Updating Cruise Photos & Halloween

As promised here are some pictures of our cruise :)

Our Cabin ~ it was handicap accessible and had tons of room.

Seeing Danny was sick he and I shared the king size bed.

Bathroom

Bunk Beds ~ Dan was on the bottom and Avrianna on the top

Our personal balcony !  We ALL fit on it!!

Day 1 ~ on Ship

Ready to go out to see ~ looking into the parking lot you can see our RV in the back :)

 Before leaving port we all had an "what to do if there was an emergency" safety meeting.  Traveling with a Special needs person we were able to get on the "special" list and so we were to have extra care in the event of an emergency.

 All excited and ready to GO!

 I shall call this on...."the calm before the storm"

 Our dinner table.  Seeing we had open dining time we could come to eat anytime between 5:45-9pm.  Usually they just seat you were ever, but they saved this table for us in the corner as it worked great for Danny and not being in the way of the waiters.

 Bonus the window view!!  All the food we had was AMAZING!  You definitely could go on the ship at a passenger and come off as cargo with all the wonderful food that was on the ship.

 Our Head waiter....Wichit.  He was a hoot!  Not only did we have great service with him, but he also was very entertaining, and my ultimate favorite was that he ALWAYS talked to and included Danny.  What a great man!!

 Every evening our room were "turned down for bed", a new calendar of events for the next day was on our bed along with chocolates and a towel animal.  These were so cute!  We got Avrianna a how to book for these towel animals...I told her I expect to have one on my bed each nite when we are home, LOL!

 Day 2 ~ Freeport Bahamas

The lido deck ~ The Place to be!!

 On the 11th floor was the "waterpark" with this slide, The Twister and then 2 racing slides off to the right.  

 Swimming in the pool ~ it is a salt water pool so it wasn't her favorite.  I tried to get her to befriend the girl by the ladder as she too was by herself, but for whatever reason Avrianna took to herself pretty much the whole trip.  Times like these I really wish Danny and her had a "normal" relationship and she could swim and hang out with him like "typical" siblings.

 We didn't get off the ship to go in to Freeport, but we did see some of the shops that were set up by where all the ships unloading.

 Someone wanted to get a tan :)

 Beautiful

 relaxing, ready his book....I know unheard of.

 FORMAL NIGHT ~

 Can you say HANDSOME!!

 What a beautiful young lady she is becoming!

 The Osero's ~ what an amazing family I have!

When I went to put the family photo in the frame I found this one, back from '08 when we went on the Disney Cruise.  Look how small the kids are!  Look how skinny I was, wow!

During the nitely show, Danny's system kicked into overdrive.  His secretions went hay wire and his automonic system went crazy.  Back to room with him shaking, high fiver, breathing rapidly, and low saturations.  This Momma had a long nite of work ahead of her.

 

Day 3 ~ Half Moon Cay Bahamas

Avrianna waiting patiently to get off the ship to go on an excursion

 this port we couldn't get into port, so the ship anchored as close as it could get and then the island brought out "tender" boats to take people back n forth.  We had to walk across a free floating small metal "bridge" that went from ship to boat.  Totally unsafe for Danny to get off so he hung out in the room with Dad.  Seeing he had such a rough nite he slept all morning and really didn't even know we were gone.

Sitting in the tender boat touching the side of the ship..... "she touched the butt" 

 I found out that this island is owned by Carnival and Holland.  It is occupied by 32-35 residents and the number can drop down to 25 people at times.  WOW!!

 Waiting at the bar for our excursion to start

 This is cool the signs show how far away cities/places are from Half Moon Cay

 Time to GO........

 Horseback riding!!

 ON THE BEACH!!

 after we rode the beach and trails for awhile we changed into our suits and different horses

 To run in the Ocean.

Horsing Around!!!

Think she Like it?!?

 Back to the ship

 We liked to sit here and look down onto the lido deck. 

