10.23--JC Blair Hospital (SAT)

Saturday

October 23, 2010.

Didn't sleep real good through the night. You see, I have a pain pump. To get my pain medication, I have to press a button. It's programmed to not let me OD, if I press it 3x in a row, it will only give me the set amount, and then the second 2x are canceled. So it's like I only pressed it once.

After a day o' hardly any visitors it was great to have visitors stop today. It really does cheer me up to have friends stop by to say hello. Many o' them say something about them being sorry they couldn't stay very long, but if they knew how much it cheered me up, pretty sure they'd still visit. Thanks to all o' you who have put forth the effort to come visit me. I love you all so much! Thanks...MUAH!!

The Schroeders stopped by for a visit.

Me and Lyra and li'l Gabriel.

Me & Andrea...she was so gentle.

Kylie stopped by to say hi.

Oh, I wish I was allowed to post the other picture.

Linda says, Harriet's a Goon.

More pretty colored urine!!

The Doctor ordered for me to go for walks.
Here's pictures o' our walk we took.
This is the Outpatient Testing sign.



This is the room for the outpatient procedure.

Here's where you have the baby.

Adam wonders, what's behind Door #3?

Here's what was behind the door...

I wanted to open up this door.

This is where babies come from!
I tried to talk Adam into letting me go in here and pick out a baby!

This is for you, Leonard Hofstetter!

What you see on my door!

Who is this hot chick who came to visit me?
...JOHNNY o' course...

So there is this one commercial, they have hair just like this in the commercial; however, I'm having a very hard time trying to find the commercial. I was able, however, to get this picture. Anyway, check out their hair. It's so amazing b/c it's just like Johnny's hair!
Their Hair.


Johnny's Hair. (Similar! Right?)

Ah...back to normal, Justin Beiber!

Comparing the "no-hair" spot around the ears.
I think this is a particularly cool shot!

Our hair is the same length...cause we're twins!

He loves buttons!!!

Guess how much Johnny weighs?
Jason knew which button to press for the answer.
146.0 Pounds.

Johnny and Lindsay...They are adorable!

One o' my gifts was gum...
Lindsay WON...she blew the biggest bubble.

So Johnny had is head thrown back, which made me look up his nostrils. Upon looking at his nostrils, I noticed that his right nostril was three times the size o' his left nostril. If he ever has to get an NG Tube, he better be telling them to use his right nose hole!! Haha...it's not just me right? You can see it too?

Can't you see it?

My reaction when they said...
Let's repeat the surgery on Tuesday!

Before Johnny, Jason, and Lindsay all left, they wanted to say goodbye to me. I, was asleep. They didn't want to wake me up so Johnny was going to take a picture beside me while I was still asleep. Well, just as we were ready to take the picture, I woke up. So we had to take a "let's remember" picture. So, I am ASLEEP; Johnny is yawning, cause he's tired.
Is this a yawn or a "Caden roar"?



A sweet visit from my sweet brother.

A sweet visit from Johnny's sweetheart!

Sweet hug from Nurse Jan.

My fantastic friend--Bobbi Jo!

Several visits from Bobbi Jo; sustained me.

SUM-UP:

• Visitors.
• Cool Color o' Pee.
• Taking a Walk.
  
• Brother Visits.
• More Visitors.
  

THE END!!!

Sunday (Day 17)

MaGee Women's Hospital
Sunday, March 14, 2010.

My last day...

/\/\/\ Food...FOOD...Food /\/\/\

My Meal

• HOTT Beef Broth.
• Rainbow Jello (even though it's only red).
• Raspberry Water Ice.
  

Ace's Meal

• Chicken Fingers.
• Sliced Carrots.
• Green Beans.
  

• Cottage Cheese.
• Tossed Salad with French Dressing.
• Chocolate Pudding.
  

