Details about what all happened before and after surgery...

 Now here's the more detailed story, mostly so that I can remember what all happened. You all are probably tired of hearing it.

I went to the ER on Saturday, December 4th because I was in so much pain and the on call doctor said we needed to go. He called the ER and told them I was coming. Once we arrived in the ER, they took me up to the CT scan where I was lucky enough to get to change into a hospital gown. I had dye injected into a couple different places in me. Trust me on this one, you're lucky you don't know the details. When the CT scan was done, they finally had a room in the ER ready for me so we were taken there. The doctor came in and said that he had been talking back and forth with the on call gynecologist. My dad actually knew the ER doctor. He was so nice and helpful! They did blood work, started giving me fluids, and gave me some pain medicine. As the pain medicine kicked in, I could finally unclench my jaw and relax a little. The CT scan came back normal, except that everything was not at all normal. Several doctors talked again and decided they needed to admit me to figure out what was wrong. While we were waiting for the transport people to take me to my room, we got to listen to the nurses and patients in the ER. I love eavesdropping. My room in the ER was right by the nurses station so we got to overhear everything. We watched them eat jars of homemade pickles. I'm not joking. It was entertaining to listen to all the calls from ambulances and the nurses talking about the patients. We for sure violated the privacy rules but how could we not hear them?!
Transport came pretty quickly and took me to my room on the 5th floor; the pediatric floor. I won't lie, I loved it there! Not loved it like, "let's go back", but they were so good there. I defiantly didn't like actually being in the hospital, but I'm glad I was on that floor.

To control my pain, they had me on Dilauded which is actually so much stronger than morphine. I was on this around the clock and I still was in pain.
Once I got to my room, I didn't have any more tests besides blood work every few hours. I was on a liquid diet to prepare for surgery. On Sunday night, I had to take a whole bottle of Miralax to also prepare for surgery.
My night nurse was great! She was there Saturday night and Sunday night. Since I was the only one on the floor for most of my stay, she would come hang out in my room and just talk.
I had several people come visit me once I got to my room on Saturday night, so that helped pass time. Once everyone left and it was time to attempt to sleep, it really sunk it about what was going on and where we were. My mom stayed with me while my dad and brother went home. Sleep was no where to be found. I think we slept for an hour before it was time for 2am vitals and medicine. Vitals were at 6am again, but in between then, people were in and out of my room. I wasn't scheduled to get pain and nausea medicine at certain times, so when I asked for it, the nurse would have to come see what I needed, go get the medicine from Narnia, come back and scan my bracelet and give it to me. It just took forever in the middle of the night. I would get medicine every couple hours so it was a crazy night.
My IV was in the crease of my arm, and everytime I bent my arm, the alarms would go off. This happened all night long. The alarms wouldn't shut up until the nurse came in and re-set it. We were up every few minutes because I would bend my arm in my sleep.
On Sunday morning rounds, the doctor came in and said they wanted to do exploratory surgery in the next few days. Until then, I just hung out. I was kept on a liquid diet, fluids, and pain meds. The day nurse on Sunday was fantastic! She was so funny. Early in her shift, she was bringing some medicine to me and she dropped the whole cart of supplies outside of my room. She started laughing so hard and said, "well this will be a fun day"! It really was hilarious. She made us fresh iced tea, none of that cafeteria fake iced tea. We told her about my IV setting off alarms all night so she switched it to my hand which was so much better.
Sunday was full of visitors for me which was really good! They prayed for me several times during church that day, so we had lots of people asking about me and praying. My aunt came and stayed with me and my brother on Sunday night so my parents could go out to eat. I think we watched Elf which is my favorite movie! The youth group Christmas dinner was also that night. I was so sad to miss that.

The doctor couldn't do the surgery on Monday, so insurance kicked me out of the hospital. The doctors didn't want me to go home either, but insurance wouldn't let me stay. To make it to where I could even try to make it home, they had to give me so much medicine. I remember Monday morning, but I don't remember Monday afternoon until Tuesday. We got home on Monday night I think.

They scheduled an appointment with the doctor for Tuesday morning at 8. We got there and he said how would you feel about surgery today? We said that would be great! Surgery was scheduled for 5 on Tuesday.

