Jaina's words

Here's a list of her words. I've been working on it for a few days because I keep forgetting HOW many she actually knows! The doctor said she should know 3-6 (I think) right now.

Daddy
Mom
Jaina
Ya-ya (my mom)
Jo Jo
Dog (she can't tell the difference between a cat and dog)
Eat
Bite
Good
Cracker
Banana
Hot
Bear (pointing at the bear on my UCA shirt)
Clap
Eye
Ear
Nose
Thanks (or Thank You)
Welcome
Light
Uh-oh
Elmo
Book
Pretty (when pointing at her painted toenails)
Yes
No
Tickle (every time she sees bare tummy or bare feet she "tickles" us)
Shoe
Hi
Bye
Gone or "gone gone" (when she's through eating)
Here (when handing us something)
Coke (because she's figured out she likes sugary sweet stuff)
Look

That's 34. I'm sure she knows more than that, but won't remember them until she says them! She won't say toes, knees, fingers, or head, but she will point to them. If we ask her a question she will either nod her head or shake it for no. I can pretty much tell her to go get me anything and point and she will.

Oh, and when we sing the ABC song she sings with us, but none of the letters are right! LOL!


Edited-because we remembered some more to add

It's Friday

... which is exciting for some people, but means absolutely nothing to me since it's just another day. Greg got some more done on the yard this morning and got the front porch swept off. Jaina and I went outside and "helped." He said that's all he's doing since it's about to rain.

I'm sitting in the living room with the windows open. The cool air feels so good! I think we're fixing to have to make a Wal-Mart trip and run a few other small errands. Woohoo. We might have to wait until after Jaina's nap... it's about that time.

I'm really starting to get bored. I have one more week off work. I go back on April 10th. At least that's the plan right now. I've still not really decided if I'm going to try part-time for a little while to get myself back into the groove of things.

It's Toad Suck Weekend!!! I doubt I'll go, but I really want one of those awesome corn dogs and Greg wants some of the fresh squeezed lemonade. I'm completely fascinated with watching Stuck on a Truck. I could never do that. I'd be the first one out. LOL.

No title

Living room is picked up... dishes are done... baby girl is with a friend until 8:00... time for me to rest for a couple of hours. :)

I got my hair cut today. It's shorter and I really like it. She even showed me how to fix it and it will only take a few minutes. My appointment was at 11 and then we took Jaina to Chick-fil-a for lunch. We were gonna let her play on the playground, but it was right at noon and it was FULL of kids.

Greg worked on the front yard for several hours today. It looks like a yard now. All the brush is gone and he said he's going to finish mowing it tomorrow. Apparently this new medication is a miracle drug... he was able to take Jaina to church last night (without me) and even spoke during class. I'm really proud of him considering all he's been through. Most people don't even know half of it.

stuff

I always seem to blog about yesterday. It's easier that way.

Jaina took her diaper off twice yesterday. Once she was in bed napping and once she just walked up to Greg and handed him her diaper. I'm not ready for this.

Yesterday I managed to get a couple of loads of laundry done and the dishes washed. That took me several hours (and we didn't have that many dirty dishes... Greggers washed them the day before).


Fast forward to several hours later... since I never finished that blog and just left it up on my laptop...

Anyways, today was long, Jaina is asleep, and I'm about to go to bed.

I spent most of the day just not doing anything, got up and started getting ready for church, and just decided I'm too tired and worn out... I just don't feel good.

Yesterday

Greg has a new medicine that's supposed to help keep him awake during the day. We went to get it filled last night and it was $300.00 after all discounts... that's a pain. At least it works! He's been up all day today and done a ton of yard work that really needed to be done.

I managed to get some stuff done... by some I mean a couple of hours of stuff that normally would have taken me only 30 minutes, if that. I wrote some thank you cards and went through all the mail for the last 5 weeks. I hadn't paid any bills except the ones that come out automatically, so that was fun *insert sarcasm here*.

15 month check-up

Jaina had her 15 month check-up today. She's 20 pounds, 12 oz (15th percentile) and 30 1/4 inches (around 5oth percentile) long/tall. She got two shots, one in each leg and then slept until about 5:00.

