HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

emily and i made these creepy monster cakes for the trunk or treat tonight... we are totally going to win a prize. i found the ideas here.

(the little monster on the right is in his coffin)

Thanks for the call!

I got a call from the Doctor today... she said that I don't have to wear the socks anymore. WOOHOO! I can actually see my legs.. yay! and I can wear flip flops! She said that my blood clot still showed up on the ultra sound so I still have to be careful with my legs. The clot extends from the bottom of my knee all the way to the top of my inner thigh. My leg hurts when I'm up and moving, so I still have to take things slow. They still don't have the results from the test showing if I have some genetic thing going on. But my PT/INR blood test results that I have been getting every week are really good. That means that the blood thinner that I take every day is working and that I am on the right dose. Now I only have to get my blood drawn every other week. We are going to a Hematologist (a blood specialist) on Monday and I sure hope he doesn't make me put those socks back on.

Pumpkins!

Jeremy and I carved this pumpkin tonight. I forgot how fun it is to carve pumpkins. It's kind of sad that we only do it once a year. Maybe I will have to carve a couple this Halloween season to get my fix in. I was planning on Jeremy cleaning out the pumpkin, but he made me clean out all the slimey, gross stuff that was in our pumpkin... something about his hand not fitting through the hole in the top... whatever J. He helped me with the rest though. It was fun!

He's Here!

Jeremy flew in tonight! YAY! We haven't seen each other for over two months. I love being with him! I have missed him so much. These have been the longest two months of my life. Jeremy is so amazing...I am the luckiest girl ever! I am so glad that he's here. It is such perfect timing for him to come too because our FIRST KISS was exactly one year ago from today. So cool. We were at the Baskin Robbins parking lot in Provo and we just got some ice cream. We were sitting in his car listening to the radio and just talking. Jeremy kissed me and it was the most perfect kiss of my life! Tonight, we went straight to the Baskin Robbins after I picked him up from the airport to celebrate this fun day.

boredom+katie=CRAFTS!

All this laying-around-the-house-not-doing-much thing has gotten me in the mood for all sorts of art projects. I mean the possibilities are ENDLESS! I love love love to make things and play with paint and all that fun stuff. So today I painted t-shirts. I created stencils using freezer paper! It was so easy. I learned how to do it on this blog that I found the other day. It was fun and it took a while so it was the perfect thing to fill up my afternoon.

More fun

Last night my dad and I took a trip to the ER. We got there around 9:00 and we were home around 1:00. We went to the hospital because last night I had a head ache, my hands and arms were going numb, half of my face was going numb, it was hard to focus on things visually, and I was having a hard time talking. We weren't really sure what was going on and with the whole blood clot thing we decided to go to the hospital just in case it was something serious. They gave me an IV, drew four vials of blood, took a CT scan of my head and also of my chest, and then they said I could go home. The doctor came to the conclusion that everything was caused by the headache I had. They told me it was a complex migraine. Ok...so I went to the ER for a headache... nice! I'm really tough. I actually wanted to go experience the whole hospital scene here because I was curious about how it would measure up against the hospitals in Romania and Austria. Yeah right... I really hope that I'm done for a while. Another comical thing of the night... one of the nurses was surprised when she read on my records that I was 20. We asked her how old she thought I was and she said "13." Not even kidding...

Awwwww....

THANK YOU!

Here is a quick medical update: I went to the doctor on Thursday morning. They are always suprised at how young I am for having blood clots. I think it is always funny how the nurses or people that take your weight and height ask me questions like, "How did you get a blood clot?" I always think in my head, "Thats why I am here...Why don't you tell me how I got a blood clot?" :) But I just say, "I don't know... it's kinda crazy." Anyways... They took tons of blood and now we are just waiting for the results from all the different tests they are doing. I am also going in for another ultrasound on my leg at the beginning of next week. The records that were in Romanian and German just weren't making sense. But the doctor thinks the blood clots are probably linked to my genetics... thank you mom and dad! She said something about a Sector 5 gene... I don't really understand it all. I can't really do anything too exciting because a piece of the blood clot could still break off and go to my lung or to my brain. So I'm still hanging out in these great compression stockings just waiting for more information from the doctor. I'm just so happy to be home! Life is good!

