The Weekend

JAKE! You need to come home!! Things are getting out of control! Kanyon got her first kiss from a BOY!
We went to dinner with some friends last night. Both couples have little boys and its kind of a joke about which one will "whoo" Kanyon. Well this lucky little one, Parker, was the one to give her the first kiss.
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This is a picture of Kanyon next to a watermelon that we grew in our garden! Can you believe that they both weigh 15 lbs?! This weekend we picked all the watermelon. We picked 13 of them, the heaviest weighed in at 25 pounds. This was Jake's favorite thing that we grew, and now he's not here to eat it! I am going to keep a couple in the cellar, hoping to keep them cool and fresh for him so he can enjoy them too!

Jake: Update

My last update on Jake was on Sept 8- I shouldn't have gone that far between updates. Too much time as passed. He has been gone since Labor Day. He was working in Louisiana. They evacuated the "man camp" when Hurricane Ike was making landfall. They ended up being put up at the Paragon Casino & Resort in Marksville, LA. They spent a couple nights there doing a little gambling at the 3 card poker table and eating at the buffet for free! After the storm hit, they quickly realized most of the damage was in Texas. However, they had a few things to finish up in Louisiana before they could move on. One project was getting the "ghetto" part of Baton Rouge hooked back up with power. They previously had a different crew of guys working in that section of the city and a group of "thugs" drove by with guns and shot up a nearby house. Obviously that was enough to get those workers out of there, and that particular crew left the job unfinished. A few days later Jakes crew gets called to finish it up. Jake said that this time they had the roads blocked off and the workers were in a boxed in area that they were not to leave. Not only that, but this boxed in area was guarded by ATF men (Federal Agency- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) with guns protecting them. That was quite an experience for him.

After that was over they headed over to the great land of Texas, where he is right now. They've been putting power back to some small outback towns north of Houston. (If your familiar with the area, he is near Huntsville- where "Old Sparky" is in an execution museum of somesort) The "man camp" in this area is at a Baptist Retreat Camp. There are a bunch of large cabins that have about 20 beds each in them. There are 2 functioning bathrooms and showers. He'll call when he is waiting in line to shower at night. He says the showers are so cold, he swears they are pumping the water directly from an Alaskan glacier. (There isn't any power hooked up to the camp yet). Sounds like a bunch of guys having fun at summer camp! haha. He found out today that he thinks that they are staying in this area till Wednesday then heading into Houston to work for a couple weeks longer. Stay tuned for the next update.

She's finally home!

Baby Kanyon is finally home. She was down in Price the last week hanging out with her Granny, Grandpa Dennis & Uncle Dave while I recovered from my surgery and while Jake is still in Texas. (I will write an update on him shortly). Its amazing how much you miss in just one week. She is starting to laugh so much more and she is reaching for her toys now! She's getting too big too fast. I am definately very lucky that I have a great husband who lets me stay home with her all the time. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to miss all these moments. Welcome back home Baby Kanyon. We missed you!

Again....Wanted: A New Nurse

So I am home from surgery and I have so much that I want to blog about that it is intimidating me to even start.

This might be a long post, but bear with me...you will be glad that this didn't happen to you.

Just for the record...I have cheated and copied some stuff from my sisters blog and tweaked it to be my own...The pain meds are making me creative that way....haha

On Sunday Kate & I had the opportunity of visiting Davis Hospital ER for the first time and hopefully the last. Yes we are fine. I was scheduled to have my gallbladder out on Monday, but Sunday I was having such fierce pains that Kate took me to the ER. I figured I wouldn't miss my gallbladder that much if they took it out one day early.

