Recovery Update

Well, it's been 5 weeks since surgery and well...I'm still not back to normal or totally 100% yet...but I'm feeling not too shabby. Recovery has been taking a little longer than I would have liked...but it's going and I'm feeling stronger every day. It's just been hard though to see that the strong now is like being able to wake up, get my own breakfast, shower and get ready, before I have to lay down again for a little bit. I mean, strong before was doing like a 12 hour day of work, freelance, working out, running errands, etc, etc, etc.
Needless to say, maybe I HAD to have this so I could actually take a break, eh? ;o)
Either way, I'm getting mindlessly bored at home just "resting" but doing the best I can to actually rest so I can get better. And my two weeks of doctor ordered bed rest is up, so I guess I'll be heading back to work this week too...though there is no way I'll be able to do a full 8 hour day yet. Can't seem to stay awake and functional for more than 6 hours at a time right now.
But again, thank you for all your prayers and love and support. It is all so very much appreciated. Oh, and I finally actually got a picture of me at the hospital from my parents...and well, I'm happy to say I didn't look as bad as I had thought I did. :o) All I can say though is thank goodness I'm not like that anymore. ;o)
I'm sporting all the I love NY stuff sent from my little bro on his mission in NY, NY. Wow, and you can actually just barely see that tube in my nose that ran down to my stomach...which felt sooooo much larger to me since it was the bane of my existence while I was at the hospital.
But yeah...I didn't look thaaaat bad, did I? ;o)

Our Crazy July--PART TWO

To summarize, I'm still recovering from this second part of July.
So, to start off with, I drove back from Calgary to Utah with my parents on Friday the 13th of July. The trip was fine and we got back in town in good time and I was ready to party with my family who were all going to be in town the next evening for a mini family reunion with my immediate family.

Saturday July 14th: I woke up with a terrible pain in my abdomen around my belly button area and was throwing up and sick all day. By that afternoon, I was in REEEEALY bad shape, so Jack and I decided to call a doctor to see what we should do. After talking to our doctor, he suggested we go to the emergency room and have them check for appendicitis. We got to the ER and they ran some tests, but none specifically for appendicitis....shot me up with morphine...gave me a prescription painkiller....and sent me home.

Sunday July 15th: The whole day I was in pain and pretty much wishing I was dead because I hurt so much.

Monday July 16th: Had my yearly appointment and as soon as my OBGYN saw me, he got on the phone with a surgeon to have me get into surgery to get my appendix taken out. We checked into the hospital around noon and went into surgery at about 6 p.m. that night. When the surgeons went in, they found that my appendix had already ruptured and it had already been ruptured for at least two days. This complicated matters, extending the surgery, as well as recovery since basically my entire digestive system had been "ravaged with infection" (as the doctor put it) for the past two days. I came out of surgery ok but was hooked up to a lot of tubes and machines.

Tuesday July 16th--about the 21st: No food at all and am fed fully through IV. I've got a tube running from my nose that goes down the back of my throat all the way to my stomach to pump out my stomach and trying to get my bowels to wake up after intense surgery. I got the nose tube out towards the end of the week, but then started digressing. My stomach started bloating out because of infection still apparent and they actually had to put the tube back in.

Wednesday/Thursday July 26th or 27th: I have to apologize...a lot of the days in the hospital are kind of a blur to me...so my timing and days may be wrong for some of these events. Anyhow, I went in for an MRI and it showed I had some blockage in my intestine. Not a good thing. So, at this point, I had been put on a liquid diet and was actually eating some things...but after the MRI verdict, I was off all food again and just back to ice chips.

The rest of the week pretty much went by about the same. I had some food...then not, and then some liquids again. At this point, the doctor was worried about some higher then normal levels of enzymes in my pancreas, which could be a sign of pancreatitis. So, though they did release me finally on Monday, July 30th...my 14th day in the hospital, I am now recovering at home with a strict low fat liquid diet to try and avoid harm to my pancreas and just trying to recover from major surgery.

Ok, I think that's all the high points for the last week of July for us. Jack has been amazing through all of this as has all my family and his. During those dark times in the hospital, I have truly felt all of your prayers in my behalf and I am so very grateful for each and everyone of you who has shown me and Jack sooooo much service and love. Words cannot express the gratitude we feel towards each and every one of you. Thank you so very, very much for all you have done and are continuing to do for us. Everything has made such a difference for us. We will continue to keep everyone posted as to the recovery process, but in the meantime, I'm still out of commission for the next 10 days on doctor's orders.
But I am happy to say that I am feeling lots better...though not anything close to normal yet. My abdomen still has a lot of pain and I get pretty winded getting up and down and doing much of anything. But I can feel my body healing and I know things will be fine soon.
Again, thank you for everything you have all done for us.

Our Crazy July--PART ONE

Well, I know many of you have already heard about our crazy month, but I thought I'd just post anyhow and get out the info.
This part one episode is going to be first though and talk about our early July events which were a lot of fun. First, we had a great time celebrating the 4th of July with Jack's family down in Kaysville. We had a TON of really, really good food and enjoyed a lot of time outside in the beautiful weather playing with water guns and slip and slides and spending time with the fam.
The weekend after the 4th, Jack and I were able to fly home to Calgary to visit with my parents and enjoy some great Alberta sites. We started off in Downtown Calgary in one of my favorite spots called Prince's Island Park. It's super cool because it's a little island with lots of grass and playground space and cool art pieces and etc. right in the middle of downtown.

And of course, since it's Stampede week, I thought I'd show my true homegirl spirit and sport the cowboy hat too. :o) Next, we introduced Jack to the true Calgary spirit by attending the ever famous free pancake breakfasts that go on EVERY DAY of the Stampede. How cool is that, seriously? During the whole 10 days of the Calgary Stampede, you can get a free pancake breakfast somewhere in the city. Can you see how happy Jack was that I convinced him to wear a cowboy hat? ;o)
After that, we checked out Banff National Park and had some great fun looking at some really beautiful gardens and just awesome amazing scenery in the Rocky Mountains. We did the whole tourist-y thing and even walked through the famous Banff Springs Hotel and asked them how much it was for a night...yeah...a whopping $300--$1000 a night!! A little too steep for us. So, we just settled for walking around it and taking some pictures. The Bow Falls was our last stop in Banff and it was a great ending of a wonderful day with my parents in Banff.



And last but not least, we had to check out the Calgary Stampede while we were at home. Jack and I enjoyed a day of rides, shows--X-bikers, Superdogs, Good Charlotte, and just walking around enjoying the sites at the Stampede. We thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic mini donuts and other carnival foods and seeing all there was to see.
All in all, the first couple weeks of July was great fun and a good vacation for both of us. We enjoyed seeing sites and spending time with loved one. Part two will cover the second half of July.