Thoughts on being a housewife . . .

I am typically a very very busy person - almost to the point of being so busy that it isn't really healthy to my relationships. I work a full time job, I work a part-time job, I run Special Olympics for my county (another part time volunteer position), and I am currently pursuing my master's degree. So obviously I do have alot of extra time in my schedule to be a wife . . . This sounds weird but it is sadly true.

So over the past three weeks here in PA, I am obviously not working my full time job, I am not working my part time job, and I have not been running Special Olympics (with the exeption of some odd email here and there for my Bball teams). And although my husband is at boot camp, my mom is currently - hmmm . . . how to phrase it . . . on hiatus by doctors orders when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and running errands. So, my life has very suddenly changed to that of a housewife (despite the fact that I am still doing masters program work). I know that many many people are very happy being a housewife, but it is just not my cup of tea. I have compiled my personal pro/con list of this lifestyle. Could I ever get used to it . . . maybe - but probably not.

Pros:
1) TLC, Food Network, and HGTV: I officially LOVE these three channels and do not know how I would get through a day without them. Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress, Challenge, Property Virgins . . . the list goes on and on! These shows get me through the laundry folding and vaccuming and have become my personal friends. I am really going to miss them when I go back to work and I have to say that I am glad we have a TV that can record shows (I just don't know how to use it).
2) Starbucks: Running errands is SO MUCH more enjoyable with a good latte in hand. Thankfully, there is now a Starbucks in Shrewsbury, which happens to be where the Walmart, pet store, and grocery store are located. It is also close to the church AND the YMCA where I run Nikole for many activities! How perfect!

3) I am really struggling to come up with a third number - I feel that I should have a third, but I just don't.

Cons:

1) Cooking: I am a TERRIBLE cook - I am not joking you to say that I really am bad at it. I feel so bad that my father has had to go from my mom's cooking to my cooking - that is really sad! John cooks at our house thankfully, but that does not help my dad out at all. Thank goodness for Mignano Brothers - the super tasty pizza shop right down the road.

2) Cleaning: I HATE cleaning and I don't think I am really good at that either. I mean I can clean - but I don't know what to use for what. I used a swiffer duster today to clean the wooden floors in the living room -- I mean it doesn't seem like I should have used that but I really don't know what else to use!!! At home in NC, I had to hire a housecleaner for a couple of months JUST so I could learn what materials clean what - oh that is so so sad.

3) Grocery Shopping: WAY too many options at these grocery stores. Like, I just want chicken - there are too many chicken parts, fresh or frozen, and 3 brands of each of these! I just stand there staring at the chicken for like 10 minutes until I get so frustrated that I don't even buy any. I know this sounds NOT normal - and I acknowledge that it is not normal - but it is really what happens to me. That is why at home I shop at ALDI! I love that store because there is only ONE brand of everything - it is perfect for me:)

I am sure there are other things to being a housewife - but I don't even know about them. The only think I think I am good at doing is laundry. So, at least my mom, dad, Nikole, and I will have clean clothes.

All in all, I think I am really good at my full-time and part-time job. I am good at my part-time volunteer position and I am good at what I do in school. But, sadly, I am just not at being a housewife. Sorry John:)

Blizzard Pics!!!

Well, within the past week, we have had over 40 inches of snow here!!!! I have not seen this much snow in such a long time and let me tell you the dogs LOVE it! Here is a little picture progression of our week of snow . . .
As the snow started, my mom and dad bedded down in a hotel in Baltimore about 1 mile from the hospital. We knew that they would not be able to drive from our house to the hospital, so we hoped that they would at least be able to walk there if needed.Back in PA, we started the snow removal process. We had to keep the deck clear so that the dogs could have a place run outside to go to the bathroom. My parents older dog will go to the bathroom on the deck if it is covered with snow.

This is what the front of our house looked like 2 days later. We were completely snowed in!!! My dad called and told us that he wanted us to attempt to shovel out the cars. So, I got ready to head out . . .




After just a short bit, I called my dad and asked him how he expected me to do this!! It was like an impossible task!


But, after a lot of hard work and determination, here was my final product! I was so proud of myself.


