progress....moving slowly

It is good to be home. There really is no place like home. I'm still very tired. Tomorrow I go back to the doctor. I so hope he will take the drain out. But it is still draining fluid so I'm not so sure he will take it out just yet. I have to admit I am very confused about all of this. I have so many questions for the doctor. I feel like if I can get rid of this drain I can get better. I can start walking and getting more exercise. I'm ready!!! It is tiring to lay around. The kids have been very helpful to me. Abby cooked me pancakes this morning. Last night she went to the kitchen and closed the door. She got a cookbook out and made chocolate oatmeal cookies ALL BY HERSELF. How smart is that? They were good...better than mine. Samuel and Erin are helping keep the house picked up and getting me things I need. I know Dave is tired. He is doing my work and his. He has kept our house spotless. He is keeping the laundry done, taking the kids to soccer, and keeping everyone fed and bathed. I'm so thankful for him.

OK. Now to listen to some violin and piano. Two weeks off has not been good for our music lessons. Pray I get my drain out tomorrow!

Routine Surgery.....what's that?

On April 14 I went in for my outpatient gallbladder surgery. Everything went fine and I was back at home by 5pm. I was having the normal to be expected pains that come with surgery, but overall I was feeling good. My Mama was staying with me and I sent her home Thursday because I thought I would be fine alone on Friday. So I was alone on Friday morning, went upstairs to fix me a cup of coffee. While my coffee was brewing I watered the plants in my sun room. That's when it started. The pain that lasted until the following Wednesday. I thought it was gas pains from the air used during surgery. That was the longest day and night of my life. By Saturday morning, it was unbearable. Dave loaded me and the kids up and headed to Birmingham. Mama and Giny met us in Lincoln. Mama came with us. Giny took our kids. I guess I thought we would get to the emergency room and my pain would magically stop. Well that didn't happen. No amount of morphine would stop the pain. I just cried and prayed. By 5pm I had been admitted to the 5th floor, where I spent the next 12 days. It was determined that I had a bile leak. They took me to surgery at 10pm to do an ERCP. This is where they go down your esophagus and install a stint where the bile was leaking. It didn't work!! He was able to put a slit in the sphincter which alleviated the pain for about 24 hours. Tuesday he attempted this procedure again. It still didn't work, probably because my abdomen was so swollen. I looked 9 months pregnant. It was really unbelievable. So days are passing with no answers, no relief from the pain and I was really afraid. My Mama and Dave were with me constantly. They held my hand alot while I cried and prayed. I would just beg God to help me, to stop the pain. Wednesday morning I had my final surgery. The doctor went in and irrigated my abdomen and put in a drain. FINALLY!!! the pain stopped. Then Friday the fevers started. They would spike to almost 103. I had been given a pain pump so when my fever shot up I would just sleep. But in order to ever get out of the hospital I had to start working on it. I first had to get rid of my pain pump. I walked the halls as much as possible to build my strength. At one point the doc said I could go home as soon as I didn't run fever for 24 hours. Well there was never a 24 hour period when I didn't run fever. Then on Tuesday the doc was going to check out my drain, and we find out it was stopped up, as in not working!! It hurts me to even type the rest of this. Just remembering how bad this hurt. I had to go to the CT lab to have a new drainage tube in. This is on my right side above my ribs. It hurt soooooooo bad when they took the old one out and put the new one in. They didn't give me anything before this, I wish I had been put to sleep. I have cried alot this week. So that is where I am now. I am in my hospital bed, on what I think to be my last night. My Mama is asleep in the chair beside me where she has been 8 of the 12 nights I have been here. Dave has been home this week with out kids. The girls have SAT testing this week. I know it has been good for them to have Daddy home with them this week. I am so ready to be home with them too! If all goes well, I will be home by lunchtime. So many people have prayed for me this week and I could never tell you how much that means. God has brought me through a tough couple of weeks. I have learned alot. Dave has learned alot. I'm sure our kids have learned alot. I still have a long way to go. Where the drain tube is it feels like someone punched me in my ribs. I'm weak. As soon as I am able I will walk to build my strength. Hopefully the worst is over. I will never look at surgery as "routine" ever again.

