I finally got a chance to add several pictures! It is labeled Ashley, Robert & Sydney's welcome home Party. I ended up doing a mixture some are not the welcome home party. I am waiting for my Girlfriend to send me more pictures of that, she took all the pictures. Anyway, Enjoy! Sydney is growing like crazy and is so precious! She also is saying Na-Na!!!
Hey I posted like 3 pictures. I journaled earlier and then I have been trying to post some pics. I only posted 3 but I will add to them. I posted 3 from the Welcome home party we had. I will do my best to keep adding to it over the next couple days. It is the second album at the top. Ok back to work for me! (((HUGS))) Lorie
It is hard to believe we are already entering fall, 3 months until Christmas just seems unreal! Everything here is caotic as usual. I am still super busy with work and trying really hard to help the kids find a house to buy. Ashley, Robert & Sydney are staying here with us, it is so great to have them here and to be able to see Sydney each morning with her bright smiling little face. It most certainly starts my day off great. I can feel horrible and then seeing her makes me smile. I also Love having Ashley back home, they are looking for a house to purchase but even with me being a Realtor it is hard to find one in there price range that is available. There are so many foreclosures out there, the homes that are actually seller occupied and move in ready for sale go really quickly. I watch the market like a hawk. There stuff is on a boat from Japan and will be here soon, we are trying to get them into a place so when it arrives it can go directly to there new home. We all love being together but they need to be able to get there own place and settle in. We had a huge welcome home party here at the house for them over the Labor Day Holiday. We had 65 people show up so it was a busy, busy weekend. We had a huge BBQ so it took Friday night, Saturday & Saturday evening to prepare for everyone on Sunday. I was one wiped out Mom by Sunday night! I also have been fighting the flu, I am doing better but it settled in my chest and I am still fighting a cough and all that. I am weighing about the same no real change there or any great news on all of the stuff that is going on with that. I am getting ready to make an appointment with Dr. Lamont to see about getting some blood work done and checking on the Bacteria issue in my stomach. The insurance coverage we have will be running out the end of October! I can't believe 6 months of continuation have already went by. I did manage to get coverage that started this month from a company called Cinergy. Has anyone heard of them or know much about them? I heard about them from my Mom and then have seen there advertisments on TV. I called and they are covering us and they are not ruling out any pre-existing conditions. I have looked at the policy and it is not as good of coverage as I have now but it is ALOT cheaper and will allow for me to get a second policy if I can find another company to be secondary. They are charging us $480.00 a month for our family VS the $1380.00 a month now which is so ridiculous and hard to manage financially. The big thing is they only pay up to $1000.00 a day if i am in the hospital and only cover me for 30 days of admissions per year. I hope I do not end up in the hospital over 30 days a year but with my track record it is very possible. I also know that $1000.00 a day won't cut it. My last stay was 13 days and it was $38,000.00. All of this really stresses me out but the good thing is at least I have some coverage to start with once this other drops off. I also have perscription coverage with this new plan and that alone will be a huge savings if I had no insurance my perscriptions run about $5000.00 per month. The new insurance does not cover all the meds I take but they cover about 75% of them. I am hoping I can talk to the Doctor and we can switch some stuff around so that I am able to have them all covered. I am also shopping for another policy to pick up the balance. It was no problem getting Cinergy to cover us so I am not sure if it will be an issue with a secondary company. I can always hope. I also checked out the Coverage on the hospitals I go to and the Doctors. Baylor Hospital is on there list and a couple of my Doctors are also. My Pain management Doctor is not on the list so it will be limited coverage on that. I am still checking on a lot of it. Carol I am sorry to hear Paige is not doing any better. Have that not figured anything out? Is she still in the Hospital as much or has she been able to stay out for awhile? I wish I had answers fo you. I keep her in my prayers all the time. I know the last few days I have been up at night and in the bathroom around the clock, it is exhausting sometimes. Diane, I am sorry finances are rough. I know the west coast has been hit really hard. When I went to Medford for the family reunion I could not believe how depressed the area was. Here in Arlington you have no idea things are bad, I see it in the Real Estate market with all the foreclosures and such but as far as people shopping, dining out, recreational stuff you have no idea. When we were in Medford the stores were dead the restaurants were empty and it was flat depressing. We went to the mall one day to buy a Birthday gift and it blew my mind NOBODY was there. I really saw how bad things are. I am going to try really hard to post some new pictures. I have to get to work but I will see what I can do so everyone can see how much little Sydney is growing! I will be thinking about everyone, you are in my thoughts and prayers Take care and as always I LOVE hearing from all of you. I will post again very soon!! Love Lorie
