The brighter side

On a much lighter note.....I did my walk of shame yesterday when I came back to work. I ate like crap in Indy and I knew it was going to catch up with me. So with my head held low I walked to the cafeteria yesterday to get my breakfast and I stepped on the scale and.................I'VE LOST ANOTHER 3LBS!!! That puts me right under 15lbs down so far!!!!

I am so surprised!!

We didn't eat much Friday because we were both a ball of nerves not knowing what was happening to Mary.

But by Saturday our appetite was back full force and we were BAD!!! We ate Mexican (hmmmmm) one night with a bunch of Mary's friends (it was the one of the ONLY times we left the hospital and I'm glad we did bc Jason needed a lil break, oh and Mary's friends are all NUTS so it was good to sit and laugh) and Papa John's the next night. Their cafeteria also put out fresh dark chocolate covered strawberries every day, can you see the drool coming out my mouth now!!! You better believe I was down there gettin those suckers two at a time!!!

I did try to watch it a little and would eat somewhat healthy for breakfast and lunch, saving the bad stuff for dinner.

On the way home we didn't eat much either, but I still expected the scale to be brutal on me when I came back.

I jumped on today even though I usually don't like to weigh myself everyday and I've got one more pound to go before I hit my 15lbs down mark!!

I have reached my short term goal!!!

Ideally my long term goal is I  would like to lose another 15lbs or so. IDEALLY. We'll see what happens. I wont beat myself up about it as long as I can maintain what I have already accomplished!! 5 more pounds and I'll be back to what I was when Jason and I started dating!!

This is the most recent picture I have of me and the most beautiful Becca. It was taken about a week or so ago and obviously I am in my work uniform. I'll try to take more pics soon.

My mother-in-law

Friday I was at work, excited that my husband and I would be leaving for New Jersey in just a few short hours, when I noticed I had a few missed calls from him. I didn’t think much of it and called him back as soon as I no longer had patients to attend to. In a frantic haste he explained to me that he’d just received a call notifying him that his mother, Mary, and her boyfriend, Kurt, had just been involved in a bad motorcycle accident in Indianapolis, where they live, and they were under the impression that Kurt had not made it.

I called my boss immediately and explained the situation and that I had to leave. Thankfully I had driven into work that day and was able to hop a quick bus from the hospital to my car. I didn’t break down until on the way out one of my coworkers asked me if I was ok and I started thinking of the possibilities, what if my mother-in-law wasn’t ok?

Even though it was a short ride to my car I prayed the whole time on the bus that she would make it through this.

Our car was already packed and ready for Jersey so after stopping to pick up my husband from his job, we hit the road to Indy, without even having to stop at our house for anything.

It was the LONGEST 12 HOUR RIDE EVER!!!!

The whole way we kept making and receiving phone calls to find out exactly was going on. The story kept changing.

First Kurt was dead, then he wasn’t, then he was again. We were so confused.

Finally, word came that both Kurt and Mary were alive but in critical condition and a 3rd motorcyclist had not made it.

The kicker to it all was that it was IMPD COP car who had hit them from behind while responding to a backup call. NOT EMERGENT.

I’ve known Mary for 12 year or so and I know enough about her and her boyfriend to know that they ARE NOT careless motorcyclists. They take riding VERY seriously.

There were 3 motorcycles and 4 people in all, Mary and Kurt were riding together. The others two also worked at Mary’s accounting office and they had all decided to go out for lunch. They were stopped at a red light in the middle of a major intersection when they heard the police siren (This part is all coming from George, the other cyclist that was present but not hit in the accident)

They were in the center lane with a clear turning lane to their left and cars stopped in front of them and to their right. As is Indiana law, they stayed where they were, not able to pull any further to the right or forward due to other stopped cars, and moving into the left turning lane would have only blocked a clear path. They stayed put, assuming he would go around.

I was not there so I have no idea what was going on with the cop right before he hit them. There were reports that he may have been looking down at his computer. Either way he didn’t see the motorcyclists until it was too late and braked at the very last minute. George was quoted in the papers as describing what happened next “was like a tornado picked them up -- bodies and bikes were flying. And then they dropped like they were nothing."

According to George, the cop got out and asked “what, you didn’t hear my sirens?”

George says he went to Eric first because it was obvious he was the one most in need as he was the one hit first and thrown the farthest. When he got to him he felt for a pulse and was able to make out a weak one. Someone from one of the surrounding cars got out and said she was a nurse that would stay with Eric while George checked on the others.

He went to Kurt who had blood coming out every time he breathed. He asked the cop to help him get the motorcycle off Kurt and the cop ignored him so George, full of adrenaline, lifted the bike off himself, with the cop helping only after it had already been lifted off.

