Welcome

Thursday January 31, 2008

Sorry we have not updated the website in a while. Like everyone else the holidays were busy but it's no excuse not to keep you updated!

First of all, Michelle is doing so so. She has restarted coughing which is not a good sign. She is also having lots of pain in the chest when eating. She will have to go back in April to have more test done to see what is happening because this should not be happening.

The kids are doing fine. The twins turned 6 this month and Tyler turned 12 also this month. Growing too fast. 

Luke also lost his first tooth at school on his birthday. "It was cool because there was lots of blood" his friends said.

One thing I forgot to mention last time is that last October brought bad news as Michelle's aunt Lois Nixon died on October 19th.  Michelle went to the funeral a month after her surgery but aunt Lois meant so much to her that Michelle wanted to be there. 

November 4th was the graduation from university of my godson Pierre-Luc. His father and I are both very proud of him as you can tell!

December brought more joyful celebrations as Michelle's nephew Greg got married. So it was down to Michigan we went for a second time in less than 2 months for Michelle. 

Christmas came and Santa was too nice to the kids. Also we went to Grand-Mere for a gathering of all of Louis' family. It was nice to see them again.

We spent new-year's eve with our church friends playing a game called "Things" Very funny.  Must not forget  that our niece Cynthia came to visit for Christmas and stopped by our house  with her new puppy Fred. We all loved him.

Now it's back in the routine and January is already history! Near our house there is a field and the other night, I took this picture of all the deer that were gathered in it. The picture is not the best (No they are not fake deer) and it does not show all the deer that were there (there must have been 20) but you get the idea.

Two more things. About the kittens, well we have decided to keep the last kitten. She is growing fast but is behaving properly so Michelle the dog lover has been turned into a cat lover... yeah! We have rebuilt the ice rink this year in our backyard so if you drop by don't forget your skates!

Saturday November 10, 2007

Weeks are flying by and it's already November. In my blog entry for August 14, I had mentioned that a cat showed up at our house and we adopted her. Well it turns out that she was pregnant and due in mid-September! We found that out before Michelle had surgery and since we were going away during the time she was going to deliver we did not know what to do. So a friend from our church graciously agreed to accept the cat into her house while we were going to be away and to keep her until the kittens would stop nursing (about 8 weeks). Well the cat (Her name is Pippi long tail) had 5 kittens on September 14 (the day of Michelle's surgery). Cindee took extremely good care of them for 7 weeks and brought them all back into our house last week. The names of the kittens are: Alleluia, Touch-Down, Patch, Starlight and Magnifi-pippi. We will not keep any of the kittens. We just can't afford it but we will give them away to good homes and three already have found homes. To see pictures of them (Taken by Cindee -Didn't she do a great job?) click here. If you want one of the remaining two let us know ASAP. The two left are Starlight and Magnifi-pippi shown in the picture below in the center and on the right respectively.

Let's not forget any of our veterans tomorrow on remembrance day. We owe them more than they have given us.

Thursday October 4, 2007

It almost has been 3 weeks since her surgery. Michelle is slowly getting better. She is still only eating liquid and her strength is getting better but is not great either. She gets exhausted very quickly but she tries to take walks everyday to build up her strength. We really appreciate all the meals that have been provided to us over the past week and half from all our friends. Thank-you.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all!

Sunday September 23, 2007

We are home! Michelle got released from the hospital yesterday and we arrived home last night at 9:00 pm. It was a long drive as we had to stop often for her.

Thank-you to all of you who prayed for her and those who welcomed Louis into their house (Jim and Rahimpour families) while Michelle was in the hospital. Also special thank to Grace Bates for watching the kids while we were gone. A BIG THANK-YOU to all!

Friday September 21, 2007

We might be going home! Today Michelle had a few tests and after the results were in the doctors said that she might be going home tomorrow. She has been eating some jello and pudding also some popsicles. But this will be mostly her diet for the next few weeks because of her surgery. She is still unsure when walking but her strength will come back in time. Hopefully tomorrow is the day.

