December 25, 2010

Wow...what an amazing Christmas. It has been so unbelievable. The true Christmas Spirit has been shown to me each and every day this week. The outpouring of love for the Glover family is just beyond words to me at this point. I pray that the New Year brings many more blessings to them each and every day. God Bless Us All.

December 10 2010

Well, Annika got to come home this week from Children's Hospital. I went out to see them today. She felt horrible. She had been running a fever off and on for the last couple of days. When I first got there her fever was 103.6. Anne had just given her some Tylenol. She rechecked it thirty minutes later. It had come down to 101. She had a call in to Children's. They called her back while I was there. They were concerned that she might have strep throat. They wanted them to take her to her local pediatrician. He sent them directly back to Children's since her fever had been bouncing back and forth. So not much news yet. They were running tests to determine if she had an infection.

Annika...such a blessing in my life.

On October 7th, 2003 the most amazing blessing entered our lives...Annika Rei Glover. DeWayne and I were never able to have children of our own. So, Annika has become the closest thing to being parents we've ever been blessed with. Anyone that knows Annika knows she came into this world as a firecracker...and continues to this day. Her parents have been very dear friends of ours...you know the kind that you consider family for about 15 years now.

They are going through the most heart-wrenching situation right now that I believe a parent ever could. Annika was diagnosed on Sunday, November 28th with a brain tumor. She was immediately sent down to Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. On Tuesday, November 30th she had surgery to remove the tumor. The surgeon was able to remove 99% of the tumor. At this time, six days later we're waiting on the biopsy results. Hopefully, we will get the results today. I hope and pray as so many others do that it comes back benign. But through our faith and belief in God that He will carry us all through this journey...no matter what the results are, we will all persevere together.

I have been so overwhelmed and in awe of the outpouring of love for this family. As Grady said, "There really is good people out there." I am so overjoyed that there are others out there that love the Glovers as much as I do.

Feeling the need for Change.....

One of my duties at work is to watch the heart monitors. We monitor them from Intensive Care. We have to change the batteries every couple of days. Monday night I went out to the med/surg floor to change a patient's battery. While I was at the nurses desk, a family member of a patient came up to the desk. He said his family member had quit breathing. The nurses went down to the room and a couple of minutes later, they came back crying. I asked what patient it was that had passed away. It was a patient we had taken care of in ICU and PCU(Progressive Care Unit). PCU is a step down unit from ICU. We had taken care of that particular patient for about three months. I went down to her room and offered my condolescences to the family. This patient had wanted to die for a really long time. She really had no quality of life. She had been paralyzed for about 23 years. But, I wasn't any less sad when I heard the news. I know that she's better off and is no longer in pain. But, my heart hurts for her family. She was only a couple of years younger than myself. When I went back to the units, I told everyone that she had passed away. Only two out of the five even acted like they cared. Five days a week for three whole months, we all took care of her. I cried all night long. I'm tearing up now as I'm writing this.

Surgery Woes

Wow...it's been such a long time since I've posted and I am so sorry for that. I've had such a lot going on like so many others. But, others continue to tend to their blog. So, here goes. One of my new year goals...tend to my blog more.

Last Friday I had the most traumatic surgery to date that I've ever had. On December 26th, I had the most horrible pain. DeWayne had to take me to the ER. I had a ovarian cyst rupture. The CT they did showed I had a large cyst midline to the right ovary. So, we scheduled surgery. My GYN told me he might have to take the ovary and tube but he thought that was unlikely. Well, long story short...he had to take the ovary and tube. I have never had post op pain like this...and I've had several surgeries over the years...shoulder, gallbladder and several cysts taken out...but oh, this was bad. Today is actually the first day that I haven't had to use a pillow on my abdomen to get up out of bed or the chair. So, from that we're on the road to recovery I imagine or at least I hope.

Yesterday was DeWayne's 37th birthday. We had some friends over since I wasn't really up to going out anywhere. We saw some friends that we hadn't seen in a couple of years....which was great.