December update

It's been a while since I've updated so I thought I should finally do it. Life has been crazy this month. I was talking about my uncles death in my last update. My cousins came together to try and honor him with a service and full military honors, 21 gun salute and Taps. I still have my grandpa's flag from his salute 12 years ago. My cousins and I are left with a huge legal mess now. My grandparents left their house to my mom and uncle which sounds easy but the house is still in grandma & grandpas name. My brother has decided that he wants to live in the house until we sell it. Well legeally he can't do that and we don't want him there. He doesn't have a job or any way to pay the bills. It looks like the state will end up getting the house because my brother won't agree. We just want to sell it ASAP, split any money left and move on. I'm hoping he will change his mind because my grandparents worked had for that house.

Uncle Duane, Grandma & Gena (my mom) in 2006

This month was a month for strokes too. My great Auntie Joe had a stroke earllier in the month. She is recovering well at her daughters home. My momther-in-law, Donna aka mom had a stroke on the 21st. It affected her left side and her speech. She was able to make a fist with her left hand by the 24th and go home! She still has a lot of hard work in front of her but she's a fighter.

Here is mom & Ralph 10 days before her stroke.

Auntie Joe & I in June of 09

We also took the kids to the beach on the 19th to catch some waves. The waves weren't quite there but we had fun anyways. Matt took his surf board and gave it his best shot!

We also made a gingerbread village.

Matt got a new scooter.

Savannah lost her first two teeth.

I don't have the Christmas pictures ready yet but I will soon.

another call

I got another one of those "phone calls" early this morning, you know the kind with bad news. My Uncle Duane was found dead in the same house my Mom died in a year ago. They think he may have been there for a day or so. So my Mom and her only brother died almost exactly a year apart. I'm beyond upset, I'm heartbroken. I know how my cousins feel and I just want to be with them. They are all in Indiana. Please pray for our family.

Pain in the neck

Today was a really weird day from the start. I've been preparing myself all year for the first anniversary of my mom's untimly death. I am left missing her but I know where she is, so I'm not worried about her. I'm sad that she isn't here to see her grand-children. I'm sad that my kids no longer have her. She would love seeing Savannah with two teeth missing on the bottom. She would be amazed at how much they have all grown.  The only choice for me is to have faith that I will see her again. Move on and enjoy my life. I will always miss her.
I have been having some on going issues with my neck. I finally had an MRI and saw my Neurosurgeon this morning. I wanted him to say that he could fix it and I could move on. He said he couldn't fix it but thought it could get better with meds, P.T., steriods, and hard work. He said my problems are from arthritis and muscle spasms. I also have some buldging discs. I'm just over all the pain. I start new meds tomorrow and call about therapy. I'm working on a good attitude!! I'm just beat lately.

Update!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We had a great time for sure! I cooked a turkey (my best one ever), stuffing, green bean casarole, 2 pumkin pies, an apple pie, crumb cake, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, and deviled eggs. We ate at Tony and Kelly's house and Kelly cooked a ham, corn casarole, veggies, mashed potatoes and dinner rolls. Kelly was awesome and did most of the clean up while I relaxed, I was beat from the days of cooking. We make a great team when it comes to holiday cooking. It was great to have my Mother-in-law Donna there with Ralph. Carol also joined us and had a great time. Carol is Matt's dad's first wife and still a big part of the family. Her and Donna had a good time catching up. It was a great day!
I sure did miss my Mom this Thanksgiving, it was my first without her. I am certain that she is in a much better place now and I give thanks for that. December 7th will be one year without her. It just doesn't seem possible. I have been following her former doctor in the news. His licence was suspended in late October for 90 days. I really hope that he never practice medicine again. My mom is one of many that have died of a drug overdose. Click here to read the latest article about him.
I did some Christmas shopping yesterday. I didn't head out until 9am and it was still pretty busy. I only went to WalMart and Toy's R Us. The line at Toy's R Us was about a 45 minute wait! I got a great deal so it was worth it. It so much fun shopping for Savannah. The boy's only want video games these days and that's not so fun for me.
My friend Anissa is still in a coma but trying to wake up. Her family could really use ours prayers. Her youngest daughter is really having a rough time without her mom. Her update will now be here.

Anissa

Here is a picture I took of Anissa and her youngest daughter, Peyton at Fasion Funds the Cure 07. It's a fashion show to benefit the Pediratic Cancer Foundation. It was an amazing evening!!

Prayers needed!!

