We have pictures from around here, believe it or not!  Not as many as if I was doing more exciting things and more on the ball with the camera, but here are some snapshots of the joys of my life these days (and the delight of my eyes, since they are so cute!).

Andrew has been doing a lot of the bathing (except when our family members do it), but hopefully by Monday that will all be changing and I will at least be doing some of it.  This picture was taken just about 1/2 and hour ago, post Hannah’s bath.  You can almost smell how clean she is!

Paul is usually our happy guy.  When I am working in the kitchen, getting lunch, or washing dishes, or general clean-up, he loves to be where I am.  He often stands on a chair at the island drawing, or playing with a few toys, or running a little car or train on the island.  This time he was playing with his blankies and some red cups.

Aunt Lucy has been coming to help me every Tuesday, except for this Tuesday.  She is moving to Wyoming and setting out on Monday, so she needed this week to get her stuff ready for the move (boo-hoo-hoo, how we will miss her!!)  She is our main Scrabble player too, and I don’t think we will be getting in any more games before she leaves.  Anyway, here are some pictures of Paul with his favorite Aunt (she is by far his favorite, sorry the rest of you folks, I can’t help it!).

Aunt Lucy is working at becoming Hannah’s favorite aunt also.

Paul enjoyed running around and around Aunt Lucy and Hannah.

That evening, Lucy left a little early to meet some of her friends for supper at a restaurant.  Here she is all fancy and fixed.  If Paul knew what was going on, I am sure he would have begged to go along!

Last Thursday evening, my great-aunt Eva (Grand-daddy Gardner’s sister) and great-uncle Bob came and brought supper.  They brought fried rabbit, along with other very delicious foods.  They ate with us, and then visited afterwards.  Paul had a lot of fun playing with Uncle Bob, as you can see.

Hannah was just her happy self.

Andrew helps Paul with his potty time, and he took a picture of Paul with a big-bear bathroom companion.

We put Hannah in the Jumperoo for the  first time on Saturday.  She doesn’t jump yet, but it gives her a different position from just sitting in seats or lying down watching things. 

On Sunday, I ventured forth and put Hannah is a dress for the first time since I was sick (one-piece outfits take less energy to put on and maintain than a dress.  Especially if Andrew is doing most of the maintaining, I try to make it easy for him.)  This dress is from her Aunt Rachel.  It is 12 mo. size, and she is nearly too wide for it!  But, she is cute as a belle in it!

Yesterday, my mom and my younger siblings were here.  At the end of the day, Luke and Glen wanted to play some chess.  Hannah got in on it!  (Paul was long since in bed.)

Luke, Andrew, & Hannah

Now, I guess a few notes about today would be in order.  It has been a good day.  I am still a morning person.  I feel my very best and have the most energy between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m.  I love the mornings.

This morning, both Paul and Hannah slept in until 7:30.  That is a little unusual for Hannah.  She is usually up between 6:00 and 6:30.  She usually goes to bed between 9:00 and 9:30 and night, so I think that is excellent for her, at just shy of 5 months of age.  Speaking of Hannah, she is just growing and growing.  As soon as I got home from the hospital, I realized she had outgrown the clothes she was wearing prior to my going in.  I got out bigger ones.  Now, she is outgrowing those, and I am scrambling around trying to find some bigger ones.  As soon as I am able, I want to go to some second-hand stores and look for some bigger things, particularly for her to sleep in at night.  I have winter stuff, but she needs lighter things that still cover her arms and legs.  I just can’t believe how quickly she is working through the clothes these days.

Paul has been a little tired today.  He slept big and long last night, but for some reason he was tired, and therefore a little fussy too, especially in the later morning.   Every morning, after Hannah goes back to bed for her first nap, I lie down on the couch for at least an hour, sometimes and hour and a half.  Paul just plays in the living room, reads books, or draws on paper at the counter.  I rarely to never fall fast asleep, so I am aware of noises, but Paul knows not to bother me and to behave.  He is happy and just plays by himself.  I am very blessed for that.  When I get up, unless Hannah needs something immediately (and I try to get up a little before she will wake up for her next feeding), I read some books to Paul.  Then, he is much happier for me to spend time feeding Hannah.

The one thing I did today was pack up my maternity and nursing clothes into boxes and take them down to the basement.  That was very sad for me.  I feel like I have been cheated out of the best months of nursing Hannah, the months when she really nurses well and we both enjoy it a lot (I was looking forward to that time, and we were moving into it until I got sick).  I cried a little bit.  But we are where we are, and she has excellent health, and my health is improving.

