Typical me

Some things never change...the sun will always rise again, tax season will always come...and my body will continue to do things the atypical way.

So I got my tubes tied on Friday. I had to be there at 6:00 a.m., and was supposed to be done by 9:00 a.m. It was done laporascopically (sp???) - through a small incision in my belly button - and is supposed to have a quick recovery. Right. First of all, they were trying to kick me out before I was half awake. Then the nurse got mad at me because I didn't tell her I was nauseous BEFORE she took out my IV...umm...still not really awake?! They stripped the sheets off my bed before I was out the door - so I'm sitting there in the wheelchair holding a barf bag up to my face while I try to throw up the nothing that was in my stomach, all while I'm in pain b/c they only gave me 1/4 of the normal dose of pain medication. Then I start having chills and my teeth start chattering - so they have to run and find a recliner, get me situated, put a heating blanket on me, get some nausea medicine in me, and get some pain medicine for me. So my recovery was off to a good start.

I got home around 11:00 a.m., took some more pain meds and went to sleep. I did okay Friday during the day, other than being in quite a bit more pain than I expected based on what I had been told prior to the surgery. Friday evening I was okay - sat up and visited with a friend who brought us dinner, ate dinner with no problem...went to bed around 7:00 p.m. and slept for quite a while.

I woke up at 11:00 p.m. and had some chills, so checked my temp - 100.3. They said to call if it was over 100.4, so I just took some more pain medicine and went back to sleep. I woke up several more times, and each time my teeth were chattering and my temp continued to rise. Finally, I woke around 5:00 a.m., my temp was 103, I had a horrible headache, I puked my dinner from the night before, and my pain was bad. I called the doctor, who told me to go to the emergency room. Great. So my options are to 1.) Call an ambulance and be taken to the ghetto hospital closest to our home; 2.) Have Darrell load up all the kids to take me to the other hospital; or 3.) Call and wake up all of our friends at 5:30 a.m. to try to find a ride. I chose option 3, and after waking a couple people, our dear friend Gloria was able to take me. I must note that my friend Gina (who has 5 children) was willing to get all of her children up and in the car to take me, if I couldn't find anyone else - quite a trooper she is!!!

Anyways, they ran a bunch of tests - blood work, x-rays, CT scan, etc. - and decided I had a UTI and my white blood count was elevated - they didn't know for sure if that was from the UTI or if I was getting an infection from the surgery. So they ended up admitting me for IV fluids, antibiotics, nausea medicine and pain control. Our friend Marlyna, who had flown in from San Francisco and was planning to spend the day helping Darrell with the kids while I recuperated, ended up spending much of the day in the hospital with me.

Today I am much much better, and they let me come home. I'll still have to take antibiotics for a week, but my fever is gone and my white blood count was back down, so those are good signs. I still have pain, especially when I'm up and around, but it's definitely better than it was. Let's hope I continue to improve without any more obstacles!!!

P.S. Darrell did awesome on his own with all three kids!! He even somehow managed to clean up the house, clean out the refrigerator, and put together Anthony's train tracks for him!!