Day 6

Lone Visitors--The Schroeders

Lyra, Andrea, Gabriel, and Lyra's mother all stopped by to visit me. B/c my immune system is severely compromised and the infection being so contagious, I'm in an isolation room w/isolation protocol. So Lyra came into my room but not before she put on the gorgeous gown, the gaudy gloves, and the mandatory matching mask. She was able to stay for a bit, then she left to go shopping.

Standing in the doorway so Andrea could say, "Hi Miss Jill."
Seeing Andrea really helped me cheer up.

Lyra brought me a present...JAWBUSTERS (oh and one piece o' bubble gum).

Thanks Lyra for stopping up to visit me. You made my day!
When I eat a "jawbreaker", I turn into The She-Hulk! Grr...

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$5...$5 Foot Long.

For supper, Ace bought a $5...$5 Foot Long. (You know like the song from the commercial that they sing.) He really loved the fact that Altoona Regional had a Subway in the main lobby. He'd eat one o' the 6" for lunch and the other half for supper.

Ace eating his Spicy Italian Foot Long.

Oh dear...what a lovely face.

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Central Venous Catheter (CVC) Insertion
Paul S. Schultz M.D. (Anesthesiologist)

My veins are a nurses/phlebotomists worst nightmare...they are super thin and/or nonexistent, plus all the scar tissue makes it difficult to get stuck. So every time I go in the hospital my veins get stuck, poked, prodded, and even infiltrate. So finally after trying for an hour one day, they called the doctor so he could write an order for a central line. Here is all the times they tried and missed.

Back o' my hand...they missed.

Forearm attempt...it was a No-Go.

Antecubital IV infiltrated terribly. Yes, that's blood leaking out too.

Antecubital bruising from all the trama.

The doctor gave the "ok" for the central line to be inserted. It was 8 p.m. in the evening, so the only person that could do the procedure was Dr. Schultz, he's an anesthesiologist. Then they put me in a gown as I gripped my LUCKY Irish shamrock blanket waiting for him to come up.

This is my "scared" face.

They sterilized the area with a translucent blue disinfectant solution. Pretty?

After the sterile area was created, my bed was tipped so my head was lower than my feet (Trendelenberg Position). Next he inserted the needle into my subclavian vein and threaded it (but he was actually shoving quite hard) down thru the vein till it reached the superior vena cava and the right atrium o' the heart. Then the needle was pulled out while the catheter stayed in the vein. He then stitched the catheter, attaching the port to my skin to prevent the catheter from advancing farther down or getting caught on something and pulling out.

Can you see the black thread that's stiched and anchored to my skin?

Phew...we did it!! Looks like we just need to be holding a baby in our hands.

We tried to clean up all my blue hulkiness from the site.

I called my mother to tell her everything went well.

My Wonderful Anesthesiologist
Paul S. Schultz M.D.

After the procedure was done, I told the doctor I wanted a picture o' him and me after I got cleaned up. He laughed (thinking I was joking) and said, "I have to go down to the ER right now."

I said, "Well, you better come back then so I can get a picture with you."

The nurses all there looked at him and told him, "And the funny thing is, you think she's kidding. She is totally serious! She will totally hunt you down and find you."

Needless to say, he came right back, confirmed it was placed correctly, put his arm around me, and got his picture taken with me. !

Dr. Paul S. Schultz
MY Anesthesiologist

The chest x-ray confirmed it's placement was correct. Now they will be able to run fluids, insert medicine, and/or even drawl blood from one o' the 3 different colored ports. So that saves me from getting stuck over and over again. My poor veins are super tired o' getting poked and prodded. So things are looking good...at least in the CVC, IV department o' things. As o' tonight, I have been in this room for one, long, whole, week!

THE END!!!

Day 5

Just a Loney Day

(That's a Song...know who sings it?)

Thursday (day 5) was such a long day for me. I was able to sleep on and off thru the night. Around 9:00, I was totally ready to go take a shower. I then found out that I had to wait till all the other patients that needed to use the showers were done showering. My infection is extremely contagious AND my immune system is down and they don't want me to get anything else on top o' it all. When it was my turn to get into the showers, I picked out clothes so I could match one o' my nurses, Robin (CNA).