In the end, I think we had about 25 inches of snow in those two days. Then, two days later, the snow started again! This time, the doctor gave us permission to give mom her shot from the house so we did not have to drive up to the hospital. As we shoveled, played, and shoveled, the inside crowd watched HGTV, TLC, and the food network:)


Here is my dad ON TOP OF OUR POOL!!!

The most fun part of this blizzard was helping the dog forge trails in the snow! They wanted to run in the snow, but it came up over their head. So, we walked around the yard to create trails for them. Here are some of our play pics:)

I had to throw poor Dina into the snow bank just to see how tall it was!!! She would swim out! It was so funny.

This is my FAVORITE picture of my boy! He loved chasing the birds through the trails! He would run and then poke his head up over the snow bank like a meer cat to see where he was then get back down and keep running:)
Of course we would come in occasionally for some snow breaks:)





Here is me and Tootsie hiding in one of the tunnels and staying warm! The wind was crazy!

At the end of each play session, we had to actually bathe Kaylynn in hot water because this is what she looked like!!! The snow caked to her and made snowballs that clung to her hair!


Ahhh , at the end of the second storm, we had seen another 20 inches of snow! So, my dad is once again preparing to dig out the cars, the dogs are probably out for the night, I am going to make dinner and watch a little "Say Yes to the Dress", and my mom powers on while relaxing in the bed.

And one more piece of information . . . the weather forcast is calling for snow again on Monday:) I may never be able to get back to NC.

Sigh

That is how I feel right now. It has officially been 5 days since I left the hospital. There have been ups and downs for my mom. Ups including some nice conversations about food that she wanted to cook or eat and downs including some throwing up and a very late night trip to the ER after her first day of chemo treatment following the transplant. But all in all, things seem to be pretty good right now. We are sitting back at our house in PA, next to the fire, and everyone is home and healthy (well as healthy as can be expected) and content.

Becky and I came home yesterday afternoon, took a looooooooong nap, ate pizza, and then went back to bed while Mom and her friend Patty took on the last day of chemo, endured more sickness, and spent the last night in the suite next to the hospital. Then, Becky and I spent 5 hours cleaning and sanitizing mom's bathroom and bedroom and stacking the house with hand sanitizer so we could cleanly welcome her home this evening. She is once again looking quite perky and talking about food - which is our signal that she is feeling pretty good:)

And so . . . as the bruises on my butt get bigger and bigger (still unsure as to why that is), I guess it is about time to get back to the regular grind of life. Back to grad school due dates, daily hour drives to and from the hospital for bloodwork, cooking, cleaning, and sitting by the fire in between. For the time being though, half-marathon training WILL be placed on hold. And to top off the week . . . I got to talk to John for a whole 10 minutes last night!!!!

It seems that day +5 transplant brings a simple kind of content feeling. I have spent the day thinking about my husband, praying for an old high school friend, and talking with an old college friend. I thank all of you for your prayers for me - it seems I am healing up fine despite the ugly looking marks. So, it is time to turn our prayers towards my stem cells that are floating around in my mom. I pray for them to be strong and productive in their quest to take over my mom's stem cells and make their own white blood cells. Love to you all:)

In recovery . . .

Bone marrow is really really red!!! There is is folks -- my marrow dripping into my mom:)


