MRSA

Friday I had a message when I came home from the surgeon that drained Lucy's cyst. He said I was to call his answering service and tell them that they were to page him. This of course sent a little chill down my spine! Well, I did call and he called me right back. The culture on the pus from Lucy's cyst showed she had MRSA! Now being a nursing student and having had microbiology I am very familiar with MRSA. It is nasty stuff that is unfortunately being more common. It use to be considered a hospital problem but the last few years it's shown up frequently out in the community. Still, I was shocked when he said she had MRSA. He changed her antibiotic and I have been checking her wound daily. It doesn't look infected thank goodness. I can't help but wonder though, how did she pick it up? I am so careful in the hospital. I wash/gel every time I enter or leave a patients room. I glove before changing dressing. The hospital tests every patient that has a wound for MRSA. I come home and immediately change my scrubs and wash them. The doctor thinks it's more likely she just picked it up at school! They have had major outbreaks across the country the last several years in school locker rooms. Luckily Lucy is young and healthy and will recover fine. People with compromised immune systems have a more serious problem with MRSA. I think it's enough of a problem that everyone should be aware of it and take precautions. Take a microbiology class and you'll most likely become the handwashing freak that I am! You can read some info on MRSA here.

Lucy's bottom!

Well I took Lucy to the surgeon yesterday. He numbed her bottom and cleaned out the cyst/abscess right there. Luckily once she was numb she didn't feel anything. She is really sore now though. He packed it and left it open, about 1.5 inchs (but covered with gauze). I have to take out the packing and repack it tomorrow. She is not going to like that, but it has to close from the inside out. I have done these before but it can be painful for the patient. I did get to watch him do it too. From a nursing perspective it was kind of cool! Lot's of pus in it that came flying out as soon as he cut and then irrigating it was neat to watch too. From mom perspective I was glad she couldn't feel anything! She goes back next Tuesday for a check up and he thinks maybe in a couple weeks she can play volleyball. Today she is determined to go get her picture taken with her team for the year book. She hasn't even sat up straight yet, so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep everyone updated.

Alana

Little Lucy is Hurting :(

Poor Lucy is laying in her bed right now, luckily not in much pain because the doctor gave her vicodin. She has a Pilonidal cyst at the end of her tail bone. The doctor thinks she's had the cyst for sometime, but she fell off a balance ball last Friday morning with a 25 pd weight on her tummy and aggravated it. She didn't tell me about it until Saturday afternoon right before she went to a friends house to spend the night. She said her tail bone was hurting and told me what happened. I was a little annoyed because it seems with Lucy to get information from her sometimes is like pulling teeth! I looked at her tailbone and didn't see anything, although I felt a little pea size bump. She still wanted to go to her friends so I let her. Sunday when I picked her up she said it was still hurting so I gave her more ibprophen and didn't think too much of it. Monday morning she had to be at weight training for volleyball at 6am and she said she didn't want to go because her tail bone was hurting and I thought she was just trying to get out of going, so I made her go! Then I went to the hospital at 7am to do my co-op. At about 8:30 Alex called and asked if I knew Lucy's tail bone was bleeding! I told him to bring her into the ED. Which he did after he ate breakfast because he could feel his blood sugars going low ( this is a whole other story ). When she got there the doctor looked and said she needed to see a surgeon. That little pea sized lump was now HUGE and fluid was oozing out and very painful. I, of course felt like a horrible mother! I made her go to weight training because I thought she was making too much out of it. This is right up there with the time I tried to get Alex to walk on his broken leg when he was 4 because I didn't think it looked broken! No wonder my children look at me funny when I say I want to be a nurse so I can help people!! Anyway.... Lucy see's the surgeon at 1530 today. Since the ER doctor told me these are extremely painful cysts I'm being more generous with the vicodin then I would normally be. The ER doc doesn't think she'll be able to play volleyball this season either :( We'll see what the surgeon says and how she feels. Last night I couldn't go to sleep because of my mother guilt *sigh*, so I scrapped a page of Lucy. I did this with Renae's Mimi's House Kit. I also was playing with my new Wacom tablet last night and made some doodle flowers. I love doodles in scrapping. I'm not much of an artist but I'll try to use them in a page soon and show them to you!


And thank you to everyone who left me nice comments about my quick pages! I love making them.

The Girls and a freebie

Well thank goodness the rainy weather has stopped and we've had a couple days of sunshine again. I think I'm feeling fall in the air though. Maddie is just about all recovered from being hit by the car. She has a check up with the vet in a couple weeks, but she's running much faster and isn't limping at all. I actually took both dogs for a couple walks by myself now and it's gone smoother then I imagined. Maddie is a pretty easy going dog and she's happy to do what Haley does. Haley is a HUGE ball player. She will chase the ball as long as you will throw it and I have to be careful not to over heat her. I have to be careful where I throw too because she will go into the blackberry thickets to get the ball if I accidentally throw it in there. She and Maddie are really bonding, which is what I was hoping for. They play and romp all over the house and yard now. This winter when the yard is muddy is going to be.... shall we say challenging??? Yesterday I had them up on the mountain several times to play. Haley loves to go for the ball and Maddie (who really doesn't get the whole get the ball thing) loves to try and stop Haley from getting the ball. Here are some pictures of them playing.


