Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Happy Birthday to me!
Well, today is my 31st birthday and it was pretty quiet. Jeff made breakfast for me, which was nice. I had an appointment in the afternoon at MD Anderson, so we left around lunchtime to head that way. My doctor was over an hour late, which was kind of annoying, but what are you going to do. He said that the xray I took today looked good, nothing new growing there, the tumor they took out in December was the same kind of cancer I had before, which was epitheloid spindle cell sarcoma, and the margins were clear. I don't have to see him anymore unless I have new tumors that need removing, so hopefully that means never. But who knows. Then Jeff and I went out to a very nice steak restaurant called Perry's and had a wonderful dinner. We didn't bring the camera, but I did get a picture taken of me when we got home. All in all, it was a great birthday.
Monday, January 12, 2009
What's been happening...
Well, we sure have been busy these last few weeks. I'll try to give a brief synopsis of what we have been doing and then get to the pictures.
Jeff was working the week of Christmas, so we spent a quiet week at home and just spent Christmas with the two of us. It was nice. The Saturday after Christmas, we packed up the car and the dogs and headed to Fredericksburg for Jeff's brother's wedding. The wedding was simple, yet very nice. All the family and close friends were there and it was nice to see and visit with everyone. Carrie's husband Chris actually made it in time for the wedding also. He was on his 2 week R&R and it was great to see him. (He left yesterday to go back to Afghanistan and will be done with his tour in June). We stayed in Fredericksburg for another week. We went to some wineries and watched TONS of college football. Good times! New Year's Eve was a quiet one at the house. Me, Jeff and his mom were the only ones awake at midnight. We celebrated by watching the ball drop and then popped some poppers and went to bed. On Friday the 2nd, Jeff and I packed up most of our things and headed to Canyon Lake to the Hill Country Resort for a little Anniversary getaway. The resort is near San Marcos and the best outlet mall in the country, so on Saturday we shopped till we dropped. On Sunday, I wasn't feeling too well, so we lounged around in the condo till about mid-afternoon. We had some stores that we wanted to go to, but hadn't gotten around to on Saturday, so I put my game face on and toughed it out to shop some more. :) We headed to Gruene, Texas and ate at the Gristmill restaurant for dinner. It was very nice. The famous Gruene Hall is literally next door, so we popped in and watched a local band play for a few minutes, then headed back to the condo. Bright and early Monday morning, we, well really Jeff, packed the car with all our loot and waited for his dad to meet us with the dogs and the new painting his dad made for us to go over our fireplace (which is huge). Between the two of them, we got everything in the car and headed back to the house.
We had just enough time to unpack the car when my aunt and uncle arrived. Unfortunately, my aunt was recently diagnosed with cancer and is now being treated at MD Anderson. So she had tests and appointments at MD all week, so I was able to go with her to a few of them and show her around a bit. My cousin, her son, went to NASA with his scout troop on Friday night and so they had an extended stay here and all got the VIP tour at NASA on Saturday. They left bright and early on Sunday morning. Sunday night was the start of my birthday week so we celebrated with some friends at one of our favorite restaurants in Kemah. The food was very yummy and we could barely choke down the birthday cheesecake we had for dessert. It was tough, but we did it! Anyway, that about sums up the last few weeks. Tomorrow is my birthday and I get to celebrate by going to MD Anderson for a check up with my surgeon. Yee haw am I excited to do that! NOT! But Jeff and I plan to go out and celebrate that night so I am looking forward to that. I will update tomorrow on what the surgeon says. I feel really good, but don't want to push anything. I'll probably try to go back to work next week. Anyway, now on to the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffery.mauldin/December2008?feat=directlink
I'm experiencing some technical difficulties with the pictures. If you want to cut and paste the link above to get the pictures, you can, if not, here is the slideshow. (You can click on the first picture and it will bring up a better slideshow.)
Jeff was working the week of Christmas, so we spent a quiet week at home and just spent Christmas with the two of us. It was nice. The Saturday after Christmas, we packed up the car and the dogs and headed to Fredericksburg for Jeff's brother's wedding. The wedding was simple, yet very nice. All the family and close friends were there and it was nice to see and visit with everyone. Carrie's husband Chris actually made it in time for the wedding also. He was on his 2 week R&R and it was great to see him. (He left yesterday to go back to Afghanistan and will be done with his tour in June). We stayed in Fredericksburg for another week. We went to some wineries and watched TONS of college football. Good times! New Year's Eve was a quiet one at the house. Me, Jeff and his mom were the only ones awake at midnight. We celebrated by watching the ball drop and then popped some poppers and went to bed. On Friday the 2nd, Jeff and I packed up most of our things and headed to Canyon Lake to the Hill Country Resort for a little Anniversary getaway. The resort is near San Marcos and the best outlet mall in the country, so on Saturday we shopped till we dropped. On Sunday, I wasn't feeling too well, so we lounged around in the condo till about mid-afternoon. We had some stores that we wanted to go to, but hadn't gotten around to on Saturday, so I put my game face on and toughed it out to shop some more. :) We headed to Gruene, Texas and ate at the Gristmill restaurant for dinner. It was very nice. The famous Gruene Hall is literally next door, so we popped in and watched a local band play for a few minutes, then headed back to the condo. Bright and early Monday morning, we, well really Jeff, packed the car with all our loot and waited for his dad to meet us with the dogs and the new painting his dad made for us to go over our fireplace (which is huge). Between the two of them, we got everything in the car and headed back to the house.