Today was my first entire day of the insulin routine.  It will take me some getting used to, incorporating all the exact timing.  That is, checking my blood sugar and giving myself the R thirty minutes before I am going to eat (then making sure I get started eating in 30 min.) for all the meals.  Then, I have to check my blood sugar and give myself the Lantus at exactly 6:00 each evening, plus not only eat at the right time for the R, but be sure to take my prednisone at the same time each morning and evening so that my blood sugars are keeping steadily elevated from the prednisone (no ups and downs), to cooperate with the Lantus.  That all occurs as I am trying to get the food heated/peeled/boiled, table set, keep Paul from fussing for food because he is hungry and sees it, and it seems like Hannah either needs to burp, needs a diaper change, or is asking to go to bed–and sometimes there is just some crying going on for a spell around here!  (That is not new with my sickly condition, by no means!  That is life with little ones, unless there is someone out there who has comatose kids.)  But, I do one thing at a time, and we get it all done.  I am really looking forward to getting my blood sugars straightened out so my vision will get back to normal.  Right now, so much of the time looking any distance at all looks like I am looking through water.  I can function fine (of course I won’t drive), but it is aggravating sometimes.  Most of the time I can focus my eyes to read.

Well, I am about to get my first shower, and wash my hair in the shower!  Hooray!  (Well, I did manage some showers in the hospital, with special wrapping of the PICC site, but that was a long time ago.)

I thought I was going to get a non-health blog up with some pictures that I have been taking, but it hasn’t happened yet.  I will get off my health issues one of these days!   I know some of you are likely curious about the Dr. visit today, so I wanted to put up a short post.

Big wonderful event, Dr. Overby took out the PICC line!  Hooray!  That was at about 12:15, so as I have it calculated, my 24 hours waiting until I can shower will be over at 12:15 tomorrow, and my 5 day wait until I can resume lifting with my right arm will be over at 12:15 on Sunday!  I can hardly wait!  That also means, no more home health visits in the mornings (happiness!), and no more daily flushings of the lines, and the IV company is going to come and pick up their equipment and get it out of my house!  Wonderful, wonderful!

Next thing, Dr. Overby has now started me on some insulin, Lantus daily with a sliding scale of R for before meals.  I have to call him on Friday to let him know how it is going and make adjustments, but at least we are getting started and I hope to be feeling better from lower blood sugars soon.  The high blood sugars were running my system “dry” (a little dehydrated), keeping my blood pressure low, and making me feel lousy sometimes all day long.  Plus, vision changes were rapidly occurring, and well, we just needed to get onto this it seems, and not wait until I am down on the prednisone to let these symptoms go away.

Lastly, he has decided to start tapering off my prednisone by 10mg/week.  So, starting this evening, I am only taking 50mg/day.  I seem to be one of the people who blooms out the side effects of prednisone early and well, so even though we are taking some risk of having the pancreas flare up by starting decreasing the dose right now, it seems worth it.

Oh, the pancreatic enzymes.  Yes, that is of note.  As you recall, they did go up when I stopped the TPN and started solids.  Just today they have started to come down again.  I trust that will continue.  They will only be checking the levels weekly at this point.  I just have to report any new or bad symptoms of pancreatitis.  I am hoping and praying things will just keep coming more and more toward normal.

Praise the Lord for His continued faithful healing of my physical body.

Well, it still continues.  (This will be quick because I need to go to bed so hopefully we can make it to church in the morning.)  Friday, my home IV company called and they already had my lab values and they felt sure Dr. Overby would restart my TPN.  My spirits went way down immediately.  By 6:00, I still hadn’t heard a thing from Dr. Overby, so I called him.  He just hadn’t had a chance to look up the lab values yet (he’s been working in the hospital), but he said this was good timing.  He looked them up, and both the lipase and amylase had doubled since Wed.  He wondered how I was feeling.  Since I was not feeling any worse, had no pain, tenderness largely unchanged, he said he wouldn’t restart the TPN right now but we would leave the line in because he isn’t sure that we may need to restart it.  So, we’ll see where we’re at after Monday’s lab results, I suppose.

