Help for the Hess'

We were asked by a friend to post this to our blogs. Please read through this to see if you can help, or know someone who can...and pass the word along! This is a really great family in need of prayer and support! Together, we can work miracles! Thanks!

The Hess Family

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***

My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?

Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave) Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:

OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)

Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076Fax # : (520) 629-1849

E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook...whatever you can think of.Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!

GO TEAM RYAN HESS!

Run for cover!

Everyone else around here has been posting about their fun experiences with our recent tornado scare, so I thought I would share ours.
It was pretty stormy all week, so it wasnt anything new when rain and clouds rolled in on Friday night. Ryan had just taken off about a half hour earlier; to go to Youth conference an hour and a half away. Thunder had rolled in just before sitting down to enjoy our frozen pizza (which is our standby whenever Dad is gone), when I heard the tornado siren go off. Since this happens pretty regularly around here, and already once during the week...I calmly walked to the window to see black clouds rolling in. I hopped on the computer to check the local weather warnings, and sure enough we were under a tornado warning for the next 45 minutes. Not only that...it was claiming to be right about in the vicinity of our neighborhood. So I suggested to the kids that we go finish our dinner in the basement...QUICKLY!
I grabbed my dead cell phone, and Ryans almost dead blackberry just in case they would actually help find us in case our bodies were buried under the rubble of our house. Zack was already freaking out from the thunder, and Brylee had been asleep peacefully in her high chair, when I snatched them both up and headed for the shelter of our cold, dark, smelly basement. With a screaming Zack in one arm, and a less than happy awakened baby in the other, I tried to tune into the radio for more info. Justifying my concerns, the tornado should be approximately on top of our house about now. At this time, the screaming was made worse by the power going out. Figuring it wasnt helping much to listen to just how in danger we were, I flipped off the radio to offer a prayer of safety and lead the kids in a round of Zacks favorite songs. If anything it helped drown out the noise of the storm.
About a half hour later, I switched the radio back on to check for updates, and heard that the tornado warning was lifted in exchange for severe thunderstorms. I ran upstairs to check if everything was clear, and then went back for the kids. We lit some candles and then decided to ease our nerves with some ice-cream. It was probably going to just melt there in the powerless freezer anyway. Then I heard a pounding at the front door. Who the heck would be out in this weather!? It was our neighbor from across the street. He had gotten a call form my panicking husband who was 70 miles away and heard that everyone in the ward had been confirmed as okay...except us. Of course, no one could get a hold of us because of the power outage and my dead cell phone. So I assured him that we were still alive and he headed back home in the pouring rain.
About 15 minutes later, we headed upstairs to hang out in my room for the night; when another pounding came from the front door. What now!? It was yet another friend who Ryan had called to try and check on us. He handed me his cell, and said something like"call Ryan...hes freaking out!" I finally got a hold of Ryan who was having his turn in a basement, to assure him we were okay, and dont risk his own life to come home right away. Our friend said just to keep the phone...and went home. After making one more call to a concerned friend, we settled in to watch a movie on the portable DVD player. Yay for charged batteries!
Another hour passed, and I got a call from the cell phone owners wife, asking if our basement had flooded yet. Uhhh...didnt check on that. I ran down to the basement again, and was relieved to find it still dry. Time for bed! Ryan finally made it home about 5 hours later at 11:30 pm., and of course the moment he climbed into bed, the power came back on.

The next day was filled with a street lined with neighbors cleaning out their soggy flooded basements, broken tree branches and high humidity. Ryan head out around 11:00pm to help with a basement that had filled to approx. 3 feet of water. Dumpsters filled about half of the driveways and we felt so bad for those who had lost so much to floodwater, and so happy that we made it through. It could have been so much worse. We are thankful for answered prayers and good friends!

City Kids...

...livin in the country.
June is dairy month here in the cheese state and we celebrated by heading out to a local farm for a fresh dairy breakfast and some homemade cow pies. We quickly realized just how much city our kids are (including myself), when we arrived at the breakfast table which was made out of haystacks with boards on top. The kids were less than thrilled with the breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham (prepared by the way in a huge pan by about 5 people stirring them continually with dustpans. Sure hope they werent used!), bread w/butter and blueberry muffins. We were sort of expecting pancakes, bacon and hashbrowns. I think the only thing they consumed was their bread, carton of chocolate milk, and a bowl of ice-cream. They were too busy complaining about the flies and the unsanitary eating arrangements. Then we had the fun of trudging out in the mud (or mud/manure mixture), to view the cows, cows, and more cows. I tried to put on my brave face as we entered the smelliest of the barns, where they milk the cows, and the floor was covered in manure. You mean this is where our milk comes from?! To the cows credit, they do make cute babies. Alissa did get past the smell, when she spotted the newborn calf's. Madi even got brave enough to get her hand close enough to actually pet one...briefly.

