Family pictures

On Friday the 19th all the Dahlin Families got together to do a family picture. We went to a little place in south Jordan to have them done in a studio. It was definitely a crazy time but well worth it for the pictures that were taken. Maia was a little bit out of control as there was a lot going on and she wanted to be apart of it and not sit still for pictures. So a lot of time was spent trying to get Maia to sit still and look at the camera. Here are some of the favorites from the shoot. 

Endoscopies and Santa visits

On monday I woke up early to see if i owuld be able to get an appointment with Dr Kawa so he could take a look at my GJ tube and figure out what to do to fix it. Luckily they were able to get me an appointment at 12:40pm to see him. After scheduling the appointment I went upstairs to try one more time to flush the tube. To my surprise it flushed with out a problem. I couldn't believe it was flushing so easily. I checked to see if it was leaking where it had leaked before and it seamed not to be leaking. I was amazed and annoyed at the same time. I decided to hook my feeding pump up to what would happen. I ran it at a higher rate so that i would be able to tell sooner if something was wrong. I debated at this point as to whether or not i should keep my appointment. I decided I would make sure it was working before i cancelled. 

I had already vented my stomach (pulled my stomach contents out with a suringe through the g tube port) so i knew my stomach was pretty empty. As it was feeding I started to feel pretty naucious and knew that something wasnt going right. I felt like throwing up and ended up venting my stomach again and thick yellow gunk started coming out. I wasn't quite sure if this was my feeds or not. I decided i needed more conclusive evidence to find out. So I got some water and added a bit of blue dye to it. I figured I could push that through the J tube and if it came back through the g tube then I knew for sure something wasn't working right. I'm glad I did this because with in a minute of pushing the blue die through, it was coming back out through the g tube. This ment something definatly wasn't right and needed to be fixed. If my feeds go into my stomach that means that I would probably throw them up and it completly defeats the point of having the J tube portion. 

Dr Kawa was running a bit late so we ended up having to wait for about an hour to see him but once i told him what was going on and how i had figured it all out, he simply said that it needed to be replaced and he would see if he could have it done in the morning. He didn't have endoscopy time at the hospital on tuesdays so he called over there to see if they would be willing to do it before the first scheduled block of endoscopys. I was very grateful he was willing to do this and get it to work because at this point i had gone three days with out food and I really didn't want to go another. It takes it's toll very quickly on me. 

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early to head over to the hospital. I really didn't sleep very well that night. I think I was a little bit nervious about the endoscopy and it didn't help that the cold i cought over the weekend seamed to be getting worse. My throat was pretty sore and my nose had turned into a leaky faucet. I was worried they might not do the endoscopy because of it. I was glad when it came time to leave because i was ready to get it over with. 

We got to the hospital and checked in and then they had me get into the a hospital gown. It is sad that the people at the American Fork Hospital are starting to recognize me. I have been there too much these days. I feel like i should have a loyalty card to be earning points for frequenting their Hospital. Once i was ready and Dr Kawa arived, they wheeled me back to the endoscopy room. They then realized that I needed to be on a different bed since they would have to take some xrays once they were done, just to make sure it was all placed correctly. It was a little awekward just standing in the middle of this big room waiting for them to come back with the bed. Once they did, they finished getting everything ready to begin the procedure. While the nurses were preping, Dr Kawa told me he was impressed with my deductive work with the blue dye. He thought that was rather good. It is nice to hear that when most the time I feel like I get the "we think your crazy" looks. I then teased that he must be rubbing off on me as I feel like I see him more then I see my own friends. 

Anyway they ended up getting the procedure started and its funny and I don't know why I even try but while the room was spinning from the drugs they gave me to sedate me, I kept thinking that I could probably stay awake. The next thing i knew i was heaving into a vomit bag and gaging on something in my throat. I came to find out, what was supposed to be a 30 min procedure turned into an hour long procedure. The frist time dr Kawa placed my J tube he didn't have too much trouble getting it past the duodenum and into the jejunum, this time he had a lot more troubles. He also had a hard time getting the end of the tube to clip to the side of the intestine. He said that I definitely have an area in my duodenum that is blocked and the blockage isn't coming from the inside. He said my insides look great but there is must be an outside force causing the compression. All this is consistant with the SMA Syndrom

When they do an endoscopy they will push air into the intestines to baloon them up and make them easier to see. The top picture is of just that, and you can see how well it expands. The bottome picture is of the area that is blocked. You can see that it is just not expanding like it should. 

