Where the hell is Matt?

I've been surfing blogs these days. It started on the Himmels blog through links and I've found a whole new universe. I'm learning new stuff about links, formatting, putting pics and videos... it's turned into a major education.

I found this video and had to share.



Not sure why but watching Matt and his travels caused me to get emotional. Not the welling up with tears maybe a little tightness in my throat but also a warm feeling and smile. I wonder if it's the thought of sharing something so silly and simple as a dance all over the world or if it reminds me that I want to see all those places and not sure if or when that will ever happen.

A longing for youth? Perhaps regret, for starting parenting at the ripe old age of 16and never having the opportunity to be a free young adult.

Then I think about my son serving his country on a ship off the Hawaiian coast, my daughter who's working her way through college, my married two taking off on this great adventure called parenthood and of course Winter... how can I for even a moment regret the awesome human beings that I brought into this world and who everyday, 20+ years later surprise and awe me at their incredible goodness?

Not regret for sure...

I hope this video makes you smile like it did for me.

Good Grief Charlie Brown

It's been a while since I've bitched and complained about my health post-RNY. It's definitely not because I don't have anything to bitch about... in fact I have plenty. But since October 07 there's always something pending.... wedding, baby, summer vacations and this stretches out to my trip to Australia next January. I keep thinking, I'll just get through this next thing, then I deal with this health issue. "Dealing" means I need to find a surgeon that is willing to operate on me, making sure we have the finances to cover us in case it turns into another 11 month recovery and most importantly that I have the emotional wherewithal to handle another 11 month of puking. Right now the answer is no to all of thee above. Plus who really wants to put their family through all of that again...the first time was plenty ugly enough for a lifetime!

I'm ashamed to say that it's been a year plus since I had my blood work done and almost that long since I went to complain once again to my surgeon about the pain when I eat just under my left rib cage, the obnoxious and abnormal amount of gas, the ever present nausea...yes it still happens daily...and the hypoglycemia that I've been final able to control with diet. There's a few other fun things but I won't gross you out.

In self reflection I have to admit that I look pretty damn good right now and with some exercise I will stay that way. Does that make me shallow... willing to put up with a myriad of complications just because I look thin? I think it does...

Weekend travels....

Oscar is Mr. Plan It and I'm more of a Fly-By-The-Seat-of-Your-Pants kinda gal. So when we sat around Thursday night thinking what would be great weekend fun, running off to LA seemed a little to spontaneous to him but his near brush with death is changing his attitude a bit so he gave his stamp of approval on my plans. It was that or the many hours of sitting and watching TV he had originally planned for the weekend just wasn't doing it for him! He is feeling much better...much better but is still a little low on energy so he figured the drive is still sitting but at least he will get to see family and friends.... which is exactly what we did!





It started Friday night with a stop at his best friend Mike's house. I always love stopping to see Mike, Margaret and Julia.... they are just fun people to be around. Margaret is an artist and seeing her stuff in progress is like a sneak preview of a genius at work. This weekend she showed me a huge piece she is doing on peonies. I realized that in 16 years of friendship I had 1 picture of us as a group, so I took a new one....this is the 4 of us at their place in Manhattan beach. I look sleepy in this picture yuck.


Then it was off to Otto's house. We got in late and famished around 10pm, so we hit a 24 hour cafe in Belmont Shores Long Beach... excellent food. Back to Otto's to sleep... I don't like blow up mattresses they are incredibly uncomfortable! We stayed with him both nights and it was great to just relax and visit.




My nephew Robert recently graduated from UCLA... Go Bruins! The big party was Saturday in San Diego... jello shots are a lot of fun.. thank you niece Amanda. Rob has done so well... graduated with a 3.6 GPA, I am so very proud of him. Next stop for him is law school, he will hopefully be coming to visit in July and I'm going to take him to tour McGeorge School of Law. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll choose to go there and be near us for the next 3 years!

After breakfast Sunday morning we made a quick detour to the Orange County swap meet...man I miss shopping there. They have such cool stuff and it's usually so inexpensive. Bargain find was 3 t-shirts for $9. After that we hit the road, it was a peaceful drive but why does the trip home always seem to take so much longer then going there?

