Pneumonia

Karin has significant pneumonia in one lung. It came on very fast, and her blood pressure droped from something like 170/90 Monday to 70/40 today. She didn't have breathing trouble until she was in the ER. It is a very good thing that we got her in when we did as she was in very serious danger of organ trouble from the low blood pressure. They've got her blood pressure stablized at normal now.
We are told to expect that she will get worse before she gets better. As the infection in her lungs breaks up in will reduce her breathing even more and there is a good chance they will need to put her on life support, maybe for several days, to make sure her lungs keep going and get enough oxygen into her system.
Very serious, but they know how to deal with this and get her well!

ICU

Karin is being admitted to an ICU bed, due to very low blood pressure and low oxygen level - I guess that's why she was weak and and blue lips!! They will be giving her multiple antibiotics for possible infection, and drugs to boost her blood pressure.

Going to the ER

Steve just called my nurse practitioner at Duke and described how I've been doing since I was there Monday. And she said I should go to the ER today. :( She said we don't have to drive all the way to Duke if we don't want to, so we're going to our closest hospital instead. She said they'll check me out and possibly admit me. UGH!! I have so much to do this week, and I do NOT want to go to the hospital. :(

High Fever

This is Steve. Karin is not well and has a fever of 103 :-(

She had a bad morning, moaning for a couple hours from GI/gas pain and feeling cold, but couldn't keep her eyes open more than a few seconds. She was also very ghostly pale. It was breaking my heart to see her in that shape. I really needed to get to work (can't live without an income) but I couldn't bring myself to leave her like that. Finally at 10:30am she woke enough to sit at her computer and talk. She insisted she was ok and pushed me to work.
I got home at 6:30pm. She was able to wake for a few minutes for a brief description of her day. Grandma says she was awake downstairs long enough to eat some cottage cheese - the most food she's had in a few days, but she seems to have slept most of the day - that's our guess - grandma was busy with kids and Karin was mostly in the bedroom with door closed. Karin's temp was 99 at 6pm. She had no interest in getting up for dinner, then I too was busy with kids until 10pm. Then checked her temp again and it was 103. I got her up and out of bed and to the bathroom. She was unsteady and held me for fear of falling.
She seems very weak. I'll probably call an oncology nurse soon to find out if/when she needs closer attention/treatment.

10:50pm update: she still can't keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds, but her temp is down to 101.

Bracelets!! and Discomfort

Today was Aria's 2nd Sunday at church...and for the 2nd week in a row, we ended up being quite late. Between taking 3 kids to church and my slowness in the morning due to discomfort, it's hard to get there on time. But little did I know that we missed something significant this morning!! Before we arrived, an announcement was made about ME!! I knew about these bracelets ahead of time, but I didn't know that today was the day. So it was announced today that a couple hundred bracelets were made with my name on them...and they were passed out at the back door after the service today!!! They are to serve as reminders for people to pray for me!!!! WOW!!!! :) :) Thank you to everyone who is praying and wearing a bracelet reminder!!!! :) :) I feel sooo blessed!!!!! Kevin got a bracelet too, and he was pretty impressed.

That reminds me that last week in Children's Church, apparently Kevin's class talked about a story about healing. And if they knew someone who is sick, they were to take a band-aid as a reminder to pray for that person (I think I got the story right??). So as I was talking to a friend after church, Kevin came up behind me and stuck a band-aid on my back!! HA!! :) I later found out the explanation from him and even saw that his teacher had written "Mommy" on the band-aid. :) So Kevin had specifically talked about me in his class. What a sweet boy!! :)

As for my status, my side effects are getting worse and more uncomfortable. Some have gotten pretty severely uncomfortable. But today was my final day of taking one of the trial meds for this cycle. Hooray!!! I now get a week off and hopefully will get back to normal for a bit. :) Yesterday and today, I had to eat ice cream for dinner, because there's nothing else I can tolerate due to my sore mouth. Tomorrow is my next appointment at Duke, which will probably last all day, as usual. And I hope to get some help with some of these brutal side effects!! Fortunately, my pain is pretty much under control though. :) And my walking was really great today!!! :)

I'm Doing Pretty Well

This may have been my biggest gap between appointments at Duke thus far! I had a pre-scheduled appointment last Monday (the day I was discharged from the hospital). And my next appointment is this coming Monday (exactly 2 weeks apart). Of course, in the meantime, I've been enjoying our precious daughter, our 2 wonderful boys, Thanksgiving, and preparing for Christmas. We've also been focusing a lot this week on finding a nanny to help me during the day while Steve is at work. Right now, my mom is still here - and is still a fabulous help that we could not do without!!! But eventually, she'd probably like to go home. ;)

The great news is that my new pain medicine (which I started in the hospital) is really working!! I was doing really well after coming home from the hospital. The very next day, we went shopping at the mall. I had some things I had wanted to do there for awhile, so I was really happy to be able to do it! And it was fun to go out into the real world and experience things like Christmas decorations. :) I did quite a lot of walking that day. And later in the week, I was in more pain. In fact, I had quite a bit of pain during Thanksgiving dinner and even riding in the car to and from the restaurant. But I dealt with it and enjoyed Thanksgiving nonetheless. Anyway, I wondered if the pain was due to perhaps overdoing it on Tuesday at the mall? And now this week, I'm doing much better! The difference between how I feel when I first wake up in the morning now vs. a couple weeks ago is HUGE. I'm rarely even taking the breakthrough pain medication this week. So I'm really doing great! Praise God!!! :)

The downside... is that I've been having quite a few side effects, which have been unpleasant and uncomfortable. I'm on the second cycle of my trial meds now (with one of the meds, I take it for 2 weeks, then I don't take it for 1 week). So my body had a week to recover from the side effects from before. And then they started up again. Some of them are the same, and fortunately some of them did not reoccur (yet). However, I had some new surprises too. One example of an annoying recurring side effect is a sore mouth. It hurts to eat many things. So this also cuts down on my appetite, which isn't helping the fact that I have already lost 20 lbs this fall. I actually weigh the same as on our wedding day 9.5 years ago, which has never occurred again since then until now! I just hope I don't keep losing weight. (That's not something I ever thought I'd hear myself say!! ha!)

