Sisters

  Before I write anything about "Sisters" I must wish my mom, Sharon, a very happy birthday!!! I love you!!!

  What can I say about sisters? Some people say you can't choose your relatives or you can't live with them & you can't live without them! Others go on and on about all the sentimental things between sisters. I myself can go on and on about my sister. However I prefer to babble about all the dorky things her & I have done. This post is dedicated to her, my sister!

  My sister, Sissy has never been the type to dress crazy, never wore much make-up & definitely was never one to punk out her hair. Now for myself that is a whole different ballgame. I was always willing to push the boundaries. You can say Sissy was a bit of a square. With that bit of info, I have one life long lingering question for you, Sis. What the heck possessed you to bleach your hair platinum blonde? 

  I am four years younger than Sissy and at times I wondered if I had experimented with more things than her. I was about 15yrs old & yes I was sneaking cigarettes. One night in my room my dear ol' Sis asked me to teach her how to smoke! What the hey? She was 19 & she didn't know how to smoke? When Bill Clinton said he couldn't inhale, I did not think he was full of nonsense cause I knew someone who couldn't inhale also. You got it, Sissy! I wasted a whole dang cig on her trying to inhale & she wanted another one to practice with. Oh heck no! I wasn't going to let her waste my cigs that I had sneak to buy, hide, & smoke! Thank goodness I didn't smoke cannabis at that time! I would had to cut her big permed hair off to sell as payment for wasting good smoke! 

  At 14 yrs old I taught her how to flatten tires by knife slashing. I need not say anymore on that!

  She did let me drink tequila sunrises at age 13! Shame on her!! She even would make me go with her on her dates. I think she just wanted me to lay on that cute lil sis personality for the guys!!

  Sis & I went on a double date when I was only 13! The two guys were cousins and I need not say anymore about them. Our brother Eddie had a date that same night with Sissy's guy's sister. That was an experience right out of a comedy. We decided that we weren't going to tell Eddie where we were going & vice versa. Sissy & I left for our date like 2 hours before Eddie but none of that mattered. While waiting for the drive-in movie to start, we heard a vehicle that sounded familiar. Low & behold it was that familiar vehicle that just pulled up next to us! That damn Eddie!

  Small town carnivals are very fun when a person is young! The carnies can be very interesting people when there is nothing else to entertain us small town people. I do admit that I introduced my Sis to a couple of the guys I befriended. Sis & I even went to another town to visit them. But I never thought my sister would ever allow these two guys to come to our house for an extended visit! Boy oh boy was our Dad ever so so mad at us!! Even sitting here today I am ashamed...ashamed my sister talked me into bringing them to our home!!

  There are so many other hair raising incidences my sister conned me into, too many to posts! But despite all that, I think the best thing I like to do with my Sis is watch her turn red hot and not from embarrassment either!!

  With all the stuff she has put me through, there is one last lingering question I have for her and I think she could do it. Sis, why won't you let me teach you how to smoke natural herb from a pipe????  

  I LOVE YOU FOREVER MY SISTER, SISSY!!!  

  We even take the ugliest quirkiest pics together!!

  

  

   

