Update

They tried to extubate Pyper today but she started vomiting so they had to put it back in!! Keep praying!

Princess Pyperetta

I am really sorry for the delay in updating this blog. My thoughts have been totally consumed with praying for my little friend Princess Pyperetta. You might remember that she is 3-years-old and was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 6 weeks old. I met this sweet baby through some other children and my friend from church (Lillie) who is a pediatric oncology nurse. I have been following along for SEVERAL years of a couple, okay about 10, children's blogs thru Caringbridge Websites. This a place for parents to go blog and keep friends and family updated about their children and the many longterm illnesses that they have. It isn't just for children either. Sorry, I am rambling. I have been following my friend, Madie who was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old. Thru her site I found and started following another child and then another child and so forth. Lillie told me to pray for and go check on her little friend, Pyper. I did and have been "checking" on her ever since. If you would like to check on her too, look up her page at www.caringbridge.org/visit/pyperaddisynsellers. She is a precious little girl. Anyhow, back in the Summer I believe her sister was able to give her a bone marrow transplant. I went to visit Pyper right before she had the transplant in Atlanta. Her family lives 4-1/2 hrs. from the hospital and she has 4 other siblings so pretty much the family had been "living apart", so one parent can be with her at the hospital and the other parent could be home so the other children could go to school, etc. Pyper was doing well until they discovered that she would indeed need another bone marrow transplant, which her sister was willing to give again. About a month ago she started having really bad bellyaches. It got so bad her parents took her to their local ER on Saturday and she was transported via ambulance to Atlanta with only her daddy coming with her. Like I said, they live 4-1/2 hrs. from the hospital. When she got to Atlanta she apparently had 2 very bad bacterias, septic shock, no blood pressure to speak of, and had very low platelets. She was admitted to PICU and put on a ventilator. I had not seen her since back in the Summer, but had been following along on her website and also getting updates via Facebook from her mom. She was admitted on Sunday morning in critical condition. Her mom has been at their home worried sick. Since I live only about an hour from Scottish Rite I told her that I would try to go visit and maybe I could take her daddy something to eat for dinner. When I saw her on Tuesday I just about lost it. That precious angel was laying there with lots of tubes in her and she was very swollen. I am a pediatric nurse and have seen a lot of "medical" stuff so I was prepared and not scared like that, but it is a whole different world in a Pediatric Children's Hospital. I was completely humbled. It made me think twice of holding my own Tori-bug extra close that night when I got home. It was only a small amount of effort and time on my part to go check on a dear friend and also hopefully give her mom a little comfort in knowing that another mommy was able to go "love on her baby girl". I am seeking and requesting all prayer warriors to go to the throne of God and ask HIM for his strength and guidance for Pyper and her family. They will have a long hard road just to make it out of this immediate risk, but then another one when she has to have the second bone marrow transplant. I went again today to see her and take her daddy some snacks and such and she did look better. She is still on the vent and sedated, but she is breathing on her own. All the infection is gone, although she still doesn't have any white cells (the cells that fight off infections). She has a lot of swelling and also has fluid on her lung which they might draw off. She is still really sick, but they are thinking they might try to wean her off the ventilator on Monday. I pray that they can. My GOD is a big GOD and I know He only wants what is good for her. I just ask that you please remember to say a prayer for her and for all the little sweet children fighting a really terrible disease called cancer. I will try to update on her again soon and hopefully I will have great and miraculous news to share.

Thanks for reading and praying......
Wendy

First Gymnastics Meet of the Season- Pre-op Silver

Tori-bug had her first gymnastics meet of the season on Saturday. She was geared up and ready for a great meet- Pre-op Silver. She worked really hard the past 4 months and was really excited.
Monday, I had strep.
Tuesday she had strep.
Wednesday I had walking pneumonia.
Saturday at the meet she fell off the mat and pulled a ligament in her foot or her ankle.
I am not sure which. She did vault first. Our coach made a HUGE mistake and had them warming up on 5 mats instead of 4. Tori-bug couldn't even reach the 5th. mat. Three of our girls had already vaulted before the head coach realized that Tori-bug was struggling and realized that there was 5 mats instead of 4. She stopped everyone and fixed the mats, but three of our girls had already vaulted and got stinky scores. Well, one of the girls got a stinky score b/c she is the same size as Tori-bug. Tori-bug did vault on the right amount of mats, but it was still a semi-bad score. She has never been great on vault. No big deal. She got to bars and during warm-ups stepped off the mat and twisted her ankle. I didn't even realize anything was wrong. She mounted the bars fine and then fell right before she jumped to the high bar. She was trying to balance herself on the low bar with a hurt foot and couldn't balance, I guess. I still didn't know that she was hurt though. She got a stinky score on that too b/c she fell. She almost never falls on bars. She got to beam and started tearing up. THAT's when I realized something was wrong. She tried to motion to me that she couldn't do beam or floor b/c her foot was hurt. Her coach sent her over to the sports medicine people that happened to be on hand and they were acting like they were going to be keeping her/observing her for awhile. If you have never been to a gymnastics meet, you don't know that parents are not allowed on the floor. No matter if your child is hurt or not. She was being looked at on the far side of the gym. I am a nurse and her mother and it was driving me crazy. Her coach told them to tape her foot and ankle and send her back to him. The sports med. lady said, "no, I don't think she should finish". He said, "oh yes she is. I said wrap her up and send her back to me". I was able to run down to the side of the floor and give her a dose of Motrin (thanks Carmen) and my Tori-bug got right on that beam and did her full routine without ONE fall. She didn't get a great score b/c she couldn't jump high on the beam, but she did it. She ended up placing 4th!! She went to floor, but I didn't let her warm up so she could save it for when it counted. She did her routine, round-off double back handspring too, but only got a 8.4. I have always told her at these meets to do her best and have fun. She did the best she could do with it!! She put on her big girl panties and finished it. I am one proud mama today. I can't get my pictures to upload on here for some reason, but I will keep trying.

