"The glue"

Before my husband became ill we never really spent one on one time together. Our focus was all about our children and our home. Building that perfect atmosphere for our family. It worked. We were both focused completely on our children. Our outings were mostly family orientated. We have switched this up. My husband and I are trying to get out more together. Recognizing us as "the glue" we need to spend more time. I surprised my husband with a Chemainus Theater experience and an evening away. It was nice and we soon realized even twenty four hours was too short! (Ha ha) 

It's true what's said. It usually takes a life changing event, or an illness to recognize what's truly important. What's right there in front of you. 

 "It is so amazing when someone comes into your life and you expect nothing out of it but suddenly they're right in front of you and it's everything you needed" - unknown.

We are hoping to have more opportunities because after all, we are "The glue" that molds our family together. We can't loose sight of that.

MRSA Education

I was struggling if I should write about this or not. Constantly throwing it around in my head. I decided that I have too because we keep being questioned with concerned individuals about my husband's medical condition. We are feeling a sense of isolation, and/or distancing. I know MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is a bacterial infection that many aren't educated about. In fact before my husband became severely infected throughout his body, we had no idea what it was either. I also understand with the lack of education that people would be afraid. I also understand (even with the education) why people would be afraid. It's a devastating bacteria that is hard to kill and once infected your life can change forever. Ours has. My husband is still on home IV. We are into our fifth month. Do we know what the future holds? Absolutely not. Are we afraid that one of our children can contract MRSA? No not really because it's that rare. It's like flesh eating disease. It's something that is stated contagious but how often do you hear of someone having it? Not often. Our life has changed. In many more ways then one. So I decided to write about MRSA. Below you will read MRSA information from the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

What is MRSA?

Staphylococcus aureus are bacteria that may commonly live in the nose, on skin and in moist areas of the body. This is called colonization, which occurs with other bacteria all over our bodies.  It does not normally cause a problem.  Staphylococcus aureus can cause infections such as boils and abscesses.  In the hospital it can cause serious infections in the blood, lungs or other areas for a person who is already ill or has had surgery. 
Staphylococcus aureus can develop resistance to certain antibiotics.  When this happens, it is called Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA.  Infections caused by MRSA are not more serious, but can be harder to treat as different antibiotics must be used. 

How is MRSA spread.

MRSA is spread from one person to another by contact.  MRSA can be present on hands, either from touching the skin or contaminated material, such as towels, sheets and wound dressings.  When hands are washed thoroughly or rubbed with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer MRSA is removed or killed.    
MRSA can live on surfaces, so hands can very quickly become soiled again. Frequent hand cleaning is necessary to prevent spreading MRSA. 

How would I get MRSA?

MRSA has been found in the community and in hospital settings, on people and their surroundings.  Healthy people are at low risk of acquiring MRSA. Some may be at higher risk if they have frequent hospitalizations, frequent use of antibiotics, compromised or broken skin, or lowered immune-system function. 

What precautions are used in the hospital?

It is important that additional precautions are taken to reduce the risk of MRSA spreading to other patients in the hospital.  These precautions include:*A sign on the patient’s door to inform staff and visitors that precautions are required *Use of gowns and gloves by all staff who enter the room to provide close care *The room, and equipment used in the room, is cleaned and disinfected regularly, with some equipment dedicated only to the patient*A commode for toileting purposes may be designated for the patient’s use only  
Patients with MRSA are asked not to visit the cafeteria and other public areas of the hospital. *They may be asked to remain primarily in their rooms, other than for tests or procedures *In some cases of respiratory illness, patients are required to wear a mask outside the room  

Some patients will be offered a body wash and a cream for the nose to treat the MRSA. * The body wash covers the entire body and is then rinsed off daily for 7 days*The nose cream is put up the nose twice a day for 7 days*A week after this treatment is done, the patient is swabbed again, to see if the MRSA has been successfully treated (if the MRSA is still present, the nurse and patient will discuss further treatment options)

What about family and visitors?