My vision

is still bad. Everything looks like it's been cut in half and squished together. I noticed today that it takes several seconds for me to look at a car and figure out if it's 2 or 4 door. This is getting annoying.

That was going to be the end of this post, but I decided to put all my complaints together in one post to make it look like I complain less.

My neck hurts and is stiff, so I can't turn it without pain. My back hurts. I wonder if a chiropractor can help me...

I want to go to sleep but I can't sleep. Off to find the Tylenol PM...

Oh, and I'm really grumpy today.

Any suggestions?

We've never really had a problem with Jaina bothering her earrings. She just started pulling her earrings out every time she goes to bed or gets in her car seat. She doesn't put them in her mouth or anything, just twists and plays with them until the backs come off and they come out. Any suggestions?

I've been bored

I'm stuck where I'm feeling better, but I still depend on Greg if I want to do anything. I'm not *supposed* to pick up Jaina or bend over to pick up after her or anything... so I'm bored and have a constantly messy house, both of which are driving me up the wall.

On a side note, I have figured out that when I look up my head/scalp and neck start going numb and when I look down my arms and hands start going numb. Good to know. By numb I mean the tingly feeling you get right before and after your foot goes to sleep. I started paying attention to this because my mom has an ear infection and told me that when she looks to the right and tilts her head she passes out. Hmmm.

I've really been wanting some pizza and cheese sticks... I've been watching a lot of TV lately (due to the boredom thing again) and the new Digiorno Pizza and Breadsticks commercial has really been getting to me. Tonight when the person bringing us dinner called and asked if we wanted pizza instead of a home-cooked meal I was super excited.

Happy 15 months to my baby girl! I'm trying to make a list of words Jaina knows, just because I want to count them. She has about 20 she says all the time and more she says occasionally. She also talks 24/7 even though I have no idea what she's saying, gives lots of kisses (complete with the "muah" sound), and blows lots of kisses (particularly to random old men in Wal-mart). She really understands a lot of what we're saying, and probably more than I give her credit for. I've really noticed this in about the last week. I can tell her to go pick something up for me or bring me something and she normally does. Oh, and she also barks like a dog and makes monkey sounds. We were sitting outside a couple of days ago and the dog across the street started barking, so of course my child started barking back.

Jaina went to Bible class for the first time last night. Her teachers said she was so good! I'm excited about being able to pay attention in class again or maybe even teach. I was kind of expecting someone to come get me half-way through the service, I guess mainly because I didn't really know what to expect, but she was a good little girl!

Today

Went back to the doctor today. I don't have to go back for 6 months! He said it looks like everything is going back to normal. My neck still hurts, but that may not go away for a while since it's because of my condition and not because of the surgery (which is also why I was having neck problems before the surgery).

Jaina was so good the entire time. The only time she really got fussy was when we went to Sam's and I wouldn't let her drink all of my Icee. Once we got back to Conway, we took her by the bank to see her friends (my co-workers :P) and went by Lowes to get some stuff for the yard. After 2 years we are planting a tree and some grass in the yard!!!

Pics

Here are some pics from the park, once about six weeks ago and then again today. Enjoy. :)

It's almost 8.

And sweet baby girl is asleep. We had a long day and she only took about a 15-20 minute nap. I am feeling so much better than last Sunday. I can't really tell I'm much better from one day to the next, but I can see a huge improvement over a week. My eyes are still giving me problems, which is why my time on the computer is short. My eyes either see double or there's black spots on everything. I mostly notice this on numbers, but sometimes numbers/letters are "missing." I was reading a phone number on a bill board a couple of days ago and it only had 4 numbers... and they kept changing... that can't be right.

I got my new glasses last week. I forgot to post that! I love them.

Time for bed. Have to get up in a couple of hours for my IV. I'm getting tired of that but at least it's only for a few more days. It's like having a newborn again. At least my baby girl only got up a couple times during the night and started sleeping like her daddy when she was just a few months old. She got to bed late tonight (about 10) so she'll probably sleep until at least 9 in the morning if we don't wake her.

Night all.

Urgh.