This is a page I did with pictures from our Cour d' Alene trip. The way Haley and Olie played is what really made me decide she needed a fur sister. I used parts of 3 Little Dreamer kits by Julia Makotinsky; French Country Elements, Cute as a Bug and On Fine Day.

I did this page with pictures I took of the girls playing on the mountain the other day. Doesn't it look like they're smiling? We were out walking a few days ago and a little girl we see sometimes on our walk said, " Look dad, here come the smiling dogs". I think they look like they're smiling often. I did this page with a kit called Mud Puppy by Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist.

I made a quick page from my page and Nancie was nice enough to let me offer it as a freebie. She is also offering it to Scrap Artist customers as a freebie too. You can download the QP here
You can also find the whole kit here at ScrapArtist.

I am off now to help my mom pick blackberries! Tomorrow I will be up about 5am. It's always a big deal for me to get up so early. I prefer more leisurely mornings! I'm at the hospital tomorrow and Lucy, who is playing volleyball again this year has to be at the school this week at 6am for weight training! That means I have to be up early all week, even when I'm not at the hospital. It will be an interesting week for both of us :)

Quick Page Freebie and Layouts

Yesterday was a rainy lazy day. I didn't do too much. I walked Haley and Maddie (Maddie is short for Madeline) for the first time by myself in the rain. It went really well. Haley usually walks like we're on a mission with sudden stops to sniff things. I had visions of me tangled up in 2 leashes, but Maddie pretty much follows Haleys lead, so there wasn't too much trouble. It is definitely harder to talk on the cell phone while walking 2 dogs though. I also did some scrapping and decided to give making a quick page a try. I used Renae's Bold Summer kit to make this page. I know most people do their pages 12x12 inchs but I do mine 8.5x11 since I print mine off and put them in albums. That way I can use standard photo paper and I don't have to have a special printer. I also find the 12x12 albums kind of big to have out. You can download the quick page here.

You can find Bold Summer and other kits free on Renae's blog Here is the page I made the quick page from. It's from when Lucy and I were in Cour d' Alene.

I also did this page yesterday of Sam and Nate from when we were in cour d' alene. They were acting goofy because I wanted a picture of them. The paper is by Jackie Eckles of Little Dreamers and the elements are also by Jackie Eckles from a kit called The Hip Girl! That will curl Sam and Nates toes! Hopefully the sun will come out later and I can get some pictures of Haley and Maddie.

Working

I've had 2 great days at the hospital. I can change out IV tubing, pass meds, give injections, set flow rates on IV's pretty comfortably now. I love the hospital setting and patient interaction. I am so tired from getting up at 0530 and being on my feet all day though. I sometimes wonder how I'll do it when I work as a RN when I'm done with school. I guess I will get use to it when I'm doing! Tomorrow I'm hoping for more time to play with my graphic tablet. I did go to my yoga class today even though I was tired. It made me feel great! Then I came home played with Haley and Maddie and made sure Lucy and Brandon weren't alone for more then 2 minutes at a time. In between all that I scrapped a page. It doesn't say on the back of the picture, but I'm sure this is my dad with my Grandpa Allen. I have great memories of him from when I was a kid. I didn't realize what a handsome man he was though. My dad was a little cutie pie as a baby too! The frame and photo overlay is from a really neat set from Something Blue Studio's. The page is parts from several kits: Blushing Blooms Page Kit Created by Kim Liddiard, Vanilla Created by Meryl Bartho

Free wood!

This morning I went to help my mom in the garden. It's been hotter then heck the last few days. So I didn't shower, I just throw on some clothes and go weed, water and pick veggies. When I was ready to leave Bill asked if I wanted some FREE wood! I just got my wood stove last year but it doesn't take long to start coveting wood once you have one. You learn the difference between hard wood and soft wood. You also start planning for your wood for winter. FREE wood is like finding gold or money! My mom got her truck and we loaded up the truck and the back of my PT and made 2 trips! I have about 2/3's of a cord. Poor Alex, loved but openly lazy teenage son, doesn't understand why I have to bring home wood for him to help get out and stacked. I used my new electric log splitter to split a couple pieces. I have lot's of rounds that need splitting. I also tonight cut up and froze lot's of zucchini, crocked neck squash, peppers of a few kinds and green beans. I never did get a shower *oye fey* Tomorrow morning I'm up at 5:30am. The next 2 days I'll be at the hospital practicing my nursing skills. I'll play with the wood when I'm home :) Last night I played with my new graphic tablet a bit. I did this page with a picture of me and Jeff at the coast last week :) The paper is from Kim B and the rest is Chaos Lounge. Did I mention that we saw whales last week? I was surprised how well you could see them from the coast. I will have to try and get pictures of the whales next time.

Coast

I am back from the coast. What a wonderful and relaxing couple of days. It was beautiful while we were there. The Oregon coast is not tropical but it is truly beautiful. This picture was taken from the front of our cabin as the sun set. For my birthday I got myself a graphic tablet. I haven't played with it yet but I will soon. The tablet comes with a couple of programs, one of which is Corel Painter. You can take pictures and make them look like paintings. I'm hoping to use that on a few of these pictures.

