(4.21) Race for Education

Calvary Christian Academy
@ Detwiller Field

Every year, Calvary Christian Academy (my all-ma-mater) has a school wide race to raise money for the school. Each student has one hour to run as many laps around the track as they can run. Students send out letters to friends, family, etc... to be a sponsor or to just donate a flat rate. Haha...hope that was understandable. Joyce, my babysitter, has two lovely girls that go to CCA so she thought it'd be good for me to get out o' the house. I personally thought it'd be great to get the stink blown off o' me!! It was a particularly cool day, so I had to be sure to dress warm!!

Warm soccer socks were a HUGE plus!

Dressing the surgical site...it has to be warm too!

Ready to get the stink blown off me!!!

Earl was at the race too...he was dressed super warm!

Was watching some cute li'l kid playing ball...

When each student run laps around the track, they get a rubber band to put around their wrist for each lap that they have completed. At the end o' the race they count up their rubber bands.
A mother counting the "laps" ran.

After Becca ran her race, she dumped water all over her shirt...what a nut case!! She did really good on running on her laps. I'm pretty sure she ran 16 laps!!

She wouldn't smile for a good picture.

My buddy, Weston!!

Breanna taking a li'l break!

My dear sweet sister, Ashley!!

My best buddy ol' pal, Elise!

Gotta have a silly picture, duh!

Everybody praying before they run their laps.

More praying...

The organizer...TERRY SNARE!

Everybody did a great job, and they were able to raise lots o' money! Ashley burnt her face really bad, so bad that they formed blisters. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures o' her face for my blog.

(23rd) A.M Visitors...MF,BJ,MC,GH,HS,AS....Great Escape/no ventilator...Workout Video

UPMC Montefiore TICU
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Hospital Count Day: 26

/\/\/\MORNING VISITORS/\/\/\

Monday night was thankfully uneventful. I am continuing to rely less and less on the ventilator and am hopeful to be free o' it soon. This morning I was greeted by several visitors. Mrs. Jefferis, Mrs. Callahan, Brenda, and Gram all came down to see me. I am still conscious enough to respond to my visitors so that makes things a li'l nicer. Ace was excited that they brought breakfast. A whole dozen o' his favorite Dunkin' Donuts.

Don't I look ready for an exciting day?

Ace giving me a morning pep talk.

I don't think he's quite awake yet either.

Nurse Jen making sure everything is ready to go.

A quick breakfast and we're ready to go.

Which one would you choose?

Mom Finnegan checking up on my progress.

This is Brenda's second trip out to see me. I think she's a li'l worried about me. Don't worry Mama B. I'm gonna be just fine.

Mrs. Callahan is so sweet to come be with me.

I think Gram looks a li'l worried about her favorite granddaughter.

But she knows I get my toughness from her, so this will be easy.

Now that I could communicate a li'l bit I had lots to say. I wanted to use sign language, but no one else knew how to read it. I knew there was one person that could translate for me, my sister Heidi. Here is me writing Heidi's name on Ace's hand to let him know that I wanted to see her.

/\/\/\CAUTION: PICTURE AHEAD MAY CAUSE NAUSEA...PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!/\/\/\

After my visitors left, it was time to check on my healing. The doctors say my incision looks great but I'm not so sure. They had to take out some of the staples when they went back in to make sure there wasn't a leak. So now I have stitches in their place. If it looks a li'l sore believe me it is. I'm not sure if I'm gonna have a belly button anymore either. I guess this will be more evidence that I was really hatched.

Sorry to those who are a li'l squeemish.

I think Ace needed a li'l comforting after seeing this.

/\/\/\THE GREAT ESCAPE/\/\/\

At around 2:00 I decided that I had had enough. This ventilator thing was noisy and uncomfortable. And the doctors wanted to leave it in for another whole day. I had tried to pull it out earlier that morning but was unsuccessful. As a result, they had strapped down my wrists in an attempt to restrain me. When the nurse walked out o' the room to get more sedation meds, I saw my opening. I moved my face close enough to my hands to get a hold o' the tubes and yanked them out. Free at last, free at last!! When the nurse returned to the room she could not believe it. She quickly put an oxygen mask on me and called for the doctor. When the doctor arrived he saw that I was maintaining my oxygen level just fine on the mask. So they decided to forget the ventilator and let me breathe on my own.

Can you tell I'm ready to be off this thing?

Summoning all my strength.

These things will never hold me!!

FREEDOM!!
Don't I look much happier?

Heidi is proud o' her baby sister.

