"Today the nurse was out from hospice. She changed the dose Michael could receive from his PCA pump due to his increase of pain through the weekend. He state's honey, its hurting all over. My neck, shoulders, back, and the swelling in my lower extremities is awful. Last night we tried using the Oxycontin in between dosages of the Morphine. It helped some but not enough. We also, tried some Ativan to help relax him before bedtime. He sleeps well but becomes very disorientated and has bad dreams. He even got up once and I found him sleeping standing up at the bathroom sink with the water running. I guess that drug doesn't agree well with him. I told the nurse maybe we should try something else. I don't need him falling or something. I have just stood bye all these months while Michael took care of his own treatments and medications but now it will be my job to make sure he is getting the right dose and care that he needs. The nurse feels the confusion at times will become more evident and she would prefer that I take over these areas. I have been so proud over the last year, Michael able to care and do for himself. I feel it's important to keep independence as long as you can. As his wife, I will take over and provide the best care ever. For he deserves the very best.
Michael states" you Nicole are the only one I trust to care and love me completely, you are my angel!
"Ooh! Honey I feel the same about you as well.
The nurse sent pressure stockings as well to try and pull the edema out of his feet and into the upper body. It may work or it may not. For his swelling is different then the normal swelling you or I would get from our vessels. Her concerns are dehydration for Michael is not getting the fluids anymore it's being stored in his body instead. Their is nothing we can do about this. She placed him on a water pill but we can't go to high due to his low blood pressures. Lately they have been 80/44 which is very low. It has been hard sleeping next to him the last couple of nights. I hear his breathing slowing down. I think will he take that next breath. Then I pray, pray and pray!!! The nurse said today I think Michael was given the strength these last few weeks to see you through and now he will be able to relax knowing everything's all right again. I thought, okay! I can stay sick for a long time. I can keep him taking care of me, if that means I could keep him longer. Then she just hugged me tight. She said, " Nicole you are a strong women I can tell and you will get through this. Then my tears came like a water fall, I just don't want to be strong anymore, I just want my husband physically here with me forever! God please give me strength.
As for Nathan he is finally turning the corner, he should return to school on Wednesday. His cough may persist for few more days.
God Bless to all!!
Love Nicole & Michael"
Monday, October 26, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Lately (part 2)
Maybe I should title it "Much Late-er-ly". I don't know who even reads blogs anymore...I think, maybe the people who aren't on facebook? Heh heh.
The tree farm we went to visit when we brought the kids to see Anna and her house was absolutely wonderful. It was a pretty hot day, which got to be kind of frustrating for the kids (you can kind of see their hot faces in the pictures) when everything around us was fall themed. The bigger kids went through the corn maze (which wasn't really a "maze" at all, just a path through the corn, with a bridge in the middle, just for fun). They had a pumpkin/apple cannon that was super cool and HUGE (and LOUD!). They had two jumping castles, a petting zoo, haunted house (not really scary, just cool), picnic area, haunted path through the woods, a boardwalk surrounding a sandbox with lots of bikes and scooters for racing around, a panning-for-gold, spray painted rocks-trough (fakey, but fun), a teepee with dress-up clothes inside it, a huge hay bale climbing pile, and an awesome hayride through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.
We are going to Anna's for Thanksgiving and will, most likely, go to this tree farm then to pick up our tree when we are there. Anna said that they have bonfires and hot chocolate for the you-cut-your-own-tree people. That would be an amazing event for the family. That would be lots of fun (don't know how the tree would travel on top of the van for the two hour drive home?).
This boat was in a neat spot. It really looked like a fishing boat on a pond, with a dock and everything. There were fishing rods with magnets on them and the "fish" had paperclips attached so you could "catch" them. No Weazys were drowned in the taking of this picture.
This is one of Tommy's 930 funny expressions. It's the one saved for when you don't want the hayride to end and your mom says, "Come off the wagon, Tommy!".
Matty will NOT let me take a picture of him unless he is in sunglasses, disguise, or I am covert in my photo-taking. He was bored in this picture because he was too hot and way too cool to jump in the jumping castles with the little kids. I told him today that it stinks that he's all angle-y, awkward, gawky, and not my cute, squishy, chubby, little Matty anymore. He acted offended, for some reason. He did give me a huggy and a kissy, though.
I thought it was so sweet when these two were sharing food together on the teeny picnic table. She kept handing Tommy food and he kept saying, "Dank Ooo" automatically. He's so polite.
There were lots of landscape pictures but it was really one of those "you had to be there" kind of places to really take in the beauty and scope of the surroundings.
If you don't mind being a temporary Cheesehead, head on over/down/up to Pleasant Valley Tree Farm in Wisconsin (I did not receive any compensation for this endorsement, I just really liked the place!). If you want, you can tell them Laura The Crazy Mama sent ya. I won't get anything out of the deal, except maybe bragging rights.
Next installment: Vincent's baptism
The tree farm we went to visit when we brought the kids to see Anna and her house was absolutely wonderful. It was a pretty hot day, which got to be kind of frustrating for the kids (you can kind of see their hot faces in the pictures) when everything around us was fall themed. The bigger kids went through the corn maze (which wasn't really a "maze" at all, just a path through the corn, with a bridge in the middle, just for fun). They had a pumpkin/apple cannon that was super cool and HUGE (and LOUD!). They had two jumping castles, a petting zoo, haunted house (not really scary, just cool), picnic area, haunted path through the woods, a boardwalk surrounding a sandbox with lots of bikes and scooters for racing around, a panning-for-gold, spray painted rocks-trough (fakey, but fun), a teepee with dress-up clothes inside it, a huge hay bale climbing pile, and an awesome hayride through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.