Ahh, I am back among the land of the living. So the whole experience was really not that fun. And I really hate to say it, but before all of this happened I was shocked that anyone would not be willing to do this procedure for someone else. Well . . . I am not so sure I would do this for just anyone. For a family member - surely, but someone I didn't know, ummmm . . . I don't know about that.
I don't know if any of you follow my sister's blog, but if you don't you should check it out because she has a completely different point of view on the experience that I do. You can link to her blog from on the side of mine.
The day of surgery, I headed into the pre-op around 5:30 to get changed, do paperwork, get an IV, and talk to the anthologist. I currently had hives all over because I was so stressed about this procedure. When I finally got to speak to the anesthesiologist, my first question was - "So, do you know what you are doing?" Now, by this I meant are you planning on an epidural or general anesthesia - because I was going to quickly imply that general was the ONLY way to go for me. Dr. Lee quickly responded with the fact that he surely knew what he was doing because he had looked it up on the Internet the night before and he was planning on using general because that video was clearer. He was quite funny. I let him know that I had hives so that they did not think that I was experiencing an allergic reaction to anything - he ever so nicely gave me a shot of a little something that calmed me right down:)
I was finally wheeled into the OR where I vaguely remember meeting the doctor - I think I did - but that may have been a dream and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. My blood pressure was LOW LOW LOW! They said that in the process of getting 1 liter of bone marrow, 3 liters of blood came out. Now as you remember I was only able to give 1/2 of a unit of blood during the donation, so when my pressure dropped to 60/40, they grabbed my measly 500 cc's and hooked me up. Slowly, my pressure cam up to 90/60 as I felt better. During this time, I had to use a bed pan twice which is something I never want to experience again.
Once I started feeling better, I got to actually start going to the bathroom - which was when the problems started. I could not get up and move around without throwing up. They tried like 4 different types of nausea medicine and nothing was working. Every time I moved, I threw up! So, this went on from 10:30 am (when I was moved to recovery), until 8:30 pm!!!!! At that point I wanted to LEAVE! I could actually see our hotel room from my bed in the hospital and my mom had already received my bone marrow and was in the hotel. So - I fought through one more trip to the bathroom to prove I was fine and then was discharged. As soon as I got to the hotel, I headed straight back to the bathroom to throw up again. So here is my mom, hanging out, feeling good after the transplant.Here is me right after arriving home.
The rest of the evening was very vague memories. I do have to say that I do remember my nurse like being an angel. The whole day I was in and out of awareness and every time I woke up I would see my nurse's face. Her name was Becky, so I have decided I have an angel Becky is all areas of my life ( home life, hospital life, and school life).This is the following morning.



So, by day 3, I am feeling a lot better. Still feeling like I have been kicked multiple times in the butt by a horse and the bruising is pretty grosso!!! But the nausea is gone so I am happy with that! I absolutely refused to take the oxycodone that was prescribed and I am just sticking with Tylenol to handle the pain. We are still here in Baltimore since my mom is going to and from the hospital daily. And . . . another note of interest, my mom did get the riggers after my bone marrow started going into her. My blood type is B and hers is O so she got the riggers (which is like uncontrollable shaking) during the transplant process and she had to be knocked out.

Here is the aftermath - which gave me a big butt look. Although you can't really tell in this pic . . .





This picture is really gross - but pretty cool. Do you see the holes? I had EIGHT of these in my skin. Ugh -- kind of makes me sick looking at it but it is part of the documentation needed!

So - every time the bandages are changed I still feel quite sick. I almost passed out this morning when we were attempting to get me into the shower - but day by day it is getting better. We are staying down here until Wed morning and then we will head back to PA for my mom to stay in seclusion in her bedroom. The nurse said that I should not do heavy exercise for 2 weeks which puts a big damper on my half marathon training - but so is life I guess.
Thanks to all of you who were praying -- but keep praying, I may be out of the woods - but mom is not. She is just beginning this battle.

Life as is . . .

Wow -- so I have to say that this has been exhausting and I have not even done the transplant yet. The problem lies in the fact that my mom is technically not supposed to be alone, but at the same time she cannot technically go anywhere. So, I have to wait until my dad and Nikole get home at 5:30 or 6 every night before I can go do anything or run any errands (which include training for this half marathon). For example, yesterday, I woke up at 6:30 to help my little sis get ready for school and then walked her to the bus stop. Now - walking to the bus stop is no easy task during the winter in PA -- it is like below freezing temperatures and we are standing there for 20 minutes, because unlike myself, my little sister is early for everything!!! So, after she got on the bus, I came inside to do devotionals and work on grad school until the cleaning lady arrived. Once the cleaning lady arrived, she took over my post as "watchdog" over my mom while she cleaned and I went to the YMCA to run. On the way home, I tried to stop at the jewelry store only to find out that they do not open until 10:00 am. I am still trying to get there to get the new ring that John bought me for Christmas sized. I got back from running, showered, got ready and we headed towards the hospital. We decided to have brunch at Craker Barrel because obviously going out to eat is NOT included in the "not going anywhere or being around people" clause that the doctor states. After our wonderful bruch, we headed to Baltimore. We stopped at Bank of America on the way so that I could cash a check - only to find that I had forgotten my ID in my dad's car from when I went to the gym the night before:) So, ring and bank had to stay on my list of things to do the following day. Finished the drive to John Hopkins, sat in a room for 4-5 hours while my mom and I talked, worked on grad school, and attempted to relax in a room the size of our car with a hard plastic seat to sit on - my butt goes numb EVERY day!
On the way home, I planned on stopping back by the Y to run in a see Nikki swim at her swim meet, but we were unable to make it on time so we just headed home. Once home, dinner had to be made. Now here I am going to say something that is going to shock you - but it is true. At this point in the day, my mother has MORE energy that I do. Like why am I more tired than a person undergoing intense chemo? Am I a really super tired person or is my mom a really super energetic person or is a combination of the two -- I would love to hear some thoughts on that . . .