Family and friends are encouraged to visit and have close patient contact such as hugging, kissing and handholding, as normal. All visitors must clean their hands before entering and leaving the room. *Visitors are not required to wear a gown or gloves, unless they are helping the nurse with the patient’s care*Visitors must not assist or visit other patients in the room they are visiting*Visitors must use public washrooms only, not patient washrooms 

How can I help?

Perform hand hygiene:*Before: eating, drinking and entering/leaving a patient room*After: using the bathroom or blowing your nose*Before & After: touching a dressing or wound or applying personal care products  
Hand hygiene is:*Washing with soap and water OR rubbing with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer *Washing hands when they are visibly soiled*Turning taps off and opening bathroom doors with a paper towel 

What about future readmissions?

On any future admissions to hospital, additional precautions may be taken - and the patient may be checked again for the presence for MRSA.  
Patients should notify other health facilities or providers that they were on precautions for MRSA, in the event similar precautions need to be taken. 

What precautions should be used at home? 

If a person has MRSA at the time of discharge from hospital, the chance of spreading the bug to others is very small.  MRSA is no more infectious than other bacteria that people carry on their skin and are exposed to every day; however, people with MRSA should tell any health-care providers that they were on precautions for MRSA.  
People with MRSA can carry on with usual activities, ensuring they wash their hands after going to the bathroom or touching their nose or wound.  This practice should be a matter of routine and not just for MRSA. It is good to remind everyone to wash their hands often.   
Recommended practices at home
:*Everyone who helps with personal hygiene or toileting should wash their hands afterwards
-Clean hands before the preparation of any food and before eating 
-Cean hands well after using the toilet, and encourage family members to do the same
-Do not share personal items that touch the skin such as razors, towels or bar soap 
Cothing may be laundered in the same manner as the rest of the household laundry 
-No special cleaning of furniture or dishes in the home is required.

To conclude, it's your choice. I understand either way. For us, the recovery is nothing but hard. A daily frustration on many different levels and including this one. We just keep living day by day. Thank you for reading. Carrie.

We not only love, we live.

From sky to sea some of us enjoyed a day adventure. Funny, I decided to take a different route through the logging roads towards Port Renfrew. We ended up momentarily lost. High in the mountains where active logging was happening. Luckily we were given directions back on our right path.

 We ventured towards Sombrio Beach looking for the Sacred Water Fall. This trail (seen below) was absolutely stunning. The pine needles that fell off the trees resembled the red dirt that's in California. The sun was the guiding light. 

 We didn't hike for long before approaching this bridge. A wonderful opportunity for a beautiful picture while relaxing. 

 Sombrio Beach is one of many trail heads near Port Renfrew. A section of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Four of our children enjoyed this day hike carrying packs. We had a discussion about over night and longer hikes in the future. 

 Along the beach were several caves. Little nature nooks to relax and play in. 

 One of my sons found this rock that resembled an owl, or a ghost. We packed this rock, and many others back home. 

 Can you believe that this was October 5th? My boys had a great time jumping the ocean waves, and yes - swimming!

 Inukshuks were everywhere. We even left our navigation points. 

 Washing up in the river after swimming in the ocean. 

 This sign below is located near the Sacred Water fall. The Pacheedaht First Nation has four reserve lands. Definitely a beautiful land to respect and honor.

 Here we are standing beside the Sacred Water fall!

 And all four of my boys were brave enough to shower!

 I wasn't that brave....

 This says, "Love is the answer"

To conclude this epic journey, love is not the only answer - living is. I truly believe experiencing the outdoors, taking adventures when you can is the best therapy. We are a complex family and we survive because we not only love, we live. 

Believe you can and you're halfway there - Theodore Roosevelt

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clearing that cloud!

