Under the Weather

I've been a little under the weather the past couple of days. Nothing serious, just achy and tired. I was so glad to get an 'on-call' today from work and just be able to hang out at home. Sometimes we all need a little down time. I know that I tend to cram many things in to my schedule and rarely take time for myself, yet I always feel refreshed when I do take a day off and just hang out, read or nap or what ever.

I also know that I really have nothing to complain about. There are so many people out there that have bigger trials than I do. Some special people have been on my mind alot lately.

One of those is baby Brooke's mom. Remember, I had posted about her a week or so ago. I had asked for prayer for baby Brooke. My patient / friend has been in the hospital for awhile now. I talked to her today. Things weren't going so well. She said her white count was up which could mean infection and she was having contractions. Please keep praying for them. We are all hoping for a miracle for both baby Brooke and her mommy!

Another new blogger friend is Stacy. She is a young mom with 5 children and a recent diagnosis of breast cancer. Visit her blog here to see a woman with the softest heart and hear her testimony. Also pray for her as she navigates the path of cancer treatment. I can only imagine what it must be like to be responsible for your family and to be in pain and not feeling well all at the same time.

Lastly, if you would keep my blogger friend Jody in your prayers also. She is another Christian woman that has seen her shares of heartache, yet continues to praise her God for who He is. She has an amazing story and just went through another anniversary date of the day her little girl died. Anniversary dates are always bitter sweet. You love the memories of that special someone but are incredibly hurt by not having them around any more either.

Tomorrow I plan to get up and just enjoy another day - for that is really all we have - one more day to praise the God who made us and holds us in His hands.

Debbie

Medical Updates

This has been a long summer - filled with multiple doctor visits and time spent waiting on test results...yet, I think we are nearing an end to the drama around here.

Michelle's breast biopsies came back as fibrous adenomas. Mostly something she is just going to have to watch for the rest of her life. She sees the surgeon again in 6 months and as long as she has no new growths and her current masses stay the same, then they will back off to once a year. She managed the biopsies well, had very little pain and less bruising this time. She is just "lumpy'.

As for Erika~ her blood work is all normal, her cervical screen is negative and her C.A.T. scan was negative!! Yeah - no sternal lymph mass, no pelvic masses - nothing! Thank God!! She has now been cleared to go on about her life. She is feeling so much better, is eating better and taking vitamins.

She has also started training again for cross country season. She ran 5 miles today. She is behind in her mileage but hopefully will still have a strong season. She will be a senior this year at Biola University and was hoping to just enjoy this time in her life. Many thanks to her coach for his friendship and understanding during this tough summer!!

Debbie

Welcome Baby Noah

Our little church just keeps growing. Sure, we have had new families join us in the past year. But, our biggest growth has come from within. There have been four baby boys born in the past month alone at our church.

Little Noah was born on Saturday, July 24 at 1536.

Mommy Christine labored a long, 36+ hours!!! I was able to take care of her. She had the most beautiful delivery. She hardly pushed, was able to feel some of the pressure but was so in control and really got to enjoy the birth of her sweet little guy.

The new parents are so in love with this little bundle.

Here they are checking out their seconds old infant.

Daddy Nick cutting the cord

We do immediate skin to skin at the hospital where I work so the baby does not leave the mom unless there is some problem or the baby needs some resuscitation. Christine held and checked out her little guy ~ she did skin to skin and she had the freedom to just check him out and get to know him.

Baby feet - the sweetest creation God made.

Checking out every little detail

Noah was a little guy - he weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces

One proud papa

Congratulations Christine and Nick. It was an honor to care for you and be a part of your special day. Thank you for allowing me to be there. You did awesome with your days long labor and you are going to be wonderful parents. I could see the love and care that you both have for little Noah. Love him and teach him how to be a man of God.

Welcome Noah!! I can't wait to see you again and watch you grow.

Debbie

Diaper Bags

While working today, one of our anesthesiologist comes in to the room to give my patient an epidural. He places the epidural then goes on to carry on a conversation with the mother about her petunia pickle bottom diaper bags. You know, those expensive designer diaper bags that are all the rage right now...

At first, I was like, what is he doing talking about diaper bags? He even knew the name of this designer bag. It was sort of funny.

Well, come to find out - his wife owns and runs a company that makes bags that are just as cute if not cuter than those really expensive ones. They also make car seat covers and lunch bags, and snack bags.

If you are looking for a cute bag you should check out their web site. Their diaper bags are called "The Bumble Collection" I have a whole new appreciation for Dr M. - who would have ever thought a guy would know so much about bags?!?! He says he even goes to trade shows with his wife. So, not only can he take your pain away - he even helps you look cute when you take your new baby out in to the world :)

Debbie

Praying for Baby Brooke

I took care of a patient yesterday that asked me to post about her and ask for prayer...so I am...

I'm not going to go in to all of her story because of HIPPA stuff but I will let you know a bit as she has asked. She knows that the outlook for her situation is full of risks, but she is also hopeful and attempting to stay positive.

My patient is 17 weeks pregnant and her bag of water has already broken. A full term pregnancy is 40 weeks so she isn't even half way through her pregnancy yet. Of course, if she were to deliver today...the baby would not survive. My patient is committed to doing what ever she needs to do to help her baby live...even if that means staying on bedrest for 20 weeks.

She is expecting a little girl, named Brooke. My patient, lovingly said, as she rubbed her baby bump, "I love her so much already". She just wants to stay pregnant long enough for her baby to be born alive. Long enough to see her breathe, long enough to watch her grow, long enough to see her smile, long enough to hold her and love on her, long enough to to have her live.