George then went to Mary who was lying on her side, awake. She was rocking herself and talking.

We heard most of this after we had arrived in Indy and had spent time with Mary. A few days later we went to the crash site where there was an estimated 66ft of skid marks!! It was unreal to see it in person and listen to a grown man breaking down as he had to retell the story of watching his friends be taken out.

We arrived at the hospital it was 2:30am Saturday morning about 15hours after the accident first occurred. Mary was just coming out of surgery where they put an external fixator in her pelvis. This stabilized the broken bones. Before they were able to take her to surgery to stabilize her pelvis they had to take her to IR, interventional radiology, to give her an embolism because they couldn’t stop the bleeding in her pelvis.

I later leaned that they almost lost her twice when she first came in because of the bleeding in her pelvis.

We stayed all night with Mary and it was SOOO scary to see her with a chest tube and ventilator breathing for her.

We learned that she had two small brain hemorrhages, ribs 1-7 broken on the right side with a collapsed lung, 3 ribs broken on the left side. Both shoulders are broken, her leg and ankle on her right side are broken, her back is broken in the lower region but is not serious. She has a herniated disk at C-4 that they operated on yesterday so that it doesn’t put pressure on her spinal cord and she has possible facial factures and a possible thumb fracture.

Saturday other family started to arrive so Jason was finally able to relax a little. He hardly left his mother’s side all weekend. Mary was able to shake her head yes and no and by Saturday night she would spell things out into our hands to communicate. She would only stay awake for small periods of time and if you asked her what happened she would shake her head that she didn’t remember.

Sunday, I was sitting alone with her while Jason slept and they said they were turning the ventilator off so that she would be breathing on her own and that if she did well they would be able to take it out. She was breathing fine while she was awake but because she was on so many pain killers she would start to doze off every few minutes. Every time she started to fall asleep the monitors would start alarming. She was forgetting to breathe while she was slept. I would have to call out to her every few minutes “Mary, Breath!!” She would take a few deep breaths, enough to shut the monitors up and then fall back asleep and they cycle would repeat.

A few visitors showed up then so I excused myself so I could go grab something to eat and so they could visit with her.

When I came back the curtains were drawn so I stepped around to see a team of doctors and Mary WITH THE VENTILATOR ALREADY OUT!!!! I was so happy I almost cried!!!

Then the real trouble began because THEN she could TALK!! If you know Mary you know why that’s trouble lol!!!

Shortly after that they took out the chest tube and the next day they took her off the critical care unit and gave her a regular bed.

The last day we were there, Tuesday, she was going into surgery for the herniated disk which went well.

Mary Mills

She will still have to be in the hospital for some time and then she’ll have to move to a rehabilitation center so she can learn to walk again and eventually she’ll be able to go home with someone that will be able to constantly help care for her but she will make a full recovery.

Eric Wells

Eric Wells, a former marine, is survived by a beautiful wife. He was 30 yrs old and she is 27. They were about to celebrate their second wedding anniversary and start a family.

Kurt Weekly is still in critical care at Methodist hospital in Indianapolis. He is in a coma but we are all hoping and praying he will wake up soon.

David Bisard

On our way back home yesterday we got word that a blood test was done as protocol on the officer, David Bisard, TWO HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDENT. The results came back that he was OVER TWICE THE LEGAL LIMIT with a BAC of .19!!!! The accident happened at 11:20 on a Friday MORNING and he was already DRUNK AND ON DUTY DOING AROUND 80MPH. Originally they tried to spin it that it was the motorcyclists fault for not getting out of the way and that the officer did everything he could to avoid the accident. But NOT drinking on the job should have been the FIRST thing he did. Even if he hadn’t been drunk he was driving at entirely too high a speed to try to go through a busy intersection.

Obviously the families have lawyers and the Prosecutor’s office is now looking in to pressing charges. David Bisard probably even being placed under arrest as we speak.

Officers sworn to serve and protect are NOT above the law and I ask that everyone pray for ALL involved including HIS wife and children that will now have to suffer from HIS wanton disregard.

UPDATE:
They issued a warrent for the officer yesterday (8/11/2010) and he turned himself in. The set bail at $10k and he was out in 40mins!!!! Now they are testing the blood to "make sure it was his" because the hospital could have made a mistake even though another officer already stated he saw the nurse take the blood from David Bisard and label it and he took it to the evidence locker.
This story just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

Jason flew back to Indy today to be with his mom and to make sure everyone is doing their job on this. They are having a rally at Monument Circle tomorrow (8/13/2010) at 7pm.

P.S
I am one of those lucky people who have an AWESOME relationship with my mother-in-law. I loved her long before I ever married into the family so it was devestating to think she could have been take from our lives. I THANK GOD that he was watching over her that day!!

