IN&OUT

Hi. I am snuggled up on my couch in my SC sweatshirt and warm pants and Ugg Boots watching Mama's Boys. How hilarious. What doesn't Ryan Seacrest think of? He seems to be producing all of the reality based shows. The scary thing is that I fear that I WILL BE one of those awful Moms! No one is good enough, smart enough, etc......

Jax does not discriminate with his women. All ages - blonde, brunette, blue or brown eyes, freckles or not he likes them all. Jax continually gives us a run for our money. Jax has loved them and left them already! He has 9 ex-girlfriends. A few he has allowed to become girlfriends once again but not too many! What's up with our 6 year-old?

I am falling asleep and wanted to give you an update. No hospital but we have to be at Hoag by 9 AM because Gary has to have blood transfusions. His reds and his platelets are way down. (7.2 reds and 60 for the platelets). Normal for reds is 11-17 and platelets 150-400.

We are worried that Gary is bleeding through his Illeostomy but I am going to get a sample to send off to the lab tomorrow so we can know for certain. I hate not knowing things for certain.

We had a great dinner at In & Out! Our Secret Santa snuck up to our front porch AGAIN and left it for us! The kids were super excited. What fun we are having with that!

Pray for a Christmas Miracle for Gary. Pray that his pain subsides and he can be more comfortable.

Thank you!!!!!!

Love,
L

No Hospital Yet

Good Morning. Gary has been up most of the night writhing in pain. So, we will head off to Barth's office this morning and get his blood counts done and see if we can figure out what is going on. I hate to see him so miserable. It is so hard.

Hobie is such a bed hog and he takes up 1/2 my bed sometimes and for those of you who have seen my "couch bed" know there isn't much room to begin with! Thank God he doesn't snore.

I will give you all an update as soon as i have one.

Enjoy the cold weather and bundle up today!

Love, Joy, and Peace,
Lisa

Rainy Day

I kinda like the rainy day we just had. I am not a fan of the rain or the wind but Gary loves it so much and I actually enjoyed it with him. We went to Target today together and getting him in and out of the car in the rain was fun! Thank God the rain lightened up for us and we arrived home damp but not soaked.

I have to call the plumber tomorrow to fix a drain and fix our leaky toilet! What fun!!!

Our Secret Santa struck again and left us a book tonight! We read it before we went to bed and the kids LOVED IT! The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is not only the book we got tonight but it is also the play that Nate is in this week for Christmas. I am really looking forward to seeing it and if you are our Secret Santa and you are reading this blog I really want to thank you!

I also want to take time out to thank a few others. THANK YOU to Park Salon for being to gracious, kind, and thoughtful! I would also like to thank Liz and her gang at work! They brought us the coolest card (HUGE AND PERSONALIZED (you can tell it took a lot of time to make it) and a Christmas Tree in a boot with prizes all over it! There are so many kind and wonderful people. Thank you all for making our Christmas more special and brighter! Thank you Thank you Thank you to all of you!!!!

Gary is not well tonight. His face is very swollen and he is having severe joint pain in his legs. I have a feeling he might be having a reaction to the IV antibiotics. I have researched and researched and have not come up with anything. We were going to try and escape the doc office tomorrow but it looks like we might have to go IF WE DON'T head to the ER tonight. Pray that we stay home in our warm house!

The kids and I ran errands tonight and I actually switched their dinner and dessert so that their 1st course tonight was Cold Stone Creamery! They loved that and I loved being with them tonight. They were great helpers and good shoppers.

I am going to bed. Good Night and sweet dreams!

Love,
Lisa

Sunday Night

So, I went to church this morning and then had to pick up my grandma's Christmas present and then had to go to the grocery store. I did not get home until 1:15.

I pull up and Gary is outside with Chuck trying to fix our lights (they overload and shut off our power). They have been out and about since 10:30 AM at home Depot and then outside to add another breaker in our box. Gary had a GREAT morning! I think he is a little tired right now but then Rob came over and he was Mr. Chatty!

I have been getting ready for our Home Group. We usually do a Christmas Party complete with the fixins and gift exchange, etc... This year we are not doing that. We are going mellow. No gifts. No fuss. Just a simple get together with soup and sandwiches and fun. I think next Sunday we will just do dessert and maybe play some games together - maybe bunco! Okay guys. No sighs from you!

Our secret Santa left us a cool puzzle today. Who are you???????? You are lucky that Gary did not have his blinds open or he would have seen you! The kids LOVE IT and we love it , too!!!

Christmas is fast approaching. I am excited! I love Christmas and I even don't mind the wrapping. I love baking and all the smells and I love to give - even if it seems small.

I hope you all have a great Sunday night with friends and family.

Love and Hugs,
L

Santa

What a great day!
Santa came to our house and surprised the boys today at noon. He brought Mrs. Clause and three elves. It was so awesome and Santa was so great with the kids! Santa and the Elves even got on the trampoline and jumped and Santa did a FLIP! It was so cool.

