I just had my awesome cousin leave me so I'm a little sad now since she fit right in with our little family and spoiled me rotten with her amazing energy and equally amazing cooking! Jeff and I actually got to go on several dates and recall what it is to be a couple again with time to laugh, talk, have picnic dinners (made by Kristin of course) and catch some movies. Thanks Kristin, you are the best and we could never repay you for what you have done for our family. Love you!!!
So now it's back to the grind although we are never without help these days from family and church family. What would we ever do without you!!! Such a blessing to our lives.
I know you are all dying to hear the updates on Jaimee, so here goes...she is getting better at holding her head up. She can hold her head up for about 10-15 seconds sitting on my lap or holding her up in her bed. Her back and hips are getting very strong, in fact she can lift her butt and back up so I can put on a diaper or clothes, so that helps since she is very tall and bigger than a baby which makes it sometimes awkward. She can also lift her head up and help pull herself up in her bed but she can't support herself yet. The stronger her neck and back gets the better for when she learns to crawl which by the way she is getting ready to do soon. When her stomach is properly bandaged she can roll on her tummy and is starting to find her hand/elbow strength for proping herself up and she can lift and turn her head for a few seconds. Soon after her G-tube is replaced with the Mickie or button tube then she should be able to more easily learn to start crawling. We do prop her on her knees and she does like to scoot forward. She can even stand on her feet and bare weight for about 20-30 seconds as I hold her and we rock back and forth practicing the feeling of standing. We hope her hand and leg coordination come back soon to help aid her in these processes of crawling/walking. Last Sunday I think, Jeff gave Jaimee a cup and helped her learn to drink from it which she did with some practice. In the last couple of days I have worked with her holding a sippy cup and drinking from it. She cannot hold anything yet but we keep practicing. She did learn after about 4 or 5 trys how to sip from the cup. I have been reducing her meds since she has more muscle control and less muscle spasms. After waking up with what looked like a hangover the other day I have now reduced the meds even more. So as she gets stronger she shows us how she is ready to move on. With all the progress we have much to be grateful for and yet I do have those days of lots of tears and sorrow as I see her trying to do things in her therapy appointments that she just can't do (for now). Seeing just how far she has to go and how many years this may take is daunting at times but it's the support and love and encouragement from all around that reminds us to be strong and faithful. I wish I could take this all away from her but she continues to show us just how strong she really is.
As school is tapering off and busy schedules slow down for the summer for all of you and your families we hope you have great plans to enjoy the great weather, take lots of pictures and videos, spend quiet moments together hugging and tickling eachother. We wished we had taken more videos of Jaimee and being the last kid it ended up being the last on "the list". Sometimes we far too often put the most important things at the bottom of the list and let the less important rise to the top of the list.
Love and hugs to all!
Mardee
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Happy Nurses Week
I was asked to write a letter to the nursing staff at Northridge. I thought I would add it to this blog since they all enjoyed it so much. Happy Mother's Day and Nurses Week to all!
I never gave much thought to Nurses Week. I, like millions of others probably heard of it at one time or another or perhaps noticed it on a memo or from a 30 second news clip. I can honestly say I will never take for granted what this week means.
Simply said, to me, this honored week means my daughter is alive. Although Doctor Semnani might wonder why we aren’t celebrating Doctors Week then! =) (He knows exactly where he stands with us.)
This week represents not just careful attention to detail, stats and reports or dutifully administering medications or the quick changing of linens and garments, it represents the difference you make in the life of a family.
Our family has always believed in the importance of being an example of living an honorable life. If you make the difference in one life you have the potential to make the difference in many. The Nurses at Northridge Hospital have done just that.
All of you who took care of Jaimee didn’t just take care of her; you loved her. You didn’t just hope for her recovery; you prayed for it. You didn’t just treat her well; you treated her like she was your very own. You didn’t just do all that for Jaimee; you did it for all of us, her family- me, Jeff and our three boys, Nathan, Ben and J.D. The business and procedures of the hospital never interfered with your kindness and consideration for her or for our family. I never thought it possible but you actually made room 2219 our home-that and the nice patio outside, wink, wink! =)
In the morning hours you greeted us happily giving us hope for a new day, making sure we ate and took good care of ourselves. When the florescent lights dimmed at night and exhaustion set in you stayed up late working and talking with us and letting us just cry. You were strong and stalwart all throughout while we mourned what we may have lost, while we feared what could happen, you were there when we felt the sorrowful loss of little Matty next door, and rejoiced when Jaimee first smiled and recognized us. You were also there to say goodbye when we painfully had to leave, still unsure of the path that lay before us. You gave her gifts and visited her on your day off. You didn’t just do your job; you literally became a part of our little family. You opened those big white doors, took us in, and opened your arms and hearts to us. For all of that and more we love you, we love each and every one of you.