HI: I know it has been awhile since I have posted. I feel like there are not enough hours in the day lately! I finally have my family whole again, Ashley, Robert and my little Sydney came home this last Monday! It feels awesome. Sydney is just precious, she is growing so fast tomorrow she will be 6 months old. I have been doing pretty good, work is insane and I have a hard time keeping up. It is summer and the foreclosures are thick so it takes up a lot of hours. I am weighing about 104 so not a lot of change there but I am doing pretty good all and all. I went to Oregon with Eric July 22nd and flew back home on the 29th. We had a family reunion that was wonderful. My Dad was adopted and this was the first time ever I met a lot of his real Family. The same goes for my Dad, he met several that he had never met before. I have to say it was very emotional for me. I was extremely happy to meet everyone but also sad that so many years have went by before we all had this opportunity. How are all of you? I have talked to a few people over the phone and have tried to help anyway I can. I would love to hear form all of you. I am hoping that I can get Robert to help me set up new stuff on this site so it will function a lot better. I know he has a lot to do right now but soon, very soon we will do some new stuff so I am able to reach out more and share info. Ok, I have to get to work but I was bound and determined to stop for a moment to post. Love to all! Lorie
I wanted to let everyone know I posted new pictures of my precious and adorable Grandbaby Sydney! I am sure you can tell I am just a tiny bit proud! I am counting down the days 49 more days and they will be home! I am so very excited. I think about it all the time and it makes me smile just the thought of our Family being all together and me being able to watch Sydney grow and change.. Enjoy the pictures. Lorie
Hi, Carol and Diane thanks for the support and posting. Carol, I am so surprised over all this. I am going to print that off if it is ok with you and take it to my appointment with Dr. Lamont. I won't do it without your permission. I also am so glad that they are figuring everything out with Paige. How much weight has she lost? I am so very thin it is ugly. I am working so hard to put weight on. I am so shocked over what they have found with Paige or maybe I should say lack there of previously. I also have or had a bacterial infection that they discovered last time I was in. Dr. Mallat which is in the same office as Dr. Hamilton did an EDG last time I was in and discovered it. I imagine it was in my intestines as well. I am really glad Dr. Hamilton is doing Paige right, I had a bad experience with him back in 2003 or 2004 I can't remember so I never went back to him. My Arlington GI Doc that I had for 11 years referred me to him, He was not happy with him either. 1 or 2 years later Dr. Mallat came on the scene and had joined the practice so he referred me to him. I was very reluctant to go since I had already been to that Group and had a bad experience. I am glad I did or they might still be trying to find the cause of my Pancreatitis. Anyway, I am so glad that Paige is doing better. I will keep her in my prayers and pray that she gets better each and every day. Has she been able to reduce her Pain Meds and Nausea Medicine since they treated this? Please keep me posted as much as you can I really want to know how she does. Diane I can only imagine how beautiful it is up there. I am very envious of your nice weather and gorgeous sourroundings! How are you feeling? Don't over work yourself with all that yard work, take it easy and pace yourself. I hope all is well with everyone, I think of so many of you often. I also want to be able to help more so pass on my site if you hear of anyone needing some support. Take care enjoy your weekend. Love Lorie
