Counting our Blessings

I have debated for the last couple days if I would post this but I have decided to because this is part of our story and the fact the Sheriff is still alive is unbelievably amazing!  This email went out to all of the deputies in Marine Operations....

To all Marine Ops personnel:

  

   On Monday 10-17 at 1100 hours, Deputy Ken Francisco arrived at the Dana station for his regular patrol boat shift.  Dep. Hodges spoke to him briefly.  Francisco looked and sounded normal at the time.  The fireboat was already in the field, and Hodges went 10-8, leaving Ken in the station.  At some point while he was there alone, Ken began to suffer a stroke.

     At about 1130, Sally called the Dana station.  The phone rang several times before Francisco picked it up, but his voice was so slurred when he answered that Sally didn’t even recognize it.  When she asked who she was speaking to, he could barely say his own name.  Realizing something was wrong, Sally told him to stay on the line and had Tina pick it up.  Francisco was unable to answer any questions, and appeared to be very disoriented.  Tina immediately told all Dana units to return to the station Code 3, and notified OC Fire.  When our deputies got back to the station, they found Ken in the galley, slumped in his chair with the left side of his body mostly paralyzed.  He was conscious, but having extreme difficulty responding to questions.  Paramedics arrived almost immediately after that, and transported him to Mission Hospital.

  

   ER staff confirmed that Ken had a stroke.  Fortunately, he is in good physical shape, and responded almost immediately to their treatments.  The ER staff said that he’s very lucky he received treatment so quickly, because time is critical in a stroke.  Ken was given “clot-buster” medication, and taken to surgery to remove any remaining bits of the clot.  By the time he was taken to surgery, Ken could already move his left arm and leg the same amount as his right, and was able to speak again.  His fiancée Erin came to the hospital, and his ex-wife was also notified.  Asst. Sheriff Powell, U/S Barnes, and AOCDS all responded as well.  The clot-removal procedure was successful, and as of 1700 hours Ken was in recovery and resting comfortably with his fiancée and family.  Doctors say he is responding extremely well, and the outlook is very good.

        Ken’s good physical condition and the quick response on the part of everyone involved were instrumental in this situation’s happy ending.  But Sally and Tina deserve particular mention.  There’s no way of knowing just how bad it might have been if Ken had gone untreated longer, but one thing is absolutely certain – if not for Sally and Tina’s quick realization that something was very wrong, and the immediate action on their part, the damage to Ken would have been far worse, possibly even permanent.  We all owe them a debt of gratitude.  And OC Fire deserves our thanks as well.  Tina made sure they knew it was a deputy in need of assistance, and their response went beyond Code 3 – it was more like a stampede to get there.  They responded so quickly that our deputies didn’t even have time to administer oxygen before the paramedics arrived.

        At this time, we don’t know how long Ken will remain in the hospital, or when he can receive calls and/or visitors.  We’ll send out updates as soon as they’re available.

Sgt. J. Hollenbeck

Just a few pictures of some of the visitors!

I forgot to get a picture of Tina & Julie, but I will fix that ASAP!

The events in the email above are amazing but what triggered the chain of events was a boater that had come into the Newport station asking a question that Sally the front office gal did not know and because there just happened to be a tour of the Newport station being given to a bunch of Long Beach PD (I think) guys Tina the Newport dispatcher who knew the answer to the question but was busy with the tour could not help.  Wanting to answering the question Sally decided to call over to Dana to find out the answer and thank goodness the Sheriff was sitting at the desk next to the phone and had the strength to pick it up. Also what was not mentioned in this email because it was unknown at the time it was written was that by the grace of God the Orange County Fire Authority was training right around the corner from the Sheriff's station so when the call went out they were at the Sheriff's side within 3 minutes.  The Sheriff was loaded and up and raced to Mission Hospital and in the ER within about 15 minutes which is AMAZING. Once he arrived at the hospital he had a CT Scan to determine if he was indeed having a stoke and where the clot was and within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital was given a clot busting drug that started working immediately and within a few minutes of receiving the clot buster he was able to talk and move his left side.  The Sheriff then had an angiogram (sp?) to remove the clot from his brain and spent two days in ICU.  He is currently on a the rehab floor to make sure he is strong enough to come home.  