/\/\/\ JAWBREAKERS /\/\/\

So how about my favorite candy in the whole wide world is Jawbreakers. The only place you can get jawbreakers is Gardner's Candy Store. Lyra Schroeder has this "tradition" that every time I'm in the hospital, she brings me a li'l bag o' like 10 jawbreakers. Well, since this hospital stay is on day 17, the 10 jawbreakers only lasted me to day #7. So since Lyra is the greatest person ever, she bought me the hugest box filled with my fravorite candies. Wow, Lyra (& Daniel her hubby probably helped too, so he is also awesome) is AWESOME!

Medical Staff.

I will say that the medical staff here at MaGee was awesome. All the nurses, nurses aides, and even the cleaning crew were so pleasant to be around. They definitely helped me feel better and they were very caring.

Nurse Janet
Love HER! She gives great hugs too!

Nurse Sheila.
Compassionate, Caring, Cool!



CT Scan Time.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After meeting with the GI Doctor at noon, Dr. K. Tri Nguyen, he ordered a CT Scan (to be read STAT). So he ordered me to drink this GROSS drink in 20 minutes, then 1 hour later take the scan, and then scan needs to be read STAT!

Here is Dr. Nguyen.
(Pronounced: "win")

YUCK! Not a big fan o' the CT Contrast Drink.

Here it goes down, down, into my belly.

Ace wanted to drink it too,
So he could "sympathize" with me.


The 1-Hour Wait...


After drinking the stuff...
Belly was bloaded, distended, and in agony.



/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Emergency Surgery...Off to UPMC Montefiore

Around midnight, the doctor on call came into my room and said, "Pack all your belongings up. You are going to UPMC, Montefiore for emergency surgery. We sawl air in your abdomen, and that requires immediate surgery." So I packed up my belongings and waited for the ambulance to come take me the 3 blocks over to Montefiore.

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

Friday (Day 15)

MaGee Women's Hospital.
Friday, March 12, 2010.

Friday a.m. was a lazy kind of day. Ace was here, he slept in, and then he ordered brunch. Here is what he ordered. It all was very good he said. He orders one and at most two meals per day because they are a bit expensive if you order three meals a day. It's been such a blessing people donating us money for us to cover gas and food. Because as you can see those things can add up quite quickly. Anyway, here is Ace's Brunch:

Ace ordering Food for everyone!

Ace's Brunch

• Two Pancakes
• Sausage Patty
• Three Strips o' Bacon
• One Hashbrown
• Scrambled Eggs
• Two Cartons o' Chocolate Milk
  

...and no, he couldn't eat it all...

Ace's Supper

• Oven Crusted Macaroni and Cheese.
• Oven-Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes.
• Seasoned Bread Stuffing.
• Cottaged Cheese.
• Marinated Pasta Salad.
• Chocolate Pudding.
  
• Fruit Punch.
  

Joyce's Supper

• Baked Cod with Citrus Crust.
• Ceasar Salad.
• Steamed Rice.
• Brocolli.
• Fresh Seasonal Fruit Cup.
• Carrot Cake.
• Pepsi.
  

Becky's Supper

• Chicken Stir Fry.
• Ceasar Salad.
• Coleslaw.
• Cottaged Cheese.
• Potato Chips.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (2).
• Ginger Ale.
  

/\/\/\ SHELLANA & JAMES VISIT /\/\/\

To cheer me up my BFF, Swiss Cake Roll, and sister, Shellana drove up to visit me. It was so nice to see them. Shellana and James bought me a huge bag o' all sorts o' goodies!! It was oh so very nice! Here we are with all my presents!! (:

• Plain Green T-shirt.
• White Longsleeve T-shirt with green clovers.
• Blue & Green Polka dotted pj bottoms.
• 2 awesome pairs o' comfy underwears!
• Nail Polish (blue, green, purple).
• Nail Polish remover pads.
• Werthers Original hard candy.
• Jolly Ranchers.
• A sweet LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE...AERO bag.
• Oh and a clover garder thing.

Here we are with all the presents.

We have the coolest glasses, right?

Peace out PLAYA!
You know we are that cool! (:

They sure are cute, aren't they?

