Jenna shot out of the gate this morning like Secretariat out Churchill Downs. She woke me up by kissing my forehead, which meant she was leaning over the bed. She walked around the house, ate a big breakfast (homemade pancakes from Cara a.k.a. Martha Stewart), and visited with her parents, brother, myself, and Martha. Anyways she felt great and was all bubbly and perky and stuff. Then I left for a bit to get my car, some movies for her, and some groceries and came back to her being asleep. She woke up a little before 3 asking for a pain pill. She thinks she way overdid it. It's gonna take her a little bit to get the balance just right. Anyways, she's sitting up in bed now and has a few visitors over. If you are in the area right now and want to stop by please do so. If you aren't sure when you'll be coming just give us a call.
There's no place like home, there's no place like home...
It's amazing how much the stars align when you are at home. Jenna made it home without incidence. I had to demonstrate to the nurse I could empty Jenna's drains. Then we got her Rx.'s and off we went. We got home and the first order of business was a bath for Jenna. Cara gave her a spongebath in an inch of water and I went to get the Rx.'s filled. When I returned Jenna looked like she'd just won the lottery. She looked so happy to be home it was great. The house feels weird with the dogs at the kennel and little Noah in ElDorado, but its a calm environment she can heal within. Noah will be back soon enough and chaos will reign supreme again :)
Resting up before the trip home
Jenna's resting up from a big morning. I got to the hospital a little before 8 and to find Jared (her brother) already there. Kara reported a good night. Jenna slept straight from midnight to 630. This was after she slept from 630 to 11 last night straight. So she was well refreshed when I got there. We took a long walk around the building. Checked out the new crop of babies and headed back.
Dr. Atwood came in around 10 and Cross came in about 10 minutes later. Atwood was still here so we got to speak to both of them together. The short of it is that Jenna's doing well. Atwood liked the way her skin looked on her chest. He's going to give her Darvacet during the day so she won't be so loopy to go with her Mepragam (Demerol/Phenergan) at night. He said the ON-Q ball will come out this evening when it runs dry. We had that wrong-we thought it was 72 hrs after discharge but its 72 hrs after implantation. Cross thought everything looked good as well.
The plan now is to call the drain outputs in every few days. When at least 2 are ready to come out we'll go to Atwood for their removal. Cross wants us to call him and stop by next door when whenever we leave Atwood's. We'll follow up again when the hormone testing results come in on the cancer cells. They are off to sign the orders now for her to leave. We've decided to stay through lunch so she can rest now, get some meds in her for the trip home, and be full and comfortable when she gets to the house.
I'll let you guys know after we get home.
Dr. Atwood came in around 10 and Cross came in about 10 minutes later. Atwood was still here so we got to speak to both of them together. The short of it is that Jenna's doing well. Atwood liked the way her skin looked on her chest. He's going to give her Darvacet during the day so she won't be so loopy to go with her Mepragam (Demerol/Phenergan) at night. He said the ON-Q ball will come out this evening when it runs dry. We had that wrong-we thought it was 72 hrs after discharge but its 72 hrs after implantation. Cross thought everything looked good as well.
The plan now is to call the drain outputs in every few days. When at least 2 are ready to come out we'll go to Atwood for their removal. Cross wants us to call him and stop by next door when whenever we leave Atwood's. We'll follow up again when the hormone testing results come in on the cancer cells. They are off to sign the orders now for her to leave. We've decided to stay through lunch so she can rest now, get some meds in her for the trip home, and be full and comfortable when she gets to the house.
I'll let you guys know after we get home.
Stories, stats, and servers, oh my...
I have news to share but I'm taking a roundabout way of getting there so just bear with me. I feel a background story is called for. The term 'Macadactyl' was coined by a good friend of mine when we were in college and I used to use it as my login for stuff because surprisingly it was never taken :) Later on I used it for my personal website because oddly enough it wasn't registered. I added the 'lilbit' blog as a way to keep our family informed about Noah when Jenna became pregnant. When Noah was born I blogged the entire day and it was a huge success. Some people I knew would read but a lot of people I didn't expect really got into it. The day was so stressful to me, I told my mother later that I really think it was therapeutic for me to write everything down. When your son's heartbeat keeps falling off a cliff the stress can build up. A man needs a release. As Jenna's surgery date approached, a lot of family and friends asked me to do the same thing during Jenna's surgery. I obliged for 3 reasons. 1- Obviously I wanted to keep family and friends who couldn't be here informed 2-I had to fill up 10 hours doing something & 3- I knew it would help me cope with the day and I can't ever remember myself being so nervous for an approaching day in my life.
