Book signings, Good Things Utah, and Clinic.......Hawaii here we come!

What a crazy week we've had!  We're finally out of school, YAHOO!  I do love teaching, but I do love taking a break too.  It will be nice to get caught up on some things again.  As of Friday, May 24th, our summer has officially begun.  We started it off with Abby's birthday.  My youngest kid is now 14 years old, not very young at all.  Abby wanted to go shopping for her birthday, so we planned to go when we were in Salt Lake, the shopping is so much better there.  But, we did go out to dinner to celebrate on the 24th.  Here's Abby when she was almost 1 year old.  Isn't she so incredibly cute and she hasn't changed a bit :)  Every birthday we have with Abby is a miracle, one we'll never forget!

We went to Salt Lake on Sunday because we were doing a book signing at Sugarhouse Park that afternoon.  It was perfect weather outside and it was fun.  The turnout was about what we expected, but I sure missed seeing all of my heart mom friends that day!  It was fun to see some friends from high school, swimmers from the University of Utah swim team that swam when I did, teachers I taught with before we moved to St. George, a couple of heart friends, and of course family.  I wish I would've taken pictures of everyone, but it was too crazy!  At least I got a few.  If you took pictures, will you please share them on Facebook so that we'll have them too?

Abby told me to try to look official!

Great pic, I know........

Beautiful Abby!

My two nieces and my sister-in-law Deedee,  and my brothers legs.

This is Vicki aka Tweedle Dum, we swam together at the University of Utah.  I, of course, was Tweedle Dee!

Monday morning we had to make our appearance on Good Things Utah.  We were both so nervous.  I had never seen the show, and we were told it was filmed in front of a live audience, so we even more scared.  We were supposed to be there at 8:30, the show started at 9:00....so of course we showed up at 8:15.  When we walked into the studio they were filming the news segment that was on right before the show, we both were pretty surprised that we were on the actual set!  We met the staff and were told that we were going to be first, so we had to get our microphone clips on.  The "Live audience" turned out to be a small set of bleachers with the other stars of the show that day sitting on them, that was a relief!  Overall, other than me looking like a beached whale, I thought it went okay.  Abby was perfect of course.  We weren't thrilled with the choice of questions, and the host kept asking about meeting the "donor."  Well, obviously, we will never meet the donor, but hopefully we'll meet their family.  But, I think we did a good job getting the word out about organ donation......and I will probably never eat again.  

This was right before we went on.

Abby loves Australian guys, so she had to get a picture with the Aussie host.   Not a good picture of him, but Abby was in heaven when he said, "Good bye daaaahhling!"

Mom, Dad, and Britt-This is for you!

We spent the rest of the day shopping and going to a movie, it was Abby's day for sure!  Then of course, it was time for clinic.  We were so worried.  Monday night, after shopping, Abby had a horrible night.  Her feet were so swollen they were killing her, her stomach was hurting, and she had a horrible headache.  We thought something was up.  Thankfully, she woke up feeling a little bit better.  Clinic was perfect!  Abby's echo looked fabulous, her labs were all perfect, and even her kidney function was looking better.  It was actually a very quick and easy clinic.  We were also given the okay for Hawaii!  I have to admit that I'm a little nervous though because there isn't a transplant center in Hawaii.  The transplant team kept stressing that if anything happened, we take Abby to the nearest hospital and then call them so that they can tell us our next move.  They also emailed us a copy of clinic notes from today and the results of her echo too.  Abby will have to be slathered with sunscreen and keep tons of water in her as well, she gets dehydrated so easily.  Abby even asked them if she could have a nightly IV to keep fluids in her, they all laughed of course.  I'm sure that things will okay, but it's good to have a plan just in case.  So finally, after almost 2 years of waiting, we will get to go on the trip that we missed while Abby was waiting for her heart.  I kind of feel like it's well deserved! I think Britt and Brock are just as excited to get a break too!  

