An update to a list

1. About an hour after I posted the last blog, Quinn crawled to her walker and tried to pull her short little self up. She fell. She tried again, and totally used every muscle in her body, and made it! I am so happy for her. She stood up to it forever. Later she proceeded to toss a fake bunch of carrots across the floor, crawl to it, and toss it again. She was wild!






2. The surgeon doesn't want to cut off Quinn's extra tube skin. He prescribed a cream (not the clear..ha! That is a steroids in baseball joke, that probably only Dalan and I think is funny, but we repeat it all the time.) She gets her button next week, and the skin problem should go away. Here's to hoping.

3. Quinn still has a rash. It is not the measles. It should go away any time between now and a month! A month! At least it is not itchy.

4. My class raised 234 dimes for the March for Babies in one day. That is so amazing. They are ten. Most of live below the poverty line. Many of them are refugees or immigrants, and have families who speak limited English. It just totally speaks to power of Quinn's story.

5. She slept through the night without oxygen. Here's to hoping the other night was the last time we will ever need oxygen. I probably cursed it again though by mentioning it.

We're home!!!!!!!!!!!

We're home! We got home around 7:00 pm last night, after a long, boring day. But I am grateful it was so uneventful, and everything went smoothly as it should, so we could get discharged.

Highlights:

1. Awesome nurses who listened and advocated for Quinn (and us.) At one point a doctor wanted us to practice feeding Quinn bolus style (gravity) during the day, and then stay another night to see if Quinn tolerated a continuous pump feeding. I was like no way. We have been doing bolus style feeding with her other tube for months, we do not need a day of practice of that. Luckily, the doctor listened to us, and the nurses got that we are pretty medical savvy parents, and let us take control of her oxygen needs.

2. The surgery was easy and Quinn was never in too much pain. We were able to manage her pain for the most part with Tylenol and Motrin, and was close to being back to her normal self within 24 hours of the surgery. She rolled about 48 hours after surgery, and seemed ok on her belly. She is obviously still sore, but I think she is going to bounce back quite quickly.

3. Quinn slept for eight straight hours last night! It was glorious. Around 4:00 am (or was it 5:00 am...darn Day Light Savings), she got fussy, and I ended up sleeping with her on the couch on her room for a couple of hours, but that is actually pretty normal Quinn sleeping behavior. I think having her on her feeding pump through the night is going to be very nice.

4. Her tube is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It is usually hidden under her clothes, and so she has not really grabbed or pulled at it, like she did with the one in her nose. I hope we can make it through the healing period (six to eight weeks) without her pulling it out, and then it will be smooth sailing.

5. Under to new plan, she is already getting two more ounces of food a day, with (hopefully) room to add more as needed. I hope she is going to pack on some grams.

6. She took an ounce of apple juice orally this morning. Hooray! I was a little worried that after 48 hours without a bottle, she would refuse, since she pretty much hates them anyway. We'll see if she'll take some formula tomorrow.

7. Her face is tube free, although we traded a little tube in her face, for a much bigger one in her belly. Now, if we could just get rid of the dots, Quinn's beautiful face will be free of extra accessories!

8. We got new roommates, and I totally "knew" them from reading their blog. Small and crazy e-world. We totally lucked out with our second set of roommates.

9. Our NICU experience totally prepared us for this hospital stay. While I was nervous about the surgery, I felt confident in navigating the hospital setting, and was prepared for all the wackiness that can happen when you are the mercy of others for your child's care.

10. A baby that is at 80% two days after surgery.


Low-lights:

1. Sleeping at the hospital. It sucked, and was uncomfortable. One of us would sit in the rocking chair with Quinners for as long as we could stand before our whole lower body was numb, while the other would sleep (and I use that term loosely) on the pull out cot. I did get to watch some old episodes of 90210 while I was doing my time in the rocking chair.

2. No DVD player in our room. We had planned on just chilling and watching Arrested Development during our stay, but no dice. We only had a VCR, and limited channels for our viewing pleasure on the TV. Thank goodness for smart phones and laptops.

3. Slow delivery drivers. We were discharged at 5:40 pm, and waited almost an hour for our medical supplies for Quinn to be delivered. I was one ornery and impatient mama by this point. I just wanted out of the hospital.

4. I realized how spoiled we were at IMC. It is new. We had a private room. We had one on one, or one on two nursing. Up at PCMC, not so much. Although, we had top notch care at both places, so I can't really complain.

5. Hospital cafeteria food. No decent showers. Bad cell service.

BUT, we are home!!!!

Now for the pictures....

Hospital, day 2.....

(Tubie)

Home, Day 3....








P.S. Happy Birthday to my mom! Love you!