Flash forward to today and I've had time to reflect on how many stories there are of people who spread the word of this site to keep tabs on Jenna. I checked my webmaster on Wednesday to see how many people were logging on (just to make sure someone was listening). I can't see who they are but I can see the traffic on the site. A moment ago, while Jenna slept, I did the same thing. My webmaster is reporting 77 unique IP addresses have been on the site in the past 72 hours. That means 77 different computers have logged onto the site and read about Jenna's fight. Of those 77 computers the page has been visited an unbelievable 3319 times. That's amazing. I know some of those people are logging in from 1 computer during the day and 1 computer at night but I know a lot more people are sharing 1 computer to check in during the day. I've even been told a couple of stories from family members checking in and co-workers inquiring and then bookmarking the page. People who don't even know Jenna personally have logged in to see how she's doing because they either love someone who loves Jenna (ouch at the tongue twister) or they have been personally affected by cancer and just want to make sure this stays a success story. To say that I'm stunned would be a gross oversimplification.
The point of all of this is to tell you I know 'macadactyl' is hard to spell when you are sharing the site with people. I bet I heard Weldon (Jenna's Dad) spell 'M-A-C-A-D-A-C-T-Y-L' about 20 times the past 2 days. I myself wrote it down about 15 times for people who visited and didn't know about the site. Late last night I figured I'd check into a new name for the site. Macadactyl.com/lilbit will still work and I'll make sure it always does but I went ahead and registered http://thesullivanblog.com last night. The DNS servers cleared this morning and I routed traffic there to here. The skinny of this means if you type in http://thesullivanblog.com then your browser will open http://macadactyl.com/lilbit.
Both links will work from here on out but the next time someone says "Hey what's that stupid name for the site keeping us up-to-date on Jenna" you can say "thesullivanblog.com" and you won't have to spell a thing.
Wow that was a roundabout.
Flash forward to today and I've had time to reflect on how many stories there are of people who spread the word of this site to keep tabs on Jenna. I checked my webmaster on Wednesday to see how many people were logging on (just to make sure someone was listening). I can't see who they are but I can see the traffic on the site. A moment ago, while Jenna slept, I did the same thing. My webmaster is reporting 77 unique IP addresses have been on the site in the past 72 hours. That means 77 different computers have logged onto the site and read about Jenna's fight. Of those 77 computers the page has been visited an unbelievable 3319 times. That's amazing. I know some of those people are logging in from 1 computer during the day and 1 computer at night but I know a lot more people are sharing 1 computer to check in during the day. I've even been told a couple of stories from family members checking in and co-workers inquiring and then bookmarking the page. People who don't even know Jenna personally have logged in to see how she's doing because they either love someone who loves Jenna (ouch at the tongue twister) or they have been personally affected by cancer and just want to make sure this stays a success story. To say that I'm stunned would be a gross oversimplification.
The point of all of this is to tell you I know 'macadactyl' is hard to spell when you are sharing the site with people. I bet I heard Weldon (Jenna's Dad) spell 'M-A-C-A-D-A-C-T-Y-L' about 20 times the past 2 days. I myself wrote it down about 15 times for people who visited and didn't know about the site. Late last night I figured I'd check into a new name for the site. Macadactyl.com/lilbit will still work and I'll make sure it always does but I went ahead and registered http://thesullivanblog.com last night. The DNS servers cleared this morning and I routed traffic there to here. The skinny of this means if you type in http://thesullivanblog.com then your browser will open http://macadactyl.com/lilbit.
Both links will work from here on out but the next time someone says "Hey what's that stupid name for the site keeping us up-to-date on Jenna" you can say "thesullivanblog.com" and you won't have to spell a thing.
Wow that was a roundabout.
