A Great Loss

Just before my hiatus {the main reason for the said hiatus} ensued a couple of weeks ago, our family found out that Caleigh's great grandma, my Gimmi, had cancer. Brain cancer that had spread from her lung cancer, that had spread all over her weak body. At a young 66 years old this was a shock to our family.

The constant fight or flight mentality that I have been consumed with for the past 2 years kicked in only to be thrown into a wall by this terrible term cancer. I researched the first couple of days and after our family talked to many doctors the words 'there's nothing we can do' came to the surface. Of course they wanted to do radiation, a small amount to help the tumors in her head shrink a bit so that the headaches would get better. One week of radiation came and went. We were told she only had 6 months to a year to live. How do you deal with a diagnosis like that? You just can't give up? There has to be something to fix it?

There wasn't.

One week after the radiation was done things started to deteriorate fast. Gimmi was confused and had trouble getting around. Today, after a full life, and a strong peace about her next step, Gimmi lost her short battle with cancer.

I don't want to dwell on the three weeks of cancer. I won't. I want Caleigh to remember the positive.

Dear Caleigh,
Today your Gimmi went to be with God, the Angels & your Papaw. I'm saddened that you didn't get to spend more time with her. She loved you so much. She was so proud of you and everything you have achieved in your short life so far. She prayed for you daily. She asked about you constantly and she visited as often as she possibly could. She was a good woman, wife, mother and grandmother. We went to visit her this past Saturday, and I thank God we made the trip. Yes, she was a little confused, but she held you, kissed your forehead and smiled often. I'm so glad we made the trip. Caleigh, your Gimmi loved you with all her heart and she will be smiling down on you from the heavens.
She will be missed greatly, loved tremendously, and cherished forever.

Hiatus

A lot has been going on lately. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and anxious. So I have decided to take a small hiatus from blogging. It should be a short one, but I just wanted to let our devoted readers know.

Caleigh is still doing great and it's not that there isn't anything to blog about. I just need a break. Heck, I've been doing this at least 3 times (if not more) a week for the past year and a half.

So a breather it is. Keep checking back with us. No News Is Always Good News With Caleigh.

The Chronicles of a Sweet Potato

Oh the sweet Potatoes. What a lovely vegetable. All orange and sweet. I like them, Eric likes them, Caleigh, well........ it isn't pretty.

Wednesday was the first time we tried sweet potatoes. I paired them with a mushed up banana. Caleigh seems to get bored with just one flavor during each feeding. She loved the banana and sweet potato combo. I thought we had a new favorite. I was sadly mistaken. That afternoon Caleigh had two more rounds of sweet potato.

The next morning Caleigh woke up feeling horrible. After some pushing and grunting; I made a medical diagnosis, Constipation and Gas Pains. She screamed the whole day. Didn't nap well at all and her g-button was leaking terribly from being backed-up. It had to come out somewhere and based on the pile of laundry I have to do, It was all out the button.

Let me interject here, that same day I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting ready to film a video at our house, Friday morning, for the March of Dimes. More about this later. So I was cleaning and straightening things. Somehow, I decided it was a great day to steam clean the neglected carpets. Why do I do this to myself. I wanted to make a good impression I guess. Having Caleigh doesn't leave a lot of time to really clean the house. I'm sure it's like that with most normal kids too. Right? So, anxiety set in about 2pm on Thursday. I still had half the house to clean, I needed to pull together pictures for the video and I still needed to read over the questions that would be asked during the video. I get overwhelmed easy. Caleigh's Grammie and Papaw where there to help and I probably would have shut down if they weren't there. Oh, yea, the night before, a lawnmower in Eric's truck leaked gasoline and made the whole house smell like gas. Really bad. So we opened windows, pulled out box fans and tried to air it out. Something else for the list. Overwhelmed.

I called our GI doc that afternoon to get the nurses opinion. She said to just watch her and let them know if it wasn't better by the next day. I gave a dose of Miralax that afternoon too. 6pm came around and I decided to give Caleigh a warm bath. I spent 30 minutes massaging her tight big belly. It seemed to help her feel better and she went down to bed fairly easy. I went into Caleigh's bedroom and started to steam the carpet. Unfortunately, the belt on the cleaner broke. I gave up and called Eric at work. Then Caleigh woke up screaming. I was pretty close to a nervous break down so I asked him to come home. When he walked in the door I was bouncing Caleigh in her bouncy chair with one foot and mixing TPN at the same time. He took over with Caleigh. She eventually fell back asleep just long enough for us to move all the furniture back and get settled in bed. Caleigh was up all night long and film crew got to our house at 9:30 the next morning.

Caleigh won't be having anymore sweet potatoes.......

More about the video soon.....