When we arrived at the hospital (a different one than I was admitted to) at 3 to get ready for surgery, we were told that insurance wouldn't cover anything. The hospital called the doctor and anesthesiologist and they all talked back and forth. We were so close to canceling the surgery. Like, so so close. But, God knew I needed it because he worked everything out. We decided to continue with the surgery an hour before surgery. They didn't have much time to prep me, so they rushed us around. It was crazy. They drew blood, got me in my gown, socks, and leggings so I wouldn't get blood clots, started my IVs, and got all 3 of my hospital bracelets ready. They brought in lots of IV antibiotics and started me on them before surgery. I continued to get them while I was there.
The surgeon came running in the room and said, "let's go"! And off I went to surgery. The surgeon wears high top red converse shoes with his surgical outfit. It's really funny!

I had surgery at a little surgery center and they were so great and fun to be around!

Me before surgery

Landon, me, and one of my nurses before surgery

On the way to surgery. Cute, huh?

I went to surgery at 5:10pm.

When the surgeon came out to talk to my family after surgery, he had a shocked look on his face. He could not believe what he found. He said that women come to him complaining of pain with just one of the problems I had and he would have done surgery on them. I had four problems.

My appendix was huge. My abdomen will filled with blood. There was a cyst the size of an orange. I had endometriosis. They had to make 3 good sized incisions to get everything out.

My family got to come see me in the recovery room almost immediately after surgery because I woke up fast. I was wide awake and was so ready to go home. Everyone was surprised at how fast I went home after surgery. I was sent home wearing white leggings that I had to wear for a few days to help with circulation.

Because of all the internal bleeding, I am very anemic. I'm taking iron pills to help with that. It's interesting because on all of my blood work that was done a week before my surgery (we didn't know what was wrong) I was so anemic. We should have known something was wrong just from that.

These two pictures are of me right after surgery. I'm looking good for sure! Cute hair do and outfit.                                                                                                    

Going home!!!

A week or two after surgery, we got the pathology report from my appendix and I did have acute appendicitis. That means that my appendix could have ruptured at anytime. We're so thankful that the doctors decided to do exploratory surgery. It's very strange how my CT scan and blood work showed nothing, even though I was a mess. But, God took care of everything!

"But now, this is what the LORD says-

he who created you,
he who formed you,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior" Isaiah 43:1-3

Couldn't ask for better doctors and nurses!

We are working on a detailed post about everything that happened last week. But I want to tell you about the doctors and nurses we had last week. I always talk about the bad doctors that we run into. We had the BEST care at the two different hospitals I was in. When I arrived in the ER on Saturday December 4th at Mercy Hospital, we had a great ER doctor. My dad actually knew him. He was caring and wanted to figure things out. The doctor that told us to go to the hospital was in contact with the ER doctor and they talked back and forth with us about things. Once they decided to admit me, they got it done fast!

I was on the pediatric floor at Mercy Hospital. It was so great because I was 1 of 2 patients on that floor. The other patient was older so I was the only pediatric. The nurses were so wonderful! They were so much fun and would hang out in my room and just talk. We laughed so much! They made us fresh iced tea and went out of their way to do things. I loved them! It was actually not a bad hospital stay. I know part of the reason was because I was on so much pain meds so I was in lala land, but it was also the great care we had. We didn't have any problems at that hospital at all! They all actually said, "yeah if you don't catch Lyme early it's hard to deal with and get rid of". Then they moved on and didn't make a big deal about it!! It was wonderful.

I had surgery at a little hospital that we had never heard of before! But it was also so great. I was the only patient there because my surgery was at 5pm. The nurses were amazing again! They were also fun to be around and just took great care of us. We laughed and talked with them a lot! I love nurses that turn something that is not fun, into something that is enjoyable. After surgery, my surgeon took lots of time to talk to my family. My mom is going to write a post about that.

We are so thankful for all the wonderful nurses and doctors that took care of us at both hospitals!!!! We couldn't have asked for better people.

Landon and I with one of my nurses before surgery

A tour of the luxurious hotel I got to spend 3 days in this week.

(This is the story of my recent hospital stay, told with humor to make it interesting)

We didn't anticipate spending a few days at this "hotel" called Mercy (hospital). We thought it would just be a quick pit stop on our journey. Boy, were we wrong!

Warning- going to the ER might result in not being able to leave for several days. You might be subject to countless pokes and visits by the nurses.

(On Saturday, the pain got so much worse so we called the on call doctor and he told us to go to Mercy Hospital. He called them and told them I was coming, and continued to talk to the doctors in the ER.)

Upon arriving on Saturday afternoon, we spent a while waiting in the lobby because it was the place to be apparently. I was treated so nice and even had the privilege of having someone push me around in a wheelchair. Such good service. We were then taken to a room in an area they call the emergency room. The man in charge of the emergency area came in and ordered a CT scan and some pain medicine and fluids.

