Thank YOU! It's Customer Appreciation Week!
EXTRA 11% OFF Orders $100+ With Code: THANKYOU
EXTRA 11% OFF Orders $100+ With Code: THANKYOU
Cheers
Give a Cheer
Give a Cheer
Journaling inside the handmade envelope: Today you could be healthy, strong and in the best shape of your life but in a blink of an eye, you can turn into a weak, dehydrated very sick person. This is what happened to me in February of 2007.
It started on Friday (2/9). At 6 pm I started a 24 hour fast for religious purposes. Our bishop has asked us to take one day out of 180 days to fast for the missionary effort in our area and it just so happens that this day was my turn. Had an early dinner and kind of got a little sick to my stomach cause I ate a lot. I figured I needed to “fill up the tank” so to speak so I can last the whole 24 hours. After an hour, I was fine and even made a couple of scrapbook pages that night.
On Saturday (2/10)- Since I was fasting, Mitch made breakfast for the rest of the family while I got myself ready for a crop that I was going to go in the morning. I went to my crop, chatted a little with friends, then headed on to a “going out of business” sale at my LSS (local scrapbook store). Got some great deals and then went home. Spent the whole afternoon ironing out some details for my scrapbook classes then got ready to go to the temple. The session that we were going to attend was at 6:30pm and since I cannot eat till after 6 pm, I was in a bit of a crunch. So I decided to pack a PB&J sandwich to eat right at 6 and then have a lovely dinner with hubby after the session which takes about 2 hours. The whole drive to the temple I was feeling some pains in my stomach. I thought it was hunger pains. At 6 I had my sandwich, went and did the session and at around 9 was at Chili’s restaurant. I ordered an appetizer dish of deep friend onion, raspberry lemonade and a hamburger. But by the time the hamburger came I was in no mood to eat. I have this terrible stomach pain and was feeling very nauseous. As soon as we got home, threw up all that I ate and would be doing this for the rest of the night and throughout Sunday morning.
Sunday (2/11) - Still wasn’t feeling better, called a good friend to sub for me at church and then at 10am went to urgent care. There the doctor barely checked me and insisted I do a pregnancy test. Got a little irritated by this since I told her I just barely got done with my period. But still did it since I was in no mood to argue. She gave me a shot (in the rear) to stop the nausea and vomit so I was kinda ok. Got the results back and it was negative (I knew that!) and her final diagnosis for me- Gastroenteritis, meaning that my body was so used to not having anything for 24 hours and I shocked it by eating all those fatty foods. Mitch and I were very troubled by her diagnosis, feeling this was more than that but went home anyways. Got home, still very weak and could not eat anything. By 6pm I was shaking and shivering with a 102 degree fever. Had a Tylenol and calmed down.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- All these three days would be pretty similar to each other. I still couldn’t get any type of solid food in my system and if I dare try, I would be going straight to the toilet and would totally regret it afterwards. My fever would go up and down and my diarrhea started. This was especially bad for me since I don’t have anything in my system to begin with. All this time I was surviving off of Gatorade, liquid jello and some broth. By now nurses that we’ve called have thought I might have stomach flu or even food poisoning since there was a news that an outbreak occurred with a certain brand of peanut butter. By Wednesday I was exhausted, weak and totally clueless as to why I wasn’t getting any better.
Thursday (2/15) - finally we went to the ER. There I was admitted right away and was checked by the ER doctor THOROUGHLY. More than I wanted to. She asked for blood work and a CT scan. Finally after a couple of hours, the result was that I have a ruptured appendix and would need an emergency surgery. Not the news I was hoping to hear and I would admit got me a little scared, especially when they started talking to me about a paper that I needed to sign called an “advance directive”. Whow! Is this my end? Finally after what seemed to be an eternity by 7pm they had me in the operating room, placed in a deep sleep and was getting fixed. Finally!
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday- yes, you read it right, 5 freaking long days at the hospital. It was horrible! Having 3 IV’s stuck in you at one time, couldn’t hardly walk to the bathroom and the worst part--- I missed my kiddos so very much. Finally after five days of observation they released me. I was drugged with morphine the last morning so that the doctor can take out a drain tube he inserted in my side with out too much pain. Yes it did not give me pain but I was in a doozy state the whole morning. Mitch couldn’t even talk to me cause I was so incoherent.
On Tuesday (2/20) I was able to come home. Haven’t gotten my strength all back yet but I’m getting there. Saw the doctor a couple of days after and he said all is well and since I don’t have anymore appendix, I don’t have to worry about this ANYMORE for the rest of my life. Yehey to that.
I just want to point out the miracle in this story. Right after I had the surgery I asked my doctor how long had it been since the appendix actually ruptured before I went to the ER. He said and gasp at this ……..5-7 days ago!!! That’s a long time to have a burst appendix in your system. All the toxins could’ve killed me. But with the grace of God, I am here today writing this journal entry.
One thing I am irritated about is the fact that the initial doctor I saw that Sunday was so incompetent that she didn’t even have me do some blood tests. I’m sure if she would’ve done that, my white blood cell count would be higher than normal and it would show that I needed some more extensive tests!
So there you have it. Lesson of this story, you really don’t know what tomorrow have in store. I’m just very blessed to have a worthy priesthood holder in my home that gave me three blessings during the course of my illness that I strongly testify saved me from what could’ve been the end of me. I love my family and have been truly touched by all those that extended their love and support. To them, I owe my life.
* I finally scrapbooked this event. Thank goodness for blogging and I didn't have to spent too much time writing up my journaling.
*I only used one picture from the batch were I was in the hospital, I really didn't want to remember that part so I used the pics of my get well flowers to add to the page isntead.
tfl
Thanks for spreading positivity!
August 23, 2007
August 22, 2007
August 22, 2007