This is going to be my attempt in summarizing all of the little things and big things my little family accomplished in 2014. After my discharge from Providence Rehab on November 23, 2013, I came home in a wheel chair to a house that was not quite ready for me. There wasn't a ramp built for months and I took my very first steps around Christmas time and delighted everyone. Robert followed suit and took his very first steps on Valentine's Day, 2014.
So, here I sit, proclaiming to the world what I am now capable of doing and admitting the things I still need help with. I'm fairly self sufficient these days. I can make my own coffee and use the microwave to heat up anything my little Jacee heart desires. I can usually fully dress myself except after a shower. My daily chores consist of loading and unloading the dishwasher (except the silverware). I recently purchased soap pods so I can wash the clothes myself, move them to the dryer and it doesn't even matter that I can't read because I know how many clicks each direction is for whatever cycle. Nursing duties aside, I am an excellent playmate for Robert. Our bedroom door is always open when he's awake because I'm trying to sleep only when he does. I can also fully lift Robert and carry him from one side of the house to the other! Tickling him all of the way.
Last night it was posed to me, "Jacee, what are your New Year's resolutions?" And I said, "I don't know. I'd like to finish all of the things on my "Jacee can do list.""
So I guess that only leaves checking the mail, putting my own hair up in a pony tail and making scrambled eggs.
Last, but not least, Dan's tinting business has been really taking off and we're all looking forward to the day when that is our primary source of income. Everything I keep on pushing myself to do is for him and Robert, so I'm less of a burden for Dan and the best mom ever to Robert. They both deserve it!
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Friday, November 14, 2014
How Angelica Save the Day
To Whom this may concern-
My name is Robert Caldwell and my Mommy is writing this for me because I am only 2 years old. On Wednesday 11-12-2014, a nurse took the day off so my Godmother, Angelica, filled in for the 12 hour-day shift. See, I'm a very complicated little boy and only a skilled nurse is qualified to care for me. I was strapped into my highchair and my 12 pm feeding had begun through my G-tube. I decided I wasn't getting enough attention, and usually when I gently pull at my trache everyone immediately goes berserk! This time, I pulled too hard and pulled the whole thing out.
Angelica tried for seconds...which seemed like an eternity, to get it back in, while my Mommy was crying and screaming, "Breathe, Robert!!" Angelica knew I wasn't getting any oxygen so she immediately said, "Call 911!", which we did. She unstrapped me, stopped the feed, laid me on the floor and started CPR and chest compression until the medics arrived.
Thank you, so much, Angelica. You did exactly what you should have done. It could have happened to anyone and you handled it with confidence, which comes so naturally to you. You saved my life!!
Thank you for sharing your breath with me when I lost mine.
My name is Robert Caldwell and my Mommy is writing this for me because I am only 2 years old. On Wednesday 11-12-2014, a nurse took the day off so my Godmother, Angelica, filled in for the 12 hour-day shift. See, I'm a very complicated little boy and only a skilled nurse is qualified to care for me. I was strapped into my highchair and my 12 pm feeding had begun through my G-tube. I decided I wasn't getting enough attention, and usually when I gently pull at my trache everyone immediately goes berserk! This time, I pulled too hard and pulled the whole thing out.
Angelica tried for seconds...which seemed like an eternity, to get it back in, while my Mommy was crying and screaming, "Breathe, Robert!!" Angelica knew I wasn't getting any oxygen so she immediately said, "Call 911!", which we did. She unstrapped me, stopped the feed, laid me on the floor and started CPR and chest compression until the medics arrived.
Thank you, so much, Angelica. You did exactly what you should have done. It could have happened to anyone and you handled it with confidence, which comes so naturally to you. You saved my life!!