Verdict-Another night
When Dr. Atwood got here Jenna was sleeping. He said he looked at her night and he was sorry it was so busy and rough. He thought the first night just wasn't very good and last night the nurse damn near put her in a coma. He would like for her to stay another night and get a good night of sleep before discharging her. He wrote orders for vitals at bedtime and in the morning only and no blood to be drawn at 5AM. He said he or Cross will be by first thing in the morning to sign the discharge papers. So for those of you who read the first and last sentence only, Jenna will be discharged early in the morning.
Dr. Atwood is coming by
Vecie said Dr. Atwood was coming out of surgery and when he was threw he will be coming by to see Jenna.
Still waiting for Atwood
We still haven't heard from Dr. Atwood yet so we don't know what our discharge status will be. I'll let you know when we know something.
Jenna's still jamming along. She ate another big meal and is sitting in the chair watching TV and currently talking on the phone.
Jenna's still jamming along. She ate another big meal and is sitting in the chair watching TV and currently talking on the phone.
Walking around
Jenna had her IV disconnected earlier so asked if I could escort her on a walk. We went to the nurses station and saw some flowers that were up there for her. We strolled down to have a look at the babies. It looked like the Dr.'s had a busy night last night. Then we looped back around and stopped off at a friend's room to look at their baby. Then it was back to the room. We did pass a coffee machine by the room and stopped to get her a cup of Joe. I really thought she wouldn't have been able to go half that distance but she was a champ. She wasn't even winded and is still up and perky now.
Much better after breakfast
Jenna has really perked up after eating breakfast. In fact I cut the food up and she's feeding herself. We even turned on the TV for the first time for her. She's doing well.
Maybe go home this afternoon
Cross said Jenna has met the criteria for discharge this afternoon as long as her blood work comes out okay. She's ambulatory, going to the bathroom, and on oral medications. Honestly we've said all along that if we were given a choice (and Atwood acted like we would be) we'd stay the extra day because of our experience after Jenna's C-section. However, after the last 2 nights of having a PRN nurse from another hospital who finished each visit with "Did I forget anything?" and it was not a rhetorical question; we've decided we may do just as well at home. Jenna's friend Cara is coming in tonight to stay with us (whether at hospital or home). She's a nurse practitioner so we may would probably be in better hands there than here. We'll see what the blood work looks like and what Dr. Atwood has to say but I wanted everyone to know it was a possibility we go home today.
Cross made rounds
I was right. Dr. Cross wasn't happy to see her this out of it. She just won't wake up good and her speech is incoherent. I wonder if the last time the nurse came to check vitals if Jenna asked for more pills and she gave it to her when she came back. I didn't get out of bed that time. Cross wants her to be 'comfortable not pain free.' He thinks her sats are low because she's over-medicated. He was happy that she was up so often yesterday. He also said he was off to check her hemoglobin. Yesterday she was a little bit low.
A quiet night
Jenna slept large chunks of the night. We had to get up once to go to the bathroom, they took vitals 3 times, and the lab came by to take blood about 530. We may have overdone the meds now because I know they didn't want her this groggy. It was a good night though and she looked peaceful most of the time. She even smiled a few times in her sleep and it was funny. When she woke up she didn't remember what she'd been dreaming about.
Getting caught up
We had a small snafu this afternoon/evening with her pain meds. I'm not sure if I just missed it, she said it to Jenna, or even to someone else in our room. I do believe she said it because she was a perfect nurse, but apparently Jenna's oral pain meds are by request only. At about a little after 6 Jenna said she could kind of feel a tingle where 1 of the drains was coming out of her side. I knew this to be abnormal and I looked at the clock and saw it had been about 6 hours since her last dose. So being the advocate I am < I'm wearing these women out :) > I went to the nurses station and was informed she could have had the meds 3 hours ago. She can have 1-2 pills each 3-4 hours depending on what she wants. So she took 2 pills then and she's about to get 2 more pills now a little over 3 hours later to get her caught up on the pain. About 2 hours ago the pain got pretty bad but about 1 hour ago she wanted to get up. I helped her wash her face and brush her teeth, and then she got to put on pajamas!!!!!