I had a second follow-up appointment with my surgeon today from my kidney surgery in Sept. He didn't have much to say, and once again, he didn't even look at my incision. ha! It is looking pretty great though, and I'm even able to handle looking at it now. ;) So I'm pretty much all healed up, with a lovely long line across my abdomen.

Steve has continued to spend a lot of time researching different treatments and such. He has become quite educated on the subject and is doing all that he can to find treatments and answers for me. He is a WONDERFUL husband!!! Between the nanny research, cancer research, coming home from Vietnam, needing to work, etc....he's been pretty stressed!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers!!! Here are my current prayer requests:

• Healing from cancer!!
  
• That the trial meds will stop the spread of my cancer
  
• Peace and wisdom for Steve as he researches many topics for our family
• Finding the right nanny for our family
• Freedom from pain and ability to do the physical activities of daily life
• Minimal side effects and discomfort
• Ability to sleep well
• Healing for my left arm, which is fractured
• Praises to God for our beautiful daughter and her great transition, the blessing of our wonderful family (including my mom who has been so great!!), and my decreased pain!!!
  

Our First Week with Aria

After coming home from the hospital last Monday, I've been busy spending time with my kiddos and getting to know my new daughter!! :) So I've been slow at posting recently. But now I'm going to share a bunch of fun photos from our first 1.5 weeks with Aria!! :) She is doing great! At the time I came home from the hospital, she still didn't know who I was and didn't want me holding her. (I also can't actually carry her, as she's too heavy for me right now. She's 22 lbs, while Kien is 17 lbs. They are just 4 days apart.) But I can hold her on my lap. :) Anyway, she quickly warmed up to me!! I even got a smile out of her within my first 24 hours back at home. :) She now isn't just attached to Steve and is quickly adjusting to her new home and family. She seems to enjoy her 2 brothers. And Kevin absolutely adores her!! Kien seems to really like her too, as he has often stroked her hair. :) Thanksgiving marked one week after she came home, so here are some pictures from the first 1.5 weeks...

This was shortly after we arrived home from the airport.

Here's the proud big brother with his t-shirt: "I'm the BIG brother of TWINS!" :)


They came to visit me in the hospital on the first weekend, and Aria and I played peek-a-boo. :)

We all ate in the hospital cafeteria on the last night, and Aria kept stealing Kien's fries! ha!

Back in my hospital room, Kevin played peek-a-boo with the babies from behind the door. They both LOVED it!! :) Kevin got huge smiles out of Aria!!!

Aria laughed when Kien tried on her hat in her nursery. :)

We've started seeing her smile more and more! :)

Kien likes rubbing Aria's hair! :) (She's drinking a play baby bottle for a doll.)

Both babies went after my iPhone, and I loved the look of these 2 little faces clamoring up towards my lap to reach the iPhone!! :) We waited a very long time to have these 2 little guys!!!

Here's our pretty little princess, wearing a hair bow for the first time. :) She also loves her pink toy harp with Disney princesses on it (on the floor)! (I play the harp, so this was the perfect toy for my little girl!!)

I felt so great on Tuesday (the day after I was discharged from the hospital), that we went out shopping at the mall!!! My mom and I took all 3 kids, and it went really well!! :) I pushed the twin stroller, as it actually made it easier for me to have something to lean on. Both babies proved to be great shoppers!!

She lets Mommy hold her now!!! YAY!!!! :) :)

Here I am with my 2 babies!! Although Kevin (age 4) claims to be my 3rd baby...despite the fact he previously had claimed to be a big boy. ;)

On Wednesday night, Aria went out to eat at her first restaurant (not including the hospital cafeteria). Both babies sat in high chairs at the end of a booth at Chili's - and they did great!! Aria is an excellent eater!! Unlike Kien. ;) But he seems to be learning from her a little bit.

Here is our family of 5 on Thanksgiving Day at the wonderful restaurant where we had a Thanksgiving buffet dinner!

Grampy came to visit over Thanksgiving and met his new granddaughter! :)

Aria wore her first dress on Thanksgiving - and some fancy new shoes!

They watched us put up the Christmas tree - and we had to put a baby gate around the entire thing to guard off two sets of little hands this year!! ;)


Grandma and Grandpa went out for a date one night, so we had our first dinner as just a family of 5. :)

This was taken this morning at church! Isn't she a doll??? :) She is giving more and more great smiles now!!!! :) She's becoming a very happy little girl!!!! (She colored on Kevin's magnadoodle at church after watching him do it! We were pretty amazed that she immediately knew how to color with it after watching him!)

Here we are in church with Aria, after Kevin and Kien had gone off to class / the nursery. She did great staying in church with us! :)

This week, Aria and Kien both turn 18 months old!! And next week, we celebrate 6 months since Kien's adoption!! :)