(The following are Kates thoughts in italics) When I think of the ER I am thinking Emergency Room and Emergency meaning help, fast! I think that is a reasonable definition. Now maybe because I haven't had that much experience with ER's (only 2) that I found it absolutely ridiculous that you have to wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes or so before they will even call you back to ask you what is wrong. hmm... Now I wasn't planning on having this big ER, Grey's Anatomy experience but I did expect a friendly front desk gal (we didn't get that) and for it not to take about a half hour just for the lady to print out the wrist band and then call out the name "Sara" like she has never heard of the name before in her entire life. Finally the triage nurse (there is only 1) calls out Sara and we walk about 15 paces behind the huge doors and into a little room where she monitors her blood pressure and asks her whats the problem. After the problem has been discussed (extreme pain due to a no good gall bladder) they bring us to a curtained off room and we wait. This nurse who came in to draw blood and put in the IV was a nicer one we experienced that day BUT she had to stick Sara twice with the IV needle which is bad news and if you know Sara that is EXTREMELY bad news. Finally she gets it in her hand and a few minutes later Sara tells her it still really hurts and this is the response "It shouldn't hurt anymore" (turns around and leaves) hmm.. Glad we are liars. Another nurse comes in to administer some morphine I don't think she made eye contact once or made one personable comment the whole time, that is irritating to me. People who are here are scared and need comfort you crabby A** woman. Meanwhile while we are waiting for the Dr. we can hear all the conversations, poor old grandma quit her blood pressure medication a week ago and now is having chest pains, the Dr. asks "Why did you stop taking it?" Response "Because it makes me ache all over, and its not worth it" another conversation at the nurse's station "All my notes are gone, my file, everything!" "It's gone are you sure?", "Yes, everything!" Glad we're staying here is my reaction. Like the poor Davis Hospital ER could take anymore confusion- they get a call that life flight is coming, just what they need! Needless to say Sara is wheeled off to another room, new nurse, more morphine and finally go home. The positive experience , The Dr. was pleasant. The nurse let Sara go home with the IV in her hand (it is still painful), she gets to the hospital today and they are confused why they would let her go home with it and the IV isn't even in the vein, so through all of that it has to come out and a new one needs to be put in.

Now, I, Sara, will give you my side to this story. So yes, if you know me, poking me with a needle does not put a smile on my face. These nurses were SOOOO RUDE! So, the nurse who tried to put my IV in the first time was REALLY nice, however if she stopped yacking for 2 minutes she might have been able to put the IV in my arm without blowing out my vien. She then sticks a cottonball on the hole she made in my arm and ties a tourniquet around my arm. Then she finally gets the IV in my hand. And, just as Kate said, a different, really RUDE nurse comes in to give me the morphine...let me remind you that she still has the tourniquet around my arm!! and she just pushed this medicine into my arm...with no where to go becuase I have a tourniquet on!! And I told the nurse that it hurt like hell going through my viens- all she said was "well, its not supposed to hurt anymore"...no SH**...thats why I am telling you that it hurts! Something isn't right! Then I make the reference that the tourniquet is still around my arm and she says "well your hand is not blue so there must be some circulation." So...my hand hurt so bad...even the slightest pressure hurt. They sent me home with the IV still in so they wouldn't have to do it again in the morning when I had my surgery.

So the next morning I have to be at the hospital at 8am. Let me remind you that my had hurt so bad that I could barley pick up a dinner fork to eat with AND when one of my friends saw it she thought my arm was broken cause it was swollen in such a weird way. Anyway, I get to admitting in surgery and they have me strip and put a gown on. The new nurse I got was wonderful. I will say that first. But she asked me 'what is that on your arm?'..so I told her the story and she was a little shocked. The tried to flush the IV but it had infiltrated and was no longer in my vien and everything was just going into the tissue (hence all the swelling). Anyway, she told me that the ER nurse didn't do me any favors by leaving this one in me overnight.

So...finally I had the surgery. If you all remember what that gall bladder looks like on my earlier post, just think of that and being 3 times bigger! No Lie! My gall bladder was about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide! They are only supposed to be about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. I should try to post the pic that the doc gave me after surgery. Anyway, now I have 4 little incisions and I am pretty sore. But if anyone is ever thinking of going to Davis ER, please don't.