We went exploring along this stretch of coast looking for some starfish. It's a beautiful stretch of coast.

I think Jeff took this picture after I was chasing some sea birds :)

Here I am catching a Hermit crab.

Last night I was looking to see what freebies I missed while I was gone and I found the freebie from weeds and wildflowers and scrapped a page. I need to upload this to the challenge gallery too. The picture is of me, my sister Jodi and my dad. I scanned the picture and printed it to frame and hang. I'm also sending a copy to my sister for her birthday. I'm the cute one on the right!

Little Maddie is doing really good. Her and Haley are playing more. She's not limping. I had her to the vet today for a follow up visit and she said that Maddie is healing nicely. She still has a lot of road rash on the back of her hind legs, so the vet gave me some special shampoo to put in the water and soak her legs. I ended up giving her a whole bath. Boy did she need it! She is such a sweet little dog. I'll have more pictures of her soon.

Our newest family member

Well today Rachel and I went to Lane County Animal Services and found a fur sister for Haley. She's a little Lab we named Maddie since no one knew her name. She'd been hit by a car on July 30th and luckily someone called animal control. She's bruised, scabbed, scraped and can't put much weight on her front right leg. She is a little sweet heart too!

If you click on the picture it enlarges and you can see how scraped up her eye is :(

Maddie is only about 2/3 the size of Haley and Haley is not a big Lab, she weights 72pds. The vet at the clinic thought Maddie was about 1 year. I'm thinking she may grow some more. Haley and her are getting along well. The cats are not so sure about Maddie but they will get use to her. It was so sad to see all the dogs and cats that need homes. I encourage everyone to adopt from a shelter if they can. Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to the coast with Jeff for a couple days. Alex and Rachel will be here with the animals though. Rachel works days and Alex works nights, so someone will be here at all times with them. I'll be home Tuesday.

Some pages

I did a page with a couple pictures from our little road trip :) I have a ton more I want to do but it seems like no time yet. The paper is from Raspberry Roads Designs and the rest is by Julia Makotinsky of Little Dreamers.


Here is a page with pictures of Haley at the lake. This kit is also by Julia Makotinsky of Little Dreamers Designs. It's called One Fine Day.

This page is done with pictures of my very good friend Sok and her twin daughters Maggie and Gracie. She also has two other daughters Lily and Abby who are just as adorable! Unfortunately I'm not sure who to give credit to for the paper and elements :( I'll try to figure it out later.

I talked to Zak the other day. The doctor has put him on some medicine that will hopefully get this Crohn's flare up under control. He said he's starting to feel better. Crohn's is a really nasty disease. They don't know what cause's it so it is considered an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease's seem to be on the increases and sometimes I wonder if everything that the medical community can't explain is just thrown into the *autoimmune* disease category. I suspect that autoimmune disease's have a lot to do with our environment too. I'm off to watch Hopkins now! Good night :)

We're home!

Well we made it home last night. We had such a good time visiting our family in Seattle and Cour D' Alene. I'm really glad we did this road trip. It was a little intimidating traveling so far to places I'd never driven before. I had my map quests with me and I had a month of navigator on my cell phone too! Verizon let me have a month free :) Lucy wasn't thrilled about doing a road trip with mom when we left but she admits to having a great time. Haley slept the whole way home. That's a little over 8 hours and over 500 miles. She was tired from playing with Robyns dogs. We got out and explored Cour d' Alene. Here we are down by the lake. It's a huge lake! Robyn said something like 128 miles of shore line. I have lot's of great pictures to scrap. Hopefully I'll have time soon. I got up this morning and walked Haley and went and worked in my mom's garden. We are getting tons of veggies and our tomato plants are 5 feet tall!

Here is Nate, Lucy and Robyn.

Same location, me in the picture too.

Here is Sam proving he's taller then his mom now! I believe Robyn is 5'10" so Sam is closing in on 6'

Oliver and Haley played and played! I am seriously debating on getting a second dog so Haley won't be so lonely when I'm gone. Her and Oli get along so well I wish I could bring him home :)

Here is my little Lucy with the waterfall we stopped to see just east of Portland.

Zak called my on my way home to let me know that he'd been so sick when he was down in San Diego that they moved his colonoscope to today. He's having a severe flare up of his Crohn's disease. He meets with his doctor tomorrow to go over the results but the doctor did say they are going to have to put him on Remicade. Hopefully that will get it back under control and he won't require surgery. I'll post updates.

Still Vacationing

We are in Cour D' Alene having a great time with Robyn, Mark, Sam, Nate and the dogs Rusty and Olli. Haley has been a great traveler. This is how we went from Seattle to Cour D' Alene. Notice Haley's head between the seats so we can pet her.


Thursday we went to Silverwood. A combo water/amusement park. Lucy made me ride acouple roller coasters with her. I really am too old for those! I'm still recovering. I loved laying out by the water though.
Lucy and Nate had a great time. We're leaving tomorrow morning to go home :(