Beaumont Hospital...

Things are going really well at Beaumont Hospital. Jim and I are very excited. We met with the Surgeon a couple of weeks ago, he's awesome! He has the values and experience we were looking for. Not only is he an excellent Surgeon, but he has a wonderful bedside manner. He was recruited by Beaumont from Chicago over a year ago. He loves being at the smaller hospital where he can have a closer relationship with his patients, and not have them be just another number.

Jim, John and I are going to a class down there tomorrow night. Then Jim has to meet with one of Beaumont's cardiologist for clearance. I promise to do better at keeping everyone up to date through here.

Becca broke her foot and sprained her ankle last weekend. She is in a portable air cast that she can remove to take a shower. She is really bummed, cause she really likes her new job at the Lake Inn, and can't work now for a month. She had gotten home from work last Saturday night, and went back out to her Tahoe to get her phone charger. When she stepped down off from the porch, she turned her ankle and down she went. I scooped her up and off to the ER we went.

So, yes. It has been another exciting week at the Jacobs' household:)

yea, I'm a slacker...

Needless to say, it's been a crazy 6 months...

As you can see, Staci and Nathan got married. June 14th, they had a beautiful wedding. They went back home on Sunday, sure do miss them already.

My candle business is going great, check it out at www.janssoyscentsations.com I've got product in 5 stores now across Michigan! Yahoo!!!!

Jim and John go to Beaumont Hospital next Monday for pretesting for transplant. Jim recently had surgery to his left arm, to remove the gouty toufi in his elbow and his nuckle. It looks really, really good. He can't wait to have the right arm done now.

Everything else is going really good. Adam is now in the high school with his sisters, Aly is a sophmore, and Becca is beginning her senior year!!!! Oh, where does the time go?

We're alive!!!!!

I cannot believe that I haven't updated in 3 months!!!! Boy, do I have alot to fill you in on....

Becca had an unbelievable swim season. She has improved so much, she got her varsity letter and three medals. Last week she turned 16 and got her drivers license:) What a help that has been to me.... She is doing really well in school, her english class is actually a college course, she has chemistry, spanish, American Lit, History, as you can see she has a tough load this year.

Alyson has been helping me the most with our new business. She is our little social butterfly, always on the phone and the computer:~0

Adam had a pretty good football season. He learned alot, and they finally won their last game. He has quite the following of girls that call all the time. Last week he started wrestling, so far he loves it.

My business is going exceptionally well. We have had several fundraisers, and we are now in three stores:) We are in the Candlewicke Shoppe in Ferndale, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in Romeo, and Past Tense in Lapeer. I am so proud of our products, and the response we are getting. We now have 2 sizes of candles, handpoured soaps, air fresheners, lip balm, bath salts, melts, diffusers, and I'm constantly looking for new ideas.

Now for an update on Jim...

Well, on October 17th he had a heart cath. After having a little tightness in his chest, we made an appt. with Dr. Harris, and he thought maybe he'd have to put another stent in. Dr. Harris came out of the Cath room to speak with us, and I could not believe my ears.... "Jim had to have a quad bypass, and his aortic valve replaced!" What? Are you kidding me????

On Friday, October 19th after 7 and a half hours of surgery he ended up 'only' having a triple bypass, and a mechanical aortic valve put in. He stayed in McLaren Hospital for the following week, enduring 6 days of dialysis, many transfussions, and too many sleepless nights. It's been a month since his surgery, and he is doing very well. He was released to drive again this past week, and should be starting his cardiac rehab soon.

We have been so very blessed this last year. God has been very good to us, guiding us all the way through the valleys of life. We are very excited to be hosting a huge Thanksgiving Celebration this Thursday with 24 of our closest family and friends.

Jim and I would like to wish all of you a very Blessed Thanksgiving.

Here comes another week

Let's see what is new...

Aly got her braces off, her smile is BEAUTIFUL!!! Her first week of band camp went great, After only 4 practices of marching band, she marched in the Lapeer Days parade yesterday. And she turned 14 yesterday...yes, she's had a busy week.

Becca has been working her butt off this week, she goes to swim practice at 7:45 am til 10 am, and then again at 8pm til 10pm, along with work at Suncrest, and trying to maintain a social life the last couple of weeks of summer.

Adam has still been working out getting ready for football, and helping Papa with his lawn. This week the kids go to their schools and get their schedules.

Jim's lab work came back and it seems that he has been exposed to Epstein Bar Syndrome (sp?). There are 4 test, one was positive and three were negative, which means that at one time he was exposed, but is not currently active. I don't really know what all that means, one of the things that I hate about the doctors coming in to see him while at dialysis and me not being there...