Thank you for sharing your breath with me when I lost mine.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Exciting Update About Robert
On Monday 9-15-2014, Robert's Aunt Arline drove me, him and his favorite day nurse N to an appointment at Childrens Hospital in Seattle. We were initially only there to get his bi-monthly silver nitrate treatment under his traech ties on the stoma. Arline waited outside because she didn't want to distract him. She encouraged me by saying...."You got this Ace, you're his Mamma". While inside, I asked the question on everybody's minds. "When Robert was born, we were told he could get the traech out when he was 2 or 3 years old. Seeing as how he is almost 2, when can we expect that to happen?" At first Doctor P said..."Wow Mrs. Caldwell, I'm surprised you remembered that. I was hoping you were coming to this appointment so I could tell you about the procedure and how it will work". He said, "Robert is an ideal candidate for that surgery and they will start the process next spring." The procedure is very in-depth, while being under anesthesia they will take a piece of cartilage from his rib and insert it into his esophagus to manually widen his throat. The recovery time in the hospital will be 7-10 days. Then he will come home still with his traech and a stent for about a month. He will go back in to be re-evaluated to make sure that the procedure took and at that time the traech will come out. Way to go little man!!!!!
On Monday 9-15-2014, Robert's Aunt Arline drove me, him and his favorite day nurse N to an appointment at Childrens Hospital in Seattle. We were initially only there to get his bi-monthly silver nitrate treatment under his traech ties on the stoma. Arline waited outside because she didn't want to distract him. She encouraged me by saying...."You got this Ace, you're his Mamma". While inside, I asked the question on everybody's minds. "When Robert was born, we were told he could get the traech out when he was 2 or 3 years old. Seeing as how he is almost 2, when can we expect that to happen?" At first Doctor P said..."Wow Mrs. Caldwell, I'm surprised you remembered that. I was hoping you were coming to this appointment so I could tell you about the procedure and how it will work". He said, "Robert is an ideal candidate for that surgery and they will start the process next spring." The procedure is very in-depth, while being under anesthesia they will take a piece of cartilage from his rib and insert it into his esophagus to manually widen his throat. The recovery time in the hospital will be 7-10 days. Then he will come home still with his traech and a stent for about a month. He will go back in to be re-evaluated to make sure that the procedure took and at that time the traech will come out. Way to go little man!!!!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Three years ago today.....
I tied the knot with my very best friend Danimal.
Little did we know, what life would
have in store for us. We have been dealt more trials and
tribulations than most couples our age, but we made it through.
Robert and I are both alive and thriving at home together all thanks to Dan's
quick thinking that fateful July night last year. Together we are the 3 musketeers.
Nothing in the world can ever keep us three apart again. I am so thankful
God wasn't ready to take me and now I am choosing to surround myself with people
that I know are rooting for me to succeed at being the best wife and mommy
that I can be with the tools that I have been given so......happy 3rd wedding anniversary to me and Dan!
Friday, August 15, 2014
One Year Ago Today
“One Year Ago, Today”
08-15-2014
One year ago today, was a very happy and sad day for me.
Happy because I had woken up from a coma to see Dan and Robert looking at me and talking with me.
Sad because…
I don’t know if memories from that day are real, or fabricated from other people telling me about it. I can only imagine people looking at me and saying…Jacee, look at that little boy. You need to live for him. Against all odds…I made it home and now not a day goes by that I don’t look at Robert and say…”Mommy lived for you!!!” Again, I am so grateful for my second chance at life. Where I am, still learning, still growing, and now realizing I have all the time in the world, to do so. Happy 26th Birthday to Me!!! Dan, I can’t wait to spend forever with you!!!
08-15-2014
One year ago today, was a very happy and sad day for me.
Happy because I had woken up from a coma to see Dan and Robert looking at me and talking with me.
Sad because…
I don’t know if memories from that day are real, or fabricated from other people telling me about it. I can only imagine people looking at me and saying…Jacee, look at that little boy. You need to live for him. Against all odds…I made it home and now not a day goes by that I don’t look at Robert and say…”Mommy lived for you!!!” Again, I am so grateful for my second chance at life. Where I am, still learning, still growing, and now realizing I have all the time in the world, to do so. Happy 26th Birthday to Me!!! Dan, I can’t wait to spend forever with you!!!