Adios, Mr. GallBladder

Ok.. so instead of going to NY on Monday, I will be going to the OR. No, that doesn't stand for Oregon- it stands for the Operating Room! Go figure. It sucks that I am going to have to postpone my trip, but I really need to get this thing out. The surgeon showed me the ultrasound picture of my gall bladder today...it is SO chuck full of stones that they couldn't even get a good picture. So, everyone, please say "adios" to Mr. GallBladder

Strollin'

Kanyon LOVES to go for walks. Now that Aunt Rachel has moved in, we've been walking more often. Our motivation to walk is knowing that we will be walking to the gas station to get a yogurt cone! Yum. Here are some pics of Kanyon enjoying her stroll to the gas station.

Wanted: A New Nurse

So the past few weeks I've been having some stomach aches after I ate. I didn't really think anything of them until they progressively got worse over time. This past week I ended up with a pain so bad that I finally decided that it was more than a stomach ache and went to the doctor. The doctor told me that it sounded like I had gall stones, so he ordered me to get an ultrasound and he took a couple vials of blood to check. The next day he calls me and tells me that he got the blood test results back and sees that my white blood cell count is really high (sign of infection) and that whatever test he ran on my liver was slightly abnormal. So the next day I have the ultrasound. The nurse calls me with the results and says that everything is normal and that I have to go see a surgeon for more testing and possible "exploratory surgery" to find out what is wrong with me. I was a little nervous. I was hoping for it to be my gall bladder, since that is an easy fix and they can just remove it. So I made an appt with the surgeon for this coming Wednesday, so we'll wait to see what he tells me. Well, today I get a phone call from the first doctor I went to. He said that he had a "feeling" that he needed to check my chart and make sure that the nurse called me on Friday to give me the results of the ultrasound. He pulled my chart and saw that the nurse had written a note there saying that she told me that everything was normal. He was shocked! He said that my gall bladder on the ultrasound was VERY ABNORMAL! He said that he has no idea what the nurse was thinking when she told me it was normal. The doctor said that he had even written in his report that I had "extensive gall stones" and that I had to see the surgeon to have it removed! I am so glad that he had that "feeling" to check. So, I still am meeting with the surgeon on Wednesday to find out when my surgery will be. Sounds like a sh** load of fun. Here is a picture of what my gall bladder could look like. Enjoy!

Hurricane Gustav

For those of you who don't know, Jake is in Louisiana. Eight crews from his company got called out on Labor Day to go fix the power that the hurricane destroyed. He is working near Baton Rouge right now and they have to take a ferry everynight across the Mississippi River to the "man camp". This "man camp" is a place where the workers can go to sleep and eat. They have 10 tractor trailers out there that have 36 beds in each one, 2 trailers full of showers, and 2 trailers full of port-a-potties. They have been fixing the power lines in places burried in about 3 feet of water, with the threat of alligators and water mocassins. He was all excited the other day when he called cause they caught a copperhead snake and put it in a cooler. Yes, he knows that it is poisonous. He's not sure when they are coming home yet. They are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Ike. He says Baton Rouge is already starting to evacuate people and that the cooks from the "man camps" are going to be on their way out. He's not sure what is in store for him yet, but he is trying to enjoy this new land and experience the best that he can. The 2 pictures below are of the ferry and of the sunset on the Mississippi River. I will try to keep you updated on what is going on with him.

Congratulations Jake!

This week was an exciting week for Jake. Besides turning 27, he also ended his 3.5 year apprenticeship with Sturgeon Electric. He passed his tests with flying colors and is now a Lineman for the power company. We are proud of him and excited to see what new experiences this next journey will show us. Congratulations Jake!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake celebrated his 27th birthday this week. We had a little party for him to let him know how much we love him. We made his favorite dinner - lasagna and garlic bread, and also made his favorite dessert- angelfood cake with orange icing.