Scaring X-Ray Techs (By Accident!!)

The Morning of August 13th
I was sitting on the couch in my hospital room reading a book. Char was at work for the first time since the 8th. He had been beside me from the very start of this hospital experience (which started August 8th at 8:30 AM). He slept on the sofa bed at night and helped care for me during the day. (I know, he's awesome). Anyways, he had to go back to work and I was all alone for the first time. 
As I was reading on the sofa someone came into the room. She looked at the bed, which was neatly made and missing a patient. She starts to talk outloud to herself "AGAIN!! I really, really wish they would tell me that the patient is dead before I come up. I have better things to do then wasting my ...." "Howdy!" I said.  She stopped mid-sentence.
She looked at me on the sofa and said "Oh, sorry I didn't see you there. I am very sorry for your loss." 
I replied "Umm, I AM the patient." 
Her face turned bright red, got me into a wheel chair, and apologized the whole way to the radiology department. Another person took me back to my room after the x-rays were done.

The Afternoon of September 10th
I was back to get even more x-rays. Pretty much from my neck, arms, legs, feet, hands, in a nutshell I was x-rayed from head to toe. (Did I mention the CT scan I had 5 days prior to this round of x-rays?). Anyways, I had to sign something stating that I am aware I have more then exceeded the recommended amount of radiation for one year. 
Since the hospital is a teaching hospital, there was a head tech teaching all the newbies. While I am getting x-rayed one person asked the instructor what was her weirdest as a tech. She proceeds to tell them "About a month ago I got called to go get a patient for a chest x-ray from the Trauma Level 1 ICU. I thought it was just another person on life support or something similar. I go into the room, the bed was empty and had been prepped by housekeeping for the next patient. It was a LONG day, I start venting out-loud to myself. 
Then I heard this weak voice that said "Hi". I thought, "Oh crap, this is a family member of the deceased. I'm in hot water if she complains about me." I apologized for her loss. She looked confused and told me "I'm the patient." I thought again "WHAT are you doing?? Patients do NOT sit up, much less get out of their beds in this unit!" 
Once she finished her side of the story I grinned and said "Howdy!!" She looked at me like a ghost. I then told her students, "Her story is true, I was there. After all, I was the patient." Her group laughs.  

I do have the following ideas IF I have to get more x-rays:

Plan A: IF I'm an inpatient at a hospital and a tech is coming for me I want to do this to my bed:

Option 2: Since I have exceeded my "radiation" limit, I thought I would put some glow in the dark paint on some parts of my hands or something. That way I would "glow" a little. 

If you're going to be sick, might as well have a little fun every now and then. :-)

Be Brave Heidi, Be Brave

• While I was in the hospital ALL 4 of Charles' sisters stepped up and took Heidi Anne into their care for those 8 scary days. These little tales show what an amazing, adventurous girl Heidi Anne has become. I am in awe that my little barely 5 year old girl handled this tumultuous time so well. She is a little afraid that Momma's doctor appointments may turn into a hospital visit. So she packs a little bag for herself, just in case. (You'll have to read "Well That Escalated Quickly" to understand why.)
• P.S. - I don't like using peoples' names or pictures without permission. So nothing secret about his sisters or any other vaguely identified person just think of it as the HIPPA of the internet age. If you happen to see your name or picture ANYWHERE on the blog let me know and I WILL correct it.
• Be Brave Heidi, Be Brave: One of Charles sisters had this story about Heidi Anne. It has since become our family mantra - Be Brave (fill in name), Be Brave. 
• "One day I took Heidi Anne swimming, she thought it was just going to be a little pool, however, it was our neighbors' full size pool with a water slide. At first the depth of the pool frightened her. But slowly she became more comfortable and realized she could touch the bottom of the pool." We had fun teaching her how to kick and swim."
• (Did I mention Heidi Anne doesn't know how to swim and she flat out refused to use the life jacket? Heidi Anne was in the BEST of care and closely watched. Sometimes you just have to sink or swim. So kudos to the sister willing to take on this particular adventure!!)
• "Heidi Anne climbed up the ladder, got to the slide, got scared and came back down. Each time I reassured her she didn't have to go down if she didn't want to.  I told her how I would have been to scared to go down the slide. Despite all the reassurance, Heidi Anne insisted that she wanted to go down the slide." (Again, Kudos to the sister that let Heidi Anne be Heidi Anne!!) 
• On the third time up the ladder she started saying to herself " 'Heidi be brave, be brave...' and then she went down into the pool.  In the words of his sister "Wow! That girl has guts!"

Park Adventures Summer 2013

Heidi Anne loves to be outside, doing anything and everything. We don't have much of a yard (it's like 10 feet by 10 feet). Luckily for us, there are lots of parks around here. I take her to a park nearly every day. I like to do a park rotation, that way she doesn't get board of going to the same park over and over. It's fun because she never really knows which park we'll go to. We do have a few favorites though.

