BEIJING!!! #5

Hey Everyone,

So I'm sure most of you have seen the results by now. I'm sorry I tried to email yesterday, but the internet here was acting up. Gil placed 9th by 1/100 with a 1:55.36. It was a bit of a tough blow, BUT he's an Olympian. NOTHING beats watching him walk out onto the deck as one of the best in the world. I am glad to say that he is in good spirits. He may be a little more disappointed than he's showing, but that just goes to show how strong of a person he is. The first words out of his mouth when I saw him were "I made it here". In the taxi on the way to eat with Gil we were talking about the race....about what an accomplishment it is to be here.He said it's like that joke "What do you call a Medical school graduate with the lowest GPA? A doctor." Point being....he's an Olympian no matter his place or time. I'm so glad he has that perspective. Although, I confess a few tears streamed down my face at the end of his race. I wanted it for him. I look back four years ago at this time and Gil was 9th at Olympic Trials....now he is 9th at the Olympics with the fourth fastest time in the world. WOW...incredible! It's all about the process.

After talking to him it sounds like he may have been a little over tapered. He may have lost some conditioning because of that. The good thing is he knows for next time. I just keep thinking....maybe it's meant to be Gil AND Brooks in London, both winning medals together for the first time!!! Who knows what's in store.

We're all so proud of him! Thanks for all your prayers and support. This has been such an incredible experience.

Gil will be coming home to Memphis at some point soon. I say we all give him a HUGE welcome home!!

See ya soon
Dottie

Bummer in Beijing

Well, thank you for rooting, praying, sending fish thoughts Gil's way.
His amazing Olympic experience has come to an abrupt end placing 9th
in the Men's 200 fly when he needed to place at least 8th to compete
for a medal.

But that's ok! We love him no less and look forward to his
achievements in the next four years!! We'll see u on the highest
podium in 4 yrs Gil!!!!!!!!! We love u!!!!!!!!!!

~ Kerri

BEIJING!!!! #3

Alright, I'm going to make this one short and sweet. I'm exhausted and ready to go to bed. Gil did great! Swam a 1:55.4. He is seated 8th going into semis. He didn't quite look like himself behind the blocks today. Maybe it was nerves or just this whole new experience of the Olympics!! Hopefully he got the jitters out. He looked awesome though. I can't even begin to describe my feelings as he walked out to swim the fly. My chest swelled with pride!! I didn't expect to feel as nervous as I did for prelims. I think I was more anxious just to see him rather than see him swim!! Anyways, I could go on and on about the Olympic Green. A thousand words couldn't do it justice nor the pictures either. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....as much as they possibly can. It is above and beyond!! Alright, so good solid start for his journey to the podium!! Everybody say some prayers tonight. Here's to Gil's first Olympic race.....it's just the beginning!! Talk again soon!Dottie

Beijing!!!! #2

Hello Again.... So, it's t-4 hours until Gil swims and I'm getting a little nervous. All the shopping and sight seeing has kept my mind off of things (which is good). But now I'm starting to really feel it. Phelps has 2 of 8 golds so far. He is on fire! Let's hope Gil plays off of all the excitement! He's going to go faster....I just know it! I am at Hometown Hopefuls again and who comes to sit at my table?? Jenny Thompson! Wow, that was surreal. It took me a minute to recognize her. She is from New England so not as friendly as we Southerners, but she warmed up after a while. I think she was worried we might be crazy fans or something because she was wearing her sunglasses during half the meal. haha. We had a good conversation with her and some of her friends. I should have gotten a picture with her, but i didn't want to bother her while she was eating. I think I'll get a chance to see her again....and I'm sure others. No worries, I'll get some good pics! Oh and I have also sat and talked to Brendan Hanson's family. Great people!! So friendly and really funny too :) Ok so today we shopped til we dropped. I mean literally too! The markets here are endless. This city is sooooo big. I've never seen so many large buildings. Beijing alone has 16 million people in it! That is way more than the whole state of Arkansas. The architecture here is amazing. I've heard that this Olympics has the best venues of anywhere. I believe it! We haven't made it over to the Olympic Green yet, but we will tonight for prelims. I can't wait. I'll have to write again to tell you about that. Oh and Gil will swim prelims at 5:30 AM not pm. Sorry i accidently typed the wrong thing. We are 13 hours ahead. You will most likely be sleeping when he swims, but I will email you the results as soon as I can. Alright, I need to go for now, but I will write again soon! Thanks for those of you who wrote back. I will stay in touch! Dottie

BEIJING!!! #1

Hello Everyone!!