Monday, July 7, 2014
Cousin Tina saves the day again!
Yesterday Robyn kidnapped me for a day of fun in the sun at Lake Goodwin. I boasted to her that I don't need sunblock because I really wanted to burn, seeing as how my skin hasn't seen sunlight like that in over two years. I even bragged about way back in the day, when my old step sister, Athena and our friend Bub used to lay on the roof of our old horse barn until our skin, literally, started sizzling. About an hour after laying out, she looked at me and commented, "Wow, Ace, you're starting to get really pink." After that, I allowed her to coat me with spray on sunblock. Lo and behold, she forgot to spray my legs. And I forgot to remind her.
After finally realizing that I was burnt to a crisp and ready to go home, we decided to go out for dinner with her guy friend, E. So then we had to run back to my house and change out of our swimsuits and into dinner attire. It was then that Angel saw my burn and covered me head to toe in aloe. As Angel, me and Robyn were running out the door for dinner, cousin Tina yelled at us, "Bring back a tomato!" I didn't heed her warning and we returned without a tomato. Soon after we got home, though, Angel realized, "Oh crap, we really need that damn tomato!" because my legs were sizzling. So I sent Angel to Fred Meyer to fetch me two tomatoes and ibuprofen. Then what ensued next was straight out of any comedy act. I sat on two towels, on the couch, while Angel and Tina each took half a tomato and slathered me all over. As they were both slathering me with tomatoes, I joked, "AAAHHHH, this is the kind of thing that only happens in my dreams".
Thanks guys, I owe you both big time!!
After finally realizing that I was burnt to a crisp and ready to go home, we decided to go out for dinner with her guy friend, E. So then we had to run back to my house and change out of our swimsuits and into dinner attire. It was then that Angel saw my burn and covered me head to toe in aloe. As Angel, me and Robyn were running out the door for dinner, cousin Tina yelled at us, "Bring back a tomato!" I didn't heed her warning and we returned without a tomato. Soon after we got home, though, Angel realized, "Oh crap, we really need that damn tomato!" because my legs were sizzling. So I sent Angel to Fred Meyer to fetch me two tomatoes and ibuprofen. Then what ensued next was straight out of any comedy act. I sat on two towels, on the couch, while Angel and Tina each took half a tomato and slathered me all over. As they were both slathering me with tomatoes, I joked, "AAAHHHH, this is the kind of thing that only happens in my dreams".
Thanks guys, I owe you both big time!!
Thursday, July 3, 2014
I'm Alive
To whom it may concern, July 2, 2014
My name is Jacee Caldwell and I am writing this to both thank and hopefully acknowledge everyone who saved my life on July 2nd of 2013 and helped me get on the road to recovery.
I would like to start with the paramedics at the Shoultes fire dept who arrived at our home and took over CPR from my frantic husband. On that night, our 7 month old disabled son had coughed his trach breathing tube out and my husband and I were in a panic to replace it into his neck as well as his feeding tube from his nose. I had slipped and hit my head on the fireplace brick while trying to reach the living room light causing me to be knocked unconscious and stop breathing altogether. By the time the medics arrived I had gone into cardiac arrest.
Thank you to everyone at Providence emergency room for keeping me alive and stable until my surgeries to repair multiple internal injuries and failing organs.
I then would like to thank Northwest Hospital for taking me in and completing the final surgeries, mental health studies and neurological tests to get me over the hump and on the right track for being moved to recovery at Kindred.
Thank you to Kindred Hospital for all of the hard work and motivation to get me moving my body again as well as learning to walk and talk.
A special thank you to Marynell, the Activities Director, for creating a Haunted room for me for Halloween.