Our Matching Outfits.
(Me & Robin)

Amy (RN) & Riquel (CNA)

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A Nice Surprise

Ace called at lunch time and said that he had stuff to do around the house, so he wouldn't be up in the evening. That was fine, I told him I'd talk to him later. It was such a long and lonely day b/c the internet was "unavaliable" and that meant all I could do was lay in my bed (cause I'm not allowed out o' my room) and oh and get up and go to the bathroom. Well, after having my supper, I was laying in my bed depressed about being all by myself and extremely upset that I couldn't get on the internet, when Ace came walking thru the door. It was SO nice to have a surprise visit! YEAH!! Ace wasn't going to come up to the hospital b/c he had cleaning to do and he wanted to do all the laundry. My lovely mother offered to do the laundry so that I could come up and visit me. I'm so lucky for such an amazing mother who is always there for me thru my sickness. I love you, Mama! (:

My honey and I enjoyed a snack that evening.
.....Ice Cream & Beef Broth.....

Ace using his amazing muscles to move my bed.

Ace brought me a present!

It was a new cell phone charger!
(Mine broke up here.)

It was SO nice to have Ace come up for a surprise visit, and then to get a present on top o' that. Can my life get better...I submit it can NOT!

THE END!!

Day 4

IV Issues.

My night was much better last night. The sleeping pills definitely helped. Today my problem is my IV. It infiltrated in my hand, so they had to put a new one in. B/c I'm dehydrated and my veins are small to begin with, it's very difficult for them to put the IV in. Then they are putting strong antibiotics in the veins which is hard on the veins as well. Here are some picture from my IV problems.

Can you see my swollen elbow?

The fishnet was tight for my swollen arm.

Isn't it Nice *growl/purring sound*?

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A Special Surprise

Right after they brought me lunch, they also brought me a special surprise. A cartoon balloon. When they gave it to me, they were laughing b/c I'm not only on the pediactric floor, I'm also getting a "pediatrically" decorated balloon. I guess somewhere on Altoona Hospital's webpage, there is a place where you can order gifts from the gift shop to have it sent to whoever you want. When I called to thank the Donnelly's, she said she had ordered a Mickey Mouse balloon. I love it either way. When Adam stopped by in the evening, he opened up the card and asked me, "Who is Dan, Jen and kids?" I told him he was reading it wrong, it was DAVE. But low and behold, the card reads Dan...check it out!

The lovely pediatric balloon.

The card is SUPPOSED to say: Dave, Jen, & the kids...not DAN!

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A Quiet Evening with My Honey!

Don't tell the nurses, cause I'm supposed to be "isolated".

It was a long day. Can't believe I've been here for 4 days already. Boy, that went really fast. Although not having the internet all day today made it AWFUL! I talked to my nurse and she said that they couldn't connect to the internet anywhere on the 5th floor. So that's puzzleing. She was able to call down to the IT/Help Desk. They said they'd gotten some reports that the internet wasn't working. They indicated they would get right on it and figure out what needs to be done. Hopefully tomorrow a.m. it will be back to normal!

THE END!!!

Day 3

Thankful Tuesday!

I'm very thankful for my family, my friends, and my wonderful husband. If it wasn't for them, these hospital stays would kill me. It was very nice to enjoy a visit from Rachel Lane. She stopped by to visit me on Monday; however, I didn't have my camera yet, so I'm SO sorry there are no pictures o' me and her. You are missing a great picture to, b/c Rachel had such a hard time keeping her mask on her face. Haha...Thanks Again Rachel for visiting me.

Tuesday brought Visitors
Chilling with Candid.

On Tuesday, Candid stopped by to visit me. We had attended elementary school together, she left, and I lost track o' her life. Thank goodness for facebook, right? So we became friends on facebook, and she decided to stop by while she was running errands up in Altoona. It was such an encouragement. Praise the Lord for unexpected blessings, right?

Candid & I
(Please note the lovely yellow cover isolation coat.)

Candid brought me PJ's...My favorite!

My IV Exploded in my arm.

Dying Laughing with Kylie.

