Wonderful Weather

So this will be the hardest part of recovery. Now that I am feeling better, having to rest-sit around-not do anything.....that sucks!!

It has been 2 days since I took medicine-which has been great. I did take advantage of this wonderful weather by walking 3 miles on the Monon yesterday and today both. I took my dog Amber with me both days, so she of course is sleeping after a huge workout. She has loved this time that I have been spending at home. She sleeps on the end of the couch all day long and even when I sleep at night. So both of us are spending over 20+ hours each day laying on the couch. She probably is wondering when I will leave and go back to work. She might even be looking forward to it!!

I hope that you all will get a chance to enjoy the weather this weekend

Turning the corner

I wake up today to a few visitors. It did make the morning go by fast, but it was a pleasant change to my normal mornings. I do feel like I am starting to win the battle with my throat and the surgery. I am still in pain, but it is because I am trying to get off of the pain medicine. Each day is getting better, I am hoping to be off some of the hard medicine on Wed-we will see.

Sunday

So my roommate came down at 10:22 am and I woke up. I went to bed around midnight or 1 am, so 9+ hours of sleep all at once-Amazing. Until now only twice have I slept more than 3 hours at a time. So this was great sleep finally. But it did come at a price. I was suppose to have a dose of Vicodine at 4 am and 8 am, so it is completely out of my body for a long time. Also the other pain medicine I was suppose to take a dose at 8 am and I am late on that as well. So getting off of the couch was very painful. I took my medicine and just laid back down working on my breathing and counting the minutes down. I figured it would take 20-30 min to work, about 12 go by and I really notice a difference.

So today has been a good day. Still dealing with the sore throat-but gargling with warm salt water and the throat spray I have has helped with the pain.

I am one day away from going an entire week on a water and Gatorade minus a few sips of a shake and yogurt. So I thought I would try some applesauce. 1 cup down and no hiccups. So that tells me that there is improvement. I am not jumping to a full meal anytime soon, but I am excited to have some more applesauce for dinner tonight!!

I have watched so much TV it has been crazy. Tate, Trey and Caden Medcalfe purchase Lego's Star Wars-which has been SO great to take a break from TV and play the game. It has also helped with the boredom of just sitting here. So thanks again!

Also thanks for all the cards, balloons, flowers, videos (huge thanks Sandy!!)-that have just shown up here at the house.

Until the next update....

Thurs-Sat with ups and downs

Thursday was a great day so that evening I tried something other than water and Gatorade, about 1/2 cup of yogurt.

Then the hiccups came. Let me tell you that I never thought they would hurt as bad as they did. Every 6-8 seconds it was like a knife was being jabbed in my gut. After 6 sets of the hiccups, I finally figured out that it was the yogurt that was getting caught in my throat. So back to Water and Gatorade for now.

Friday was a good day

Saturday, not so good. I woke up at 4 am with a very sore throat. After talking with the Doctor, he finally sent me to St V's Immergent Care (thanks Mrs. Whener for your help!!). I found out that I got a virus (probably from someone at the hospital) which has caused the sore throat. Not only that but I have 3 ulcers in my throat. The good news is no strep, bad news is I have to just deal with the ulcers. So we are praying for the virus to stay where it is and not move to my chest which would cause me to cough.

So enough up and down for now.

It has been a while!!!

I didn't want to hit the one year mark since I wrote anything on the blog! Also I am getting a lot of people asking how I am doing, which I do appreciate-but I thought this would be a little more productive.

I found pictures for those of you who learn more visually.

So on Tues morning at 6:00 am I arrived at the hospital to prepare for the surgery. I have a bad case of GERD (Gastro- Esophageal Reflux Disease) which has been damaging my esophagus. I also have a hiatal hernia which is where your stomach pushes through your diaphragm.








The LES valve is where your esophagus and stomach meet and this value keeps everything in your stomach. Well mine wasn't able to close anymore.




So the surgery was to fix all these things. They cut me in 6 spots in my abdominal area to get this done.






















OK enough of the pictures.

Coming out of surgery wasn't fun. I was holding my breath because of the pain, which caused me to take a deep breath (much worse pain), so one of the nurses was showing me how to breath to help the pain. Finally I go to my room and people start visiting. It was really nice to see friends, even though I was out of it and didn't talk to you too much. Even with my eyes closed I was still listening, so thanks!!

The morphine that they were giving to me wasn't really taking care of the pain. It was amazing when 7:30 came and a new nurse took over. Dayna was VERY nice, her first goal was to get the pain under control, and by 8:00 I finally felt better. I was wondering why this couldn't have been done earlier, but if you met the afternoon nurse you would totally understand why. Not a nice person!!

So Wed was a great day, with my pain managed now I was able to get out of bed and even walk around in the hallways. When the afternoon came by I started to ask what I needed to do to leave that day. I really didn't want to stay. The main reason is my bed filled with air every 5 min to try to avoid bed sores, great invention-but bad if you are trying to sleep.

My mom arrived around 1 today and will be with me the next couple of days to help take care of me. The good news came around 4:30 that I could go home. Wed night was good, what I remember of it. More water and Gatorade, which is all I have had since Monday dinner! But I don't have any appetite what so ever.