Up again, down again, up again... The picture on the right is a good indication how Cambrie is doing. She's up for visitors any days before 2:00 pm if any of you could come. Actually, I hope many of you can visit her becuase she really would like some company right now.

It's interesting to see different cultures during trying times. After several SDA friends ask how Cambrie's doing and when they hear how hard it is for her, the first and only thing they say is, "What's her name and I'll pray for her." There's only been one exception to that. On the flipside, almost every LDS that has inquired of the same matter has responded with, "What can I do to help?" or "What do you guys need?" Some have even mentioned they'll pray for us, which is great too. I'm not saying one approach is better over the other but I do think it's in the cultural mindset how different groups react to particular trials in life...just an observation.

Forward Progress

To the males reading this blog: no, the title isn't referring to the football term or the fact that the Giants won an awesome game.

To the females reading this blog: Yes, forward progress means what you think it means. Besides, not too many guys read this blog anyway. Cambrie is making headway! Today was the first day she hasn't vomited!!! That might not mean a lot to you but consider the first day she went without heaving her cookies on her first pregnancy was probably around month 7 or 8...she's 9 weeks! Today was one of her greater days. Granted she's still nauseous, but hey, things might be looking up. She's still hospitalized and I'll let you know if she feels up to visits or phone calls.

Sorry for mentioning vomiting so much. All y'alls are probably disgusted and tired of hearing about it, but that's seriously all that happens around here...except for TODAY!

The Last Straw

The hospital has run out of options on treating Cambrie. Drugs don't work, TPN is too dangerous, and she keeps puking constantly. The last thing they know that has worked for some patients like Cambrie is a surgically placing a tube below her ribs, into her stomach, and down her intestines. After the surgery Fri afternoon we were up until 3 a.m. It was a very long night. Cambrie still had to throw up but since she couldn't use her abdominal muscles the bile would get stuck in her esophagus and burn--not good.

She's somewhat better today (relatively speaking). Her mom just came in to town tonight to help out. She still isn't feeling up to having visitors or talking much unfortunately, but I'll keep you posted.

...and to add coal to the fire: Kiera has a fever, midterms are next week, and a hang nail has been bothering me for a while now.

False Alarm

We packed up to leave the hospital today (Wed) and the doctors came in saying they decided she could have the surgery where they insert a feeding tube directly into her tummy region to her small intestines. She'll have the surgery on Friday and will be in the hospital at least through the weekend.

She'll be sedated and the doctors have expressed their hesitancy to do the operation because she's pregnant, but Cambrie really feels this will help out.

She can't talk much but if you feel like calling, her room phone number is (909) 558-4000, press one then ask for Cambrie Nelson in room 3108.

Putting Things into Perspective

The simplest way I can put it so we could have a glimpse of what Cambrie's going through is this: reflect back if you've ever had food poisoning eating something you shouldn't have. You wanted to die even though you knew the vomiting would last about 24 hours... Well, it's going to be 7 more months.

They might discharge her from the hospital on Wed or Thu. They've given up trying to control her vomiting and don't know what else to do for her. They'll send her home on IV nutrition (TPN).

Same Old Same Old

She's still puking constantly. Not much improvement is going on and she's not strong enough to have visitors. I can't tell you how difficult it is to see Cambrie in so much pain and agony...

A Change in the Winds Says I

Cambrie was doing great in the hospital...until last night. After her nasal tube got clogged, they removed it and replaced a new one. Since then she was vomiting every 20 minutes the entire night so something was obviously not right. In the morning the doctors realized the tube (it's 4-5 ft long mind you) kinked in her stomach. Instead of going to the small intestines it wrapped around in her stomach. She was vomiting blood and the doctors couldn't get the tube out. They were about to do emergency surgery when one of the residents pretty much yanked it out. I sure hope it didn't do more damage than good.

She's not doing very well right now and asked that she didn't have visitors until she gets better. She's not getting any nutrition now and not able to eat. She's scheduled for TPN Sunday, which is an IV line that goes to her heart to give her nourishment--exactly what she had her first pregnancy.

In short, she's having a rough day. And to think we originally wanted 6-8 kids...not happening.

After a week in the hospital, Cambrie's Ready for any Visitors

If any of you have the time and wanted to stop by to see how she's doing, Cambrie's at the Loma Linda Medical Center (Main Hospital), 3rd floor in the Labor and Delivery unit, room 3108. You can visit from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's dificult for her to talk a lot with a tube down her throat, but she'd love visitors. She has her cell phone too.

Cambrie has a Feeding Tube Now

Cambrie joked about her 1st pregnancy saying she went more than 40 days and nights without eating, which is true. Unfortunately she didn't start or end that fast with a prayer so it didn't count for anything.