While we were driving home, I got the dreaded call.  They were calling to schedule Abby's annual biopsy.  It will be on Friday, June 28th.  For those of you that don't know, this is a big deal.  This isn't like the one she had last November through her neck, it's the big one through her leg like we did last May, it's much more thorough.   If something isn't right, this is when we'll find out.  It's actually quite nerve wracking, but I'm not going to think about it once while we're in Hawaii.  That's going to be our complete relax and no worry trip!

For those of you that have asked, here's the link for you to purchase "Abby's Miracle" on Amazon Abby's Miracle.  We love to look on Amazon and see who's interested and who's purchased it our book.  It is also available to Kindle and Nook now too.  Thank you to everyone that has bought the book, it helps with all of Abby's medicine copays.  We will probably do another St.  George book signing when we get back from our trip, and we have a sweet story on KUTV news that will be coming up soon as well, probably on Abby's 2-year heart anniversary.  Thanks for staying with us, things are good :)

April and May happenings

It's been 5 weeks since the last post......5 weeks!  That's good, that's real good because it means we haven't had anything major to blog about, finally!  Abby seems to be doing a little better.  She still has her exhausted, sleep 15 hour, recovery days, but those seem to be coming farther apart.  The swelling in her feet and legs happens less often now too.  She still struggles with headaches and stomach aches a lot, but we can deal with those!  I can't believe that not only have we not been to clinic since April 4th, but I haven't even had to call the transplant team.  I'm sure they're missing hearing my sweet voice up there in the cardiology clinic.  This is by far the longest without any contact with them, which means that things are good.  Abby has clinic again on May 28th, then hopefully, it's off to Hawaii on May 31st.  If something doesn't look good on the 28th, and we can't go on our trip, I'm afraid I'll throw a tantrum.  I'll probably cry uncontrollably and I won't be able to stop.  It's just not even an option, not an option at all.  We need this trip, a lot, all of us.  It's going to happen.

But first, we need to make it through the school year.  Britt is done with her first year of college.  She ended up with a 3.95 GPA and thoughts of possibly not  going to nursing school, but medical school instead.  She's still deciding, but right now she's leaning towards a nurse practitioner.  I will leave the decision to her.  She definitely needs to do something medical.  She loved her anatomy class and daily talks about the things she learned.  She's extremely fascinated with it all.  I'm proud of Britt for making school a priority, it's something that matters to her.  Brock, Abby, and I have 6 1/2 more days of school.....not that I'm counting or anything!  I can't believe that next year Brock will be a senior and Abby will be a freshman!  It's funny because Britt and I and even Abby sometimes still think she's in 6th grade. Maybe it's because she never officially finished it, I don't know.  Maybe because that's when EVERYTHING changed.  Abby's birthday is coming up, it's on May 24th, she'll be 14 years old.  I can't even believe she's that old.  Celebrating another birthday with Abby is something I'll always look forward to!

It's kind of funny how the brain works.  The past week or so, I've been having flashbacks to Abby's collapse again.  I haven't for such a long time.  I think it might always happen this time of year because we're getting really close to May 18th again.  I thought that maybe this year it wouldn't happen, but I thought wrong. Triggers are everywhere. I definitely don't want Abby out of my sight very much the next few weeks.

Last thing.  My book, Abby's Miracle is done!  It's for sale on Amazon already.  Here's the link: Abby's Miracle.  It should be available for Nook and Kindle sometime in the next couple of weeks, and in the bookstores very soon after that.  There should be a follow up article about Abby and the book in the St. George Spectrum this Saturday, and Abby and I will be on Good Things Utah on Memorial Day, May 27, Channel 4 at 9:00 AM!  We were excited when we heard about the TV show, but then we were both scared to death because it's a live show!  This is all so much fun though, and it might even help me pay a few bills.  I would appreciate it if all of you would spread the word.  Especially other other heart moms out there that have blogs, if you could post it on your blog, I would greatly appreciate it.  That's definitely one of my target audiences.  For now, I'm just enjoying the process of actually writing and publishing a book.  It's all falling into place for us, just like everything that's happened the past couple of years. If it sells, that's great.  If not, that's okay too.  I can still say I did it!