Winter 1 month old

I can hardly believe it's been a month since this wonderful little person entered our world. I have been accused many times of being a "baby hog" and it's true... no doubt there. Oscar however is giving me a run for my money when it comes to spending time with her. Because he's home in recovery I find that he visits with her several times a day...yes I'm jealous!

Last night we took a little walk and ended up at the kids front door. She was a bit fussy when we got there and Suz had a fairly righteous headache so we fed her a bottle. She was so awake after that. She is cooing now, making those wistful little noises that babies make. She defiantly knows who we are and will track to our face if she hears the sound of our voices. I can calm her by singing the single verse of a song in Spanish, that I know. It's a family joke now that I sing the same verse over and over...guess I should learn the rest. I'll have to hit up my two Spanish speaking sister in laws for that!

Oscar is good today... Thinking about making an appearance at the office for a few hours. Jonathan is also doing well.....

It's like a miracle.....

Oscar said he feels 110% better since they pulled the drain this morning at 9am. He is completely off the pain medication. Still a bit tired occasionally, takes a few cat naps thorough out the day but is already talking about going to the office for "just a few hours honey"!

Crazy!

The surgery to remove the appendix has not been scheduled but a pre-op appointment is for July 19th. The way it was explained to Oscar is that the appendix after it ruptures, will scar over like any other part of the body, so the urgency to remove it has passed. It will heal and the chances of another infection in the next year are the same as someone who hasn't had a ruptured appendix. So he is seriously considering waiting until after the summer is over.

I guess we will know more after July 19th.

Thanks to everyone for all the prayers, it's a huge comfort. Hopefully my sister in law will be sending pictures from this weekend so I can post to show everyone how much fun we had with his family!

Monday Oscar Update

The weekend started pretty good. Oscar woke up Saturday feeling better, so we went for a drive to see Becca at work, then to the thrift store to buy two x-large shirts, so he can hide his drain a bit better, the fever had broken and he was "comfortable" with the pain meds only 1 tablet every 4 to 5 hours. All his brothers & families joined us for a nice BBQ in the afternoon and then around 3pm a small pain he was having in his right shoulder blade area went from small to major discomfort. We increased the meds again which sent him back into comatose land but the pain got ahead of him and we couldn't get it back in control.

We talked to the doc and the symptoms sounding very much like a pulmonary embolism, we made our way back to UCD ER and spent from 9pm to 3am figuring out that he just over did it, there was referred pain from the drain and he cut back to quickly on the pain meds..... 3 doses of Morphine got everything back on track.

Fathers day was very simple since he slept about 75% of the day. He and I had breakfast in the backyard around 9am and he spent some time with Becca & Joe. Then took a long nap. Around 11am Otto came over and spent a few hours with him both talking and watching him sleep...lol. Winter made an appearance with her parents in the early evening. I had a nice day, took a walk in the afternoon with Otto and Winter, while Oscar napped.

All the rest on yesterday must have been the ticket because he woke up this morning feeling "better". He is cutting down the meds more slowly this time. Hates the dizzy/loopy feeling he gets while taking them but is taking them. I'm at work so hopefully he will be good and rest today. Suz and Winter will be checking in on him at medicine time.... and possibly going for a walk today. You can tell he struggles with the inactivity of being ill.

I finally got a hold of the clinic and he has an appointment to get the drain pulled tomorrow. He is looking forward because he thinks that will really help him feel better.

Hope all the fathers out there had an awesome day!

Friday was a day....

Oscar is doing okay.... he is still feeling a lot of discomfort which I wasn't expecting at this point. There has been a constant low grade fever since he came home, that hasn't subsided even with all the antibiotics he's taking. Also I cut his pain meds from 2 tablets to 1 every four hours. This seems to work better for daytime than at night. he wakes up every morning in pain. So today I gave him 2 tablets in the morning and we'll see if 1 works the rest of the day. I set my alarm at night to take it on time but last night he turned it off and took it 1 hour late, that might be why it's not working as well.

There is still that window of feeling "good" that lasts about two hours and he really wanted to get out of the house yesterday so I found a movie that fit our two hour window and off we went. He did okay for a little while but you could tell by the end of the movie he was uncomfortable again. We took a little drive and picked Becca up from work and he spent several house in the afternoon with his brother Pedro and family.