On my end, I sure am enjoying eating the seemingly small amount I can fit in my stomach.  And, my weight is holding pretty steady, so it must be enough.  It has just been so long (I guess about 2 years), since I wasn’t pregnant or nursing, so I guess just don’t need big amounts of food anymore.  When I see the amount of formula Hannah drinks in a day, I understand why I am just raging hungry and eat like a hog when I am nursing.  I think she drinks the better part 24-32 ounces a day (which 32 oz. is a quart).  When I see the bill for that and the disposable diapers, I think oh how much money we could save if I could nurse her and was in top health to use the cloth diapers!  But, we are doing fine, and I don’t think this will send us to bankruptcy.

I hope soon to post some more pictures and write a non-health blog post.

Well, I had another weekly appointment with Dr. Overby today.  I really, really wanted to get rid of the IV pole and the big heavy bags that have nearly become part of my body since June29th (yes, I have been pushing a pole since then).  I didn’t beg him to let me get off it, but I am sure he could tell I really wanted to.

So, the status.  I met him at the treatment center at RMH since he is working in the the hospital this week.  He said we would unhook the TPN and the normal saline and try it a minimum of 48 hours.   He would leave the PICC line in that long to make sure we didn’t have to reinsert it.  If my enzymes don’t go up, if I don’t have pain, if I don’t get nauseated, (and I assume as long as I can take in enough fluids to keep from getting dehydrated and eat enough to keep from losing weight too fast), then we will take out the PICC line and keep on without the TPN.  So, the next two days are a trial period.  I was very, very happy.  He had the treatment center staff unhook it all and block the lines with heparin (which Andrew will help me do here at home).  I felt so free leaving there!

My enthusiasm was a little dampered when the home health nurse called soon after I got home to tell me what to do with the pumps, and to let me know that the message she got was that Dr. Overby expects I will need to go back on the TPN come Friday.  Well, I am going to give it my best shot and pray that won’t be the case.

Dr. Overby said my enzymes are “creeping down”.  He is concerned that my progress is so slow.

My job now is managing my intake.  I can advance my diet as tolerated (to eating solids, etc.), but I have to maintain a diabetic diet but still get enough calories and fluids into my system with my diminished stomach capacity.  I am grazing as much as I can to make this all work out.

Well, this is a pretty focused blog entry, but I need to go see what needs done for Hannah and then go to bed.

Today has been another good day.  My sister Gail was here along with her son Bobby, who is 6 mo. older than Paul.  I wanted to see how well I could get along doing everything (such as heating up food in the microwave and putting the dishes into the dishwasher) and just having her lift Hannah around for me as needed.  Well, I nearly got the lunch ready.  I ended up taking 3 rests today and having Gail bail me out different times.  No, I didn’t over-do, I just was finding out what all I could do.  It was encouraging just to move around my kitchen for a while.

Here is a picture of Gail, Bobby, and Paul.  Bobby discovered a toy of Paul’s still in the package back in Paul’s closet, so they got it out for a new toy to play with.

This evening, some former neighbors of ours who are in from Texas brought supper and visited a little with us.  Their son was born 4 days before Hannah, and it was our first time to meet him.  They are going back to Texas to finish up at Wycliffe school, and then will be taking an assignment in a sensitive part of the world working with an unsurveyed language (don’t know if it is written or not, they will be finding that out), and working long-term to get the Bible into that language.  Even though I am not up to hosting company in hardly any form right now, I really wanted to see them before I may not see them again for several years, depending on the future.

I keep hoping that one day the doctor’s office will call and say, “Guess what?  Your amylase and lipase are completely normal!  You can resume a normal diet as tolerated, turn off those pumps, and the home health nurse will travel at the speed of light to your house to remove the PICC line from your arm!”  Today was not that day.  The doctor’s office called and said the amylase and lipase were slowly decreasing.  That was it.  No other message, no changes mentioned.  *sigh*  So, stay the course, learn patience a while longer.  Since I am in danger of murmuring and complaining, I will quit on this subject right now.

We had a great weekend over here.  Andrew has been arduously working at building a fence around our back yard.  It is white vinyl picket.  My mom graciously brought Luke and Glen (my brothers) over to help him work on it Saturday and they have it all up except for the drive-through gate.

Andrew and Luke

Glen, Luke, & Andrew

Even a small guy (Paul) can help!

All the fence guys!

My mom was then here helping me out in the house and doing more work than I get done in a normal week!  She even weeded my garden.  She had brought lots of food the weekend before, so she dug it out of the freezer and prepared the lunch and supper too.  It is great that Andrew had help on this big project, and I know he was happy to have it so nearly done at the end of the day.

