Update on Dad

Dad's heart surgery went well yesterday, it was definitey a long day. At St. Luke's Hospital around 7:30am and I finally got home around 11pm for the night. Dad was nervous - it is a pretty painful procedure, but he did great and was in really good spirits last night and this morning when I saw him. The stint was successful - the doctor took us and showed us his heart on a computer......the blood flow before the stint and after the stint. It was pretty cool - definitely was needed and looks like this is what it will take to prevent a heart attack, so that's great. Bad news is - he still is having chest pains...not sure what it is so more tests will be going on: MRI to rule out back issues and probably a gallbladder procedure to see if that could be the source. Thanks for your prayers and to Jen and Angi especially, don't know what I'd do without you girls. Thanks for always being there. =)

Dad

Just thought I'd give y'all an update on my Dad. He's still having chest pain and hasn't been feeling much better at all. They did a heart catheterization on him on Monday - they go up through the artery in his leg with a little bitty camera and look at his heart... Not a fun test. Anyway, they found that one of his arteries has 70% blockage and that he has an ulceration putting pressure on his heart, whatever that means. They believe this might be cause of his pain...... Anyway, he is scheduled to check into St. Luke's next Wednesday for surgery... The doctor is going to go back up through that artery in his leg and install a stint in his heart to open up that blockage. My poor Daddy - I wish they could just fix the pain and make it all better. Anyway, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers - I'll be at the hospital with Mom on Wednesday awaiting good news. =)

A Note from My Sweet Friend - April

April Grace says...

Hey Everyone!

As some of you know, Melanie and I chopped off 10 inches of our hair on Friday for Locks of Love. My mother lost her fight with breast cancer 5 years ago and this is the way Melanie and I chose to honor her memory and this 5 year anniversary. We thought that we could also use this as a way to encourage people to make a donation in her memory to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Thanks to Kevin Bacon and the 6 Degrees website you can easily click on my profile and donate directly to the Susan G. Komen foundation. All you have to do is click on the link and donate using a debit card or credit card. When it asks you if you would like to make the donation in someone’s honor please denote Janet Kennedy Matthews in this spot.

I appreciate everyone’s support; please pass this along to as many people as possible. We are trying to raise $5,000 ($500 for every inch of hair we cut). If you are unable to make a monetary donation please take time this week to do something for others in her memory.

Thanks for your care and support - April Matthews

P.S. - Here are some pictures from the Locks of Love Day!

P.S.

I am getting married in 3 months to the best man in the world - and I can't wait! =)

A New Week

Great news to report - Dad is finally out of the hospital and is doing ok... He's going to need to meet with lots of doctors in the next week or two and get some sort of system in place to make sure his blood stays where it needs to be. I'm just glad he's home. My Mom has a new job with Lyondell doing exactly what she wants to be doing so CONGRATULATIONS...this is great news for all of us! Good Luck Mom!

Had a fun weekend - spent some time with our friend Carlos who is heading back to Columbia next Monday. I am so sad to see him leave - hopefully we'll get to go visit him in the next year or so in his home country. Not sure how we are going to find an expert painter like him to take care of all of our painting projects...he's a great friend and we're really going to miss him in more ways than one! Good to see Jonathan and Blakely this weekend - we all went to the Aquarium for dinner on Friday night - had fun. Great food... Then headed over to Front Porch and enjoyed several hours with Jeff Malone and his lovely new fiance, as well as Amanda and her guy. Those two are a handful and are perfect for working with Marc - glad he's got such great people on his team. Had a good time - need to do that more often.

Saturday I got to see my long lost friends, Marci and Jarrod and Harold, who have all moved here from the D.C. area after being gone for quite some time. Heather - we missed you... Am looking forward to hanging more with this crew - they are great, fun people and I am sure we'll have a blast together in Houston. Welcome back to Texas, y'all!