Some of the beautiful water photos.  I just LOVE looking the water..... So clear and colorful.  BUT I'm deathly afraid of the ocean, I know weird.  There are some fishies in there that could eat me.  Na I'll stay ON THE BOAT and just take on the scenery.

 Day 4 ~ Nassau Bahamas

HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY ~ Avrianna!!

As you can see it is raining in the background so unfortunately the off shore excursion to go parasailing that I had planned on taking her on was cancelled

 We did get Danny off the boat but only for a brief moment.  As it started to rain again, plus the security was crazy to actually go into Nassau.  It was bad enough every time we got back on the ship with him it was the same security as when we got on...take off all the bags on his chair to go through them and pat Danny down.  It's doable, but it takes awhile to get everything off the chair and then back on.

 She is pointing to our room.  The last opening on the right.  We were on floor 6 and there is a total of 12 floors

 So back on the ship I tried to have some fun with her seeing it was her bday and she didn't get to go parasailing.  The top floor is a mini golf course and jogging track

 Looking into Nassau from the ship

 They had this huge chess board on the lido deck.  We decided to improvise and play checkers with it.  I have to brush up on my chess and then teach her so next time we can play it the right way.

 I had this platter of desserts delivered to the room for her bday :)  YUMMY!!

 Pouting alil as her bday didn't turn out like she had hoped.  She got over it!!

 When on a ship plan on photographers EVERYWHERE!!  LOL  There is always a photo op...getting off ship, dinner, sitting by the pool, going to shows, and many different back drops you can go to for professional photos.  Of course they all come with a cost, but at least it doesn't cost anything to smile...you don't have to buy them if you don't want too.

 For dinner that nite...the wait staff sang "Happy Burfday" to Avrianna and gave her an extra piece of dessert.  Unfortunately there choice of dessert wasn't the best, cappuccino pie....but Mom really liked it :)

 When we got back from dinner we came to a room all decorated up.  Thank goodness as I was getting worried seeing I ordered this ahead of time and it wasn't done when we went to dinner.

Day 5 - At Sea

 At Camp Carnival ~ activities and games for the kids.  Avrianna made a "build a bear" but chose the Carnival mascot instead of a bear.  She said "Fred" will remind her of the cruise :)

 Looking at the 24hr Ice cream bar.  I was a good girl and opted for the frozen yogurt every time I went :)

Gotta LOVE this.  Just warms my heart!!

Sibling LOVE

 My second and last fruity drink of the cruise.... unfortunately I just didn't have the time I was hoping for to sit back and relax.  Boy was it GOOD!!

The Ship ~ Carnival Ecstasy

Well that was our Cruise!  I have to say how very lucky I am to have been able to go on this vacation with my family.  Even though it was more of a working holiday then a vacation for me I wouldn't have missed it for anything.  I have to say, that next time I might have to bring help along with so it doesn't get so overwhelming.  

Since being back Danny has been to the Dr and his xrays look good.  YAY!  All that hard work on the ship on road paid off as I really had thought that pneumonia had set in.  So for him to have clear lungs just made me feel good that I had done him right.  We did start an oral antibiotic and added another breathing treatment to help him with all the secretions and nasal congestion.  After 1 full day of being on the antibiotics I was already noticing a decrease in his secretions....woot woot!

I can't believe it's Halloween!!  Unfortunately it's raining like crazy, poor kids.  I'm not sure how much trick r treating will be done, but we'll see.  This year is the first year that I will not be trick r treating with Avrianna .... she opted to go to a friends house and go through their sub division with a group of friends.  She's growing up, sigh!  Even though it's raining we still got Danny dressed up in his costume.  

He's One in a Minion!!

Avrianna was a Minion on Monday for Boys N Girls Brigade Halloween celebration but

Decided to go trick r treating a Nerd instead.  Both outfits are very cute on her.

One "hell" of a Cruise

Cruising with children (and husband,lol)  is......well let's just say there is never a dull moment. It was a very trying vacation for me, but I survived.

Where to start?