I wanted to ask for your prayers for a friend of mine. Her name is Anissa and she is an amazing woman, wife and mother. She is in her 30’s and just had a massive stroke. She had a stroke in 2005 and fully recovered. She’s a fighter for sure! This stroke is much worse and things aren’t looking good. Her youngest daughter Peyton (5) is a cancer survivor, and 1 year off treatment!! She also has a son, Nathanial (11), and another daughter, Rachel (7).

If you want to help this family please click on the box in the upper right hand corner!

If you want to follow her progress she has a Caringbridge site:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/anissamayhew

Savannah

Here are some new pictures of my little diva. She loves having her picture taken!

Report cards

I am so proud of my son Luke. He got all A's on his report card. I never even got close to that. School just comes so easy for him and he hasn't even really started to work very hard. I hope he continues to do well. Here is what his teacher had to say:
Luke's super grades this term are a reflection of his hard work in class and at home. I can always count on Luke to give 100% effort, and to ask questions when he doesn't understand something. Luke's behavior is excellent , and he seems to enjoy participating in class. He is a model student and a friend to everyone. You should be very proud of yourself, Luke!

I am also very proud of Austin! He got his report card a couple weeks ago. He is doing amazing in middle school and seems to emjoy it. He got 4 C's, 2 B's and an A!! Here are some of the comments from his teachers:
Possitive attitude / effort
Works well with others
Displays responsibility
Becoming self-directed learner
Work is improving
He is also staying after school two days a week for tutoring. He hasn't once complained about staying until 5:20 pm on Mondays & Thursdays. He is seeing that his hard work is paying off! He is also off all his ADHD meds and doing better without them. He is become quite a young man and so tall!!

Miss Savannah got her very first report card, and she did very well. She is ahead of where she should be is almost everything. Here is what her teacher had to say about her:
Savannah is a very creative student. Her art work is mature and beautiful. She loves to learn and participate in all activites. Please continue to practice letter recognition and sounds at home for more practice. Keep up the good work.

website

My website is up and running!!

customcraftshop.com

More hospital stuff

I can't believe how much my recent hospital stay has affected me. It's hard to think about it without getting teary eyed. It's almost like I was a different person when I was there. I guess I had to be strong otherwise I would have gone crazy! I can't tell you how many different people I had to tell my story to before my back was fixed, doctor's, nurses, roomates, friends, family and even the housekeeping lady. I was begininng to think that there wasn't really anything wrong with me and I was just going to have a headache forever. When I woke up from surgery and my headache was gone, I knew I wasn't crazy!!
I think being in the hospital is a huge stresser for anyone. I had never had to stay for 8 days before. I loved all my nurses that took care of me. I look foward to taking them some homemade cookies soon. They went out of their way to make me comfortable. I was so embarrased to have to use a bedpan, but they tried to put my mind at ease.
I have a bag that has all the stuff from the hospital in it that I can't seem to put away. Everytime I get near it I want to just start crying. I'm just going to leave it alone for a while. It was really hard getting through everything without my mom. I miss her so much. It's almost been a year since she passed away.
The kids are all doing great! Austin has been off his ADHD meds for over a month now and he is doing awesome!!! He is working so hard in middle school and we are so proud of him. He is such a good helper and has a heart of gold. Luke is doing super in school, all As on his first report card! He's been growing so much lately, he's not my little boy anymore. He ususlly the one testing us but he can also be very sweet. Savannah loves kindergarten and everything about it. I think she would live there if she could. She loves learning and playing and meeting new friends. She loves to draw pictures, I mean LOVES it!! This girl is always working on some sort of art project.
Matt has been amazing through everything. I love him more everyday. We were made for each other for sure. He listens to all my worries and makes they better. He always seems to know what to say and when to say it. I am so excited that I get to spend the rest of my life with him.

Update & trick-or-treating

I can't believe that it's already November, where has the year gone? I have to admit that it's been a tough year. The past month is has been the toughtest. The whole time I was in the hospital I had a positive attitude and didn't really worry much. I just did what I had to do to get better. When I got home it all hit me and I have really struggled. Things are getting better thanks to my amazing friends and family. Of course Matt has been my rock and really got me through the tough times. I'm done with all the pain meds and life continues to move on.
Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Matt took Luke and Savannah out trick-or-treating.
                                                                Boba Fett

Bunny

Amy Update!

I wanted to get on here and update about the past couple weeks. My surgery on the 14th went well and I was home the next day, Thursday the 15th. I was up and about and feeling great. But when I woke up on Thursday the 22nd my head was killing me. It got so bad that I asked to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital. There was just no way I could have sat up in the van for the 10-15 minute ride. The pain in my head, neck and upper shoulders was like nothing I've ever felt before....it was hell.


