Main

This has been a sad week related to the Terri Schiavo case. Jenny and I have both pondered quite a lot on the subject. I think that it is very important that you draw very distinct lines for yourself and be very educated to the laws in your state. It points out the need for a living will.

In other news, Jenny was put on bedrest on Tuesday. There are some bloodflow issues with one or both of the girls and the doctors are concerned enough to give her leave. She was also having a huge number of contractions Sunday and Monday. Everything is good now, though, and we are back down to the normal amount of contractions.

I can no longer keep quite about an issue that I feel I have an expert opinion of (in a way)...

As a registered nurse that works with disabled people everyday there are a few medical points that need to be made to every person that says it is inhumane to keep Mrs. Schiavo alive...

1. She does not meet criteria for a persistent vegetative state under current guidelines. She might have met these guidelines 10 or 15 years ago but as with technology and time we learn new things and medicine advances.

Examples being... She can follow things with her eyes. She can tell when someone is in the room with her. She can also communicate by making grunts and other noises through her voice box.

2. She is capable of swallowing and swallows THROUGHOUT THE DAY. How do I know that? Well she manages her own saliva. She does not drool all day long nor does she require constant suctioning to remove the saliva from her mouth for her. She SWALLOWS her saliva just as you and I would. IF SHE CAN SWALLOW SALIVA WITHOUT CHOKING EVERYDAY SHE CAN SWALLOW WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS. If given proper therapy she has the potential to be able to eat soft foods even.

3. Her body is not dying. She is free from complications of her body slowly breaking down. She has no skin pressure sores or other complications of being immobile. Even Christopher Reeves who could talk and had millions spent on therapy; dealt with pressure sores and other complications. His body was shutting down and as result he became more at risk for these complications. Terri does not have these problems.

From a medical opinion her body is functioning correctly. Her body is actually very healthy. Her mind has been damaged, but the rest of body is alive. She was given a feeding tube for ease of feeding and has actually never been given the chance to attempt to swallow her own food and now has actually been denied food and water by mouth by a judge.

We don't even punish serial killers by not allowing them to eat and drink using their own mouth.

If anyone does not believe or care to realize the facts of this I ask you to do your research.

The new fence is up!! Click to view. It only took 2 weekends and a total of 3 days of hard work. Thanks to my dad for his help on the fenceposts. Thanks to Jenny's dad for his help on the pickets and not telling me that I was crazy for my "design" ideas. I'm glad that I made it as simple as possible in terms of alignment and leveling. It really is quite level unlike it looks in the pictures. The pictures are rather out of focus so just keep on hitting the forward arrow to take you on to the more in focus pictures and pictures of the dog racing around (which she only will do if someone is out there). Nevi doesn't quite know what to do in the yard so she stands at the backdoor looking in at us. Little does she know what is in store for her in the next 2 months... a lot of yard time!!

The girls are 30 wks and 6 days old today. We had a growth appointment this morning that Grandma Martin got to attend. The girls are growing... Kate now weighs in at 3 lbs 6 ozs and Emma is 2 lbs 15ozs. The doctor does not seem concerned about the weight difference and James keeps reminding me that the numbers are just a machine estimating. So no need to fret yet. We do ask that you all keep praying that Kate will cooperate and turn soon. She is defintely the one coming out first, but is still breech... only 6 weeks left!!!

At last, the long lost pictures from the 28th week!! Emma is watching you.... I think she resembles a muppet from Muppet's Christmas Carol... maybe the ghost of Christmas whatever...

Kate is a little harder to see than Emma. Sorry Andrew, they don't invert well at all.