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| Souix City to buy Cow!! |
| 03.19.04 (9:32 am) [edit] |
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Yes last night i went to spencer gifts and bought the funniest thing ever. Its like a rubber chicken only its a COW!! Now we went thru a drive thru and made the cow order but the lady said she didn't speak animal. HAHA wow!!! haha. Then I was looking at a babys first years album and it made me cry. Then i called Jenny her brothers name Jeff. Andres kept trying to kill Jenny. Then he was all look Cheryl you can put your name and my name in the baby book. I was like what happend to jeff hahahahaha. Wow he got confused. It was like the funniest night ever in nebraska anyways. Remember the time you flashed the pizza guy EMU! That was excitement!!!!!!!!!
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| Karaoke yay!!! |
| 03.16.04 (9:35 pm) [edit] |
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I think the Karaoke dry bar is the greatest thing SAB does!!! HONESTLY!!!! I mean where else can pregnant girl go to sing and drink a nonalcoholic strawberry daquari without someone smokeing. I was so excited when my friends came and told me there was another one!! Its one of the only times i can get together with my friends anymore and have fun. They all go to rileys and other places without me to drink but since they love me they went to the karaoke night and got some drinks too YAY!!!!Keep in mind DRY bar ppl not from wayne hahaha.
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| SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!! |
| 03.05.04 (10:09 am) [edit] |
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Thank God for spring break. Hopefully I can catch up in all my classes!!! It has been a rough 3 weeks. I just wish I didn't have to work during my break :(
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| true way more than 500 word story good luck! |
| 03.03.04 (3:23 pm) [edit] |
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On August 8th of 2000 my sister was in a car accident. I remember coming home and finding blood everywhere. I was so worried because it was about 12 p.m. and my no one was at home. I called my brother and he was at the hospital with my parents and sister. The news was shocking Christina had rolled blue 91 grandam on a gravel road outside of Shelby Nebraska where we live. This accident caused her to break her left leg and also get a 7-inch cut down the side. This is when her fight began. The leg took almost 3 months to heal which sparked some concern. So her doctor. Dr. Lucky decided to run some blood tests for the fact that her leg wasn’t healing and she looked so pale. My dad was the first one to notice how pale she was since he is a truck driver and is gone weekly to California. He looked at her school picture and made her go in to the doctor. That night I was worried I came home and realized my sister was sleeping and it was only about 5:30 p.m. She never took naps she was always so full of energy. I watched her sleep for a long time and thought that something was wrong. Leukemia came to mind because of her paleness and the fact that her leg hadn’t healed. It was the next day which was October 31st, when we were all busy with school and work that the results came back. I know from what my sister told me that the doctor had her come up to the office and asked her if she wanted him to have mom there for the results. She said she just wanted to know. Well the bad news was her white blood cell count was sky high. None of us could have known exactly what that meant then. I remember getting a call when I was at beauty school. No one had ever called me before and I was worried. My suspicions were true my sister had leukemia and we had to go to Omaha. I remember panicking and everything getting blurry. Jill Harsh a girl from school caught me and hugged me for a long time. She helped me into my teacher Phyl’s office and I explained the situation. She immediately let me leave. It is a half an hour drive from Columbus to Shelby and it seemed like it took forever. I remember when I got home Christina was lying curled up on the couch crying she was so scared. I also remember mom being like she always is running around packing and calling everyone. I didn’t know it at that time but it was mentioned that the doctors wanted to fly my sister to Omaha in a helicopter. When they heard she went to school that day they were astounded. They said she shouldn’t have even been able to make it out of bed with how sick she really was. It was hard to take in all the information at once. We drove the 2 hours to The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha Nebraska to find out that there was a room on 7th floor waiting for us. The people at admissions wanted Christina to ride in a wheelchair but she wouldn’t have that. She had way too much pride. She said there was no reason she was fine. We walked up to the Oncology/ Hematology Special Care Unit and were greeted by so many people it was scary. When we walked in her room considering it was Halloween there were some presents from some volunteers waiting for her. These things which included a cute Anne Gettes leopard doll kept us busy while we waited for the doctor. I don’t remember any exact times but I remember that Doctor Harper came in with an entourage of nurses, residents, students, and many other people