Alex's leg

I've been meaning to post for a week. It was a week ago today that Alex finally got the cysts removed from his tibia. It went text book perfect! The doctor was able to remove the cysts and fill the bone cavity using needle aspiration instead of cutting a window in the bone. Alex was able to walk on his leg a couple hours afterwards. He was very funny afterwards and was totally amazed that he was naked under the gown and made sure everyone in the recovery room knew it! We go back to OHSU on July 8 and then we should be able to plan to get the left ACL done. The kid should be walking on 2 good legs in the near future! Here's a couple pictures.

I have been trying to study for the NCLEX. I will be taking it July 16 at 2pm in Salam. I want to pass it soooooooooooo badly and then never take a test again!

Dress Rehearsal

We had rehearsal for the pinning ceremony. It was long and it made me think.... I am not a ceremony person. It's going to take 2 hours!! I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm done with school, but I'll be glad to get home and bbq! Zak called and said he thought he'd be able to fly up tomorrow, but he has to be back at work on Monday and the last flight out of Portland on SW is at 6:30 :( I think he and Wynter will be up this summer :) My little Alex rescued a dog from some people he knew today. They haven't been able to afford to feed it. He wanted it and I thought it might be for him to feel responsible for something. He brought her home while I was out and told Lucy to remind me to feed her..... I've been introducing her to maddie and haley and the cats hug muffin and bubbles. I wish Alex would come home and tell me her name. Luckily she's nice to cats. Speaking of cats. I love these little cartoons.

It's scheduled

Wednesday I went with Alex up to OHSU. It was a good visit and he's now scheduled to have the surgery June 23. Dr. Adler is going to try a less evasive approach if he can that will lessen Alex's chances of infection and keep him off his feet only a couple of weeks hopefully. Now the fun part... getting Alex to really control his blood sugar. It is going to make all the difference in how he heals from this surgery. He claims he understands and he's going to do it. I hope so. Sometimes it sucks being the mom. I think babies should come with warning labels: Sure I'm cute and cuddly now, but I'm a lifetime of worry and stress *sigh*

On a lighter note. Lucy was asked to play on a summer volleyball league at Marist High School. She had a blast today and it's good for her. Looks like I'll be driving back and forth to Eugene some more. I also applied for a job as a NURSE! at the hospital today. I better get my butt in gear and study for my NCLEX.

Hi Dad!

I have been a bad blogger :( I'm going to try and do better. Alex is back from his road trip. He seems to have survived and had quite the young man adventure. I won't go into all the details. I'll just say I have a few more grey hairs. Thank god for miss clairol. We saw the endocrinologist today and he's going to give the ok for Alex to have the surgery to remove the cysts in his tibia. I'm hoping we'll be able to get the ball rolling on this soon. He also wants to work with Alex to help him get his diabetes controlled. I'm hoping Alex will work with him. His diabetes has not been well controlled this year :(
I am done with school. I have my pinning ceremony Sunday. Now I just have to study for the NCLEX and then try to find a job! I am enjoying having some time right now and have started reading a book. I'm reading "The Darkest Evening of the Year" by Dean Koontz. I have my little garden going pretty good and some flowers and herbs going. My little Lucy will be through with school after tomorrow. We are both thrilled. DigiScrapAddicts has been having a So You Think You Can Design contest going on the last few weeks and I have picked up a bunch of great free kits! I did this page of Lucy with based on the Beattles song "Lucy in the sky with diamonds".


I don't watch a lot of tv. I tend to be a news watcher, but I have a new favorite show. It's on Showtime , Nurse Jackie. Makes me want to go to work in the ER :) You can watch the first episode free here.

Alex

Well, this is week 6. I am half way done with my last quarter of nursing school :) I'm half way done with my preceptorship. It has been great working at the Cottage Grove Community Hospital. I'm starting to feel more confident about talking care of patients. Tomorrow will be my 14th day at the hospital, 11 more to go. We have our first test this Wednesday. I have actually studied for it a bit. I am a wee bit stressed though. Alex has been feeling very ... I'm trying to think of the words.... I think he feels trapped. He's 19, couldn't join the marines like he planned after high school because of his diabetes. He can't figure out what he wants to do. He's kind of lazy and has 2 surgeries coming up. So yesterday he left with a couple of friends to drive the junky old car they bought to Arizona to see another friend. They left last night at 820. Their plan as far as I know it is was to take 126 to Idaho, then go to Utah and down to Arizona. *sigh* I want him to have the big adventure he wants. I just want him to be safe. He's an insulin dependent diabetic with a leg he's been told could fracture with too much stress because of cysts. Hopefully I'll hear from him soon. So far he has his cell phone off. He doesn't have a car charger so I'm assuming it's to save the battery. Since I was thinking of him today I scrapped some pictures from when he turned 19. I used a kit called Weekend Smile by Kitty Chen.