I also want to thank Ed, my PT instructor, for kicking my butt all day long and keeping me motivated.
Also a huge thank you to my best friend at Kindred, Heather. Without her I never would have learned how to yell again, as my first words were yelling her name down the hallway.
I want to thank Robin, who as it would turn out, has been a long term family friend and became much of my emotional support in my final months at that recovery hospital.
A final shout out to Gene at Kindred for pushing me as hard as I could go in my PT training.
I would like to thank all the wonderful people at Providence Rehab for helping finalize my PT before helping me enter back into life at home with assistance.
I would also like to thank my personal trainer, Ken for being so understanding when I seriously couldn’t stop drooling. I will never forget being wheeled in to your room and seeing you in the yellow water proof scrubs. Rest assured, I have stopped drooling.
I would also like to thank Bob for being firm with my mother-in-law who flew all of the way in from Arizona to mouth her opinions and trying to assure her that I was ready to come home and it wasn’t a plot from my mother and myself to allow me to go home before she felt I was ready.
And, lastly, I would like to thank Nurse Wendy for holding me and hugging me hours after that family meeting which left me in tears all night.
It has been one hell of a year and I can’t thank all of you enough for not just treating me like any other patient. I don’t want to think about what could have happened without all of your help. I owe my life to you.
Thank you all for giving me a second chance at life in which I am living it up to the fullest every day!
With the greatest respect,
Jacee Caldwell
My name is Jacee Caldwell and I am writing this to both thank and hopefully acknowledge everyone who saved my life on July 2nd of 2013 and helped me get on the road to recovery.
I would like to start with the paramedics at the Shoultes fire dept who arrived at our home and took over CPR from my frantic husband. On that night, our 7 month old disabled son had coughed his trach breathing tube out and my husband and I were in a panic to replace it into his neck as well as his feeding tube from his nose. I had slipped and hit my head on the fireplace brick while trying to reach the living room light causing me to be knocked unconscious and stop breathing altogether. By the time the medics arrived I had gone into cardiac arrest.
Thank you to everyone at Providence emergency room for keeping me alive and stable until my surgeries to repair multiple internal injuries and failing organs.
I then would like to thank Northwest Hospital for taking me in and completing the final surgeries, mental health studies and neurological tests to get me over the hump and on the right track for being moved to recovery at Kindred.
Thank you to Kindred Hospital for all of the hard work and motivation to get me moving my body again as well as learning to walk and talk.
A special thank you to Marynell, the Activities Director, for creating a Haunted room for me for Halloween.
I also want to thank Ed, my PT instructor, for kicking my butt all day long and keeping me motivated.
Also a huge thank you to my best friend at Kindred, Heather. Without her I never would have learned how to yell again, as my first words were yelling her name down the hallway.
I want to thank Robin, who as it would turn out, has been a long term family friend and became much of my emotional support in my final months at that recovery hospital.
A final shout out to Gene at Kindred for pushing me as hard as I could go in my PT training.
I would like to thank all the wonderful people at Providence Rehab for helping finalize my PT before helping me enter back into life at home with assistance.
I would also like to thank my personal trainer, Ken for being so understanding when I seriously couldn’t stop drooling. I will never forget being wheeled in to your room and seeing you in the yellow water proof scrubs. Rest assured, I have stopped drooling.
I would also like to thank Bob for being firm with my mother-in-law who flew all of the way in from Arizona to mouth her opinions and trying to assure her that I was ready to come home and it wasn’t a plot from my mother and myself to allow me to go home before she felt I was ready.
And, lastly, I would like to thank Nurse Wendy for holding me and hugging me hours after that family meeting which left me in tears all night.
It has been one hell of a year and I can’t thank all of you enough for not just treating me like any other patient. I don’t want to think about what could have happened without all of your help. I owe my life to you.
Thank you all for giving me a second chance at life in which I am living it up to the fullest every day!
With the greatest respect,
Jacee Caldwell
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