After the procedure I had to stay just for a little bit longer as my heart was racing and they wanted it to stabilize a bit more before I was released. Usually the endoscopies don't take a ton out of me but this one was a little bit harder to come back from. I think it was in part because I had been without food for 3 days and also it took them longer which means I had more sedation in me. Also they made the back of my throat, which was already swollen, even more swollen. My uvula was about tripple the size it should have been and because of that I could feel it in the back of my throat and every time i would try and swollow it would make me gag and it hurt. 

We headed home and Sean made me  go straight to bed. Later in the day he and Terry took Maia and Kassia to the Riverwoods in Provo to see Santa. Since the first time we tried to see santa did work out and even though I wasn't able to go, I really wanted them to be able to see Santa this year. Especially since this is Kassia's first Christmas.

They seamed to have had a good time and Sean said that Maia was pretty good with Santa and she even asked santa for snow angels. She was very sweet but didn't want to stand in line and of course wanted to run all over the place. She liked the Christmas lights and had fun with her daddy and grandpa. Kassia aslo seamed to enjoy the outing. On the way home they stopped and picked up some chicken nuggets and Maia ate a lot. Sean and Terry both were impressed with how much she had eaten. It was nice to have them home and that they had such a good outing. 

Plugged tubes and Christmas Party

Saturday my GJ tube clogged to the point where I wasn't able to flush it. I tried everything to get it to unplug and it wasn't budging. Since my feeding tube is my life line, I called the Dr's office and talked to the doctor on call. He said that there wasn't anything he could do for me at the time so I would need to go to the emergency room to see if they could get it unplugged.

So to the ER I went and in the ER I waited. I actually didn't have to wait to long to see the doctor but he didn't know what to do for it since he hadn't seen a GJ tube since he was in residency. The ER doctor ended up calling the on call GI doctor, who told him to get the smallest possible syringe and try to push fluid through. 

This was my view as I sat and waited. He brought the syringe in and it seamed to flush but it was not flushing through the J tube but into the G tube through the top part. So the ER doctor told me that there wasn't much he could do for me so he gave me a bag of IV fluids and then sent me home, with instructions to call my GI doctor on Monday. Although I wish he could have fixed it I had a feeling that it would probably need to be replaced.

On Sunday I took it a little bit easy as I was starting to feel not the greatest due to not getting much food. I did help get ready for the Dahlin-Gottfredson Christmas party.  Kassia was so cute in her little dress. She is such a happy little camper.

That evening we had quite a few people over and the party seamed to go well. iIt was really great to see everyone. Rachel, Dillon and their kids came as well as uncle Randy, Aunt Debby, Kyle and Pete and his new wife Melissa. We also had Brit, Mel, Terry, Kathy, Eric, Kathryn, James, Julia, and Grandma Gottfredson over. So it was a bit of a full house but a lot of fun! It was so much fun seeing Maia play so well with Hagen and Jax. Having a bunch of little kids running around sure livened up the house.  

 

Rachel and Kassia.

Eating...

The little's playing. Hagen and Maia were playing ring around the rosy and the other two did their own thing.

Kassia cheesing it up in her holiday dress.

Playing games and chatting it up.

We still had company but it was time for Maia to go to bed. Of course she found everything else to do but go to bed.

 

After Maia went to be we ended up playing catch phrase with everyone. All in all it was very fun evening and I'm grateful for all the fun we can have with this family.

 

Grandma Nelson

On November 24, 2014 my grandmother, Wanda Ion Nelson, passed away due to hypo-tension after her surgery to place a colostomy bag. About a month earlier, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and it was determined that it would be hard to remove the cancer. She and the family decided that it would be best to not try to remove the cancer and instead bypass it with a colostomy bag and then make her as comfortable as possible till the cancer would take her. Although the surgery went well, the surgeon I did say that there was more cancer then they thought and it wouldn't be operable. Unfortunately grandmas blood pressure never really stabilized after the surgery and the hospital tried everything possible to get it to go up. She passed away in Boise. 

