Surgery

WOW!! I had to close for a week to recover from a surgery I did not see coming. I want to start by saying thank you for the well wishes on the facebook page and the love that was sent from the week. It was very unexpected!! I love that my followers support me so well. Here is what happened. Thurs. 8/10 I was prepping for a weekend camping trip with my siblings and cousins, mom, and aunt. I had a tightness in my chest but it wasn't just the chest. It was like a very tight hug all the way around right under the bust. I kept working cos, well I had stuff to get done. The tightness increased as the night went on and then it felt like a fist in the middle of my chest and one in the middle of my upper back as if they were trying to push thru me and meet. I started to be concerned it was my heart. I called my husband and was talking to him and mentioned it. He told me to go to the hospital or go to bed. HOSPITAL??!!! I'll go to bed! He called the kids on the house phone and talked to my younger daughter, Amelia and told her I was to go lay down and asked her to be sure I had an ice pack to lay on. She got a baggie and put a small chunk of ice in that would have been melted in about 5 minutes. SO I did as he said and I grabbed a package of sausage links, cos it was flat, and really frozen, and I laid on it. It did ease a little. Then I stood up and changed positions and it came back and almost worse. I told the kids I wasn't feeling well and going to bed. I was closed that Friday for our trip and we were going to meet up with a friend and hike the Illinois River Bluff Trails with her and her kids a bit before checking in to camp. Well, she wasn't feeling well and didn't make it so we spent the morning doing the rest of the prepping we didn't get done the night before. I felt fine. We unloaded and got settled at camp and the kids and I enjoyed the outdoors together waiting on the rest to arrive. One by one we all helped everyone unload and get settled and enjoyed the weekend of camping. This was the first time my mom was together with all 4 kids since early 2000's. It was great to all be together and then her middle sister and 4 of her daughters were there and some of their kids. We had a great time camping and sad to say goodbye. Sunday night 8/13 I had to be in Peoria for a sleep study at 8. I dropped my kids off for the night and went in for my study. During the study I woke up twice with the same pain only 10 fold. It was so tight I couldn't get comfortable or sleep. I figured the study would be a bust with the length of time it was taking to go back to sleep. Well, I got it accomplished. Felt fine all day again just really tired!! Monday came and tried to get the house all cleaned up, typical Mon off activity, and get kids ready to start school on Wed. Well I got the tightness started again as I was fixing dinner for my crew. I ignored it as I usually do. Pain happens, it's life, just move on! Well, it wasn't allowing me to. I sent the kids to bed and went myself. I couldn't get comfy. I tried the ice pack again and this time it didn't help. This time I was also short of breath. I use a CPAP each night (feeds me oxygen cos I stop breathing in my sleep) and it wasn't even helping. So about 10:45 I called my hubby and told him I was going in to the hospital. The shortness of breath really scared me. He knew I was scared to go myself with no pushing from others. I just really dislike hospitals and Doctors. SO, I went upstairs to leave and saw Quinten's (15 year old son) light on. I opened his door to find him reading instead of sleeping. I told him I was going to the hospital but would be back by the time they all wake up. "Shut the light off and stop reading. You are suppose to be sleeping!" and I left. I checked myself in to ER. The room swarmed with people. Talk about raising blood pressure. No one is talking to me except the one lady with the computer and all the questions. One is trying to undress me, one is putting sticky squares all over my chest and another has my arm ready to IV or take blood cos I can't see and can't feel it anymore from the tightness of the band. Blood pressure was like 220/110. I think I should been dying right?? Dr came in and asked what was going on. I explained it all to him as I just did the lady with the computer and he walked out of the room. Another lady walked in. She looked familiar but I couldn't place her. She told me she was gonna take me back for a CT Scan and explained it all and was actually talking to ME!! well, she got it all set up and came in an told me the Dr. wouldn't let me sign for no pregnancy so once we got the results back of that test I was good to go. She asked if I owned the pottery shop in town. OH YEAH!! She donated some pottery pieces to us to use for our camps and such to help out the community. Great lady. So she took me back for the scan. Went back to the ER cubical and Dr. came in an said my heart an aorta are perfect and looked very good however my gall bladder is full of stones an some very large and I would be having surgery in the morning. WHAT?? "Can I schedule this, cos my kids are at home in bed asleep but alone and my hubby is in Iowa for a work convention." Nope sorry, not leaving. Great. So it's now about 2:30AM and I told George I'd text him when I was leaving so he'd know I'd be home before the kids got up. So instead I texted him and told him I have to have surgery in the morning and what all was going on. We texted for about an hour and then I let him sleep. I tried but didn't do very well. I was exhausted but so scared. The