I am feeling a lot better. Not coughing my head off at least so much now. Just finished some strong antibiotics and hoping I will continue to get better. Thanks for checking in!
Wendy

Double the trouble

It is a sign.

I posted yesterday on having strep and walking pneumonia. Um yeah, DOUBLE the trouble.

After I left a comment on The Park Wife's blog AND added her to my Facebook she DOUBLED the chances of winning the PW T-shirt!!!

Pioneer Woman sent her another one and she is giving it away too......

Ooooh, I hope I win!! At least it would help me to feel better.

No, really, it would!!!

Just kidding. I am feeling a good bit better today. I at least was able to sleep last night and not hack my brains out. I think I am up to going to work tomorrow. I am definitely not 100%, but I don't believe I am contagious since I have taken two (that is DOUBLE) highly potent antibiotics. One yesterday and one today. Since it is so potent you only have to take it once a day and it is only for 5 days. Now, here's hoping to sleep again tonight.

Wendy

The Park Wife and Pioneer Woman

A couple of years ago I ran across a blog (which is why I wanted to start one myself). Then I found another blog, and another blog, and another blog. I started reading and following lots of blogs. I don't even realize how much time I used to have. I surely don't do great at keeping up with this blog. Besides the amount of time it takes, I love reading blogs. I feel like I know some of these people. I stumbled across PW at www.thepioneerwoman.com. She has the coolest site and has great contests. I even won a random contest a while back. It was a $100 gift certificate to Snapfish. Still haven't used all the money. Hmmmm...... reminds me that I need to print my pictures and make a photo album of Tori-bug's gymnastics meets last year. Anyway, Pioneer Woman or PW, or P-dub has a brand new cookbook out. It is the best cookbook ever. The recipes have ingredients that anyone could find in a local grocery store. PW lives in OK on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Kinda like my little small town I guess.
From PW's blog, I found another blog, www.theparkwife.blogspot.com. She is married to a park ranger. I have been following along on her blog for a few months. PW was doing a Griswold Book Signing Tour. She was going to a bunch of different places signing the cookbooks. She did come to Atlanta about a month ago, but I live an hour from Atlanta and she came on a Monday. I couldn't get out to meet her, but I soooooo wanted to get to and have her sign my cookbook. Plus, she was giving away specially made "PW t-shirts". My blogger friend at The Park Wife received thus said T-shirt in the mail b/c she was able to meet PW when she came to her hometown, but didn't bring the shirts. She got it in the mail. I want that T-shirt. She is giving it away. I think the reason is b/c it doesn't fit her, but it WILL fit me!!! Anyway, her requirements for possibly winning the T-shirt was to blog about her website, add her as a friend on Facebook, and leave her a comment. I didn't even know she was on Facebook, but I will be adding her as soon as I finish this post. Everyone please visit these two blogs. I promise you won't be sorry. It is two of the three that I have listed as following on my blog. I visit these three blogs almost daily. Sometimes I visit Pioneer Woman's blog several times in a day b/c her blog is so big that I have to read in spurts. She has a cooking blog, homeschooling section, home and garden section, etc.

I am off to go add The Park Wife to my Facebook,
Wendy

P.S. The other blog is www.notquitewhatihadplanned.com

P.S.S. I was diagnosed with strep on Monday. Today I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Yeah me!! :-(

WOW, where did the time go?

Sorry folks for it being so long in updating. I didn't realize until a few days ago that I have not even been on this laptop for quite some time. No facebook, no reading others blogs, etc. I don't know what happened to the time. Christmas, New Years, etc. I guess. Needless to say, Joy got quite lazy the last few days before Christmas. She didn't do much in the way of making "Christmas Magic". Tori-bug didn't even complain. We were all just so busy. Christmas Eve when she placed her under the tree she told her sister that at least she didn't have to be good anymore b/c Joy was leaving. WHAT???? I tried to tell her that she has to be good all year, not just the month of December. We had a wonderful holiday. Lots of gifts, time with family, and all that jazz. Much more low-key for us this year and I loved it. The girls really enjoyed their gifts. I will try to post some pics soon.
We went to the GymDogs Meet and Greet last night. Lots of pictures and autographs from the gymnasts. Thanks Amy!! It was a blast. We are going to the season opener meet today at 4pm. If you live in Georgia and have never been to a GymDog meet it is definitely worth the time. So much fun. We bought season tickets this year for the first time ever. We didn't get great seats, but hopefully we will next year.
Tori-bug has her first meet next Sat. at Gwinnett Arena if anyone is interested in coming. It starts at 10:30am I believe. She should be ready. They had a little bit of time off for the holidays, but now are back in full practice mode. I hope she does well. No matter what I am proud of that little girl. I hope some day she is standing in Stegman Coliseum for her first GymDog start. If she doesn't, I will still be proud. She has a new GymDog favorite this year. She is a freshman named Christa. She told Tori-bug last night that she has a sister named Victoria that was also called Tori. We thought that was so cool. Of course, she still likes Hillary and Grace Taylor too. It should be a fun-filled day. First I have to drop the dog off at the groomer, take the cats to the vet for a well visit, get mom's prescriptions filled, and then come home to get ready.
Take care and enjoy your Saturday. We sure will!!!
Wendy