Stupid doctor's office. I've been calling them for 3 days trying to find out when my MRI is. They finally told me I could come in today. I get there and they were expecting me earlier in the day, since the doctor's office just asked if they could send me over. We had to get ready, feed Jaina, and drive the hour to the hospital, which took us about 2 hours. Then it took another 2 hours for a 15 minute MRI. If I didn't like this doctor so much, I would probably.... well, I don't know what I would do. Probably nothing. I'm just aggravated.

My child

is a little whiny baby today!!! Grrr! She is really cute, though. Maybe soon I'll feel well enough to try to take some pictures. :)

Jaina's learned how to walk sideways. It's funny. We painted her toenails for the first time Saturday night and she's been doing it since. Not all the time, but that's when she started it. I am constantly amazed at how smart she is. She knows how to point to all the places on her face (eyes, nose, mouth, ears) and her list of words is growing every day! She loves to blow kisses. It's hard to believe she'll be starting Bible class in another month and half. She seems too little. I'm looking forward to it though...

Feeling better

I'm feeling sooooo much better! I'm still giving myself IV's 3 times a day (although 1 time is 2 IV's). I made it to church for services this morning. I somehow managed to sit through the entire service and then go out to eat after. I was not a very happy camper by the time we made it home. I immediately fell asleep and didn't wake up until someone called about 3:30. I would've gone straight back to sleep had it not been for my meds. :(

Jaina's sleep schedule is a little off. Her meme thinks when she comes Jaina doesn't have to go to bed until 10:30 or 11... which means an 8:00 bedtime the next day does not go over very well.

Ok, now you're current.

I woke up Tuesday feeling better! Still nowhere close to great, but better! Home Health came out and showed us how to take care of the IV stuff at 9 AM and 5 PM and then we successfully did it ourselves at 1 AM. Well, Greg did and I slept. :)

Someone from Church brought us a huge meal Tuesday night and my Aunt Joy is bringing us something tonight. I'm back to eating 3 meals a day, although still losing weight.

My mom is bringing Jaina home tonight! I miss that little booger so much! I have to call her at least once a day. Most days more. Last night I was singing to her and she was giving me kisses over the phone. It was so sweet!

Monday

I got my first night of sleep. It was interrupted every few hours, but it was sleep. I felt horrible all day long. I had a pounding/throbbing headache and felt sick to my stomach, had no desire to eat, and everything smelled and tasted horrible.

They tell me about 10 AM they are going to discharge me as soon as I get my last IV and Home Health will be coming to my house at 5 PM to set up my IV's for the night and next day. I will be connected to the IV 24/7 and have a pump that gives me a dose of antibiotic every 8 hours. Someone from Home Health will come and change my IV bag once a day. THEN they change my meds (after they've been delivered for me to take home) and tell me that I'm actually going to have to have 2 antibiotics and that Greg will have to administer them for me or if he's not able I will have to do it myself. I think I would actually prefer to only be hooked to the IV for 30 minutes 3 times a day. There's a lot less of a chance of Jaina pulling on something she shouldn't. The nurse from the Neurology office finally came by about 4:00. Actually she came by earlier, left to get me pain meds, and never came back... It had been 2 days since I'd really been able to talk to anyone and I had a list of questions. I was absolutely not leaving until my questions were answered. We also finally talked them into giving me something besides Darvocet for pain. It was really not doing anything for the pain and only lasted a couple of hours when it did work.

I was discharged about 5:45. When we got home we were waiting on Home Health and they never showed. The hospital neglected to tell us that they wouldn't be coming out to the house until the morning.

Sunday

Easter Sunday in a Catholic hospital... most of the staff was aggravated because it they were not getting holiday pay and they were very minimally staffed.

I felt really good on Sunday. Didn't do much but just chill at the hospital.

Saturday

Still no sleep.

The doctor came in and talked to us for a good 15 minutes or more. He said that after going over my MRI from the night before and comparing them to pre- and post- surgery MRI's that the area where he did the surgery looks perfect. He may even use it in lectures. After all of my new symptoms and consulting with the other doctors in the practice and going over my scans again, they've concluded that I have Chiari Malformation. I picked that particular website because it was the first one I read and I have every symptom listed with the exception of 1. It kind of shocked me when I read it because some of them I didn't realize were related and hadn't even mentioned to my doctor. He said that my symptoms may resolve themselves once my spinal fluid builds back up or he may (as a last resort) have to go in and correct the problem. He then discharged me and told me I could go home. We got out to the car, got buckled in, and started to pull away when the nurse comes running out of the hospital and tells me that my blood cultures came back showing infection and that I have to come back in and have a PICC line inserted so I can have IV's at home.