So, I actually sat down to relax while my mother cooked dinner because I just couldn't do it anymore. After dinner, I went to the grocery store to get stuff for my dad while we are gone, picked Nikole up at the restaurant where she was having dinner with her friends, attempted to go back to the jewelry store only to find that they were closed again, and then returned home to tidy up the kitchen, put the groceries away, and keep working on the laundry. I sat down to watch tv for about 30 minutes, then headed to bed and tried to write to John a little bit before passing out.

Now - this same thing has to happen every day except that usually, I have to go run in the evening too because the cleaning lady is not here to relieve me. And I have to say - it is exhausting!!! I am almost excited for Friday to come because I will have to lay there for a few days and let my sister keep up the stamina for the daily activities!!!

Well, today, I just got back from getting coffee and having the car cleaned so my mom does not have to breathe in the dog hair from the back seat as her immune system weakens and now I am going to do my devotionals again and then prepare to head back to the jewelry store and bank before heading back to the hospital. I hope that at least today, I can keep up with my mom.

Gloves?

On Thursday, my mom had a Hickman catheter put in her to use for taking blood and getting her chemotherapy. Well, just to let you know, the catheter is basically a central line that goes directly into her jugular vein in the her neck. Yeah - you read it correctly. There is a thing stuck directly into that MAJOR vein. Then, the "thing" is run down her neck and comes out of her skin high on her chest. Here is a picture of it for better understanding.

Well, obviously this is a picture from the internet and not a picture of my mom's chest.

Anyway, today was the first day that we had to change the dressing around it. After kind of panicing inside (because I realized that there is most likely some blood involved), I doned my mask, washed and sanatized by hands, and took a deep breath. We both actually had to wear masks to do it. So, I pulled the sticky plastic thing off her skin that covered the entire catheder. At the same time, I kept making sure she was holding onto the line because I was freaking out that if I pulled to hard, it would dislodge the line and there would be a HOLE in her jugular! Yeah - that would be a quick return trip to the hospital.

After pulling it off, my mom took a peek under the dressing to check how bad it was and it really wasn't that bad at all. We pulled the dressing off - then I used this super cool invention. It was like one of those dish washing things that I sqeezed and alcohol came out on a sponge for me to wash around the area. I know that was stinging because it was alcohol going onto a hole in the skin :(

I washed it all up, then we put another type of prep on the outside where we were going to replace the sticky plastic thing. We did not have to replace the dressing because it was no longer "weeping", which is a really gross word. We sealed the hole all up in the sticky plastic and we pretty proud of our work.

At about the same time, I looked down to start cleaning up all of the materials and saw the gloves that were sealed in a bag - probably the gloves that I was supposed to use the do that entire procedure! I even remember thinking the entire time that it just did not seem like I should be touching all that stuff. I mean - we were wearing freaking MASKS for crying out loud and there I am touching the dressing and sealing it up in my BARE hands. So - at least my hands were washed and sanitized -- but I can be sure that I will NEVER forget to wear the gloves again!

My little miracle . . .

So, I cannot recieve any phone calls on my phone tonight because there is some sort of problem with Verizon in North and South Carolina. I found this out when I called tech support because three people texted me that they were trying to call and my phone was ringing with no voicemail, beeping, or doing nothing at all. I called tech support and they said it should be fixed by tomorrow morning. Well - John called me from a pay phone with no problem and I got to talk to him for like 15 minutes!!!! He is the only call that has come through to my phone tonight. . . So, thank you God for my little miracle phone call. You always come through :)