Please join me in praying for baby Brooke

Debbie

(ultrasound pictures taken off the internet)

Happy Birthday

20 years ago today I gave birth to the sweetest, calmest, cutest baby. Michelle Elyse joined our family after 5 hours of labor. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and hardly had any hair. Labor with her was by far my easiest. I had contractions that were not super painful, and did not let the doctor break my bag of water. After walking around, visiting with my nurse friends, I did finally have a few strong contractions. At this point I asked my nurse to check me and I was just about ready to start pushing. My bag broke the contraction before she delivered and my doctor did not make the delivery. But I didn't care for I had this sweet little baby to hold.

She slept alot and was not real needy (which was a good thing because her 17 month old sister was not taking to kindly to having a baby around the house...and she was the needy one at that time!) Michelle was a happy baby. She slept, ate and pretty much just took in her surroundings.

Love the toothless smile here. She did finally grow those teeth though ~ and required years of orthodontic work ~ probably because she was a thumb sucker. But I didn't care ~ she was content.
I should have known that she was going to grow up to be an animal lover. She was always holding them and playing with them - even as a young child. Today she has two dogs, a cat, two fish and two turtles. Yet she constantly asks to bring something else home!

She grew up in to a fine young woman. She is smart, has always done well in school and got accepted in to almost every college that she applied to. She is currently attended Cal State Long Beach where she is majoring in Kinesiology. She is sporty, yet girly all at the same time. She played soccer growing up and ran track and field in high school as well. She still loves to work out and take her dogs on hikes in the canyon. Guess that is why she is in such good shape.

She has many friends ~ some that she has had since kindergarten and she has a heart for our world and the people of our world. She loves to travel. I often wonder if she will join the peace corps one day. Of course I think she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.She also loves photography. She has two SLR camera's but received this point and shoot for her birthday today. She even has her own photography website called, of all things, Michelle Elyse photography. I keep telling her to major in photography but I think for now it is just a hobby. She does do photo shoots on the side if you are interested.....Happy Birthday dear daughter of mine! You have brought so much joy in to my life - and a little frustration as you are late for everything - guess that is your kickback nature! I hope you have a fun birthday with many more to come!!

Love you,

Mom

It Took Forever!

I spent some time today trying to create a button for you to be able to place on your blog. You know - one of those blog buttons that you can click on and link right to my blog.

Well, after a long time...I think I finally did it. All you have to do is copy the URL into your blog by going to your blog, click on design, click on add a gadget, click on HTML/javascript and copy and paste the URL into the box.

I sure hope that it works!! So let me know if it does or doesn't.

I had already had a button on my blog but didn't like that it wasn't cropped well. So, I spent much of today trying to create a new one since I was too thrifty to pay someone else to recreate it - HA!

Yes, I know the colors don't exactly match my current blog but since I change my background paper frequently I decided to just do it in pink and blue...baby colors.

And no - I don't plan to change it in a long time for this one took me forever to create!!

Debbie

Life Goes On

I am home from a day filled with doctor visits. I am a bit tired, and glad the appointments are over.

We started this morning with Michelle getting bilateral biopsies done on her taa-taa's. Six months ago she told me that she had felt a lump and she was rushed through the medical system back then...to ultrasound, referral to a breast oncologist / surgeon and had a single biopsy done that showed the mass to be a fibrous adenoma. (benign mass...cystic in nature...not really a big deal). She had a 6 month followup appointment recently, only to find that she had a new mass on one side and one that had grown on the other side since her last biopsy. So today, she got stuck again. I truly think Dr C. is just being careful with Michelle. It is sometimes hard to tell if the masses are concerning or just fibrous. So we wait for results - again...for the second time in a month. Only with a different child this time.

Michelle is feeling good. She has a tight ace wrap on that she needs to leave on overnight - she looks a flat chested young girl. So far she says that she has hardly any pain. She said the numbing medication was the worst part. Guess we can plan a birthday dinner after all for her this weekend!

After I got Michelle settled at home, Erika and I headed off to the oncologist to followup on that previous "highly suspicious for lymphoma malignancy" report that we had gotten a few weeks ago. First off, let me just tell you that she is feeling so much better. She is eating again (like she used to - HA!), and has even started exercising. She isn't quite back to running yet or training for cross country season but she is so much more her 'normal' self.

The appointment went well, we sort of felt like it was just going to be an easy in and out thing.

The doctor did see the original area of inflammation ~ which is healing but still inflamed. She said there is scar tissue forming which is good. She really wasn't too concerned but went ahead and ran a test for cervical cancer just in case. Then she talked with us. Again, she said she isn't too concerned - she didn't feel any lymph nodes in the obvious areas like the groin or armpit. She did order some lab work (which was drawn today) and a C.A.T. scan. I was a little surprised by this. I guess I am glad though that they are making sure that everything is O.K. I really feel in my gut that she is O.K. and that her doctors are just being cautious since she is young and has a life time ahead of her. So, we have one my hurdle to get over before she is given a clean bill of health.

I am amazingly not worried about either daughter. I know that some people would probably hear biopsy, oncologist, surgeon, C.A.T. scan and totally wig out. But I am at peace for whatever comes of any of this testing. I think they are both quite healthy. I think we will look back on this summer and comment on how we made it through all of this. I think they will go on to lead long lives and are just being challenged right now with questionable issues. They are both strong, independent women of character and are handling all of their testing with grace. And no matter what - our God is the same today as He was yesterday and He will lead us through whatever happens with all of this. I am choosing just to rest in that.

Debbie