The One Hundreth.

WOW. What a fabulous job I have. I was present today for the 100th pediatric heart transplant at Children's Medical Center. It was an AMAZING experience. There were TV cameras EVERYWHERE and I just couldn't seem to get away from the cameras. This precious family were such good sports, too! Sweet boy just gave interviews like he'd been doing it his whole life!

www.cbs11tv.com

Here's the site to the story. It's in the right hand column under videos. Just look for the sweet little boy!

How blessed am I to be a part of this program!

Dumping ground.

I don't like to use this blog as a dumping ground. I enjoy sharing all the little nuances about my mostly boring life...and try to keep things light and cheery. My life is normally wonderful, and I don't usually have much to complain about.

BUT...that's not the case right now. If you're not interested in hearing how my life truly is this week, this might be the point where you click over to one of my lovely friends blogs. BUT, if you're fully prepared to experience the week of disaster, please read on..especially since I'm needing support from my friends!

These are in no particular order, except the order they come into my warped and crazy stressed out brain.

1. My manager is taking another job. For most people, this may seem like a wee thing, but my manager literally keeps me from killing people. Well, I guess people is not accurate. PERSON is accurate. I'm extremely worried that the new manager is going to let the person in question get her way all the time. I'm not asking for much in life...just for some equality and organization. I have until November 2 (when I leave for a conference) to convince her to stay. I don't think I'll be successful in that one.

2. I had to take a sweet patient off the transplant list because she's too sick to be transplanted. I held her mother in my arms while she was absolutely losing it over this daughter. To see how much she has done for this child, and to still hear her say "I wonder if I did everything I could and if I am a good mother" broke MY heart. She told me that she has been praying that God would keep letting her know what she needed to do about her daughter, and today before she even knew what was going on, she thought God had told her it was time for her to come be with Him. What do you even SAY to that?

3. I walked by a room today that was undergoing full code. Compressions, intubating, bagging, tons of drugs, you name it. Seeing that stopped and a baby that can't be saved being placed into its mother's arms is a sight people should not ever have to see. Watching that mother weep into the wild head of her child's hair will absolutely mess you up.

4. I opened my mail yesterday and got a stupid red light citation. How retarded. They have all these stupid pictures with the red light blown up so you can't possibly refute the charge. They do give you an option of disputing it in court. How retarded. Who would POSSIBLY do that? There's $75 I'll never see again...

5. Another precious transplant baby had a really hard day after a procedure yesterday. She's very special to me, as is her family, and it was very sketchy for awhile as to how she was going to do. She's doing better today, but there's no telling. I wish she'd behave.

6. I feel like garbage. Let's just say, I'm really wishing God had decided to place the child bearing duties on men. Enough said.

7. I can't sleep. I not only have problems falling asleep, but I wake up between 1-2AM every night and can't go back to sleep for another couple of hours. My REM cycle is completely off, and I have no idea how to fix it. I've tried making it hotter in my bedroom, making it cooler, sleeping in shorts vs pants, no caffeine vs caffeine. All of it doesn't seem to make a difference. A very easy way to fix this would be taking something to help me sleep...BUT the big kink in that plan is that I am on call this week. I'm afraid I wouldn't wake up if I got paged, and that would not be acceptable. The lack of sleep combined with my increased stress and very increased hormone levels is not making me not a nice person.

Okay, the complaining session is done. Please pray for my spirits to lift. It's getting really old...

Whirlwind.

Last week at work was a BREEZE! I had taken off Monday and Tuesday for birthday fun so I only worked three days last week! The last three days were still VERY busy, so I guess I kinda made up for the shortness!

Oliver came back to the house yesterday. He and Liberty are curled up in a ball on the couch. Every once in a while, I hear some sort of noise to let me know they are still alive. I have just awakened them, and Liberty's angry growls have made Oliver scamper off to sleep in the very wee dog bed across the room. They are pathetic.

This week, I'll be alone in the office! My very annoying co-worker has decided to scamper off for another vacation, her THIRD set of time off this month. Oh no, I am not bitter at all, I just find it ironic. I've been off all call for 2 weeks, so it was my turn to go back on starting Friday morning. So far, it's been fine. I can't complain!

Many exciting things happen this week! First of all, THE FAIR STARTS! I do love the fair! I need to go get my season pass from Kroger this week so I'm ready! I know my parents are coming up later in October to play at the fair! Michael and Jennifer and I are already working on our plan of attack for the wonders of the fair! This weekend? BoysIIMen is playing! Does that not bring you back to high school? I have very fond memories of trips to district competitions listening to someone's borrowed tape on my Walkman. Such great times...

Anyways...guess I could go do something productive before the day goes completely away..