Where else.... The beginning!  Sit back and enjoy. I will post photos later as I'm blogging on my phone. Photos are alil more difficult. If there are some spelling errors I apologize as these key pads are so darn small.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The day before we were to leave Mr Danny found himself a cold.

Surprising .... Not really.

Seeing it was just a cold and his fever broke right away we forged ahead with our vacation plans.

We left on last Friday to head FL bound for some fun in the sun on a Carnival Cruise, the ship Ecstasy, leaving from Port Canaveral.  We stopped about 10 miles down the road to fill up the gas tank. That's where Dan noticed a tire seemed alil low. So we head back home to get a gauge and check it out. Thankfully it was just his eyes playing a trick on him and we've dodged our first crisis on another Osero Vacation.

Phew!

We took our time getting there as there was no rush seeing we didn't have to embark on the ship till Monday at 12:30pm.   Danny had me up multiple times through the nites with lots of suctioning. It was then and there that I knew sleep was going to be optional for me.

We got to the port early which was so nice to not be rushed. The staff and security were amazingly nice!!  We were on the ship in no time and anxiously waiting to start cruising.  We dropped off our carry on bags in our cabin .... It was HUGE!  It was a handicap accessible grand suite with huge bathroom and our own balcony.

Sweet!!

Then it was back up on the lido to watch the ship leave port... Drinks in hand :). Unfortunaly for whatever reason there must have been an issue as we left 3.5 hrs late. No worries we went down to dinner and got a window seat so we still were able to watch. We had Open seating time this cruise instead of a scheduled time and I have to say it will be the only option for us when we cruise again. We can walk in anytime between 5:45-9pm. Again the dining staff was - AMAZING!  They were so accommodating to out needs AND they treated Danny like the King he is and Always talking too him. It warmed my heart :). Everywhere we went Avrianna was called Princess she thought that was cool. I think she just loved talking to everyone so she could hear there accents.

The first nite on the ship we are were all too tired to go to any shows so it was off too bed.  As the nite before we decided to leave the windows open because the weather was so nice out....well that wasn't the smartest thing to doin a truck stop with the air breaks from the semis driving through and our neighbors generator belt was squealing something nasty.  So it was off to bed for us.

The next day the ship ported in Freeport Bahamas. We didn't get off the ship. We just hung around the lido deck. Avrianna swam in the pool, which was salt water so it wasn't her favorite. Then it was off to the water slide for her. It was called the twister, about 3 stories high, and some of the tube even twisted off the ships side.

EEEEEEKKKK!!

After awhile she was bored with that and was frustrated not having anyone to play with that she knew, sigh. Times like these it just SUCKS that her brother can't at with her. I tried to get her play with some of the kids on the ship but for whatever reason she wouldn't open up to any kids. Ugh!  So there was some whining which in turn gets someone's blood boiling .... I had to threaten both of them to KNOCK IT OFF or I was not going to throw them off I was going to jump. Lol!!  Those 2 are SO MUCH alike it's sad....for me, lol. The apple didn't fall from the tree :). It's so much more noticeable when they are together for long periods if time.

