Prayer request for Jen's family

Friends, please pray for my friend Jen's mom. Jen's mom Laura has been struggling with a rare, scary situation in her brain for a little more than six months. She had brain surgery last spring, was showing signs of recovery, but in the last months started regressing rapidly.

Laura went in for more surgery last Tuesday, and while we're celebrating that she made it through, she's having trouble with pneumonia as some functions aren't responding on their own. She was moved back into ICU last night and put on a ventilator, however, just now I received word that she was taken back for emergency brain surgery and she's also suffering from a punctured lung.

This is a brief summary, but it's a huge prayer request. Jen, who just started a new job in NY, is taking a last minute flight home to be with her mom, sister and dad. Please pray for the doctors, Laura and her family.

We're headed home!

Thank you all for your prayers, messages and phone calls during dad's prep, surgery and recovery. He moved out of ICU on Sunday and gets to go home today (Tuesday)!

Dad ended up with a 5-way bypass. The doctor added in one extra for good measure, just as he did with mom. Mom, with her 7 bypasses, is still ahead -- however, I'm not writing that as a challenge. Eat your vegetables and go for a jog, peeps!

The doctors say he's recovering wonderfully, and we couldn't ask for more. He's still in a bit of pain and pretty weak, but he's getting better every day. Today he did some stairs, showered and is now in his going home clothes...some soft v-neck shirts and lounge pants. This is a different look for him, considering I don't believe I've ever seen him in anything other than a button down shirt with a collar. Ok, yes, he does wear the occasional polo shirt. Either way, he's always got a collar on his shirt!

This is his heart pillow. It's given to all heart patients as something to wrap their arms around while getting up or coughing...it's basically something to hold so you don't get carried away using your arms and disrupt the sternum healing process. It also doubles as a cast or memorabilia item people can sign when they come visit. This side was reserved for the doctors and nurses.

I'll follow up with a post I think I'll call the Chronicles of Hospital & Home Recovery sometime soon, but I'll leave you with this. Dad sure does know how to charm the nursing staff!

Ticker update III

Dad's surgery is scheduled for next Thursday. Thankfully, my employer is letting me go to WA where I can work from hospital/home so I can be with the fam. I couldn't be more grateful for that. I'll head to WA Wednesday night.

Dad is in pretty good spirits, which is very nice. The doctor preforming the surgery will be the same one who worked on mom, so that brings us a lot of comfort, too! I'm not sure how long I'll stay in WA...JT and I are working on those details now.

Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers, blog readers!

One other event to note...My hometown area suffered the loss of three people to a horrible house fire earlier this week. One was the dad of my friend Steven, who we lost last October. I have yet to write about that, not sure I will. I grew up with Steven. His mom was my 4th grade teacher. He helped with our soccer team. He visited me in college. I visited him in Seattle. He was with me when I threw out a first pitch dressed as a potato. He held regular BBQs at his house on Alki. He came to my wedding. I have one of his drawings hanging on my dining room wall. My heart aches his family as they now work through this loss.

Please keep the families of those lost in your prayers, too.

Ticker update II

Dad went in for his angiogram today. One artery is 99% blocked and another is about 50% blocked. One seems to have rerouted itself overtime -- which was nice of it to do -- however, it turns out the whole situation isn't fixable through the insertion of stents.

He's going to have open heart surgery.

We're not sure when. They'll schedule it next week.

My tummy hurts.

Please see this post and consider the suggestion.

Team Thompson in favor of Dr. Sharma

Team Thompson against pesky arteries.

Ticker update

Pops went to the doctor on Monday where it was decided he'll need an angiogram Thursday. This is where they send a scope up through a vein or artery to get a better look at what's going on in the heart.

Dad's in good spirits -- mostly because this will help stop any potential problem for the time being! If things are not working properly, they'll probably put in stents while they're doing the angiogram, that way they won't have to do an open heart.

Thanks, everyone, for keeping dad in your prayers!

To prove that he's in good spirits, dad sent me a video of a ridiculous couple getting married in a certain discount retailer. In the shoe department, no less. Bahahahahahahahahaaa!

You should probably watch it, too: Click here!

Your attention, please.

People. Hear me when I say this: Tell your parents they need to go get a stress test straight away. Especially if they think the pain they experience in their chest is a mere case of indigestion because they just ate a hearty lunch. Ok, tell them even if they don't think that, but it's probably worth getting things checked out every now and again.

I'm armed with more than four exhibits to back this up, but four should get the point across:

Exhibit A: Uncle Don.
I got a phone call last year from my mom saying that they were on their way to the hospital, basically following the ambulance containing Uncle Don, my mom's sister's husband. Uff da. He'd suffered a minor heart attack, which, thankfully, was fixed with the insertion of a few stents.

Exhibit B: My mother.
As you know, she had open heart surgery last November, complete with a 7-way bypass. Uff da. My now heart-healthy Mom and Uncle Don like to compare heart-healthy diets and talk about their daily, heart-pumping walks.

Exhibit C: Uncle Iver.
Aunt Camille, my dad's sister, and her hubby Iver leave their Tacoma-area home every spring to go to Arizona for spring training. They have a little house down there that I'm quite jealous of, considering Arizona has the heat I'm looking for in California. This last spring, Uncle Iver went to the dentist in Arizona and through a series of questions and, I'm sure, some tests, they decided right then and there he should be taken to the hospital for his own open heart procedure. In Arizona. At the end of spring training. So they had to stay there longer instead of going back to Tacoma. Uff da. They're home now, though, and his recovery seems to be going swimmingly.