I joked that after we survived September we just might need therapy well now if we survive October we are GOING to need therapy!   

How we got so lucky that day will never be known and the "what if's" that could of happened that go through my mind make me cry but I will never forget the men and women who saved the Sheriff's life that day and if I could hug them and tell them I love them everyday for the rest of my life I would.  

Special shout out to our good friend Julie (and Dave for caring for the their kiddo's so she could be there) who dropped everything to spend all day Monday at the hospital with me, to Ricki for bringing pizza and wine to the hospital for dinner last night, to Tina (lifesaver dispatcher) & Julie who spent last night with me providing an excellent therapy session and to the Orange County Sheriff's Department for making sure that we were all taken care of (their generosity was over the top), I never thought in a million years I would have top brass phone numbers saved in my contacts.  

Jingle All the Way!!

 It is crazy to think that the holidays are right around the corner, I am getting very excited and my Visa card has been getting a lot of exercise this week.  Last year I promised Mr. Pie that once we were in our new house we would start decorating for the holidays so holding true to my promise I started shopping for Christmas décor.  I went online on Wednesday to my favorite sites (Pottery Barn & Crate & Barrel) and they did not disappoint. I bought everyone new stockings (actually no one has old stockings, not sure why the boy does not have one) for our mantle, a new screen for our fireplace, a tree skirt and a very Joanna Gains Christmas tree stand cover.  I am not going to go to wild and crazy with decorations since we will for sure be getting a tree this year (last year we used a dog crate as the tree, so horribly sad) and that will help decorate house a lot, plus I have to save my $$$ to hire someone to hang our exterior Christmas lights because that is the Sheriff’s least favorite thing EVER so I am not going to bug him to do it and we do not have a tall ladder to hit the highest point of our roof, so I am leaving it to the professionals.  

I bought these four stockings from left to right, top to bottom, the Sheriff (Santa), Erin (stars), Mr. Pie (snowman) and the Sheriff's mom Rory (stripes).  The Sheriff's mom will be moving in with us shortly so I wanted to make sure she has a spot on the mantle too!

I have been on the hunt for this stocking and I cannot seem to find it online so I need to make a few phone calls and see if I can find it.  Not to jinx anything but I am buying it for our future bambino or bambina.  I had a Rudolph stocking growing up and I this one is just perfect in my mind.  

Christmas tree stand cover, the tree skirt and the fireplace screen, thank goodness for email discounts and free shipping that made a lot of this possible.

In anticipation of some amazing black Friday sales I am holding off on buying this advent calendar until then.  I have gone back and forth on buying it, I can’t decide if Mr. Pie is too old for it or not (there will always be a sibling, so perhaps this is a "yes" purchase) and I am seriously contemplating buying an elf on the shelf for our house.  I think Mr. Pie would like the advent calendar and I am thinking I could stuff it with some fun stuff but we shall see.  I really want to make our first Christmas in our new house great and considering the Sheriff and I are not big gift givers making the house pretty is important to me.  

This year the Sheriff and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our new house since our usual hostess with the mostess (my sister) will be out of town with her family so now I am on the hunt for some turkey décor as well.  I want to keep it simple but festive all at the same time so we shall see.  

All pictures were borrowed from Crate & Barrel & Pottery Barn

Now that September is Over!

