You'll be out in the sun!
June 08, 2009
May 27, 2009
Nothing Short of A Miracle
It's been a long time since I posted. Two or three lifetimes it seems.
Mom is coming home tomorrow. After a long stay in a physical rehab place to regain her strength after being sick for so long. Her recovery still makes me glance upwards in appreciation.
As I said in my last post, she went downhill abruptly in the middle of the week. The doctors were planning to do the tracheostomy on Monday. When I spoke to the nurses on Sunday evening, May 3rd, that was still the plan.
I was at work on Monday (May 4th) when my phone started ringing. I dropped what I was doing and ran to take the call. It was Dad.
"She's awake. She's... they... She's off the breathing machine, awake. I was going to check on her, sit with her for a while before going to work and I turned the corner and she was up, looking at me, with just the mask on her face."
Needless to say, we were all in complete shock. Dad called me somewhere around 10 times that day and just kept repeating himself "I turned the corner and she was up, with just the mask on..."
None of the doctors can explain it. She hadn't been making very good progress at all, but apparently that changed overnight.
She stayed in the ICU for a few more days, then was in a regular room, then was sent to a physical rehab place. And tomorrow, between 10:30 and 11:00 she is coming home. Home after over a month in the hospital, 10 days in a coma, brushing elbows with death and coming back to her family.
It's nothing short of a miracle.
And in the midst of all of this, I graduated. It was hard, knowing that I wasn't going to have any family at graduation. Dan and his entire family were coming, but it just wasn't the same as having my own family there.
Night before the big day Dan was helping me with the last minute packing and suggested we go out for dinner. We headed out and I got the shock of my life. There, waiting at the restaurant, was my brother and sister. He had flown in from the West Coast, picked up lil sis and drove the 5 hours down to school to surprise me, because he didn't want me to not have family there at graduation. It meant more to me than I think anyone will ever know.
Graduation itself went off without a hitch. I do wish Mom and Dad could have been there, and they've both tearfully told me that they would have given the world to see it, but what is important is that I still have both my parents with me. And Dan recorded it, so it's all on video.
Mom is coming home tomorrow. After a long stay in a physical rehab place to regain her strength after being sick for so long. Her recovery still makes me glance upwards in appreciation.
As I said in my last post, she went downhill abruptly in the middle of the week. The doctors were planning to do the tracheostomy on Monday. When I spoke to the nurses on Sunday evening, May 3rd, that was still the plan.
I was at work on Monday (May 4th) when my phone started ringing. I dropped what I was doing and ran to take the call. It was Dad.
"She's awake. She's... they... She's off the breathing machine, awake. I was going to check on her, sit with her for a while before going to work and I turned the corner and she was up, looking at me, with just the mask on her face."
Needless to say, we were all in complete shock. Dad called me somewhere around 10 times that day and just kept repeating himself "I turned the corner and she was up, with just the mask on..."
None of the doctors can explain it. She hadn't been making very good progress at all, but apparently that changed overnight.
She stayed in the ICU for a few more days, then was in a regular room, then was sent to a physical rehab place. And tomorrow, between 10:30 and 11:00 she is coming home. Home after over a month in the hospital, 10 days in a coma, brushing elbows with death and coming back to her family.
It's nothing short of a miracle.
And in the midst of all of this, I graduated. It was hard, knowing that I wasn't going to have any family at graduation. Dan and his entire family were coming, but it just wasn't the same as having my own family there.
Night before the big day Dan was helping me with the last minute packing and suggested we go out for dinner. We headed out and I got the shock of my life. There, waiting at the restaurant, was my brother and sister. He had flown in from the West Coast, picked up lil sis and drove the 5 hours down to school to surprise me, because he didn't want me to not have family there at graduation. It meant more to me than I think anyone will ever know.
Graduation itself went off without a hitch. I do wish Mom and Dad could have been there, and they've both tearfully told me that they would have given the world to see it, but what is important is that I still have both my parents with me. And Dan recorded it, so it's all on video.
May 01, 2009
It's all... big
Two weeks ago today my mom went into the hospital via ambulance because she couldn't breathe. She had been fighting a chest cold for a week at that point.
On the following Wednesday I got a phone call at 8am from my Dad that they were moving her from a regular room into the ICU. I left work, Dan left his student teaching job and we drove back home. I spent the night in the ICU with her.
The next morning, Thursday, she was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator because even with an oxygen mask on, she was unable to keep her O2 levels within a safe zone.
It was very scary, watching her struggle to breathe. And when they decided to put her in the coma and on the ventilator it was such a rushed decision, my dad and I were pushed from the room and I didn't get to say anything to her. The last thing I said before she went under was when she got upset at me and I told her not to be sassy.