I'm a Rock Star!

I just wanted to publicly thank HTH Worldwide Insurance. They flew my mom and I home from Vienna and took care of me while I was outside of the States. It took them a while to get everything worked out, but they kept at it and got us home safe. They also did a very good job at picking our seats. For our 11 hour long flight back to the states, we got to sit in what I like to call "Rock Star Class." It's the class above First Class. It was soooooo cool. The seats turned into beds and we didn't have those dippy blankets... oh no... we had fluffy pillows and down comforters! Crazy! Can you imagine flying like this all the time?? We also got free drinks. My mom and I ended up getting ice water every time and the guy serving us commented on how adventurous we were (if he only knew). I think a couple of the other guys in "Rock Star Class" were close to intoxication. Well, I can't really describe the greatness of this above First Class class, so here are some pictures:

AMAZING!

Pretty much what you see in the movies... and how you imagine Rock Stars travelling.

YAY!

I'm home!

We're in London!

Yay! We have started our journey home. We are staying at a Hilton right by the airport for our quick get-away in the morning. The lady, Ana Maria, that checked us into the hotel is from Iasi, Romania. That's where I was! She just got back from visiting Romania two days ago and she talked about how she was at the Hala Centrala! I lived right across the street from the Hala Centrala! It was so crazy! I told her about how was I was working over there in the hospitals and orphanages and she thought it was pretty cool. After talking to her for a minute, she changed our room to a nicer one and gave us access to the Executive Lounge! So cool! We get free drinks and snacks, internet, and breakfast in the morning. She also gave us her card just in case we need anything else. What a nice lady! I pretty much have the hook ups...

not Tuesday either?

So we have had a little bit of another delay and we will not arrive back in the States until Wednesday. Austrian Airlines will not allow me to fly on their planes for another three weeks with a blood clot. How mean?! We are flying through a different airline, but they don't have flights back to good ole America every day. So we have to wait for Wednesday before we will finally make it home. The call of bad news came from the insurance company shortly before our dinner arrived. I was already super bummed about not getting home until Wednesday, but then I saw what dinner was. The main dish: some vegetable mixture quiche looking thing, the side dish: pickled beets, the dessert: I still don't know. Veggies....(yuck) just aren't my thing. It was way more than I could take and after staring at my supposed meal for a few minutes, I just burst into tears. After dodging the nurses because we weren't sure if they would let me walk that far, my mom took me down to the cafe on the first floor and bought me the closest thing we could find to a ham and cheese sandwich and then a cherry yogurt, too. It was so nice to have something more familar! Thanks mom! After my mini meltdown we did finally recieve our flight plans via email. We get to leave the hospital tomorrow, much to my delight! I really don't think I could stay just one more day. We are flying to London tomorrow afternoon and we will spend the night there and then fly straight home Wednesday morning. I am so excited! We are really going to leave!

Pretty in Pink!

I just painted my toe nails out on our little patio! How fun!

wait... not Monday??

so... we can't fly out on Monday because the insurance was not able to get the medical clearance from the airlines in time... we better really fly out Tuesday or else I just might go crazy


On October 12th...

• 12 years ago I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Yay! I loved wearing that beautiful white dress... too bad they only have the white jumpers for everyone now.
• 3 years ago (when I was a senior in high school) two girls on my high school tennis team, Lindsey Nixon and Tiffany Howell, were killed in a car accident on the way to their regional tennis match. I will never forget that afternoon.... these two girls brought such a fun spirit to our team.

are we done yet?

i don't know if my poor veins can take it anymore... for the past 11 days i have been poked with some sort of needle at least once a day... usually twice.

in Romania (over 6 days): we need to take blood. we need to take more blood because we didn't get enough vials the first time. we need to take blood. you have to give yourself shots twice a day. we need to take blood. we need to give you an IV. that IV didn't work, we need to do another one. we need to take more blood.

in Austria (over 5 days): we need to take blood. we need to take more blood. we need to change that IV, you have had it for too long. we need to take more blood. that IV isn't working, we need to try a different vein. we need to take blood. we need to take more blood.

this is what i have been hearing a lot of lately... my veins are causing trouble with the IVs and they keep taking my blood, usually around 8 every morning. luckily we are down to only 1 vial today (the first day here in Vienna they took 7). my poor arms may be bruised for a while.