to tell us the plans of my sisters care. We found out over the course of the next few days that Christina had Acute Myelogenic Leukemia, which was one of the worst kinds. Finding this information out didn’t necessarily help us to understand what was really wrong and how serious it was. I remember my mom Patty giving my sister a huge hug and telling her we would fight this all of Christina and us agreed. I just sat there scared and crying in a recliner. I couldn’t even speak. I had no idea what to think. That night my brother Cory came up to the hospital because there were already plans to put a central line in my sisters’ chest and this requires a surgery. We talked to Dr. Saxton about the risks and benefits and decided to have the procedure done. I wanted desperately to go home so I stayed till my sister was taken back to surgery. I gave her a kiss goodbye and told her I loved her as did my mom and brother. Cory and I left for Shelby and mom stayed behind to be with my sister. I told Cory all the information I understood on the way home. He seemed just as concerned and worried as mom, dad, and I. Dad had been called in the midst of all the excitement and I imagine the drive home from California probably seemed to last a lifetime. Well on November 1st it was decided that I would be the one to inform my sisters class of the news. I told myself I had to be strong and not cry so they wouldn’t be scared. I stood in Mr. Chadeks room in front of the whole class and told them everything I knew. Some cried and some just gave me a look of astonishment. I told them that they could come talk to me in the office. Most of the girls did and also some of our friends from other classes came in. It was nice to see that they were showing so much support because it was going to be needed. Over the next few months many changes happened. Christina was started on a machine that basically filtered out her white cells so they could get them to go down very quickly so chemotherapy could be started. I remember these treatments made Christina feel very cold and tired so she normally slept right through them. I think it was about a week after these treatments that they hit her with some very high powered Chemotherapy. We knew the side effects were that Christina would lose her hair and probably get sick but it was something that needed to be done to save her life. So I played with my sisters hair a lot and spent a lot of time with her so that she would hopefully feel as good as she could. Balancing school and work in this schedule was very hard. I never had my mind on work and at school I didn’t want to do anything. I was really focused on knowing everything that was going on up in Omaha. I was up there every chance I got. I always went to Omaha on the weekends and sometimes more, whatever Phyl would allow. My jobs always understood and let me leave if I needed. I think everyone guessed at how important it was for me to be with my sister. After awhile my sisters hair started to fall out in big chunks everywhere. It was quite scary to watch and for her it was just annoying. She almost just wanted to shave it off. I still always fixed it for her. In little braids and my mom would always laugh and say how silly it looked. The nurses always seemed to get a kick out of it. We got to know the nurses very well. They were all so nice and helpful. A few that stand out are Woody because she always was able to get us up and going when no one else could. Then there is Margi and Leigh. One of the Techs, Stacy, also was always there to keep us company. Christina had lots of friend’s visit and I had a few also, but they always had to go home. So the nurses became a lot like friends to us during our stays. They were always there through everything. After my sister had been hit with the first round of chemo and found out exactly how terrible the stuff really is on your body she was given a second round. They had to make sure all of her cells were destroyed. They needed them all gone to be able to give a bone marrow transplant. Two rounds of Chemo later the doctors, Harper, Grovis, Gordon, and Kocha along with the PA. Marcia and the coordinating nurses Sue Nuss and Janene decided radiation would have to be done to make sure all the bad cancer cells were taken care of. The radiation was hard on my sister and she was always very tired after it. She hated it because she had to sit for what seemed like forever and not move so they could get everything just perfect. She told me it was scary too. She always had mom to be there with her. Mom took off lots of work so that Christina would never be alone. The rest of us had to keep working to keep some normalcy. Also we aren’t a rich family and money doesn’t make itself. Insurance was what really saved us. Almost every hospital bill was taken care of and we even got cards for food and things like that to help us. These things were all set up by our social worker Sue Kenny-Weiland. It was amazing what could be done to make the stay at the hospital bearable. Really it could have been so much worse. Child life brought up games and the computer so Christina could talk to her friends. Even the first day they came and she talked to her friends and told them how she felt about what was going on. Mom always says how scared she was that Christina was going to get in trouble for typing obscenities but everyone told her they would be cussing about it too if it was them. She was able to keep up on schoolwork with the help of her tutor Eva who came every day in the afternoon because everyone knew we didn’t wake up till at least noon. They also started calling her the upside down kid because she slept at the bottom of her bed because it was more comfortable. The nurses really got a kick out of her. Christina’s personality was always so funny and unique that everyone just got really attached to her. Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went while we were in the hospital but we were able to get rooms in the Lied Transplant Center and have time with just the family to celebrate the holidays. I remember that Christmas Christina was selected to get presents from an organization and we all got gifts. It was fun and mom even cooked a really good dinner. That was how I learned it didn’t matter where you were it just mattered that the people you love are there with you. Through the process of Chemo and Radiation we were all tested to see if we matched Christina’s Bone marrow type and to our surprise none of us did. If anyone was going to it would have been me but I matched my brother. It was very scary to know there was nothing we could do. It was all in the hands of a national network that searches for donors all over the world. It was amazing how fast a 21-year-old man from Michigan was found to match Christina almost perfectly. So after about two weeks rest at home from the hospital with our kitties, missle and smokey, we took the two hour trip back up to Omaha to have my sister get the donor cells. It was all quite amazing. On February 9th of 2001 the transplant was given. I thought it was going to be some kind of big process, but it seemed like just another day with IV fluids running. That is how it was done, through her central line. I was amazed. After the transplant you are expected to stay 100 days to ensure that it is working and that you are less likely to get infections. So 100 days were spent in Omaha. Many things happened through these days. There was cyclosporin given to try to control graft versus host disease which is when the body’s cells attack the donor cells. Christina was allergic to it. She at one point said she was 12 from Boston. It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back on it we can laugh because she was back to normal in a few days. Then there was the fk506 that gave her stroke like symptoms. She couldn’t move her right side. It was really scary and sad because she cried when she couldn’t lift her arm to hug me. I left the hospital in tears. Christina was finally able to get out of the hospital that summer. She worked hard to catch up on schoolwork. Her teacher Mrs. Ruth would come over and help with biology. Which wasn’t one of Christina’s favorite subjects but she always wanted to be on top of getting things done. Though she was readmitted a few times with different minor things she had a good 6-month run at being somewhat normal. She got to go to school for most of her junior year and hang out with friends. In October 2001 X-rays of Christina’s lungs showed some spots. Many tests were done including cat scans and mri’s to further find out what the spots could be. We found out they were probably a fungal infection with microbacteria. This was the onset of Christina’s hardest fight yet. I was away at college in North Dakota and everything seemed well. I was doing well at North Dakota State University and hadn’t been home to visit. My first visit was when I went home the week before my birthday, which is October 22nd because Christina had her senior pictures and wanted me there to help. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. We had a blast but my sister had no energy she was very tired afterwards. I knew something was wrong when Christina called me one night crying because she found out that the fungal infection she had could be fatal if not treated promptly. I was back at college at this time and I hated it. I just wanted to be there to hug her and tell her it would be ok. There was a needle lung biopsy taken at the children’s hospital to further see what was going on in her lungs. She was able to go home that night. Within the next week I got a call at school that her lung had collapsed at home and a chest tube needed to be placed so she was back at the University Medical Center in Omaha. I remember feeling helpless. I had friends at college, but none of them really understood. Jeff was there to comfort me and remind me I would go home for Thanksgiving in a few days. I left school and stayed the whole week in the hospital with my sister. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner that my Aunt Sue had brought us it included all of the normal things like turkey and corn. Of course pumpkin pie. Mom was there through it all also. It was so hard to leave I think I cried the whole way back to Fargo. It was nice being back and seeing everyone and hearing about their holidays. The next month would prove to be very difficult. I started letting my grades slip and stopped going regularly to some classes. It was hard to think of anything but what was going on at home. I decided after Thanksgiving that I should be at home to help out and be with my sister as much as I could just in case something bad was going to happen. I didn’t know how right that decision was at the time. Right after I got home from college my sister was scheduled for another lung biopsy. The