last time I was in the hospital was in 2008 to deliver Corbin. I don't go often!! They came in and gave me morphene for the pain. I asked not to. I'd be fine, surely it will pass just as it did Thurs and Sun. They sprayed under my tongue some stuff that gave me an instant headache. I think it was nitris or something like that. Later found out it was incase something with the heart. So now I have a booming headache for nothing cos my heart was fine! GRR!! I see a chiropractor regularly to keep my headaches in check. I used to live with migraines and they would be hard ones like no light or noise for 3 days straight and not real functionable for up to 5 days. They were BAD!! I'm to go back to her next Tues. That's a week before I see her and this headache is likely to linger. So anyway, long story short, they took me upstairs to a room til I could have the surgery. George called in the morning to see how I was doing and let me know he was going to get a rental car and come back. He was with some co workers in the company truck in Iowa. well, Rental place didn't open til 8 but was within walking distance of the hotel. The rest went and toured the Iowa plant and he attempted to get a car. That place had no cars. The next place was about 10 miles but he needed a major credit card to rent. WEll, we don't carry or use credit cards. He had to wait for his coworkers to return and one of them was nice enough to get the car for him and he would reimburse him later. So it was 12:30 before he left Iowa. He ended up taking the company truck and they waited for the rental car cos it was already so late. He was talking to a friend on his way here saying how he was trying to make it back before I went in (1:30) but he wasn't going to make it and he was so scared for me being alone. So that friend came and sat at the hospital with me for about an hour or so to pass time and make sure I was ok before going in. I have "white Coat syndrome" and dislike it there so much, he knew my blood pressure was most likely to high. So anyway, It was great to see and visit with Amber and she has a way of making the saddest people happy. Hello lower BP!! I went back for surgery and I take anesthesia hard. My body temp drops very low and hard to bring back up and I sleep it off longer than most and always have a headache from it. Woke up from it (a bit TMI here) I had to pee. I asked if I could go and they put me on a bedpan. NOT!! I just can't go on them. So they took it off and took me to my room. George made it back by the time I got to my room (5 pm). Surgery was to take 45 min- 1 hour. I asked, still in a daze, to go Pee. She said she'd grab a bedpan and I said forget it. The nurse I had all day got to know my determination and asked if I thought I was ready to sit on the toilet. I told her YES! She got a male nurse to help me in. I walked in and stood there waiting to see if they were both going to leave or stay. I had to go, I didn't really care! I went and they told me to hit the call button an they would help me back to bed. I just went. I don't like people fretting over me and like waiting on someone when I am capable myself even more. I went several more times myself before they got to me to ask if I needed help. I told them the "hat" was full. They told me I'd have to stay the night since it was so late. I didn't argue cos I knew I needed to sleep the drugs. George took the kids home and fed everyone and came back up later. School starts in the morning and I won't be home to take my babies (11 & 9) for their first day. I had always done that. This year, George got to take them (he hadn't ever gotten to). It was weird switching roles this week, but I knew for once I had better take care of ME! I didn't really have a choice. It hurt to move! I have 3 small incisions and one large one my stomach hurts, my back hurts and this head won't stop pounding. I was ok as long as my head rested on a pillow but try to hold it up or walking, it throbbed so bad. I have a high tolerance for pain but this is almost to much for me. ON their pain scale I was an 8 and only 6 after I gave birth. That's how much worse this hurt, for me, then child birth. We are talking the aftermath, not the actual delivery!! SO anyway, I'm recovering in the hospital. All these channels and nothing to watch. I basically left it on the channel with flip or flop and those twin brothers. I slept off an on all day. My Pastor came in Tues and saw me and made it in Wednesday before I left. The Hospital chaplain came in too and I told him my Pastor came and so we talked a bit about him. He is very new as in 8/6 we voted him in to our Church at Temple Baptist of Canton. The nurses told me hopefully I'd be able to go home Wed. I corrected them each time and said. "No, I WILL be going home today!" They chuckled each time. Well, they told me the things I had to do before I could leave. The Drs I'd have to see etc. So the nurse came in around 11 and told me I have to sign my release papers and then free to go whenever. YES!! I told her I did order lunch so I will go after lunch and get the kids from school. So we did. George came up with Quinten (he's homeschooled) and Q watched cartoons while Geo and I talked to Pastor Travis and prepped to go home. I ate my lunch when George ran Q home to do some chores and feed the animals (We have sheep and Chickens, cats and dogs). He came back up and he finished my lunch and I got dressed (the best I could) & we headed out to get the kids off the bus. It was great that Dad got to take them for their first day but I sure did miss it!