We are going to Anna's for Thanksgiving and will, most likely, go to this tree farm then to pick up our tree when we are there. Anna said that they have bonfires and hot chocolate for the you-cut-your-own-tree people. That would be an amazing event for the family. That would be lots of fun (don't know how the tree would travel on top of the van for the two hour drive home?).
This boat was in a neat spot. It really looked like a fishing boat on a pond, with a dock and everything. There were fishing rods with magnets on them and the "fish" had paperclips attached so you could "catch" them. No Weazys were drowned in the taking of this picture.
This is one of Tommy's 930 funny expressions. It's the one saved for when you don't want the hayride to end and your mom says, "Come off the wagon, Tommy!".
Matty will NOT let me take a picture of him unless he is in sunglasses, disguise, or I am covert in my photo-taking. He was bored in this picture because he was too hot and way too cool to jump in the jumping castles with the little kids. I told him today that it stinks that he's all angle-y, awkward, gawky, and not my cute, squishy, chubby, little Matty anymore. He acted offended, for some reason. He did give me a huggy and a kissy, though.
I thought it was so sweet when these two were sharing food together on the teeny picnic table. She kept handing Tommy food and he kept saying, "Dank Ooo" automatically. He's so polite.
There were lots of landscape pictures but it was really one of those "you had to be there" kind of places to really take in the beauty and scope of the surroundings.
If you don't mind being a temporary Cheesehead, head on over/down/up to Pleasant Valley Tree Farm in Wisconsin (I did not receive any compensation for this endorsement, I just really liked the place!). If you want, you can tell them Laura The Crazy Mama sent ya. I won't get anything out of the deal, except maybe bragging rights.
Next installment: Vincent's baptism
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Lately (part 1)
My sister, Trine and I loaded up the kids into the van and rolled on over to Menomonie, WI to visit Anna. She is living at the home she will share with her hubs-to-be when they get married (in January). It's his house, but he is off to sea until right before the wedding. We miss him a lot but we had fun taking over his house for the weekend. I doubt that old house had that many little people in it since...well, maybe EVER! There were kids everywhere! We were completely freaked out by all of the steps but the kids were fairly careful the entire time. At the very end, I am the one who fell down the stairs (don't worry, I'm all better)! Anna worked very hard to paint and re-decorate the once-bachelor infested pad to a very beautiful, elegant house. It's probably over 100 years old and had been moved to it's current location. She did a LOT of work, all by herself and it turned out so nice.
Ignore my surly, apple-eating, oldest son and our mess we brought with us. I wish I had good pictures of the loft/office. It's just so perfect and cute.
That picture of the sailboat, above the mantel is actually a real picture of Matt! It's so cool how nautical themes are everywhere in the house (but not overwhelming or tacky). Anna even found some old Navy manuals (from Matt's grandpa, I think) that we had so much fun reading, out loud to each other. The "rules" of proper behavior for a Navy man were old fashioned sounding and classic.
Next, I'll post about our trip to the tree farm. I have so many awesome pictures, I wanted to save them all for their own post!
I also have pictures from our first trip of the year to the apple orchard, and of Vincent's baptism....to be continued...
Ignore my surly, apple-eating, oldest son and our mess we brought with us. I wish I had good pictures of the loft/office. It's just so perfect and cute.
That picture of the sailboat, above the mantel is actually a real picture of Matt! It's so cool how nautical themes are everywhere in the house (but not overwhelming or tacky). Anna even found some old Navy manuals (from Matt's grandpa, I think) that we had so much fun reading, out loud to each other. The "rules" of proper behavior for a Navy man were old fashioned sounding and classic.
Next, I'll post about our trip to the tree farm. I have so many awesome pictures, I wanted to save them all for their own post!
I also have pictures from our first trip of the year to the apple orchard, and of Vincent's baptism....to be continued...
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Just A Reminder
I know there are a million, other things to think about right now. But this stood out for me when I caught the link from Antonia's blog:
(Excerpt:)
"In his letter, the bishop reaffirmed that priests from outside the parish cannot give conferences or lead retreats at the parish without written permission from his office and that no one can use parish facilities to promote the alleged apparitions or messages. The bishop specified that the pastor should ensure that Father Perutina stop offering comments on the messages Pavlovic claims to receive on the 25th of each month.
He also asked Father Vlasic to remove from the parish Web site all references to the parish and its church buildings as a shrine or sanctuary and to ban prayers allegedly dictated by Mary or suggested by her alleged messages from liturgies and prayer services inside the church, including public recitations of the rosary."
(Excerpt:)
"In his letter, the bishop reaffirmed that priests from outside the parish cannot give conferences or lead retreats at the parish without written permission from his office and that no one can use parish facilities to promote the alleged apparitions or messages. The bishop specified that the pastor should ensure that Father Perutina stop offering comments on the messages Pavlovic claims to receive on the 25th of each month.
He also asked Father Vlasic to remove from the parish Web site all references to the parish and its church buildings as a shrine or sanctuary and to ban prayers allegedly dictated by Mary or suggested by her alleged messages from liturgies and prayer services inside the church, including public recitations of the rosary."
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