I also scrapped a couple of pages of Zak and Wytner from when Wynter visited Zak last month. She looks like she's getting sooooooo tall! I'm hoping I'll get to see her this summer. I used a kit called Grunge Attitude by Caliméro.

Sick Days

I am in my final quarter of nursing school and until last week I made it all the way through never missing a class day or clinical day because I was sick. The past 5 days I have had the worst head/chest cold ever! And I missed nursing lab last week :( I'm going to have to make it up and I missed a couple of days in the hospital, I'll have to make those up too. I did feel good enough to day to get my butt up and shower and do a bit of school work. Tomorrow I'm hoping I feel good enough to walk my dogs that haven't been walked for 5 days and do some school work. I have 3 projects that will be due in the next few weeks. I have been having a great preceptorship though. I've managed to do my first 3 IV starts on the first try :) I think I have a knack for it. I've done a blood transfusion, managed a multiline IV, cleaned and dressed several wounds. Wound care is something I'm really interested in. I am really learning a lot and enjoying my preceptorship. Tonight I took it easy after dinner and scrapped a page. This is me and the girls in March when Jodi was here. I used a great kit I downloaded tonight called So Natural by Akiloune Designs.
Lucy had her last all day tournament a week ago last Sunday. Poor thing she was really sick by the end of the day. She's such a trooper, she played in every game even though she wasn't feeling well and her team made it to the semi finals. Now she's on to open gym volleyball at the high school and we're working on her fund raisers so she can go to volleyball camp in Bend this summer.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I didn't even realize this was Easter Sunday until Friday! And Friday was Lucy's birthday. The little darling is 16! We didn't do a big birthday party because she wanted to play club volleyball (which ends after next week) and that was a bit on the expensive side. So for her birthday (after I worked at the hospital all day) I made her cake and then Lucy, Kelsey and I went shopping at the mall and then the girls went to see the new Hannah Montana movie that came out Friday and Jeff and I went to dinner, then picked them up, came back home had birthday cake and crawled into bed. This next week I'm going to try and do 4 days at the hospital, skip class on Wednesday and get Lucy to the DMV to try and get her learners permit. Today I was going to work at the hospital but my nurse got called off so I am home. I guess I will have to make Easter dinner :) My preceptorship is going good. I'm really enjoying working one on one with my nurse. We have little quiz's every week but we can do those on line, the reading doesn't seem to be too much so far. We have 3 projects to do this term :( but I'm sure I'll get through it. I hope I'll have time to get a garden started soon though!
My little Alex has now decided he isn't sure if he's going to have the surgery on his tibia. This has me rather distressed. He's looking at a much more major surgery if he breaks that leg. He also isn't doing well managing his diabetes. Unfortunately this is par for the course with many teenagers but it's stresses me out too. It's really hard to watch him do things that I know are hurting him. I'm having to realize that I don't get to control what he does anymore. I think I enjoyed mothering better when he was little and was happy to do whatever I told him to do *sigh* Being in nursing school I see people in the hospital all the time because of the consequences of not controlling their diabetes. Alex knows, I've talked to him about it, his doctors have talked to him but so far it hasn't done any good. He also worries me because he seems to have no direction in his life. He is my child that I worry about the most and I'm sure what to do to help him. Hopefully he will be like many teenagers and get his act together here eventually.
Since I didn't have to go to the hospital this morning and I was up early anyway. I scrapped a picture from when Jodi was here. She's going to probably say I shouldn't have posted this picture but I think it shows us looking happy even if it's not our best picture. We were over at mom's making breakfast before Jodi went back to Cali. The kit I used is: ADD ON "The Walk of the Lovers" by Choubinette Design

Jodi's Visit and Alex Update

My sister Jodi flew up to visit with me and went with Alex and I up to Portland last Monday to see Dr. Adler about his bone cyst. The news was pretty positive. Yes Alex should have surgery to aspirate the cyst and graft cadaver bone in to strengthen his tibia. He did give Alex the option of doing nothing. He said in about 5 years the cyst should disappear and Alex's body would rebuild bone on it's own. There is a good chance the bone would fracture before that though and then Alex would have to have a rod inserted. Alex is opting for the surgery. After he heals from this he'll have to have his ACL repaired in his left knee. Poor guy is going to be laid up for a while and is not thrilled about it. After we were done with that we all felt a lot better and Jodi and I had a great visit! We visited some of our local wineries and sampled some local wines. This is a picture of Jodi when we were at the Chaetau Lorane.

Here is the both of us! We had just come from the Kings Estate.
This is a page I did of Jodi's visit. I used Delicious Spring add on by Choukette to do this page.
Now I have to get my butt in gear and get ready for my final term as a nursing student! I have to work 25 full shifts with a nurse along with my school work. I can't wait to be done!

