Such a strange December

I have so much to be thankful for but at this point I am thankful that December is over! (This is long - so I am apologizing ahead of time).

On December 3, I started my day off like any other. I went to work and everything was fine. By 10:00 that morning I was in such terrible pain that I couldn't move. I called my husband and he picked me up and took me to the emergency room. After six hours there, morphine, a CT scan, and drinking some really nasty stuff they said my gall bladder had some irregularities but needed further testing. I was put off work for two days and sent home.

The next day a nurse called to schedule an ultrasound on December 5.

So, December 5 I made another trip to the hospital for an ultrasound. The drive was longer than the actual test itself. The results came back that I had gall stones. They made an appointment with a surgeon who said "It's not an matter of what are you options, but when." So, time to have the gall bladder removed.

Surgery was scheduled for December 23 (This worked well for my work schedule and being off for two weeks).

Well, I woke up to the same unbareable pain on December 15. I called and they moved the surgery up to December 18. I did not want to continue to have this pain.

December 18 - Surgery day. Everything goes fine - except it takes me 4 hours recovery and 4 days before I am moving around again. I don't do anything like a normal person.

I see the doctor on the 23rd and everything looks fine. Just a little tenderness from the surgery.

Christmas was wonderful and we had a great time with the family.

December 26 we are sitting around playing the Wii and all the sudden I started having the SAME pains that I had before the surgery!!! This time is was so much more intense. I had to run to the bathroom and vomit. I called the doctor who said we should go to the ER.

After another 6 hours in the ER, X-rays, more drinking nasty liquid stuff, more morphine and even more pain they admitted me to the hospital. The first suspected pancreatitis and then they suspected a leak in the tube that leads from the liver to the common bile duct so they wanted to do additional tests.

I spent Saturday waiting for a test that didn't happen until 6:30 p.m. I had lots of morphine, lots of fluids, no food except for jello and broth. Finally, that test was ran and came back negative.

I spent Sunday wondering if they were going to run a CT scan, puking with a migraine. Lots more morphine and not knowing what was happening next.

Monday, my liver enzymes continued to go up and I went to my next test. It was an MRCP to determine if there was a gall stone stuck in the common bile duct tube. This test came back negative. In the meantime, I had three attacks of pain on Sunday and two on Monday.

Tuesday the doctor decided that there was another test they can do, run a scope down my throat to see if I have an ulcer (which he didn't think I did) and if that was negative they can run what is called an ERCP that runs a tube into the common bile duct tube to see if a gall stone is hidden. Sometimes that happens and the MRCP doesn't always pick it up. The doctor that performs that was on vacation until Next Monday!!! So, he transported me to Indianapolis.

I got a nice little ambulance ride to St. Vincents and another drug induced nap to have the scope run down my throat to look for a stone. When I woke up, I was told they found it!!!!

The culprit

I was released from the hospital on New Years Eve and have been home for 2 days. I am tired and sore and am not sure that they problem is solved. I am just a little leary and a little scared.

It has been a LONG December and I am glad it is over. I am very thankful for all the nurses and doctors that took such good care of me during this difficult time. I am very thankful for my husband who has sat by my side waiting and waiting. I love him so very much!

Here is to a New Year! Let's hope and pray that it starts much better than it ended!!!

Merry Christmas to Me!

I just returned from the doctor and received a clean bill of health! Merry Christmas to Me!

I made it home safe and sound on the ice covered roads. Merry Christmas to Me!

I just checked my grades for this semester and I received straight A's! Merry Christmas to Me!

I have the most wonderful, awesome, terrific, fantastic family! Merry Christmas to Me!

So much to be thankful for! Merry Christmas to You!

Slowly but surely...I think

Day four after surgery and man, I still hurt like crap. This is supposed to be minor, just a small procedure done as an outpatient. I have so much sympathy for those that have to be opened all the way.

Yesterday, I spent a little time moving around the house. I was maybe up for a total of an hour and a half to two hours. I was pretty worn out by the end of the day. Today, I moved around quite a bit more, went into town with my husband and I feel like I have been hit in the stomach by a sledge-hammer. Holy cow!

Tomorrow, I go to the doctor for my follow-up appointment.

I can tell you this, I am sure glad they moved the surgery up instead of two days before Christmas. I would have never made it on Christmas morning!!

Speaking of Christmas...it is a bit bittersweet this year. We are missing my father-in-law terribly. The money situation doesn't help with anything. This will probably be the smallest Christmas our boys have ever had.

But, with the grief and slow economy, we have so much to be thankful for. We have a warm home. We have our family, which we love dearly. We have food in our cabinets (most days - lol). Best of all, we have our Lord and Saviour.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's to a bright and wonderful new year! May each of you be blessed with love, health and happiness!

Somebody isn't a mother

I came across this from another blog tonight and wanted to share..

SOMEBODY ISN'T A MOTHER (Author Unknown)

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby … somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, “normal” is history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct, somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring … somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.

Somebody said if you’re a “good” mother, your child will “turn out good”…
somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said “good” mothers never raise their voices …somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor’s kitchen window.

Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother…somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can’t love the second child as much as you love the first… somebody doesn’t have two children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books…somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery….somebody never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or on a plane headed for military “boot camp.”

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back….somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married…somebody doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a
mother’s heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home…somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her…

Somebody isn’t a mother.

Surgery Update

Okay, I had surgery on Thursday to remove my gall bladder. Today is Saturday and I feel like I was hit by a mack truck. Between the gas they can't remove after the surgery and just the pain of having an organ removed, it's pretty awful.

My husband has to actually help me get in and out of the chair that has become my home since Thursday. You know, you don't realize how much you use your stomach muscles until they have been cut into.

Here is hoping tomorrow is a little better than today or yesterday. And that the surgery actually took care of the problem. I won't know that for a while, when I actually begin to eat again.

The things kids say

So, last week I found myself in the emergency room with extreme abdominal pain. I actually would have rather been giving birth than the pain I was in. After lots of medication and lots of tests I found out that I have gall stones and am probably going to have to have surgery. I meet with a doctor on Friday to discuss the next steps.

As I was talking to my boys about this and told my youngest (who is 10) that the doctors are probably going to take my gall bladder out, he says to me...."You mean they are going to do a transplant????" Uhhmmmm, not exactly - lol.

Still Waiting

I am now living by one of my favorite songs..."If you're going through hell". The song seems to fit my life recently.

I know things will get better but there are days when I stop and ask WHEN. Between Glen struggling to find work (the bills are still coming in), the kids and their grades, my school work, my sister and her struggles, my father-in-law passing away, and now a mystery illness for me. I keep saying my shoulders are only so big.

Each day without my father-in-law is a struggle. Because he was in our "backyard" we miss him terribly. There isn't a moment that passes that we don't talk about him or think about him. The other day, Glen dropped something off to me at work and I instantly looked in the passenger seat for Neal...he was always there. Today, we sold his Blazer. He hated that thing, but it is still another thing we have to let go of. We have been cleaning out his home and the emptier it gets, the harder it gets. It seems so final.

Any extra prayers are appreciated for our family. I know soon things will begin to look up. I am still waiting.