Mulberries

I just found out that mulberries are not poisonous. We have 2 trees in our yard and would never let the kids eat the berries because we didn't know if they were edible. It only took 2 years for me to figure out that I could research them online. Duh!

Guess what, they are (edible)! The kids were so excited! They just couldn't wait to try a berry. After we tried them, we realized how good they are. Those berries are really sweet. The only bed part is that they don't have a very long shelf life. Because of that fact, I tried to dehydrate them. Just an FYI, don't ever try that, they were really gross. I don't understand what happened to cause them to taste like cardboard.

We'll stick to the fresh berries. Whenever the kids are wanting a snack, all they do now is get a bowl and go outside to pick berries. I couldn't ask for a healthier snack.

Anyone out there in bloggy world have any recipes using mulberries?

Hokey Pokey

Last night we tucked everyone in, said prayers and were about to leave the boy's room when this conversation took place:

Joshua: Mom, wait!
Me: What do you want, Joshua?
Joshua: The first thing I'm going to do when I get up in the morning is do the Hokey Pokey.
Me: Oh yeah, that's great.
Joshua: I'm even going to do the part, put your bottom in, put your bottom out, put your bottom in and shake it all about. I like that part.
Me: I can't wait for that.

If anyone wants to join us, feel free to come on over.

Noisetrade

I wanted to fill you all in on a really cool freebie.

It's called Noisetrade.

It's a site where you can get FREE music. The only catch is that you have to put in 5 email addresses. So if you have ever gotten an email from us telling you about some new music, now you know why.

The site was started by Derek Webb (one of the members of Caedmon's Call). Artists can put their music on the site to promote themselves.

We absolutely love this site. We have gotten so much really cool christian music from here.

Go ahead and check it out.

Stinkodorant

A few days ago, Joshua asked when he could start wearing stinkodorant.

We said when you stink.

Yet Another Update

Hi all, Sorry I haven't updated in a while. After getting home, I had to get school finished and now that School is over, I have lots more free time.

Here is the latest.

Mom was in the hospital for 3 weeks to the day. A few days before she was discharged, the doctors finally ordered a Nueropsycologist eval. I was very happy to hear that. I was asking for one for the whole time while I was there but the doctors were not listening to me because she was not listed as being incompetent. I still don't know the results of that because my dad never asked the doctors and they won't tell me.

She was discharged to a rehab facility. She got the the facility around 4:45 in the afternoon. Around 11 PM that same night, she was taken to the ER because her blood sugar had spiked to over 600. (That's diabetic coma range). They got her stabilized and sent her back to the facility. Somewhere along the line she missed a dose of her insulin which caused the spike. When she got back to the facility, around 6AM, she called my dad for him to come and pick her up. She checked herself out and went home. All I can say is STUBBORN!

She has been home ever since. The first day after being home, my dad took her to their family doctor who took her off most of her meds. I was really nervous about that because it took 3 weeks for her to be stabilized in the hospital with the medicine she has been on.

At times she can't remember her phone number. At other times she can't remember where her silverware goes. She doesn't remember me being there. She has not been sleeping too well. She sleeps more during the day than she does at night. She has been getting therapy at the house twice a week. This has been the last week for that.

I talked to her the other day and she seemed to be doing better. I can't get a straight answer out of my dad though. I call him to ask about her and he says, "OK, here she is, you can talk to her." You know how frustrating that is?

I just need to remember that I can't burden myself with their situation. I can't change it. They are not willing to move closer to be near family. There is not much more that I can do.

Thanks for all of your prayers. I really appreciated it. There has to be a reason why she pulled through. Time will tell.

Mom Update

Hi guys, here is the latest on my mom. I have been home since late Tuesday afternoon and am trying to get back int he swing of things. I am really tired. I think all of the nights of getting woken up by the phone and that one all-nighter that I pulled is finally catching up to me.

She had a rough night 2 nights ago. She started hallucinating again. She woke up around 2AM and was convinced there were snakes under her bed. She wanted to sit up in her chair for a while. After some time of her sitting in her chair, she slid herself down in the chair almost to the point of being on the floor. The nursing staff came into the room to lift her back to a sitting position. She freaked. She started kicked them. She started screaming. She threw her water on the one nurse. Security was called and when a very muscular security guard came to the room, she started obeying the nurses and finally settled down. To top that, later on yesterday, she told my uncle (mom's brother, who went to FL to relieve me) that the hospital staff is kidnapping kids, loading them up in a van, taking them to a mountain and disposing of them.

At first, we thought the meds were making her hallucinate. My uncle stayed at the hospital until 9:30 last night so he could talk to the doctor. He asked the doctor if any of the meds could be causing this reaction. The doctor told him absolutely not. It is brain related.

Overall, physically she is doing good. she is weak but that is to be expected with what she has gone through. She has been refusing her breathing treatments (because she is convinced they are poisoned) which causes her to become congested when she lays down. This in turn wakes her up in the middle of the night and then the hallucinations start. Her blood sugar is running consistently high (250 - 350). The doctors reduced one of her meds to see if that could be part of the problem.

She is supposed to be released to rehab today. But it depends on her night last night. I am still waiting to hear how she behaved. Because she is not listed as incompetent, we have no say in the matter of if she goes to rehab or goes home. Personally, I am pushing for rehab. I don't feel like she will be safe at home. Last night when the doctor finally came in the room (at 8:20 PM) he told mom that he is recommending rehab for her. There were 4 family members in the room at that time and each one took turns telling mom that she would be safe there and that she would get her strength back if she went. Finally after 15 minutes of trying to persuade her to go, the doctor asked for her answer. She said that she didn't want to go but if everyone thought it was a good idea, then she guesses that she should. Then she started crying. She wants to go home so bed. I totally understand how she is feeling. If I was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks straight, I would want to go home too.