I'm Busting Outta Here

The doctor came in today and told us that we could go home on Monday! Yay! I am so excited! The hospital here has been great... but come on... its a hospital. I can't wait to get back home. Well going home is actually very bittersweet. For almost a year now I have been applying, preparing, and waiting to go to Romania. It makes me so sad that my experience was cut short. Part of me wants so badly to go back to Iasi. I want to go work with the little babies again. I want to walk into the room and see little Ovidiu looking up at me with his eyes begging me to pick him up. I want to get frustrated with him because he is the hardest baby to feed in the world, and then remember that I came there just to love him and it doesn't matter how long it takes for him to eat. I want to blow bubbles with Marion for hours and color with Alexandra even though she never likes my pictures. I want to let Catalina play with my hair even though she always ends up ripping a ton of it out. I want to change the diapers of the little babies there that have been abandoned and need my love even if I can only hold them for an hour. I will miss Iasi and my experience that I started there and didn't get to finish. I am so grateful that I got to serve the kids in Iasi for the short time I was there. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget. I hope the rest of my group will love and serve those kids with all their hearts, because I won't be able to.

Just Dreamin the Day Away

Over the past couple days, I have found myself saying things like, "Can we go to Pei Wei when we get home?" "Pei Wei sounds so good right now." "Mom wouldn't you just love some Pei Wei." I love Pei Wei. The plan right now is to either stop at Pei Wei on the way home from the airport or we might call the place from the airport and pick it up "to go." Either way I am so excited! I seem to be more excited about it this evening after seeing the dinner that was brought to me tonight that I blindly picked from the German menu two days ago. Chinese sounds delicious!

SAD FACE

here is my poor tummy.... the bruising is from when i had to give myself the shots of lovenox to start thinning my blood last week... luckily i haven't had to do that since monday morning

(the sad face was added today with a pen, it is not a bruise)

FREEDOM

Today I got the ok to walk around the room..... YES!!!

What a day...

Today has been filled with excitement. I have looked over 2 magazines, checked my email a couple times, and ate some food. As I was looking through the magazines I decided what my next passion will be. I told my mom,"I am going to be a cooker." She was really impressed with my terminology and knew I had a lot to work on. I was reading the REAL SIMPLE magazines and kept finding recipes that were easy and had minimal vegetables. I told my mom I wanted to cook for the family 3 times a week. For those of you that know me well this is a big step. I figure I should get on the cooking bandwagon sooner rather than later since the wedding date is sneaking up. Jeremy I hope you are excited for good food. After tearing out pages and pages of recipes I remembered my gummy bears in my bag. Yum! I love gummy bears. I am not sure what flavor is my favorite, but the little guys were quite entertaining.

I tried hard to get the orange bear to talk to my mom... He just wouldn't respond. I still have half a bag left. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

P. S. Medical Update: I have an infection in my blood. They are giving me antibotics three times a day through my IV...ouch. The pain in my leg is almost gone. I am still stuck in bed, the nurses won't let me walk around. The doctor said I would probably have to stay for one more week. Luckily I am entertained by simple things. Thanks for all your prayers.

Hooray!

I am here in Vienna! I got here last night and they are doing loads of tests today and then we will know whats going on. We will keep you updated... thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers! I am so blessed to have so many friends and family thinking about me. Thanks again!

Finally...

Here are some pictures of the past few days...

What a find!!