When I got to the hospital I was given some pain meds that helped control the unrelenting pain. I saw a few doctors and it was decided that I would receive a blood patch in my spine to hopefully repair any leak of CSF that might me going on. The procedure was done in my ER room and quite painful. They took some of my blood and put it in my epidural space. The doctor that did it was ready to send me home but I asked to stay overnight to see how I felt the next day. Needless to say the patch didn't work and what came next was a bunch of tests:

MRI of my lumbar spine, with & without contrast

MRI of my brain, with & without contrast

CT scan of my neck, base of my skull and upper shoulders.

X-ray of my chest

Countless blood tests

2 spinal taps

2 blood patches

10 day total inpatient

The first spinal was awful and they weren't able to get any fluid. That was really scary because I had no idea if that was good or bad, I was leaning towards bad. The reason they couldn't find fluid was because it was in the same spot where they did surgery and there was tons of scar tissue. So the next spinal was in my room and they tried another blood patch. They got fluid but the patch didn't help. The fluid showed some abnormal white blood cells so I was in isolation for about 24 hours. They had to rule out meningitis, which they did. If anything it would have been chemical.

My doctor wanted me to try and get up and walk with PT. I did okay with walking but my head started hurting so bad that I had to get back to bed ASAP. That evening my neurosurgeon calls and asked if I would be willing to do surgery to get a really good look and make repairs as needed. So he went in through my scar and was able to sew up the problem and my headaches were gone when I woke up in recovery!! Dr. Jobe said that he had never had a case like mine but had read about it. I told him that he will never forget me. I will see him in the morning and update soon after.

Love, Amy

Doing great!!

I am doing wonderful after surgery! I am healing well and taking it easy. Matt is doing an amazing job of taking care of the kids and I. We've had all kinds of goodies delivered and picked up some Selmon's for dinner last Friday. Thanks to Jenna and Ryan!! Jenna is bringing Taco salad this evening and Jennifer is getting pizza for us tomorrow. Oh, and Donna brought over some yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies Saturday. The night before surgery our BFF's, the Pippins' brough Pizza over and really helped calm my nerves. I made it through surgery and I see the light at the end of the tunnel!! I want to thank everyone for helping me get through a very difficult time.Matt has been able to spend more time with the kids this week. He took all three kids to the beach on Saturday to enjoy the first waves. Matt took them to pick out a new boogie board that the used all day. Hopefully we will get more good waves so they can surf this winter. 
I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing great!!

Update about sugery

My last blog was about what I was expecting and this blog will be what happened after surgery. I want to start off by saying that I had the best care possible this time. Everyone from Beth in pre-op to the housekeeping lady that made me laugh. I told my sad story to everyone I talked to and it really made a difference. I have so much more I want to share but I'll have to do that later. Thank you so much for all your prayers, love and support!

What to expect

This picture was taken a couple days before my back surgery in February of 2005 at the Daytona 500. We had so much fun. I wasn't really that nervous about surgery because I didn't know what to expect.

The next picture was taken about a week after my surgery.

My back is really hurting and I am scared to death of the future pain. Surgery will be at Noon on Wednesday at Bayfront Medical Center here in St.Pete. When I woke up after my first surgery on the way to the recovery room I thought I was going to die...it was that bad. It didn't help that the nurses in the recovery room were too busy talking about their weekend plans that it took almost an hour to get my pain pump.

The worst part of my hospital stay was my overnight nurse, she was not nice at all. After they pulled my cathier I had to use a bedpan because I wasn't allowed to get up. The nurse gave me the bedpan and left. I had to lay/sit on that thing for 2 hours!! I kept calling and calling for the nurse but she was too busy, By the time she comes to help me she says that she will only help if I stop crying!! It was like a nightmare, my worst night ever!! After I went home we called and complained and the hosptial appoligized and refunded our $300 co-pay. I have made up my mind that I will only accept the best care possible. I'm not so shy and quiet anymore, I speak my mind! So keep me in your prayers so I don't have a nercvous breakdown before surgery!!

Happy Birthday Austin!

Austin at age 7

Austin at age 8 (he had a black eye)

Austin at age 9

Austin at age 10

Austin at age 11

Austin at age 12

Austin at age 13!!

I love you so much!

Good News!