On Sunday, we all went to church for the first time since my big pancreatitis.  We only went to the 11:00 service because that was all I was up to.  I layed down and rested before we went to church, then I rested again for a long while after we got home.  Of course it was a small operation to get there, with both the little people to get ready.  And, Andrew not only had to do all the loading and unloading of Paul and Hannah, but of my IV bags and pole, and get everything ready for me to wheel around my equipment.  It was great to get out a little bit, and even more wonderful to hear the message.  I thought it was an excellent message (Mt. 7, about the narrow and wide gates).  Both Paul and Hannah behaved wonderfully in church, and they both took good, long naps after we got home.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

In the late afternoon, my parents brought my grandma Gardner to visit.  They had just come from a reunion at Weaver’s Mennonite Church, which is close by, so they stopped in.  We had a really nice visit, and Paul and Hannah were good host and hostess respectively.  Hannah took a nap with her grandpa (even though Grandpa snored very, very loudly).

Great Grandma read books to Paul, who had a lot of trouble concentrating on the books due to the loud snoring.  He has never heard anyone snore before, so he kept looking over at Grandpa with the strangest looks on his face!

After Grandpa and Hannah woke up, Paul brought his toys to Grandpa and also played tug-of-war with his blankie with Grandpa.

So, as you can tell, we had a very nice weekend.

On a side note, as an anniversary present (which we have yet to celebrate, since it was June 28th), Andrew has given me a new computer, or something like that (I am never really sure what is new and what is over-hauled, or a mixture of both–it really makes no difference to me).  Anyway, it is a real whiz-bang thing that is fast and has Vista on it.  He doesn’t have all the fancy da-doodles on it yet, like the Whiz-bang image preparer program that he wrote special to prepare my photos for the blog.  I have been using the standard blog cruncher instead for the time being and I hope it isn’t too clumsy for you folks to see these pictures.  I hope I will soon be back to the normal method.

more progress!

Today, Andrew took a message from my doctors office that said my enzymes have continued to come down slowly, and if my stomach was handling the clear liquid diet o.k., I was free to advance to full liquids!  Happiness abounded for me!  I had a little cream of chicken soup and some banana pudding (a lady from our church had brought some as a dessert yesterday) along with grape juice for supper!  It was a real treat!  I wanted to taste more of it and gobble gobble on down, but Andrew warned me to stop.  I was glad he had, and I did stop.  My stomach was soon telling me I had eaten enough for that time.

I am very much encouraged, and feel like I am getting back to a human state.

It is about time I told you all what our little Hannah is up to.  She started rolling over (tummy to back) while I was in the hospital.  She loves to coo and make high-pitched gurgles in the back of her throat.  She has a great big smile that she puts on with the slightest encouragement.  She loves to lay on her back and watch her mobile in her crib.  She kicks and talks to it.  She usually sits at the table in her high chair (with it tilted back slightly, it is adjustable like that) during our meals and watches us and talks to us.  As soon as I got home from the hospital, I started giving her cereal at supper, and soon after that at breakfast too.  That has eliminated her getting up at 2:00 a.m. for a milk meal (that had started while I was in the hospital).  With her getting so much formula and the cereal, I also give her about 1 tsp. of applesauce with her supper to help her bowels.  She gobbles the stuff right on down.  You can tell she is a real joy to us!

Today was her 4 mo. checkup, and boy did she check in like a little cow!  Our little lady weighs 17 lbs. 8 oz. and is 26 inches (it might be some fraction also, I can’t remember) long.  She is above the 95th percentile for both height and weight!  Wonder where she got it (ha!).  I think she might end up with her mom’s appetite (which is normally a big one).

As soon as I get a little more free from my equipment, I will have to get to taking pictures and put up some of our happy Hannah.

Hi!  I wanted to let you all know that yesterday afternoon I got permission to advance to a clear liquid diet that has calories in!  Yay!  I enjoyed home-made chicken broth (my sister Gail had given me some to use in soups and casseroles, but I am drinking it now instead), jello and grape juice yesterday.  At first, it was quite a surprise that after 1/4 cup of jello and 1/4 cup of broth, I felt satisfied and didn’t want any more.  About two hours later, I remembered just how good the chicken broth tasted, so I poured about 4 ounces and drank it.  Boy, I felt so full and mildly miserable that I was sorry.  The feeling subsided after an hour or two, and then I felt fine.