Heidi Anne and James playing in the "Yard" 

The Splash Pads
I'm not sure how, but this little valley has 2 splash pad parks. They may not be big but they do the job.There is only one public pool here and it gets crowed very quickly. I love the splash pads because I can stay in the shade nice and dry while she gets as wet as she wants. Plus they're free - can't beat that price. ;D

Heidi And Gabby at North Logan

Snacking at the North Logan Pad

Providence Splash Pad - Heidi Anne's Party 

URBAN TRAILS!!

There are many "Urban Trails" here in the valley. There is the Logan River Walk trail with little fun facts about the solar system. There is a Riverwoods trail as well. A few other ones sprinkled all around the valley. They are great for adventures! Bonus, these "trails" are Me approved. 

Logan River Walk Trail

Parks!!

There are sooo many parks here in Logan. I tried at least once or twice a week to take her to a park or field to get those wiggles out. She loves her Park Day Adventures. Here are just some pictures from those fun parks. I liked to mix it up so she wouldn't get board. I would let her run wild while I hid in the shade. I call it "Free Range Parenting". These are just a few pictures from all of those fun times. 

Out In the Wild!

Logan is right by Logan Canyon. Surprise!! Anyways, there are lots of easy (and VERY VERY HARD) trails that you can explore. We stick with First Dam and feed the ducks or the Stokes Nature Center with all their fun hands on activities they have. And the trails are me approved as well. Heidi Anne loves being about to run and explore ahead of me, and I love the fact the cell reception is great and a ranger is nearby. 

Camping!!

YES-Camping. First time ever. More info to come but Heidi Anne had a blast to say the least. The camping trip has been over shadowed by the fact that I shouldn't have even gone to start with and ended up in the ICU the day after we got home. So it was fun - just bad timing. 

Playing Blocks with the Firewood

Chillin' In the Tent

Camping! How She LOVED Camping!!

Return to the Medical Professionals - Biopsy Results Show!!

Finally, the day had come. I was to return to the Medical Professionals in the Smog to get the results of my bone marrow and bone marrow aspiration biopsy results. (I jokingly called it "The Biopsy Results Show")

In theory the appointment was very simple:

- BIG RULE 1 - NO CHILDREN Under the age of 14 (I kept waiting for a nurse, Intern, registration personal to ask for my ID. There are little signs of "Please leave any child under the age of 14 at home. I am pretty sure there is fine print of "We reserve the right to ID card any patient or person at anytime."

Since Heidi Anne is still 9 years away from being 14 Char's sister Em was going to watch her for the 90 minute doctor appointment. 

-11:50 Aunt Em watches Heidi Anne for the "90 Minute" doctor appointment.  

-12:10 We get to the Huntsman Cancer Institute (which has free valet parking so patients and caregivers aren't split up when one is parking the care while the other checks in.) There are musical instruments to play, puzzles to work on, books to read, crafts to work on, and just beautiful details all around. You walk in and you know there is Hope. You feel this WHOOOSH Good Vibes. Well Played Huntsman Senior! 

-12:11-12:35 Register, blood work done, and they gave me a heavy duty respirator because I had a cough to match it. We wait, we watch people go in and out of the infusion rooms (where you get chemo treatment). Nervous-Do I want it to be Leukemia, because I will finally know 100% what this is and how to treat it. Then the other side is Cancer---YIKES!!.  

1:10 PM- Results, I DO NOT HAVE the following (remember, they are leaving no stone un turned).

I DO NOT Have HIV/AIDS (which was a serious concern due to all the blood transfusions), I do NOT have Myelodysplastic Syndrome ( you wouldn't need a Magic 8 ball to know what that would mean). The only way to verify this was with a biopsy. 

2:20-3:15-The "I Dos" began. I DO have Prednisone Induced Diabetes, Acquired Pancytopenia (not genetic), a yet to be named anemia, and the SCARES ME - The Fungal pneumonia. Yes, fungal pneumonia. When that result came back they redid the labs to verify that I am free of HIV / AIDS. Turns out, this thing only happens to severely immunodeficient  people. If you want to Google it, feel free. 

What this means to me, is my body will reject any anti rejection medication or anything that can influence my DNA. This severely handicaps my treatment of my autoimmune disorder. BUT there are more discoveries coming every day. And soon we'll know what has been making me sick. 

3:15-3:20--Field trip!! I got to go to get an x-ray. Then I tried to come back but was sent to a room where they zipped me up in a plastic bubble. Then I was giving a 50 minute treatment. In a bubble. I was making jokes about how "I do not Like the Cone of Shame! ~~ Squirrel!! Just making making people laugh. Little thoughts like "Why can't they give me dry erase markers so the nurses and I could play tic-tac-toe. Oh, keep in mind the nurses were in full haz mat (for the out there, the jump suites and gear the dude from Breaking Bad use). 

3:20-Closing Time More fumigation. I also got a follow up appointment for later this month. Please keep us in your prayers. This form of pneumonia is very hard to treatment.

Oh PS- Today was My 7th year anniversary of being married to Charles. He spent the day nursing me back to health. I love that Man. And Heidi Anne got her Jodi-Adventure. It's a good day.