Ziggy Fights!

Last Tuesday I flew to Ohio facing dreadful news that my sister was beginning to suffer organ failure. Ten days of a high fever and fighting pneumonia were taking their toll. Our family and friends rallied to Jennifer’s side. Thursday, January 5th we were told by doctors that Jennifer’s prognosis was very poor. I left my sister’s bed side along with my youngest sister Karen, to prepare our 91year old mother for the worst possible scenario. Jennifer’s kidneys were not working, requiring dialysis. Her body was carrying over 40 pounds of excess weight due to water retention. Her blood pressure was not maintainable without medicines. She was not able to put two words together. We were at the worst we have been.

Friday little improvements began with an increasing white cell count and a feeding tube was put in place to provide her body some protein. Dialysis was keeping her neutral and blood pressure meds were reduced. Saturday we saw another jump in those transplanted cells from our brother Gene and her mental status showed the slightest improvement. Dialysis was increased to begin removing fluids! Sunday more improvement was shown in white counts and in mental status. She was actually able to put two words together!

Monday was a solid break thru! Blood counts off the wall, mental status vastly improved with actually conversation! Bored and wanting her computer and she actually ate solid food!! I left her room and the hospital and am returning to Boston knowing we had faced death square in the face and said not now!

Jennifer remembers little of the past week. The stream of visitors. The sitting at her bedside holding her hand and reading, her husband at a constant vigil and her kids wanting to be close staying over night at the hospital all were acts of love to will her on. Science absolutely plays a major role in where we are today. Science enabled our brothers cells to be implanted once again and fused with Jennfier. The care Jennifer has received and the power of not just the care but the care in its delivery were major factors in getting us to where we are today. However, sheer determination to live and a belief in the greater power that Jennifer holds, along with the love of family, friends and strangers also played a role in bringing her back to us.

We will have peaks and valleys, but we marvel in today and all it has brought us and have renewed hope for tomorrow!

BELIEVE and NEVER STOP BELIEvING. Jennifer is a great example of where believing can delivery you!

The “oldest” sister

Nora

It tis the New Year and while I am a tad late in posting this I am sure it’s meaning is still relevant.

As most of us know Jennifer has remained hospitalized during this holiday season fighting a recent GVHD (graft versus host rejection) which caused pnemonia that she simply had no immune system to fight. Over the weekend Jennifer has shown improvement with not having run a fever for over 72 hours and the severity of her cough less severe.

The next step for Jennifer is a “mini boost” of additional bone marrow from our brother Gene. The hopes are that this will aide in her immune system developing.

As I personally reflect on the past year and the new year, it’s thoughts of my sister that are foremost in my mind. I am most grateful for her spirit, her tenacity in the face of such adversities and her unwielding faith. I am honored to call her my sister. I am blessed that I was able to make the trip to Ohio during the holidays to spend time with her, as short as it was.

We are grateful for the outpouring of support from so many near and far, that have not only emotionally and spiritually lifted Jennifer and her family, but have reached into their pockets to support the family fianancially.  There will never be enough words to say thank-you.

I know the rest of the Linnabary, Cline and extended family and friends are in the same place in being grateful to have Jennifer in our lifes and to enrich us in so many ways. We would only hope that she recovers quickly to also torment us in the ways that only she knows best.

2012 is filled with hope and again my thoughts turn to my sister and her family. Hope that Jennifer is able to bounce back from this setback and move forward in her quest to touch even more lifes. I know that she aches to return to work and the clients that she misses so much as well as the new ones that she hopes to help.  We all pray that the mini boost is the exact medicine needed to get her back on track.

As we usher in this near year I am minded of the limbs of the family tree I am tracing in that they are far reaching and we never know what the next search will find.  Life is like that – if you open your mind and eyes, you see new things every single day.  You learn to appreciate the small things and not to “sweat the small stuff”.   The final stanza from one of my favorit poems from Percy Shelley says it best.  Through out the poem Shelley battles with a strange power that enters into a human and keeps coming and going.    The question of where the strange power has gone in answered in this final stanza:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all out there in Ziggy-Fights world. The holidays this year are filled with thankfulness and hopefullness. Thankful that we have Ziggy with us to continue to enrich our lifes and for us to torture, or vice versa. Thankful that three of her siblings were matches for her bone marrow transplant and thankful that my brother’s marrow seems to have taken hold in Jennifer. Too bad his football team did not fair as well on the field this year. GO PATRIOTS, but I digress!!!

Full of hopefullness that 2012 will find her each day getting stronger and stronger. Unfortunately today Jennifer has suffered a medical set back and is in the hospital. We know that she is fighting bacterial pnemonia. As she continues running a fever they of course are being agressive and checking everything, yes that means checking to insure that her bone marrow transplant is still functioning as it should. We hope to know some of those test results today and will keep this site updated.