Since then, everything has been hurry up and wait. Wait for her to get better. Wait for her lungs to empty of all the fluid that is, in effect, drowning her. Wait to see if she's going to be called away from us.
Because the semester is coming to a close, Dan and I were only able to stay for a week. Leaving her bedside was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
So she was placed into a coma. And she FOUGHT against it like you wouldn't believe. The nurses said that, with the medicine she was on, she should have been completely unconscious. Instead, stubborn as always, she kept waking up and looking around, a few times she woke up, looking over at me and started to cry.
In the midst of all of this I was at the house, washing dishes when Dad came in. There was such an expression of... pain on his face that I was positive he'd gotten bad news from the hospital. He looked at me for a second before looking away. "You know that we can't come to graduation, right?" I told him it wasn't even anything that he needed to worry about right then. Before I headed back to school to finish out the semester he gave Dan the camcorder so that he could record graduation. (I'm graduating cum laude!!)
Since I left her condition worsened considerably. This past Wednesday she was recieving 95% oxygen and her body was only retaining 92%. The doctor in charge of her case told my dad that he had never seen someone as sick as Mom was.
Then... last night I got a call from Dad. Mom's nurse for the next few days is a self proclaimed "Stubborn Polack" who was sick of seeing Mom in her ICU, so she was going to force her to get better. After a few hours in this woman's care she was down to 60% oxygen and was retaining 98% of it. This morning she was down to 55% oxygen and was keeping 93%.
I don't want to risk jinxing it, but I'm really hoping that she's starting to heal. This upcoming Monday they are going to do a tracheostomy because they can't keep the tubes down her throat for any longer because it'll damage her vocal cords. The good thing about this is that with the trech it's easier to wean her from the O2 because if she has a crisis all they need to do is clip the tubes to the trech instead of intubating her.
Now I just hope that they don't wake her up until after graduation otherwise she'll make herself worse worrying over missing it. As for me... I just want to go home and be with her.
On the following Wednesday I got a phone call at 8am from my Dad that they were moving her from a regular room into the ICU. I left work, Dan left his student teaching job and we drove back home. I spent the night in the ICU with her.
The next morning, Thursday, she was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator because even with an oxygen mask on, she was unable to keep her O2 levels within a safe zone.
It was very scary, watching her struggle to breathe. And when they decided to put her in the coma and on the ventilator it was such a rushed decision, my dad and I were pushed from the room and I didn't get to say anything to her. The last thing I said before she went under was when she got upset at me and I told her not to be sassy.
Since then, everything has been hurry up and wait. Wait for her to get better. Wait for her lungs to empty of all the fluid that is, in effect, drowning her. Wait to see if she's going to be called away from us.
Because the semester is coming to a close, Dan and I were only able to stay for a week. Leaving her bedside was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
So she was placed into a coma. And she FOUGHT against it like you wouldn't believe. The nurses said that, with the medicine she was on, she should have been completely unconscious. Instead, stubborn as always, she kept waking up and looking around, a few times she woke up, looking over at me and started to cry.
In the midst of all of this I was at the house, washing dishes when Dad came in. There was such an expression of... pain on his face that I was positive he'd gotten bad news from the hospital. He looked at me for a second before looking away. "You know that we can't come to graduation, right?" I told him it wasn't even anything that he needed to worry about right then. Before I headed back to school to finish out the semester he gave Dan the camcorder so that he could record graduation. (I'm graduating cum laude!!)
Since I left her condition worsened considerably. This past Wednesday she was recieving 95% oxygen and her body was only retaining 92%. The doctor in charge of her case told my dad that he had never seen someone as sick as Mom was.
Then... last night I got a call from Dad. Mom's nurse for the next few days is a self proclaimed "Stubborn Polack" who was sick of seeing Mom in her ICU, so she was going to force her to get better. After a few hours in this woman's care she was down to 60% oxygen and was retaining 98% of it. This morning she was down to 55% oxygen and was keeping 93%.
I don't want to risk jinxing it, but I'm really hoping that she's starting to heal. This upcoming Monday they are going to do a tracheostomy because they can't keep the tubes down her throat for any longer because it'll damage her vocal cords. The good thing about this is that with the trech it's easier to wean her from the O2 because if she has a crisis all they need to do is clip the tubes to the trech instead of intubating her.
Now I just hope that they don't wake her up until after graduation otherwise she'll make herself worse worrying over missing it. As for me... I just want to go home and be with her.
April 05, 2009
Cahokia Mounds
Ever since I changed my minor from linguistics to anthropology, I have been learning things that I never knew existed. Such as Cahokia Mounds.
Cahokia was an ancient Native American city located near modern day St. Louis. It consisted of hundreds of mounds, serving both ritual and common needs. The largest of these is known as Monk's Mound, named for the monastery that was built upon it.