Thursday September 20, 2007

NOT like yesterday Michelle is NOT in ICU!!!!!.... Yeah! She has finally moved to a regular room. It happened last evening after I left. Actually they moved her from ICU to a stepdown unit (which was very noisy and she barely slept) and today she moved to a regular room. Room 642 Bed 1 (St-Joseph Hospital) for those who want to know. Today they tried to have her do a swallow test to she what she can swallow but she could not do it so they will try again tomorrow. I don't remember them doing this the last time so I don't know why they want to do one this time but we'll see. Tonight she was very tired and hopefully will sleep better. Her blood pressure is better so that is not a worry. She ate a few popsicles today but has not gotten out of bed yet. Hopefully tomorrow!

Wednesday September 19, 2007

Like yesterday Michelle is still in ICU.... I know I sound like a broken record but that's how things are going. She is doing lots better today. She started eating ice chips and a few popsicles. Also she drank some juice. She was watching TV tonight when I left but has not gotten out of bed yet. So it looks better. The only thing that is keeping her in ICU is her blood pressure which went above 200 today. So they are trying to get it under control. Hopefully tomorrow we'll progress to a regular room.

Tuesday September 18, 2007

Like yesterday Michelle is still in ICU.... but as expected things are looking up. The CT scan results came back and everything is in place so this morning they took her off the morphine and Midazolam. It took her about 3 hours before she started to come out of the drug induced fog she was in and started to gag on the tube in her mouth and breathe on her own. At which point they decided to take it out along the NJ tube since she did not need them anymore. Now she only has a oxygen mask. She also started to talk (which she could not before because of the tube) and ask more conscious questions like: "What day is this?" She also ate a few ice chips. But since she was taken cold-turkey off the pain medication (morphine) in the afternoon, the pain of the surgery started to make itself known and she started to have stomach pain. So the nurses started to give her shots of morphine but that is much less than she was getting thru the IV and she will eventually been weened off that too.

Tomorrow she should move to a regular room and hopefully be back on her feet soon.... Stay tuned!

Monday September 17, 2007

Like yesterday Michelle is still in ICU. Though things are starting to move. Late today they put on NJ tube (tube that goes in your nose and to your chest) to be able to send dies to be able to do a CT SCAN of her chest to make sure things are in place. No results of that yet but as soon as the ok is given, they will be starting to ween her off the Midazolam so they can take the respirator off. One of the effects of the Midazolam is that the patient forgets to breathe so that is why she is on a respirator. When she gets weened off the drug, she will be able to move out of the ICU and into a regular room.

Sometimes I find the hospitals not very efficient at using all of its resources... I mean it seems that things work well during the day but in the evenings and nights things are stagnant until the morning... like we'll wait for this test in the morning or for the doctors to do its rounds in the morning... This is an hospital not a bank! This should work around the clock. I know some parts do but some do not. We should not have to expand hospitals if its current capacity is not well utilized which mean utilized during 24 hours for all departments. I know some people don't like to work nights or week-ends but this is a hospital not a bank! If patients could be looked after by all departments 24x7 they would stay in hospitals for shorter amount of time and cost less to the taxpayers. Patients could be dismissed in the middle of the night and what's bad about that? During the day most of us work so it would be more convenient that way anyway. Have tests performed during the night too.. utilize that very expensive MRI machine to its fullest extent.

Anyway sorry I am bothering with my frustrations but I have seen my share of the medical system and this is on aspect of it that frustrates me.

Sunday September 16, 2007

Like yesterday Michelle is still in ICU. Not much has changed. The doctors are leaving her on the respirator fo another day to make sure her surgery is healed properly. Like yesterday she would wake up once in a while and I would comfort her and she would go back to sleep. The nurses is taking great care of her. She in on morphine, Midazolam and IV solution. Tomorrow, she should come off the respirator so that should be a better day.

Saturday September 15, 2007

Today Michelle was still in ICU. Her condition has not improved or worsen as expected. She is still intubated and on morphine so she is pretty much out of it. Sometimes she opens her eyes and tries to talk but the tube down her throat keep her from talking... I know that's hard for her! A few times I read her lips and understood she was saying "Where am I?" So I would tell her and comfort her and she would drift back to sleep. The doctors told me today that they might keep her in this state for another day or two... we'll see but I'll keep you updated thru this blog. Thank you for all your prayers!

