The Heart of Christmas

I LOVE Christmas time! I love the sparkle found in this time of year, the lights, decorations, music, unity, beauty, being with family and loved ones, the memories, holiday spirit, love of our Savior, and Christ's birth. I love celebrating this wonderful time of year!

St. Jude features a new patient each month. I saw this story and video and had to post it now. "When recording artist Matthew West heard the story of Dax Locke, he knew he had to share it in song. Wanting to inspire others to "cherish every moment" just as Dax inspired him, he recorded "One Last Christmas," Read the short story about Dax and watch the video by Matthew West at the bottom-it is awesome! I hope that we all remember this special message.

"A huge mass was found in Dax’s brain. It was a very severe type of cancer called AML M7. But the cancer proved stronger than the chemotherapy. Dax needed a bone marrow transplant and his mom was to be his donor. The transplant went well and everything seemed fine. But the cancer remained. Radiation treatment was next. Then another bone marrow transplant, this time with marrow from from Dax’s father. Again the cancer returned. Julie and Austin were told their son would not make it to Christmas.

But if Dax could not make it to Christmas, Julie and Austin vowed, they could bring Christmas to Dax. Two months early, Julie and Austin decorated their house with holiday lights and a Christmas tree. And before they knew it, their neighborhood and the entire town joined their cause, putting up their Christmas decorations early. National news channels learned of the story and soon people across the country were putting up their Christmas decorations in honor of Dax.

And the little boy who wasn’t supposed to make it to Christmas did, hanging on until December 30, 2009, when he passed away. Soon after Julie and Austin began a foundation called “Cherish Every Moment—The Dax Locke Foundation” where all proceeds go to the families and children of St. Jude. Julie hopes to raise $1.7 million for St. Jude—the cost of operating the hospital for a single day.

Julie and Austin have since had a daughter. Julie can’t wait to tell her daughter about her big brother Dax and how he brought Christmas early and touched the hearts and lives of many."

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=47555e73658b3310VgnVCM100000290115acRCRD or here should work www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASJktrBObrI&ob=av2n

Buckle up & hold on as I play catch up!

How to make up for my lack of blogging for over 4 months? It's going to be hard, so get ready for picture overload as I recount the past packed full months.

I survived my last semester of nursing school for my associates. I graduated in April!! My parents came to Idaho for it and it was a blast having them there. Friday night was my pinning ceremony and Saturday was graduation. We all stayed up late Friday night visiting, packing, cleaning, so come Saturday morning we were dead tired. By the end of the ceremony on Saturday, I was over graduating and ready for sleep!! I looked to disgusting in my graduation pictures so the only picture is of me from a far distance getting my diploma.

A week after graduation, I had a St. Jude check-up. I love my visits because I get to see all my friends! We ran into our Christina and Julia from Bolivia who were back for a check-up at the same time! That was a nice surprise to see them!! We look forward to seeing Ann Marie and Anna at the Target house each visit!! Anna's hair has started to come back in and it looks so pretty!! Anna is such a trooper and such a strong girl!

After St. Jude my immediate family went to Hawaii to celebrate my graduation!! I have never been and it was awesome!! I loved every minute minus the plane ride there-wish it was closer so I could go all the time. We did an assortment of activities there-hiked to green and black sand beaches, secluded beaches, saw several waterfalls, went down watersides, to farmers markets, botanical gardens, etc. It was so beautiful there and I can't wait to go back some day!


After Hawaii, I took the state boards to be licensed as a nurse. It was one of the most nerve racking experiences and I was sure I failed. I think I cried for like 2 days while I waited for the results and miraculously, I PASSED!!! I will never let my license expire, so I don't have to take that test ever again!!

Several weeks later, my entire family went to Rosemary Beach! It was awesome to have everyone together. I was so sad to realize at the end of the week we hadn't taken many pictures. I love pictures as they help bring back memories for me. (My goal is to take more pictures of the rest of the summer!)

My nephew Adam-Batman to the rescue!!
Jumping the waves with my niece Aubrey
Shannon and I-I know your jealous of my deformed wet hat-just get it thrown in the pool/ocean several times

I was home for 3 days from the beach when I headed out for my last adventure for summer. I went to St.Jude for my post 2 year transplant check-up! I can't believe it has been 2 years already! I had 3 days of testing where basically they look at every body system etc. This meant I went to various departments having the test done like EKG, MRI, CT, Eye clinic,etc. I LOVED seeing so many old nurses, doctors, and friends. Everywhere I went, I saw someone I knew...it was great! So instead of the 3 days being long and boring, I had a blast. Ha, never thought I'd say a hospital would be a place where I'd have a blast, but St. Jude is one awesome place! My nieces and nephews also came with to Memphis, so they stopped bye several times a day to see me as I ran from one appt. to another. At the end of the 3 days came the best news ever! My immune system has finally recovered completely! I can now go off my low bacteria diet, several prophylactic meds, and resume life back to normal. To celebrate the first thing I ate was a fruit salad full of bacteria---haa just kidding-grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches-all of which I have not had for the past 2 years! Tomorrow I will have a salad since I haven't had lettuce in a long time too!
Dr. Pui, my leukemia doctor before a was switched to the transplant clinic.

