Bobbie Is Home

I had butterflies in my tummy driving by myself to pick her up. "Is she really ready?", kept swimming in my head!

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1514314/answered_prayers.html?cat=5

Prayers said, candles lit, positive thoughts and messages conveyed and finally

Bobbie is Home!!

My OWOH Prize Arrives & Another Update on Bobbie

Woo Hoo, My OWOH giveaway arrived today. Edrian was so kind to also send along a postcard and her business card showing off her artwork. She is just a wonderful illustrator. And I love her blog. I tried both taking a picture and scanning the items and I just could not get the sparkle of the bracelet to show in the pic. And the pretty gold foil pouch is just icing on the cake. The bracelet looks really small but it fits just fine, and it's lavender. I love it! Thanks Edrian!!

*************

And now for another update on Bobbie. She has now been transferred to the inhospital occupational rehab unit on the 4th floor. She is to wear her street clothes and will get more intensive therapy. And, they have convinced her she must quit smoking and she has agreed. They will be helping her with that too. She mentioned a patch. Her dear friend Tracy took her clothes and washed them to remove the cigarette smell and sprayed her shoes down with Lysol. He has agreed to quit smoking too. Now to get my son-in-law to agree to quit also, that would be great. We are looking at the rest of this week in the rehab unit working with the left hand and learning ways to get around. She handled the stairs well today and is walking just fine on linoleum and carpeting. :-) She is already practicing writing her name with her right hand. I am so glad they are teaching her these things now.

You all have a bright and beautiful day tomorrow and a calm and peaceful evening tonight.

Hugs,

Tess

Bobbie is Out of ICU

Please read an update on Bobbie at my AC site posted Feb. 20th first if you haven't yet here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1496189/update_on_bobbie_post_surgery.html?cat=5

Then see the photo update of my granddaughters first visit to see mommy since the surgery (below). The visit went well. Bobbie is out of ICU and in her own room.
Raven wasn't shocked at all to see her mommy without hair. We prepared her by showing previously taken pictures.

Bobbie has missed her little girl and so enjoyed her visit even though it really tired her out.


Gifts for Bobbie to brighten her room. The bear is a Ty Bear named The Beginning. We thought the name was perfect and so did Bobbie.

Bobbie gives a smile for all of the wonderful prayers, thoughts and words of encouragement she has received from family and friends here and in blog land. The black eye just appeared a few days ago as well as swelling and bruising on the right side of face. We are told this is normal.



The sun setting on a beautiful day.

Bobbie can walk, talk, use the bathroom and feed herself. Praise God!!

She still has trouble with some paralysis of the left hand and arm but can move it and is working with occupational therapy to strengthen it. This morning she said she fed herself breakfast and didn't even have to change her gown afterwards. She has stated she had no idea using a spoon could be so hard. She now understands what babies learning to use utensils must go through when we adults are impatient with them. I told her to take all the time she needs to master that arm/hand. Her walking is somewhat slow but she is gaining speed daily.

Thank You all for your wonderful gift of prayers and encouragement for us.

Flowers from her sister.

Please continue to pray for Bobbie's swift recovery............

Bobbie Is Doing Great!!!!!

Chuck and I are back home for a few. We left Robert in Topeka with Bobbie and a dear friend there, Tracy, will bring him home tomorrow night. Life still goes on even when we want or need to be with loved ones. Work calls for all of us and he is needing to see their daughter. As for Bobbie.........

She is doing great. I/we want to thank you all for your many prayers and positive thoughts for Bobbie. We also need to Thank Tracy and Brian for the use of their home so we would not have the expense of a motel. The pre-surgery time took about 90 minutes and then they called to say the surgery had started. About an hour and a half later a surgical nurse called the waiting room attendant to tell us that Bobbie's vital stats were steady and that the tumor is out. The surgeon was able to get it all without any trouble. About an hour later we were called to the conference room to speak to the surgeon. He said the surgery went extremely well and that the tumor was smooth. This is a real good thing as it means it will probably be benign. Of course they will have the tumor tested. He said she would spend 2 or 3 days in ICU before moving to a regular room.

Bobbie checked in yesterday at registration at 7AM and we gave our hugs and kisses before she was taken away at about 10:30 AM. We finally got to see her at about 3:30 that afternoon briefly in the hallway and an hour later we were allowed to file in 2 or 3 at a time to see her. She was very groggy of course and went in and out on us but all got to hear her voice and most got her to open her eyes. There were 8 of us their and many close by their phones waiting to hear. I apologize for not getting online sooner.

I can honestly say hearing Bobbie say "Hi Mom" after the surgery was more joyful to me than even that first cry the day she was born. She knew my fear that she would wake and not know me. She knew all of us and seems to be the "old Bobbie" again. Her feisty, humorous, lovable, obnoxious self is back; praise God. I love her so and can only say that if you have a loved one that you are at odds with, get over it and get back to loving again.