September 14, 2007

Today was the day.

We arrived yesterday in Hamilton and Michelle has her pre-op test.... took about 2 hours. We were told to come back at 6:00 am the next day. So bright and early we got to the hospital. By 8:00 am she was ready to go to surgery but she was coughing alot. The doctors had reserved 3 hours for the surgery. Finally at 12:15 the doctors came out to tell me everything went fine but that in the recovery room Michelle started to cough and then she would stop but also stop breathing! She they decided to intubate her to regulate her breathing. I got to see her for about 15 min at 2:30. They told me that they were waiting for a bed in ICU.... Finally at 5:45 they let me in the recovery room before they wheeled her into ICU at 6:00. They say she will spend about 48 hours in ICU. She sometimes opens her eyes but then she falls back asleep because she is on morphine. So I am going to get some sleep now and going back to see her in the morning.

August 15, 2007

Michelle's surgery will be Friday September 14 in Hamilton.

We have a new member to our family. A cat has adopted us and we have adopted her. She just showed up about a week ago on our property starving wearing no tags. We could not find owners so we kept her.

July 29, 2007

Time flies! The summer is half over. Lots of stuff has happened. We received the results of Michelle's test and the news is that she will need another operation.. 'Better be sooner than later'

Tyler's godmother came from Africa to visit us. That was very nice!

Michelle's parents came to visit us. It was their first time in Ottawa. They liked it and the kids enjoyed seeing their grand-parents again. They also celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary with us! Pictures here

At the beginning of the week scouts from Windsor came to stay with us for a few days (Pictures here) They visited Ottawa before going to the canadian CJ which is happening north of Montreal at camp tamaracouta

That's it for now...

June 16, 2007

Summer has finally arrived. The pool is already at 80 F and the kids are loving it. This week Michelle had some test done to check the acid reflux in her throat. The test is called Bravo and here is a pamphlet explaining how they do it. The test lasts 48 hours so we had to stay in Hamilton Ontario (5hrs from here) for 3 days for it. The parent of Louis came to take care of the kids while we were gone. We thank them greatly for it. Louis was able to see our friends Ross and Mona during our trip. We will have the results June 27 so we have to be patient but Michelle is doing a lot of coughing which is not a good sign.

April 3, 2007

Sorry it took me so long to put up new updates. Here's what happened: In February, Tyler and Louis went downtown Ottawa during the winterlude festival. We skated on the Rideau canal and saw the ice sculptures (click hereto see all pictures)

The parents of Louis came to visit us at the beginning of the month of March. Friends from Windsor also came to visit us during March break. With them we went to the sugarshack and went to saw the native house of ther inventor of basketball (James Naismith, a Canadian!) and the We also try to visit the Naismith museum and hall of Fame in Almonte, Ontario but it was closed for the day :-(

At the end of March we visited the Hershey Chocolate factory in Smith falls, Ontario (which is scheduled to close this year unfortunately)(click here to see the pictures)

February 17, 2007

We had some pictures taken recently and I thought I'd post them for all to see.

To see more pictures of us click here.

February 3, 2007

My brother Jean sent me this and I thought it was pretty. It talks (in French) of the main river (rivière St-Maurice) nearby I grew up and has nice pictures in it. Thought some of you might like to see.

LELONGDEMARIVIRE.pps

January 31, 2007

It's good to be back on the web and re-creating our web site. Even though the old site still exists (http://www3.sympatico.ca/piou20100) I do not have access to edit it as we have changed ISP. Not sure when Sympatico will take the page down but we'll see and there is nothing I can do about it.

We are getting used to our new house.

For those of you that have not seen the pictures of it yet. Click Here to look at them.

We created a skating rink in our back yard. Just a small one (100'x25') :-) . Click here for a few pictures. The kids are really enjoying it especially Tyler. The twins have taken their first steps on skates and Luke did not like it one bit. But the next day he was asking to go again!

Tonight Tyler made me laugh. He came back from school telling me that today he went snowshoeing. I asked where and he said school for gym class! There something you would not see in Windsor. Kids snowshoeing in Gym class!

Here's also a few pictures from Christmas. Click here