After getting past the smell of fresh manure, they started to enjoy themselves more. They loved climbing up on the big tractor, sitting in the fire-truck, and searching for tokens in corn and wood chips. We decided Zack will now be a fireman when he grows up, since he had a huge melt-down after taking him out of the firetruck. Overall, a good experience for the kids, but not sure if its one I want to repeat. Give me a shower!

On a side note: Personally, not a fan of raspberry cheese, but at least I tried it!

Eye oh eye! part 2

update from previous post:

Tuesday: Alissa is doing much better today. The swelling has gone down a lot, and she can actually open her eye a little bit to see. The doctors were trying to get her to stay another day since she is so contagious, but we assured them we would be able to keep her quarantined here in her room where she is more comfortable (and not have to pay more hospital bills). So she should be arriving home soon. She will just have to go back on Thursday for a follow-up with the ophthalmologist. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support and well wishes for our family.

Eye oh eye!

Thursday night: Alissa's eye started to look red and swollen. I figured it was probably just a symptom of fatigue from being up late.

Friday morning: nothing had changed, but by Friday night the swelling had gotten worse. I resolved to take her to the doctor in the morning if it hadnt gotten better.

Saturday morning: Sure enough, her eye looked even worse. Off to the insta-care we go. Her temp. ran 101.4, so the nurse gave her some motrin. Then the doctor came in. (I should say he was actually a doctors assistant, and I think he lacked the necessary knowledge). He pretty much wrote it off to allergies, after I told him that I have allergies, and prescribed her some eye drops, amoxacillin, and zyrtec...along with tylenol when needed for pain. Nothing like a doped up kid for the weekend! So basically, he was just covering all the bases, because clearly he didnt know what was wrong!

Sunday morning: She stumbles into our room around 5 am, complaining that her eye hurt. So I get out of bed and take a look at it. Holy cow! Its still growing! It had swelled to about double the size! She refused to open her eyes because it hurt. So now I have a doped up blind kid, walking into walls. Ryan took the kids to church, while I stayed with her. When he got home, I called the docter again, and they said to bring her back in, in case she was having an allergic reaction to the meds. Ryan and our friend gave her a blessing, and then he took her back in. It was 2:00 by then and she was starting to act lethargic. About an hour later I get a call from Ryan. After thourally questioning him about abuse (you know swollen eye and bruises from running into walls), they rushed her to the ER and an ophthalmologist was coming to take some pictures of her eye and they wanted to do blood work, a urine test, and a cat scan! He said they seemed pretty concerned about it, so I should try to come in.
So I called our friends, took the kids over to their house, and Brylee and I headed to join Ryan and Alissa at the hospital. By the time I got there about an hour later, they had already done all the testing. Guess they went remarkably fast. So Alissa was fast asleep on Ryans chest. Here is how sad she looked when I came in... (BTY-this isnt the eye that was swollen!)

Apparently, during the IV insertions, she kept crying "THEIR KILLING ME!" , and making the nurse cry. They had to really bandage her arm with a brace so she wouldnt bend it and wrap it up good, because she was so sweaty, the tape wouldnt stick. Thats a lot of bandage for one little IV.
We sat and waited for all the results to come in for about an hour. The nurse took her temp a few times during the waiting, and it did start to come down from the 102 range to 99. Finally the doctor came in with the cat scan results. Looks like she was just super congested, and it had gone all up around her cheekbone and eyelid. So thats way better than the conclusions we were drawing. They still wanted to keep her overnight, so we got moved to a room while they continued to pump loads of Motrin and antibiotics in her. The swelling had started to go down. Here is a picture of her bad eye, after we moved to a room, but you cant really tell how bad it was by looking at the picture.
One of the things she kept asking for during her tests, was Brylee (Not Mom...Brylee). She finally smiled after she woke up and saw her little sister beaming at her. Then she found out she was going to get jello, and to watch a movie. That was the happiest we'de seen her in days!

Smiling at Brylee with one eye open. Monday morning: When I talked to Ryan in the morning, he said they wanted to keep her there another night. Her infection is really bad...theres a thin lining stopping it from spreading to her eye and her brain. When its that bad, they need to watch it really close. Ryan says her eye is starting to get really goopy and watery. She continues to be drugged up on Motrin to control her fever. She was okay with having to stay another day, but Im sure that was just the drugs talking. Normally, she would be clawing at the door to leave. I packed up the kids and picked up some balloons for her to take to the hospital. We arrived about 10:00. At this point they were getting ready to wheel her down to the ophthalmologist, so I decided to get in on the fun, and be the one to go with her. She sat on my lap as they wheeled us to the other side of the hospital. She was crying the whole way that she didnt want to stay in the hospital any more, and that the doctor was going to hurt her. "Im going to have to live here!" escaped her lips a few times. Then she stared getting upset at Ryan for promising her that they wouldnt hurt her, and then breaking his promise by letting them hurt her arm (with the IV). How could she trust me, whenRyan had already broken his promise? It was very heartbreaking.

