Update Time...back from DC!

So....I got back from D.C. about a week ago but as most of you know my work, Greystone Jewelers just went out of business...so things have been crazy. That's my excuse for a late blog update! :-) My work is officially closed but I do have one more day of work tomorrow. Then on Monday I start my new job selling ad's for Perfect Wedding Guide, a bridal guide. I loved my job at Greystone Jewelers, but am excited about this next endeavor also. I will keep you posted about that. On to the final days of my D.C. trip! Well, Lori Beths husband Josh was so wonderful to take me site seeing one of my days there. I saw the capitol building, the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Wall, and the Lincoln Memorial all in one afternoon! This was my first visit to D.C so it was pertinent that we see these things! :-) For not being a history buff...I loved it! Was was really crazy was George Bush on his front lawn riding his bike & playing with his dog. It was so neat...he also decided to get an ab workout in while he was out there! You can see in the photos below. Josh was a great tour guide that's for sure! Now for Lori Beth, she is doing good. She still has her pick line in for her I.V. antiobiotics and her wound vac has been giving her some trouble but she also has that on for most likely a month or more. Her spirits are high, and her mommy is with her now for a little while....so that's a blessing. Just keep praying everything goes smoothly she still has another surgery ahead of her and lots of bumps in the road! I had a wonderful time with her and Josh though....they are such a special couple. ~Me~
My tour guide: Joshua Walker
President Bush taking a break from his bike ride on the front lawn.
Pres. Bush doing his bicycle ab exercises! :-)
Flags around the Washington Monument

Lori Beth is HOME!!!!

Lori Beth Modeling her Hospital Gown :-)This would be the portable Wound Vac the Dr. hooked up before LB left the hospital today. If you can imagine a whole where that tube is inserted into a sponge and the sponge is in the open wound!!! YUK!!! She's a tough cookie though and is handling it wonderfully.
Okay, so we had to get a picture on LB's toilet for the past 10 days of her hospitalization!!! Notice the "walker" to the right that LB "Walker" :-) will be using b/c she is not allowed to put any weight on that foot of hers.

So YES...she's home!!!! Josh & I brought her home today and she is actually taking advantage of her bathtub right now as I blog. Yesterday she had a slow paced day for once, so Josh went and got us mexican food (which we were craving) and LB & I laid in her bed and watched the movie, John Tucker must die...it was great as we put the portable dvd player in between us and we each had our headphones on! :-) After eating our yummy food, us girls finished our movie while Josh watched the hospital t.v. w/ his headphones on! It was so funny! We have been making the most of this hospital situation that's for sure. As of this morning everything about Loris foot looked great. The Dr. came in and changed out her wound vac to a portable one and she was discharged. Her home regimen is lots of pain medicine, a pic line in which she will have IV antibiotics for 6 weeks, no putting weight on her foot and a nurse coming in every monday, wednesday and friday to change out her wound vac dressings. So she still has a lot to deal with. Keep praying that the staph infection will continue to go away and that the wound will heal up nicely so no further surgeries will be necessary. Josh & Lori said it would be o.k. for me to post their address for those who may want to send cards, etc.

Josh & Lori Beth Walker

10153 Oakton Terrace Rd. Oakton, VA 22124

Keeping you posted..Kel

Update on Lori Beth

Well a lot has changed since I first posted about my best friend Lori Beth Walker. I flew up here yesterday (Wed) to surprise her and will be here for a week. I couldn't handle calling her everyday and hearing her cry....so luckily my wonderful hubby said, "why don't you go up there?" So..needless to say I took him up on that offer! :-) She was completely surprised when I walked in her hospital room yesterday..it was so great...we just bawled together! Then...you won't believe what happened. Her podiatrist (foot specialist) comes in everyday to undress her wound check about it & redress it. I was a little nervous about seeing the "raw" wound, but thought I would sneak a little peak. And I am here to tell you it was DISGUSTING. I almost wish I could take a picture of it and put it on here to stress to ya'll the torment LB is going through! But if your stomach is like my husbands, you'd pass out! :-) But I will describe it to you. It's an oval shaped opening about the size of a large egg on top of her right foot, completely open, muscle, tissue, tendon and all right there with no skin on top b/c the staph ate it away!!! Well yesterday when the DR came in to undress her wound he found the suture he had done on her tendon on Tuesday had come apart!!! So he decided along with LB that he would just suture that thing back together right there in her room!!! Unfortunately, Josh had gone to get us supper and take care of some things at the house so since I was there I got to hold her hand through this process. The doctor and his resident injected her ankle with a local anesthetic to numb her foot, then they got the tendon coming up from her big toe and the other part coming down from her ankle and basically hooked a wire or something through the end of one & the end of the other and tightened up that wire thing to bring the two pieces together. I want you to know I was on one side of LB sitting on her toilet holding her hand (which did turn purple) and the nurse was on the other side pumping more pain medicine in LB. With my other hand that wasn't purple I held up a pillow so LB couldn't see what was going on....keep in mind she was AWAKE through them tugging on her tendon pulling hard to bring them together so they will stay close to one another until her surgery tomorrow (Friday) to permanently fix the tendon. It was the most nasty thing I have ever seen. When I called Ryan last night and told him I watched this from 2 feet away and I couldn't believe I didn't pass out....his reply was, "that's because your part boy!!!" :-) He's such a comedian right? I'll also have you know, Lori Beth didn't shed a tear through this...ya'll I knew she was strong but my word....that was incredible! I think we have now determined that she is part boy! ;-) So...as of today the suture has stayed in place, the wound looked well, meaning the infection is cleaning up. The bad news is that after an MRI today they think she may have infection in her bone. This is not confirmed but will be tomorrow once infectious disease & another radiologist look at everything. If she does have it in her bone, they still need to repair the tendon and close up the wound and put a wound vac on it, b/c the outer skin needs to heal before the bone can. So surgery to do all that is tomorrow at 11:30. Pray that this surgery will do the trick and there will be no complications. Lori has been such a good sport through all this. She doesn't deserve to go through this at all much less any more bad news. On a good note she did get a bath in a BATH TUB today, and she did a little microdermabrasion on her face, satin lips, and washed AND blow dried her hair!!! She was feelin' good after that! That was compliments of the physical therapy bath tub I spotted down the hall...she was a good girl so they let her use it! :-) I guess that's all I have for now...just please keep her on your prayer list...this isn't' even close to being over. Thanks.....KK