Born almost 189 years ago it was said of Florence Nightingale, “She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.[8]
Like Florence, you are angels going from room to room, patient to patient softening the hearts and minds of every family. Thank you for all that you do both seen and unseen.
With love and gratitude,
Mardee, Jeff, J.D., Ben, Nathan, and Jaimee Jessop
5/7/09
This week represents not just careful attention to detail, stats and reports or dutifully administering medications or the quick changing of linens and garments, it represents the difference you make in the life of a family.
Our family has always believed in the importance of being an example of living an honorable life. If you make the difference in one life you have the potential to make the difference in many. The Nurses at Northridge Hospital have done just that.
All of you who took care of Jaimee didn’t just take care of her; you loved her. You didn’t just hope for her recovery; you prayed for it. You didn’t just treat her well; you treated her like she was your very own. You didn’t just do all that for Jaimee; you did it for all of us, her family- me, Jeff and our three boys, Nathan, Ben and J.D. The business and procedures of the hospital never interfered with your kindness and consideration for her or for our family. I never thought it possible but you actually made room 2219 our home-that and the nice patio outside, wink, wink! =)
In the morning hours you greeted us happily giving us hope for a new day, making sure we ate and took good care of ourselves. When the florescent lights dimmed at night and exhaustion set in you stayed up late working and talking with us and letting us just cry. You were strong and stalwart all throughout while we mourned what we may have lost, while we feared what could happen, you were there when we felt the sorrowful loss of little Matty next door, and rejoiced when Jaimee first smiled and recognized us. You were also there to say goodbye when we painfully had to leave, still unsure of the path that lay before us. You gave her gifts and visited her on your day off. You didn’t just do your job; you literally became a part of our little family. You opened those big white doors, took us in, and opened your arms and hearts to us. For all of that and more we love you, we love each and every one of you.
Born almost 189 years ago it was said of Florence Nightingale, “She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.[8]
Like Florence, you are angels going from room to room, patient to patient softening the hearts and minds of every family. Thank you for all that you do both seen and unseen.
With love and gratitude,
Mardee, Jeff, J.D., Ben, Nathan, and Jaimee Jessop
5/7/09
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
This week in just a matter of days we have seen great things happen. Each new day is a waiting surprise for us to see what our beautiful little girl will do and say. Today Jaimee got her hands raised above her shoulders and played with her hair. She also starting making sounds again, ba, da, pa, fa and kinda said "hi". The other day we could swear we heard her say "Hey!" Yeah- Go Jaimee =)
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Finding a New Normal
After 5 weeks we finally arrived home from the hospital. We spent those weeks in anguish wondering what life had in store for our sweet Jaimee and our little family of 6. We knew that we had to find a new normal. We weren't getting back our vivacious, precocious little girl. What we did get came a surprise the day her eyes were open while on the ventilator and I sang her favorite song. She looked right at me and smiled the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. She has been smiling ever since. Her familiar Jaimee attitude and "Jaimee Looks" are still there although not as frequent which isn't exactly a bad thing. :) It's been wonderful to love her, kiss her, tickle her and have her eat up every moment.
Those who knew her well knew she wasn't a baby very long at all. She was always in a hurry to grow up, experience everything she could and to do it all on her own when and where she wanted. Now our normal seems in some ways to ironically be normal. Much like the normal of having a 5 month old baby. So as Jeff appropriately said one night to me while drowning in sorrowful tears, mourning the loss of what was, he exclaimed, "we now get our baby back." The boys get to dote on her which they love. They have learned so quickly to do it effortlessly and she adores them so much. She makes progress each day and we cheer her on just as you would when a baby learns a new "trick" for the first time.
There is so much joy and love how could we feel anything but blessed that a loving Heavenly Father allowed us to keep her a part of our family. Miracles really do happen and she is our miracle baby. We now get the chance to live life over again with Jaimee and watch her little personality and body develop and grow as much and as far as she is willing to take it.
