What Year Is It?...Oh, The New One!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR

As we have been doing for the last few mornings we woke up to Dad having a V-Tach episode. He didn't move. He was still lying in bed when it happened, as it did yesterday morning and the morning before that. The nurse came in to make sure he was ok. She made sure that his pacemaker paced him back to normal without a shock and paged a doctor to come up to speak with him. The Doc that came up was an intern. She did not seem too concerned, because he was able to pace out of it without shock. She said they would continue to monitor his rhythms and we would have to wait for Dr. Lewis to come in...in an hour! 

This is again why I hate holidays and weekends here! It seems like we have been waiting for answers since FRIDAY!  When Dr. Lewis did come he was great. He increased two of Dad's meds and told them no more IV's. If he did need more IV's later on they would put in a central line. Dad has developed phlebitis in both hands and arms, from the IV Meds. This is typical for the type of drugs they were pushing through his veins. While they are getting better, they were like balloons yesterday. He told the nurses they should watch for his hands in the Macy's parade because they would be floating by tethered by the balloon guys! He was referring to his fingers as Jimmy Dean sausages! Still joking... which is great :)

Brendan and Kerry brought us some new clothes and supplies today including Dad's much needed breathing machine. He was not loving the one they had here so he just stopped wearing it. We just needed a few things from home and Bren did a great job following my descriptions of where to find things. 

We were very lucky to have some special visitors today!

Kylie is not very happy that Lilly
wants to sit on the
window seat too! Lilly gets "the look"

Brendan, Lilly, Mom,
Kerry and Kylie have a snack

Little Miss Julie's first visit with Papa at the hospital.
She is cute as a button :)

 Lilly and Kylie ready for lunch !

The girls were very excited to see Papa today...especially Kylie. Papa is Kylie's favorite!  It was so good to see them. They came with their gifts that Santa had brought them to show us. Kylie also brought one of her favorite babies that Uncle Joe and Lauren gave her for Easter. 

Papa ended up with Kylie's baby and Lilly's Rapunzel!

MOVIE TIME!

Dad was very happy they came. He almost told Lilly that the LORAX was still on the movie channel...lucky for us her new favorite movie is Disney's BRAVE! So since we have only seen that once it was not as painful as the LORAX for the 75th time!!!

While they were watching the movie Mom ordered lunch for Dad. They had a special holiday menu today. At least they try and make the best of the holiday's for people who are stuck here. 

The BIG SISTERS watched Brave with Papa and Little Julie spent some quality time with Grammy while Brendan and Kerry grabbed lunch. It's not often that they are able to eat lunch together without the kids so I am sure it was a nice break for them too. The kids keep them pretty busy but they are such great kids, they are truly lucky. They brought a smile to anyone who came into the room today. Doctors, nurses, housekeeping, dietary, social workers etc. all smiled when they saw them.

Kylie and Lilly had a few pretzels and animal crackers for a snack. While Lilly sat and ate hers a little at a time, Kylie chose to use hers like a cigar! Brendan and I thought she looked like the character from the old A-Team episodes...the one who always had a cigar in his mouth. She makes us laugh. She is quite a comedian. Maybe that is why Papa is her favorite...they are both Jokers!

Grammy walked to the door with the girls to say goodbye. We were sad to see them go but they had a busy road ahead of them today. We hope to see them again soon. I have been promising Lilly she could have a sleepover on school vacation. Unfortunately, we spent most of school vacation here, but, she is a very patient kid and understands. While everyone was packing things up she walked over to Dad and said "Papa, I hope you feel better" it was so sweet. 

Tomorrow will probably be a very busy day, full of tests and hopefully some answers. We just want to get Dad back to normal levels and rhythms before we go home. We are thankful he is here and receiving great care. They are running on a smaller crew, but they are still a quality team who help each other out.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, calls, texts, e-mails, cards, snacks, company and for being there for us every step of the way. I have said it before but I can not stress it enough, we never could have come as far as we have without all of you...our support team is immense! We are truly blessed.

Until tomorrow,

Laurie