The Beginning of An Endless Nightmare

   It all started in November of 2010 when my daughter Cheyenne came to me & showed me what looked to be some sort of insect/spider bite on the front of her shoulder. It looked like a mosquito bite but it was hard and it did not itch or bother her. I told her to keep an eye on it and if got worse to let me know. About a week before Christmas of that same year, Cheyenne told me she was about 6 weeks pregnant. She was feeling all the effects of morning sickness everyday all day long! I asked her about the bump on her shoulder and I saw there was no change. However in January of 2011 things started to change dramatically.  Her "morning sickness" seemed to be getting worse and she was getting headaches, couldn't keep no food down and the bump was now an open sore! She went to our doctor where she saw the nurse practitioner to have it checked. The NP said it was a staph sore and gave her antibiotics & a two week follow up appointment. During those two weeks Cheyenne was still having vomiting & headaches but now her lymph nodes on both sides of her neck were swollen. At her follow up appt the NP said the sore was no better and had our primary doctor take a look at it. He thought it could be a bad staph infection but decided to send her to a dermatologist. The NP felt her lymph nodes and said they were fine. While waiting over the next few weeks for the referral to the dermatologist, Cheyenne went to her OB appointments and the baby was doing good and it was a boy! But Cheyenne was not getting any better with the vomiting & headaches, the sore was getting bigger and now the inside of her throat was pure white and she had a 101-102 fever. Back to the doctor she went and she tested positive for Mono and was given medicine for that. After about a few weeks we found out that the doctor's staff messed up on the referral and had to redo it. We finally got the okay for the referral to the dermatologist but her appointment wasn't until the 1st week in March and it was already the beginning of February! From February til March this sore grew and grew, the vomiting & headaches were still active but the Mono and fever got better. Cheyenne was starting to lose weight and had no energy and was constantly fatigued & now she seemed to be getting a cold. It just was like this poor girl was coming down with everything and having the a terrible 1st time pregnancy. March came and Cheyenne was running a fever again but finally, the dermatologist appointment came and he also said the sore did look like Staph and gave her antibiotics and did a culture on it. The dermatologist said that could be why she was running a fever along with her UTI. Over the next couple weeks Cheyenne did not get better and the fever did not go away. She developed a cough and became very congested in her chest and she complained of her chest hurting with shortness of breath. She was progressively getting worse so I took her to the ER since it was the weekend of March 27th. After hours and hours she finally saw the ER doctor who did not want to do a chest xray since she was pregnant. He also did no blood work or urine work but did listen to her lungs and said she had severe bronchitis. He sent her home with more meds and said to follow up with our primary doctor. Our primary doctor's office was closed that week and so she couldn't follow up with him that week. That Thursday March 30th she had a follow up appt with the dermatologist. He said the culture came back negative for Staph and wasn't sure what the sore could be which was not any better. After going over all the symptoms she's had the past few months, the dermatologist said something serious was going on with her and he took a biopsy of the sore and scheduled her for a follow up in a week. By the time Sunday April 3rd came, Cheyenne took a big turn for the worse. She couldn't hardly breathe, she was having severe chills, muscle & bone pain, constant migraines, dizziness, fever wouldn't go down even with Tylenol, was having vision problems, couldn't move at all without help, constant vomiting, her skin was white and her lips & fingertips were turning blue. I was beside myself and just wasn't sure what I should do for her. I called her OB doctor, told him what was going on and decided not to take her to the ER since they didn't do anything previously and opted to see the OB first thing in the morning.  I explained to Cheyenne what the OB said & what we were going to do and she agreed. Then she told me something no mom ever wants to hear from their child. My baby girl said, "Mom, I'm dying! You know I'm really dying, you know that right?" There are no words to explain how I felt after hearing that except devastation! I told her she was not dying and I would not let her die and I loved her! But sadly I said inside my mind I was saying, "Yes honey you are dying!" but of course did not say that out loud to anyone. I knew in my deepest soul my daughter was dying, it is something you can't explain how you know, you just know and Cheyenne knew! I told my husband and son I was going to take a shower and to keep an eye on Cheyenne cause I would be awhile. For the next hour, I begged, cried and begged God like I never had before to please send me a miracle to save my daughter's life, to send a miracle to save her life so she may experience what it's like to be a mom!!! At the end of my begging I told God I leave Cheyenne's life in his hands to do what he knew was best for her and I would accept whatever he chose to do with her and I would not interfere with his decision. Monday April 4th at the OB office some much needed care began. The OB doctor said she was severely dehydrated, had lost weight 10 pounds, and with everything else he sent her to the hospital. We were in the ER all day and now it was night and no diagnosis. A lot of her blood & urine results came back negative for various diseases and illnesses and most results were conflicting, they just could not find what was wrong with her and no type of scans were done on her at this time. All they knew she wasn't getting enough oxygen and while having constant supplied, her oxygen level dropped to 80 and she would be need to be admitted and put on a ventilator. At that moment I didn't quite know what that meant except a ventilator will give her better oxygen supply. Apparently that meant my baby girl was in severe respiratory failure and the ventilator was her only life support!!! It wouldn't be until the next day when we got the diagnosis and the true  severe life & death situation my daughter was about to fight!!!

http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/coccidioidomycosis/

http://www.reportingonhealth.org/valleyfever

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=coccidioidomycosis%20a%20review%20and%20update