morning for several reasons....(ssshhh I'm really trying to convince my self they are good reasons) First it was just too dang cold at 6:30 this morning!!! You know its cold when you start your car and it tells you "proceed with caution roads may be icy". It was 22* this morning when I had to bring Nate to the bus....needless to say the remote start on the new car sure does come in handy. And to all you Minnesota friends, quit snickering!! I've been in your cold and yes it's cold but it is a much drier cold unlike here!
The other reason is that I have good intentions to clean as much as possible before I have to leave to head to New Orleans.... I'm gonna mop, so you know it is going to rain.

Marshall is going back to the neurosurgeon at Tulane Hospital who did his surgery almost exactly 7 years ago....(my angel who saved him!!!) I am praying that things are OK and it is just a minor problem. I'll let you know...

I'm off to take Ty to therapy... yeah I know I'm gonna get to the cleaning I swear, just as soon as I get off this computer. Have a blessed day!

We have been so busy! We went out on Friday the 1st with some very old classmates of mine from Jr high school. It was so much fun to see everybody! We do that once a year when our friend Scott comes into town to see his family.
Scott:

Larry:

Gina(who I haven't seen since about the 6th grade!!)


On Saturday night we went out again to celebrate a very good friends birthday. We had a blast as we usually do at Adobe's! Mango Margarita's need I say more!








Sunday we were at other great friends house for the Saints game and some good food!
Monday we had errands to run and therapy for Ty. I made it back to the gym finally! Today is more running errands and groceries, IVIG for Marshall, but thankfully Ty is going to sit with him while I run around like a chicken with its head cut off!! Then Marshall needs allergy shot and then the two little ones need to be picked up from school and brought to get their second round of H1N1 flu shots......are you tired yet, I sure am and I haven't even started. Just the grocery store is enough to wear me out, I hate doing the groceries!!! As it is I only do it once a month for the big stuff.
Tomorrow will be more running, Ty has therapy again in the morning and then I have to pick Marshall up and head to New Orleans with him to see the neurosurgeon to see if or what is wrong with the screw that they put in his head 7 years ago!! I am praying hard that it is nothing major and that the body is not rejecting it, that would mean a major surgery. Too much to schedule before middle of March.
Once again the tree will sit, as I won't be around to it till maybe Thursday. Which on that note it is forcasted for possible SNOW!!! Great just what we need..the whole place to shut down......
Oh well life goes on..I'm off to finish shoving kids out the door so I can get my get up and go.......

The End

The partying has come to an end and I have been meaning all weekend to do a proper up date but we have been in and out of this house so many times this weekend. The house looks like a bomb went off in it. School starts back tomorrow and I need to get the kids in gear, I don't know if I'll get to it tomorrow (the house or a proper update) We have so many errands to run and Ty has therapy and I need to get back to the gym. I also have tons of doctor appointment to fit in! Marshall is still complaining with his head where the screw is...I am praying that the body is not rejecting it...that would mean a painful surgery to remove or replace it....why is there always something going on here???
Any way I am heading to bed 5am comes around real early!