I Am Alive!!!

Hello Friends! I have gotten so many phone calls, texts, facebook posts and messages, and cards. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the love and support and concern. I don't think I will ever have a minute to respond to everyone individually, so I wanted to thank you all at once and give you an update on how I am doing and how everything went.

Last Friday we checked in at 6 AM. The time was changed the night before from 2 PM to 6 AM and it was a huge blessing to not have to sit around the house waiting for the surgery. I had to stop eating on Wednesday so I was pretty ready for it to be over and done with come Friday! The surgery started at 7:30 AM and I was coming to around 1:30 PM. Learning from past experiences, I usually wake up from surgery pretty out of it and afraid. This was no exception and after about 5 minutes of screaming for Josh, the nurse finally went and got him and let him stay in the recovery area with me for about an hour and a half. The nurse said that my blood pressure and pulse were super high until Josh got there and then I calmed down. I just laughed when I heard that because I had asked if it would be possible to have him wake me up so I wasn't afraid and was told that under no circumstance were visitors allowed in the recovery room...unless you can scream loud enough I guess...

I was moved to a room on the PEDS floor because the hospital was so full, which of course meant that I had a roommate. The pain was pretty unbearable but they had me on a morphine pump every ten minutes and a pump with local anesthetic right to my incision.  

The doctor removed 27 tumors. I still get chills when I think about that number. We have a picture of all of them and it honestly makes my stomach turn to think that all 27 of those life sucking tumors were once inside of me! Unfortunately he was not able to remove all of the tumors because of the damage he would have to do to my body, however, he did remove the ones causing all the trouble and he thinks that after about 3 months he will be able to go back in with a much less invasive procedure and remove the smaller ones.

Sunday night I was finally able to eat my first meal. I ordered Mac-n-cheese and ate maybe two bites, but it was my first bite of food since Wednesday and it was delicious.

Monday afternoon I was cleared to go home! I was really excited...until we stepped in the door and I saw our stairs. I think it took me about 30 minutes to get all the way to the top and I vowed to never leave the house again. You never realize how much you use your abdominal muscles until they are cut open!

Once I got into my bed, our sweet kitten was so excited that I was home, he jumped RIGHT on my stomach. One phone call to my mother-in-law later, he is now on vacation with his Grandma until I feel like I can trust him again.

I did pretty well the first few days at home. I was uncomfortable but my mom and Josh made sure that very little time passed between taking my pain medicine. Unfortunately, I woke up Wednesday morning with a pretty high fever and felt miserable. My fever continued to climb until around 1:30 when Josh decided to take me back to my doctor. They checked me back in and did various tests to rule out infection. The doctor said that my white blood cell count was on the low end of normal and that because my hemoglobin levels were so low my body was going into shock. I went in the day of the surgery with a hemoglobin count of 12.2 (nearly perfect!) and came out with an 8.1. They did not want to give me a blood transfusion but decided to give me giant heaps of iron to help my body level out a bit. I felt better almost instantly and was allowed to go back home again that day.

As of today, I basically just sleep and watch my shows on TV. Reading requires too much attention and talking on the phone is exhausting! I try to get up and walk once every few hours, but my walking consists of walking from the bedroom to the couch and back. My mom had to return to Tucson, so we are attempting to make do without her. Josh has arranged for friends to stop in everyday to check on me and sit with me. I am now able to use the restroom by myself but sometimes if I lay still for too long I am not able to sit myself back up. Mentally I am very bored until I try to do something and realize that my body is tired and can't take very much. I have basically given up pain medicine unless I am really hurting or need to sleep.

So there you have it! That's sort of the gist of what is going on over here! I have had several friends ask if they can stop over or bring food- I am terrible about reading emails or texts in my sleep and not remembering to respond to them. So, if you can, please ask Josh! He knows what is going on in this house...I don't. His email address is hcyo@aol.com.

Again, thank you so much for the love and support. We feel so incredibly blessed and cared for!