A bad case of shrimp eye

Last week, Quinn pulled her feeding tube out. And cried and cried and cried when we had to put it back in. Her little eyes got all red and puffy. She calmed down, and fell asleep. When she woke up, one eye was still red, puffy, and watery. Of course, it was after hours, so I paged the on call doctor (because there was no way in hell I was taking her to Instacare, she would catch way worse things than shrimp eye there.) She prescribed some drops for her eye. (Well, she actually asked if I wanted ointment or drops, and I was like I am going to have to defer to you, the one with the medical degree on this one.) The drops cleared her eye up within a day and half.

We decided she had shrimp eye, minus the exposure to shrimp. You see, last year McKay did get shrimp eye, for real, after whacking my vegetarian sister with his raw shrimp. He must have gotten some shrimp juice in his eye. He had very similar symptoms to Quinn, but worse. He had real shrimp eye.

I am glad Quinn's shrimp eye cleared up so nicely. I am also glad that this was the first time in two and half months of have my preemie home that I had to call the doctor.

(Quinn with the shrimp eye)

Ouch, binkies, and growth

First of all, Quinn says, "hey, and thanks for reading." She loves you all!

Secondly, I have my second breast infection, mastitis, in a month. It sucks, and hurts so bad. I think it hurts worst than my c-section. I ended up taking a 40 minute shower last night, and working some of the infections out, but oh man, did it hurt. I am going to start another round of antibiotics this afternoon, and stop wearing underwire bras. However, I am a little worried about support for the girls in a non-underwire bra, but I seriously, cannot keep getting these infections. If anyone else has any tips for treating or avoiding it, I would be forever grateful.

Next, Quinn is really loving her binkie. I used to let her just play with it, but I learned from one of the developmental specialist that she needs to take it all the way and suck in order to prepare her breast feeding. She is doing very well with this. I am so excited that we are weeks away from trying to nurse. Last night, the nurse tried to give it to her, but she refused it from her, and would only take it from me. Warmed my heart a little that she prefers her mama, despite being away from her for hours everyday.


Lastly, Quinn is so big. Last night, she weighed in at 2 pounds, and 14 ounces. Her coloring is a nice "baby pink" and her hair was looking pretty dark again last night. Go figure. We'll just have to wait and see what color it ends up being.

Hospitalized

My stay at the hospital was o.k.

I basically pretended I was on an unexpected vacation, in which I got to sit in bed all day, and play on the computer, watch TV, and hang out with Dalan/my parents. If I needed to go anywhere, someone came and wheeled me there. I did not even have to walk. I had a private room with a TV, and internet access. It wasn't that bad.

Of course, there were nurses barging in to take my blood pressure, and check on me. They interrupted my relaxation time twice last night, and were like two loud teenage girls when they came into do some things at 2:30 am. A doctor also woke me up at 5:45 this morning to check in, and then told me to go back to sleep, only to have a nurse come into my room three minutes later. That was not vacation-like. Or cool. I was there to rest, dammit! And be observed, but still, their observations should not have interfered with my rest. Ha!

I was so happy and grateful to be released today. Another day would have taken all the vacation magic out the experience. I had painted my nails, straightened up the room, and was heading well on my way towards major boredom by 8:00 this morning.

I also learned if you ever go to the ER/Labor and Delivery at midnight, bring a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and some deodorant in your purse. Just in case. I went in worried I would not be home until 4 in the morning, and never once entertained the thought I would be kept for two nights. Learned my lesson. Luckily, Dalan brought me in a toothbrush and a hairbrush. I forgot to ask for the deodorant. However, my mom brought me in some smelly lotion, so I basically just slathered myself in that to keep from being too stinky. I wasn't doing any physical activities, but I was stressing majorly at times, and that lead to some sweating!

There are still going to be some bumps in the road to make sure this baby makes it into the world healthy, and not too early, but I am feeling confident and optimistic at this point. I have faith in my medical team, in my body, and in the baby. I think this will all work out. That being said, I still have my moments of worry and panic, but overall, I am feeling good and strong. I also feel very loved. I think I have mentioned this about a thousand times, but at the risk of repeating myself, I really do have the best husband, family, friends, and even co-workers.

Now, I am at home, and my dog is back from a few nights at her grandparents house. Now, this is relaxing.

Be careful what you complain about....

Without going into much detail, Thursday into Friday night was much worse, MUCH, MUCH WORSE for our household. Let's just say there was more puking and other bodily functions happening throughout the night, and this time it was not just Piper, although she did her fair share too. I barely got any sleep, and when I did finally fall asleep I managed to turn off my alarm, and sleep in. So, the morning was spent rushing to make it to work before the bell rang. URGH! It was terrible.

