As most of you already know...my mom's surgery today was not a success. =( Once they did the angiogram they learned the aneurysm was branching out into other arteries...and they can't coil that type of aneurysm. She will have to now have invasive surgery to correct the aneurysm. We are hoping to have this done in Houston. Please continue to pray for my mom, shes tired...and stressed, worried, scared...you name it...she's feeling it...as is her family. But on the bright side...the angigram saw from her stomach to her brain and she has no other aneurysms...and that's great news!!
It was weird this morning...I got into my car to head to school and popped in my MercyMe C.D. and just randomly picked a song off of it...and this is the first song I picked........
Alright
If you had a dime for every time it rained
On this parade you’re marching in called life
You’d start to wonder if someone out there’s got your number
Well, hold your head up, breathe in deep, remember
Ooh ooh you know it’s gonna be alright
Ooh ooh you know it’s gonna be alright
We’re gonna have those days when it all comes crashing in
Wondering if the sun will ever shine
Before you go and convince yourself you cannot make it
Hold your head up, breathe in deep, remember
Ooh ooh you know it’s gonna be alright
Ooh ooh you know it’s gonna be alright
There’s a love much stronger
Than everything that holds you down right now
Sayin’ ooh ooh you know it’s gonna be alright
So next time when you tell yourself this isn’t worth it
Hold your head up, breathe in deep, remember
Chorus
Count it pure joy when the world comes crashin’
Hold your head up and keep on dancin’ (repeat)
Written by MercyMe
© 2007 Simpleville Music / Wet As A Fish Music / ASCAP
Administered by Simpleville Music, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Now, tell me God doesn't speak to us...........
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Contagious Joy
With all of the recent events in my life...I needed something to "lift" me up! So after a quick little search on Amazon.com I found this book, Contagious Joy: Joyful Devotions to Lift Your Spirits (Women of Faith)! I got it in the mail last week and didn't find the time to actually start reading it until last night...and it's wonderful. I couldn't put it down. It's just these women telling different stories about things that bring them joy...so if you need a dose of joy I suggest this book to you!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
What I've Learned...
This is an article Dr. Michael DeBakey wrote...I know most people have NO clue who he is...but I assure you, he's probably saved one of your loved ones with his inventions....He's 99 years old!
DeBakey pioneered numerous cardiovascular procedures, including the coronary bypass and the artificial-heart transplant. In 1954, he devised a technique to repair arteries using a Dacron tube he made on his wife's sewing machine. In 2006, he became the oldest survivor of the procedure he invented.
One of the rarest things that we do is think. I don't know why people don't do it more often. It doesn't cost anything. Think about that.
There are questions that I'd like answered. But there aren't any answers to those questions.
If world leaders were doctors, I think they would be more concerned with the welfare of people. There would be less poverty. There would be medical care for everybody, no matter whether people paid for it or not.
In any good society, every member should be interested in the health of every other member. Because if any member is unhealthy, it's a burden on the society.
What advice would I give a doctor preparing for surgery? First and foremost, walk into the right operating room. After you've got the right room, make sure you've got the right patient.
I've done more than sixty thousand heart operations. I used to start operating at six in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't finish until ten or eleven at night. I've been fortunate in that I need very little sleep. I can get along well on four or five hours.
Okra is the key to good gumbo.
I'm not sure I can answer that question specifically. But the operation I did in '53 for aneurysm of the thoracic aorta gave me great satisfaction. It had never been done successfully before, and lots of doctors took the position that you shouldn't try it. You've got to push ahead in spite of them. I learned that lesson early.
I don't think the difference between ninety-nine and a hundred is important.
I scheduled my last operation when I was ninety. I just felt that I'd done enough and should turn it over to my colleagues.
If you had a heart problem right now and needed an operation and I was the only doctor around, sure, I'd do it.