Birthday fiesta.

Ah yes, the dreaded thirtieth birthday has come and gone. It was NOT as bad as I had anticipated, which I guess is a great thing, right?

SO, I started my birthday weekend at Grapefest in downtown Grapevine. Tammy, Whitney, and Whit's boyfriend Will wandered the streets enjoying wine and corn dogs. Isn't that a CLASSY combination? We listened to some great music, ate great street fair food, and enjoyed the great weather!

I got up yesterday and went over to Michael and Jen's to see my parents. Mom, Jen, and I got pedicures and then we all met up for lunch. The rest of my DFW family members met us for dinner (LOVE CANTINA LAREDO!). We had this adorable waiter who didn't seem to mind our botched up Spanish! Afterwards, I went with a bunch of girls from work to this beautiful nightclub at the Gaylord Texas. SO new and pretty and clean! We had a great time hanging out and dancing the night away! :) I think someone might have taken some fun pictures of us....but I have yet to see these! :)

This morning, I got up and went back to Michael's house to hang out some more...I think my parents just really wanted to see Liberty. Isn't that always how it goes? Right about now, I'm gonna take a nap! :) Hooray for naps! I have the next two days off of work as well, so hooray for days off!

Home sweet home.

Tonight, I am happy to sleep in my own bed. I am unhappy to have crappy cable again, but maybe it all evens out. It's strange to be in such a small space again...going from over 1200 sq. feet to about 600...but that's also okay.

I am hoping to sleep uninterrupted for greater than 6 hours. Pray for LONG and RESTFUL sleep!

Here's some pics from the week. Hilarious!

I do love to sleep.

Oliver, Liberty, and I are still hanging out in the wonderful land of good cable. The puppies are behaving themselves quite nicely. Oliver spends most of him time either staring out the window into the courtyard or curled up in Sam's dog bed. It's funny because Oliver and Liberty have never had dog beds. They've always just curled up on the couch or in a blanket. After this week, I'm seriously considering getting them one. Who knows.

Work is going well. I've got one of my three recent transplants out the door and the next one is on the launching pad to go out early next week. The third is having a little more trouble, in fact, she landed herself a trip to the ICU this afternoon. Poor sweet baby.

I am NOT ON CALL! :) Not on outpatient call. Not on donor call. There is NO reason for me to be interrupted in the middle of the night! Hooray! We do have some sweet babies on the list right now, and I would love to be there for their life changing experiences, but I do need my peace and quiet! I'm already not sleeping well here, so I'm thankful to get back to my house where everything's the same...that is, except for the fabulous cable. :( I do have to spend much of the evening tomorrow cleaning. Oliver has shredded toys EVERYWHERE and it looks pitiful. I'm sure Jennifer would never let it get this messy, but I have priorities! :)

Anyways. I'll post pics of the puppy frolics once I get my camera cable. So sweet!

Housesitting...

While Michael and Jennifer are in San Francisco, I am happily house sitting. I mean, really, what's not to love? There's FABULOUS cable (any would be an improvement over what I have now!), another sweet puppy (the emotionally scarred one is being boarded, poor thing), and lots of room for my other two puppies to run around! I've already watched Food Network and moved on to Hallmark for old people mystery shows like Matlock and Murder, She Wrote.

At the moment, Oliver is trying desperately to get a bone out of this treat toy Jennifer and Michael have. He is licking it in the hopes of success, but he's not succeeding so far! Liberty is perched on the couch, watching him in case he happens to drop said bone. Sam is circling him and mostly looking for his mom and dad. Silly sad boy.

I'm on call today, both for donors and outpatients. I've mostly been left alone, but have occasionally received weird calls that can TOTALLY wait until Tuesday. I guess I should be thankful I am not receiving them in the middle of the night! I completely expected to have a heart offer on one of our kids this weekend, especially since it seems that all the key players are on call that have been doing all the hearts this year! AND it doesn't help that I've done ALL of the last 5 transplants, and our other coordinator keeps catching a break! Oh well, those sweet kiddos needed new hearts and I wouldn't have traded being there with them for anything!

I am completely exhausted right now, and really tried to take a nap, if I hadn't kept getting called by patient families. I got up at 4:45AM to take my friend Dana and her precious daughter Zosia to the airport. I've got some sweet pictures of the adorable baby, but of course, they are on my camera which is at home. I'll be picking her up tomorrow afternoon, but her plane doesn't get in until 1PMish.

Oliver is still trying to get that treat. I'll say this, he is QUITE determined. I thought he would have given up by now. AH! I am happy to report that he has NOW obtained the treat and is quite done playing with the holder. Silly boy.

Not much else is going on. Guess I'll sign off. Hope your weekend is great!