The more I have had time to think about it all the more I am grateful for the way that she went. She may have been in pain because of the surgery but she didn't have to be in pain for very long. She didn't handle pain very well and the thought of her having to go through the pain the cancer would have brought would have been awful. It was a tender mercy for her to be relieved of the pain and now she can be rejoined with grandpa, her sister Deanna and her mom and dad. All of whom I know she missed dearly.

The night before she went to have surgery I had the chance to call and talk to her. We had a very lovely conversation and I am so very glad and will forever be grateful for that last conversation. We talked about her surgery, the weather, her surgery, the weather, thanksgiving, my health, the weather, and then her surgery again. We did also talk a little bit about Christmas and her favorite memories. she talked about how she loved when they put the couch in front of their Christmas tree and there four boys would sit on it turned around looking at the tree. She also talked about how when she was younger her dad would hook up his sleigh and they would ride into town and everyone would look forward to seeing them. 

Grandma will be missed and it is hard to think about the fact that the day has finally come when both my nelson grandparents are no longer walking among us. My grandparents have always been a little bit on the older side for grandparents and so i feel incredibly blessed that they lived for so much of my life. I had many opportunities to spend good quality time with them and have many fond memories that have been gennerated on their account. Growing up, all of our Thanksgivings were spent at their house and i spent many a summers day hanging out with them, either at their house or on a trip with them. They have helped shape who i am today and I will always have a special place in my heart for my grandma and grandpa nelson. Here is to a close of a generation, you will be missed but your memory will live for generations to come. 

5 months old

This sweet little girl turned 5 months old today! She is rolling all over the place these days. She also has enough drool these days to fill a tub. She watches her sister with such a keen eye and loves it when Maia stops and pays her some attention.

 

Thanksgiving 2014

This Thanksgiving was a little bit of a bust for me because when I woke up I still was not feeling well. I did go upstairs and it was nice to see everyone but I was still a little bummed about the happenings of the previous day. Staying downstairs gave me some time to think about everything and I came to the conclusion that I need to start living my life first and worry about the sickness second. I am by no means giving up on finding out what is wrong or finding an answer but I have learned I can't live my life from drs appointment to appointment. I have two beautiful girls that I feel I have been missing out on their lives and I need to focus on them. Having said that, we will still push forward and try to conquer this thing!

Chilling on Thanksgiving morning. I think we were watching the Macy's Day Parade.

 

In the afternoon, Sean's family all went out for thanksgiving dinner at Tucanos. I wasn't feeling well enough, so I stayed home and took a 3 hour nap. It did help me feel a little better but I still wasn't 100%. Later that night we just hung around and talked and watched a movie called "The Giver" and just took it pretty easy. While the morning wasn't the greatest the evening turned out nice.

 

 

After Tucono's Maia had a lot of fun playing some boxes we had laying around.

This one was big enough for her to climb into and then she would say "shutted the door" meaning she wanted us to close the wings of the box.

We later colored on the other box. It was fun to get to play with her and see her creativity.

 

I did do a bit of online Black Friday shopping which for me was nice since there was no way I was going make it out in my condition and I really didn't feel like going out, which is saying something because I usually love Black Friday shopping. I was able to get quite a few good deals on amazon which really helped out with my Christmas shopping. On Friday, Sean and I went up to Eric and Kathryn's for dinner and to play with James and Julia. Sean's parents decided that it would be nice to take off and go to St. George and spend the night so they weren't home when we got home.

 

Dinner buddies.

Maia and James play pretty well together and here they were getting ready to listen to music and dance.

On Saturday, we got to celebrate Brittany's birthday! She had to work and with Kathy and Terry gone, I decided that I would make a cake for Brittany. She was on a gluten free diet at the time to see if it would help with some arthritis she was having. Since I'm gluten free it was fun to make her a cake that avoided her allergies. Luckily it turned out well and everyone enjoyed it. Brit loves Tai food and so they brought tai food for dinner. The little bit that I had was yummy and I have to say it wasn't too bad coming back up. Brit has been an amazing help with Maia and Kassia and I think that she is an amazing woman and friend. I am so lucky to have her as a sister in-law and to have the relationship I do with her. Happy birthday Brit! I hope it was a good one!

Dinner!!

The allergy free cake.