We thank all of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of prayers that have been offered on Jaimee's and our behalf. We were amazed with the flood of responses from all regions and from all religions. Prayers were being offered internationally, from east coast to west. Her name was added to prayer roll after prayer roll in many, many temples. Prayer groups were notified immediately. Cell phones were ablaze, text messages were flying and the worldwide web of email and Facebook were bombarded with requests for prayer and fasting-because of that effort she is here. The Lord heard you-He heard all of us! And for that we thank you. We thank the Spotten's for coming to my rescue and caring for our boys in those initial and most difficult days, for loving them and protecting them as they went through interview after interview. We thank them along with the Bird's for taking control of our home and putting order back into a place of horrific chaos making our home welcoming to come back to despite what occurred here. We thank the Ibarra's, Sheryl and Kim for participating in that effort as well. We thank our wonderful and prayerful neighbors who protectively cared for our kids initially and watched out for our home. We thank the Thomas' for faithfully taking care of our dog and bird and loved them while we were away. We thank all those who visited us, who brought food and clothing to us, presents and cards and money for Jaimee-you all know who you are. We thank our ward family of Littlerock and those of our previous ward family who have and continue to volunteer to provide support and service in the most Christ like of ways. We thank our wonderful, loyal, and selfless family who dropped everything and came at all hours of every day to support us through the most difficult weeks of our life-this has been gut-wrenching for all of them. They each have suffered and mourned with us as well as our close friends have, more than I'm sure even we will know. Our family opened their hearts, their homes, their arms to our 3 boys and encircled them in love for 5 weeks while we tended to Jaimee. I can't thank them enough. Because of all of them my boys felt at peace, they were comforted when needed, they found times of great joy and fun and created lasting bonds with their cousins and for that I couldn't be more grateful for those tender mercies the Lord continues to provide even in dark days. I am amazed and humbled by the warmth we are surrounded in. Heavenly Father has living angels all around us and we literally feel how strong your faith is and feel your love for us.
I also want to add that everyone should take a CPR class. If it weren't for the Boy Scouts of America program at church offering the class only one month before this happened, I wouldn't have know what to do for my daughter. In the discharge report it says that the paramedics arrived and found a pulse where there wasn't one when I began the CPR. I was told by several medical professionals that we have Jaimee because of the CPR and that less than 1% of kids in her condition make it home but with CPR it's around 50%. Please take a class if you haven't had the chance. I never thought I'd need it but I thank the Lord I took it-it is what gave me the calm and confidence to respond to what needed to get done-saving Jaimee. Thank you Northridge Hospital Medical Center for having the care page site free for families it was a God-send and thank you again to the Spotten's for setting that up. Thank you to my friend's who have protected our privacy and family and for updating everyone as much as you could. For all of you wishing to keep up on Jaimee's progress we will be stopping the Care Page site soon and I will be updating my blog site and Facebook. So feel free to add me and/or Jeff as a friend on Facebook (Mardee Jessop/ Jeff Jessop), just put "Jaimee" in the comment line. We will still post pictures on FB and provide links to the blogsite- blogger.com Jessop's On The Go! I'm new to this so bare with me as I get adjusted and try to find the time among all my duties with Jaimee and family. Please feel free to call, stop by- just let us know ahead of time, or email me at mardeejessop@sbcglobal.com.
Lastly, I want to thank the most amazing medical staff at Northridge Hospital-you literally saved my daughter's life! Dr. Semnani has our respect, admiration and love forever. Whatever we can do to further his pursuits to making the pediatric ICU a trauma center we hope to help in that effort even if the California Government won't bother-I wouldn't want my child to be anywhere else-believe me, after being at Kaiser, there is a HUGE difference. It was divine intervention she ended up at Northridge which was the last place on the list she would go. The nurses, the respiratory therapists the entire staff assisting Jaimee were fantastic! The nurses have stayed there over 15 years for a reason-because there isn't anyone better than Dr. Semnani and we know it and understand it fully. God bless you all, you were incredible in every way. My daughter never received such devoted loving care than while at Northridge. We love you and will be a part of your lives for as long as you let us!
As we start this new phase of months if not years of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical equipment and social services galore, we are adjusting to our new normal- just a loving, happy family enjoying each and every day God has given us knowing there isn't any pain we have suffered that the Lord hasn't already suffered on our behalf. By His grace He continues to allow us to find joy together in our normal everyday lives and for that we can only be grateful.
Love to you all,
Mardee
Those who knew her well knew she wasn't a baby very long at all. She was always in a hurry to grow up, experience everything she could and to do it all on her own when and where she wanted. Now our normal seems in some ways to ironically be normal. Much like the normal of having a 5 month old baby. So as Jeff appropriately said one night to me while drowning in sorrowful tears, mourning the loss of what was, he exclaimed, "we now get our baby back." The boys get to dote on her which they love. They have learned so quickly to do it effortlessly and she adores them so much. She makes progress each day and we cheer her on just as you would when a baby learns a new "trick" for the first time.