We had lots of sweets for Santa and Jax kept saying OVER AND OVER again - Gee Santa. You sure are FAT! Santa's fat!! Fat Santa!!! It was a little embarrassing but cute and they got lots of cute little things.

I got some wrapping done and when I got home this afternoon there was a mystery bag on my doorstep and I think we must have a Secret Santa - unless someone is going to fess up! What a great surprise! I love that. Who are you????

Gary is finishing up Fettucini Alfredo and garlic bread with broccoli and carrots. A little midnight snack for him!

I have to sleep because I need to be at work early.

I will write more tomorrow night after home group.

Ciao and lots of love,
Lisa

Birthday Blessings

Good evening or shall I say Good Morning in about 15 minutes.
I think we had the last of my birthday celebrations tonight. Our Friday Night Friends came over for yummy chicken casserole and Mazi joined us for a viewing of Jacka$# on MTV. We were laughing so hard and we were trying to figure out why we all think it is so funny to see men hurting themselves. It was great.

Jake came over this afternoon to help me with the boys and they love hanging out with him. He has been a lifesaver many times for us. He is such a great babysitter - BTW - NOT giving his number out!!!

Gary had a better day today. He got into the Trojan and picked the boys up from school and he was so chatty tonight with all of our friends. I am glad he was feeling better.

We are watching Princess Bride - one of Gary's all-time favorites. I could take it or leave it so I think I will nod off while I can.

We are having some friends over tomorrow and the real Santa is coming over at Noon. Shhhhhhhh.........the kids have no idea. He is bringing his elves and I have lots of sweet treats and hot cocoa to be had by all! I am so excited!

Have a great weekend and I will try and update photos this weekend!

Love and Hugs,
Lisa

INFECTION TIME AGAIN

Hi everyone. You know when you have your day planned out and you have your "LIST" of things in sequencial order and you know you will have satisfaction once your day is done and you've accomplished most everything on that list? Well, today was not one of those days and I had my LIST ready to go which makes it all the more frustrating!

Best laid plans is what I had. Chaos and that horrible rushed feeling is what I ended up with instead.

Woke up. Took a shower. Got ready and slipped into Gary's jeans and a funky shirt to go off to the doc office. I usually get totally dressed BUT I knew I would have time once we got in and out of the office and home. NO makeup. Yucky hair pulled back. Lunch date scheduled for Noon. Looking forward to it. Coming home to get "cute".

Got to the doc office around 9. All hell broke loose (but in a very mellow way if you know what I mean. No drama. Just another bump in the road for Gary).
Gary spikes a very high fever at the office (has had a few low grade ones over the past few days - no biggie) and his left nephrostomy tube is not producing any urine. As it begin to show signs of urine I can tell you right now it is NOT the color urine is suppose to be.
So, blood cultures, hydration, urinalysis, CBC, and yes a scan. So, the scan is scheduled for 2:30 at the office and by this time it is now 11. Rachel (his awesome nurse) asks if Gary can stay put while I go to my lunch and then come back by the 2:30 appt (the scans are done in the imaging dept. at Barth's office so it is way convenient).

Off I go. Thinking at this point I have a little time to relax. Get to lunch. Sit down. Phone rings. It's Rachel. The CT machine broke at the office so we have to go to Irvine Regional (which is now Hoag #2) no later than 2 PM.

Rush through lunch. Steph drives me back to Barth's to get Gary. Get to Irvine Regional. HAD NO IDEA that because we had not ever been there that we had to go through the entire admitting process - paperwork, photocopies, etc....ALL the usual bologna.

We wait an hour and Gary goes back at 3 PM. We wait and while we do we ponder life's deepest mysteries and I yawn and feel like just crawling on the floor and curling up into the fetal position and passing out due to extreme exhaustion. The eyes got heavy but I stayed off the floor.

Dr. Arata tells us that Gary has a bad kidney infection - no other bad news. It's doable. IV anitbiotics, hydration daily, and the such. Done it many times and will do it as many more as I have to. We load and go.

Also, throughout the day we are dealing with uncontrollable and massive pain in Gary's leg. We had to up the pain pump and we drugged him up with dilaudid at the office. He is drugged out of his mind now and has been sleeping since 4 PM. Still asleep right now. He has not slept in days so this is good.

I am going to bed and hoping to get some things wrapped up tomorrow morning. I am scared to make plans so I will have the same attitude I tried to have today - easy come, easy go. It is what it is.

We have moved the rest of the birthday festivities to tomorrow night and I think the boys are okay with that. We were already going to be celebrating tomorrow night so we are just adding a few more things to the evening.

My birthday was filled with friends and fun and the speical gift of Gary still being with us. Doctor office or not we got to be together today - not in the conventional way - but nonetheless we were together. I am going to try and get him out of the house tomorrow ofr a little while. It's good for him to have a change of scenery (besides the doc office).

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday morning.

Thank you to everyone who texted me, E-mailed me, sent me Birthday cards and wished me well on my day. I have the greatest friends and family on the face of the planet - even though some of them are a little kooky! :) HeHe

Love to you all!
L