Coming Home

Mom is coming home to finish recuperating. She only took 1 pain pill today and is doing very well. It will be great to have her close to home. My Grandma is here to help my Mom and my Dad. We are thankful to have her come and help. Mom's back is doing good. She is still having troubles with her hemoglobin, bowels and endocrine system. Please pray for complete healing for her body...back and all.

The Baker house is on to healing as well. No fevers tonight! The kids have been running high fevers which we discovered was a bad virus they were sharing. It went from Julia-Memphis-Gage and now we pray that it doesn't go back to Julia (or us).

How to by David

How to take your kids on a walk, by David

All sorts of things...

My mom is still in lots of pain, but that is to be expected since she underwent major surgery. She was moved to the othropedic floor today because her pancreas is behaving itself(as well as her bowels too!). She is still laying flat, however, she still got the head ache which is a side effect of the tear in the dura (the encasing of the spinal cord).

A huge praise for us today is that Julia grew! The were concerned about her growth, but she grew 3 inches and put on 4 lbs! She is 21 lbs and 29 1/2 inches long PRAISE GOD FOR THIS GROWTH. This means she is in the 5-25% for height and weight, which is great!

Completely unrelated, but my kids had some note worthy quotes this week....after leaving Julia undiapered to help her rash heal, I hear from Memphis "oot ooh, oot ooh, baby"! To discover she had pooped on the floor, so I wisk her away to the shower to clean her up while I clean up the poop, However, neive me thinks Julia is "safe" in the shower, however, Julia is having great fun because she discovered if she sits on the drain the water starts to fill our shower, not tub which proceeds to spill over on the floor...bathroom floored mop 1 of the week. Later this day, Gage and Memphis come running from the bathroom yelling, water--high, high---aka, the toliet is overflowing creating bathroom floor mop 2 of the week.

Some other note worhty quotes that I have said generated from my childrens doing...
"Get your feet out of the freezer....feet don't go in freezers, food goes in the freezer To which Gage replies why?"
No, we are not watching cartoons at three in the morning....they don't even come on this early!

Resting

Mom is resting comfortable now that they have the pain meds managed. She has to lay flat for 48 hours so that nothing moves. Dad went home and I am here now that David is home with the babies.

Surgery Done

Mom is done with surgery...talked to the doctor and he said she is doing well. She bleed a little more than he would have liked to seen so she is receiving blood. He used a bunch of words that were like greek to me, but this is what I got from it. They took out the disk at 3-4 and 4-5 and he fused it together and put some screws in it. Her nerve testing came out better so he is confident that it was successful.

Progress

Mom went into surgery at about 7:45 this morning. We got a call about 10:00 that the surgery was progressing well, but she was bleeding and needed blood product. They will call when they are closer to being done. Will update again when we know more.

Surgery

Surgery for my mom's back is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:00 am...please pray that her body can handle it!

Chain Reaction

I love watching the game show Chain Reaction.......However, I do not like the chain reaction in my house
2:00 am...Gage starts crying, which wakes up Julia which wakes up Memphis, which makes Mommy crazy! Another one would be Julia gets sicks, shares sippy cups with her brothers, so Gage gets sick and soon, I am sure Memphis will be sick and than repeat! It seems to be a never ending cycle in our home!

My Mom is feeling pretty rough. She is still having difficulties keeping up her blood sugar and she is in extreme pain. She came home Friday and has been back to the ER three times and today they kept her because my Dad is beginning not to be able to care for her. This morning Dad had to feed her because she was in SO much pain that she couldn't eat, which would cause her blood sugar to drop which would wind her up in even worse shape. Please pray for healing for her. Also please continue to pray for my Dad as he is doing an amazing job of caring for her....that he would be continue to be able to care for her and continue to do so well. I love having my Daddy back and I want to keep him!

David is at an Emergency Manager conference this week...we miss him, but he is in his glory. This job is his dream job and he absolutely loves it! The rest of the Bakers are off to take a much needed nap!

Homework

Doing homework......

what's that....

