Happy Easter!

 We had a great early Easter dinner at my sister's house

so happy to have a trampoline to play on!

bubbles are SO much fun!

red couch photo!!
came out good, then realized we were missing one child! :)

here are all the grandchildren :)
Victoria, Katie, Danny, Adam, Gerri, Harry and Nicole :)

 Easter am was early, the kids were all up at 6:30 :)

ready for the scavenger hunt!

dressed up in their new clothes for Easter service! :) :)
omg they are getting SO big!!

Even older kids LOVE empty boxes! And wild Kratts! :)




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sorry so long! update! :)

We have been so busy, I am sorry I did not get on here to update!

Dan is slowly feeling better, his blood work is slowly looking better. His Dr says it will just take time.  Dan is impatient, but the Dr said for each day in the hospital it takes about 3 at home till you feel better. so we figure a couple of weeks till Dan feels more like himself.

Gerri and I had to head to Philly last Friday for follow up from her surgery in January. I was worried about how bad her walking is and how uncomfortable she is with stretching. we were scheduled to pick up her KAFO and dr vB came in to check out the fit. I told him about her weird bump under her knee and how bad her balance and walking is and asked if we could x-ray her knee.

Gerri talking :)

he is the most amazing dr!! :)

 when we had our appt in clinic, looked at her x-rays and discovered she has a stress fracture at the top of her tibia! I felt so bad as we have no idea when or how it happened. We have been stretching every day since surgery. and she has had pt 2-3 times per week :( though I will say he was stretching her as well without knowing it. Luckily since we just picked up her redone KAFO he just had a bar added onto the back to lock her leg straight during the day and at night she has a 30 degree bend. I mentioned to him how she does not walk well with the walker as she basically just coasts along balancing on her upper body. He suggested a cane so we headed up to PT and left an hour later :)

the difference in her walking has been amazing!!!
no more swaying side to side :)

we went out to dinner to benefit the Cat Connection :)

how much fun is making your own pizza!!

 We have tried to eat healthier for dan, more fish, less carbs, more fruit and veggies :)

yum, haddock! :)

they are getting SO big!!
Danny - 10, Gerri - 9, Victoria- 6

 We had that cold going around last week, all 3 of us girls had it. Gerri and Victoria had it for about 3 days, 10 days later I still have it. I finally broke down and went to the nurse today and I have a sinus infection :(  I was sure I was just run down from all that has been going on for the last month. I will be so happy to feel better soon!!

Roller Coaster continues!

Sorry I have not updated it has been so crazy here.

We appreciate everyone's prayers and well wishers so very much.

Dan was only home a couple of days when we had to take him back in as he had a fever and chills and the Dr was worried since he has a cath in his neck. He was supposed to go for outpatient dialysis but the dialysis center had issues with our insurance. The dr was planning on admitting him so he could have dialysis, but then Dan came down with the fever and we had to go to the ER last Tuesday :(

We waited till the kids were going to bed and my dad came up to watch them. 

We thought we were just going in to get admitted, but it turned into a very long night.

The paperwork was not done,  the ER was busy and there were no rooms available.

We got there at 8:30 and did not see a Dr till 1:00am :(

Dan's kidney Dr was on call and in the hospital, but they would not call her till the ER Dr saw him.

I couldn't leave till I knew he was being admitted, which was at 1:30 am. Poor dad! I felt so bad, he is not used to pulling such late nights!

They were so backed up at the hospital that Dan did not get a room till Wednesday afternoon at 3 pm! poor guy was exhausted! Big down!

visiting in his new room :)

The amazing thing was that none of his cultures grew anything! Big Up!

The night after Dan had his fever Victoria had it, so we think it was just something from the kids!

His kidney numbers were coming down so it turns out he needs no dialysis! Big Up!

(and a really good thing he was NOT able to do outpatient dialysis)

no one makes any decisions on removing the darn cath till Friday am when Dan jumps on his dr! big down!

Friday was a snow day!! Big Up!

we were only supposed to get a couple of inches!!
(yes that is gerri outside without her walker!!)

I LOVE this picture of them :)

We played lots!!!

 Friday-all day was spent waiting on word when Dan was going to surgery to have his cath removed so he could come home!! Big down!
finally at 5:00 pm he called to say they were taking him down!! big up!
we went to the hospital to try to push things along and it turns out he was already done and ready to go back to his room for discharge! big up!

Let's go!!!!

The way it should be!!!