Lately I feel like we need to start over on a new day everyday. There is always something. Do you ever feel like it doesn't matter what you do, what you say or what you believe, the season or the year is just fighting against you!? I felt like that this weekend. Well actually.....for the past year. Battling MRSA is serious. We are into our fifth month now. Then to add, this weekend was a complete vomit fest. This flu along with a nasty head cold came out of no where. Slamming our family one after another and including my husband who is battling his own medical condition. Of course with his immune system he was the one suffering the most loosing another eight pounds. Now leaving him urinating blood. This week he will go for more tests to make sure his kidneys aren't infected and his white cell count hasn't escalated. This weekend was a constant mess. Up and down the hallways was vomit while running out of buckets and toilets. It's bad enough to have a few children sick but when you have multiple special needs children sick is another scenario! Once again I was feeling on that low side.....thinking to myself that there must be this black cloud that likes testing us. It definitely tests me. Inside I feel anger building. I know my patience has been limited but honestly.... really!? A super bug!? Vomit and diarrhea literally everywhere! We even specifically explained to one child that you can use the toilet or this bucket. Nope, it was splashed everywhere but. I think this would test any ones patience, not just mine. Believe me it was a powerful quickly spreading germ with no mercy, with no sleep. I look around and our home is clean, organized and very well maintained daily. Sometimes I just don't get it. I proceeded to open the windows and flush out that bad air repeatedly thinking about that black cloud. We can wake up every day with a new day however I'm becoming skeptical. I can clean, I can freshen the air and now I just need to take a extremely high blowing air compressor to move that cloud! Some of us did manage to get out today to the Qualicum Cheese Works. It was a breath of fresh cow manure but better then the alternative. AND I will have a beautiful post next because that's my next mission. It is to clear that cloud! 

"shhhhh" isn't in the vocabulary

OK SO......(I know you have heard some of this before) My husband and I have been through some challenging times with a serious medical condition. My husband is a sick man with MRSA that infected his whole body. Previously he was hospitalized for two and a half months. Surviving two episodes of sepsis. He had chest surgery to drain infection away from his heart. He now has TIA's (mini strokes) and has endocarditis. His spine is permanently damaged. I currently administer home IV meds, and watch over my husband with bouts of hypertension. He continues to have CT scans, MRIs, blood tests and medical apts. We run for medical supplies twice a week, and go for picc dressing changing once a week. Besides all this, I home school six, we have five public students, a preschooler, therapy apts, piano, guitar lessons, sports, adult children and a grandchild - well long story short, we are constantly on the go! Yes like a taxi service too! So why am I sharing, why am I posting a selfie saying "shhhhh" BECAUSE my husband and I lost "us" until recently, and being quiet isn't in my vocabulary. We recognize we are survivors and we hope to keep it that way! We started to go out once a week. We are rekindling our marriage, our relationship! We might have 16 children, many with special needs. We might have a medical crisis. We might be extremely busy! But we live DAY BY DAY, one day at a time. We have hope. AND most importantly we have each other. SO I often surprise my husband with something....a note. A burger. A night out...... I can't stay quiet. I can't pretend that we don't have challenges. I did loose hope. I know too many people that are suffering, that don't share their life. Those people need to share like I do or at least find someone to confide in. There is no shame stating, "Help me" Now this isn't my plea for help because I'm conquering our trials. I'm sharing because I know there is others. In conclusion, I've always believed and have written that life isn't meant to be easy. Sometimes I question why us? Why them? Just 'why' in general. Then all of the sudden I keep hearing this little voice saying, "Why not?" In fact, I hate what has happened to my husband. I hate the fact that we struggle, that we are stressed with his recovery, worried about the "what If" if he relapses BUT (I'm smiling here) ....we take one day at a time. We are keeping our relationship alive and burning. My husband and I keep our family going and in the end - we have each other!