Dad: Mom wants to come home
Ruth: What's that? Mom wants to come home?
Dad: Yep she is coming home and doing physical therapy at home
Ruth: Oh, but what about this, and what about that....
God: rememember no matter what I AM FAITHFUL!
Ruth: But what if this happenes or this happens than what??
God: I AM STILL GOD
Ruth: Ah, YOU ARE STILL GOD no matter what! ok got it,
GOD IS IN CONTROL

Frustrated

The plan was that Mom would come home today to recoup in her own environment. However, when I called this morning she was in as much pain as she was when we started this adventure 2 weeks ago. They started stronger pain medicine and are now taking her for an ephiderual to ease the pain. Right now I feel as we have gotten no place in 2 weeks while we have watched the dollar signs climb. Please pray that as I talk with the Doctors this am that I would honor God in my actions, and for wisdom. Also pray for my Mom that she would heal.

Coming Home

The scans are complete and the verdict is that my mom is coming home tomorrow to recoup before the back surgery. The surgeon is hopeful that physical therapy will help my Mom's back condition and may not have to have the surgery. Here we go again....roller coaster! Please pray that her blood sugar will be manage at home.

Labor Day

For labor day we went to the parade and had my Dad over for lunch. The boys found new "buddies" to play with. Memphis loved the "race cars" in the parade.

And for a good laugh check out the kid's new game they play with Daddy.

Roller Coaster

Today I feel like I am riding a roller coaster of emotions. My mom was suppose to have surgery and a scan today, but now is not. The surgeon was in today and my mom was looking better and able to use her left leg, so he felt that since it wasn't an emergency they would hold off until her body was a little more stable (better blood sugar levels). The scan was postponed because she has to be "cleaned" out for it and the process wasn't started yet so it would have to be tomorrow.

E-mail

On my way to go visit Mom, she ended up NOT having the scan done yesterday. They are waiting for the machine to come. She was up quite a bit yesterday and found a computer that she can check her email on, so feel free to send her a note, it will help pass the time! Her email address is mjvndznd@dchs.net

Saturday

Today My mom is having a scan done of her entire body to make sure there is no other "masses" in her body. David is home and I am enjoying having my hubby home!

Scope done

Mom came out of the surgery of the scope of her pancreas. There was a spot on it (they think it isn't cancerous)...we should get results back tommorrow.

Another update

Thank you prayer warriors for praying for my mom! She is doing well considering all her medical difficulties. She is on the schedule today to have a scope done of her pancreas to see what is going on with her blood sugar, and on Tuesday she is on the schedule to have the first back surgery. The doctor said this isn't the "big" back surgery and she should be back on her feet in a few days. This surgery should give her a lot of relief and give her use of her left leg again. The second back surgery can wait a little bit, but is considered the "big" surgery with many weeks of recouping. Her vitamin deficiencies are getting straightened out. She has a good team of doctors caring for her! My Dad continues to be doing well!!!!!!! My kids still have colds, and I couldn't be more excited for the weekend to rest and recoup from the busy week!

Mom

All summer my mom has "complained" of a back ache. She went in for a few epidural shots which helped for awhile, but only managed the pain slightly. On Friday, the pain became so unbearable that she went into the hospital where she found out she had shingles. They managed the pain for the weekend, but on Monday she went to Sioux Falls to a surgeon, who reported that my mom's back had become extremely worse than it was in June. Surgery was necessary and was needed ASAP to hopefully regain the use of my mom's left leg. However, while preparing for the surgery my mom's blood sugar dropped in the 30's (which is VERY dangerously low). So until they can manage the blood sugar the surgery is postponed. At the hospital that never sleeps (according to my mom) they did a cat scan last night and lots of blood work, which revealed a deficiency in vitamin D and calcium and that her adrenal gland is being "lazy" which could be causing all of the deficiency and blood sugar problems. So surgery is postponed until they get all of the other "problems" taken care of. Please pray for complete healing for my mom.
My Dad is doing absolutely wonderful! I finally can see the Dad that I knew growing up...one of compassion, spark and personality! It brings tears to my eyes to see the faithfulness of the LORD who has brought my Dad through his depression and anxiety. It has been a long road for us. Praise the LORD!!!!!!!!!
My kids have been sick and not sleeping very well and with David being gone, makes for an exhausting day at preschool. Please pray that I would be able to juggle being a mommy, daughter, wife, and teacher.