ALEXA'S JOURNEY TO A NEW LIFE: Day 38 of recovery

8/7/14

Day 38 of recovery

The last couple of days have been extremely busy. My birthday was on Tues, the big “50” but my kids had no idea since I have been 37 since I was actually 37, haha! Tyson had 4 doctor appointments that day & Alexa had 1. Ty got up & took Tyson to his 1^st appointment while I got ready then I took him to the rest of them. We had a break & decided to go get something to eat & do some grocery shopping. We started out trying to find a Target & added a place to eat into my GPS. She kept taking us to places that were really crowded like malls & parts of town that we didn’t really want to get out of our car, we passed a topless bar a couple of times. We ended up driving around for over an hr being lost with our lovely GPS but we were able to see lots of different lovely things in St. Paul, MN. A few of them we saw over & over again, haha! My GPS really has a sense of humor. I think she could tell I was lost & started saying things like, “Turn left after the big brown bldg. on the left,” & “Turn rt after the big glass library on your rt.” No kidding, she really did say those things, haha!! While we were having our adventures Ty & Chelsea took Alexa to get her picc line out. They all took the shuttle over there. Things didn’t go as smoothly as Alexa hoped, the nurse had to go get someone to help & it hurt but she is finally free of it!! I feel like Tyson’s appointments went really well except 1. All of the doctors are convinced that he is having these headaches because he is so tense & PT is showing him several ways to relax & the psychologist has given him lots of breathing exercises to help relax. The only one I felt was a waste was going to the TMJ specialist. I don’t believe he clenches his jaw much & I don’t think the specialist thinks that either, he really just wanted to rule that out I guess. These doctors see people with headaches like this very often & they work as a team. I feel like this is part of the reason we were led to come here, so Tyson could get some help too!! We finished there & got back to the RMH right at dinner time. Guess who joined us for dinner, Ronald McDonald himself!!! We felt so honored, haha!! That night RMH had a party in the park across the street. First they had pet therapy & Alexa was in heaven! She loved this huge dog that came & stuck with him till they left. When the dog finally left she joined the party. They were making colored chalk bombs & having chalk wars. I was really surprised when one of the workers convinced Alexa to join in the chalk wars. She was covered!! After that Chelsea had a little bday party for me. She passed out some very annoying & loud horns & had some extra so gave some to the kids around the house, I’m sure their parents were so happy about that! Austin & Ann Clements came to the sitting room & we had Chelsea’s homemade zucchini bread that she had brought me in her suitcase & played Taboo. Shayla got into the airport at 12:30 that night & Chelsea went with Ty to pick her up.

Wed we decided to go to the Minnesota zoo. We were able to get free tickets thru RMH which was wonderful since it is $18 a piece to get in! Tyson had a dr apt that morn at 10 so I took him to that 1^st & when we got back we headed out. It was a really good day & we loved this zoo. We were able to get up close to so many of the animals. Alexa really enjoyed it till the very end when she started feeling very sick & her meds were wearing off. We had gotten her a wheelchair but she only used it about half the time. We got home & she was totally wiped out & took a little nap while we ate dinner. We were all really tired so just watched a movie. Today we are planning on going to Mall of America again & we are looking for a fun cruise on the river, that’s what Alexa wants to do. It’s been a lot of fun having Chelsea & Shayla here with us even though our apartment is very small & we are all squished in here. They ended up putting their air mattresses out on the deck since there literally was no room in here. They said it was actually really nice out there. They have all loved playing down in the game room together. Alexa is doing pretty well since going to 12 hr feeds on her tube. She has been eating a bit more, I guess we’ll see how well when we go back to the dr.

Youtube videos:

http://youtu.be/_GORYJDnQpw Alexa with Dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzRfELCx0Y The big birthday party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKEnsFw976A Just Dance