This was my room in the emergency room

In order to receive medicine and have tests, they had to start an IV on me.

By this time, the ER doctor and on call doctor decided to admit me to keep the pain under control and make sure my appendix didn't rupture. Again, I was escorted in a wheelchair to the floor. I even had a double door entrance!

This hotel has the cutest bracelets ever! I got 3 of them!! Look how cute they are.

The next few pictures are of my luxurious private room. I even had a private bathroom!

Look at that comfy bed!

Such cute wall decorations.

There's even a tv tray so I can eat in bed!!! WOW! Not very many hotels let you do that!

There was a tv hanging from the ceiling...how many hotels have you stayed in that have that?!

Let me describe the bed for you. This is like a sleep number bed. Every 10 minutes or every time you move, the bed forms around you. It makes a terrible noise and moves constantly which definitely didn't bother us all through the night.

If you want to sit up in bed, all you have to do is press a button and there you go! And, the coolest thing the bed does is...

how high it goes!!! My dad discovered this. We had lots of fun playing with this!

Look at that view from my room!

It even had a great view at night!

In case you are scared of the dark, this hotel has lots of nightlights that glow in the dark.

Now, lets talk about room service.

Every night, you have turn down service. During the day, maids come in a clean your room and they don't even kick you out for it! They bring everything you need!

Saturday night, sleep was not there. Nurses came in and out so much. At 5 stinkin AM, this lady comes tearing in my room, grabs my arm, sticks a needle in, and draws blood. Then she leaves. She didn't say anything.

At 6 stinkin AM, the hotel manager decided it was time to talk! He comes in my room and flips on all the lights. I have never in my whole life seen someone as happy as he was at 6 stinkin AM. Good grief, I tried to ignore him to see if he would just go away but he didn't. He decided that I needed exploratory surgery in the next few days.

When the happy guy finally left, we tried to go to sleep and I'm pretty sure I was asleep until 8am. At 8am, they do a Bible reading over the loud speakers. Could we maybe read scripture a little later in the day? I would love to read scripture with you anytime after noon. They did it at 8pm too.

The food service is great. You can order anything you want and they will deliver it to your room! The only problem was that they put me on an all liquid diet so all I could have was pudding, ice cream, some soups, and drinks. But I could order it anytime!

Mmmm doesn't that look yummy?

On the side of the bed at this hotel, there is a button that calls the nurse if you need anything. They come running whenever you call and will get you anything you want!

You definitely won't get lonely at this hotel because there are people coming in and out of your room every hour 24/7.

The floor that I was on was the pediatric floor. There was only one other person on the floor besides me and they were older. Since the hotel wasn't full, the service was great! The nurses would hang out in my room since there was nothing for them to do. It was nice having the floor to ourselves.

Here are some other perks of this hotel.

You get to wear your pajamas and no one expects you to dress up. You're not expected to wear make-up or do your hair.

Showering is optional. With all the IVs and monitors, along with being sick, it's hard to take a shower.

Lots of people want to see your awesome room so they come see you! Okay maybe they don't care about the room.

Well that pretty much sums it up!

I'm writing a more detailed post so that will be coming soon!

Surgery Monday or Tuesday

I will be having exploratory surgery either tomorrow or Tuesday. We should find out tomorrow morning. I've been on a liquid diet to prepare for surgery. Im so thankful to have had so many visitors today and yesterday! It made my day. Im on dilauded for pain and it helps so much. I will update as soon as i know anything. At midnight tonight, i have to be Npo which means nothing to eat or drink. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!!!

being admitted to the hospital

I'll explain in detail later but Im being admitted to the hospital. I might be having surgery in the next few days if the pain isn't better. They are keeping me on pain meds to try and control the pain. I'll.update as much as i can.

back in the hospital

Yesterday was a really really hard day. My heart started skipping beats again around 3 pm yesterday. Then the horrible chest pain started. I could take it for a while. Around 5 pm I was in tons of pain. I think I cried from then on until 1 or 2 am this morning. My parents gave me Loritab at 8 last night but that did nothing. We called the doctor again and he said if I wasn't better to go back to the hospital.

So my dad and I made our familiar trip to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 11 pm I think. I'm not sure exactly.

They took me to triage and then immediately took me back to my room. In Childrens the ER, they mostly have rooms separated by curtains. Last night they actually took me to a real room. They got me all hooked up and then the nurse who usually comes at the end of your stay to collect payment came in...we hadn't even seen the doctor yet. Several nurses kept coming in asking if we had seen the doctor yet. Apparently they got "busy" when I went to my room...but we saw no other people there. That's okay, we are used to waiting...once we waited as long as we could, we got mad. Not really mad, just frustrated mad.