This is what caused it all. This rare duct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_bile_duct

Prayer for our friends

Please pray for our friends who are currentlly going through the adoption process in Russia. You can read more about their story at http://www.tombekallen.blogspot.com/ I know they would appreciate your prayers as they wait to see how things go this weekend.

Easter Weekend

Giny, Me, Lori, and Tracy
Samo, Andrew, and Brady
All of our girls. Aren't they beautiful!!
Now thats a crew!!!!

A bear at Bass Pro Shop
Checking out their eggs!
Dying eggs.


If you noticed I have no pictures of Dave, it is because he was sick. He had an upper respiratory infection and pharyngitis, so says the doctor. He seemed like he had the flu to me. He endured all of our activities this weekend. Soccer Saturday morning, a trip to Granny's, a quick run by Bass Pro Shop and the mall, and of course he led the worship on Sunday morning. By the time we made it to Mama's on Sunday after church, he was pooped!!! He ate lunch and tried to visit, but finally went to the back bedroom and went to sleep. When I checked on him he had a fever. Poor thing. Anyway...no Easter Sunday pictures of Dave. Oh well...

We dye eggs and do the traditional egg hunts, but really try to talk to our kids about how all of that is fun but not at all what "Easter" is about. So on the way home from Granny's Saturday Samuel asked Dave a question about the resurrection. Dave started with Adam and Eve went through Abraham and Isaac, talked all about Jacob and Esau, all the sacrifices that were made, what animals were used and 45 minutes later ended with Jesus on the cross and the resurrection. After he was done I heard Samuel say to girls, he shouldn't have asked daddy a question. It was really good. I am thankful Dave shared all of that with us. He is not a big talker, unless you ask him the right question. Samuel asked the right question Saturday. Our kids are starting to understand. It is really hard to keep the Easter bunny, hiding eggs excitement separate from the real meaning, the resurrection. It makes my heart hurt to think they don't understand.

We had a good time visiting with family this weekend. My parents both had birthdays and I got lots of sugar from my nieces and nephews...what could be better. oh, and Jesus is ALIVE. Nothing tops that!!

one of those mama's....you know the ones

I have become one of those mama's. You know those mama's that scream really loud and act obnoxious while their child is playing a sport. So you may ask, when did I become one of those mama's? It was at the end of the Fall soccer season. Samuel was on a winning team. It was really fun watching him score. I started cheering. Loud. Then louder. THEN LOUDER. So loud that now I am out of control. Yelling like I am at the SEC championship game and Samuel is the quarterback. Oh, and Erin is on his team this year. So I must cheer for her too. It is bad. So if I tell you it doesn't matter if we win or lose, it's how we play the game, I am not telling the truth. I want to win. Really, really want to win! Run Samo......Stop that ball Erin. What are you doing? RUN!!!! You may hear me saying this and so much more any Saturday morning this Spring. Go Lions!!

Hawaii-the blog post

Personalize your own photo slideshow

Let's begin this story on Friday March 5, 2010. We had all the bags packed and everyone was ready to go to their destinations. Samuel went to Tracy's house and Abby and Erin went to Lori's house. Samuel's plan was to go see a motorcycle show with Bradley and Andrew and the girls were going with the twins to Kid's Market! Let me just say, the girls were very excited. Samuel.....not so much. He knew this was the beginning of his week away from Mommy and Daddy. Dave and I left for Hawaii on Saturday morning. One of the many blessings of having a big family is lots of people who love your children and will keep them for a WEEK! Between Mama and Daddy, Tracy, Lori, and Giny.......my children were well taken care of. Oh...and Tracy kept Charlie the dog. That is a whole blog post in itself.(more on that later)



So we flew out of Atlanta at 1:30, had a 2 hour layover in Los Angeles, then it was over the Pacific Ocean to Beautiful Honolulu Hawaii. We landed in HI at 9:30pm. We were greeted with beautiful lei's, grabbed our luggage and headed to the hotel. We were tired. It had been a long day. We got a good nights sleep and were ready to begin our adventure.