Also on Saturday, guess what arrived at our house?... A new 50 inch plasma television - or should I say, Marc's new toy. =) I'll post pictures later on...it's beautiful. A Pioneer Elite, for any of ya'll who know about these things. I was clueless but we went to the Tweeter on Kirby and worked with Larry, the GM - he ROCKS. If you need any electronics of any kind, go see him and tell him we sent you - he is awesome and so helpful.

Let's see...only other thing I have to talk about are a) I think this whole Paris thing is ridiculous and I'm sick of hearing about it...she's crazy and it's getting worse, better be careful or she's going to be the newly shaved-head celebrity in the news - I predict a nervous breakdown is on the way...I feel sorry for her, but am so SO so tired of hearing about her; b) Did anyone out there watch the Sopranos last night...the end? WHOOAAA - what an ending... I think it was the best and worst ending I've ever seen on a series closer. IT WAS AWESOME!

OK, enough for now- I'm bored to death at work because yes, my system is still down...no email, little internet and no drive to work off of. We're at 3 days and counting now - talk about feeling unproductive.

Have a great week!

Another Day

Dad is still at St. Luke's... His blood results came back yesterday and showed that their might be some sort of complication with his kidneys. Basically, his tryglycerides, blood sugar and cholesterol are all up - WAY UP - and aren't getting regulated quickly enough. Based on a test he went through last year, his heart doctor pointed out that he has significant heart disease and it's time to get really serious about doing something about it "if you want to be around much longer"... I think those were the words the doc used. Still waiting to get that heart catheterization done...we're hoping that happens tomorrow, if not sooner.

Something Else

They have canceled the test for my Dad today - his blood is still messed up and if they do the test today with his blood out of whack, it could damage his kydneys. We'll know more after we see the doctor today - this process is getting longer and longer... Hopefully they'll be able to do it tomorrow and we can figure out exactly what's going on.

Update - Again

Dad's doing great but is still in St. Lukes. I was up there tonight and his blood sugar level was supposed to be at 100.......it was a whopping 320. They are doing a heart catheterization tomorrow - go up through the artery in his leg and look at his heart to see where and what blockage there is. This isn't a fun process to go through - he's a tough cookie, as Marc likes to say, so I know he'll be good. Just wish he could come home - never is good to know your Daddy is in the hospital. Prayers are welcome and appreciated.......as always. More later - if there's anything new.

Update

Soooo, heart issues have been ruled out for my Dad, as of now... However, his blood and cholesterol level are out of control... The doctor called it "dangerous" - never a good word to hear. Anyway, still in the hospital - they took him off of all his meds and are taking blood daily, working to get it back under control. He feels fine and is bored to death in the hospital but they won't let him go until they figure this out. That's the best update I have as of now...will post if I hear anything different anytime soon.

Prayers Please

Just a quick request for prayer - my Dad is in the hospital, went in yesterday. He seems to be having some issues related to his heart, again - nothing serious as of now...they are running tests and will have more news later today. Hopefully this is a false alarm and will be an eye-opening thing for Dad to take a little bit better care of his heart - either way, prayers are greatly appreciated.

Newbies....

Had a pretty eventful weekend - thanks to Michelle, Marisa and Nicole for a FABULOUS brunch on Saturday... Can't beat sangria and mojitos at Amazon Grill - I felt like I was in Costa Rica, for a moment, at least.

I finally got my purse - Mom and Dad brought it back from San Marcus for me. It's so pretty... Never thought I'd want a purse like this but when I saw it, it just seemed like the perfect purse for me. Green is one of my favorite colors and I don't own enough green stuff...looking forward to expanding my wardrobe and being a little more brave with my color selections... This purse is my first step! =)





Marc and I have been doing some serious car shopping over the last few weeks to replace my silver bullet Mitsubishi Eclipse. With four years and 65,000 miles under her belt, it was time to say goodbye. So, the biggest news of the weekend, I got a new car! =) Check out the pics below - 2007 Acura RDX - so fun... I LOVE IT!

Now I just need a catchy name - something better than "Silver Bullet II"...