I have to give a shout out to George here. I had a big tile job I was working on at the store and this week was getting it all completed and ready for pick up by the weekend. Well, I wasn't quite ready for them to go into the kiln which meant being in the hospital, I wouldn't have them done. George came into the store and got them done for me and he loaded them all in the kiln and we came back Thurs when the kids got out of school to take them out of the kiln. George even called the guy I was working with and explained to him what was going on and we were working to have them done by Friday. The time we were going to be at the store didn't work for him so we set up a different time but if it weren't for George I wouldn't have made that job complete. He really stepped up and made sure I was ok at the hospital and took care of kids for school and even did some grocery shopping etc. It's always good to know he can step up and do both our jobs if he has to. So often it becomes "His jobs and her jobs" & we can't appreciate what the other is doing cos we are so focused with our own. George worked harder this week being home with us than he does on the weekends alone being with us. The extra traveling in town and sitting with me so I wasn't so alone and lost at the hospital, schooling Q, getting the others lunches ready and schedules taken care of, fixing meals and still cutting the lawn, doing some repairs, taking care of the animals etc. He is my Superman!! He made me an egg with mushrooms each morning in bed from the time I got home til the time he left on Sun. It was nice. He let me sleep til I was ready to get up. He helped me get dressed cos I couldn't bend over or stretch my right arm far, he helped me in the shower and even combed my hair when I asked cos I couldn't get to the back. It's been along time since he's had to do anything like that (2008 after childbirth). My diet has changed where I have to watch the amount of fat I eat. I've already replaced most bad fats with good ones, but still have to check labels and learn over again. It's been a chore!! I'm basically fixing 2 meals cos the kids wont eat like me. I've been doing Paleo for some time now and they do some but not all and I can still eat that way but have to go back through and check that everything still fits under the 30% total fat calories. SO now some things I used to make it better I no longer can. We have a staple meal in our house of mac & Cheese with kielbasa. The kids love it and it's easy and they can make it themselves too. It's mixed together. The way my mom fixed it was with a bag of frozen broc and cream of X soup. and then bake it in the oven to heat it thru. My kids don't like the broc stems so we just cook kielbasa in sherry to brown and mix it with the prepared mac. I can eat the mac (Annie's organic) but the kielbasa is high in fat. SO Q being the thinker says, but if you add the 2 ing. together and figure total fat that way it's under the 30%. HMM!! Ok, I'll try a little. Still picked most the dog out though. SO now, I'm still healing. Starting to move more normal pace. Still have pain if sit straight for to long or lay flat to long but it hurts to lay on the left side and haven't even tried to lay on the right. So it's a lot of up and down and being at the store I can't do the down and the office chairs if you tip back to far they flip and the one that doesn't flip, doesn't go back quite far enough to take that pressure off to ease the pain. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT complaining. It's a matter or trial and error to see what works or helps in the moment. I am happy to be back in the studio and painting pieces to sell at the friendship Festival in September and the Drive in October. I will be getting the calendar updated for the final quarter of the year too. So Thank you all for the support and the love. We are open so come get your paint on!!