Today I am moved to write on another front. It’s disturbing to me that when a person is struggling so much on the health front that they can be taken advantage of. As we all know Jennifer has been the provider of the family and her vocation has moved her to assist those less advantaged and in need of an advocate. Jennifer becomes their voice. As one of the founders of Project Search she has touched many lifes not just in Cincinnati but around the world. We recently learned that an individual who up until about a year ago, had been intrusted to handle Jennifer’s finances was indicted for misuse of those funds! Jennifer is not the only victim. Due to the impending legal action I can’t disclose names of individuals or organizations other than to assure everyone that the person has been caught and will stand before a court to answer those charges. I am appalled by this person’s actions but grateful for all the others who have stepped up to the plate and continue to help out financially. Jennifer’s benefits are exhausted and income is now limited to the government assistance but primarly from the support of so many friends. We know how tough finances are for everyone, but if you can assist at all please go to the web site link below and hit that donation button. You are helping in support Ziggy’s recovery.

We wish you all the best of the holidays and we will keep everyone posted on Jennifer’s health as we learn more.

BELIEVE

http://helpjenniferlinnabary.blogspot.com/

Medical

October is almost over and I realized that I have not posted a Ziggyfights update all month.  For those of you without Facebook I apologize but once again it has been one of those months that I barely remember.  The month started off with me being really out of breathe and having difficulty walking.  I thought it was due to my inactivity and steroids that if I could only move more and get off steroids I would be fine.  I dug out my walker as if gave me stability when I walked.  None of this helped.  On October 3 when I walked into the oncologist office he decided to measure the oxygen level in my blood while I was sitting and while I was walking.  92 and above is an acceptable level but mine was 86.  My oncologist would not allow me to leave and said I had to be admitted.  I kinda figured that would happen and had packed some necessities such as my computer and two days’ worth of clothes.  The doctor felt that this would be a short stay.  His guess was that I either had pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism, both very treatable.

Nothing is ever that simple for Jennifer.  I was in the hospital for 10 days. The bottom line was that I have blood clots throughout my body.  Before they came to that conclusion several things happened:

• They tried to pick a Picc line in my right arm but could not because the Hickman Catheter line was in the way
• My right arm swelled and a blood clot was discovered in my neck
• My Hickman Catheter was removed as they could not get a blood return from it.
• I had to have oxygen on at all times but towards the end this was reduced to just the evenings as I slept. 
• I was stuck a million times as they tried to get a vein that would give them blood for test and would hold up as they performed  a CT with contrast of my lungs. 
• One of the blood test came back confirming that I had a staph infection.  They believed that the origin of this was my port.  My port was removed and it tested positive for staph
• I had a Picc line inserted in my left arm and during that process they discovered that I had blood clots in a main artery leading to my heart.
• I was started on a regimen of blood thinner shots and Coumadin. 

I have been home a couple weeks and have noticed some improvements.  I can walk around the house without a walker and sometimes without a cane.  I am not as out of breathe as I was prior to my stay.  I am told I will be on Coumadin for a long time.  I am also on a low sodium diet which is difficult to adjust to as it is completely opposite of the diet I was on before.  Last week at my oncologist appointment my Hemoglobin level was low so I had to have a blood transfusion.  They ran test to determine why that was occurring but I have not heard anything about those test.  I have another appointment on Monday so hopefully I will know more then.

Work

Many people have been asking when I will be able to return to work.  The answer is complicated for several reasons. I have not talked with my Oncologist about when he thinks I can return to work as that would be a fruitless conversation right now. 

The other complication is the job I had prior to treatment no longer exists.  I knew this could possibly happen before I left for medical leave; that is reality of being a person going through extensive Cancer treatment.  To me, it feels as though my life has been put on hold but the rest of the world keeps turning.   I do not blame Great Oaks or Project SEARCH for this as I understand what happened and why, it is just hard to explain.  I have mixed feelings but I know God has great plans for me.  I am sure that after the first of the year I will be able to start my job search in earnest.  Right now I am using the time to heal and to update my Counseling License. 

Emotional Well-Being

My emotions have been on a wild rollercoaster ride with all of this.  There are days that I can handle whatever is thrown my way.  However, there are days I want to crawl under a rock.  Many days I have asked the questions, “Why me?” and many days I have made the statement, “Why not me!”  My close friends have helped me through this by making me focus on the healing power of God and his continual presence.  Sometimes it gets so dark that I cannot see that on my own.  I have never lost faith; I have just lost sight of the light.

Today we pause to remember Tom Wilson Sr, the creator of Ziggy.  While Ziggy is timeless and lives on thru Tom Jr, we pause to remember his creator on this day.  I choose to use the spelling as creator versus creater as Tom Wilson certainly created at universe and an experience in his creating of Ziggy.  I know that without Ziggy my sister in her journey would not have re-discovered on her “walk” herself.  Ziggy helped her do that.  Ziggy brought back a focus and a regeneration and yes brought her back and closer to the ultimate creator.

So today please pause and remember Tom Wilson Sr and keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.  Then ask your self the question that Ziggy is asking in this cartoon:  “How much time do you have to Waste?”

Rest in peace Tom, may the heavens be full of Ziggyisms!!!!

Nora