I've been really busy this last week, as I've started a new company, "Jan's Soy Scentsations". I'm making candles for fundraisers. You can check it out at http://www.janssoyscentsations.com/ I already have 2 fundraisers going, and an order for 50 candles to sell at the Relay for Life.

We've been having such a difficult time since Jim had to quit working, and I've really struggled with balancing wife, mom, nurse, work, friend, daughter, taxi driver, chef, housekeeper, accountant, shopper, the list seems to just keep going on and on. I've prayed alot, and tried to be patient and sit back and see what God has in store for me. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching this last week unfold for me, imagining God watching over me and smiling from ear to ear.

I'm alive!!!!

I bet you all thought that we left the universe, didn't ya???? No....it's just been really busy, and yet not much going on.

I did go to Denver, what a crazy, way too short trip!!!! But I learned alot, and was able to come home and implement alot of what I learned into my business.

Jim went to see a Rhuemetologist at U of M Hospital on the 25th. This doctor seems to think that he can get a surgeon to do something for Jim's gout, and then after the kidney transplant there is a medicine that he can get on to help keep it under control. This was uplifting news for Jim as he has been very down and in alot of pain.

John needs to lose another 3 pounds before we can go to Beaumont hospital for our orientation, at that time John will need to lose yet another 5 pounds before we go to transplant. So far he has lost 26 pounds, we're so proud of him:)

The last few days we've been having trouble keeping Jim's blood pressure under control. It's been high, he runs a low grade temp, and breaks out into sweats. His pain today has been unbearable, the gout seems to be going into his back.

Becca starts swim, and Alyson starts Band camp next week. Adam has been getting in shape for football, he runs just about everyday, and works out with the weights. Tomorrow Alyson is getting her braces off, finally after 5 years!!!!

I've been busy coming up with new projects for classes, and I started making soy candles. I love the candles!!! They're easy, and smell wonderful!!! I have several here for sale, everyone is different, so if you know of anyone looking for great candles, tell them to give me a call. They make great gifts too:)

What a week!

Well, as you can see by the new pics we had Jim's birthday last week. He was pretty surprised as I had lined up for him to have people drop in all evening to wish him a happy birthday:) He was exhausted but was happy to see everyone.

I also added some new pics of the kids. Alyson has been hanging out with a friend that is awesome with a camera, so they take all kinds of great shots. And Becca and her two best friends, Chelsea and Megan, had just went and painted 'the rock' at East to announce that 'The Triplets' are now Juniors!!!! Adam has been a huge help to Jim and loves helping out when he can. I love watching them work together on projects, I just wish they could do more together. After this adventure with the car, Jim was laid up for almost a week:(

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.

Our Flowers!!!!

Well, I finally got the pictures of our gorgeous flowers posted on here. We are so excited about how the gardens have turned out this year. Aly and I have spent lots of time together weeding, which has been good for us.

We still don't have our Jimmy back yet. I was able to get it up there safely yesterday, but Rick has been really busy and not able to get to it yet. Hopefully tomorrow....

Happy 4th!

What a dreary day...but my flowers are LOVING it!!! A break from that hot sun, and a kiss of moisture throughout the day.

It's hard to believe that it's been 3 weeks since I posted. Jim was really sick after Father's Day for a good week and a half. It's getting harder and harder to manage his pain. His depression gets worse during times like these. Yesterday he decided that he would work on our car, it needed new ball joints, and he figured accomplishing something would make him feel better about himself. So, Jim and Adam got everything ready and started tearing the front tire and ball joint off. After about 7 hours of frustration and finally help from a friend of ours, the upper ball joint was changed; however, the lower ball joint is well..... not. I now will be carefully driving it to the service station tomorrow morning, as it is in a limbo status...half on/half off...

I was so hoping that it would go easy and Jim would beable to accomplish this task, as I knew how good it would make him feel. We are just so frustrated.... it's hard to explain and probably hard to understand if you haven't been there.

I'm suppose to be leaving for Denver on the 25th of this month. I'll be going to training for Stampin' Up!, and I'll beable to see my brother, Jim, and his wife, Debi. I'm looking forward to seeing them; however, I am so aprehensive about leaving Jim and the kids.

Well, I hope that everyone has a wonderful 4th, and enjoys spending time with their loved ones.

Happy Father's Day!!