I am finally out of the Hospital and up to posting. I am sorry I did not have someone log in and update the one's who have E-mailed and posted on-line. I was in a bad way for awhile and just did not get it updated. I was in Baylor and had Blood Work, EDG, CAT Scan & a Pic-Line. I was on a lot of meds & IV Fluids. I had horrible Nausea, Pain, Diareah etc.. The sedated EDG that Dr. Mallat did turned out to be helpful the Biopsy showed positive for H-Pylori Bacteria in my stomach so they loaded me up on Antibiotics which in turn gave me thrush again. I HATE thrush never had trouble with it until before my Transplant I got a bad staff infection with my port they were feeding me through and I had to be on the IV antibiotics for 6 weeks. Ever since then I even look at an antibiotic and I get Thrush. I am not sure if any of you have ever had it but it takes a long time before your mouth and tongue are close to normal again. Anyway, I am struggling with weight I was down to my scary weight when I went to the hospital 101 lbs and shrinking. I am in a zero and hate to buy anymore clothes then I absolutely have to because I am and WILL gain weight. Dr. Lamont said there also found a narrowing in something on my Cat Scan, I can't remember do to medication and Eric was not there when I spoke with him. I am going in to see him and will be reviewing all the tests, blood work and a new plan of action to get me well and on my feet. I am so very adamant that by the end of summer I wan't to be at least a 110 lbs and off all but what is absolutely, have to have medication. I am bound and VERY determined to put this whole health issue behind me. I have my Beautiful little Granddaughter Sydney coming home with Ashley and Robert on August 17th! Robert has received his approval for terminal leave. He will be done with his Active duty! He has saved some of his Leave over the last 2 to 3 years to be able to get out 6 weeks early. His active Leave is not actually over until the end of September. The way it will work is he will get his orders for leave and also his orders to come back home and be discharged. I am so excited I can not wait . I am very proud of all he has accomplished, he made sergeant in a short amount of time and has really worked hard. Ashley will be finishing college when she gets back. Ashley is going for her teaching degree. Japan only had so many classes available for her to take so she took those and is pretty close to having her associates degree. It won't be long and she will hopefully be able to live her passion and that is teach. Ashley has always loved kids and is excited to come home and finish that up. I will post pictures of Sydney as soon as I am done with this post. She is growing so fast, she is giggling and jabbers all the time. I can't believe she will be 4 months old in a week. I am doing better this week is better then last so I am gaining my strength back. I was scared, there were some things that were different and I was very worried. My energy level was so low there were times I felt if I did not sit I would pass out, I also had an over the top amount of nausea and it was so constant and so much worse. Then I had these Charlie Horse type binding cramps in my stomach. The cramps were not associated with Diareah or anything else they were just different. I told Dr. Lamont this so he has ran a whole new panel of blood work. I went on Friday and had it drawn so we will see what it shows if anything. Some of the other symptoms were weird a strange auroa with eye movement and I had hives a couple times. I have had hives on some different occassions and that is usually a trigger on how stressed my system is. I won't go on and on with the rest of the stuff but I was very worried. I am however better and working on gaining weight. It is so true when people say becareful for what you wish for, I used to wish I was skinny and not have to worry about weight gain! Ha well I do believe I received that wish. I can get by at 118 lbs even though that is still under weight for me I would be thrilled. I should weigh 125 lbs, that is a healthy weight. Today I weighed 103lbs. I have some ideas of things I would like to try and see if I will be able to get the Doctor's to go along with me. I will elaborate more on this after I see Dr. Lamont and discuss some ideas and possible beginning solutions with him. Carol, I feel so bad about Paige. I don't understand what all is taking place there. I am glad to hear that Paige is seeing Dr. Levy and they are running test's and trying to resolve what all is happening. I really, really would love to hear how she is doing. I am sorry I have not been more help to her. I wish I had answers, I do know we are in uncharted waters being post transplant and having the issue's we are both having. We have some of the same common complaints and issues with our bodies post transplant, then there are also some extreme different problems. I am anxious for all of you to get some answers to what is taking place with Paige. I hope they can figure it out and hopefully resolve it. Please let me know and if you do not mind post if you would so the people that do read and don't post can follow the results of what they find. If you are to busy I understand don't worry about posting. You can always E-mail me and I can post it. I hear from a lot of people through my E-mail instead of them posting. I wish I could get more people to post, I think it would help a lot of others. I