Final today!

Today I took my final for Winter term. It was the most difficult test I've ever taken and when it was over I was panic stricken wondering if I passed or not. I did :) I can now go into my last term of nursing school! I have a week to relax ( clean house, do yard work, clean the garage, do my taxes ) and then I'll be doing my internship at the hospital her in Cottage Grove! More family news: On the 23rd I'm taking Alex up to Portland to OHSU ( the big teaching University/ hospital in Portland. A couple of months ago Alex hurt his knee while in a mosh pit at a concert. The thrill of the mosh bit is a bit beyond my understanding, but apparently it's important to the younger generation. Geez I'm getting old! Anyway, it has still been bothering him so his doctor sent him to an Orthopedist. They x-rayed both legs and informed us last Thursday that yes he has a torn ACL that needs surgery but that is not his biggest problem right now. He has bone cysts in his right Tibia that have destroyed and weakened much of the bone. He has to see a bone specialist in Portland. The standard treatment is to aspirate the cyst and graft bone in to regrow bone in the destroyed area. I'm concerned because Alex's cysts seems to be much larger then normal when found and there is a large area of dysfunctional bone. He is also an insulin dependant diabetic which makes these things more complicated. We will find out more on Monday and I will update. On the Lucy front: she is enjoying playing volleyball with the club in Springfield. I'm enjoying? driving her back and forth twice a week and getting up at 4am on the weekend for the all day tournaments. It is good for her to keep busy doing these sorts of things and it will be over the middle of April. It's good mom and Lucy time :) Here's a couple pictures of a tournament.




This is Alex on his birthday Feb 20. He's 19 now! He got a guitar for his birthday and has been learning to play.

The Trees

We'll get to the trees in a minute. First even though I have my usual over abundance of school work to do, I decided to relax Saturday night and search for freebies. I found a couple of kits I really liked a lot and then scrapped a couple of pages with them. This is little Lucy's volleyball picture from last season. She is playing club volleyball out of Springfield right now and she has her first tournament next weekend. She has practice Tuesday and Thursday evening. Lot's of driving, but I take school work with me and do it while she's practicing. The sports complex in Springfield is amazing. While volleyball practice is going on there's basketball teams, special Olympics teams practicing, adult dodge ball, roller derby! It's a very cool place. I used a kit called enchanted forest for this page. You can find it here http://jennie-moosya.blogspot.com/

For this page I used another freebie I found called Black Night by Muriel1326.

Now on to the trees! My backyard is not large or deep and it had several pine trees that were too large for the yard and blocked most of the sunlight. My neighbor had a friend that removed his trees and mine and now I have sunlight! I'm going to plant at least one apple tree and I'll be able to have a bigger garden. This summer when I'm through with school I should be able to do some landscaping :) Here are some pictures. I had to get a few of my little Alex working.
Doesn't he look thrilled!
Here is one of the trees going down.


You can see why my sunlight was blocked.

Winter Formal

Last Saturday was Winter Formal. Lucy went with her friend Kyle. She and Brandon are broken up (for good this time I think:). I think going and hanging out with friends was a good thing for her. I being the good mom stayed up to 11 so I could pick them up and drive them to the bowling ally for the after dance party, then I drove back at midnight and brought them home. Midnight is later then I normally stay up and I'm afraid to push my luck and turn into a pumpkin! Here are a few pictures I took of them. They are goofy!



Of course I scrapped a page too :) I used a kit from Jenni "Chaos Lounge"
I am also half way through winter quarter. I'm getting so excited to actually be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 4 months and I'm done with school! I can actually get a job and work as a nurse! Spring quarter is our preceptorship where we spend most of our time working one on one with a nurse. I'm hoping to do mine right here in Cottage Grove. I should know in a couple weeks.

The coast

After all the snow and cold weather right before Christmas, it now hasn't rained in over a week :) It's been cold and foggy in the mornings though and then the sun comes out in the afternoon. Still cold, but pretty. Last weekend Jeff took me to Yachats for the weekend. We had a great time. I find it so relaxing to sit and watch the waves break and roll in. I think I could just sit for hours and watch. The tide was out and the sun was setting when we went for a walk and got some great pictures.

I love the color of the sunset in these two pictures!

Look! Here I am on the beach :)
Here is a scrap page I did from out trip. The kit I uses is from ChaosLounge
This is a page I did of Lucy a couple months ago that I don't think I put up here. I was trying to make her look so angelic and then I realized I surrounded her with phallic symbols! Today we went shopping for her dress for Winter Formal. Luckily she understands our budget right now and found a cute dress at Ross. I think I've got her convinced she can recycle a pair of shoes too.