I'm re-admitted to the hospital and have the PICC line inserted. I would also like to insert here that when I went to the ER I asked for one since I knew it would save me a lot of pain, but they said no and I ended up being stuck with a needle lots and lots of times. A caseworker came to my room and said she was trying to verify that my insurance would pay for home health and get someone to come out to my house and set everything up for the IV's. Since it was a weekend and a holiday, no luck there. The hospital could verify my insurance but Home Health couldn't verify my insurance until Monday and the hospital would not send me home without an IV. So I get to chill at the hospital for 2 more days so I can get an IV every 8 hours.

I sleep about 4 hours Saturday night.

Friday night

I did not sleep. AT ALL.

I had another "episode" as I was leaving the ER, but it was not as bad. This time I was able to keep control of my arms and legs. I knew what was happening when it started happening and had been told to flex my arms/hands/legs if it happened again. It didn't last as long and I calmed down in just a few minutes.

I had at least 2 more instances (these were not dramatic enough to be "episodes") over the next few hours where my face went numb and that (thankfully) was all that happened. I had a very painful next few hours that involved many blood draws, IV's, and pain medication wearing off after an hour.

I had ANOTHER "episode" about 1:30 AM. I was having to keep my arm straight because every time I would move my arm the IV would come out. My face started going numb and I thought at first that was all that was going to happen. About 15 minutes later my hands and legs started going numb and I woke up my sister to get the nurse. A few minutes later I lost control of the muscles in my face (so they could really understand what I was saying) but I was able to flex my arms and legs and not lose control of them. It took me about 45 minutes to stop shaking and calm down from this one. My sister crawled in bed with me and basically held me down to keep me from shaking and kept telling me to "sniff the roses and blow out the candles" to get my breathing regular. She's such a good little OTA. :)

By this time they were telling me I was having anxiety attacks and the numbness was from me hyperventilating. I refuse to believe this because every time my face started going numb first. We learned later that my Dilantin level was low, which can cause numbness, and my theory is that when my face and hands started going numb and I became unable to move my hands I may have had anxiety attacks.

The rest of the night consisted of (in this order) leg ultrasound to make sure I had no blood clots, another IV where I had to lay flat on my back without moving my arm for an hour, a lung CT, a 45 minute wait on a stretcher in the hall, and some kind of heart scan (I want to say it was an X-ray, but I'm not sure). Everything was normal. I can't wait to get this hospital bill... the last one was $64,000.00. THANK GOD for insurance!!!

I haven't updated this thing

Because I've been stuck in the hospital since Friday... got to go home last night. I'll be slowly updating everything as I feel up to it.

Friday I went for the CT scan. I had to wait FOREVER. OK, maybe not really forever but when you're so sick you can't hold your head up an hour feels like forever. While I was in the waiting room, I had what we are going refer to as an "episode" since no one seems to know exactly what happened. My face and arms/hands started to go numb and clench into fists. I had no control of my arms or hands and had difficulty speaking. The people who saw what happened thought I was having a seizure. My mom went to get someone and they brought a stretcher to the waiting room and took me to the ER. (This happened to be during the Good Friday Mass and someone had pulled the fire alarm, so there were all kinds of flashing lights and sirens... NOT a good thing for someone who has just gone through something like that and has a migraine-style headache!) After I got to the ER it took them another 30 minutes or so to get me calmed down, did blood work, got some morphine for pain (I just had to mention to the ER doctor that my doctor wouldn't give me anything but Darvocet for the pain and he made sure I got something while I was still in his care), had an MRI, and was admitted until they could figure out what was happening.

Going back to the doctor tomorrow... I called today because I just keep getting worse instead of improving and they said needed to either 1) go to the ER at St. Vincent's or 2)go get a CT tomorrow and come by the clinic. So option 2 it is for now, unless I start feeling worse tonight. My mom is staying with me tonight and going to the doctor with me tomorrow.