This is Monk's Mound. Estimates believe that it took around 167 years to build and is made entirely from dirt. See that tiny speck at the top of the mound? That's Dan. :)
We headed to Cahokia to listen to a lecture so that I could earn some much needed extra credit in my New World City States class. After the lecture we headed out to Monk's Mound.
It's quite a climb to get up there. I lost count when I was trying to count the stairs. It suddenly seemed more important to remember to breathe.
This is the second set of stairs that you have to go up to get to the top of the mound. This set alone has more than 100 stairs. The first set of stairs isn't as large and only has, at most, 50 stairs.
We were both winded. Mouth to mouth was necessary for survival. ;)
I love that we wear our geekiness on our shirts. He with his Chuck Norris, me with my Ghostbusters.
This sign pleased me more than I can say...
Sledding down that huge hill hadn't even occurred to me. Especially as there is a major road directly in front of it.
Cahokia was an ancient Native American city located near modern day St. Louis. It consisted of hundreds of mounds, serving both ritual and common needs. The largest of these is known as Monk's Mound, named for the monastery that was built upon it.
This is Monk's Mound. Estimates believe that it took around 167 years to build and is made entirely from dirt. See that tiny speck at the top of the mound? That's Dan. :)We headed to Cahokia to listen to a lecture so that I could earn some much needed extra credit in my New World City States class. After the lecture we headed out to Monk's Mound.
It's quite a climb to get up there. I lost count when I was trying to count the stairs. It suddenly seemed more important to remember to breathe. 
This is the second set of stairs that you have to go up to get to the top of the mound. This set alone has more than 100 stairs. The first set of stairs isn't as large and only has, at most, 50 stairs. We were both winded. Mouth to mouth was necessary for survival. ;)
I love that we wear our geekiness on our shirts. He with his Chuck Norris, me with my Ghostbusters. This sign pleased me more than I can say...
Sledding down that huge hill hadn't even occurred to me. Especially as there is a major road directly in front of it.
April 01, 2009
Wow...
I GOT THE GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll be teaching three courses over the next year. One in the fall and two in the spring. My tuition will be paid for by the department and I will also be receiving a monthly stipend from them. I am SO excited!!
I'll be teaching three courses over the next year. One in the fall and two in the spring. My tuition will be paid for by the department and I will also be receiving a monthly stipend from them. I am SO excited!!
March 19, 2009
I GOT IN!!!!!
I GOT IN TO GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!!
Time to party!!!
Still waiting to hear back about the graduate assistantship.
Time to party!!!
Still waiting to hear back about the graduate assistantship.
March 04, 2009
Alive, But Just Barely
I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I updated! I hang my head in bloggish shame.
However the time in between posts had not gone idly by. Dan and I got married.
Just kidding. :)
I submitted my grad school application. And my application for a Graduate Assistantship. And submitted one of my papers for a scholarship award that's being given out later in the semester.
Not kidding.
Now the waiting begins. Waiting to find out if I was accepted into the grad school. Waiting to find out if I will be getting my tuition waived, teaching a course
(!!!!!) and helping students out in the writing center on campus. Keep your stitches crossed for me!
It's highly stressful. I keep suddenly realizing that all this stressful life changing stuff is out there, waiting in the ether, waiting to be judged, waiting until I hear back about whether or not my life will continue on the path that I'm hoping it will, and then my heart stops, my stomach twists and I have to try not to cry.
I have two FOs that I need to photograph and post, but my knitting time has been drastically reduced by the amount of homework that I have from day to day. Spring break is next week and I'm not going to have any time then either, as I'm scheduled to work 37 hours, have 3 books to read and two research projects to get started on. But I do have a few projects that I'm hoping to work on during the break.
How have you been?
However the time in between posts had not gone idly by. Dan and I got married.
Just kidding. :)
I submitted my grad school application. And my application for a Graduate Assistantship. And submitted one of my papers for a scholarship award that's being given out later in the semester.
Not kidding.
Now the waiting begins. Waiting to find out if I was accepted into the grad school. Waiting to find out if I will be getting my tuition waived, teaching a course
(!!!!!) and helping students out in the writing center on campus. Keep your stitches crossed for me!
It's highly stressful. I keep suddenly realizing that all this stressful life changing stuff is out there, waiting in the ether, waiting to be judged, waiting until I hear back about whether or not my life will continue on the path that I'm hoping it will, and then my heart stops, my stomach twists and I have to try not to cry.
I have two FOs that I need to photograph and post, but my knitting time has been drastically reduced by the amount of homework that I have from day to day. Spring break is next week and I'm not going to have any time then either, as I'm scheduled to work 37 hours, have 3 books to read and two research projects to get started on. But I do have a few projects that I'm hoping to work on during the break.
How have you been?
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