The Business Lounge is incredible! Do they have them in every airport??? The Business Lounge, as far as I am concerned, is the biggest kept secret among the business folk. We (meaning the Dr. from London and I) went straight to the Business Lounge when we arrived at the airport in Bucharest and this is the place to be. He asked if I wanted anything to drink and I told him no at first… he hesitated and said that everything was FREE! Way cool! So I asked if I could have a Fanta! So good! And then he brought me a plate of chocolate wafer things, cookies, chips, and pretzels… for FREE! And they have wireless internet! Woohoo! I am a lucky girl. I need to be finding these Business Lounges more often. So I am on my way to Vienna…yay! They brought me to the airport in an ambulance so we made it here in record time. Good thing I was strapped in while riding in the back. Every ride in Bucharest is a wild ride (that can go for most of Romania too). My plane leaves in about an hour… and then I will be meeting my mom at the hospital… I can’t wait to see her!

i really might be going!

they keep telling me im leaving in 12-24 hours and they have been telling me this since friday night... i'm still in the hospital in bucharest, but i really think i might be going. it wont be until tomorrow night at 6:00. later than i expected, but at least we are seeing some sort of progress... i really want to see my mom. thank you for all of your prayers. i am grateful for all of the love and support!

more leg stuff...

the pain in my leg was moving up my thigh and my leg was getting more swollen. the doctors took a look at it last night and then told me we had to get to the hospital. my roommates packed all of my stuff and then rhett and rachel from the group took a train here over night and they brought all of my stuff to me.. thank you guys... i miss you all in iasi....i am currently in the hospital in bucharest and we got here last night. they do not have the capacity to treat me at this hospital or any hospital in romania, but they can stabilize me... i will be heading to vienna, austria soon for treatment and to monitor my leg. we are not sure when i will be going yet though because they have to have certain medicines when they take me on the flight and they might not be able to get them until monday. my mom is going to vienna and will get there sunday at 2:00... hopefully i will be there by then. we should know in about an hour or so about what is going on. life sure is full of surprises...

Another Adventure

So my left leg has been hurting for quite a while... well since last Tuesday and the pain has been getting more intense as the time has gone on. My leg hurts when I stand, when I sit, and when I walk, so basically all of the time. I kept thinking that it would go away, but then I really started to look like Quasimodo as I limped around Iasi. For the quick synopsis... I have two blood clots in my left leg. The official diagnosis is this for all ouy nurses and mediacl people that might be interested: Big Popliteal Clot and Superficial Saphenous Clot. True story! Robby (our field facilitator) and I are in Buchrest right now which is the capital of Romania and we got here yesterday morning. We are staying in the Mission President's home for at least until Monday and then depending how things are looking we might go back to Iasi. There is an American doctor here in Buchrest and there was even a member of the church that was here for only weeks that has been taking good care of me. We went to the clinic yesterday and then we had to go to the hospital to get the scan on my leg to confirm if I really had blood clots. That was an interesting experience and I am glad that I got out of there before they hooked me to an IV and made me stay for 5 days. Instead of the IV that the hospital wanted to put in me, I have to give my self shots of Enoxapurin in the stomach twice a day. Hopefully I wont have to do the shots for more than ten days. I am also taking these pills that are equivalent to the American Coumadin. These pills as well as the shots are supposed to be thinning my blood. I will probably have to take these pills for at least 3 to 6 months and possibly my whole life. That depends on genetic tests that will be run after I get back to the United States. I will have to have two blood tests a week for about a month to make sure that my blood levels are in the right places and to adjust the medicine if needed. After that we will be able to go to one blood test a week. The plan is to get the blood tests in Iasi and then call Dr. Hansen since Dr. Brady is returing to the States on Saturday and let him know what they are and then he will adjust my dosage. I am still in a considerable amount of pain and I kind of just hobble places. :) Luckily I don't have too many places to be now that I am in Bucharest. The Mission President and his wife have been amazing. I am so grateful that they are letting me stay here. It has been so incredible that things have gone so well considering that we are in Romania. I am very blessed and I know that my Heavenly Father is watching over me. Thank you for all those that have been praying for me. I will try to post pictures of this crazy adventure soon....the computer that I am using here at the Mission President's home doesn't have the right slot for my picture card.