She's still in the hospital, but the doctors elected to give her a nasal feeding tube that bypasses her stomach and goes straight to her small intestines. If that works, they might surgically connect a feeding tube from her abdominal region instead of through her nose.

It sure makes it difficult to give her a good-bye kiss but I think she'd rather be nourished instead.

What's Happening with Cambrie?

Cambrie's back in the hospital again. After getting her vomiting spell somewhat controlled, she was discharged from the hospital Sunday. However, once she got home she reverted back to vomiting uncontrollably again. Trying to think positively, while her first pregnancy she was throwing up on average every 20 minutes for the whole 9 months, so far she's been averaging 40 minutes- woohoo!

Monday night was pretty miserable for her. To put it in perspective, she wasn't able to eat anything or even sip water and she found the pains of starving more tolerable and preferable than having to throw up. Anyway, rough stuff.

Wednesday morning the hospital is expected to give her either a feeding tube down her nose or TPN--what she had last pregnancy (that's where they fed her through an IV that went to her heart).

The only logical explanation why Cambrie has such hard pregnancies probably is that our kids are going to be difficult teenagers and had we had easy pregnancies, it would've been harder to love them at that stage...who knows:)?

'nother Update

Thursday was a breakthrough for Cambrie! She drank a cup of apple juice! That's pretty awesome since she wasn't able to eat or drink anything since Sunday. She's been hospitalized since Thursday at the LLU hospital (labor and delivery unit--go figure) where they're trying to control her levels of nausea, vomiting, and weakness. No word yet on when she's coming home, but she just called me (in tears) saying how elated she was that she downed a couple of noodles. It sounds odd to say but this pregnancy is going so much better than the first thus far and we're really optimistic that Cambrie will improve.

Thanks all for being willing to help out. Cambrie's sister will be here Saturday and Tuesday to watch Kiera, but we still might need some help watching Kiera during the day even if Cambrie's home from the hospital. We'll keep you updated. Thank you so much for all your help so far.

Cambrie Update

Just to give all y'alls the heads-up on Cambrie. She's reached week 7 already and her pregnancy is starting to mirror her first one. We have high hopes her health doesn't deteriorate as poorly this time. Up till now she can't eat anything though and believe me when we say she has tried every remedy you can think of to combat the nausea--nothing works. She's extremely dizzy, very nauseous, and has little energy.

For those of you who may be local, she can't do dinners but what would really help her is coming by and watching Kiera for a bit.

TENDER MERCIES

I've been counting the 'tender mercies' the Lord has blessed us with lately. There are many but I will list just a few:
1. We discoverd we were pregnant 2 days before the deadline to put me on Steve's insurance through school, and a week before the deadline to sign up for the COBRA insurance through his work (which deadline should have been months before, but they were late getting the information to us). Previously I was without insurance. Wow, that could have been bad.
2. Danthony's leaving couldn't have been more perfectly timed. I started feeling nauseated the day that he left.
3. We've got a ton of wonderful friends who are willing to do anything and everything for us.

And now the good news: I'm happy to announce that I have regular-normal-every-day-morning-sickness (actually all-day-long, but no big deal). I'm crossing my fingers that that is all it will continue to be. I don't think there has ever been anyone more excited about morning sickness than me. I am SO GRATEFUL for the ablility to eat (even if it is just a little).

Sorry about the lack of pictures on the blog lately. Well have do take some to liven this blog up a bit.

Food Storage

For the past 2 weeks I've been doing my very best to eat as much as possible and gain as much weight as possible. How many of YOU have ever done that???? Why?--you may ask.....food storage. I'm saving my food for later. Infact, I'm so into foodstorage lately that I've spent over $1000 on groceries in the past 2 weeks and have loaded a deep-freezer in our garage full of food and meals for my family.

About now you are thinking....'has Cambrie lost it?' I dunno--maybe I have. But I figured that the food storage both on my hips and in our freezer will sure come in handy in the next 9 months. Yes, we are expecting a new additon to our family in september. Surprise (it was a surpise to ALL of us).

I'm a *bit* nervous, but I know that with the Lord's help we will be ok.

Goodbye D'Anthony

News on D'Anthony: He will be leaving us this week to go and live with an aunt. We are glad that he will be able to stay with family (and his aunt has her act together so he should be safe). Having him around was a good learning experience for us, and I'm sure it helped Kiera's social skills.
Life if going to seem easy once he is gone that's for sure!
Poor little Kiera is loosing her daddy and D'Anthony as playmates this week (Daddy had to go back to school today). Now she's stuck with just boring-old-mom. Life goes on......