*Photos from WTHR and Indystar.com

A year ago today.....

A year ago today my husband's best friend passed away.

He may be gone but he will never be forgotten.

Tomorrow we leave to go to New Jersey for a get together with all of his closes friends celebrating his life!!

RIP JACK MARSHALL 8/5/2009

Slowly but Surely

At the beginning of every week I come into work and cringe at the idea of getting on the scale. I like to weigh myself on Monday’s to see where I’m at. Every week I’m convinced that my horrible eating habits over the weekend are going to catch up with me and somehow I will have miraculously gained back 10lbs!! Today was no exception. I trudged down to the cafeteria, where the scale is so handily kept, on my way to get my morning fix of sausage and egg (protein) and to my amazement I have dropped another pound or two!!! I can’t believe it!!!


Thus far I have lost about 9lbs in about as many weeks. It’s a very SLOW process and the fact that I'm not counting my calories or pushing myself physically at the gym isn’t speeding things up any. But it’s still happening and I couldn’t be happier!! What’s even better is I’m losing the RIGHT way!! I’m not starving myself or doing some crazy fad diet, I don’t eat cabbage soup 3 times a day or 3 cookies with every meal. I simply try to eat better and more often. Instead of eating 3 big meals a day, I eat 5-6 times a day every 2-3 hours. I eat things like eggs and turkey sausage, and fruit for breakfast. For lunch I’ve been eating Progresso soup. Wal-Mart carries Progresso pretty cheap so I’m not only saving money by not buying expensive cafeteria food but eating healthy too, and if I’m still hungry ill pair it with a salad. Then for dinner it’s pretty much whatever I want although usually its chicken or fish with vegetables. And at least 3 times a week I try to go for a mile run around my neighborhood.
I still have a LONG way to go but today's weigh-in gave me hope that ill get there....slowly but surely. It's VERY encouraging seeing the scale tip in the RIGHT direction!!  ;-)

MUSC GETS RANKED

The Medical University of South Carolina ranks among the nation's best hospitals in its treatment of six specialities, according to the August edition of U.S. News & World Report.

The Medical University of South Carolina again has made U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Hospitals in six categories. The hospital has been ranked for the 14th year in a row for its treatment of gastrointestinal disorders.

The Best Hospitals list ranks MUSC for its treatment of gastrointestinal disorders (24), ear/nose/throat disorders (40), kidney disorders (41), gynecologic disorders (47), orthopedics (42) and rheumatology (17).

Out of 4,852 facilities, only 152, including MUSC, made the 2010-11 Best Hospitals rankings.

Founded in Charleston in 1824, the Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South

-Post and Courier

Friday, July 16, 2010

I can’t express how PROUD I am to work for MUSC. I have been with the hospital for 5 years now and I couldn’t be happier!! Not only do I work at MUSC but I myself also utilize their excellent care for my own healthcare needs!

I can also attest  first hand to their AWESOME gynecologic services!! I have had surgery there and although surgery is never a fun thing (the anesthesia makes me sick), they did their best to make me as comfortable as possible and I was EXTREMELY impressed with my care! If I have the choice I would never go anywhere else for my surgical needs!!!

I work next to the BEST orthopedic doctors that South Carolina has to offer!! One of them even came by yesterday to invite the OR/ER Radiology staff to a celebration party because of all the hard work we do for them.

I am currently working on my Bachelor’s degree from MUSC's University! I feel blessed to affiliated with such a good hospital!!

There are so many students that are trianed and graduate from MUSC before they continue their careers all over the world!!

-Kim Murdaugh RT(R)

Oh........

• MUSC was also named # 20 Pediatrics: Heart & Heart Surgery

Do Something

11 Facts about Recycling

1. The average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled.

2. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

3. A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That's a lot of containers that can all be recycled!

4. About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is only 28%.

5. Every month Americans throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper (think: Empire State Building), but all of these jars are recyclable!

6. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures a year! Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It's twice the size of Texas and is floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. It's also 80 percent plastic, and weighs in at 3.5 million tons.

7. Recycling one ton (about 2,000 pounds) of paper saves 17 trees, two barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for six months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of pollution.

8. The 17 trees saved by recycling one ton of paper can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air each year.

9. If all of our newspapers were recycled, we could save about 250 million trees each year! If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year.

10. More than 20 million Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil. Believe it not, ALL that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it so most it goes in the trash!

11. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. In spite of this, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every three months!