Bobbie had no movement and showed no signs of feeling on her left side the day of the surgery (remember the tumor was on the right frontal lobe). Today she is wiggling her left toes and moving the left leg. She is also talking without slurred speech and without repeating herself over and over. Her left eye was weak and did not open as much as the right at first but by early afternoon both eyes were opening the same. She still has not moved her left arm but has had some pain in the left wrist (the iv's are there) so this is a good sign that maybe it is just taking longer for the arm to wake up. A cat scan of her head was done this morning and the nurse said the Dr. was pleased with it. Her first meal was baked chicken with over fried potatoes, carrots and a salad. She didn't eat much but she did eat some and drank all of her tea, AND, she kept it down. Robert is keeping almost hourly notes in her journal and the first meal note includes a "What?" type of comment. While we were feeding Bobbie (She isn't allowed to sit up more than a 30 degree angle right now so I offered to feed her and she accepted.) she made a funny face and then said she has a loose tooth. She even reached in and tried to pull it. We stopped her and told her to finish eating on the other side. The loose tooth is on the right side. A few bites later she handed Robert a piece of her tooth. Casualty of the first meal, :-) I know it doesn't sound funny but she thought it was and after some chuckles we told her to slow down and of course she blamed it on me with a wink to Robert. Like I said, my "old Bobbie" is back.

She will stay in ICU until tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon and then may get moved to a regular room. We've had contact with the sitter daily and she spoke with her little girl last night and again today. I took my camera and took photo's for Bobbie's journal and to bring back to show my granddaughter. She was so pleased and even laughed at seeing that mommy really is bald. She wants her funny head wrap to keep but only after we wash it. Silly child!! :-)I've already started thinking on scarves and hats and such she will need for coming home.

As joyful as I feel I know it's not all over and she will have lots of healing time to go through, plus the issue of the left arm and how weak will the left side be once she is gotten to her feet. I want to thank you all for the wonderful blessing we have received from your many prayers and ask that you keep Bobbie in your prayers a while longer. I apologize if this seems a bit long or jumbled up, I am tired and still trying to make sense of it all myself.

Many Blessings to you all,

Hugs,
Tess
Both photos were taken today, Feb. 18th.

Circle of Friends

Circle of Life

May your circle of friends

surround you,

may the circle be

never-ending too.

And as the morning

drops of dew

embrace the petals

so may your

cirlce of family

embrace you.

For it's from the love

and laughter of others

that we create our

circle of life.

And it's this

never-ending circle

that I wish

for me and for you.

Teresa Mahieu

copyright, 2-16-2009

Bobbie's surgery is tomorrow at 10AM. Please continue to pray for her and for the surgeon's.

Pray that we are able to accept God's plan faithfully.

I want to thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers during this time. You have all shown me what a wonderfyul world we live in. Bobbie thanks you all too.

Tess

A Basket of Hearts Valentine

My newest journal page drawn and written with colored pencils.
Valentines Day shouldn't be just about romance. Celebrate the day showing your love for family, friends and neighbors. Listen to a child's excitement about reconnecting with a BFFL. And if you get to spend the day, or just part of the day, with your one true love all the better. Spread hearts around on Valentines Day and everyday and you will help make the world a better place.

BFFL = Best Friends For Life

I added a few of my families BFFL's at the bottom of the page.

A Heartfelt Happy Valentines Day wish to my dear friends here in blogland.

Hugs,
Tess

A new journal page done with colored pencils by flashlight. I didn't want to turn the overhead light on in the middle of the night. I had indigestion last night so had to sit up a while.

There is a new update on Bobbie at my AC site. Just click on her name to go there. And thank you for all of your uplifting messages and prayers.

Have a great day,

Tess

Healing Rays of Sunshine

This drawing from a past post .............

Became this painting. It is acrylic paint, glitter gel pens and Pilot Ball Ink Pen on a 9" X 12" artists canvas board. I am pretty happy with how it has turned out. I need to seal it still and maybe tweak the tree trunks a bit but other than that I think it is done. This will go to Bobbie.
I am now doing the same on water color paper with watercolor pencils. I forgot to do the background first so it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out. I refuse to start over as it is almost completely drawn in and I've already started adding some water. It's the sky part that I forgot to do. The sun and grassy hill is done and most of the flowers and I started the trees already when I realized the background is still white. Maybe I'll just add a bit of blue here and there and it will look a bit like clouds. Hmmm!

Bobbie had a good day today. She woke energetic and talkative and my son-in-law needed to study for a test so after a bit of visiting with her he took her to visit a friend and I picked her up and took her home when I got off work. She was still doing good so I took her with me to run an errand and then home to see her little one (the sitter was with her doing homework). It's nice to have a good day, I hope she has more of them between now and the surgery date. It is still Feb. 24th. Robert is at work and the sitter is going to fix supper and feed her before she completely tires out. She'll call Robert at work if she needs to go to sleep before he gets home from work to say goodnight.

"Always kiss me goodnight or at the least tell me you love me." I have no idea who said that but it's a great quote.

Remember to hug your loved ones real tight before you say goodnight,

Tess

Tag, Your It!