first one didn’t give enough information. This one was called an open lung biopsy. They really didn’t open her up completely though Dr. Reynord used a scope procedure. After surgery Christina had to have a chest tube again to help her lung heal. We were in the hospital on 7th floor for about two weeks until we could leave. Mom taught me how to crochet in this time and it became one of the leading past times for me in the hospital. Mostly Christina and I would watch Disney and friends. Lots of movies and if we could get out of the room we would. After we came home we were there for a few days and again Christina was having shortness of breath. Her central line was knocked out of place during the surgery so she was also having problems with that. She had a shooting pain go up her right side and that is when I knew something was terribly wrong. Mom was getting gas in the pickup in case we would need to go to Omaha earlier than expected. Little did we know we wouldn’t make it to Omaha that night. We rushed Christina to David City and the x-rays showed her right lung was completely deflated. The doctors call it a neumothorax. Another chest tube was placed but this one wasn’t helping her enough. That night I talked to my sister for hours. I later found out she was on to many drugs to really remember it but in my heart I know she heard and understood what I was trying to tell her. She knew she was my best friend and that I would do anything for her. In the morning after a few hours of sleep we were told that Christina would be taken to the University Medical Center by ambulance from David City to Omaha. Christina was so out of it she was saying that we were surfing in Hawaii and going to fly the helicopter to Omaha. Morphine will sometimes do that to a person. We got to Omaha around 3 or 4 and the whole time Christina was in and out of sleep and heavily medicated to help with pain. She had a way to keep us laughing through everything. This time she was singing, “Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, and the skies are not cloudy all day.” Also she was singing a song that her and I used to sing on road trips in the car. It started out with the line, “Shake your ass, but watch yourself, shake your ass, show me what you’re working for.” It was really making my mom and I laugh. She was so loud there was no way the nurses didn’t hear her. We had no idea how serious my sisters’ condition was till about 7 o’clock that night. A doctor came in to see her and realized she needed the chest tube replaced immediately. So she was rushed into emergency surgery. We were all very scared. I will never forget the look on my poor sister’s face. It was a look of confusion and terror. During the procedure we were informed that as soon as the chest tube was replaced Christina’s lung went right back up to where it was supposed to be. The doctor decided to leave her on the vent over night to let her rest considering how hard she had worked to breathe for almost 24 hours. This was the first time Mom and I would have to see Christina intabated, or with a tube down her throat attached to the vent to help her breathe. Mom was very scared and I can’t say I wasn’t a little scared myself.
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| Finally I'm Out Of Bed!!! |
| 02.26.04 (9:42 am) [edit] |
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Oh jeez I made it to a class today!! YAY!! I know it shouldn't be that impressive, but I have been sick for a week and a half now. So yeah I know I have missed alot and that sucks!! Hopefully I can get all caught up. So far I have a mess of stuff to do and I don't work this weekend!! Yay!!! I got mail YAY!! haha!!
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| Oh jeez! |
| 02.26.04 (9:27 am) [edit] |
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So right now I want to add to my blog that I don't really know what to type at all haha. Considering it is kinda for a class. Mostly I will type that I fell asleep for 2 hours after class and didn't get any of my work done!! Thats about all I accomplished other than calling the butler county court so I could send my speeding ticket money in. Yay. See i'm just so exciting. :lol: So to update this I found out I had a 3 page paper due at 11 am. So I started it at 11pm and got it done. Thank god. Why must I procrastinate haha.
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| Oh jeez! |
| 02.02.04 (3:49 pm) [edit] |
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So right now I want to add to my blog that I don't really know what to type at all haha. Considering it is kinda for a class. Mostly I will type that I fell asleep for 2 hours after class and didn't get any of my work done!! I do start at the Undercut next Tuesday at 5 yay. Thats about all I accomplished other than calling the butler county court so I could send my speeding ticket money in. Yay. See i'm just so exciting. :lol: So to update this I found out I had a 3 page paper due at 11 am. So I started it at 11pm and got it done. Thank god. Why must I procrastinate haha.
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| AlOhA:) |
| 02.02.04 (11:38 am) [edit] |
Wow a blog. This should be interresting. Ok so I am Cheryl. I go to wsc and i'm 22. I am making this blog for my Media Writing Class. Although I hope it will serve more of a purpose than that.
Laters.
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