have plans to jazz up this site when Ashley and Robert get back from Japan. Robert is very, very good on computers and I am going to have him take over as the administrator, the person I have now is not my favorite person and he does not care about the site. I am however so Thankfull my Sister got it all started for me and we got to the point we are now. I have just not been able to really get along with who she hired and have not changed anything for fear of bringing the site down. Anyway, when Robert gets back I will be able to change things so I can mass E-mail and let all members know I have posted. I am also going to change it so it has more of a message board. I think people feel this is more my personal journal and not a place for them to post. More activity would help everyone. I am going to close for now but first I wanted to say Hi Diane, I wanted you to know I appreciate you checking on me and giving me as much advice as you can. I honestly do appreciate it. How are you feeling? I hope good, I bet it is so gorgeous right now at your place. I would Love to be able to see that area of the States again! It is most certainly gorgeous and such a true breath of fresh air. I have some work to catch up on but I am still going to try and post some of Sydney's pictures. I will post to let you all know that I got them up. Take care all of you, I will fill you in on my lab results as soon as I find out how it looks. I am hoping that it all looks good. Love Lorie
Hi to all, I have been working a lot but also not feeling well. I have been loosing weight again. I have had progressivly worse nausea, vomiting and diareah the pain is bad and it is different and weird. I am certainly not having a good time with all this. I have called the Doctor and he wanted to have home health care come out week before last and pump me up with IV's and all. I asked him not to , I told him that if I felt like I was in a danger zone I would let him know. I do not want to have to go back through the home health care process. I know it is not going to help the nausea vomiting and everything else that goes along with this. I know that this all is taking it sweet time about turning around. I have to say that when I look back 1 year ago I was doing far worse and I had not progressed to this point at all. I had just gotten my feeding tube removed. I had also just gotten past the 10 week mark on my 3rd major Surgery for this. I did get my insurance extended but they by law only have to continue it for 6 months. That time will go fast so I am working on what to do next. Nobody wants to cover me. On a good Note my Daughter Ashley & family will be HOME in 12 weeks! I am so excited that I will have them all home again. It has been so very long. I miss them all but especially my little Sydney she is already 3 months old. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I Love and miss her. Ashley said she is really a good baby. *** Also my freind Paige that has had the same type transplant as me is really having a rough time. I have been talking to her through E-mails and she needs to find a new Doctor here. I need everyone to keep her in your prayers. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. Paige lives in Paris TX. She is able to go to Dallas. There has been a conflict in her treatment and she really is struggling. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. ** I will post more about it later. I do have to run, I am trying so very hard to press forward and not let this being sick part effect everything I do. It is hard a lot of days but I am getting through it. I know if things get worse I will have to reasses everything. ((((((HUGS TO ALL)))) Lorie
I have not posted for a bit there has been so much going on. I have my work that needed to be caught up and it has been insanely busy. It is always really hard on me when I get this busy. I get it done no matter what. I have to work to pay the bills. I also had a fight with our insurance situation. If you look back a couple months ago I posted about it and Diane helped me with a couple of links. To make a long story short, my husbands previous employer denied us the right to the continuation of coverage. I sent my certified letters and when they received them they wrote back saying no. I explained about the Texas continuation of coverage law on the cobra, and they said the only way to do that was 1. If we were divorcing or Divorced. 2. Death of my spouse. 