Jenna's friends are so good to her. Misti was here earlier when we tried to figure out how to get some of the pajamas Jenna brought up here. After awhile the nurse and I declared it impossible with the tubes. Well Misti left a little later. About an hour and a half later Kristen and Brooke showed up with pajamas. Misti went to Dilliard's and found her some pretty pajamas that were big enough to house the extra stuff and button up all the way in the front so she could get her IV and ON-Q lines through it. She then passed the PJ's on to Kristen and Brooke who were headed over. The nurse unhooked her IV and I helped her put them on. The smile on her face was priceless. Thank you guys so much for that gesture. All of you are making her heal as much as or more than the medical staff that surrounds her.
Jenna's friends are so good to her. Misti was here earlier when we tried to figure out how to get some of the pajamas Jenna brought up here. After awhile the nurse and I declared it impossible with the tubes. Well Misti left a little later. About an hour and a half later Kristen and Brooke showed up with pajamas. Misti went to Dilliard's and found her some pretty pajamas that were big enough to house the extra stuff and button up all the way in the front so she could get her IV and ON-Q lines through it. She then passed the PJ's on to Kristen and Brooke who were headed over. The nurse unhooked her IV and I helped her put them on. The smile on her face was priceless. Thank you guys so much for that gesture. All of you are making her heal as much as or more than the medical staff that surrounds her.
Noah's pic-Updated
Well I have a few minutes now. Jenna finally went to sleep and there are no visitors currently. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share the most amazing photo of our Noah. Amber Lanning of Lanning Photography took some photos of our family last week. Here is a card from the proof sheet. Please remember that Mrs. Lanning owns the copyright to this photograph so if you share the photo with other people please include her information so they can order a copy of their own. I bought this shirt for Noah from the Komen website. It says "When I grow up, there's gonna be a cure." You can view the entire photo with ordering instructions here. Here's a snapshot of the proof with her copyright information below. It's absolutely beautiful.
Updated-sorry so many of you couldn't see the picture, I saved it in a format my browser could see but I guess Internet Explorer couldn't display correctly.
Updated-sorry so many of you couldn't see the picture, I saved it in a format my browser could see but I guess Internet Explorer couldn't display correctly.
Springdale Schools comes to visit!
A little after 4, Jenna's workmates began to filter in before their open house tonight. It was the only proof I'll ever need that this will never change who my wife is. It will be a part of who she is until the day she dies, but this will not dictate the person she is and will be.
Here's a link to a quick vid of the crowd.
Here's a link to a quick vid of the crowd.
NO CHEMOTHERAPY!!!!!
The pathology came back already to Dr. Cross. The right breast was 100% clear and the left breast had only non-invasive cells. The pathologist go through every cell so this is a 100% thing. He didn't mention the hormone relation to the cancer cells so we don't know medication route from here but the big thing is NO CHEMO!!!
So much for the nap
The respiratory therapist finally made it to the room. She showed us how much Jenna needs to be breathing in and for how long. She has to inhale through this apparatus every hour for 10 breaths. This will prevent pneumonia in her lungs from setting in.
Pink Teddy Bear
Jenna just had a special visitor. Susan Earnest is the Breast Care Navigator or Washington Regional. Even though we're not at a Washington Regional facility I guess she does the whole area. She brought Jenna a binder of information, cute little bags for her drains, and a large pink teddy bear to hold onto. She didn't stay long because Jenna's falling asleep (finally) but it was great of her to come by.
Hospital Info
Ms. Susan (Noah's wonderful sitter) asked in a comment but I was afraid some of you may miss it. Jenna is at Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson.
Directions are here!
She's in room 7. She would love to see everybody so if you are able to stop by that would be great. She's doing really well. If she's asleep you can still see her and sign her visitor book. Don't forget to bring a few bucks for the Susan G. Komen bucket :)
Directions are here!
She's in room 7. She would love to see everybody so if you are able to stop by that would be great. She's doing really well. If she's asleep you can still see her and sign her visitor book. Don't forget to bring a few bucks for the Susan G. Komen bucket :)
Human again
Jenna's Mom and Dad got here about an hour ago. Her Mom put makeup on her and fixed her hair. She's gotten up and walked 15 ft. and she's now eating solid food. I think she's feeling human again. I think the walking really helped her out. Her color and alertness have really improved.