So glad Amanda could come to see my victory over ventilation.

Ace is glad to be able to talk to his beautiful wife again.

Now that I was off the ventilator, it was time to start my rehabilitation. Mama is good at making sure I am working to get strong enough to get out of bed soon. I don't think I'm ready to make a workout video yet, but I am getting better.

/\/\/\THE END/\/\/\

Thursday (Day 14)

Magee Women's Hospital.
Thursday, March 12, 2010.

I was not feeling oh so good today (Thursday), so having some more surprise visitors come to see me really helped make my day. Each day a few people from town ventured the 3 hour drive down to Pittsburgh to visit me. These were the people that stopped by to visit me for Thursday. It wasn't probably the best day for them to stop by b/c I had a bunch o' tests to go through today. It was still fun to have familiar faces stop by for a visit, and cheer me up! (:

Mama B...no, Jack didn't come.

Mrs. J...what a hoot the car ride must have been.

Barb Grove...What a sweetie.

All o' Us...Yeah!! I look really sick. I'd also like to point out that I'm getting ready to go down for some testing so I had my isolation gown on. Also honk if you can see li'l Baby Jefferis! (:
Thanks for stopping by, Girlies! (:

All o' the cool socks...can you guess who's is whose?

Saying their goodbyes.
(I was still down getting my testing done.)

Being silly with the socks (:

Gotta have a feet picture, right? Pretty, right?

My awesome socks!

All my stuffed animals! (:

Michelle...my favorite nurse.

For one o' the tests that they wanted me to do, was called the Activated Charcoal Test. This test involved swallowing a big cup o' Activated Charcoal, then they would wait and let it run thru my system. The goal is that the charcoal would get to the spot where the fistula (hole) is in my system and then it would leak thru so we could find it. The nurse on duty, Mary CRNP, was a real jerk face. Although I hate to admit it, I didn't like her and she was very inconsiderate. When I was in pain and crying in a ball on my bed, she literally told me to "suck it up". When I asked about more pain meds, Mary laughed and said I didn't need anything that I would be fine.

So needless to say I drank the awful tasting Activated Charcoal, without complaining. If you look at this video below, you can see how thick and disgusting it is. Yet, I didn't complain. My nurse, Michelle was VERY impressed with me that she couldn't stop complimenting me on how well I had drank the stuff. Please note at the very end how she gives me a "high 5" and then she says how much she loves me. (: Oh yeah, and you just gotta love the black charcoal all over my teeth!! Eww...

Yummy Yummy Charcoal...

Gotta a li'l something on ya face!

/\/\/\ MY FAMILY /\/\/\

Me in my Ativan-Induced sleep... I look like Sleepy Beauty.

To my surprise, I woke up from an Ativan induced sleep to my family all walking into my hospital room. It's so nice to have my family so close and them able to be there to be an encouragement to me. They are great support and I love them so much! (:

Mama & Her Girlies.

The Girls...

Me & My baby...KK!! (:

Heidi, Doug, Jan, Carrie, Kaitlynn
CC & Me.

My Visitors...sorry I was in such a foul mood.

Caden loved my HUGE wheelchair.

Isn't that wheelchair soo big??

It was a great time had by all. I enjoyed visiting with my family. Even though I was in such a foul mood from my stupid nurse practictioner, Mary, it was so great to have my family there and be such a GREAT support to me at this time. (: I have the most wonderful friends and the most terrific family o' all times. Couldn't ask for anything better. I'm also very thankful that my sister lives so close to this hospital. My sister and I haven't always been as close as I would have liked to be, but recently thru all these trials, Heidi and I have become a LOT closer freinds, and for that I am SO greatful. Praise The Lord for such wonderful friends and family. I couldn't be as strong or make it thru where I am today without them.

Also, this blog wouldn't be complete if I didn't have a li'l paragraph to write about my lovely hubby. It's been so nice to have such a wonderful husband. It's been a rough journey for poor Ace, but he has certainly been quite the trooper. I'm sure that many times I have mentioned this before, but I'll mention it just one more time. Ace and I were married in May, and it is now March. That makes us married for a total o' 10 months. In those 10 months, many were spent in the hospital: May, July, August, December, February, March. So it's been pretty rough for Ace as well. It's also been amazing to see the many people who have helped donate money for gas and food for Ace so he is able to be down here with me and be by my side and not have to be so concerned about work, etc...

My Lover, BFF, One & Only...

Well, enough about that. Hope to have some better news tomorrow! Have a great night!! (: MUAH!!

/\/\/\ THE END /\/\/\