Exhibit D: My father.
Dad called me tonight to tell me he'd taken it upon himself to get a stress test because he's only getting more and more tired watching mom and Uncle Don run circles around him. At first he said he blamed it on age and his post-boat-accident-injury-riddled body (something that happened when I was just a twinkle in his eye), but the more tired he got, the more he thought about the stress test.

Well, that and it's really no fun to watch someone go through open heart surgery. It's scary, it looks painful, you aren't supposed to eat mac & cheese as much afterward, I get light headed when I see someone I care for is in a hospital, and it's scary. Scary enough that I've listed it twice.

Well, dad went in for a stress test and they basically told him things could look better. We'll find out a little more early next week, but for now dad has been given a few instructions and medicine to help get things working better because not all the parts of his big, loving heart are being treated as equals by blood and oxygen. Soooo...this Monday he has a consultation to see what the ol' doc has to say. It's likely looking like medication and an altered diet will suffice, but he has a hunch it'll involve stents. This is a nicer alternative to open heart surgery, of course, and I'm happy the doctor didn't call him and tell him to get to the hospital asap like they did with my mom, who was referred to at the time as a "walking time bomb."

Uff da.

I'm proud of my daddy-o for getting checked out. It's not every day you'll find a big, strong man admitting he thinks his heart might need a bandaid.

Please keep L.J in your prayers as the docs take a closer look to see what's going on, and for any procedures & recovery, as simple or as complex as may be necessary, to go well so he can start power walking with the rest of his posse. Thank you :)

Team Thompson against pesky arteries

Oh those summer nights

Summer is half way over, can you believe it? This is probably the first year of my adult life I've felt I didn't have a summer and I've been trying to figure out why. I think it's because we haven't had a good streak of hot, summer-like weather...I love it when it's hot (most of the time) and just thinking about it makes me miss Washington and home sooo much. I'm sure it's also because of the "June gloom" that has stretched itself all the way to August, bringing us dreary, foggy mornings. Oh, and I sit in a building all day with no windows. OK, so there are plenty of reasons now that I've taken time to think about them. However, this also got me thinking about all particulars I miss about summers in Washington.

So, just so I could make you all miss Washington summers, particularly summers in eastern WA, I've put together a list of things I miss most. The majority are from my youth - seeing as that still lays claim to more than half of my years on earth - but some are more recent. Either way, I miss them all.

• The heat. I've been so cold lately and I realized it's because we haven't had a good streak of hot weather to warm my bones.
• Hearing Nanny say, "Oh! Look at the sunset!"
  
  
• The dry Horse Heaven and Rattlesnake Hills and the way they'd almost reflect the colors of the sunset
  
  
• Hot summer nights
  
• The smell of a freshly mowed orchard
• BBQs in my parents' backyard with all the family
  
  
• Trail walks with Erin
• Bike rides with Jeff
• The smell of Aunt Looie and Uncle Francis' house, swimmin' in their pool and drinking the cream soda and eating the cheese & crackers Nanny would pack for us to snack on during our swim
• Laying out on the roof or sidewalk to get a little color
• Lounging around the Rohde's pool during the day
  
• Lounging in the Rohde's hot tub at night
  
• Water fights in Steven's pool
• Eating a cherry, peach or pear right off the tree
• Driving down Frazer and honking at the Olmsteads
• Hanging out with the little peeps
  
  
• Timing or playing "runner" at Grandview Rotary swim meets
• Hosing off the patio and chairs before guests arrive for dinner on the patio at my parents house
• My mom's homemade salsa
  
• The "States' Day" parade and fair (on Labor Day) in Prosser
  
  
• Watching the Prosser fireworks from Nanny's backyard on the 4th of July
• Cherry harvest
  
  
• Working at Homestretch Espresso, not having a care in the world (at the time, I didn't realize how awesome it was to be 17...I had my license, I had a boyfriend -- sorry, dearest -- I had a sweet job at a sweet coffee shop where I got to drink coffee, make coffee and watch movies, I didn't have rent, I owned the car I drove, my mom made me dinner, I didn't have to worry about college applications (yet), I was going to be a senior in high school, I could drive to my friends' houses anytime, I worked at a coffee shop (I know I already said that, but damn I wish I still worked at that coffee shop...that was the life), I had friends with pools...I could go on and on, but I'll stop there and let you trace the trail back to your 17 year-old-life and ponder it's greatness. Sorry if it leaves you depressed).
• Riding in the 1-ton truck with dad when he takes a load of cherries to town
• Washing my car in the shade
• Mowing the lawn (I know it sounds crazy, but I like(d?) to do that)
• Orchard burn piles, hot dogs and s'mores
  
  
• Family vacations to Eagle Crest in Bend, Ore. or Neskowin, Ore.
• The Prosser Wine & Food Fair
• Sunsets in Pullman
• Thunder storms
  
  
• Seeing a weather report with highs in the upper 90s all week
• Mom's homemade ice cream (which reminds me I have an ice cream maker I should get out of the storage unit)
• The Grandview parade and fair - especially working the Rotary corn booth
  
• Starting the irrigation pump so we could turn on the yard and orchard sprinklers
  
• Outdoor movies at Redhook in Woodinville
• Walks around Greenlake
• Driving to Ellensburg to hang out with Sarah
  
• Roof top parties at our apartment overlooking Lake Union
  
  

I'm sure I'll think of more. I'll leave you to your reminiscing about how awesome it was to be 17.