SUNDAY



We walked to our daily breakfast buffet where Dave ate lots of fresh pineapple. The fruit was yummy! The band and choir practiced for their Monday performance. Sunday afternoon we walked to a local park and enjoyed a concert by the Royal Hawaiian Orchestra. It was really good, even though we had to stand in the rain :( We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach and ate dinner at Planet Hollywood. We ended this day with a shopping trip to the International Marketplace. Let me tell you.....I am NOT a good bargainer!!!! Dave would not let me pay full price for anything! I would probably pay what they ask and give them a tip!! We did get some nice things...for less than the asking price I might add :) After this it was back to the hotel for some ZZZZZZZZ.







MONDAY



BREAKFAST at the hotel. This was a big day. It was the day the students performed at Pearl Harbor. WOW. It was amazing getting to go to the memorial. I realized how little I know about my countries history. So I have some reading to do! After our time at Pearl Harbor, we went on a Tour of the city of Honolulu. We saw the State capital (interesting building), Iolani Palace, and the King Kamehameha Statue. Our tour guides were great. They gave us some great information about the people and the city as we drove. We went to the AlaMoanoa Center (the mall) that night for dinner and more shopping. I ate at a place called Yummy's. It was Korean food. I liked it. Dave always keeps with what he knows...he had Chinese. We walked around the mall, window shopping, and had some yummy cookies and coffee in a cute little coffee shop. Another packed full of fun day!







TUESDAY



Today we head to the North Shore tour. We saw some beautiful beaches and we even saw the location where the show "Lost" was filmed. We passed the Dole pineapple plantation and visited the Haleiwa Town surfing village. This was about an hour drive from our hotel. Then we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was one of my favorite things.So much history here. Again...I knew so little. This is where we got Samuel the coconut he wanted. We visited the different villages. I love, love, love the dances.









WEDNESDAY



We traveled to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling today. It was a crater that over time was washed away and formed a beautiful beach. OK! This is not my thing. I had several panic attacks in the water. I cut my leg and ankle on the reef. I really freaked out when i saw fish. Dave loved it!! We are like night and day. Even though I did not enjoy the snorkeling, I did enjoy the beach. We ate dinner that night at Jimmy Buffets. We met Don Ho's widow while we were there. If you are like me, you don't know who Don Ho is. He was like the Elvis Presley of Hawaii. After dinner we went to the Society of Seven show. THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!! These seven guys sang and played every instrument you can think of. Definitely one of my favorite things we did!







THURSDAY





I climbed Diamond Head Crater!!!!! Dave did too. The view was breathtaking. It was a tough hike for me.....well the end was. It was so worth the climb. After the hike we had some of the best shaved ice ever! The we loaded the bus and headed for the catamaran. We missed the whales by two weeks, so we didn't get to see any whales, but we did have a great ride out in the ocean. Very relaxing. Dave didn't love it. Again, we are so different. We spent the evening at a Luau. Dave got to hula on stage, it was great! He is actually a good dancer. By the time we got back to the hotel.....I was completely EXHAUSTED!!!!









FRIDAY





Last day! Mixed feelings. Ready to see my babies, but gonna miss Hawaii. We did some shopping at the International Marketplace and had lunch at Lulu's. We boarded the bus for the airport at 3:00. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6pm but was delayed until 8pm. 10 hours later we arrived in Atlanta. It was cold when we got off the plane.....we knew we were home.









I talked to my kiddos everyday. Sometimes several times a day. Samo had a hard week. He is a little attached to his mommy. By the time we got home on Saturday, they were all so glad to see us. We all slept in our room Saturday night. It was a great trip, but it is good to be home.

ALOHA

Let the countdown begin!

Two days until our trip to HAWAII.

all packed.

can't wait.