Dinner last night was great, my friend Lori made us some chicken and salad...thank Lori very yummy! Yajahira, my sister in law also made some black beans that were sooooo good. I ate them last night and this morning will make eggs to go with them. Black beans are a great staple for the frig and in Costa Rica they have them frequently... you can pair them with anything or eat them alone. Excellent for an easy meal, lots of protein.... I can never make them as good as his family does.... I make a mean southern casserole though!

The Hulk in case you are interested was okay. It reminded me of the movie Transformers in that with computer animation is so heavily used the fight scenes turn into this noisy blur of action. I don't really know how to explain it, except that I miss old fashion stuntmen and editing.

The topper for the week is my burb died. Just plain old died when I was driving it to work yesterday. I had it towed to the repair shop and it's the fuel pump that needs to be replaced. I've never heard of such an expensive fuel pump.... $498.00 for the part and $295.00 labor. Obviously Paige will be doing some bargain hunting to get that puppy fixed! Oscar keeps saying "I'll do it myself", as he struggles to stand up straight ....lol Such a sweet man. At 87K miles the car is feeling the miles.....

I was having a bit of a pity party yesterday afternoon over all the stuff that is happening at one time and a good friend reminded me that it's really just life and the Lord is there for us no matter what. I read the story of Job and I have to say that a sick spouse and a broken car really aren't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things....

Oh yes... our friends Jennifer and Donovan were able to make use of the camping spot this weekend! I'm so excited that they are having a family weekend out in nature.

Camping Anyone?

We reserved a premium campsite this weekend for two nights, starting today. Anyone interested in using it? We have paid $53 of the $80 charge and it's non-refundable. So someone might as well use this, since we are home bound for this weekend!

It's a tent site at Lake Point Campground, very close to Lake Berryessa. It the premium site in the campground. There's a river about 20 steps from our site, there canoes and paddle boat to rent very close by. So if you are one of those people/families that can do things on a moments notice then I say go for it!

This was supposed to be our "practice" camping trip for the longer trip we are taking in July. It's been at least 6 years since we went unless you count a very disastrous overnight we did at Folsom lake, when we rented a trailer and there was no electricity and the temp was 100+ at 11pm.... that was definitely not fun.

Call me if you want to use it so i can email or fax you the recipt and directions to the place. It took us about 45 minutes to drive out there from our place.

He's Home...

I picked him up at noon but only because he threatened to walk home if I didn't get there soon! Excited to get home I guess...

We picked up prescriptions... like 7 of them, got to the house and all he wanted was his pain meds, a shower and to see Winter...in that order. Well he got 2 out of 3 because Winter is visiting with her grandma from Michigan today. But the kids promised to bring her by soon.

He is still having a bit more nausea then he would like and definitely hits the 4 hour window on the pain meds right on the dot. Seems to be in a really good mood and moving well when the pain meds are on board but you can tell he's hurting about 3 1/2 hours after he takes them. So he's still the same at yesterday but at least its at home where he is comfortable.

Tomorrow his brother Pedro is coming over to "hang out" with him while I'm at work...this means hours and hours of uninterrupted talk of land surveying. Oscar will be like a kid in a candy store. Today Jenn from church brought us some very nice dinner, it smells wicked good in the oven.... can't wait to taste it! What a life saver it is to have dinner ready after the long week we've had. I'm so looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and so it Oscar.

UPDATE ON JONATHAN

Well much like his father.... once they got in his mouth there was to much infection to do the extractions. he didn't get into the gory details but they cut away some infected gum and drained some places and are plugging him full of antibiotics for a week. Apparently there's serious risk of blood stream contamination....or something.

Does this not sound like a bad daytime drama series...what are the chances?...

For those of you wondering about our friends the Himmels.... Drew is still in the hospital. Mom and Dad are tired and stressed as one would expect after 20 days in the hospital with a 4 year old. Please continue to pray for this family.....

Prayers for Jonathan

Our son Jonathan, the one in the navy stationed in Hawaii right now, just called to say that he has a huge infection in his jaw due to his wisdom teeth and will be having them pulled in the next 45 minutes.... Please pray that all goes smoothly.

It appears the theme for the Jarquin family this week is "infection"!

He also said that while it hurts and he's nervous to have it done, he gets a week off to recuperate on the beach! Maybe I should ship his dad over there so they can get better under the sun together!