Easy Ideas

• Find out how large (or small!) your carbon footprint is here! (I was surprised at mine)
• Play an online game that supports DoSomething.org
• Having an event? A dance, a party, a get together? Provide a container for recyclables and others for trash.
• Organize a clothes exchange - get friends and people in your community to bring anything they don't want so they can swap!
• Take your own cloth or canvas bag when you go shopping for groceries, clothes, whatever!
• Use eco-friendly dishes - like bowls made of recycled magazines or glassware instead of paper plates.
• Send an e-blast to family and friends with information and tips on recycling.
• Start reusing a reusable water bottle and just say no to plastic.
• Make sure your printer paper is 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
• Pick up the trash around your town- just because other people don't doesn't mean you shouldn't!
• Try a reusable water bottle- they're easy to wash, and can be used for both hot and cold liquids.
• Get your school to use washable trays if they use paper plates or wrappers
• Use biodegradable sunscreen- and protect yourself from harmful rays every day.
• Reuse boxes for gifts and wrap them with newspaper - use the Sunday comics for pizzazz.\
• Donate! Anything in good condition that you longer need!
• Use Evite or facebook for party and event invitations - it saves paper AND you can know who's coming in an instant!
• Revamp your old clothes! Spice up a shirt you never wear with sequins, or make an old pair of jeans into shorts.
• Use old stuff to make art- make a mobile from CDs, or collage from magazines.
• Use eco-friendly dishes- like bowls made of recycled magazines or glassware instead of paper plates.
• Recycle- DUH!
• When you donate to an organization, find out where the money goes and make sure the organization supports your values.
• Use cloth napkins and dish towels instead of paper ones.
• Reuse bags and containers.

From DoSomeThing.org

I am not big on recyling although I should be. In my house our vice is pizza and since the pizza boxes are too big to fit in the trash I put them off to the side. We try not to splurg too often but thanks to a husband with a good appitate and a 10yr old daughter it doesnt take long for them to stack up!!!
I thought I was doing good by setting the boxes to the side to put in the recycle bin at the dump but after I read this article (click here) I realized I was wrong!!
Guess I'll have to find other ways to make a difference and I hope you do too!!!!



P.S
oh! So I also decided to only use two or three little squares of toilet paper instead of my normal 5 or 6. I know that doesnt seem like a lot but im sure it adds up to me flushing a ton of paper down the drain!! (lol) This is a sacrafice i will just have to live with so that i may save the world one toilet tissue square at a time!!

Memorial weekend

Finally had the wonderful weekend I was in need of!!!


I was on call all last week and even though I had to stay late most days I really didn’t mind. I knew I had to work Memorial Day, again I didn’t mind, but I was a little sad that my whole weekend would be spent waiting to see if I would get called into work!

My friend called me Friday asking if me and Jason wanted to go out on the boat with her Saturday. I really wanted to go but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anyone to take my call. Finally I hit the jackpot and was able to find someone to take if for most of the day! This freed me up enough that we could go spend our day out on the water!

I’m so glad we went!! We had sooo much fun! I haven’t been out on the boat in awhile and I had forgotten how much fun it is!! We put in and went through the locks to get to the Short stay area. I haven’t seen Short stay in YEARS!! It brought back a ton of childhood memories!! Jason and I both got a ton of sun and spent some much needed time together!

Recently Jason has joined a new gym that trains mma. At first I wasn’t really happy of the idea, but after seeing how dedicated he is to learning I am really happy for him (the new muscles poking out is also a great perk…gotta love those well toned men !!)



I have orientation for school this weekend…boo!!! So my time from here on out should be spent on school. I say should because I am the QUEEN of procrastination! And I can always find something unproductive and distracting to look at. (this is why I was able to ready 4 Sookie Stackhouse books in just a month!! But don’t get me started on those…season premier June 13Th whoop whoop !!!!!)

However, this semester is my second to last and I am taking my usual 2 classes but I am also trying to clep 2 classes. I may have bitten off more than I can chew on this one because I have never taken a CLEP before. This is when you take the test for the class instead of actually taking the class, if I pass the test it will end of saving me a ton of money that otherwise I will have to spend to take the class.

I am going to have to work really hard at this because Biology is one of the tests I am Clepping and I haven’t had any Biology classes in years!!!

I am going to have to work my butt off to pull this off, but I will focus and I will get it done!



Oh and on a completely different note, Taylor starts camp for the first time ever in a few weeks!!! I am soo excited for her! Usually she either stays with a friend or with my grandparents during the summer but this year we were able to get her into a camp!! This isn’t the kind where she goes and stays the night for a few weeks but she is still super excited! I even bought her some tween books to read that are about camp! My little girl is growing up so fast I can’t believe it!! She will be in 5th grade at the end of the summer!!! She has recently started going through my closet at my mom’s house (I left a ton of stuff there when I moved out) and now when she comes home I find her wearing my old clothes all the time!!