That Nite was formal wear to dinner. We were dressed for success. We clean up nicely I do have to say:). About 2 hrs if being dressed up and Danny was not having it anymore. At the show he got all upset, spiked a fever, started breathing rapidly, and dropped his oxygen sats. Did I tell you we didn't bring the O2 on board, ugh. It took me all nite to get him settled down, but once settled he slept (with ok sats) till 1pm on Wednesday Wednesday morning we found ourselves next to alil island called Half Moon Cay. It's breath taking! I found out that the island is owned by Carnival :). The population is between 33-36 and will drop down to 25 - wow. The ship can not dock at the island so the ship gets as close as it can and then the island sends tender boats to bring people back an forth. Avrianna and I had an excursion on the island and seeing it wasn't safe to get Danny off the ship so Dan was on Danny duty. It was nice that Danny slept in for him. On the island Avrianna and I went horseback riding on the beach. It was wonderful! We rode on the beach and trails for about 2-3 miles and then we hit the ocean. Yeap - we ran....raced the horses in the water. They were pretty much submerged as just the horses neck and head were out of the water. It was fun and scary at the same time. It was hard to hold on as the horses didn't have foot stirrups and we sat on a pad that just had ranes. Not to mention it was windy do the water was very choppy. Avrianna had a blast! I don't think she would have minded if I left her there for the day to ride and chit chat withe the tour guides. They were all from Jamaica mon. So they always said "hey mon" and Avrianna got a kick out of that. Plus they too all called her Princess :). It was back to the ship to check on the guys and have a late lunch. Dan and Danny did great. I was able to get Danny into the shower for the first time while on the ship, that was alil challenging, but you know me bring it On! Seeing we had a late lunch we passed on going to dinner. Thursday - Happy 11th BIRTHDAY AVRIANNA. The ship was ported in Nassau. Infortunately our birthday excursion to go parasailing was cancelled due to rain and, winds, and rough water. So that was pretty disappointing but we tried to make the day fun anyways. Did I tell ya there was a mini golf course on the very top deck :). There was lots if sweets and of course ice cream that we ate. At dinner the wait staff sang "happy burfday" to her and gave her and extra dessert. That isn't a typo, with their accents it sounds more like burfday then birthday. It was great! I had order to have our cabin decorated up so when we got back from dinner there were banners and streamers all over. Friday was a whole day at sea. We started to get our things in order and pack a few things up. I wanted to get Danny in the shower again in the morning so we could sit Back and relax the rest of out vacation day. I even had a massage up in the spa. It was amazing! There was a mix up with the schedule and I ended up being late, with the Lack of sleep I darn near broke down if that gives an idea how hightened my frustrations with having no sleep and tending to a sick lil boy :(. Thankfully I was able to get out and have some ME time and enjoy some pampering. Saturday we were up early to be ready and out of our cabin before 8:30. We got off the ship again with empeckae service and we were on the road by 9:45am. Wow! With hoc long the lines were I thought we'd be there all day. Since being back on the road Mr Danny has had the bed sat numbers I've seen all week ... What a shit! Well at least his happy and hopefully feeling better. Avrianna is on a serious movie marathon so I haven't seen of heard much of he zoo far. I'm not sure how far we are goin to travel to tonite, but I do know we have a lot of driving to doin a short time. Wish us luck! Things don't run smoothly and there are usually bumps in the road. I get overwhelmed and frustrated too. I dont have my shit together all the time either. Looks can be deceiving. I'm human and get frustrated and overwhelmed but in the BIG picture. I am forever grateful to have spent this beatiful vacation with my family. To have both my kids along to make wonderful memories and share experiences with. I would rather dead ass tired taking care of my son then wishing he was there with us.

Youth Hunt 2013

We have a Lil Hunter !!

Day 2 of the Youth Hunt and Avrianna's hard work and patience pays off.  She had 2 deer come into the stand, but only had a good shot at this one.  I am so proud of her!!  I wasn't sure how she would do .... as shooting an animal is alot different then shooting targets.  Dan said she did fantastic!  He was so impressed with how serious and attentive she took the hunting.  She has been going up north for many weekends to get things ready for the hunt and she's been practicing diligently with her new gun, 7mm-08.  She is very comfortable with shooting it and boy is she a great shot.  10 out of 12 shots at a target were all in the bullseye area.  

YOU GO GIRL!!  

We definitely have one VERY PROUD Dad here. For years it's been an Osero tradition to deer hunt, so for Dan to have one of his children take on the hunter roll...... IT'S AWESOME!!

Unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative as it rained ALOT, but she weathered the storm :) She was very enthusiastic to get out there to sit and wait, out every morning around 6:30am.  At times she really would rather have gone back to sit in the warm comfy shack, but the anticipation of a deer possibly walking in kept her attention in the tree stand.

Sitting very patiently and quietly up in the tree stand.

 Around 7am the 2nd day.... she got her first deer.

 So exciting!!