For the first time in a year I feel like I'm stepping out of a fog. I'm starting to learn how to live without my grandma and mom. I miss them both so much. I miss being able to call them anytime I wanted. There is so much I miss about them and so much I don't miss. I don't miss wondering if grandma was in pain from the evil cancer that had taken her body hostage. I don't wonder if she's being taken care of or recieving the care she needed. I also don't miss spending so much time worried about my mom. I know that they are both finally home and finally free of the worries of this world.
I still can't believe that I lost both of these women in 4 months and our dog. Talk about having a major pittty party, I was all about that. I guess I've learned that I can do this, I can do anything. I have an amazing life and family. My mom and grandma both died knowing how happy I was. They knew that I was doing what I always wanted to do; be a mom and wife.
Life moves on. I'm not sure that I will ever catch up but I'll give it my best shot. I want to be the best mother, wife and friend that I can possible be. I want to make people feel special and share my gifts with everyone.

Party X4

We went to celebrate our favorite quads 1st birthday a couple weeks ago.

Here is Matt with Cash.

How sweet is this little man? Cash stole Matt heart!
Here are the quads with the kids.

Jillian, Cameron, Cash & Jack having their cake and eating it too!!

Savannah on the way home with her party favors.

The party was at a splash park.

Here's Luke having a blast!!

Luke, Savannah & Austin getting really wet!

Waiting for the water.

They had so much fun!!

The party was awesome!

My back update!

I went to see my Neurosurgeon yesterday and we have decided to go ahead with surgery. He said that my disc herniation was still very large and would need surgery to relieve the pain. The surgery will a mircodiskectomy on October 14th. He will go in the same place that I had my prior surgery, so no new scar! He said he should be able to avoid those nasty staples and use a type of skin glue instead.
I have so many different feelings about this surgery. On one hand I can't wait to have it done and over with, and on the other, I'm scared to death. When I woke up from my first back surgery in 2-05, I was introduced to the worst pain I had ever felt. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck and lived. Then of course there are the things that can go wrong with the surgery. I am willing to go through all of that stuff to feel better and get my life back. I am way to young to be living with pain all the time so I will do the surgery.
All this started with a ride at Universal Studio's, Jimmy Neutron! It's not even a real ride, but it sure does move around a lot. So no more roller coasters or crazy rides. I love roller coasters and I miss them. This injury happened the last weekend of April, so I've dealt with this pain for 5 months. I've been to 4 different doctors, had 3 extremely painful epidurals, 2 MRI's and I'm over it all.
I do finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, I see an end in sight. What stands in the way is another month of waiting and another couple moths of pain. I'm sure that everyone is sick of hearing me complain so I'll stop now! Please pray that everything will run smooth.

Perkins & September

This is a picture of Luke and Savannah in front of their school, Perkins Elementary School: Magnet Center for the Arts and International Studies. I LOVE this school and so do the kids. Whenever I'm on campus I just get this awesome feeling of pride. The teachers and staff are amazing men and women that love their school and work so hard to make it a success. Another thing that makes Perkins so wonderful is all the support they receive from parents.

This is Luke & Savannah in Dylan's Butterfly Garden on campus.

This is a Memorial for a former student and artist. His name is Dylan Crane and he had quite an impact on everyone that knew him. He battled the beast of cancer. He had Ewing's Sarcoma, a very powerful bone cancer.

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Dylan was only one of thousands of children that die each year from cancer. Many of the children that beat their cancer are left with a broken and beaten body.

There are many things we can all do to see that one day our children are free of the beast.

* Donate blood & blood products

* Join the National Marrow Donor Program

http://www.marrow.org/

* Support funding for a cure

http://www.fastercure.org/start.htm

*Support Foundations that support families

http://www.katiasolomonfoundation.org/

http://www.childrenscancercenter.org/

http://www.jakesfoundation.org/

http://www.heroesforchildren.org/

Thanks!!

My kids love school!!

I though I should update since it's been a while. Life is good in the Nasworthy house. Other than Luke being a little sick. He has a sore throat, cough and a fever yesterday, but he feels better today. Hopefully no one else gets sick.
The kids are all loving school!! Savannah thinks kindergarten is the greatest thing ever!! She loves being busy all day and learning. We love her teacher!! Luke is making so many new friends this year and having a blast. He's in 4th grade this year and he's joining the band again this year. I think he's decided on percussion? I just love their school and all the extra things they offer. They get Spanish everyday and all the arts once a week. Austin is doing much better than I thought he would do in middle school!! He's making so many new friends and loving all his classes. His school is working really hard to keep the kids in line. Austin has never been a trouble maker and it's easier for him to focus when other aren't.
My back has been feeling a little better. I'm just tired of complaining about it. My last MRI showed some improvement so I'm not sure what the next step is? I see my neurosurgeon on the 18th and we will go from there.

1st Day of School 09

Luke 4th grade, Austin 6th grade & Savannah kindergarten