A Hiccup in the Road

Well,  my family and I experienced a little hiccup in the road 2 weeks ago that put our lives on hold for awhile, including my blogging.   In a nutshell,  2 weeks ago I came down with a sudden illness that led to an ER visit,  emergent admission to the hospital, emergency surgery and a 6 day hospital stay.   Why you might ask?????   It turns out I had an abscess on my left ovary that burst.  This led to a severe infection throughout my entire abdomen.   What I thought at first was food poisoning turned out to be quite an ordeal!  

Kate and Will were real troopers during the whole week I was in the hospital.  My mom came up and stayed at our house for a week, running the kids to and from school and activities and visiting me in the hospital inbetween.  Carla and Gene took the kiddos to the Omaha Zoo for the weekend to get away and have some fun.  And my wonderful husband was by my side day and night during the first few rocky days making sure I was comfortable and asking the doctors all the questions I would normally ask if I wasn't so goofy from all the narcotics I was taking for pain.  The kids loved coming up to the hospital in the evenings and having dinner with me in my room.   I didn't (and still don't) have any appetite, so I would order fun kid foods like cheese pizza, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies for them to share during their visits.  Anja, Kate's American Girl doll usually made most visits as well. 

I received a ton of beautiful flowers that week.  The same dietary lady would deliver my room trays each day and comment each time how I had the prettiest window in the hospital because it was full end to end with beautiful bouquets!

After 6 long days I was finally discharged home!   I have never been so excited to get to my own bed and sofa!  Dr. Will was ready to give me a check up as soon as I walked in the door!

As he listened to me heart he began to sing rap music to imitate what my thumping heart sounded like.

My Mom totally stepped into my shoes during the week.  Shuttling kids around West Des Moines is a much bigger challenge than the shuffling she had to do back when I was young in Williamsburg.  I had to do a lot of map drawing and time management with her to help her beat the traffic to get the kids to their destinations on time.  On top of all the taxi driving, Mom did the laundry, cooked the meals and helped with all the homework.  Needless to say, I can never thank her enough for putting her life on hold to help us out for a week.  I cried and cried to her the day she left because I was so thankful for her and the loving, nurturing person she is!   WE LOVE YOU NANA!!

So here I am today sporting this cool hot pink arm band.  Underneath is my fabulous PICC line that I am using to administer myself IV antibiotics each day.  My cute arm band has gotten a lot of compliments!!

I am hoping and praying that these IV antibiotics kill the bug that decided to attack my system!  It is amazing how wiped out I am after laying in a hospital bed for 6 days!  I ran 4 miles the day I got sick and know that it will be quite some time before I am able to do that again.  However,  I know that each day I am feeling better and getting stronger and I thank God for that.  A week ago I had my family (and myself) pretty scared and wondering how I was going to pull through this craziness.  Now I know with a little hard work and determination,  I CAN DO IT!!!!!