I thought I would try and email as much as I could to share what I've been doing in China!! I'll try to keep in touch, but my internet access is limited!

Ok so first....the flight here....stinking loooooong is all I have to say! And even longer because Mom wanted to tell EVERY single person on the way here about Gil. But who can blame her right?? So I met a guy on the plane who swam at Michigan. I quickly learned he was a Tarwater fan. Though he was polite, sadly I could feel some tension there. He didn't come right out and say it, but I think in his mind it was a fluke. His words were "Crazy things happen". I know this may sound imature,but the only thing going through my head was "L-O-S-E-R".

Anyways, so I got here late Saturday night. This is the busiest place I've ever been. Bikes everyone, taxis everyone, people everywhere!! It's been an adventure trying to talk with the people here(we've already gotten into a fight with a taxi driver). They try to rip you off so bad! We rode a taxi to the The Great Wall today. I can't wait to show you all the pictures. It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Although, with the smog and pollution it's hard to get a clear pic. It really is as bad as they say here. While on the way to the cable car to ride to the site we were going to....I stopped to ride a camel!! Ok that was an experience. That is by far the oddest animal. The humps just don't seem real for some reason.

So I have to tell you that we were in a cable car with 3 girls from Germany. They could speak a little English. John told them about Gil and then all the sudden they were just as friendly as can be. Not only that, but they wanted a pic with me. How crazy?? That was pretty entertaining. It's so amazing going to the Great Wall because you see so many different cultures there. People from all over the world come to see it!! I loved hearing all the different languages and accents.

I had fun heckling with the towns people over souveneirs. They are relentless!!!! But I did manage to get some neat stuff for cheap. That's ALWAYS fun!

Ok so now I am writing to you from the Hometown Hopefuls spot sponsored by Bank of America. Free food, drinks, internet use, etc etc, from 11:00am-11:00pm. It's amazing! My mother's fiance has already met Natalie Coughlins parents and shook George Bush Sr.'s hand. Mom and I met some water polo parents tonight. They have really set everyone up nice. There is definitely an incredible feel to all of this. The whole Olympics thing is really starting to set in now. I'm pumped!!

Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who helped me get here!! Already I can say I have had an unforgettable experience....after just one day.

I talked to Gil today....he sounds ready to go! I can't wait. Prelims for the 2 fly start August 11 at 6:30pm. So, I think that will be August 10 at 5:30pm your time. I don't know if you'll get to see him, but keep your eyes open. I will try to write again tomorrow. Until then, Go USA!!!! and GO GIL!!!

Dottie

YAY LeBonheur!!

So, for those of you who might be wondering, I did not get to see the celebrity who was recently at the hospital where I am working. I did come close - twice. But never did. I did meet the guy in the room next to him though! Anyway!

My OT supervisor was out of town on Thurs and Fri so Thurs I spent in acute care and got to do lots of treatments by myself! Thurs afternoon, I treated outpts by myself!

Then, on Friday, I got to follow another OT Heather who does PRN at THE MED and LeBonheur. So, I got to go to LeBonheur!!! It was incredible! I freaking love LeBonheur. You can really tell a difference between LeBonheur and THE MED - lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Bottom line: THE MED is poor (for whatever reason - either b/c they don't know how to advertise that they need money or b/c no one wants to give them money.) and LeBonheur is rrrrrrrriiiiiiiicccccchhhhhhh. My friend Karen volunteers there as a special care volunteer (she rocks babies!!) so I'm thinking about looking into that with her. THE MED doesn't allow that for some reason...

I really enjoyed LeBonheur and really enjoyed getting to know Heather better. She's awesome. and she has a blog! (I'll ask for permission to post her blog soon).

Really, I need to figure out what I want to do when I get out of school - general rehab, inpt, outpt, acute, peds, nicu, augh!! the choices!! then there's deciding full time, part time, contract, prn!!!! grrrr! any suggestions/recommendations?!?!

well, on Monday, it's back to the NICU!!! Itty bitty babies yay!

