My New Life

Well I'm still currently at sacred heart until about 830 tomorrow morning.  I will be transferred to Rochester Mayo to more specialized trachea care and possibly some sort of stent surgery or lazer surgery or just to figure out why my trachea is narrowing.  I will be going by ambulance.  The doctors decided it's just to risky and complicated of procedures to do here.  For now that is all I know.  Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers.  I hope to be back to my old self again soon!!!

Friday, I went to cardiac rehab.  I was very short of breath walking in and Kelly and Jane quickly took notice and acted.  They were right.  I ended up in one er room testing and more testing done to try and figure this crap out.  Got a CT, got moved to another er room and was told the best thing would to be taken to eau claire so they can try and figure all this out.  The plan was a bronchoscopy which can't be done in cumberland.  Well on the ambulance right the breathing got increasingly worse.  So when I got to Sacred Heart I was put on a BiPap breathing matching right away.  Dr. Obaid (pulmonologist) decided that with my breathing being as bad as it was to not do the bronchoscopy that night.  I spent all night on the bipap and in the morning felt pretty well so 3pm yesterday they did it.  The also at that time got a biopsy further down.  They believe it may be Tracheal Stenosis.  Hopefully this can be treated medically, but...

Well I did it!!  I went to work!!  I only made it 4 hours instead of 8, but I am still so proud!  I honestly about cried walking down the hallway knowing I very easily could have not been able to work let alone be alive ever again.  I feel so truly blessed.  I had many people "keeping an eye on me".  Thank you for all the positive thoughts.

It has been a few days since I updated, but I was waiting until THINGS actually happened!  Monday I did the "lift" test at the hospital to see if I was able to return to work.  I had to lift 50 lbs, put it on the floor, lift it back up and walk a short distance with it.  Guess what!!!  I passed!!!  I am able to return to work.  So, I got a text this evening from another Angel (Michele) asking if I wanted to work tomorrow night 11pm-7am!  Of course, I responded YES!!  I have been waiting 2 months and 1 day for this!  I am going back 1 to 3 months earlier than what was originally expected with my condition!  I do have some restrictions at first, I can only lift 20lbs and my doctor doesn't want me to do the 12 hour shifts for at least one week to see how I do.  If after that week I am feeling good and feel like I can do the 12 hour shifts, I probably can! On Monday I also met with a dietician since with Tracheamalacia, weight control...

If you didn't know, I'm Italian.  Pasta and pizza I grew up on.  We termed Sunday's Spaghetti Sunday even!  Well, I just can't substitute veggies for pasta, it doesn't seem right to me.  But, what I can do is make a crustless pizza casserole!  Guys, it is the easiest thing EVER, and my boys love it too!  Who doesn't like pizza!  And the best part is, you can have them help by letting them put their favorite pizza toppings in!  You make it as saucy, cheesy and full of toppings as you want! Preheat oven to 350 Brown any hamburger or sausage you would like to use (we use Louie's Finer Meats Pizza Sausage) Take a casserole dish and put a layer of pizza sauce in the bottom Add layers of toppings like you would lasagna, including more sauce and cheese :) On the very top I make sure I cover with shredded cheese, and also sprinkle a little parmesan cheese Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted. Enjoy!!! ...

There are a few people that I consider my angels throughout this whole experience.  The ER nurse that took care of me the night I went in when my throat was closing, the doctor on call that night, my respiratory therapist and my cardiac rehab nurse.  If the staff didn't get stuff done right away that first night, I would have been way worse off.  And, the RT and Cardiac Rehab Nurse that I see three times a week keep a very close eye on me.  I will never be able to thank these people enough.  They truly are the best :) Today I had a follow up appointment with my doctor and things look great, even though last Sunday night I ended up back in the ER with breathing troubles again, I am doing MUCH better today, Friday October 18th.  Tomorrow marks exactly 2 months since I had the breathing tube taken out and I am happy to say that today at cardiac rehab I was able to lift the 50lb requirement to be able to go back to work.  Although, it wasn't the actual t...

At home I quickly realized I wasn't just going to jump back into my old routine.  I tried showering the first night at home, and I didn't have a shower chair yet.  I couldn't lift my arms enough to wash my own hair, or wash my whole body.  I looked at myself and saw tons of bruises all over due to all the needle pokes.  I got out of the shower and couldn't breathe.  I called to the living room for help, naked.  This was embarrassing for me.  Bud came to the rescue and helped get me dressed.  I honestly can't believe how I got so lucky with him.  He is the most amazing man ever.  He spent nearly every day at the hospital with me, fed me, and now is dressing me.  Wow!  We decided before I left the hospital that I would sleep the night at our house, then go to my parents house during the day because they didn't want me to be home alone yet, and we quickly realized why.   On the 2nd or 3rd day home (at mom and dad's) I ...

When I was moved up to the 6th floor, this meant I had to start moving more and had to start therapy.  I was still connected to a telemetry monitor because my heart rate was going high still.  I was put on a heart medication to control it, but it would still occasionally go up, so they wanted to keep me monitored.  I had physical therapy several times a day, and was using a walker to walk.  The first day, I was able to walk from the bed to the chair and the bed to the bathroom.  I was super unsteady, even with the walker and would loose my balance and tip backwards.  I was still given nebulizer treatments several times a day, but no longer on supplemental oxygen!  YAY!!!  Things were getting better one small step at a time!  Although, still they didn't know why all this had happened to me.  The unknown is the worst.  So, I would continue to not sleep, afraid that my throat would close.  They tried giving me a sleeping pill, thi...

So, the next 7 days are a blur to me.  I remember very few things.  If you don't know anyone that has ever been on a ventilator, they keep you pretty sedated.  My mom has informed me I tried to be a Houdini and pull my breathing tube out several times, they had to restrain my wrists.  I remember writing Bud a note saying "I'm sorry" and "I love you".  I also remember writing his sister Mandy a note.  I didn't remember what I wrote, so I asked her later after I was home and she told me that I wrote her that I had to poop.  HAHAHA.  I understand I had quite a few visitors, I do remember hearing people cry.  One other thing I think is interesting that I remembered, that I did ask nurses about later was seeing bright vibrant colors.  Bright purple, pink, yellow, green all swirling around.  This continued after I had the breathing tube taken out every time I closed my eyes. During this time many tests were run.  I had chest x-rays...

Hi Everyone! So I'm trying this "blogging" thing out!  I will be keeping friends and family up to date here on my health.  I feel some people probably don't want to look at it on Facebook, and this way if you want to know how I am doing, you need to come read to find out!  So, for my first "blog" I will start way back from the beginning just incase some don't know what exactly is going on. On the weekend of August 9th, I was camping with my parents in Osseo, prior to this for several weeks I hadn't been feeling the greatest, but had decided it was probably allergies.  On August 10th I was supposed to work night shift at Cumberland Hospital so I went home from camping, still not feeling well I went in to get a rapid strep test done, thinking maybe I had strep throat.  This came back negative.  I was cut from work due to low census, so I went home and slept.  Sunday the 11th I slept most of the day (thinking I would have to work that night and feel...