Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
A rough day
Today was finally the day that I got to go up to see Donna. I took the other female night shift supervisor with me, and one of our workers, Llury, who used to be the day shift intern under Donna.
The procedure went excellent, but she's now taken an expected slide backwards. Donna has a touch of pneumonia and we had to sanitize our hands to see her today. Even though she has had a few good days, today was not one of them. Because she's in ICU, we were only allowed in during visiting hours from 1-1:30, even though we stretched it to about 1:45.
It was great to meet some of their family, and Donna really does have an amazing support group and lots of love. While we were there they were keeping her very sedated. They are still draining bad fluids from her brain and are pumping good fluids into her as much as they can and she's basically swimming in fluids, so she's very bloated and swollen looking. Donna did snap awake a couple of times while we were there, but her eyes were very glassy looking and she didn't really concentrate on anything or even look away from her husband. It was very heartbreaking to see such a strong and lively woman be so critically ill and there were a couple of times that I had to close my eyes and not let a tear fall.
Some of the good things I learned today is that Donna's husband, Gary, is quitting smoking, and will not let Donna start smoking again once she is released. He said that if she's been without cigarettes this long, there's no need to pick up one when she's better. Her sister Kathy also said that all of the siblings are going in for CAT scans to see if any more of them have any aneurysms because they've learned it doesn't necessarily run from parent to child, but can be common among siblings. They also have an amazing doctor taking care of Donna, he's one of the very very best in his field and Gary said that he keeps him updated on everything that's going on, explains everything Gary wants to know, and when Donna was in surgery for 6 hours, they had a nurse call him every hour with a message from the doctor. It's truly a miracle that Donna is still with us and has as much life in her as she does.
The procedure went excellent, but she's now taken an expected slide backwards. Donna has a touch of pneumonia and we had to sanitize our hands to see her today. Even though she has had a few good days, today was not one of them. Because she's in ICU, we were only allowed in during visiting hours from 1-1:30, even though we stretched it to about 1:45.
It was great to meet some of their family, and Donna really does have an amazing support group and lots of love. While we were there they were keeping her very sedated. They are still draining bad fluids from her brain and are pumping good fluids into her as much as they can and she's basically swimming in fluids, so she's very bloated and swollen looking. Donna did snap awake a couple of times while we were there, but her eyes were very glassy looking and she didn't really concentrate on anything or even look away from her husband. It was very heartbreaking to see such a strong and lively woman be so critically ill and there were a couple of times that I had to close my eyes and not let a tear fall.
Some of the good things I learned today is that Donna's husband, Gary, is quitting smoking, and will not let Donna start smoking again once she is released. He said that if she's been without cigarettes this long, there's no need to pick up one when she's better. Her sister Kathy also said that all of the siblings are going in for CAT scans to see if any more of them have any aneurysms because they've learned it doesn't necessarily run from parent to child, but can be common among siblings. They also have an amazing doctor taking care of Donna, he's one of the very very best in his field and Gary said that he keeps him updated on everything that's going on, explains everything Gary wants to know, and when Donna was in surgery for 6 hours, they had a nurse call him every hour with a message from the doctor. It's truly a miracle that Donna is still with us and has as much life in her as she does.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Love is an amazing thing!!!!
The outpouring of love from the people working for my company is just amazing...
I haven't written about it, but one of the supervisors on day shift, who is also the sister of my night shift manager, suffered a rupture of an aneurysm in her brain stem on Monday and was taken to the hospital and then flown to Springfield for better care. It is now Friday and Donna is still in the ICU in the hospital, but she is making very good progress toward recovery.
But back to the love... Say what you will about the Hispanic culture and population, but I have a renewed respected for them tonight. When we first learned of Donna's condition, they immediately got a box and wrote a sign about what happened and asked for a donation of money during the breaks at work. Monday night they collected $198. Before the night was over, they were already making plans to have a dinner on Friday night to raise money by charging $5 a plate and ladies of the plant making food. Somewhere along the line, they even got the plant manager and owner to donate 60 pounds of chicken to cook.
So Friday rolls around, and I have now learned that we have some amazing women and amazing cooks in our plant! We had way too much food, in fact some of it is now in my fridge! But we managed to make about 60 plates before each group took a break, more as were needed, a few that just had to make their own plate and we fed all that wanted to buy a plate. There were a few that gave us a $20 and only wanted $10 for change. The ladies even made plans to sell hot chocolate and desserts at second break. But in total tonight, we took in $758.60 to send to Donna's family! I also picked up 6 get well cards from the stores and had as many employees as wanted to sign a card for Donna. I can't wait for her to be coherent enough to look at them and be reminded of how loved and missed she is :)
I talked to Becky later in the evening, and when I told her what the final tally of the dinner was, she was beside herself. She was telling me to make sure we told everyone there and all those ladies how much they appreciate it, and how much they are loved and how much the family appreciates them.
It really makes me feel special to be a part of a huge family like that!
I haven't written about it, but one of the supervisors on day shift, who is also the sister of my night shift manager, suffered a rupture of an aneurysm in her brain stem on Monday and was taken to the hospital and then flown to Springfield for better care. It is now Friday and Donna is still in the ICU in the hospital, but she is making very good progress toward recovery.
But back to the love... Say what you will about the Hispanic culture and population, but I have a renewed respected for them tonight. When we first learned of Donna's condition, they immediately got a box and wrote a sign about what happened and asked for a donation of money during the breaks at work. Monday night they collected $198. Before the night was over, they were already making plans to have a dinner on Friday night to raise money by charging $5 a plate and ladies of the plant making food. Somewhere along the line, they even got the plant manager and owner to donate 60 pounds of chicken to cook.
So Friday rolls around, and I have now learned that we have some amazing women and amazing cooks in our plant! We had way too much food, in fact some of it is now in my fridge! But we managed to make about 60 plates before each group took a break, more as were needed, a few that just had to make their own plate and we fed all that wanted to buy a plate. There were a few that gave us a $20 and only wanted $10 for change. The ladies even made plans to sell hot chocolate and desserts at second break. But in total tonight, we took in $758.60 to send to Donna's family! I also picked up 6 get well cards from the stores and had as many employees as wanted to sign a card for Donna. I can't wait for her to be coherent enough to look at them and be reminded of how loved and missed she is :)
I talked to Becky later in the evening, and when I told her what the final tally of the dinner was, she was beside herself. She was telling me to make sure we told everyone there and all those ladies how much they appreciate it, and how much they are loved and how much the family appreciates them.
It really makes me feel special to be a part of a huge family like that!
Friday, December 7, 2007
I love...........
Blue Bunny Gelato!!!!
*Drools* The Hazelnut flavor...... oh my....... I have to go back to Wal-Mart tomorrow night, that's how much I love it, LOL.
*Drools* The Hazelnut flavor...... oh my....... I have to go back to Wal-Mart tomorrow night, that's how much I love it, LOL.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
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