Saturday was spent snow blowing the rest of the snow in the yard. Dan started it for me and I did the whole driveway. I purposely went around in circles and made designs in the snow just to drive him crazy :) Big Up!

we stayed close to home all weekend and Dan seems to be feeling so much better! big up!
Monday am, back to school, back to work, Dan goes for bloodwork. big up!
Monday night his kidney dr calls to say his number has gone up quite a bit! big down!
After talking a couple of minutes the dr thinks the issue is his blood sugars which are high. they had taken him off his diabetes medication because it affects the kidneys, but had not put him on any other meds. the dr then explained how the high blood sugars dry out the kidneys and they don't work as well! man!
both of us were devastated :( the dr calls in some scripts and he runs out to fill them.
She actually called back about 9 pm to make sure he was able to get them filled.
This am he had to go back to get more blood drawn and we were on pins and needles waiting for results knowing that this could mean going back for another cath and more dialysis.
Hubby called me at work at 11;30 to tell me that his number went DOWN! more than it has in the last 3 weeks! it is the lowest it has been since this whole roller coaster started!! ptl!
it still has a long way to go, but we will take it!!
thank you all!
I promise to try to stay more current on our updates!
Gerri and I head to Philly Thursday for a Friday am appt. We were supposed to go last week but put it off.
She is finally walking and feeling better!  We have all been drained by all this craziness and really hope we are on the down side!!
thank you all!! hugs!! :)

sorry we have been mia!! prayers needed!

We have had a very eventful couple of weeks!!
3 weeks ago hubby got a shot in his behind, within a couple of days it was very sore, red, inflamed and hot.
He went to the dr on Monday Feb 18th, she gave him a shot of antibiotics and a script for antibiotics. She drew a big circle around it and told us to watch it and if it got any bigger to come back the next day.  we knew Tuesday am it was not looking good, so called the Dr and told her we were coming in. Unfortunately it was school break so it was the whole family :) It was time for IV antibiotics :(

admitted into the hospital!

started the IV antibiotics!

blood cultures to ck for infections (Dan asked the nurse if he could have a nip )

The next day I had to work so Danny came with me while Grammy watched the girls

hanging around visiting

kids are thinking about what is going on, each day it got harder :(

Gerri had a hard time with it all, it took days for her to go near dan :(

We made get well cards!

Then I had to bring them into work, yes, they worked!! :)
they loved it!

daddy loved his cards!!

 unfortunately the IV antibiotics caused a "kidney crisis" and things took a turn that we did not think would happen :(

yes, this is a dialysis machine!

I just can't put into words what it is like to watch your best friend go through something like this!
my strong loving husband broke down and my heart broke!

 the kids had a very hard time with it all. hubby has never been in the hospital, they have never had to see hubby like this and they ALL had a very hard time. I had to be strong for everyone, felt pulled in so many different directions, ran around doing everything, tried to do it all.

Danny finally sat on his knee and cried :(

both doing work :)

 my sister came over one night to watch the kids so I could visit by myself :)

smile :)

the kids got to make pretzels with auntie!

they made crafts!

Danny finished his pine derby car

 we spent the school vacation going back and forth from home, work and the hospital. we ate out way too much and ms v slept in the bed with me so I would not be lonely :)
After a week the kids started school again and it made things easier to coordinate.
Unfortunately as I was leaving the hospital from our "date" hubby called to say that he had just been diagnosed with C-diff!! All I could think of was what if I got it! what would we do! what would the kids do! why did no one say anything to him or me when they saw us?? I rushed home, took a shower and washed all my clothes and scrubbed. argh! I was so over this whole thing!! the worst part was telling the kids that they could not visit for a couple of days :(

finally able to visit!!! :)

playing war :)

I spent all of Friday morning meeting with people to figure out what we needed to do to get him home! we were all over this whole business.  we got all the paperwork squared away and hubby was discharged Saturday!! his kidneys are still having a hard time and he is doing dialysis till they recover. :(

I learned a couple of very important things!
I love hubby :)
the kids love hubby :)
it is awesome being near family again!
life is too short and can change SO quickly!
I do NOT want to be a single parent!!

hubby actually had a fever yesterday and we had to take him back in, bad news
but turns out his counts are doing good, none of the cultures have come back with anything, and he is scheduled to have his cath taken out tomorrow and he is currently not needing any dialysis!! good news!
please pray for his healing, this has hit us all so very hard :(