Just Keep Going....Almost There!!

I am finally back on here! I have been wanting to update my blog, but have had not time. When I thought about updating it, I felt guilty that I should be doing work. But, here I am for a quick update on things.

I am about a month into this semester which is my last semester in the nursing program for my associates!! I am so excited!! After such a long hiatus and a tough start to the semester, I am so ready to be DONE! Well almost done..I plan to return this fall for my bachelors, but I have heard that it is so easier. So, I will be done with the most vigorous part...or hopefully.

I didn't know the term busy until I started this semester that is for sure! I have this fear that I am going to forget an assignment since it feels like a have thousand assignments due each day and multiple test each week. I have finally come to understand and implement what my dad always tells me, "Take it one day at a time."I have come to love this phrase. I stress so much less and things still seem to get done.

This past week in my nursing class we started talking about graduation details! It is so exciting to finally hear the word...graduation. We took our class picture, talked about the ceremony, tickets etc. I have about 2 months left till April 8th when it's the big day!

My health continues to do well. I have not been sick which is such a blessing for multiple reasons, but for now cause I don't have time to be sick! I am surviving the winter up here. After it being in the negatives most of last week, I am so looking forward to spring and summer! Oh to see the sun, so needless to say I am looking forward to our family beach trip this summer!! I have great roommates that are so sweet. I relax and and enjoy our Friday nights together going ice skating, concerts, game nights, dinner parties etc.

Ice Skating with all but one of my roommates. Finally learned the correct way to skate and can cross it off my bucket list!

Side picture:Our Family Christmas picture!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving break, my brother and I flew home! It was a long day of travel as we left at 5am and arrived home at 8pm. Luckily, we beat the snow storm by just a couple of hours. When we left Idaho, it was snowing and in the 30s. When we landed in TN, it was in the high 60s and beautiful. I was heaven!! The entire week was spent without a jacket and I just didn't know what to do with myself!

The week went by fast as I was at St. Jude from Sunday to Tuesday, had thanksgiving, set up Christmas, visited friends, and left Saturday. When we arrived back in Idaho, my brother and I looked at each other and said, "What are we doing here? Are we crazy?" We were back in 13 degrees, 4-5 inches of snow, and more pilled up on the side of the road from a week of snow storms. The snow is beautiful, but after 2 weeks, I’m done with it! I wish I could have a better attitude, but when I went to get gas and my tank door was frozen shut, I was done. Really, where am at that this would happen? This is all a little foreign to me learning to ruff it in the snow. Oh this is going to be a long winter!! Let’s just say and I am no afraid to admit that A- I am not made for this place B- I’m a southern girl and proud of that!

My appt to St. Jude over the break went well overall. My doctor was impressed with how I looked and how things are going. I am now completely off of one of my immune suppressants! I've been on 2 different ones and a steroid for a year now. For several months now, they’ve been trying to wean me off the 1 immune suppres. So, it was nice to feel to finally be off one. From here on out, they will slowly continue to wean me off the steroid and then the 2nd immune suppressant. It will be so nice when I'm off them both because my immune system is terrible. It is a miracle I haven’t gotten sick all semester with the level my t and b cells were at! With going off the one of the immune supp they hope that my t/b cells will go up some.

So from here on out, I just hope that my body doesn't have any rejection issues as I wean off these medications. I've felt a sense of protection being on these meds even though I don't really enjoy them. If rejection starts up again, I basically start all over with going back on all the meds again for several months and starting the weaning process again. All this would be a disappointment as I mostly don't enjoy the side effects of these meds. Dry skin and cold weather can set rejection off, so my fear is that Idaho weather will set it off again. This has caused me to be a little hesitant to agree to wean off them, but I know the meds aren’t good for my body, so the sooner off the better. For now all’s I can do is put on lotion, stay warm, try not to fall on ice, and think happy thoughts as a walk to class.

Halfway there

So, I realized I haven't posted in like ten years. Sorry, I've been busy, but realized that I'm halfway through the semester already!

This has been a great semester for several reasons. I'm learning Pediatric/OB nursing and love it! These are two areas that I've always known I wanted to go into. Enjoying the topics of class is a bonus when it comes to studying the material. It was a nice semester to come into the nursing program because it is a little more laid back than my past and future nursing classes. I enjoy this semester too because I'm not constantly stressed about juggling nursing and other classes. I love just doing doing nursing classes! I stay busy enough as it is(although I've heard next semester is much busier...oh joy).I love it when life is not stressful because I'm happier! My roommates are very sweet. My roommate and I are very alike in personality, so that's been nice. I'm going to miss her when she goes home next semester. It's so crazy that I only have 2 weeks till thanksgiving break which I will be flying home for my St. Jude appt. My doctor was nice and let me just get labs drawn here since I don't have time to fly home each month. After thanksgiving their are 3 weeks left in the semester! Wow, this semester is flying bye.