Well, today is a heart wrenching day, as Becca, Aly, Adam and I sat on the bed with Jim watching him try to open his cards and gifts. As we realized his difficulty we offered to open them for him. He wasn't even able to squirt the cologne that we got him. We discussed what was going on, and it seems that at one point this week one of his meds fell down in behind the couch. With a heaping basket of meds for him to take daily, he didn't even realize that he had missed it....until this morning. So, today will be spent trying to get his gout under control without a trip to the ER. Please pray that we will be able to do this, as you might remember last time he was OD'ed at the hospital when this happened, so you know that I will be much more on top of his monitoring today. He drug tolerance is climbing to a dangerous point. Last week he took 3 Delauted, 1 Vicodin, and 2 Ambien to try and get his RLS/Gout pain under control to try and sleep with no avail.

My Dad is also having health problems. For years my dad has had difficulty with hypoglycemia (as with all of us kids!), but a few years ago it took a drastic turn into diabetes. It has become worse this past few months as he is now insulin dependent. Yesterday he had a terrible spell after taking his insulin, and eating dinner. So, this end of Greenwood Rd. is going to sit tight this Father's Day and watch out for each other, as this is what we seem to do best lately:)

We would like to wish all those Dad's out there a very Happy Father's Day! Enjoy your loved ones, and don't forget to tell them how much they mean to you.

We have another poet!

Becca had a huge project due for her English class. She had to create a book of poems, 17 of the poems were from other poets featuring certain aspects of poetry; however, 10 more poems had to be written by Becca with certain aspects of poetry. She had one week to complete this project.

We were so impressed by Becca's ability to write such beautiful poems with so much meaning. Her book turned out wonderful, a momento that she'll keep forever. I added two of her poems to the main page of this blog, they're called Waiting Room and Tough Love. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Who knew this quiet child of ours was so deep??? Of course, we did:) Now we want to share with all of you!

FYI: Becca comes from a long line of poets...Her Great-great-great Grandmother, Clara Pettit was a poet, and her Aunt Lonnie is a published poet. I too, have been known to write a poem or two:)

I'm back...

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. I have been terribly sick with my sinus's, the Dr put me on antibiotics a week and a half ago, and it's just slow going.

John is doing extremely well, he's lost a total of 16 and a half pounds!!!! We are all very excited about his determination to lose this weight for his brother:)

Jim is having just a terrible time with sleep. He takes the meds they give him, he stays up all day, and still he can't sleep at night. The other day he was up for about 30 hours straight, and looked like hell.

Things are starting to wind down around here. Both girls are done with softball, Adam only has a couple more games to go. Their last day of school is next Tuesday, so everyone is busy with finals and end of the year parties. I, myself, am so ready for school to be over so that I can quit running all of the time! Who am I kidding???? There will just be other places for them to go!!! Becca will be taking segment 2 of her drivers training this month, and then finally have her license in November. Whew!

Thanks for dropping in, and have a great day!

I think I can, I think I can...

Waa-Woo!!! Ever feel like the little Engine that could? Well, that's how we're feeling right now.

John just called, and without even starting his actual 'diet' yet, just by stop doing what he knew he should.... He has lost 8 pounds!!! Wahooo!!! Go, Johnny! Go, Johnny!

I am so excited, I could hear the excitement in his voice too!!! As much as I want to wake Jim up I'm going to let him sleep and log him on to read this blog later. Hee, hee, hee!!! He needs the sleep. He made a total mess at dialysis this morning. It's so scary......... You think he's fine, he's been sitting there for a while with clamps on, he's all taped up (not just one little bandaid, we're talking gauze and several strips of medical tape!), he stands up to get his blood pressure and then all of a sudden......There she blows!!! I'm telling you what, that boy can squirt blood through all that gauze at least 4-5 feet! You should have seen 3 nurses and myself scramble!!!

Sorry if that was a little too graphic for some:( Just a little insight of what our life is like I guess... Funny, I remember when we first were dating, and Staci cut her forehead, I pratically passed out. Now, I'm watching stuff right out of a horror movie. Now, that's true love:)

FYI: John does get on and check out this blog, so if anyone would like to post a "Way to go!" of encouragement it would be much appreciated. Thank you for all of your continued support, we love each and every one of you:)

In therapy...

I've started a new therapy session... My gardens!!!

We are thoroughly enjoying our family therapy sessions:) On Sunday Jim mowed the lawn, Adam weedwhipped, and Aly and I weeded the gardens, while Becca had to work. Afterwards Jim and I sat on the porch admiring our work. He is so proud of our yard.

Last night I had customers over and several of them commented on the yard, and asked what company we used to do our lawn maintenance. You should have seen Jim's head blow up like a balloon. LOL!! Of course then he didn't get out of bed until 7 pm yesterday, but oh well, like he said, "At least the yard looks good!"

