Happy New Year!

Its about an hour until the big ball drops and I'm chillin' at the computer...yup, the life of a mom! Pretty exciting right?! We, as a family, had a wonderful day today! It snowed last night, so we bundled the girls up in their snow suits this morning (if I wasn't being lazy, I would get the camera and download a picture of the girls in the snow and insert it here...), played in the snow, then headed for a car ride. On occasion, the Flohr's like to get in the car and just go for a drive...so that we did. Paul and I talked lacrosse and medical stuff, the girls looked out for cows and snow, then fell asleep. When we got home, both girls were rested and ready for play, later in the afternoon we headed to the outlets to do some returns and then had dinner at the Longhorn. A great friend of our's is a manager and he always hooks us up...thanks Wester! (If you haven't noticed, I do change names to protect the innocent).

While enjoying dinner, Paul and I both agreed that it was one of the best days we've had in a long time. The girl's noshed their dinners big time, and then the big wee one venutred under the table...usually a BIG NO-NO in my book, but why ruin a good day by being the wicked evil mother?! The girls fell alseep on the way home, which was AWESOME! Big wee one has been having a horrible time (see previous post...) going to sleep, so being able to just lay her down in bed was nice. I headed for the computer to do a little scrappin' and Paul grabbed a 4 wheel magazine for some relaxation. Definitely an exciting night for the Flohr's, forget that its NEW YEAR'S EVE! Hope those that are partying like rock stars are safe!

I have a feeling that 2008 is going to be an extreme year for change...good change, but crazy change. Of course I'll keep you all posted as the year flows...till then, enjoy some pages that I worked on tonight.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My quote of the day...

In five years, I will be alive and this will be over.

I came across this quote this morning while reading some emails...it suites us perfectly these days. In five years from now, we'll laugh about this whole mess, we'll be more financially stable, our wee ones will be older and a little more controlable (we hope!), and Paul and I will be vactioning on the white sandy beaches of...who knows, but we'll be there with umbrellas in our drinks and cabana boys (or girls for him) assisting us with our every whim.

And for those of you who are curious...Riddy fell alseep last night at 7pm while I was standing in the kitchen (holding her) talking to a friend...I feel asleep about an hour later. We are both much happier ladies today! Thank goodness!

Coffee, with extra zing please...

Ugh...I'm exhausted this morning and so is Paul, and I'm pretty sure big wee one must be as well. She's the reason for the exhaustion! Big wee one watched a movie with some friends, and I blame myself for letting her watch it, even when she was obviously scared, but she has this way of "convincing" me that she isn't, when really she is. So, the movie at hand was "The Grinch" with the Carey dude...the "real" grinch. Since she has seen this movie, she has had an extremely difficult time going to sleep at night. And, last night was the epitomy of bad nights!

Seriously, big wee one and I had a knock down, drag out, brawl...talk about stubborn! Again, Mom and Dad, I sincerely apologize for driving you the point of insane measures when I was a small child. I have this gut wrenching feeling that big wee one is EXACTLY like me, which is why we butt heads like we do.
Paul and I started putting her down around 7:30, normal bed time, and she fought us tooth and nail till...11:38 (that was the last time I thought I was going to look at the clock), but oh no, big wee one started again (after I moved her into our room on a blanket on the floor) with a loud "whisper"..."Maaaa-mmmyyy? Maaa-mmmyyy?"...I was standing my ground! I WAS NOT going to let her into bed with us. NO ONE gets any sleep when wee one commands the bed! So, I did what I thought was best...I plopped her in bed with Paul and took her spot on the floor. Finally, after Paul got slightly annoyed, I was asleep on the floor, in MY room, at 12:23 am.

Around 4 am...little wee one starts...

Large (venti, grande, tall...whatever the heck that thing is called) coffee please...I'll see my bed at 7:30 (I hope.) tonight!