We had just enough time to unpack the car when my aunt and uncle arrived. Unfortunately, my aunt was recently diagnosed with cancer and is now being treated at MD Anderson. So she had tests and appointments at MD all week, so I was able to go with her to a few of them and show her around a bit. My cousin, her son, went to NASA with his scout troop on Friday night and so they had an extended stay here and all got the VIP tour at NASA on Saturday. They left bright and early on Sunday morning. Sunday night was the start of my birthday week so we celebrated with some friends at one of our favorite restaurants in Kemah. The food was very yummy and we could barely choke down the birthday cheesecake we had for dessert. It was tough, but we did it! Anyway, that about sums up the last few weeks. Tomorrow is my birthday and I get to celebrate by going to MD Anderson for a check up with my surgeon. Yee haw am I excited to do that! NOT! But Jeff and I plan to go out and celebrate that night so I am looking forward to that. I will update tomorrow on what the surgeon says. I feel really good, but don't want to push anything. I'll probably try to go back to work next week. Anyway, now on to the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffery.mauldin/December2008?feat=directlink
I'm experiencing some technical difficulties with the pictures. If you want to cut and paste the link above to get the pictures, you can, if not, here is the slideshow. (You can click on the first picture and it will bring up a better slideshow.)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas Eve!
Hey! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday so far. I have some random pictures to post and then the slideshow of the pictures we took this weekend when we went home to Louisiana.
Jeff on console in case you missed him on Monday night. They really didn't show a lot of NASA, it was mostly Moscow Mission Control. He's on the bottom of the picture:
Maggie doing her trick of getting a stick caught in her collar. She is really good at doing this!
Me with my new haircut:
Pictures from this weekend:
Jeff on console in case you missed him on Monday night. They really didn't show a lot of NASA, it was mostly Moscow Mission Control. He's on the bottom of the picture:
Maggie doing her trick of getting a stick caught in her collar. She is really good at doing this!
Me with my new haircut:
Pictures from this weekend:
Monday, December 22, 2008
Jeff on tv
Hey! Most of you know already, but Jeff is working "console" this week. He is on the evening shift that starts at 3pm and ends around 11pm. Today the Russians are doing an "EVA", which means that they are going outside the space station to do some work. This causes some issues with how they fly the station. Jeff is the lead ADCO and has an important job and will be pretty busy tonight. There will be live coverage on NASA tv starting at 5 or 5:30 tonight. He is wearing a red shirt and sits on the left front row. Just wanted to let you know that he will be on tv if you are interested and have NASA tv. It's channel 283 on Direct tv.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Well, sorry it's taken me so long to update this, I've been a busy girl since I got home on Monday. Tuesday we stayed home and did a few things around the house (well, not me really, but Jeff and my mom did). Wednesday my mom and I did some shopping since I didn't get all of it done before surgery. Wednesday night Jeff and I met some friends at a favorite pub we like to go to. We had a good time hanging out with everyone before the holidays. Thursday mom and I packed and headed back to Covington, where I'll be for a few days. It was an all day trip with a few stops, but it wasn't too bad. My pain is pretty much under control. I think it's much better than my last surgery. Today we did a little more shopping and I think I'm finally done. This weekend we'll be doing Christmas with my families. Jeff is going to come join us tomorrow afternoon and we'll head back to Texas on Sunday afternoon. Jeff has to work console this week so I'll be relaxing around the house while he's at work.
I just wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes during this time. I appreciate it very much. It helps to know that so many people care.
Thanks again, Lauri
I just wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes during this time. I appreciate it very much. It helps to know that so many people care.
Thanks again, Lauri
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Turning the Corner
The pain team here at MD Anderson were successful in finding the right combinations of drugs that reduced Lauri's pain level while not overly affecting her motor skills. She only had two pain spikes last night, which were handled by the medication. Overall, she got a much better rest last night, at least compared to the last two nights...
The epidural was stopped and capped last night since it was not working effectively. Lauri was instead put only on IV pain medication and oral pain pills and this was effective last night. The epidural line was removed this morning for good.
Great news also came this morning when the Surgery team decided it was time to remove the chest tube. To give you an idea, the chest tube was inserted just below the right side of the rib cage, and runs up inside of the rib cage to just underneath the collarbone area, where the right upper lobe of the lung is located (recall that the right upper lobe is the area the surgeons worked on Thursday). That's about 1 foot of tube inside your ribcage - Lauri is thrilled to have that removed! To remove the chest tube, they simply trim the stitches that hold it in place, and pull it out. It actually feels more "weird" than painful. So they tell me...
Anyway, Lauri is quickly shedding tubes and IV lines, the less leashes the better. We are currently on track for release from the Hospital on Monday. Lauri is taking only oral pain medications now, and we will work with the pain team the rest of today and tonight to converge on the right combination of pills to handle the pain. They have a solution so far that seems to be working. We'll see how it goes the rest of today, and we are looking forward to going home tomorrow!
The epidural was stopped and capped last night since it was not working effectively. Lauri was instead put only on IV pain medication and oral pain pills and this was effective last night. The epidural line was removed this morning for good.
Great news also came this morning when the Surgery team decided it was time to remove the chest tube. To give you an idea, the chest tube was inserted just below the right side of the rib cage, and runs up inside of the rib cage to just underneath the collarbone area, where the right upper lobe of the lung is located (recall that the right upper lobe is the area the surgeons worked on Thursday). That's about 1 foot of tube inside your ribcage - Lauri is thrilled to have that removed! To remove the chest tube, they simply trim the stitches that hold it in place, and pull it out. It actually feels more "weird" than painful. So they tell me...
Anyway, Lauri is quickly shedding tubes and IV lines, the less leashes the better. We are currently on track for release from the Hospital on Monday. Lauri is taking only oral pain medications now, and we will work with the pain team the rest of today and tonight to converge on the right combination of pills to handle the pain. They have a solution so far that seems to be working. We'll see how it goes the rest of today, and we are looking forward to going home tomorrow!
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