"Shhhhhh" isn't in my vocabulary. I post everywhere because I feel that our challenges are meant to be. Believe it or not, I was once a shy quiet individual and no one knew our business. I don't believe I'm here to be that person. I'm here to learn, experience and with that experience to share, support and hopefully make differences in others lives. It doesn't matter if it's about a messy situation such as the dreaded bathroom where blood has dried to the surface of our walls because of a menstruation situation. (Sanitized later of course) It doesn't matter if it's about behaviors where explaining prevention, repetition and routine is key or sharing what our consequences look like. It doesn't matter if it's about home school and public school. About adoption. Special needs. Mental illnesses and different diagnoses. It doesn't matter if it's about my husband and our relationship, and/or any medical scenario. I'm not here to be quiet. I'm here.... alive, surviving and eager to write, to publicly speak on our challenges because I truly believe 100% if we can, any one can get through life's difficulties one step at a time. I want to change lives and see differences in this world. I want those differences supported, and unconditionally loved. I want peace and understanding. I want people to speak. Too share. To open their hearts, to learn that we're not alone and we're all here for a purpose. We walk a path that's given to us, we need to find and use it. Mine is just this....I remove that quiet individual, that finger that shushes and I share the good, the bad and the ugly for hopefully positive differences. For you! 

The hardest yet yummiest cabbage roll recipe to follow....read and experiment at your own risk! ;)

I just wrote a full paragraph on a topic that was too in depth then deleted it. Sometimes putting thoughts into words is difficult. SO for now I have changed my thought pattern. A few years back I had this "writing fit" I called it. I regrettably deleted over 200 posts on here. (Some really great posts I EVEN enjoyed) Many were my own recipes. After deleting that paragraph this morning I thought it's time to bring back the food! Sure I can write in depth thoughts when I'm in the mood but today lets make it light and easy? My award winning, yes - award winning cabbage rolls! These cabbage rolls I learned from two of my children's grandmother that past years ago. A sweet little German lady who I fondly remember teaching me the secrets of perfect cabbage rolls and now I'm going to share with you! These beauty's we are having tonight too! I make two types, meat and vegetarian. Of course I tweaked the recipe so it's not the exact recipe I learned. Here it is! 

Homemade Sweet n Sour Meat Cabbage rolls with oodles of garlic! Warning - you might flatulate! 

There is a lot of prep that goes into making cabbage rolls. It can be an all day process so give yourself enough time!

-Cut the core out of the cabbage and simmer in a pot of hot water. (To loosen the leaves) Set aside.(1 large cabbage) Please don't wrestle the cabbage, it shouldn't be a fight! 
-Cook your rice. Set aside. I use Basmati. (3 cups)
-Mix ground pork, ground beef, onions, garlic, salt/pepper and basil together. (4 pkgs ground beef, 4 pkgs ground pork, 1-2 onions and LOTS of garlic) Tip - you might want to wear gloves, I learned the hard way and was picking meat out of my finger nails for the rest of the day!  
"Note - everything I bake and cook is by feel, sight and/or taste (if I eat it) so my measurements aren't exact!" PS - don't get your gloves stuck in the cabbage roll!

Homemade Sweet n Sour Vege Cabbage rolls YES with oodles of garlic! Garlic IS my favorite ingredient for everything including over popcorn! It keeps us healthy and flatuating! Not sure if that's even a word, so I adopted it! 

-Follow above directions. Cut the core out of the cabbage and simmer in a pot of hot water, sound familiar? (1 cabbage) In fact, do what I did and de-core both cabbages at the same time ( I have four hands) cook (6 cups of rice) "at the same time" and separate for both meat and vegetarian dishes. Now, if I would have written that in the first place......a whole lot of space would have been saved in this post! Confused yet? I completely am! Anyhow moving a long....for the three cups of rice mix - 

-no meat, GARLIC, onions (1-2) salt/pepper, basil, green onions, halved cherry tomatoes (20) red pepper (1) grated cheddar cheese and in fact indulge - I'm honestly a human garbage can, so experiment and add what you want! The funnest fact about cooking is experimentation! My first dish when I was a child was a layered casserole consisting of ground meat on the bottom, soaked then baked slices of vinegar potatoes was the next layer topped with Kraft dinner and peas! I still remember my mom saying how yummy it was! However I think she was being nice to me! 

