I am Back!!!

Sorry everyone! I have been gone awhile.....work was kicking my butt, and then I ended up in the hospital for 10 days this month! The only time I've been in the hospital was when I was having my children so this was quite an experience! On the 18th, I woke up in the middle of the night with pain that reminded me of labor. Only it was high on my abdomen just under my chest. It was a constant pain that just wouldn't go away. I got out of bed and tried to go to the bathroom but I was doubled over and crying! I woke up my husband and described the pain and of course his response was, "did you fart?......did you try and poop?......did you drink milk?...." LOL. Those are all things that he tries when he gets woken up in the middle of the night. I explained to him it wasn't gas pains or a stomach ache.....this was pain, like real pain! So he took me to the ER. We were in the middle of a nasty snow storm and driving was slow and I thought I was going to die! It took much longer than normal to get there. But when I arrived they were able to get me right in, which was wonderful. They asked me a ton of questions and then took lots of blood from me and started an IV. I had told them that I had taken 3 advil at dinnertime so one of their concerns was that I might have taken too much. So they mixed this nasty concoction up that I had to drink like a shot of tequila! It was part, anti-gas medicine, some numbing medicine, and something else...I can't remember. They told me that if it were the advil that this drink would alleviate my pain. Well wouldn't you know it didn't help and I had to drink that stuff for nothing! LOL YUCK! They then considered my gall bladder because of where my pain was. They gave me not one, not two, but three doses of morphine and it didn't help. They then gave me Demerol which made the pain tolerable. They told me I could wait for 2 hours in the ER to have an ultrasound (when I tech came in) or I could go home and follow up with my doctor. Which is what I did. It was about 6 am and I went home and saw my doctor that day, which was now the 19th. He was almost positive it was my gall bladder and he made an appointment for an ultrasound for Thursday at 1 pm. I couldn't drink or eat anything after midnight on Wednesday, which meant I couldn't take anything for pain after that. He told me that if the pain became too severe, and I couldn't wait until 1 pm for the test, to go back to the ER and they could do it right away. Well, the pain was so bad I couldn't take it and at about 8:30 on Thursday morning, I went back to the ER. They again got me in right away and they gave me lots of morphine and Demerol again before sending me to the ultrasound. The test took 45 minutes because they wanted to see my entire abdomen. They found several gall stones. I could see them on the monitor. I went back to the ER area and was told that my gall bladder had to come out. My husband and I were freaking out because neither of us had ever had surgery and we didn't know how serious this was. So they admitted me to a room and I talked to the surgeon. He told me that their procedure is to give patients heavy duty antibiotics to try to "calm down" the gall bladder, reduce the inflammation, and treat the infection. He said that normally 24 hours of the IV antibiotics does the trick. So I got lots of pain meds and antibiotics and the next morning, they took more blood tests. My white blood count rose from the day before and some of my other "numbers" were elevated as well, so they couldn't send me home. I stayed until Monday on heavy duty antibiotics trying to get my gall bladder and the infection under the control and all the while, my white blood cell count went higher and higher. Originally, my surgery was going to be on the 27th, but on the 24th, after the failed attempts at calming down my system, the doctor told me they had to get my gall bladder out. So on Monday the 24th, at 6 pm, I had surgery. He told me he would try to take it the "easy way" which is laproscopically, which requires a few tiny incisions. One of which is at the belly button where they put a camera in. They discovered that my gall bladder was "too diseased" to come out the easy way, and they had to "open me up." So 2 and a half hours later, 10 inches and 27 staples, my gall bladder was out! He said it was full of stones; too many to count! He suspected it had been brewing for 5-6 years! I had never had a problem until the 18th when I went to bed. I couldn't believe it! I was finally discharged on Friday the 28th. Today I was able to come down to my craft room and get online. It's going to be a slow recovery! One good thing that has come out of this so far is that I have lost 15 pounds! LOL. This is going to be a kick in the butt to take better care of myself and stop eating so much fatty foods! So I am back to eating my Nutri System food that I gave up eating a couple of months ago. I have to eat a low fat diet for the next two weeks so this is perfect. I also can't work for 3 weeks and can't lift anything heavier than 5 pounds for 4 weeks! Hopefully I can get myself back into shape and healthy again. My husband has been wonderful and has been doing EVERYTHING around the house............cleaning, cooking, taking care of the kids, and he's off from work all this week to take care of me. The kids were so happy to have mom home!

I tell you what, I never want to have surgery again and I hope I never have pain like that again! It's nothing like I've ever felt but very close to labor pain!

I do have lots of pictures to post when I have a chance. I made a lot of cards and a couple of projects before I got sick and didn't have time to post them because I was working so much but I will do that this week.

I hope you are doing well and thank you for your prayers and well wishes (those who knew about this already). I will post more later.........have a wonderful night!