Back to work

Today was my frst day back to work after being off for a month taking care of Leeann. I love taking care of Leeann and being here for her. I wish I could just be a house husband for her. Does that make me a bad person??? I enjoy knowing that she is ok and that I can provide for her and get her the things she needs.

Anyway, I went back to work today and it was so weird. So many things have changed and so many new procedures. It was just weird to be back at work. I had to get up early and get ready, all of it just really weird. Think aobut being on vacation for a month and then going back to work.

We got a new addition to the family today. We got a new horse. Her name is Belle. We were able to sell Sam to a really nice farm in KY and got Belle as a replacement. She is a big beautiful horse, but not what we thought or were told she was. We were told she was a 6 year old Spotted Saddle horse, she is a 4 year old Tennessee Walking horse. I got the chance to ride her this past Saturday when we took a road trip to southers KY. I had fun, but was I need to get some more lessons before I get up on a horse and go trail riding. I tried to stear Belle around the pasture and realized that i have very little control over her. She did finally respond to me and we had a good ride for about 30 minutes. She is a great horse and is very broke so I know she will be great around both Leeann and Katie.

I am so proud of Leeann and how she is doing after her surgery. She is now eating soft foods, things like beans, cheese, and things like that. She is still loosing weight, we both just need to start walking and getting some exercise, but that will come in time.

Me and my Meds......

I am a type II diabetic. That means I have a few meds I need to take every day. The problem is that I am not good about taking my meds. It's not that I don't like to take meds, it's only a few pills, they are not that big and I don't have any bad side effects. It's just I get so busy with other things and doing this and doing that, I just forget to take my meds. My wife is always asking me if I took my meds, "yes" I say knowing that I have not done so, but have every intention of do so in the next few minutes. But, just like always, I forget and move on to something else. I tell you this to help you understand a little tift I had with Leeann today. I took Maggie, our 14 year old Maltiees, to the vet today to have her teeth cleaned. As part of that process, she has to be put to sleep and they have to check her blood work before puting her sleep. She has been having problmes with her thyroid levels being very low and she was on meds for the past month. I forgot to give her the meds. As a result, her levels were still very low and we (Lee and I) had a bit of a fight about me not telling her the truth. She is righ about that, I should tell her the truth, but I have been so busy and had my hands so full with stuff, taking care of Katie, the house, the dogs, the in-laws who were helping me with Katie, making sure I was there for every step of Leeann's recovery. I just could not find an extra 15 minutes a day. But, I am making a commement to take better care of my self and our little ones.

Doing Better

Things are getting much better. Leeann is getting better everyday. Getting in her Protien everyday was hard at first. She just did not want take anything that had any powder in it, it would make her sick. I can understand why, protien was the last thing she had just before she got sick and was put back in the hospital. There have been a few tears, but I am so proud of her for the progress she has made so far. She is up to 30 grams of protien a day, she has to have 60 grams a day, so it is a start. I have been adding a little protien to her eggs every night, she is getting better.

Katie and I are have a diffuclut time as of late. It seems that no matter what I say or do with her, it is a battle. Am I being too hard on her? Am I wanting too much from her? Problely yes to both questions, but I just want her to be a 7 year old. Katie is such a sweetie and I love her so very much. I can't see my life without her. All I want from her is to be the best little girl she can be. Don't get me wrong, there are times when she is so great and so sweet. Like this past Sunday. We were all out rning some errands and taking Katie to have a couple of medical test she has to have every few months. I droped Leeann off at a store and I took Katie with me to get a humidifer for the house. At the Walgreens, I had my mind focus on getting the humidifer and getting back to Leeann as soon as possible. Katie made me stop and smell the roses. She yelled, "Dad, dad, you have to come here, I need to show you something". I didn't want to take the time to look at it, But, Katie can be quite convincing. She was showing me a plastic heart filled with Skittles candies for Valentines Day. She looked at me and said, "We can give mom the heart and I can have the Skittles". I had to just laugh. She almost made me cry. She made me stop and just look at her. She is so beautiful and so sweet. That is what makes so made when she does the things she does. But, what makes me so crazy is that I know she can not control it. I just have to work a little harder to make things better.

This is my last week of being home with Leeann. I head back to work on Janurary 30th, I am a bit nervous leaving Leeann but, I now she wll be just fine.

The adventure continues........

Things are getting back

My baby (Leeann) is getting back to her wonderful, normal self. She was able to get out and run some errands with me yesterday and she went with me to Katie's doctors visit today. She did really good both days. She did take a short nap yesterday when we got home, but today has been the best day yet. I am not going to tell you how much weight she has lost so far, but lets just say it is a about a the weight of a older toodler

I am not back at work yet, that is going to be at least another week. I want to make sure that Leeann is doing well and can handel the day to day living of life. The way she is going, it should not be much longer.

I am doing much better with my eating as well. I just find it really hard to eat anything that bad for me. Take tonight for instance. I had to get some prescriptions to the drug store for Katie and i was going to eat while I was out. Now, in that past that would have been me going to Burger King or some other fast food hell and geting a big burger, fries and a jumbo coke. Well, I was out tonight and could not even think of going to a fast food place. So I went to a little sub shop near the house and got a small Meatball sub, some baked chips and a diet coke. Everything was small. That is a huge leap for me. So, don't be looking for me in any BK, McD's or Wendy's any time soon.

Don

What has this been like.

Well, since my last post, things have been very busy to say the least. Let me fill you in. Leeann was sent back to the hospital for a complication from her surgery. It all happened so fast, but I also got so angry about one thing most of all.

Lee started to have some very serious pains in her stomach. It was so bad it doubled her over. I had never seen her in so much pain We thought is was something she ate, or a pill that would not go down well. So, at 1:30pm I took her to the emergency room after calling in to her Dr. to let him know what was going on. I found out later that they called the ER to let them know we were on the way and to get her in as soon as possible (remember that). We got to the ER and we had to wait, wait while Leeann was in so much pain. I kept pushing the lady at the front desk to get Leeann in and quickly. Finaly after 50 minutes, they took her back and took her vital signs, the lady doing it pulled the blood pressure cuff off and hit Leeann in the stomach. Not that she hurt there enough already, but then she just said "Sorry" with this sarcastic tone to her voice. They finaly got her to a room at 3:30pm and then just left her there. She was dehydrated, I could tell, and we told the nurses that more than once. I also told them how much pain she was in, but not one person wanted to help. They took blood samples, and that was it. Finaly after 2 hours, we just left on our own. We never saw a doctor or much less a nurse. Leeann's doctor even called to make sure Leeann was there. We went home only to come back at 7:30pm by ambluance.

Well, it took until 11:15 to get any pain meds and liquids in her. Dr. Boyce decided to admit her at 1:30am and got to her room at 3am. Our great friend was a life saver by staying with Katie while I was with Leeann. Lisa has been such a great friend to Leeann. She has been so willing to help out when ever I called her. She spent several nights with Katie and many afternoos with Leeann at the hospital.

Leeann was in the hospital for 12 nights. I askd Leeanns mom and her aunt Linda to come over and help me through the weekend, they were so great and helped me out so much. I did not know how tired I was until they kicked me out and sent me home to get some rest. That was the hardest night of my life. Leaving my wife in a hospital room. My heart was breaking. But after a nights sleep, I knew it was the best thing to do. Leeann's mom and aunt were so great and did so much to help out. They did a great job taking care of Leean at night.

I was able to get Leeann home Friday night, I can not tell you how happy I was to get her home. Things are getting back to normal. Katie is happy to have us both home.

Things are getting better.