Little Update

This isn't much of an update, but Dr. Rugg did call me this morning to answer some questions...unfortunately, I didn't have my list of questions in front of me, since I'm at work.
Paul and I basically wanted to know more about the trach tube, the "ins and outs" to it. Dr. Rugg can't really tell us what the percentage is that I'll have to have one put in, but did say that I will have some say in it. I'll have a breathing tube after my procedure, which so far is slated for January 17th (unofficially...still need to email Dr. Kalap with that), and depending on how long the swelling continues and how bad it is, will determine if I want to stay in the ICU with a breathing tube, or go home with a trach tube. At this point, if it means I can leave a day or two after the procedure then trach me up...if I have to stay for a week or so...I just don't think I can handle that...nor can the wee ones. Decisions, decisions...
I should be able to eat normally, after the swelling goes down. The area where my AVM is located is under the base of my tongue which controls swallowing, pretty important stuff, one reason why "they" want to get this done sooner then later. Talking (with the trach) is another story, I guess I'll have to put my fingers over the hole so that the air that provides my voice, voice won't fly out my throat...CRAZY!
I did ask if he knew whether or not Dr. Kalap will be doing the procedure or if an intern will do it...since we didn't have such great luck with the intern doing the biopsy, I'm a little iffy on just letting anyone shoot particals (metal coils, or plastic...have to find out which one they'll shoot me with) through my veins. Dr. Rugg complimented me on how I handled the situation with all of that...he's just glad we didn't sue since he ordered the procedure. Why sue?? I'm fine...that's just not my style.
On another side note, I totally recommend Dr. Rugg and his team for any ENT procedures you need done...if you live in PA or the surrounding area, Hershey really is a great place to get treatment. My dr's have an incredible bedside manner...how many dr's do you know give you and your husband his cell phone number??
So that's our update for today....have a good day!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!

Merry Christmas!

Its that time of year again...how stressed we all get to celebrate this one day each year. That's ok though, because this year, is THE year! The one when it all clicks for the older wee one. She sat on Santa's knee and told him exactly what she wanted (a sparkly dress, incase you were wondering), and before bed this evening we sat down and wrote Santa a letter and set out cookies, milk and carrots for the reindeer...all while her new princess barbies from her Aunt Jessica and Uncle Nick looked on.

The younger wee one is getting into the present spirit as well, tearing apart paper and carrying her gifts around...she sat and played with the glittery wrapping paper for a while this evening. Give her a baby and she's set!

Christmas morning will be our first time celebrating Christmas at home with the girls and not having to load up the car for hours worth of travel...let me just say that we are thrilled! We plan on opening some gifts, eating some pancakes, opening more gifts...lounging in our fat gear...it will be nice! We celebrated Christmas Eve, this evening at Mimi & G-pa's house with Uncle Jay and Eric, and tomorrow evening we'll head back over for dinner. A nice stress-free, relaxing, without snow kind of Christmas day :-)

From the Flohr's to all of you, we wish you a SAFE, HEALTHY and WONDERFULLY HAPPY Holiday Season!! We are extremely blessed to be where we are today and thank all of you for you kind words of encouragement and love. God Bless!

Subclavical Artery...say what??

A lot has been going on with Tina's health here lately. It started back in September at a dentist appointment. The dentist noticed that the inside of her mouth wasn't matching up ie: left side looked more swollen then the right side. So off she went to another dr. who ordered a cat scan. He didn't know what it was and so he offered to referr her another dr. Tina decided to call her family dr. and get his opinion, basically both dr's read Tina the definition of an AVM off of webmd, which is the same thing Tina read. (Googling can be a bit scary at times!) Off to another dr. she goes...who basically charged the Flohr's $30 to read the same definition to her again and referr her to a dr. in Hershey.

Paul and Tina arrive in Hershey after a crazy day of getting there, to find that Tina's new dr. can't really do much because...no one sent the cat scans! Though, Tina was relieved to meet someone who has dealt with AVMs before and can explain some things to her...since Hershey is a teaching hospital, there were 2 others in the room learning as the Flohr's did. Apparently, the blood rushing through Tina's AVM (which is right under her left jaw line, and as Tina found out, goes up under her tongue) is called a "thrill"...Funny to hear everyone referring to Tina's "thrill", and even more important is that the residents got to feel the thrill. Big thing! (so I've heard).

Now its time for the waiting game...the dr...now named Dr. Rugg (we'll keep it simple for story telling), can't really tell the Flohr's too much, except that he can feel "the thrill" in her mouth and under her jaw, but without the cat scan images, there isn't too much he can say.