People have asked if Piper caught pregnancy from me. That would be creepy and miraculous, but no, I think some bad milk caused this most recent incident. Not that I give Piper milk, but she is resourceful, and licked a bowl of cereal milk clean while I was on the phone. She is so well behaved.

The good news is we made it through last night incident-free. I feel refreshed and ready to go!

Putting myself at risk

I practiced high risk behaviors.

I could have contracted salmonella or chlamydia today.

These high risk behaviors, included holding the turtle in my classroom, and changing the newspaper on the bottom of Cooper's cage.

Apparently, turtles can carry salmonella.

And, parrots can pass chlamydia to humans in their feces.

Also, the parrot has been tested (maybe at the free clinic?) and is chlamydia free.

The turtle, on the other hand, could be riddled with salmonella. He hasn't been tested. He is putting his loved ones at risk.

I washed my hands after both activities to minimize risk.

I feel pretty confident that I am disease free.

March miracles part two

More miracles have occurred in the month of March. Rejoice!

First of all, my broken phone miraculously healed itself sometime last night between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am. It was not functioning at 11 pm, and by 4 am was fully functioning, and has been going strong all day!

Second of all, my (self-diagnosed) tetanus has miraculously healed itself over night. I went to bed with a sore and wonky jaw, and woke up with a non-sore/non-wonky jaw. It has been working just fine all day. No popping, no soreness, and it opens and shuts as it should.

You all might want to come and sleep over here if you have broken or injured things, because apparently our household is the place for spontaneous healing of objects....living and non.

March miracles are marvelous! Rejoice!

My day

First of all, I still have (self-diagnosed) tetanus. My jaw is killing me. It hurts to chew, it hurts to smile, and it hurts to talk (gasp). Those are three of my most favorite things ever! It sucks.

Secondly, somehow my phone got damp from the tupperware I ate out of and washed out at work. It has a blank screen. So, I can call five people, (parents, Dalan, Julia, Jen, and Nana) because those are the only numbers I still have memorized these days. This also means I cannot text, and I love to text. It sucks.

Finally, we got new couches for a steal. They are big, red, and comfy. They even have built in recliners. One for each member of our family, (Dalan, Jessi, and Piper) plus a friend. It is a good thing I have not painted the living room yet, because this totally changes the color scheme up in here. Oh, we also got two cherry wood end tables thrown into the deal fo free that we did not know about. I would post pictures, but I have misplaced my USB cord yet again...so the pictures will come later. The new furniture is pretty sweet!

So the moral of my blog is, don't call me, because it hurts to talk due to my tetanus. Don't text me, because my phone is jacked up. But, you can come over and recline/relax on my new couches.

The picture you all have been waiting for.....

Here are three pictures of my kidney stone. Up close and personal it looked and felt just like, well, a stone. My doctor was so impressed with the size he suggested we stuff and mount it as a souvenir. The second two pictures are a little blurry. I apologize. Enjoy!

Seriously, so soda-free

Dear Diet Coke,

Let me start off by telling you I have loved our time together. It has meant a lot to me, and you will always have a special place in my heart, but I am breaking up with you.

Now, now, it is not YOU, it is ME. I am just in a new place in my life, in which my kidneys and bladder seem to have an adverse reaction to you. I just can't go on with this seemingly unhealthy relationship. I need to take some time, and figure out what is best for me. Maybe, I am just going through a selfish phase of life, and I don't want to put you through that.

You are probably wondering if I have found another? Well, for the sake of honesty, I will tell that today I did drink water- a lot of water. And, although water does not bubble and fizz like you, or give me the energy I crave in the morning. Water is healthier for me, and is stable. Water may not be as fun, but water doesn't make my kidneys hurt so bad that I cry and throw up. At this point in my life, I need to think of my future and pick the best choice for me.

I hope we can still be friends. Take care.

Love,
Jess

Guess what I got for Christmas?

KIDNEY STONES!!!!

I started to feel sick at work today with the same pain that haunted me in September. Called the doctor and they fit me in for an appointment the afternoon, but while waiting for my appointment and trying to teach fourth grade all at the same time, I ended up vomiting. Let me tell you, there is nothing as glorious as running out of the computer lab, puking your guts out, and then having to go back into the lab, put on a happy place and take 25 ten-year-olds out of their computer program. The doctor is pretty sure it is stones, not an infection. He said people with kidney infections are usually much sicker, and I asked about the throwing up. He stated that was probably just due to the immense amount of pain kidney stones cause. Great!