Finally the doctor came. We explained everything and I think she got a little confused. Apparently she thought I needed an EKG and everything I got on Monday night. It was too late to tell her she was wrong...so the nurse comes in with the EKG machine. Again. We just had this the night before. The nurse doing the EKG was nice but I don't think she knew what she was doing. After another hour of waiting the doctor comes in and says well I talked to the cardiologist and he said you can go come. Long pause of silence...."so do you need anything?" umm actually YES I do thanks for asking. I came here for pain medicine.

"oh okay well I'll get you some morphine. Well we will have to start an IV to put the morphine in. Is that okay?"

YES that is OKAY! That is the whole reason I am here!

Okay, I am really hard on doctors. I've had so much experience that I think I'm a doctor. I know doctors have a reason for everything they do but come on people.

The nice/inexperienced nurse came back in.

"Do you want me to use your port or put an IV in your arms?"

I said, "wherever it is easiest for you. It really doesn't matter to me."

"Okay I will be right back then."

Apparently she went to Narnia and had no concept of time.

Finally she reappears!

She looks for a vein and me being the doctor I am, tell her where they are. But she doesn't care to listen. She finally finds one but it's on the arm that she can't reach because the bed is against the wall. She puts my bed in the middle of the room and goes to get another nurse to help her. By this time I told my dad that they should just give me the IV stuff and I can do it myself.

He didn't think that would be a good idea...

Now 2 nurses come in! It was quite the party. The pumped my bed up as high as it would go. I'm still not sure why...

When they are putting the needle in they always say okay big stick coming get ready.

It's really not that bad...until she decides to push the needle in further while putting the morphine in! Goodness! did you know you are not supposed to do that? Obviously not.

They put the pain medicine in and were done! It was around 4 am by then.

We waited a while longer then the let me go home.

When they give you such strong pain medicine, they are supposed to give you nausea medicine before because it will make you really sick. Did they give any to me? No.

I didn't realize how nauseous I was until I got up. I almost didn't make it to the car. The car ride home was really bad. When I got home I took nausea medicine and it helped a little. I'm still really nauseous though.

So that is what has been going on. Thank you so much for the prayers.

Spring break...hospital style

Two years ago, my freshman year, I got to go skiing with my youth group! It was the first time I had been skiing. It was one of the best trips I've been on! Last year, I was planning on going on the ski trip again, but I wasn't going to ski. I know that's weird but I wanted to go so bad! A few days before the ski trip I backed out. I knew there was no way I could ride 12 hours on a bus plus try to survive the trip. I was in too much pain. So they left on Saturday morning, coming back Wednesday night. I just planned on staying home all spring break.

Saturday night I didn't sleep at all. Sunday morning while my parents were getting ready for church, I begged them to take me too the hospital. I was in so much pain and was so exhausted. So we were off to Children's Hospital...my whole family. We got to the hospital around 11 am. I got checked in at the ER and went through triage. It was the first time I had been to Children's ER. I usually went to a different hospital. We got to my room pretty soon. Okay by room I mean curtain area. We waited for the doctor to come. Remember how I'm always the talk of the hospital? Well curtains aren't very private so I could hear them say "oh wow there is girl with Lyme Disease here". Apparently when someone checks in, the reason for visit pops up on everyone's computer and monitor. The doctor came in and let's be honest, I didn't like her at all. The first thing she said was "well you look pretty comfortable for claiming you're on a lot of pain. You don't look like you're in pain". Now that made me a little angry. Oh I'm sorry, I've just gotten used to being in pain from this disease so I am pretty good at hiding it. She didn't want to give me morphine because I'm a "child". So she said she will get me some pain medicine that isn't very strong because I'm a "child".

A nurse comes in with the IV cart and gets my IV started. He scanned my bracelet, scanned the medicine, and put the pain medicine in my IV. He put the pain medicine in and in less than 2 minutes, the pain was worse and I got so hot and itchy. Oh no, I'm allergic to it! We yelled for the doctor and told her I'm allergic to that medicine. Obviously they can't take the medicine out of me, so I had to deal with it until she finally agreed to give me morphine after she went and talked to another doctor. She would come and go like that for a long time, accomplishing nothing. We asked if there was an infectious disease doctor there. There wasn't. (God was watching out for us! We hadn't learned yet that we don't want to mess with infectious disease doctors) the morphine helped a little but quickly wore off.

