Physical Therapy School Graduation!

FINALLY!!  Is that crazy or what?!? What a wild ride it has been. 5 years of college to get my bachelors degree, plus semesters of taking pre-requisite classes required for PT programs (classes I hated, such as chemistry), 5 years of working as a physical therapy tech for minimal pay to get experience hours built up, 3 years of applications sent to PT schools followed by rejection letters, interviews gone bad due to my uncontrollable need to be completely honest, more application process followed by an acceptance letter, 2 years of physical therapy classes including cadaver dissections (such an amazing experience that I wished I was blogging during that time so I could go back and read about it later) and labs practicing physical therapy on classmates (getting to know each other too well in the process--aka naked Tuesday lab) and 1 year of clinical rotations. Not to mention a health scare, getting engaged, planning a wedding in 2 months, tying the knot, experiencing pregnancy while living 160 miles away from my husband and, and have a baby all in one year.

I am still currently finishing up my last 8 week clinical (since I missed my first one after Caden was born) so technically I haven't completed my PT school requirements and won't get my diploma until August.  This also means that at convocation (our doctoral hooding ceremony) and commencement ceremonies they announced everyone else as "Dr. ___  ___  ___."  while I sat out of alphabetical order from my classmates at the very back of the line so I could be announced as "Lacy Beth Coltharp" since I had one more (elective) clinical to go.   It was noted in the program that I was graduating in August pending completion of requirements.  I know it's silly but that was a real bummer for me.  It is a clinical doctorate degree and I would never really want anyone to refer to me as "Dr.", but it did sting a little to be sectioned out from my class.  Graduation ceremonies are boring, I wasn't there for the thrill of walking the stage.  I was there for the thrill of uniting with my classmates as we finish up our degrees and hearing that announced--so it kinda felt like a bit of a slap in the face or like I had failed at something.  The sting didn't last long though, I was too excited to worry about it.

Bryan and Sarah at graduation!



Caden's fan club

 

Cody, Caden, Me, Mel (+ future nephew), and Dusty

Love my family!

Us with Randy and Cindy (Cody's mom & dad)

only because Caden's hair is awesome in this pic

My family

Caden's "cheese" face.  LOVE this baby!

Caden and his Poppy



Yay!!!

Celebration dinner with friends




Caroline celebrating with us!

Dad, Bryan, and Cody

Zach and Amber

Caden and his "Aunt" Diana.  He's so blessed to have her in his life!!

Caden and Oriana.  She calls him the "PT baby" since my class was so involved with him and my pregnancy.

After our convocation ceremony.

Getting "hooded".  (is that even a real word?)

Me, Diana, and Kimberlee--words cannot describe how much I will miss being with these girls everyday.

Me and my boys :)

I can distinctly remember telling people that "I won't graduate until May of 2011" with my tone saying "so so far away". May 21, 2011 has come and gone! What an incredible journey these last 3 years have been!

Busy busy busy

We have been very busy lately!  I finished up my 4th clinical at the skilled nursing facility on Wednesday, May 4th. 

May 5th we drove to Ft. Worth for Bryan's (close friend of ours) graduation from the Ranch Management Program at TCU. 

The next day we had our families traditional "combine supper".  This is just a big cookout that my dad and uncle (who are in the farming business together) put on each year right around wheat harvest to cook for family and everyone they do business with.

Dad, cutting the meat

My dad, uncle Terry, and Caden

 

Sunday afternoon we headed to Lubbock because our friends, Bryan and Sarah, were scheduled to have their baby girl, Caroline. 



Bryan & Sarah with Caroline



Cody and Caden looking at Caroline in the nursery



We made it home Monday night, and Tuesday morning Caden woke up with a 103 fever.  He was sick off and on for a couple of days.  We were supposed to be heading to Lubbock first thing Saturday morning to await the arrival of our niece, Paislee Jo Elizabeth Coltharp. 

As it turns out, on Saturday Caden took a turn for the worst and was having a LOT of trouble breathing and had a fever of 105 (high fevers are nothing new to us. around Christmas he was sick a lot, even had a febrile seizure, and at one point had a fever of 106.1).  Poor baby was struggling to breathe and sounded like a panting dog so off to Clinic Care we went. 

While we were at the clinic for 4 hours, Caden got worse and worse.  His fever wouldn't come down with medicine, he screamed for about 2 hours straight, finally got so weak he could only lay on my chest and moan.  Before we left the clinic, they gave him a shot of antibiotic that the doctor said "is gonna hurt like hell".  After the shot, Caden became very lethargic which worried the doctor even more that Caden's body had just given out after struggling so much to breathe.  They then decided to admit him to the hospital. 