The best lesson my mother taught me involves an orphanage we had in town. Every Sunday after church we would get in the car and drive to the orphanage. Mother would bake bread and cookies, and she would go through our clothes and give the items we'd outgrown to the children at this orphanage. One Sunday, she was putting clothes in the basket and I noticed she had put one of my favorite caps inside. I immediately protested, but she reminded me that I had a new cap. "The child that's going to get this cap doesn't have a parent to give him a new cap," she said, "and you do." She told me I ought to be glad that I could give up the cap. I never forgot that.
Being compassionate, being concerned for your fellow man, doing everything you can to help people—that's the kind of religion I have, and it's a comforting religion. I don't get involved in discussions of intelligent design. You can't answer those questions, so why fool with them?
You can never learn enough.
It's important for a patient to go into an operation with confidence. The functions of the heart will be abnormal if they go in scared to death.
The worst thing, of course—and you're never quite prepared for it—is when the patient dies during the operation. You die a little every time that happens.
There was a historian in the fourteenth century who wrote a book about what he knew of the world, and for that time it was pretty good. One of the interesting observations he made is that all the tribes that have difficulty feeding themselves are lean and healthy, and those that have plenty of food are fat, lazy, and unhealthy.
People often use words in a loose way that covers over what they're talking about. I like to choose words that get to the basics.
The doctor who operated on me only a few years ago was one that I trained. I was lucky to have somebody like that.
Never had a symptom. The pain came like a bullet out of the blue. I was alone when it started. My wife and my daughter had gone out. The pain is often described as the worst pain you can have. The pain was so severe that I would have welcomed anything to relieve it—including death. I wasn't going to fight it. I look upon death as a part of living, just as some trees lose all their leaves in the winter and have them replaced in the spring. But at the same time, part of me was thinking, What caused this pain? Part of me was doing a diagnosis on myself—which, as it turned out, was correct. Aortic dissection. I'd written more articles about the condition than anybody in the world, and I resigned myself to having a heart stoppage. The pain didn't teach me anything about the heart. It simply emphasized what I had already learned.
I was a little surprised to find myself recovering after the surgery. Then gratified to have been given a second life.
During my recovery, I played possum. I pretended to be sleeping and listened to what the doctors standing over my bed were saying about my condition. Then I'd argue with them about the therapy. I'd make them prove that I needed it.
I guess it's hard to be my doctor.
So with this being posted....tell me something you've learned from life...
DeBakey pioneered numerous cardiovascular procedures, including the coronary bypass and the artificial-heart transplant. In 1954, he devised a technique to repair arteries using a Dacron tube he made on his wife's sewing machine. In 2006, he became the oldest survivor of the procedure he invented.
One of the rarest things that we do is think. I don't know why people don't do it more often. It doesn't cost anything. Think about that.
There are questions that I'd like answered. But there aren't any answers to those questions.
If world leaders were doctors, I think they would be more concerned with the welfare of people. There would be less poverty. There would be medical care for everybody, no matter whether people paid for it or not.
In any good society, every member should be interested in the health of every other member. Because if any member is unhealthy, it's a burden on the society.
What advice would I give a doctor preparing for surgery? First and foremost, walk into the right operating room. After you've got the right room, make sure you've got the right patient.
I've done more than sixty thousand heart operations. I used to start operating at six in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't finish until ten or eleven at night. I've been fortunate in that I need very little sleep. I can get along well on four or five hours.
Okra is the key to good gumbo.
I'm not sure I can answer that question specifically. But the operation I did in '53 for aneurysm of the thoracic aorta gave me great satisfaction. It had never been done successfully before, and lots of doctors took the position that you shouldn't try it. You've got to push ahead in spite of them. I learned that lesson early.
I don't think the difference between ninety-nine and a hundred is important.
I scheduled my last operation when I was ninety. I just felt that I'd done enough and should turn it over to my colleagues.
If you had a heart problem right now and needed an operation and I was the only doctor around, sure, I'd do it.
The best lesson my mother taught me involves an orphanage we had in town. Every Sunday after church we would get in the car and drive to the orphanage. Mother would bake bread and cookies, and she would go through our clothes and give the items we'd outgrown to the children at this orphanage. One Sunday, she was putting clothes in the basket and I noticed she had put one of my favorite caps inside. I immediately protested, but she reminded me that I had a new cap. "The child that's going to get this cap doesn't have a parent to give him a new cap," she said, "and you do." She told me I ought to be glad that I could give up the cap. I never forgot that.