Thursday Morning update

This might be the big day.....

Oscar was feeling much better last night. He was out of bed for a few hours in a chair, took bunches of laps around the floor and got to take a shower! That was the highlight of his day for sure.

This morning the Foley comes out, the IV's have been disconnected and he is on oral everything. So the goal he needs to make is going pee on his own and they will spring him.

Unfortunately it's not over yet. The doctors say that he will need oral antibiotics for two weeks and then another CAT scan to make sure the inflammation and infection are gone. Then they will schedule him for the appendectomy, which means another 2 day hospital stay and another round of IV Antibiotics and drug coma for about a week.... that's the part he hates but at least we get to pick the timing this time around!

We have several mini-vacations planned for the summer, camping with the Ewers Family, my uncles 95th Birthday weekend in Reno, Family in town for 4th of July and finally a big BBQ at the end of July for family and friends.

I want to say thank you to everyone that has called, written emails checking on us, visited Oscar in the hospital, made us meals...yes the hospital food is terrible.... and prayed everyday! As usual, our family has been incredible support through all of this... Oscar is obviously well loved!

I'll post tonight once we settle in.

Wednesday morning Update

Sorry I didn't check in last night, it got late and I was feeling very tired. He fell asleep early so I tucked him in, straightened his room a bit and went home around 9pm to unwind.

Yesterday morning the doc wanted to put in a Foley catheter and he just wasn't convinced that he needed one. So he fought the good fight but eventually lost around 2pm yesterday. They figured out that the infection had "frozen" the bladder and he just wasn't moving enough urine. He was a fairly unhappy camper when I arrived after work around 4pm. He is having fevers on and off still and the IV antibiotics are up and running. The drain is doing it's job and the output is small, they said this is a good sign. They did take down his IV in between doses, which is great because he has a little more freedom to walk around. He is off the CPA and Dilauted and they have him on oral meds now. He started eating yesterday and is glad although he is not very hungry because all the antibiotics they pump into him. Even with all the pain meds he seems to be having trouble sleeping so they gave him something for that last night as well.

Becca took the morning shift with him, he really enjoys when she reads to him so they did that for a while and then took a few laps around floor. He tires easy right now and gets nauseous a lot so it was back to bed after that. She is willing to make the trek for lattes several times a day.... she definitely become his main supplier! Kevin stopped by for a visit as well and Oscar enjoyed that.

Last night there was a little party in his room, the van Riessens stopped by, Jennifer and Kaya, Joe & Becca, Kirk and of course Justin Suz and Winter.... fortunately the guy in the next bed is taking some really good drugs and slept through most of our rabble rousing....

He seems to have a few good hours right after taking the pain meds but overall is still very uncomfortable and grouchy... poor guy. He has his computer and is able to play his favorite video games..... something to do with subs and blowing things up... must be a "guy" thing. He hates the hospital food, admittedly it's not very good but if he asks you to bring him a burger .... just say no! Trying to keep him on healthy proteins and veggies....

During rounds this morning (Wednesday), the doc said that if he continues to improve he can go home tomorrow afternoon. They are leaving in the Foley for now and will evaluate it again tonight. They didn't really say what has to be happening for it to be removed. He will continue to receive IV antibiotics until he leaves and oral meds for pain and sleep.

I think that's everything.....

Tuesday morning

He has a fever, it's been about 101 to 102 most of the night. They added another antibiotic and we'll just have to wait and see how it goes. He is up and walking which is excellent! They are supppose to let him start having full liquids this morning and if he tolerates it well food by dinner time.

I did get 3 hours of sleep last night so that part is good. Must go to the office right now but the kids will be hanging out with him for the better part of the day. A few friends will be with him this afternoon.

Everyone have an excellent day!

Pictures from the hospital today

The newest in drug control.... Winter keeping grandpa's PCA working effeciently...

The comatose couple... oscar wanted to hold her while he was in the recovery room but they both kept falling asleep.... Suz and Amy stood close by so no one got hurt.

This is oscar right after the pain meds kick in... he thinks it's all good for a few mintues before he falls asleep.

This is the best in pain management ...baby therapy! Winter visiting her grandpa and giving him some love.