 The first of many I'm sure.  Now she's looking for horns :)  She's already informed Dan that if...when..she gets a buck she wants it stuffed.  Oh Boy!!

She was a trooper and stuck it out with Dan as he field dressed the deer.  She really had no issues with watching Dan,  as Dan says she was very curious as to what each organ was, BUT the noises it makes when cleaning it out kind of tickled her tummy.  Baby steps, but I can bet she will be doing it all on her own eventually.  As that's just Avrianna's style :)
There were 4 different kids at the shack with their dads and Avrianna was the only kid to have harvested an animal.  Avrianna is the youngest female to harvest a deer at The Newwood ~ Hunting "shack".  So Proud!!

Surgery

Wow - we made it and today is over with. I woke this AM still not knowing when surgery was going to take place today. How stressful for Ms planner, ME. Danny was up at 2 am today, so I didn't get the greatest nite sleep.

Once I got Avrianna off to school it was GO TIME. I didn't have a nurse today.... I thought I did pretty good to get myself and Danny (cares,RT,and a shower) ready and out the door but 9:30. Around 8am CHOW finally called and they thought Danny would go into the OR somewhere between 12-2 so they wanted us there by 11:30.  The traffic was in our favor today and everything was running smoothly.

 We ran into Ms Lisa in the day surgery holding area, she was Danny's primary nurse during the crash of '09 and we just love her :). We were also excited to see a good friend, Andrew - whom I've come to know through being here a ton, was with Danny in the OR room. Andrew is now an anesthesia tech here at CHOW and he was Danny's Lil (really not so lil) guardian angel in the OR. I have to say it rested some of my nerves knowing he was in the room with Danny. Familiar faces make a BIG DIFFERENCE.

They took Danny down to the OR about 1:35 and Ortho, Dr Tassone was first. He was done within an hour, awesome.  Dr Tassone came out to talk with me and he said Danny was a champ. The femur bone spur showed itself pretty easily, he was able to cut the spur off, sand it down, and he covered it in wax in hopes to stop it from growing like this again.  Danny is still growing and so will his bones which means we might have to do this again. Ugh!!  Seeing Danny is already in full blown puberty with high hormone levels the hope is maybe he will stop growing soon on his own.

Then it was ENT, Dr Martin's turn. He performed a Bronc to check out his trachea seeing we've had to up the water volumes in the trache cuff to keep the vent from leaking. In addition to the freak bleeding issue Danny had last week, I think we all wanted to know what is going on down there. After the bronc Dr Martin came out to chat with me. He commented on how easy but difficult Danny can be. Not only did he do the bronc he looked into both of Danny's ears and they both looked good, YAY!  During the bronc he did find some issues......first issue was that his airway kept collapsing which is something new and we are not sure why. Second is there is a large mass (granualnomia) growing under the trache in his trachea. This could have been the culprit to the bleeding last week. Unfortunately it isn't an easy fix, it's pretty extreme - UGH!  The dr stated for now we will just watch it and it could be possibly helping Danny at the moment with the airway collapsing. If he continues to bleed we will have to fix it, if we have to up size his trache we will have to fix it. To fix it, it's just not a matter of going in and snipping off the tissue, NOPE why would it be that easy, NO this fix will require reconstruction of Danny's trachea. Well why not, go BIG or go home ....true Danny style.  For now we wait!  Wait for the new ticking time bomb to go off. Does there  ALWAYS have to be something?  

 Danny was brought up to ICU room 412 to be observed for a day or two. He has been sleeping since they brought him up which means he's comfortable, yay. Hopefully he continues to do great and we can go home soon. He already had Mr Jiggles, only 3 hrs after surgery, and it didn't bother or wake him up :)

Of course I have pictures, but on this network it will not let me post them on the blog. So I will post them once I get home.

 We are 2 doors down from Danny's buddy Thomas so it's nice to have someone to chat with. I hope Thomas gets to bust out of here soon as they have been here, this time around, 28 days so far.