By the time we finally made it it to a hospital room and the nurses were checking him out, Caden was very hyper.  He was playing with EVERYTHING and flirting with the nurses.  At least until he got his IV.  He screamed through that.  Everyone asked me if that was hard to watch--it really wasn't, I was just so glad to know that he was going to get better.  Nothing was as bad as watching him earlier that day when he was so miserably sick and I couldn't help.  His crying over the IV quit as soon as I was able to pick him up again. 



Poor baby after he got the IV.  Notice his tiny hospital gown? 

   



  


We had a great experience with everyone at the hospital.  The only bad thing was Cody and I both trying to sleep on this small couch.   We had to wake each other up just to coordinate times to turn over.

 

Caden had trouble going to sleep both nights, but once he did he slept all night, even through the breathing treatments every 2-3 hours.

We were really starting to go stir crazy by Sunday afternoon.  There was only one other kiddo on the pediatric floor so the nurses got us a wagon and let us pull Caden down the hall.  He loved it-too bad we don't have a wagon for him at home.   Caden stole all the nurses hearts.  He really became such a ham around them.  They would call up their friends who were working other floors and tell them to come see him.  Of course the first thing they would all say is "oh my gosh, his hair!" You can't tell so much in these pictures, but his hair is out.of.control.  Guess he got that from his mama.






 

Caden's doctor seems to think that he initially had a virus which led to a bacterial infection which then set off some restrictive breathing (basically asthma, they just can't officially diagnose that until 2 years) and possibly a slight case of pneumonia.


We ended up being discharged to go home Monday morning.  We made it home from the hospital, I jumped in the shower and packed to go to Lubbock for week (I was supposed to be there at 8am for class that day).  I ate a quick lunch with Cody, said my goodbyes, and hurried along the 3 hour drive to Lubbock (with caffeine in hand since I hadn't slept much the last few days).  Once I got to Lubbock, I dropped off my bags at a friends house, and headed to Tech's library to take a mock licensure exam that I missed that morning (the same type test that I had to take 2 weeks early last summer because I was about to have a baby.  Thank goodness my professors are understanding!  They just kind of smile and comment on the amount of stress in my life.) Three hours later I finished that 250 question test  and went straight to meet up with all my PT school friends for much needed beer/margaritas!  Finally made it to bed at around 2:00am.

The rest of the week was full of 8 hour days of class, catching up with friends, visiting newborn babies (Caroline and Paislee) and of course GRADUATION-which I will post later.

Finally got to meet Paislee

Caden's 1st Haircut

May 4, 2011--- 9 months old

Most people acted like they thought I was crazy for getting Cade's haircut when he was 9 months old.  Some felt like you should do it when they turn one, others were just worried it would make him look to old, etc.  Who are we kidding, when do I ever do things the traditional way?  His bangs were in his eyes, hair was about 1 1/2 inches over his ears, and he had a rat tail in the back...time for a haircut if you ask me (and my ex-Marine husband, who definitely is used to a very short style).

Caden handled it well!  Of course he was squirmy but he didn't cry.  Cody's cousin Kristi cut his hair for us.  It was even more fun to have someone in the family do it.

End result = one handsome baby boy!  :)

Easter 2011

As Easter weekend rolled around, I was waiting to see what Cody would do with Caden for his first Easter.  A small part of me worries that if anything were to happen to me, Cody may forget to do important things like teach him the story of Easter and about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  I really figured Cody would forget the little things like Easter baskets, coloring eggs, etc.

He proved me wrong yet again.  I had already taken care of Easter baskets, cards, and plastic eggs, and bought a prayer book about Easter for Caden--just never told Cody about it.  I woke up Easter morning to eggs already hidden in the yard, a basket for Caden, and an egg coloring kit on the table next to a carton of hard boiled eggs.  To my surprise he does remember the little things--Caden is in good hands! 



Caleb, Ty, Callan, Caden & Cody



Caden and Mimi (Cody's grandmother)

Uncle Butch and Caleb



Caden and his uncle Caleb

  

Love my little family!



Cody even hid an egg filled with milkbones for Bailey

     

Digging for the 'prize egg'

  

All they ended up with was a worm

 

 



Caden loved to shake the coins in the eggs.

Pepaw and Nenaw (Cody's grandparents)

Caden 9 months

I can't believe he's already 9 months old!  I hate to see him growing up so quickly but it just gets more and more fun every day!  He is just starting to cut his first tooth.  Yesterday, he learned how to play "patty cake".  He loves "sharing" his toys--he'll hand it to me, take it back, then hand it to me again, etc.  And i'm told that at daycare he waves at everyone that walks in and out of the room. 

Still just crawls backward and in a circle, but isn't crawling forward yet.  He still loves to stand (and has for several months now) but isn't taking any steps.  I know it's very silly, but it's killing the physical therapist in me.  I have next week off from clinicals-Caden should be crawling after that week of practice.  :)

At his 9 month well visit he weighed 20 lbs 10 oz (50%), was 28 1/4 (50%) inches long, and head circumference 18.5 inches (95%). 