Oscar update for Monday night

The drain procedure went really well! They took a long time and ran late of course but the drain was very successfully place and they were able to draw out an initial 50cc of "stuff" and the drain is still doing its job. He says the pressure pain has decreased a lot and now it's mostly residual pain from the drain being placed. He still has his PCA with dilauted running but needs it less as the night goes on.

I definitely had to work this week so it has so nice that Becca was here early this morning and read to her dad between his drug induced cat naps....lol Doug came by around 10:30 and stayed with oscar all the way through pre-op, hitting his PCA every 20 minutes if Oscar slept through it. Suzanne and Winter came around noon and stayed until 7:30 with me. Oscar was very happy to see Winter...baby therapy is an awesome thing! Suz took the camera home to upload some of the pics she took today, I post those later.

he had a few visitors today, Our friends Amy and Molly came by and brought some fun stuff for Oscar to read, a game puzzle book and Chocolate... everyone feels better after chocolate! We ended up spending some time over dinner in the cafeteria together... Molly and I painted with condiments... Then Rick and Carmen, my brother in law and his wife, stopped by for a few minutes to see him.....overall it has been a very good day!

Next step is to get Oscar drinking and eating... that starts in the morning. The doc was noncommittal as to when he could go home but said Wednesday or Thursday seemed possible. A lot depends on how he does over the next 24 hours.... Fever should be going away, the pain should very steadily and rapidly decrease. Add in a few meals and he's homeward bound.

I'm sitting here watching him sleep peacefully for the first time in many days and feeling very blessed by all of this. God has certainly been gracious to the Jarquin Family these past couple of days! Thanks for all the prayers, they are working!

Yay... finally a plan...

They are giving him contrast to drink right now and plan the procedure for 1pm today. He has to drink this wonderfully thick and tastes a lot like chalk, liquid so they can make sure they do not hit any of his bowel or stomach when doing the procdure. It will take about an hour for the procedure so I'll let you know later this afternoon how he's doing. They will be giving him some stuff to knock him out completely.

pray for great results and steady hands of the surgeon!

Monday Morning Update

Not much new to report. He is still in considerable pain but the medication is helping a lot. Makes him very sleepy. They still haven't put in the drain...not sure what is taking so long but if they haven't done it by 10am, I'm going to start putting some pressure on the staff to make it happen. It seems so silly when the doc said he would get almost immediate relief from the drainage to make him wait almost 24 hours before doing it. Becca is there with him now, reading and keeping him company.

When awake he is asking when Winter will come for a visit...seems to care more that he hasn't seen his granddaughter for 24 hours than he does about the drain placement... the man is smitten!

I did find out that he will have Internet access once he's awake enough to use it so that will be nice. Something to kill the boredom of days of IV Antibiotics he has in store for himself.

end of day update....

They moved him to a very nice room in the Davis Tower. The nurse on duty when he got there was only okay.... not even okay really as it took her forever to even get him a pillow, let's not even talk about how long it took to get actual Morphine! Finally after 2 hours I reminded her that the surgeons had said he could switch to Dilauded...stronger with a longer life than Morphine... and she called to verify. Still took another hour because she put it off on the night shift. Can we say Lazy? The night nurse is the exact opposite and has been very helpful. Got the new meds right away and Oscar was finally pain free for the first time in 3 days!

The drain has not been put in, they think early tomorrow morning at the latest. To be honest I'm not sure what the delay is, I assumed from what the surgeon told us at like 1pm today it would happen soon... much sooner than the next day anyway. Oscar is hungry, he hasn't eaten since around 7pm on Saturday. Once the drain has been put in he will be able to have food so that will be nice.

Thank you to all our friends and family that have been calling, emailing and visiting, your prayers are a huge comfort. 3:30am to 11pm makes for a long day and I'm ready for bed..... I'll keep this blog updated with how he is doing.

Hugs....

Oscar has an appedicitis

On Friday Oscar called from the train to say he was in a lot of pain, thought he had gas really bad. Just last month he had a problem just like this and it went away in a couple of days. Most of Saturday he just sat around the house, taking some vicodin he had on hand.... just positive this was like last time and would go away soon. Fast forward to Sunday morning, i left early because it was our week to tow the church box and my last week of working for Liz and I needed gas desperately and the power point hadn't been done.... My point is he got much worse.... bad enough to have Becca drive him to the hospital while i was out. I got a text from him that said he was at UC Davis ER. I told Kevin our pastor that I needed to leave and he took care of everything.