Please keep praying. Pray that the hallucinations stop. They might even be spiritual related, i don't know. Please pray that she will go to rehab and the transition will be smooth. Pray that my dad has the guts enough to stand up to her and convince her to go. Please pray that her blood sugar will get regulated. Please pray for her short term memory to come back.

Thanks guys, you're great.

Update

Two nights ago was a horrible night for mom. I got a phone call at 2:30 AM from her asking for us to come and get her. Her story is this: "All I wanted was another blanket." "Those people keep squeezing my arm". Here is what really happened...She became restless and asked for bug spray. She was told that she didn't need any bug spray because there were no bugs in the room. The nurse came in to giver her the meds. Mom took the meds and threw them across the room. She wanted to sit in the chair, she wanted to sit in the bed. She wanted to walk the hall. Finally she fell asleep only to awaken a couple hours later. At his point, she became combative to the point of the nursing staff having to call security to help her calm down. When we got to the hospital later that morning, I could tell she was having a not so good day. She was extremely grumpy.

The reason why she said that the staff was squeezing her arm is because she has edema in her arm (no lie, her arm is as big as my thigh). Because of the edema, blisters formed and popped prematurely. Her arm is oozing and is raw and painful.

Yesterday, mom had to get a heart catheterization to check and see if everything was still intact from her initial triple heart bypass after having to do CPR. During the surgery, they doctors had to put in 2 stents to keep her veins open. After the procedure, she was taken to ICU where she had to lay without moving her legs for 4 hours. At 7:30 last night, the nurses asked me if I could spend the night in ICU with her due to her combative episodes. Needless to say, I am very tired. I only got at the most 1 1/2 hours of sleep. I left the hospital at 7 AM this morning, went to dad's house and slept for 2 more hours. When I woke up today, I spent the entire day cleaning and organizing their house. As I was growing up, I was a pack rat and was very messy. My parents are still that way. Thankfully I married Alan and now am very organized.

Tomorrow she is having a pacemaker and another device used to shock the heart when it stops put in. She is to remain in ICU until that procedure is finished.

No word yet on when she will get discharged. I am still fighting for her to go to a rehab before she comes home. I don't think my dad will be able to handle her by himself is she were to come right home.

Thanks guys for praying. I can tell I am being covered.

FL Life

You know you are in St. Petersburg, FL (the retirement capital of the world) when you see an older gentleman riding his bike while carrying his potty chair. What I would have given to have my video camera at that moment! At least I had a good laugh!

Here's the latest on mom. She was taken off of oxygen today. That's a great sign. She is still very confused. She was convinced that she lives in my hometown. She didn't believe me when I told her she was in FL. Some of the things she knew yesterday, she had no idea about today. (She had a great day yesterday with very little confusion, etc.) She still doesn't have the best balance when she stands. She will be working with PT for that. Another good thing that happened today was that she had a speech eval and she was taken off of thickened liquids. She isn't too happy that she still has to eat pureed food.

Tomorrow she goes in for a heart catheterization so they can be sure everything is still where it is supposed to be due to her having CPR.

My hopes now that she is starting to get better is that they will discharge her to the rehab facility while I am still down here. That way, I will know her status before coming home.

I have been trying to talk my dad into moving into a retirement facility because he is so far away from family. Those chats are not going well. He understands that I only want them to be somewhere safe and somewhere that they will have medical care at a moments notice, but he doesn't agree with me. He thinks they are fine where they are at. Who knows, maybe they are. Only time will tell.

That's it for now. I'll update again later. Thanks for all of your prayers. I definitely am feeling them.

Update

I can't sleep so I thought I would post and update. We got a call about an hour ago from the hospital saying that mom was very upset and wanted to go home. She was breathing very heavily and wheezing. She was refusing to take her meds because she thinks they are hurting her. She keeps trying to get out of bed. I talked with her for awhile and tried to calm her down. I have no idea if she really thougth it was me or not. I asked her if I could pray for her and she told me no because it wouldn't do any good. I did it anyway because the Spirit has more authority than the brain. When I was finished, she was still very upset but a tiny bit calmer.

My dad is taking this episode very hard. He wanted to go right over there but I convinced him that if she sees him, it would probably make the situation worse.

What an emotional roller coaster I am on! It's hard being strong all the time. But, that said, I know that His strength is perfect when my strength is gone.

You know, the saddest part of this whole episode is that she won't remember any part of it when she wakes up tomorrow. In that light I am trying not to let this episode bother me too much but it's hard.

Update

Hey everyone,
I made it safe and sound. My trip was uneventful which I am thankful for.

Upon arriving, I went straight to the hospital to see mom. She got all teary eyed when I walked in the door. She is struggling with confusion and memory loss. When asked what year it is she keeps saying 2006. Something significant must have happened during that year but we can't figure it out. She also thought she was in the town where I grew up. She didn't remember that she was in FL. She keeps trying to get up and leave. When she stands up, she has gait problems but doesn't know that she has trouble walking so she falls. The nursing staff has to restrain her because she was convinced it was time to leave. When we left the hospital tonight at 6, she had a "sitter" (a person employed by the hospital to babysit patients). I felt better about leaving since she was going to be watched.

The nurse went over some of her lab results with me. Her electrolyte were at dangerous levels when this whole thing started. They are thinking that is what caused her heart to stop. Somehow they think she got severely dehydrated.

I met with the cardiologist and was told that her heart is beating normally.

I seems like she does much better in the morning and is much more cognitively with it. As she tires throughout the day, she gets more and more memory loss.

As usual, you guys rock! I'll update more when I get a chance. As for me, I'm going to bed. I am emotionally drained.