Now.....we have the loosened cabbages from simmering in hot water. Peel the leaves and place aside. We have both meat and vegetarian mixtures ready and waiting to be rolled, um SO ROLL! The trick with these famous cabbage rolls is the sauce! Isn't sauces the best!? 

The homemade sweet n sour sauce!  

If I haven't lost you yet the sweet n sour sauce is the key! mmm mmm yay to sauces.....SO....

We have a lot of cabbage rolls here. So after they're rolled and placed into their nestling spots (pans) mix a large batch of sauce consisting of 4, 8oz cans of tomato sauce. Add vinegar (1 cup) brown sugar (1 cup) GARLIC and salt/pepper to taste. OK - so you have to taste the sauce. You want it tangy but sweet. If it's lacking something, add more of the above ingredients. Again, experimentation is great but just a little at a time. Don't get too excited dumping in too much vinegar or something! Now pour your sauce over all your cabbage rolls! Bake for an hour at 350. Serve with sour cream, and grated cheddar cheese! Heck, serve with anything! If your children or husband don't like cabbage, tell them it's lettuce! Problem solved! 

I realize this must of been the hardest recipe to follow (if you continued to read) So just come back to it, re-read it until you're dreaming of cabbage rolls, then experiment on a beautiful crisp fall day! What could go wrong except for this weird recipe post!? To conclude I do blame my father for my quirky weird sense of humor. AND I think our little man (seen below) agrees! OR maybe he's going to run away yelling, "No dinner Mom! No dinner!" Either way, Bon Appetite!  

Then I ran

It's been a challenging week. Our public school children started, our home schooled children started and our days begin at 6:30 am regardless if we slept the night before or not. We had a disease specialist appointment that confirmed my husband's spine is permanently damaged and relapsing is high. His life has drastically changed. Our future unknown. I administer his IV meds (Daptomycin) while flushing out his picc line daily. I support when he's having bouts of extreme tiredness. Yesterday I was baking six batches of apple crisp, making two dinners (so I'm relieved for one dinner the next day) while ending up scrubbing two ovens after the spill over. I started to feel miserable. I spread my five loads of laundry out, and I started making school lunches while watching my husband sleep thinking.... this has to get better. Don't get me wrong, its better then what it once was and we're alive chugging along taking it day by day BUT (the big but) just sometimes everything is questionable. Isn't it? I don't think I am the only one wondering about what life will look like in the future, and knowing this helps because it's a daily reminder that we're not alone. Now while changing the subject slightly, I managed a night out with my sister. We went and watched "A walk in the woods" with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. It was about two friends rekindling their relationship while taking a hike along the Appalachian trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine. Robert Redford needed to experience living while choosing hiking to do it. It was a great movie. Funny. Enlightening. A movie that I can personally relate too. After Robert's attempt to hike the trail, he arrived home inspired to write. I won't say no more as I recommend this movie to any one feeling like I do sometimes. Honestly - the outdoors IS the answer, especially when you're feeling exhausted and confined indoors. I awoke routinely at 6:30 am, I dished out breakfast and sent five of our children to the bus stop. I watched the sunrise. (The above picture is taken through our living room window) I heard once that every one should watch the sun rise because it is suppose to bring energy to your day. A rejuvenation. I believe this. Then I ran. I ran two kilometers. (Yes only two) It's another start. As I ran I was thinking about writing. Thinking about that half marathon. Thinking about future hiking trips. Thinking about everything that rejuvenates my soul. It became once again, a new day. Are you in need of change? Look outward, and take one step in front of the other. Only you can change your own life. Changing your attitude. Owning your moments. Those are my changed thoughts for today....while leaving fresh apple crisps in the fridge with dinner made and two shinny like new ovens.