There is so much joy and love how could we feel anything but blessed that a loving Heavenly Father allowed us to keep her a part of our family. Miracles really do happen and she is our miracle baby. We now get the chance to live life over again with Jaimee and watch her little personality and body develop and grow as much and as far as she is willing to take it.
We thank all of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of prayers that have been offered on Jaimee's and our behalf. We were amazed with the flood of responses from all regions and from all religions. Prayers were being offered internationally, from east coast to west. Her name was added to prayer roll after prayer roll in many, many temples. Prayer groups were notified immediately. Cell phones were ablaze, text messages were flying and the worldwide web of email and Facebook were bombarded with requests for prayer and fasting-because of that effort she is here. The Lord heard you-He heard all of us! And for that we thank you. We thank the Spotten's for coming to my rescue and caring for our boys in those initial and most difficult days, for loving them and protecting them as they went through interview after interview. We thank them along with the Bird's for taking control of our home and putting order back into a place of horrific chaos making our home welcoming to come back to despite what occurred here. We thank the Ibarra's, Sheryl and Kim for participating in that effort as well. We thank our wonderful and prayerful neighbors who protectively cared for our kids initially and watched out for our home. We thank the Thomas' for faithfully taking care of our dog and bird and loved them while we were away. We thank all those who visited us, who brought food and clothing to us, presents and cards and money for Jaimee-you all know who you are. We thank our ward family of Littlerock and those of our previous ward family who have and continue to volunteer to provide support and service in the most Christ like of ways. We thank our wonderful, loyal, and selfless family who dropped everything and came at all hours of every day to support us through the most difficult weeks of our life-this has been gut-wrenching for all of them. They each have suffered and mourned with us as well as our close friends have, more than I'm sure even we will know. Our family opened their hearts, their homes, their arms to our 3 boys and encircled them in love for 5 weeks while we tended to Jaimee. I can't thank them enough. Because of all of them my boys felt at peace, they were comforted when needed, they found times of great joy and fun and created lasting bonds with their cousins and for that I couldn't be more grateful for those tender mercies the Lord continues to provide even in dark days. I am amazed and humbled by the warmth we are surrounded in. Heavenly Father has living angels all around us and we literally feel how strong your faith is and feel your love for us.
I also want to add that everyone should take a CPR class. If it weren't for the Boy Scouts of America program at church offering the class only one month before this happened, I wouldn't have know what to do for my daughter. In the discharge report it says that the paramedics arrived and found a pulse where there wasn't one when I began the CPR. I was told by several medical professionals that we have Jaimee because of the CPR and that less than 1% of kids in her condition make it home but with CPR it's around 50%. Please take a class if you haven't had the chance. I never thought I'd need it but I thank the Lord I took it-it is what gave me the calm and confidence to respond to what needed to get done-saving Jaimee. Thank you Northridge Hospital Medical Center for having the care page site free for families it was a God-send and thank you again to the Spotten's for setting that up. Thank you to my friend's who have protected our privacy and family and for updating everyone as much as you could. For all of you wishing to keep up on Jaimee's progress we will be stopping the Care Page site soon and I will be updating my blog site and Facebook. So feel free to add me and/or Jeff as a friend on Facebook (Mardee Jessop/ Jeff Jessop), just put "Jaimee" in the comment line. We will still post pictures on FB and provide links to the blogsite- blogger.com Jessop's On The Go! I'm new to this so bare with me as I get adjusted and try to find the time among all my duties with Jaimee and family. Please feel free to call, stop by- just let us know ahead of time, or email me at mardeejessop@sbcglobal.com.
Lastly, I want to thank the most amazing medical staff at Northridge Hospital-you literally saved my daughter's life! Dr. Semnani has our respect, admiration and love forever. Whatever we can do to further his pursuits to making the pediatric ICU a trauma center we hope to help in that effort even if the California Government won't bother-I wouldn't want my child to be anywhere else-believe me, after being at Kaiser, there is a HUGE difference. It was divine intervention she ended up at Northridge which was the last place on the list she would go. The nurses, the respiratory therapists the entire staff assisting Jaimee were fantastic! The nurses have stayed there over 15 years for a reason-because there isn't anyone better than Dr. Semnani and we know it and understand it fully. God bless you all, you were incredible in every way. My daughter never received such devoted loving care than while at Northridge. We love you and will be a part of your lives for as long as you let us!
As we start this new phase of months if not years of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical equipment and social services galore, we are adjusting to our new normal- just a loving, happy family enjoying each and every day God has given us knowing there isn't any pain we have suffered that the Lord hasn't already suffered on our behalf. By His grace He continues to allow us to find joy together in our normal everyday lives and for that we can only be grateful.
Love to you all,
Mardee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