After two weeks, Dr. Rugg calls Tina and says, "Wow, from the outside you look like a healthy young woman, but the inside is a mess!" And goes on to explain how the AVM is connected to the base and bottom of my tongue, that removal would require removing my tongue (insert concerned Tina here), and that he would consult with another physician and they would call me back to set up an appointment to discuss more options. Yippee....another wait for another dr's appointment, with no real solid answers and the thought that Tina is going to lose her tongue...fun!

Next appointment rolls around and now Tina has a "team" of dr's...Dr. Rugg and Dr. Kalap (again shortened for story telling), and they discuss some options with Tina & Paul on ways to "attack" this AVM. They explain that its pretty rare, Dr. Rugg says he's only seen AVMs in young children, no one in the double digits and not any in this rare place on her body. Tina's feeling like a freak!

Options are, and will be discussed at the next tumor board meeting (Tina feels important): radiation, removal or shrinking it by shooting particals into it through a catheter. In the meantime, they discuss another "mass" in Tina's chest that showed up on the cat scan and set up an appointment for her to get an MRI done...note to those that are reading: Hershey is an hour away, this AVM is getting pricey with the gas!

Skip forward to the present...I can't remember what all happened in between, but the MRI still showed the "mass" so the docs set up an outpatient procedure: a needle biopsy with cat scan to figure out what this thing is and Tina is hooked up to heart monitors and has her heart checked out...crazy, but Tina's been experiencing heart palpatations now (STRESS! does this have to happen right around the crazy holidays, and does money have to be tight??) All is well in heartland, and Tina prepares for her biopsy. (The heart monitoring and what not was done the morning of the biopsy, it was a long day...about to get longer!)

She gets all checked in, settled into her nice hospital gown, jokes around with nurse Kathy and Paul and relaxes. Another nurse came over, insertered the i.v. and slapped Tina's arm around a little...that right there should have been the warning sign that things were going down from there. Not that that had anything to do with it...but it just seemed like the start to the fall.

They wheel Tina down to the cat scan room and an intern dr. comes out to explain the procedure to her. He also explains how small the area is that they will be working in (WARNING! WARNING!) and all the important mumbo jumbo that is in the area. How everything should go smoothly and hopefully they won't miss anything and blah, blah, blah...wheel Tina in and send in the happy drugs. All is good in Tina land as she's being pushed in and out of the cat scan until suddenly she grabs her and mutters in her druggy slew, "Ouch, that hurts, is that supposed to hurt?"

They pull her out and again, being a teaching hospital, groups of folks that Tina didn't even realize were in the room, gather around to gock at her. They immediately take her off the drugs (Tina questions this, not realizing the pain she's feeling isn't supposed to be there) and wheel her into another room...

Basically, after Tina freaks out because it hurts like a dickens to breath and she can hardly breath, they discover (maybe after another cat scan or x-ray, or something...they wheeled her into another room, she doesn't remember much at that point) that in the process of extracting stuff from the mass, they punctured her subclavical artery and it bled. The blood, following the natural state of gravity, flowed down and pooled into her right lung...thus resulting in a "bruise" in her lung. Luckily though, it wasn't a lot of blood so they didn't have to drain her lung, but they did drug her up (which made her get sick) and kept her over night and ALL day the next day for observation.

What a loooonnngggg day...and mind you, Paul didn't know anything was going on, until they rolled Tina back into the post-op room and he was chillin' and then get freaked out. Nothing like seeing your wife roll in with oxygen tubes up her nose and not being able to breath.

Tina is on the way back to recovery and it will take a few weeks, but she feels a little better everyday. She'll be thrilled when she can lay on her back again and sleep! Taking deep breaths is still uncomfortable as well as coughing, yawning or sneezing. All to be expected.

Next blog post will be about Tina's AVM surgery: the date, what will go down (as the Flohr's know right now) and the rest of the 411...stay posted!

Happy Merry Merry :-)

Until then, enjoy a summer LO of Riddy enjoying an ice cold treat...maybe it will warm us up in during these cold winter months :-)

This is a test...

This is a test brought to by the Flohr's. No need to change your station, we will bring you back to your regularly scheduled program after this conculsion...thank you!