After a too long wait, with people staring and commenting, we finally went back to see the ophthalmologist. She sounded very concerned about the rest of our family (especially Brylee)catching the same virus, because it is very contagious. Fortunately, Alissa's eye still looked good, and it hadnt spread. Unfortunately, it is viral (she has something called celluitis) and there is nothing we can do for her but wait it out. After that Ryan had to go home to do some homework, so I stayed with her for a few hours. During that time, she got a huge headache and was having hot and cold flashes. She wont eat much, but has continual fluids draining into her.
For now I am home. I have to wash everything she has come into contact with. Ryan will be with her through the night again. Hopefully she will be able to come home tomorrow, but only time will tell...and she will still need to be basically quarantined for the next week. I will update more when we know. Prayers are appreciated on her behalf.

The good, the bad, and my point

This month marks our two whole years here in Wisconsin, so I think I can officially offer a constructive opinion about the place. I can say it has started to grow on me a bit, not that I want to pick out rings or anything. There are still things I find un-pleasurable about it. Here is Wisconsin in the opinion of a Utah lifer...or what I like to call, the good and the bad of K-Town.

The good:Lake Michigan/lakes and beaches. The bad: no mountains.
The good:A whole isle full of Wisconsin Cheese The bad: In a place with so much cheese, I have yet to find my favorite one...Mizithra. (Mi-thra)
The good: Education The bad: Too many money grabbing fundraisers (isnt that what all our taxes are supposed to be for?)!
The good: Environmentally conscious leaders The bad: being mandated to sort out all that @*$# trash and separate into its own special colored bag!
The good: Minutes away from high quality family entertainment. The bad: freeway traffic, and Illinois tollways.
The good: The Spring The bad: wind chills of 40 below, and 20 feet of snow.
The good:The Fall The bad: wind chills of 40 below, and 20 feet of snow.
The good: Friends that become like family. The bad: When good friends move back to Utah!
The good: Green, green and more green! The bad: pesky mosquito's, and ticks!
The good: Enough space to run around in. The bad: 2 a.m. train whistles at your back door.
The good: A great neighborhood full of kids and friendly people. The bad: Everyone giving your weird looks and commenting on "you have how many kids!?"
The good: Utah visitors The bad: living too far from Utah for visits.
The good: An abundance of frogs, furry rabbits, chipmunks and birds. The bad: trying to grow fruits and vegetables with an abundance of hungry rabbits, chipmunks birds and moles!
The good: not living on a fault line where an earthquake could hit at anytime The bad: living in the middle of tornado valley, where tornados can and have hit during at least 8 months out of the year! Running for cover in the basement!
The good: Always having a great and supportive husband and kids no matter where you live...and that makes everything better.

So if anything, moving away from our comfort zone has in fact proven that we can survive. And if we can adjust to life in the mid-west...we can adjust to life anywhere in the country!

Six Flags...More Fun!

It is awesome to live so close to a six flags theme park! We are only about 20 minutes away from "more fun". Last Thursday we pulled the kids out of school (I know...bad parent award), and took the whole family to free friends day with our friends who are season ticket holders. Its great to have friends like that right? Anyway, it was a blast. The weather was a little chilly, but there werent many people there, and we got to spend the whole day with friends! The repercussions of walking and spinning all day kicked in later. To our surprise and amazement, Alissa turned out to be our little thrill seeker, while Zack preferred to stay safe in the stroller. Even the carousel was too much excitement for him. Guess we need to get him there more often. The one and only thing that did terrify Alissa was the big scary Bugs Bunny! Personally, I would be more afraid of the old wrinkly guy, but whatever.

Duck for cover! I think this was Alissas favorite ride. Spinning... Dont know who got her mad here, but dont get on her bad side! This was the Hot air balloon ride. More Spinning...

The "Rajun Cajun"...my least favorite ride. I think I still have whiplash.

Another one of the kids favorites, the octopus ride. Spinning again...are you dizzy yet?

This may have been the only ride Zack wasnt crying "Scary!... Stroller!... Scary!" (meaning the ride was too scary, and he wanted his stroller, not that the stroller was scary...in case you were wondering!) What a thrill! But hey, NO spinning here.

Another picture later with Daffy. Ryan had to bribe Alissa for this one, and put her on his shoulders. Come to think of it...I dont think he ever made good on that one. Thank goodness for forgetful children.

So if anyone wants my opinion, I think the Raging Bull, and Superman are the best rides. Roaring Rapids is good too, but it was closed. They must have thought it was too cold to get wet. Weird! So for all of you people who think Wisconsin has nothing to offer but cheese...think again! This is way better than boring old Lagoon! (Okay, technically its in Illinois, but 20 minutes is still 20 minutes!)