Archive - October, 2008

Countdown to Dave’s Birthday!

October 8, 2008 in Lana's Journal with 2 Comments

Carmen update: Carmen continues to do well. We are starting another 2 weeks of Flagyl to try to get rid of the C-diff. Besides the diarrhea, she seems stable and comfortable.

Dave asked that I apologize for his lack of posting. He has been super busy and we have barely seen him. We are working on our first answer to the “You ask, we answer” series but life seems to be in fast-forward lately!

Dave’s birthday is one week from today. The joke in our house is that we should get special treatment not only on our birthday but for our whole birthday week! So, for the next week, I’ll tell you some fun facts about Dave and post a picture each day of Dave. Stay tuned because some of the pictures might be rather interesting…..(And for the record, Dave is not one to ever talk about himself and he would NEVER post about himself so I get to!)

Fun fact about Dave #1:

Dave LOVES sports. He likes teams from all over the place- Washington Redskins, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Knicks, Miami Hurricanes, North Carolina Tarheels, etc. I like sports but I don’t yell at the TV quite like Dave does! And, Dave is not a fair weather fan. He is very loyal to his teams, good years and bad!

I’ll start with a sweet picture of Dave and Carmen. I took this picture in March 2007 and Rashmi, www.rashmipappu.com, photoshopped it for me! I gave it to Dave as a Father’s Day present last year. We did not know that Carmen had Tay Sachs at the time of this picture. She really is a star, set apart from the start of the world.

Christmas in October

October 5, 2008 in Everyday Family, Lana's Journal with 11 Comments

Carmen update: Carmen seems to be doing fairly well. She continues to have daily diarrhea but not quite as much as before. Her breathing sounds good and the big seizures are under control. Overall, we are hopeful that she has many more months with us.

Dave was in Los Angeles for work all last week. Lauren asked if we could surprise daddy and decorate for Christmas! My first reaction was no, it is only the beginning of October. But, really, there are no “rules” on when Christmas trees get put up. And Target seems to think now is a good time to buy Christmas decorations! So, Lauren and I spent almost a full day putting up the tree and decorating. I had NO IDEA how much work is involved in putting up a tree! I bet Dave is super happy that he doesn’t have that job this year! And yes, he was quite surprised!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas in October:

1. Lauren hanging ornaments.

2. Lauren setting up the wooden nativity we bought in Guatemala.

3. The morning Dave got home: Dave and Lauren putting the angel on the top. We had to wait until Dave got home to put the angel on! I didn’t want to risk a trip to the emergency room!

4. The leaning angel.

5. Dave and his girls in front of the tree.

Santa Came Early This Year!

October 3, 2008 in Lana's Journal with 4 Comments

Carmen update: Carmen seems to be doing a tiny bit better. She is down to 2-3 bouts of diarrhea per day instead of 5-6!  (Funny how that is really exciting!) She has one more week of Flagyl and then if she needs more, her doctor will prescribe another round. So far, no one else in the house has come down with C-diff.

A wonderful lady named Dee sent a package of all kinds of fun stuff for Carmen and Lauren! Dee has 4 children, including a beautiful little girl from Guatemala. Dee and her family have sent wonderful gifts before and Lauren thinks they are Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, all in one! In fact, Lauren was looking at a friend’s birthday pictures yesterday and commented that the friend must know Dee since she had gotten so many fun presents! Lauren spent all day yesterday working on crafts and did not ask to watch TV or play a computer game once!

Here are a few pictures after we opened the package from Dee- Carmen resting on her red lion blanket, a super excited Lauren with all of her fun stuff (crafts, princess stuff, jewelry, a doll, books, a kit to color a plate, etc.) and everything set up for a picture by Lauren. Thank you so very much Dee and family!

C-Diff, UGH!!!!

October 1, 2008 in Lana's Journal, Tay Sachs with 13 Comments

As if Carmen isn’t going through enough, she continues to battle C-diff (Clostridium difficile). I wasn’t familiar with this lovely condition so I will give you a brief description, in case you are ever unfortunate enough to have it! Thank you to my sister-in-law for giving me a first-hand experience account! If you don’t wish to read this, then skip down below!

C. difficile bacteria are everywhere — in soil, air, water, human and animal feces, and on most surfaces. The bacteria don’t create problems until they grow in abnormally large numbers in the intestinal tract of people taking antibiotics. Then, C. difficile can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammations of the colon.

Signs and symptoms of this potentially life-threatening illness include: profuse and watery diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, blood or pus in the stool, nausea, and dehydration. In severe cases (which we pray Carmen does not develop), C-diff can cause kidney failure, a hole in the bowel, a ruptured colon and death.

There are three treatment options: antibiotics- metronidazole (Flagyl) or vancomycin, probiotics and in severe cases surgery to remove the diseased portion of the bowel. Often, several months of treatment are required.

So, how do you avoid this vile disease? Avoid antibiotics unless you have to have them. Take probiotics. Wash, wash, wash, wash, wash your hands! If you are in the hospital, be a pain and make sure the staff is practicing excellent hygiene too! But, sometimes this condition is inevitable.

I’ve been cleaning everything in our house the best I can and we are on triple-hand-washing duty! Bleach is supposed to be good at killing C-diff spores but anti-bacterial cleaners supposedly do nothing. PLEASE pray that Carmen gets over this ASAP. PLEASE pray that Dave, Lauren and I and Carmen’s night nurses do not get C-diff.

Oh, and Carmen now has thrush and a diaper area yeast infection. I think I am going to go insane! I have been giving Carmen a super strong probiotic recommended for chemotherapy patients and I think I am going to add Saccharomyces boulardii probioic. I read that S. boulardii is specifically recommended for C-diff. Hopefully this probiotic combined with Flagyl will knock this stuff out.

Happy Birthday to sweet Amelia! Amelia turned 2 on Monday and has Tay Sachs. Her mom, Sarah, often leaves messages on our site. You can read more about this beautiful little girl here, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ameliaalford.

Big thanks to Tatiana for picking up Carmen’s prescription on Monday and Karen for dinner! Thank you Karen for taking Lauren to school this week and for all of you who so kindly bring Lauren home. And thanks to the lawn mower/weeding fairy! We will have to take a look at our security cameras so we can see what all you do out there! Ha!

Since I am a total nerd, here are a couple of pictures of C-diff.

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