Anyway, I am really enjoying eating something real, even if it is just clear liquids.  It is such a treat and the bad taste in my mouth isn’t there most of the time anymore.  Today, I have worked at taking clear liquids (my mini meals) about 4-5 times, and my capacity is slowly increasing.  I had about 1/2 cup jello and 4-6 ounces of broth for supper before it was time to quit.

When I went to Dr. Overby’s on Wednesday, my enzyme levels had come down a noticeable amount (that is how I got the o.k. to drink clears with calories).  Dr. Overby said we would try this and watch the enzyme levels; if they spiked backup, then we were back to square one.  He warned me that that could happen several times.  He is having the home health nurse come and draw my blood every day except Sunday.  I haven’t heard anything about the results of today, so I am guessing there was no need for a drastic change.  I also asked him when I can get rid of the TPN.  He said when I am eating solids and tolerating them well.  That is a big incentive for me to work on this eating thing!

Between my family and Andrew’s family, someone has come every single day to help me.  The biggest thing is that I can’t lift Hannah due to the PICC line in my right arm.  Each one has sacrificed a lot just to help me get along here at home.  Being at home has been a tremendous blessing.  I love being with my children, and of course around Andrew too, without having to wait for him to come to visit each evening.  I am also continuing to gain strength and endurance, which encourages me.  Dr. Overby said I can be up and about as I feel like it, but just rest when I get tired.  So, that’s what I do.  Some days are better than others, but that is to be expected, and is even normal when I am in my usual state of health.

I need to move along here.  Tomorrow my mom is coming for the day, and she is going to help me take Hannah for her over-due 4 month check-up.  I am sure that alone will make it a big day tomorrow.

Hi!  I haven’t been doing much blogging, not because I haven’t thought about it, but because all my time and energy are spent elsewhere right now.  There hasn’t been any change to my program.  When I was discharged from the hospital, somehow in my mind, I might be on the TPN, oh, about 3 days.  Then, the IV company arrived with a week’s worth of bags to fill my refrigerator!  After my follow-up appointment with Dr. Overby last Thursday, it slowly sank in that this was now a week-by-week progress, not a day-by-day thing.  It was a disappointment, but it wasn’t like anybody had told me differently.  I just had high hopes.

I do have more endurance and energy than I had when I first came home.  I guess laying around in a bed for 10 days can really deteriorate the body.  I still am far from normal and tire too quickly, so I just take naps in the day.  But, at least there are spells when I can move around my kitchen, pushing this heavy pole around with me.  It makes me feel more normal to do some of my normal activities, even if it is just a few.

People have asked if I am still nursing Hannah.  I let her eat what’s there, and then she finishes off with formula.  I have also started her on cereal twice a day, and that helps her too.  I will have to re-evaluate periodically to see how long we will keep up the nursing thing.  I have to weigh myself every day, and that helps determine how well my body is holding up under all this.

I am able to take clear liquids that have positively no calories and no carbonation.  That was a big step.  At first, I could only sip about 4 oz. over 20-30 min. before my stomach started to get uncomfortable.  Now, I can take several swallows at a time, and even drink about 8 oz. in 30-40 min. and not have any trouble.  It has also increased the rumbling in my tummy!  Before I was drinking, my stomach calmed down to growling about twice a day.  Now, it is back to growling a lot.  Last night especially!

Tomorrow morning, the home health nurse is coming to draw my blood at 6:30.  Then at 7:15 a neighbor is coming to stay with Paul and Hannah so Andrew and I can leave by 7:30 to get to Dr. Overby’s for another appointment.  He is coming into the office in the middle of his vacation just because he didn’t want it to go very long without seeing me back.  I am very, very blessed to have a dedicated and excellent doctor.  (I told him his wife would strangle him for scheduling an appointment during their vacation.  He said, “No, I’ll give her your address and she’ll come strangle you!”)  So, with all that, tomorrow will doubtless be a busy day for me.

I am very much enjoying being back home with my family.  We are getting a “new normal” established for the time being.  Paul misses me not being able to pick him up, but we still get some lap time in every day.

Here are a few pictures.

Andrew helping Hannah sign a card for me.

We didn’t take Hannah to visit in my room because

we didn’t want her getting any RMH germs.

Paul and Andrew visiting me in the hospital.

Paul ate supper beside me on the bed. You can see

my meal in the white IV bag!

Finally at home!  Reading to Paul.  You can see

my food machines hanging on the pole.  I declare

that all weighs close to 40 lbs. when the bags are full.