YEAH for marriage! (:

The "Jill Face"...CHEESE!!

James checking scores on his phone.

Saying our Goodbyes for the Night.




/\/\/\ Pedicure Time /\/\/\

Shellana bought me a li'l bucket filled with all different colors o' nail polishes...blue, purple, green, etc... Her goal was to cheer me up by giving my tootsies a pedicure! (: So I bet you can guess what color I picked??? Yup, yup, yup...I picked GREEN! My favorite color, and because I'm totally flippin' Irish! Here is Shellana painting my toes.

Shellana got a li'l frustrated because my nails were so tiny and hard to pain. Finally she just got all fed up and said, "Jill, I'm just going to paint your skin!" Haha...so it's hilarious. But it really looked good and it really cheered me up!

Almost done...


Me painting Becky's Toes...BLUE.

The Pedicure Par-TAY!

I'm surprised Becky let me paint her toes.
Especially since I'm on drugs.

Working...Concentrating...Having FUN!

Yeah for friends.

/\/\/\ Unexpected Past Roomie & Fam /\/\/\

When I was in the Altoona Hospital, one o' my roomies was named, Angie Kline. She was a very sweet young lady with three children (son, 15; daughter, 13; daughter, 10). Because we were stuck in the hospital room together for quite a few days on end, the two o' us got to know each other quite well and become very good friends. Angie was able to get out o' the hospital quite a few days before me; however, she still kept in contact with me thru facebook...I was even able to get my picture with just her and me. So she called me the other day and said that she wanted to drive ALL the way down to Pittsburgh to visit me and that she would bring her darling girls with her...she kept her word and boom, bang, there they were! (: It was nice to see Angie out o' the hospital and looking rather healthy! (: Here we all are with her daughters. The oldest daughter, Mary, then there's Angie, then cute li'l Brittany, and then me! They really brightened up my day! We look so darn cute, right?

They got me presents too:
Doggie, I named Reese Cup and Jolly Ranchers.

/\/\/\ Nurse's Aide -- Whitney /\/\/\

Whitney...LOVE her!

She was my nurse's aide for a few days. Whitney was amazing, and I really liked her. She stopped by my room to drop off a cute li'l tiger stuffed animal; however, they had given me a dose o' Ativan and I was out like a light! So she just dropped by the animal and left. So then she came back the next day to say her goodbye because she would be not working for the next week and wouldn't get to see me off. So it was great to see her and wish her well. What a great encouragement to me when I was feeling so sick.

Praise The Lord for Unexpected/New Friends.

/\/\/\ Ativan-Induced Sleep /\/\/\

They think it's funny to take pictures o' me passed out. Ok, for real, it is just a li'l bit funny. I was really tired though, and it's just hard to entertain people when they dope me up with Ativan. But just so you all know, I was totally there to entertain. It was a big day....we painted nails, did hair, make-up, massaged our backs, all sorts o' fun stuff...so it really knackered me out! (:
This may look funny, but this position really helps relieve the pain, pressure, and discomfort that I was experiencing. It doesn't matter what you look like as long as you get relief! (:
Gotta Love my POC (Position o' Comfort)!

Yes, I fell asleep with a jawbreaker in my mouth, and everyone was not concerned that I was going to choke (because I was in a hospital). They weren't concerned that I had a hard piece o' candy in my mouth. They also thought it was hilarious that the jawbreaker moved from one side o' my mouth to the other and then to the front and all around (if you got that). Anyway, what did everyone decide to do? Grab the camera and take a picture.
Me & My Jolly Breaker! (:

And Finally--I'm out for the count.

It was a long day, as you can tell. Lots o' visitors to cheer me up. I really appreciated the sacrifices that every one had made to come to travel many many hours to drive out, up, over, down to cheer me up. Just so everyone knows...it really helped me out, more than you could understand. Thanks to all who made my Friday such a wonderful day, filled with fantastic friends and family! Because my friends are the best friends ever, and my family? Can be replaced...they mean so much to me.
I LOVE YOU ALL!

MUAH!

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