Well instead of gas, its an appendicitis that ruptured sometime on Friday they think. Either way it now has a huge "pus pocket", the doc started out calling it an "encapsulated something or other" but finally switched to pus pocket in every sentence. They can not operate and remove the appendix right now because there is so much pus, it just to dangerous. So they will surgically insert a drain into this pus pocket and give him copious amounts of IV antibiotics over the next 3 days. He will get to come home at that point still with his drain for a week. Then it's a wait and see game for the next several weeks for the area to calm down and all the infections to go away. then they will schedule a surgery to remove it.

He is in the Davis Tower Level 14 Room 14743 bed 2....

I'll keep you updated....

Fathers Day Brunch

Some friends asked for a recommendation for a good place to have Fathers Day brunch and I couldn't think of any. I find this kind of strange given that I love to eat out. Maybe we will try one of the suggestions ourselves since we will be just returning from camping that day and I will definately not feel like cooking!

So all you long time Sacramentans... any great suggestions?

A thinker already...

Winter is busy thinking serious thoughts on her car ride to visit daddy at work for lunch!

The chubby cheeks are back, at her 2 week checkup she was back to her original birth weight. She lost a pound trying to figure out the breast feeding thing! She came to visit Grandpa and YiaYia today for an hour.... She can seriously slug back a 3 ounce bottle when she is hungry. I've noticed that whenever she eats she curls her right fist up against her face... it's so cute.

I love Fridays....

because it means the weekend is at hand!

I've got many plans and yet not really. Everything is up in the air but I know I need to finish a few of these chores...

Tie up the tomatoes, prep and paint the front porch, there's a majito party Satruday night and clean out one closet. We have so many that I need to make a list and get to one a week.

maybe another BBQ on Sunday, board games and music... hummm who's up for it?

A fun casual Sunday

I took a spiritual gifts test a couple of months ago and ranked very high in the "hospitality" and I really love hosting get togethers. So when Pedro, Yajahira, Esteban and Alejandro called to say they were stopping by and friends Steve, Amy and Molly weren't busy, the party was on!
Becca and Joe helped me set up, the backyard is already looking great from several weekends of yard work and primping by joe and myself, all we needed was to set up a few tables, turn on the music and throw something on the grill.

Grilled chicken breast sandwhiches with gauc, red onion and cheddar cheese, macoroni salad, BBQ corn and fresh fruit. Steve van Reissen makes a mean grilled chicken breast, he's invited to all our get togethers from now on.

We had 4 kids running around, well Winter doesn't run yet, she just looks pretty when she sleeps and it was really nice to spend the afternoon with everyone. There were a few games of Yatzee and the kids and I checked out the garden. Jack the dog was sick of little kids before they even got here but was a good sport while Molly and Alejandro gave him tons of hugs.

Justin and Suzanne came by and boy do they have the "new parents lack of sleep" look on their faces! Oscar the good compassionate dad that he is, spent a few hours before everyone got here to finish a fence project at their house. Justin was working all day and still needed to finish the fence, on several days of only 2 or 3 hours of sleep.

Family, friends and a nice spring afternoon BBQ.... is there a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

Baby Sitting is fun....

It's hard to believe that Winter is already 16 days old and yesterday we got to babysit her for 3 WHOLE HOURS at our house! Justin had work and Suz needed a good nap since Winter is still not sleeping much at night. Of course we were more than happy to help out.....

She is really a good baby, still very much in the sleep and eat part of life. But for a little while each day she sits and stares at us with wide-eye wonder. I even heard a bit of a coo out of her... well at least I think I did. The full cap of black hair at birth has slowly lightened and now you see shades of brown. Her eyes seemed to have settled for now at green/blue.... there is definately a baby hog living in our home and it's not me surprisingly! oscar scoops up this little girl the moment she enters the room and spends tons of time smooching on her.

My big find for this week was a brand new swing at the bargain price of $10. Such a steal! Watching me put it together was very much like watching a monkey do a math puzzle. After Justin and Oscar had a bit of a laugh, they stepped in and finished the job. She loves it! Suz said she stopped crying and sat for an hour when they put her in it that night.