I'm going to work on getting some pictures of the yard on here soon.

Happy Annivesary!!

Today is our sixteenth wedding anniversary:)


This morning I was thinking back on some of the highlights...

The days that I'd come home from work and be jealous of how much fun you and Staci had while I was gone.

When we built our house...we were so proud of our hard work:)

How proud I am of you! Your dedication to your family, your job, your home!

The endless walking of the halls when Becca was born...

The watering of the trees. Arrgghhh!!! But look at them now!!!

The birth of Alyson, and you and Mom conspiring to have another try at a boy!!

What we went 'through' to conceive Adam....hmmmm:)

You and me riding side by side on our harleys, there's nothing like it:)

The strength you give me everyday, by standing tall at my side.

Watching you and Adam play catch...you and Becca, and your long talks, and you holding Aly on your lap

Here is to another wonderful sixteen years to come:)
I love you with all my heart?

Yucky days like this...

It's been really rainy and now colder which is not helping Jim's joints at all! They were able to take an extra 2 1/2 pounds off more than normal which left him dehydrated. Then he bled out when he went to stand up. Arrgghhhh! Looks like he'll be sleeping most of today. That's ok, he's been busy this week...he has mowed the lawn, and last night him and Aly cleaned up the house while I was working.

I can't wait for the days when there will be no more dialysis. I know that his gout will never get better, but if we could at least get away from the dialysis and its affects, it would make his life a little better:)

Oh! We did get good news today!!! Cathy, our social worker at Hemacare, finally was able to straighten out our insurance nightmare. The state has said that they will go back and cover all of our medical expenses back to Jan. '06, that is about $45,000. Wahoo!!!!! There was a huge mixup with Jim's social security from 1980, that it has taken them over a year to fix.

Well, I'm thinkin' it's nappy time:)

One step closer...

John went to his appointment at Beaumont Hospital this morning and they said if he loses 20 pounds, to call for another appointment. Once they see that he is committed to losing the weight and keeping it off for his sake to deter the diabetes after the transplant then we'll continue with the transplant process.

So, this is good news:) Obviously we were hoping for something sooner; however, we also do not want to hinder John's health either. So, if we have to wait a few months...so be it.

We're just so happy that John is willing to help out his brother this way.

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to put out a quick post and wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. Take time with your parents and your children today to let them know how very important they are. How much you love them, and how much you need them in your life.

Family is such a wonderful gift from God, and we should all be thankful for those in our life.

Next Tuesday!!!!

John's appointment with Beaumont Hospital is next Tuesday. Unfortunately we will not be able to go with him this time, due to Jim having dialysis; however, John's fiancee', Diana, will be going with him, and we will be waiting anxiously for them to get home.

If all goes well with this appointment our next step will be for us to go down! I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it:)

Everything else is going pretty well, busy as usual. Softball and baseball games, dialysis, Avon and Stampin' Up!... Staci made it to Florida, we haven't heard from her yet, as I'm sure she is busy getting settled.

Prayers needed

There is a young lady that is in Alyson's class, she is our neighbor and on the softball team with Aly that needs our immediate prayers. She is in kidney and liver failure after taking TYLENOL! For unknown reasons she felt the need to end her life, and took an abundance of tylenol and pain killers. The tylenol proved to be the most damaging. This happened on Friday, and on Saturday her parents were told they should start planning her funeral. Through prayer and the grace of God, she is still with us. She will be starting dialysis and is need of a liver transplant. This family definetely needs our prayers and support right now.

Please talk with your children and your friends about the dangers of tylenol. After a discussion last night with friends I found out that this is happening more and more because people do not realize how dangerous tylenol can be. Tylenol can cause liver failure even when taken slightly over the suggested amount.

It's days like this that I think all of our children should just be put in a bubble. As parents we want so badly to protect them from everything, and no matter how hard we try or how good of a job we did raising them, we just can't protect them from getting hurt or hurting themselves.

Good news!!!

John got a call from Beaumont Hospital!!!! They have looked over our case and are very eager to meet with John to go over some things this next week, and then Jim will be going down for a meeting also. We are very excited about what this could bring in the next few weeks:)

It's been another crazy week with softball games and practices every day. I don't even know where the week went, it's hard to believe that it is already Saturday:0

Last night we had about 12 kids here having pizza, pop and a bonfire. Jim and I so enjoy having the kids hang out here rather than God knows where... This morning I woke them up to the smell of pancakes and sausage. I think everyone had a good time.

We would appreciate prayers for the doctors that are going over our transplant paperwork. Thank you:)