Shutdown n Chaos

As Dan has put it......."There is something in DC we are not suppose to see".  Due to the government shutdown there are many of the sites we were planning on seeing that are now closed.  What is the point in going if we can not see what DC all has to offer.

Sigh!!

It's Crunch time and I'm going to start to plan for a different vacation. I had really thought that 3 times was going to be a charm.  This is the 3rd time I have had to cancel this trip.  Avrianna was really looking forward to going to DC and New York.  I have to say I was pretty excited about going also, who wouldn't want to see The White House, the museums, monuments, 9/11 memorial, Statue Of Liberty and all the other fun things to do.   I had thought about holding out alil longer to see if the government was going to open before we were scheduled to go, but with all the crazy things going on in DC....I don't think I want to take any chances.  Yesterday a woman drives through a gate with her baby in the car at the capital and was shot at....today I see a man set himself on fire at the National Mall.

What is our world coming too?!?

I have been looking into going on a cruise.  I know Avrianna would LOVE it and how awesome would it be to celebrate you bday on a ship. I personally love cruises, the food, the entertainment, the travel, the views, and the relaxation....but I'm alil apprehensive with all the issues lately with cruises.  I'm not so much worried about me, but it's Danny.  We've gone on cruises before, but none since being trache/vent dependent.  When we are dependent on electricity it's alil unnerving to know that we could potentially be surrounded by water and be royally screwed.  I have to look at everything in a different way and make sure that things run smoothly.  There is NO OPTION of NOT having electricity we can NOT wing it.  I'm hoping to have an idea of what we are going to do by the beginning of next week.

Yesterday Mr Danny decided to throw up curve ball....and started bleeding out of and around his trache in addition to out his gtube.  I've never seen him do this before.  Alarming as it was seeing blood coming out of areas that should not, I didn't feel he was in any "danger" as his sats and vitals were all looking good.  I did send an email down to CHOW letting his Dr's know as I didn't want them to have any surprises on Tuesday for his leg surgery.  Well that blew up in my face and they instructed me to head to the ER asap.  I kind of dragged my feet about it as the bleeding wasn't getting any worse and everything still looked good vitals wise, then I got a phone call (well multiple calls) asking why I wasn't at the hospital yet.  I was trying to blow them off, but after the 4th call in 15 minutes.... I caved.  Off to the local ER we went

Gtube blood residual

 Suction catheter full of blood

We were there about 3 hours.  They were busy and we had to wait for a room.  We were lucky and got a Nurse and Dr that was familiar with us already.  It was, for an ER visit, very nice.  They did a chest Xray and everything looked good there.  They also ran some blood work....all came back pretty normal :)  The only one that was elevated was his PTT (clotting factor) but not by much.  I've seen it much higher.  After the ER Dr talked with the powers that be in CHOW we were released to go HOME :)  Obviously if he was to start bleeding more we were to go back, but I was VERY HAPPY to be going home.  

Well not straight home.......

I was able to make it, just in time, to Avrianna's school conferences.  She is doing fantastic!  I'm so proud of her.  Her teacher is very impressed with her attitude, leadership, and academic level.  6th grade is doing great for her.  I hope the rest of the year continues as it's started.

This morning Avrianna and Dan went up to the "shack" to Avrianna's first Youth Hunt.  I can't wait to hear how things went.  Unfortunately the weather isn't suppose to be very cooperative for them which is alil disappointing, but I know they will have fun regardless and I know they will be making some wonderful memories.  They both have been very diligent on preparing for this weekend and BOTH are VERY excited.  There is a trail camera looking over their area and it's definitely having some "action" with deer and even a bear decided to come in and check it out.  The Bear even found the camera and wanted to take it away with him, EEEKK!!  Wishing Avrianna all the hunting mogo!!  I will post pics of her hunt, prayers she gets one :)

Danny has chilled out with the bleeding today and has been relaxing in his net swing.  It's a cold and wet weekend here also, so I for see it to be a movie kinda weekend :)

 Danny wishes all a wonderful weekend!!