If I don't feel better in a few day, I have to go get a ultrasound on my kidneys. He said they also could do an X-ray, but would prefer to keep the radiation away from my reproductive organs. Both Yankee Stadium and I thanked him! He did get me a prescription in case it is an infection, since they won't get the results for a few days. And told me to drink a lot of water. My mother has ordered me off the soda and only on the water until next month. I think I am going to try. It is better than being pukey McPukerson at work!

Narcolepsy

Mckay, my sister's wonderful boyfriend, turned 22 years old this past weekend! Hooray for Mckay (I am a poet, and I totally know it.)

The night of his birthday, Ali and McKay went to dinner with his family to celebrate the blessed event. After dinner, the happy couple stopped by our house to pick up a University of Utah shirt for Ali to borrow and wear to work during the big game. (If you have to ask what game, you don't even know me.)

They also brought the new game, Sorry Spinners, with them. The game is a lot like shuffle board, which is one of my favorite bar games ever. In fact, it is the few things that will actually get me to a smoke-filled, over-priced, crowded bar these days. But unlike shuffle board, it fits into a small box, and does not take ten of your friends to chip in a buy the table since it is under $30! We played a few rounds of the game in our kitchen and had an awesome time.

After the game, we retired into the living room to be more comfortable, and so Ali could show me something on the computer. McKay laid on our small green couch, and promptly fell asleep in less than three minutes. On his birthday. With a room full of people. At someone else's house. In a room full of very noisy people. This boy and his ability to sleep is incredible! He can fall asleep anywhere without notice, and really sleep. He remained in a deep, deep sleep for over an hour. It literally took Ali over 15 minutes to wake him up to go. So, I decided I think he may have narcolepsy, so I looked up the symptoms. Here they are from webmd:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS): In general, EDS interferes with normal activities on a daily basis, whether or not a person with narcolepsy has sufficient sleep at night. People with EDS report mental cloudiness, a lack of energy and concentration, memory lapses, a depressed mood, and/or extreme exhaustion.
• Cataplexy: This symptom consists of a sudden loss of muscle tone that leads to feelings of weakness and a loss of voluntary muscle control. It can cause symptoms ranging from slurred speech to total body collapse depending on the muscles involved and is often triggered by intense emotion, for example surprise, laughter, or anger.
• Hallucinations: Usually, these delusional experiences are vivid and frequently they are frightening. The content is primarily visual, but any of the other senses can be involved. These are called hypnagogic hallucinations when accompanying sleep onset and hypnopompic hallucinations when occurring during awakening.
• Sleep paralysis: This symptom involves the temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up. These episodes are generally brief lasting a few seconds to several minutes. After episodes end, people rapidly recover their full capacity to move and speak.

Ok, he does fall asleep during normal activities, but I have not observed any of the other three...so maybe just a sleep disorder? I need my friends with nursing and psych. degrees to chime in on this one.

Here are the pictures of Ali trying to wake him up:

He also accused her of biting his arm when she was trying to wake him up, which she totally did not....wait, maybe that was one of the sensory hallucinations mentioned above!

Here is when he made her put on her shoes, and then told her that they were never having kids, because she did not do a good job!

It is not herpes if it is everywhere

This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie, Knocked Up. In case, you have not seen it or do not remember the scene, it goes something like this. One of the male characters responds to the news that one of the female character's kids may have the chicken pox, that he has had the chicken pox like seven times and has no immunity to it. One of his buddies then jokes that they don't have the heart to tell him it is just herpes. He responds with my favorite quote, "it is not herpes if it is everywhere."

That is EXACTLY how I am feeling right now. I have three, count them THREE, cold sores on my lips right now. Two on top and one on bottom. And before you all judge, and think how disgusting it must be, let me tell you a few things. First of all, while I will not "out" any of you here, I know about half the people who read my blog get chronic cold sores as well. So there. Second of all, it is totally disgusting and painful. I feel like Typhoid Mary or something. And leave it up to Abbie in my class to ask, "Do you have a rash or something?" I just ignored her. My self esteem was already low about the state of my lips to discuss it with her at that point and time.

I usually get cold sores when I am stressed or the weather changes. I was terrified of getting one for my wedding. I can usually take care of the actual sore (gross, I know) with medicine in a day or two, but then they scab (even worse, I know). Then they linger and stay on my lips for what seems like weeks. I was sure I would get one for the wedding with all the stress of the planning, and teaching school, and then when it snowed the week before the wedding, I thought I was a goner. But, yes Virgina there is a Santa Claus, and I made it through my wedding cold sore free. So, I guess my THREE painful sores now are a small price to pay for a herpes free wedding!

Here are some pictures I tried to take of my lips, but I could not truly capture the monstrosity that is my mouth....