3. Disabled and I was none of the three so I could not continue my coverage. I of course freaked out and completely stressed out which has brought on an increase of pain. I finally decided that even though I knew they were wrong the only way to resolve it quickly was to contact our attorney and let her jump on them. I had to do something I had hardly anytime left before our insurance was going to expire. This worked, they called and apologized to me and said I was right and my insurance would be extended for 6 more months. I initially thought it was 18 months but I was wrong on that part. This will at least give me time to try and find someone to cover me. Ha like anyone exists! I have been having pain issue's my pain management thinks it is deep adhesions. I am not sure if it is a partial obstruction or adhesions. I am just trying to press on and hopefully it will settle down. I have had an increase in vomiting as well. I have a lab slip I need to go in and have my blood drawn for Dr. Lamont and then go see him. I hope all of you are doing ok, I do not hear much from anyone lately. I am sure everyone is busy. I need to get my mass E-mail set back up through the site so I can send out reminders and info when I post new pictures or journal. I can't wait until my Son In-Law Robert gets back home from Japan, he is going to take over being the administrator ion my website! he is great at computers and he will help me change things up and make it so much better and able to reach more people. The guy I have now I do not like but he is the one who my Sissy hired to help build the site. I need him until I have someone else that can help me. I am counting down the days until they all get home, Ashley is doing good and little Sydney is growing bigger. I will have to post pictures soon. Ok, back to work for me but please take care and let me know how all of you are doing. Love to All Lorie
I am still in Japan and doing well. I have been busy helping Ashley with Sydney. They are both doing great, Sydney is gaining weight and growing it is hard to believe she is now 19 Days Old. She weighed 5 lbs 7 oz last weigh in so she is gaining and almost back up to her birth weight. She will go back to the Doctor tomorrow and I know she has gained so all is well there. Ashley is healing up and getting her energy back as well. Robert had to go back to work so it is just us girls during the day. It was really great that I am here now Robert made Sergeant and they did his pinning cermony. Ashley got to do the pinning of his new rank so it was really great to be a part of that. Robert deserves it he has been waiting a while to make Sergeant they have had rumor in the air for a while so it is awesome that it finally happened. I will post again soon and I will also be posting more pictures very soon. Love to All Lorie
I am still super busy with work and trying really hard to help the kids find a house to buy. Ashley, Robert & Sydney are staying here with us, it is so great to have them here and to be able to see Sydney each morning with her bright smiling little face. It most certainly starts my day off great. I can feel horrible and then seeing her makes me smile. I also Love having Ashley back home, they are looking for a house to purchase but even with me being a Realtor it is hard to find one in there price range that is available. There are so many foreclosures out there, the homes that are actually seller occupied and move in ready for sale go really quickly. I watch the market like a hawk. There stuff is on a boat from Japan and will be here soon, we are trying to get them into a place so when it arrives it can go directly to there new home. We all love being together but they need to be able to get there own place and settle in. 
and I have a hard time keeping up. It is summer and the foreclosures are thick so it takes up a lot of hours. I am weighing about 104 so not a lot of change there but I am doing pretty good all and all. I went to Oregon with Eric July 22nd and flew back home on the 29th. We had a family reunion that was wonderful. My Dad was adopted and this was the first time ever I met a lot of his real Family. The same goes for my Dad, he met several that he had never met before. I have to say it was very emotional for me. I was extremely happy to meet everyone but also sad that so many years have went by before we all had this opportunity.
. I am very proud of all he has accomplished, he made sergeant in a short amount of time and has really worked hard. Ashley will be finishing college when she gets back. Ashley is going for her teaching degree. Japan only had so many classes available for her to take so she took those and is pretty close to having her associates degree. It won't be long and she will hopefully be able to live her passion and that is teach. Ashley has always loved kids and is excited to come home and finish that up. I will post pictures of Sydney as soon as I am done with this post. She is growing so fast, she is giggling and jabbers all the time. I can't believe she will be 4 months old in a week. 
he is great at computers and he will help me change things up and make it so much better and able to reach more people. The guy I have now I do not like but he is the one who my Sissy hired to help build the site. I need him until I have someone else that can help me. I am counting down the days until they all get home, Ashley is doing good and little Sydney is growing bigger. I will have to post pictures soon. Ok, back to work for me but please take care and let me know how all of you are doing.