I asked for more because the pain was back to being horrible. She agreed. By this time my brother and dad had gone to get food and my brother went with my aunt because we knew we would be at the hospital a while. One of my nurses was amazing. She put in a movie for my parents and I. I have no clue what the movie was. Haha I was out of it! She kept bringing warm blankets to me and she sat on my bed and watched the movie with us. She pretended like I really needed her so that she could just hang out with us. I was getting tired from finally having a break from pain. We turned off the lights for a while. Since it's only curtains, it is really not quiet or dark. I just watched people walk back and forth as the curtains moved from people walking by. I was also enjoying listening to peoples conversation. I'm so nosey like that. I fell asleep off and on for a while. A few hours later I needed more medicine. I had to wait a while though since I had already had so much. The doctor was convinced that I should gave been better by then. The problem was that I wasn't. This time I broke down begging to be admitted. She REALLY wanted me to go home because she didn't know what to do. She left and went to talk to someone and came back with another doctor who agreed to admit me. It was around 7 pm when this happened. I had been in the ER for 8 hours.

Before I was taken to my room they gave me this cute little box of things that they give to every kid admitted. It had a journal, stars for your rooms door, a bracelet that says I am special, a stuffed star, and a prayer star. It was really cute! I still have it actually!

My mom left to go home and pack things for the hospital. My dad stayed with me and a nurse took me to my room. My room was the first room you come to when you get off the elevator. My nurses came in and talked with us for a while. Then they came back to take blood for tests they wanted to run. They tested me for lupus, ms, and other stuff like that. Pain medicine makes your mouth dry and makes you so thirsty. I had one of those huge cups that they give you in the hospital and I drank so much water that night.

Then the floor doctors came. We told them what was going on and they wanted to run tests too. They made me walk around and tested my strength and weird things like that. They left just before my mom came back. We got settled in and my dad went home for the night. My brother was spending the night at a friends and he didn't even know I was admitted. When the nurses came in they told me to stay on top of the pain and ask for medicine before it got out of control. I followed their rules but got rejected, several times through out the night. Apparently, the ER doctor said I couldn't have anymore. So the whole night I got nothing.

I went to sleep and the nurses checked my vitals during the night like normal. Then at 7 AM new doctors and nurses came on. That means that I got to meet the new nurses...at seven. AM. Then the floor doctors made rounds soon after that. I think there were at least 5 doctors on my room during rounds. They talked with my mom for what seemed like forever. I went back to sleep. Even though I had to wake up every couple hours to check my vitals, I slept so good. It was great.

My dad came to the hospital sometime in the morning. The cafeteria called us because I missed breakfast. They said I needed to eat something so I ordered toast, chicken noodle soup, and some other things. Let's just say that I only had a couple bites of toast. I'm not sure if they know what chicken noodle soup is...because let me tell you, it was not the kind of chicken noodle soup that the rest of the world eats. I moved stuff around on my tray so that it looked like I ate more. I'm such a rebel I know.

I don't remember when I got to go home...

Back in October when I had surgery to put my port in, I was at a different hospital. When I was taken to holding, the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurses came to make sure everything was ready. A doctor came in with my surgeon and she said she knew us. I had no clue who she was. But she said "I saw you at Children's hospital in the ER like 7 months ago". Oh my...I guess she remembered me since I have Lyme Disease. Okay I know that's why she remembered me. She was there to watch my surgery for some reason. It was very weird that she was there!!

So, with spring break next week, I am determined to stay out of the hospital! My youth group is going skiing again and I am so jealous! I will just be hanging out here! Diseases don't take breaks so I will still have to do IVs and everything.

This is a new song that I heard. I love it! At Winterfest(Christian youth conference weekend) in Dallas this year, the theme was The Veil. I think I told you all about it. Then a few weeks ago I heard this song having something to do with the veil.

MercyMe - All Of Creation

Separated until the veil was torn
The moment that hope was born
and guilt was pardoned once and for all

Captivated but no longer bound by chains left at an empty grave the sinner and the sacred resolved

[chorus:]
and all of creation sing with me now
lift up your voice and lay your burden down and all of creation sing with me now fill up the heavens let his glory resound

Time has faded and we see him face to face every doubt erased forever we will worship the king

[chorus]
and all of creation sing with me now
lift up your voice and lay your burden down and all of creation sing with me now fill up the heavens let his glory resound

the reason we breathe is to sing of his glory and for all he has done praise the father praise the son and the spirit in one

and all of creation sing with me now
lift up your voice and lay your burden down and all of creation sing with me now fill up the heavens let his glory resound


and every knee will bow oh and every tongue praise the father praise the son and the spirit in one




"But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:16-18