7.2-- CD...Scottie; PICC, Yogies, Lamborn/Bonin

Altoona Regional Hospital
Friday, July 2, 2010.

Woke up this a.m. to spend some quality friend time with Scottie, one o' the guards that I work with at the prison. It was nice just to be able to sit and talk to him. He's got the cutest li'l baby girl and we looked at pictures o' her. Boy, she sure is getting big!! (: I can always count on a picture o' the baby to make me feel better!

Scottie & ME.


Silly face...this one makes me smile!


Thanks Scottie for stopping by to cheer me up.

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PICC LINE
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In the a.m. one o' the nurses stopped by to clean my PICC Line. It was all covered with blood and bruised badly. So the nurse stopped by to fix up the dressing. This also means covering it with alcohol and ointment that cleans the wound, or should I say burn like mad!

All Bloody and Messy.

PICC Line, with the stitches.

Pretty Stitches, right? They give it some color.

Can you see the incision where they cut into me?

Teresa proud o' a job well done.

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Nurses & Doctors
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Some more o' my nurses that have dealt with my case and gotten to know me. It's been great to continue to see the Lord put many different nurses and doctors in my life. They will never know how much some o' them have made an impact on my life and how encouraging they have been.

Me & Nurse Kathy.

Gotta love my pain shot, right?

My Favorite PA, Rich Richard.
NOTE: He didn't break my camera!

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Visitors
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The Ybarra Family stopped by to cheer me up!
Boy, and cheer me up they did. They are such a sweet family!

Jasmine, my best buddy! (:

The Sweetest Family...The Yogi's.
All J's---Jill, Jasmine, Jess, & Li'l Jess.

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Ambulance Trip to UPMC
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Michelle and her mother stopped by around 4:00 p.m. to drop off some smell goods (lotion). When They arrived, my things weren't packed and the A-Med Team had arrived. So needless to say it was crazy trying to get all my stuff together, figuring out what we needed, seeing what was not needed, trying to condense it into as few bags as possible, all this while only being able to move so far because o' the lovely IV leash! Thank the Lord Michelle and Mama Lamborn were there at that time. They helped me finish packing, then they also took some o' my extra stuff home from the hospital (in Altoona) to my house (in Huntingdon) so that I wouldn't have as much to take to Pittsburgh (UPMC)! Again, Praise The Lord for such wonderful friends who are such a great support to me during this time.

Michelle, Me, & Mama Lamborn.

Ready to Leave in the Ambulance. YAY!
4:15 p.m. ---leaving Altoona.

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Arriving at UPMC, Montefiore
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I arrived in Pittsburgh around 5:40 p.m. Then I ended up waiting for them to give me my pain shot. It took them FOREVER!! Eventually around 9:15 p.m. I was able to get my pain shot. Because it had taken so long to receive the medication, by the time I had received the injection the pain was so bad that it didn't even touch the extreme pain that I was in. Dr. Rizvix (Internal Medicine) was on call and is my attending physician. She was able to see how much pain I was in and was able to batta-boom, batta bing get me coverage. So that was all good! She was very compassionate and even tried to get my medicine in me before she started poking around on my belly. Thank the Lord for nice doctors, right?

Dr. Rizvix--General Medicine.

Amanda RN, Night Nurse--Another Favorite.

Isn't she just so darling?

Diane Alexander, Nurse Administrator.
She was in charge o' updating my record information, emergency contacts, address, insurance, updated pill list, past medical history, and any other pertinent information. When Diane walked in the door she stated, "So I hear that you are really nice in this room." That's when I asked her for her picture. She was so flattered that I'd asked to get my picture taken with her, that she said I was by far her favorite patient so far.
Me & Nurse Diane.

All in all I guess the admission process went fairly smoothly. The only complaint was waiting 7-8 hours before I got my pain medication, so I wasn't a ball o' thunder when the doctor (Dr. Rizvix) came in to see me. In some ways it was good so that they could see the pain level my body is experiencing.