Now September is over, I am keeping busy with life, the month of September brought a lot of stress for the Sheriff and I, first his Dad landed himself in the hospital and will remain there for a long long long time, then we got the devastating news about our baby, I had my D&C, I wound up back in the hospital two days later in extreme pain (thankfully it was nothing serious) and then Ken backed his truck into our neighbor’s plumbers truck causing close to $3000 worth of damage to the truck he hit.  It was the minor accident that pretty much sent me over the edge, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I could not handle it, mainly because of all the $$$ I thought we were going to shell out and really I could not take any more bad news.  Of everything medically I have been through in the 12 weeks I have not paid a dime and I was pissed at the thought of paying a stupid car insurance claim.  Thankfully our car insurance covered everything and at the moment we do not owe anything, that is until they raise our insurance rates.  Yes, we are all going to need therapy soon!  I decided we need to have a little fun in our life after everything we have been through so after an encouraging FB post from my cousin Katie about hosting people at your house I invited a coworker friend (Julie) of the Sheriff’s and her family (Dave, Brookie and Emmy) over for dinner on Friday night, it was nothing fancy we just bbq'd, ate dinner in the backyard, gobbled down yummy lemon bars that Julie made and enjoyed each other’s company.

Little Miss Emmy was fussy throughout dinner and wanted the Sheriff to hold her and after just a few minutes she was sound asleep.  The Sheriff loves him some babies!

The Sheriff and I have been working on organizing and cleaning out our garage the past few weeks, it seems like one step forward two steps back but we are making progress.  We are trying to use what we have versus buying new because we can’t find it in the garage hence the organizing part of the process, plus if we went to the trouble of moving it from the old house to the new house we are going to use it gosh darn it!  The Sheriff hung up two shelves for me and no they are not Pintrest worthy but I am so happy, I finally have a place to store all of our laundry supplies and can now see the controls on the dryer, hey, it’s the simple things in life sometimes. 

Now that I have my energy back (my thyroid took a huge hit being pregnant) all I can think about are projects around that house that I want to complete.  Right now I want to buy all new interior doors and doors knobs (I got some birthday $$$ for this), new front doors, paint our downstairs bedroom (more on that to come in the next few weeks), replace our staircase, sell all of our existing doors, buy a new couch and do a million other things that are on my list, anyone wanna come help?

September Sadness!

**warning this is not a new announcement!**

It’s taken me a long to post this on my blog and I know I will never forget but I wanted this little babe to be part of my blog history.  Today marks three weeks since my D&C and my final day of being pregnant with my first little baby.  It seems like a lifetime ago that this actually happened which is kind of nice because I know I am doing well, but there are moments when I want to cry but those are few and far between. Believe it or not October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, that sounds so depressing but it is nice know that I am not alone and there are so many people out there who have gone through this and it is recognized.  It has been a long time since I have blogged a huge part had to do with the fact that I had horrible all day sickness, I was so tired and it was the hardest secret to keep, all I wanted to do was shout from the rooftops that I was pregnant but I was waiting until we were confident that everything was ok, well as things turned out they were not so I am glad I did not say anything.  I was not going to say anything publicly about the miscarriage, I was just going to tell the close friends who already knew but then I decided to post it on Facebook, we were so excited to share the news that we were expecting and even though things did not go the way we wanted I wanted everyone to know about our baby and how much we loved it already.  This is what I posted on Facebook….

The Sheriff and I were so excited to announce that we were having a baby yesterday but instead we are saying goodbye to our sweet little babe. We went to the doctor yesterday morning and the heartbeat was gone. This one of the hardest things I have ever been through and we are heartbroken but we understand everything happens for a reason!! Thanks for all the love from our friends and family who knew we were expecting and called and texted yesterday, we love you!!!💗👶🏼💙 11weeks 5 days 

The response from everyone was overwhelming and selfishly much needed at that moment in my life and I will be forever grateful for everyone who took a moment to comment.  

 

This is what we gave to the Sheriff's Mom for her birthday, to say she was happy was an understatement. 

This is the last picture of our baby, it was hard to take this home with us but I am glad I did.

And one of the worst days of my life. 

I am glad to be back to blogging, I think it will be good for me and who knows in a few months we might have another babe to share with you, fingers crossed!