We've had a great wknd so far - my mom's fam came over last nite for dinner - aunt/uncle, their 4 y/o granddaughter, another uncle (whose wife couldn't make it), my mom/dad, and sister (the older one). B & I made lasagna from scratch...it was fun but we'll probably never do it again! We had a fun time & my sister ended up staying the nite...it was nice to catch up. We've done abs nothing today (well, B mowed the grass this morning & I cleaned the kitchen & swept the house) except watch the Olympics & NOVA (Newtonian physics yay). We did make a run to Lowe's for a couple of things. B has a softball game tonite at 9. Tonite's his last game unless the choose to do a tournament.

Also, we have a stray cat...he's beautiful & has a collar but no identifying information on him. I'm going to make a post on craig's list & make some signs. I'll also post some pics on my blog if anyone can spread the word.

I'm out.

xoxo
Kerri

a wknd of nastalgia

b & i had a great wknd (i know-it's not over yet!). we ended up going out to eat at a local mexican restaurant on friday nite with karen, brooke, and todd. brooke is a classmate who is doing a rotation in chattanooga right now (todd's her boyf). it was great to catch up & hang out!

after dinner, karen came over for a short while & entertained us with her creative song writing/guitar playing (which is just lovely :P). karen left to hang out with brooke at a local bookstore where brooke worked the release party for the newest book in the twilight series. if i ever finish pillars of the earth, twilight series is next on my list!

saturday, b & i woke up & had our traditional saturday morning pancakes. then, we borrowed the spiegel's electric lawn mower (THANK YOU E&M!). B mowed grass while i worked in the flower beds - weeding, watering, being amazed at the size of my roma tomato plant & my okra plant!, and weedeating (which was a blast - i have the wounds to prove it!). it was sooooooo hot (like 101*F!!), so b had the great idea to get out our sprinkler to play in!! we had sooooooo much fun! i felt like 10 years old! it was great!

then we played super nintendo all nite (mario brothers 3&2!). talk about nastalgic. i could just about smell the cinnamon rolls my mom would make every saturday morn while my sisters and i played nintendo!

today, b worked on our 3 panel screen which turned out (so far) beautifully!! he really is great at woodworking! he worked on that while i went to dottie's shower thrown by some of john mark's mom's friends. it was a great shower - dottie got TONS of great stuff! it was somewhat awkward though b/c dottie hardly knew anyone there since they were all jm's side. but there were a few ppl there we both knew. anyway - great turnout - lots of fun stuff! i can't wait to see dottie as a wife!! only a few weeks left until her big day!

now b & i are about to watch a movie and play gin rummy! it's been a great whirlwind wknd...and now b has to leave for nashvegas in the morning for the wk :(. so anyway - we're going to get back to spending time together.

xoxo

interesting nicu stuff

so i went to nicu/special care today for my first official day of the next 7 weeks there! i was able to treat, eval, and do notes in the computer! we saw all sorts of babies! some interesting things:
- a baby with a genetic disorder where neither one of his radii form (one of two forearm bones). this made his precious little arms and hands fold to look like wings! his dad and grandad have a similar malformation.
- premies & really most newborns are easily overstimulated. some of the ways they react to overstimulation include crying (duh), putting their hand to their face as if to say "i'm done!," flailing arms & legs, and the most interesting tidbit of the day: hiccuping. Yes-hiccuping is a sign of overstimulation (at least in babies). i wonder if this holds true for adults as well.
- and this heartbreaker: the realization that some of these babies are born, and left at the hospital in the nicu b/c momma just can't handle it or is too overwhelmed or never wanted baby in the first place - much less one with special needs. how terrible is that?
- a miracle baby who's mom had 3 previous pregnancies all of which were stillborn or spontaneously aborted. most of the issues are secondary to the mom having difficulty keeping fluid in her uterus (i can't remember the medical term for this-i should look it up!). the baby grew in limited fluid from 17 wks on & was born at like 27 wks. she's awesome!
- a baby who's been in the hospital for her whole 3 month life with liver issues. her tummy was extremely distended from her enlarged liver. but man she was a cute kid.
- a yummy donut (every friday for nicu!!!)

in closing, my new supervisor is great and i'm looking forward to learning a lot! i plan to contact my family friend who is a nicu ot in chicago to get some more inside info to perhaps help me do the best possible treatments for these precious babies!!!!!! any one know any good nicu / ot resources? i plan to read the chapter on nicu in case-smith this week. any other ideas?

xoxo

ps - happy birthday granny margie! (today is brent's grandmother's b'day!)