I was tagged by Martha Lever of ArtduJour last week. My instructions are to post the 4th photo from my 4th folder so here it is. I acquired some license plate tags for recycling and came up with altering some by painting and adding some collage elements. It was lots of fun. I gave my mom one that says Honey and I gave it a design with her being the Queen Bee. She loved it and has it on her back porch which is her main entrance. This one is still for sale in my etsy shop as well as a few others. I thought it would be great in a kids room. (I just noticed the etsy posts expire in a few days, eek.) I found I have a few more altered tags I should post in my etsy shop too.

So now to tag four more. I think it will be these fine ladies:

Delila of Robin and the Sage

She creates such wonderful things of and with nature. I love how soothing a visit to her blog is. I bought a lovely necklace from her for myself this past Christmas at her etsy shop.

Jessica over at vol.25
Jessi is a stay at home mom of 2 adorable children and she is very creative. I love her designs and she is always coming up with fresh items for her etsy shop. She even has free downloads on her site. Do check out her blog.

Katie of joyously becoming

I love Katie's mixed media art. I enjoy reading about the art retreats she gives and dreaming of one day attending one myself.

Linda over at 13th street studio

Linda is a wonderful textile artist. She has several of the biggest and prettiest birds and loves sharing about them. I love seeing her quilts and reading about how she is developing ideas. If you love all things textile you'll love her 13th street studio blog.

Ok, so that is it. I hope I did this right and I hope you will visit these fun blogs.

Tess

I'm using my new fabric journal.

Praise God the washing machine is fixed and drain problem has been solved for now so that I can wash laundry at home. It's hard to double task at the laundromat when there are so many other things needing to be done at home.

I've been working on the healing rays of sunshine painting now and then. No picture yet though.

Anne at Gaale Creative posted about wordles and I found them interesting. I made one for Bobbie. Link is below....

title="Wordle: Bobbie wordle"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/520447/Bobbie_wordle"
alt="Wordle: Bobbie wordle"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

I found that Wordle site a fun distraction.

Bobbie has fallen twice so far this weekend. She seems to get weaker every day. The 24th seems like an eternity away. And of course now there are Non-insurance issues my son-in-law is dealing with. Ugh!!

Thank you all for praying for Bobbie, please continue.

Tess

A Quick Update on Bobbie

February 3rd, 2009

Greetings all,

First, thank you for the many prayers for Bobbie. Please keep them going/coming.

Yesterday was a long and tiring day. We made it safely to Topeka for the MRI and a friend of Bobbies in the medical field that knows his way around St. Francis arrived shortly after we did and before the MRI. Which turned out to be a blessing as the double Valium dose pretty much made her limp. The MRI people were "little" and would not have been able to handle lifting her. Tracy and Robert were able to assist with getting her into position. She did move some during the MRI but the neurosurgeon said with her tremors he could not fault her that. The images were clear enough for their purposes and he went forward with his evaluation, findings and suggestions. During his check-up with her he detected a weakness in her left side. The tumor is on the right frontal lobe just past the forehead to mid top of the head and from the hair part to the right about half way towards the ear. She thought her brain looked like lasagna. The nurse had to give her coffee to wake her up, and it did, so that the doctor was certain she understood everything. The mass is about the size of a golf ball and has no tentacles. One core area at the bottom of the mass otherwise it looks smooth. This is a good thing from what the surgeon indicated. She has been put on dilaudid and he thinks she is having mini seizures and plus seizures are a possible result of any type of brain surgery. She will stay on it until at the least six months after the surgery.


The soonest date available for both doctors was Feb. 24th. Dr. Eberling will be her attending surgeon and Dr. Fritz will be the assisting surgeon. Dr. Fritz operated on my husband in Dec. of 2007. This seemed to make Bobbie happy and I have to admit I was glad to hear he will be with her too as a trust has already formed with him as he helped Chuck. The surgery is scheduled for February 24th. They are going to try for sooner but we are to assume at this point that is the date. The kids have no medical insurance and thus far the type of treatment they have received I have been ashamed of. We are told the hospital here never should have let her leave the E.R. when the ct scan showed a tumor. No one seems to understand why she was continually given meds and more meds, psychotropics and pain pills, without further tests ordered before now. (That is all said and done and we must move forward.) At St. Francis they were treated with kindness, respect and told that "the non-insurance situation can be dealt with at a later date, first we've got to concentrate on getting Bobbie better". I highly recommend this hospital as twice now I've had a loved one there for evaluation and received exemplary care both times.


Bobbie is barely able to write her name let alone keep a journal, however I did purchase her a small notebook and decorated it up a bit. I added some quotes, stamped flowers and stickers throughout and we used it yesterday to write notes in and dates, meds, etc. Robert and I will continue this for her throughout this ordeal so that she will have something to look through in later years and see what all she went through that she may not remember. She was going to show Raven all the things in the notebook today. I expressed to my granddaughter last night that it is mommies journal, not hers. She is a scared little girl as they have now told her what is happening with her mommy. I guess the journal was more for me in a way as it was a distraction on Sunday night and Monday morning while waiting for the time to pick her up and head to Topeka.

Please continue to pray for Bobbie and pray that God will be guiding the surgeons hands....

Many Hugs,
Tess