"... I wanna be a rockstar"

This is something Cody wanted me to promise I would never do to our kids.  I agreed on never taking him out in public with a mohawk.  However, anything goes at the house and on the blog! 

I love Caden's post-bath mohawk and I love pestering my husband!

"...this is our temporary home"

When we bought this trailer house, we thought we would be living in it for about a year (only until I graduated and had a job).  Since then reality has set in and we know that we will not be ready financially to buy a place for us to settle down in any time soon.  We will have to live here in the trailer house for at least another year or two on top of that.  Once we realized this was our situation, two things had to happen. 

1) Install a dishwasher---we came across one that someone was giving away.  Notice Cody's jagged line from cutting out the cabinets with a sawzall??  And I'm not sure where the bottom piece is to the dishwasher... who cares, it works!!

2) get the nasty carpet out of the bathrooms!  I will never understand why anyone would ever think that carpet in a bathroom is a good idea.  We just bought some very cheap linoleum squares with the adhesive backing and put those in place of the carpet.  Our house smells MUCH better now that the nasty carpet is out of both bathrooms. 

Too bad we couldn't replace all the carpet in the house.

Now if we just had any sort of storage and closet space we would be set!

 We haven't had a measureable amount of rain since October.  On Friday the wind was blowing like crazy with 60 mph gusts.  A wildfire broke out close to our house and we were told to be prepared to evacuate. The daycare even called me to come get Caden because of the possible evacuation. 



View from my house--doesn't everyone have truck scales in their front yard?!?

So I got home and started packing up the important things.  The fire didn't feel like a huge threat at that point, but with the winds as high as they were you could never be too safe.  Plus, the way my house was shaking I thought if the fire didn't get it the winds were going to knock it off it's blocks. 

So, what's really important when it comes down to packing a few things in a hurry??

Here's what made my list (some of these things are pretty funny--but honestly they were loaded up in the back of this goobers car...)

Sentimental things from friends/family: Caden's blanket, baby baseball glove, 1st pair of cowboy boots and hat from Pop.  Also, a few pricier things that we depend on and couldn't afford to buy again like baby video monitor and a thing we hang on Cadens crib that plays music and lights up.

A box my dad had given me when I was little.  It used to have a picture of a horse on it but it started getting worn out so I mod podged a picture of my dad on it.

My boots (because they are expensive) and a couple of pairs of shoes that would also fit in the boot box.

wedding rings, Tech ring, and 2 necklaces my parents gave me

Caden's baby book, baby monitor, our wedding video, an elephant thing that Cody got me from Iraq (I don't know why but I love it) and Cody's video series of the Pacific and Band of Brothers (only because Cody would make us buy them again)

guns, video camera, and clothes to get us to the next day

Bible from one of Caden's godmother's, Diana, who wrote a very sweet inscription in it.  Also, some of my physical therapy textbooks.  I felt like such a nerd to pack those up but if we lose everything we have (and i mean everything because we don't have insurance) I'm going to have to pass the liscensure exam soon so I can have a job!  I needed those books to study!!

Luckily, everything was fine and I only ended up unpacking everything a couple of hours later.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday evening but I know I would have been kicking myself had anything happened to our house and I didn't take the time I had to pack a few things up.

Honestly, very few things are really that important anyway.

Emetophobia: Part 2

The patient who threw up a couple of weeks ago strikes again...

She had decided herself that she wanted to be discharged against ALL recommendations.  She just wasn't strong enough to go home alone.  Turns out, we were right... the fire dept had to be called out multiple times to help her get out of her wheelchair and into her bed.  Can you imagine their excitement when they get called out to what they think is some sort of emergency and turns it it's just to help this person into bed?  Again?  I'm sure that wasn't what they were thinking they would be doing when they took this job.

Guess who showed back up in my schedule this morning.  You got it.  She's back. 

I don't mean to sound mean.  In fact, these posts are intended to make fun of myself for my crazy panics. 

She started off with telling us she took a laxative and she thought she was dirty.  After reluctantly checking her rear, I knew we were safe there.  We start to work on moving her from her bed to her chair and she starts complaining of her stomach!  Oh my nightmare, she's going to throw up again.  My heart rate increases, and I'm giving myself a pep talk in my head, "you're gonna be ok, Lacy...this is not a big deal...thank goodness you're behind her supporting and not in front like that poor guy..."

Until she says the next thing, "They gave me that laxative.  Do you have a sheet under me--I'm going to explode out behind soon."

My mental pep talk then turned into, "just breathe, Lacy, just breathe"

It made me start to wonder which was worse--holding a bucket while a stranger gets sick or being covered in explosive poo (that's not my 8 month old son's).  Thankfully neither one happened today.

Determination