Team Tami

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Hope for a smoother ride.......

HI All.....Tami is out of the hospital again....oh how we hope and pray she could stay out of there and just heal......Amy said she was feeling much better and acting like her regular self again.  Madison is enjoying her mission home experience and is excited about the future, Tim is working and the girls are going to school....we hope for a smooth ride for a few weeks.....we can only hope.......

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Roller Coaster Ride continues..........

Hi All......I started the last blog with...."Another roller coaster ride".......welll......we might as well start like that again because nothing seems to be going smoothly.  I came home a week ago Tuesday night and Amy arrived in Massachusetts that same evening.  Her first few days were very similar to my first few days out there.  Tami was very tired and just sleeping.....Then Amy called me Last Saturday and told me Tami had a fever again....It was over the limit that Dr. Lambert had given me.  Tami just wanted to sleep but thankfully Dr. Lambert called Amy back and told her to get her to the emergency room again.

 Dr. Lambert was at a symposium and out of town but her team took care of Tami.  Dr. Lambert supposses that Tami was never free of the infection from her blood clot and it just came back and this time it was in her kidneys and blood.  Tami has been very sick....she said she only remembers being that sick one other time.  But yesterday Amy e-mailed us and said, "A Much Better Day".  We were so thankful for that.  Dr. Lambert gave Tami some Orange flavored Metamucil and Amy said she was totally enjoying that prick to her taste buds!...Orange Flavored!  She so enjoyed that.

  Dr. Lambert also said she has another trick up her sleeve to try to block the leakage Tami is still experiencing.  So they'll try that in a short while.  The last one they did has not helped her a lot but hopefully the next one will.  All in all....as the little problems come to many of us every day.....I've heard some say. "Well, it's not like Tami so I can handle this"......she is helping many of us with the troubles of life just by summoning the strength to keep fighting......."Fight To The Finish".......As Tami was so very sick a few days ago, her fight had just about gone out of her, but with a little more energy, her fight is still on and we still have HOPE.......She finds a way to "GO WAY DOWN DEEP" to find the push to carry on.  We hope all is going well for those of you who read this....Amy's sister Taylor is going on a mission in May to New Mexico.  Tami and Amy skyped in the hospital and they were able to be a part of that fun experience of opening a mission call.......We are so glad that things have smoothed out a little and we continue to hope for a smoother ride for her shortly.  Lana is going out to Mass. on Monday and will stay for two more weeks.  I can't believe that my 2 weeks and Amy's 2 weeks have come and gone.  We're all hoping for a few weeks of healing and peace.
Love, Judy

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Major storms.........of Living and Life

Hi again from Woosta....

Well another roller-coaster ride from back east, including a major Noreaster that shut down schools, government and mass transportation including airports for 3 days.

Tami was very weary and tired when we got back here....I was somewhat concerned for her overall lack of energy and pain levels.  She thought she had strained a muscle in her groin when she arrived in Salt Lake but that pain kept getting worse and worse.  Tami forced herself to attend a fireside in Weston the Saturday after we got back because Dr. Lambert was taking her mother and Tami wanted to meet her.  We drove about 45 minutes away but Tami knew she was getting to the point that she couldn't walk.  We really enjoyed the musical fireside and meeting ward members and Dr. Lambert and her mom, but I believe Tami had to take an extra pain pill or two to make it there.  She worked hard to be able to go to church the next day, but the pain had escalated and Tami seemed soooo tired.  We also noticed that the area of pain in her leg had swollen and was extending inflammation down to her knee.

 I finally called Dr. Lambert for the second Time last sunday and she told me, "If you're worried Judy, take her right to the emergency room.  It was 11:00 at night and Tami wanted to just stay in bed, but I finally said, "Come on Tam, we have to go."  After spending the whole night in the Emergecy room, they concluded that Tami had a blood clot with a surrounding infection in her upper leg.  So the last week we've been in 3 different rooms on two different floors and she's had multiple contrast Tests and x-rays.  The pain with her blood clot caused her to be unable to put any weight on her leg and more problems than she had anticipated.

 The contrast cat-scans showed some fistulas that Dr. Lambert might be able to fix this coming Wednesday with a non-invasive surgery.  She said it's like putting some glue in some openings she has and hope that the openings heal-up before the glue disintegrates....She feels optimistic about this and so Tami thinks maybe the blood-clot brought about some ways to ultimately get a bit better.  There is also some concern about some spreading of the cancer, but like Tami.....we have to forget about the distant mountains to climb and just climb the ones in front of us.....and we talked and cried and decided....if we worry too much about the future....we miss this very day and the people we can love and share within it.

We watched the snowstorm from our 7th floor window and 24 hours of non-stop wind and snow.  The roads were shut down so I had prepared to spend the night at the hospital.  What we hadn't expected was the fact that Tami was released from the Hospital on Saturday Night but we were unable to go back to the Hope Lodge because they were still snowed-in and snow plows had made getting back impossible....so sadly...we spent the second night doing a sleep over and getting very little sleep  Finally at 4:00 today, the snow plows had cleared the parking lot and we were able to get in.  Quite an adventure in the snow. 

I'm heading back home on Tuesday and Amy, Abby's daughter who lived here for a few years and actually helped us many times with rides to and from the airport, is coming the same day.  Her sister Kemper who lives in Nashua New Hampshire will bring her down.  Nashua is only about 40 miles away from the lodge.  What a blessing to have Amy come and help Tami.  We feel very blessed that she was able to come and spend two or three weeks out here.  At that point we hope Tami is able to be a bit more independent and feeling better.

Tami has been melancholy as she thinks about home and the girls and Madison leaving on Wednesday.  She's excited for Mattie and her new adventure, but sad about not being there and missing her.  We've studied conference talks and scriptures and cried and enjoyed the peace of the spirit as we've pondered and she's thought about Madison. Her heart has again been full as she has considered all who have helped Madison on her way.

 We can hear the snow-removal trucks still working outside as Tami works to get her TPN ready for infusion.  We are grateful for the Cancer society and the Hope Lodge....It's not home, but what a blessing to have a place to stay, people to meet who are going through their own tests, and people who care.  Can you imagine the costs of room and board out here?  I can't.  We feel blessed.