Please pray for my best friend Lori Beth!!!!

Hi everyone,

My 26 yr. old best friend Lori Beth was put in the hospital today due to a staph infection. It all started about 2 weeks ago when she was drying a knife w/ a kitchen towel & dropped the knife on top of her foot! She didn't go get stitches or anything at the time, in fact she just cleaned it up & went on about her business going to work as a school teacher and all. After about a week of it still bothering her she went to see the Dr. They said she cut her tendon & needed surgery. She had the outpatient surgery this past Thursday, May 1. Then her husband Josh had to leave the next day for a mission oriented trip to the Czech Republic! She had help from friends the first couple days then expected to go back to work on Monday. Well, she had horrible pain, downed lot's of pain medicine without much relief, and went back to the Dr. on Monday I believe. The doctor started her on antibiotics but as of today she was still in extreme pain after 4 days of antibiotics and elevating her foot all week. So when her foot turned black today she went to the hospital. Her husband said when they took the bandages off her foot/leg today it was horrible!!! They had to bust a huge blister that had come up and the swelling was miserable. They did surgery just a little while ago to clean out the infection and to determine exactly what type of infection it was. After all that she does have a staph infection and aggressive at that, the Dr. said. They started her on multiple appropriate antibiotics tonight and are leaving the wound open so they can watch the infection. But they do feel very confident that they got all of it. She will still be in the hospital 4 days for sure and had to take short term disability from work! :-( Please, Please, pray that they got all the infection out and that the antibiotics will take care of the rest. She is in the hospital near D.C. in Falls Church Virginia, Inova hospital, room 681, bed 1 for any of those who would like to send cards, flowers, etc. Thanks so much!!!

Our Puppy

Some of you have asked to see photos of our current "baby," our dog, Heisman Bo Key. :-) He is a full bred Lab, (my cousin breeds them in Pensacola) 4 months old now, and currently weighs in at 40 lbs. So, at 4 months of age he doesn't like storms. Lastnight in Birmingham, it was quite stormy. Heisman will just bark & bark in his kennel during a storm. Ryan got up in the middle of the night to get him to quite down. When I woke up this morning, my husband wasn't in our bed, he was on the couch. And his buddy, Heisman, was on the other couch (pictured below) :-). Apparently that's all Heisman needed was daddy to come be with him. You see who got the couch, and who got the love seat! :-) Here's a photo of Heisman at 6 weeks old with his mommy. He was my Valentines present!
Here's Heismans dad, Bo Dudley, who weighs 110 lbs. !!!
Here's Heismans mom, Daisy Mae, who weighs 75 lbs.
Heisman, 6 weeks old...those sweet baby blues aren't so blue anymore. :-(

Bible Class at Starbucks ;-)

Emily, McKenna, Halle & Kelly

Well, last quarter at our church, I taught the teenage girls class...which I loved! We had so much fun and had a great book to guide us in some deep discussions (Straddling The Fence, The danger of Compromise). Due to the in depth discussions we didn't finish the book by the end of the quarter! So, we decided we would finish out the last 4 chapters at Starbucks over a grande, iced, toffee nut latte with non-fat milk and whipped cream (for me) and decaf frappacino's for the girls! We managed to get through 2 more chapters...I guess we'll just have to plan another coffee date to get through this book! Too bad huh?! ;-)

We're Going To Adopt!!!

As most of you know Ryan & I have been trying to get pregnant for about 4 years now. We have been through some infertility, but after 6 months of that I physically and emotionally needed a break! We currently are still on infertility "break" but will go back the end of May for a consultation to see what other options we have. In the mean time, we have decided to adopt! I have always said that I would adopt one day, I just didn't know that might be Gods plan for me. Ryan & I met with some new friends this week who adopted, and had a wonderful experience so after much discussion Ryan told me he wanted to adopt also!!! Then his next question was, "do you want a boy or girl? " :-) We decided we want to leave that in God's hands to bless us with whatever he see's fit. You would have thought I just found out I was pregnant! :-) I cried myself to sleep that night and couldn't quit imagining that baby in my arms. Adoption is a long process so if you will just keep us in your prayers throughout this time. Thanks, and I will keep you posted!!!