From here on out this semester, things are down hill. Yesterday, I completed the most stressful thing of each semester in nursing(yes, I just contradicted myself from what I said above about not being stressed, but this was just a few days of stress). I was so sure I failed "scenario" only to find out I got a 90%. I just wanted to take the minimum for passing which is a 75%(anything below that is considered failing) and "run with it" because I was sure I'd get lower. So that 90% made my day! Over and over, this has happened to show me that in the end it all works out. My parents always remind me of this when I call freaked out that I did bad.Yes, I am slow to permanently hold on in faith to this fact. It is such a great thing to know that I don't have to do all things by myself because I would fail. I have seen it over and over that through the help of my Savior, I can succeed.

Found a local ice cream parlor that is the best!!
Went apple picking at the colleges local apple orchard that is added to each semester by the agriculture classes.

How cool is that costume-the old man from the movie "Up" Halloween is always so fun to see how creative people are with costumes etc.

The excitment from the past couple weeks

I'll start this post in order bringing you up to date on everything.

First, on Wednesday, August 25th at 10:05pm my brother returned from serving a 2 year mission as a representative from our Church. See here for more information on Missionary Work and his purpose in sharing the gospel message. As you already know, these past two years have been a little less than normal for me and my family. Through emails, letters and talking with him on Mother's Day and Christmas, we've kept him updated on life. But, needless to say, I was ecstatic to finally see him! He had 9 days to see everyone, pack, and head on the road to college. So, we packed as much as possible into those short couple of days.
Which, brings me to the second exciting event. I went swimming for the first time in 2 years!!! Due to my central line, I was not able to submerge it in water to avoid infection etc. I love the water! So, my sister, brother, and niece went swimming at a friends pool. It was so awesome to back in the water.

After a week of parties, seeing friends, family, packing etc. Me, Daniel, and my dad headed off for college. I survived the 30 hour road trip(2000 miles), although I was way ready to get out and walk around by the end. It actually wasn’t too bad as I studied nursing notes, visited with them, and slept. We arrived at BYU-Idaho on Labor Day. The next couple days were unpacking, shopping with the other billion mom/students at the 1 Walmart in town, meeting my sweet roommates, etc. On Wednesday, I started orientation for this new semester of nursing. I started out with a bang as Wednesday was orientation from 7-1, Th 7-5, and F 7-12. Then, I spent 4 hours in the nursing lab getting re-acquainted with various procedures/skills. Needless to say, by Friday night, I needed a break! Saturday, I worked on nursing all day since I had 5 assignments due the next week. I’ve said that if I didn’t know that nursing was my passion, I’d dropped out a long time ago because it is stressful and busy!

At this moment, things have slowed down a little to where I feel that I actually have 15 mins to write this post. Next week will be crazy again, but that’s nursing school. Overall, things are going well. I’m happy to be back up here, happy to have my brother 5 mins down the road, happy to see old friends, happy to finish this degree and start helping others.

My health seems to be doing well. My skin did not like the change from the humid weather of TN to dry Idaho. Dry skin can set off Graph vs host, so I have to be diligent on applying lotion. I’m holding off on going down on my immune suppressants till my body adjust and doesn’t freak out. I felt like I had a cold the second day of being here(It was freezing the first couple days) so I got some Vit C and it has done the trick! This past week, the weather has been cold in the morning and beautiful in the afternoon! It must know I love the sun! I’m savoring up these beautiful days because any day it could be freezing!

Almost back to normal

Since April of 09, I've been giving myself Lovenox shots 2x day in my abdomen. Lovenox is a blood thinner that was started due to a blood clot in my subclavian vein here. Since my central line went in my subclavian vein and was considered a foreign object to my body, I had a greater chance of developing another clot. As protocol you have to stay on Lovenox till the clot is gone and six months after. In my case though, I had to remain on lovenox until my line was taken out, which was just a couple weeks ago. On August 27th, after 1 1/2 yrs, after over 968 injections, I was able to stop those shots!

Medically, things keep getting easier which is encouraging because it shows progress! No more dressing changes three times a week, flushing my line every night, and remembering to give myself a shot morning and night. Now, I just have a smorgasbord of medications to take each day, but hey that's a piece of cake to take. Although my roommates may think I've the most health issues of anyone they know(which face it I probably do), at least they're not seeing what I used to do on a regular basis. I consider myself almost back to normal! Once my t-cells are up to 400 I'll be considering things really normal!

Since I like to put pictures on each most and since you don't want to see the picture that would most apply to this post (For some reason, the Lovenox causes bruising at the injection site. Lets just say my stomach is not a pretty picture!) Instead, I will share a picture my sister took awhile ago of the 4 kids I will miss when I go off to college :( I'm sure their will be space in my apt to fit my nieces and nephew..right?!

My next adventure: In a couple days driving over 29 hrs to college at BYU-Idaho...yippee for long hours in the car...