Kylie stopped by to visit me after work. We were able talk, laugh, tell jokes, oh you know, pretty much all the cool stuff there is to do. We joked how we have such great luck...oh yeah, that's right...I'm Irish...lovely.

Becky Coleman came in and I kept looking at her and laughing. It really wasn't my fault b/c She looked like she was ready to outside and go outside and build a snowman or a snow angle. So it was quite the outfit. I know that NOW everyone DEFINITELY want to come visit me cause they have to get all dressed up!

Me and Jess, one o' my gymnasts I used to coach. Jess always comes to visit me every time I'm in the hospital. She is such a sweet girl. I was very thankful for her company! Usually her whole family comes up to visit me, but they went Christmas Shopping.

The snow starting to fall,
Adam's starting to worry.

The snow view from outside my window!

Adam made it safely home. It was a long day, but I was super thankful for all my friends that stopped by to cheer me up. Hopefully the weather won't get too much worse.

THE END!! (:

Days 1 & 2

ISOLATION is AWFUL!
December 6 & 7, 2009

So I'm in isolation. Because I contracted an infection everyone has to take all the necessary precautions to both prevent me from getting an infection and to prevent others who visit from getting my infection. So here are the pictures from the past 2 days.

Here's my whipes. I use them all the time.
(I'm sure Mel & April are jealous.)

They even put a BIG orange ISOLATION sticker on my Menu. (Please note all the yummy food I get to eat!)

Adam had to wear this get-up just to visit me. I told him he looked like an important doctor.

A picture o' the two o' us.

Adam slipped his mask off so he could eat his supper he brought. He was still hungry afterwords, so he ate my jello. (It was super nasty...protein jello.)

It's been a long past couple days, but as o' now, the doctors are just wanting to clear up the infection before they go operating on me. I'm also taking tons o' antibiotics to help fight the infection. Hopefully it won't take too much longer for the infection to clear up.

THE END!!

ER Visit

Trip to the Altoona ER.
Saturday, December 5, 2009.

On Saturday, we took a trip to the Altoona Hospital. Oh what an exciting evening. Spent 10 hours in the ER with this crazy girl named Angel who was a crazy, freaky, girl. She was li'l out o' control. Ask Ace about it sometime. It's good. They had trouble finding my vein, so this doctor walked right in and was like I'll put it in her neck. So he shoved the needle in my neck. It hurt SO bad. Oh, and there was blood EVERYWHERE (don't worry, I took a picture o' it for everyone.) It ended up infiltrating in my neck, which also hurt. They pulled it out and put another IV in my left anticuble vein.

Here are some o' the pictures o' our trip to the ER. Enjoy, leave a comment.

The IV in my Neck.
Oh, no they didn't numb me up!

The IV infiltrated into my neck.
Talk about pain, it was not so nice.

The blood spot from when they shoved the IV in neck.

Cause the IV infiltrated, they tried in the arm.

YEAH! She got it! (:

Poor Adam...

THE END!!

New Furniture

New (to us) Living Room Stuff
Couch, Love Seat, Stationary Chair, Rocking Recliner.
December 6, 2009

Well, to all o' you who don't know, we got new furniture. My boss's dad died, and they needed to get rid o' his old furniture. So they offered it to us. It super nicer than our last 100 year old couch. So our living room went from having one couch and one chair to couch, love seat, stationary chair, rocking recliner, tv, two end tables, oh and our BIG Christmas tree. Here are some o' the pictures.

Couch.
Love Seat Couch Sitting Place.

Stationary Chair.

Rocking Recliner.
The Front Door.
Spinning towards your right.
(The Left wall and Back wall.)
Continuing to make your 360 Turn.
(The View from looking in the door.)

Hope you were able to get the picture. I'm going to be posting more pictures o' the house and the Christmas decorations at a later time. If you look around you will notice our lovely sword collection, wedding pictures, there's a manger scene under the tree along with some gloves. Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures. We were super excited about all our new furniture. It looks fabulous. It's a li'l crouded with the Christmas tree up, but once the tree comes down there will be more room. How awesome it is that the Lord works those things out!

THE END.