Being compassionate, being concerned for your fellow man, doing everything you can to help people—that's the kind of religion I have, and it's a comforting religion. I don't get involved in discussions of intelligent design. You can't answer those questions, so why fool with them?
You can never learn enough.
It's important for a patient to go into an operation with confidence. The functions of the heart will be abnormal if they go in scared to death.
The worst thing, of course—and you're never quite prepared for it—is when the patient dies during the operation. You die a little every time that happens.
There was a historian in the fourteenth century who wrote a book about what he knew of the world, and for that time it was pretty good. One of the interesting observations he made is that all the tribes that have difficulty feeding themselves are lean and healthy, and those that have plenty of food are fat, lazy, and unhealthy.
People often use words in a loose way that covers over what they're talking about. I like to choose words that get to the basics.
The doctor who operated on me only a few years ago was one that I trained. I was lucky to have somebody like that.
Never had a symptom. The pain came like a bullet out of the blue. I was alone when it started. My wife and my daughter had gone out. The pain is often described as the worst pain you can have. The pain was so severe that I would have welcomed anything to relieve it—including death. I wasn't going to fight it. I look upon death as a part of living, just as some trees lose all their leaves in the winter and have them replaced in the spring. But at the same time, part of me was thinking, What caused this pain? Part of me was doing a diagnosis on myself—which, as it turned out, was correct. Aortic dissection. I'd written more articles about the condition than anybody in the world, and I resigned myself to having a heart stoppage. The pain didn't teach me anything about the heart. It simply emphasized what I had already learned.
I was a little surprised to find myself recovering after the surgery. Then gratified to have been given a second life.
During my recovery, I played possum. I pretended to be sleeping and listened to what the doctors standing over my bed were saying about my condition. Then I'd argue with them about the therapy. I'd make them prove that I needed it.
I guess it's hard to be my doctor.
So with this being posted....tell me something you've learned from life...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
I got tagged!
Ok well Marissa tagged me, so I guess this is a must do now! =)
Here are the rules: Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
So on to my 7 things...
1. I CANNOT brush my teeth if my hands are wet...Even if I wash my hands right before I brush my teeth, I have to dry them first.
2. I don't like "wild hangers" in the closet...all the empty ones must be grouped together.
3. I prefer Dr.Pepper hot.
4. I cannot STAND the smell of ketchup!! It seriously makes my stomach turn.
5. I have hives every single day of my life!! If I don't take my Zyrtec I'm in some serious trouble.
6. Leftovers will never be consumed by me! The thought of them makes me gag.
7. If I don't have my contacts in...I cannot see ANYTHING...and I'm so serious.
I know I'm supposed to tag my blog friends...but seeing as one of them tagged me...and the other two were tagged by her...I won't be "tagging" anyone...just something for you to read and say "she's so weird!" =)
Here are the rules: Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
So on to my 7 things...
1. I CANNOT brush my teeth if my hands are wet...Even if I wash my hands right before I brush my teeth, I have to dry them first.
2. I don't like "wild hangers" in the closet...all the empty ones must be grouped together.
3. I prefer Dr.Pepper hot.
4. I cannot STAND the smell of ketchup!! It seriously makes my stomach turn.
5. I have hives every single day of my life!! If I don't take my Zyrtec I'm in some serious trouble.
6. Leftovers will never be consumed by me! The thought of them makes me gag.
7. If I don't have my contacts in...I cannot see ANYTHING...and I'm so serious.
I know I'm supposed to tag my blog friends...but seeing as one of them tagged me...and the other two were tagged by her...I won't be "tagging" anyone...just something for you to read and say "she's so weird!" =)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Surgeries...Birthdays...and More...