THE END!!!

29-- CD...Scottie; Student Nurses.

Altoona Regional Hospital
June 29, 2010.

Visit From Scottie.

Everyone who knows me and that I work at the prison, easily knows how much I love working there. On 6.16.10, I had my 2 year anniversary o' working there at the prison. It truly is the best job ever...ok it's the only real job-job that I've ever been able to have. They have been willing to work with me and my sicknesses. Although, at this point they have actually hired another girl to help cover hours with me since I'm not very dependable. The other day a friend said about how they worked a few back to back 10-hour days. Then I think to myself how I work 4-6 hours a day and I'm shot. It blows my mind to even think o' working CLOSE to 40 in 2 weeks, let alone 40 hours in one week! My dad gets up at 10:00 p.m., goes into work till 7:30 a.m., then he starts his day day. He'll drive up to the farm and work on his the new "retirement house" and/or Pap's old house, different carpentry projects, and he doesn't sleep. How in the world can people go for days w/o sleeping. Just shows me how wicked poor health-wise my body is.

So back to the prison, I've gotten to make quite a few friends while working. One o' the nice things about being admitted into the Altoona Hospital is the fact that 99% o' the guards, nurses, and staff at the prison live in Altoona. This makes it nice b/c it's a lot closer for them to stop by to visit. The bad part is that no one wants to travel all the way from Huntingdon up to Altoona b/c it's just SO far away! But if anyone is every making a trip up to Altoona, feel free to stop by. Well, one o' the Sargent down at Huntingdon, Scottie, stopped down to visit and cheer me up. He lives fairly close to the hospital, so that makes it easier for him to stop by and visit. When he stopped down we talked a li'l bit about work. I also showed him pictures o' dad's house that dad has been working on. He is into building and that sorta stuff. So without further ado here is my buddy, Scottie.

Scottie & Me!

Him and Dana are the type o' people that would do anything for anybody! When I was in the hospital back in March, Scottie and his fiance' Dana spearheaded the money donation from the prison. Because o' his status as the Control Sargent, he told various officers that their job for the day was to be to collect as much money as they could for me. Dana & his heart is so sweet. They will never know how much o' a help they have been to us. Also, they really enjoy Ace's company and realize that throughout this whole ordeal, Ace has to go thru all this too. So they got him different goodies to help him. They got him "Smokey House Cheddar Crackers", well they are his favorite now, and I have to buy them!! What amazing friends! (:
Love this guy!

My Roommate--
Rose Mary.
She was getting ready to leave...LUCKY!

Votec School Nurses--

Because Altoona is a teaching hospital, many nursing students get to work on the floor and they each have patients to take care o' and work with. I got lucky because my nurses were amazing. I had Donna Curfman as my nurse on Monday & Tuesday. She noticed that I was wearing a Hollidaysburg Gymnastics T-shirt, and that's how we started talking. Donna said she had a daughter that did gymnastics at the YMCA. Then I found out that it was my buddy, Haily. So it's a small world. She did a wonderful job as my nurse, and it was great to just have a "mother" shoulder to cry on!

Me & Donna...

Clinical Days for the Votec school are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Well, each student has either one or two o' the days depending on what level they are in. So Wednesday, I got a new student nurse, Kristy. She was very sweet, and it was so good to get to know her. She is going to be such a wonderful nurse someday because she was very compassionate. She was willing to do anything and everything for me to make me feel comfortable. I sure lucked out with student nurses. When she went to lunch, she made sure that there was another student that was able to cover for her. Funny story though, she came back and the "fill-in" nurse didn't do what she had asked them to do. That's because Kristy is a one-o'-a-kinda nurse! (:

Kristy, my nurse for the day!

Us Again...How Sweet, Right?

It's been so great getting to meet new people and to get visits from friends. I've got SO much to be thankful for. I have seriously been so blessed with all the wonderful people who I am SO proud to call them all my friends! (:

THE END!!!