First off, Happy 25th Birthday to my Bestest Marissa!! I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope you enjoy that new Wii! ;)
I know I've been slacking on the updates with my mom but I've just been so darn busy...but her angiogram w/possible coiling of the aneurysm is on April 15 at 830am at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Joan Wojak will do an angiogram first to make sure she can actually do the coiling...and if she can she will procede...if she can't she will stop and my mom will have to consider invasive surgery. Let's pray the coiling will be a success! Also, about 2 weeks ago my mom fell and broke her wrist...so she is dealing with that now!! Pray for a speedy recovery on the broken wrist and pray no surgery will be needed on that! Other than that...my mom is making an awesome recovery. We spent Easter weekend at her house and she is getting around very well! That in itself helps me believe the coiling will work and she will be well on her way to recovery.
My dad will be having his scope surgery soon to make sure all the tumors in his bladder are gone and that he responded to the bio therapy. Thank you for all the support and prayers!! It really helped us to get through his treatment.
We had a beautiful Easter weekend filled with beautiful family, tons of boiled crawfish, and beautiful weather. The girls and Nate had a great visit from the Easter bunny....he brought them lots of stuff. I'll post pics soon. I hope everyone is doing well!!
I know I've been slacking on the updates with my mom but I've just been so darn busy...but her angiogram w/possible coiling of the aneurysm is on April 15 at 830am at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Joan Wojak will do an angiogram first to make sure she can actually do the coiling...and if she can she will procede...if she can't she will stop and my mom will have to consider invasive surgery. Let's pray the coiling will be a success! Also, about 2 weeks ago my mom fell and broke her wrist...so she is dealing with that now!! Pray for a speedy recovery on the broken wrist and pray no surgery will be needed on that! Other than that...my mom is making an awesome recovery. We spent Easter weekend at her house and she is getting around very well! That in itself helps me believe the coiling will work and she will be well on her way to recovery.
My dad will be having his scope surgery soon to make sure all the tumors in his bladder are gone and that he responded to the bio therapy. Thank you for all the support and prayers!! It really helped us to get through his treatment.
We had a beautiful Easter weekend filled with beautiful family, tons of boiled crawfish, and beautiful weather. The girls and Nate had a great visit from the Easter bunny....he brought them lots of stuff. I'll post pics soon. I hope everyone is doing well!!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Randomness
This post isn't dedicated to one certain thing...just random updates...so here goes...
First of all, Happy 25th Birthday Jamie!! We're half way to 50 dude, hang in there! =)
Secondly, yesterday was my dad's last treatment! Yay dad!! He finished it like champ! He goes back in one month for a follow up appt and in 6 weeks he'll have the scope surgery done and make sure all the cancer is gone. I KNOW it'll be gone...I have faith!
Today my mom goes to the neurosurgeon to discuss surgery or maybe even no surgery at all...they will discuss all the options today. I will keep everyone posted after she has her appt today.
Not much else is going on...the Stride4Stroke 5K went great Saturday! We all completed even...even my baby girls finished with no complaining! I'll post some pics later.
Hope everyone is doing well!
First of all, Happy 25th Birthday Jamie!! We're half way to 50 dude, hang in there! =)
Secondly, yesterday was my dad's last treatment! Yay dad!! He finished it like champ! He goes back in one month for a follow up appt and in 6 weeks he'll have the scope surgery done and make sure all the cancer is gone. I KNOW it'll be gone...I have faith!
Today my mom goes to the neurosurgeon to discuss surgery or maybe even no surgery at all...they will discuss all the options today. I will keep everyone posted after she has her appt today.
Not much else is going on...the Stride4Stroke 5K went great Saturday! We all completed even...even my baby girls finished with no complaining! I'll post some pics later.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Friday, March 7, 2008
"Where's my stapler?"
WOW! Happy Birthday to me!! I'm already 25!! That's HALFWAY to 50!! I can't believe it really...I woke up this morning feeling every bit of 25. I feel old! But oh well...I got to work and my boss Jamie brought me a present and I just had to share a pic of it! hahaha It's great...the story behind it is...I HATE my old stapler...I bang it on my desk daily...cuss at it...and then promptly hand it to Jamie to fix! It's a big POS...so Jamie fixed that for me...and bought me an awesome new PINK stapler...Thanks James!!
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