Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant
--Andrew Gold, "Thank You for Being a Friend"
Well, I can certainly say the past few months have brought with them their share of challenges - but also much joy. I meant to write this sooner while events were fresher in my mind....but given that I was recovering from surgery and still shrugging off the haze of anesthesia and pain medication, I can't really say they were all that fresh anyway!
I wanted to share this with you, though, because what I went through around the time of my surgery really drove home for me how blessed we are to have such amazing friends in our lives. People who, when it comes down to it, are more like family than friends.
Part 1: The Hospital
Heidi and I were scheduled to get married on Saturday, August 17 at our friends' beautiful farm. The preparations were almost complete, but much hard work remained ahead of us - setting up, coordinating how to get all of the tables and chairs and so forth from Point A to Point B, figuring out what food we were going to have at the reception and who was bringing it, etc.
And then... it happened.
On Monday, August 12, I didn't feel quite right. I decided to work from home. Heidi was out of town. That evening, as I was getting Anna to bed, I began to feel worse. My stomach ached terribly. Great, I thought. I'm going to get the stomach flu right before our wedding.
Well, that would actually have been MUCH better than what ended up happening.
I tossed and turned all night. The pain spread to my right side and I realized this was no stomach flu. Heidi came home late that night and urged me to go to the hospital, but I tried to tough it out. I took Anna to day care the following morning, and began to drive to work.....and then I finally decided to listen to my body. I turned my car around and headed for the Emergency Room.
The pain was increasing and all I could think was, (1) why is this happening right before my wedding, and (2) what am I going to do about work? As I lay there waiting for tests and pain medication, I prayed it was just an ovarian cyst. That had happened to me before, and it went away on its own.
No such luck.
By 2:00 that afternoon, I was in surgery for the first time ever, having my appendix removed.
At the same time, our loved ones were already mobilizing to help us. People were aware of what was going on thanks to Heidi's posts on Facebook. She and Kelsey came to stay with me and comfort me before surgery, about which I had had a serious phobia for some time - in part because it's inherently scary to go under the knife and under anesthesia, and in part because of the medical malpractice work I do for a living.
I have seen so much of what can go wrong. And I didn't want it to happen to me.
Heidi called my boss and my parents to keep them updated. Kelsey was available to help with Anna. They all visited me later in the day. Poor Anna was upset seeing me "all hooked up to wires," as she put it, but she had insisted on seeing her mama and that was not going to stop her. She crawled up in the bed next to me (as I carefully cradled my healing belly and prayed she wouldn't roll over on me) and snuggled - the best medicine ever.
Thankfully, the surgery was a success, and I was so relieved I had decided to seek care before things got out of hand. My appendix was in pretty rough shape, according to the doctors. But, by the end of the next day, I was still not feeling well, and I couldn't even pee on my own yet, and some genius decided I should go home.
Well, that was short-lived. Early the next morning I became very sick, and Heidi took me back to the ER. Now it was Thursday the 15th, a mere two days before our wedding. My initial fear that maybe we wouldn't be able to have the ceremony had subsided when the surgery went well, but now it was back as full-force panic.
While I was returning to the hospital, my soon to be mother-in-law, who had spent the night, was at our house with Kelsey, ready to help with whatever we needed. Our friend Corrie and her daughters Ceyanne and Izzy were helping too. They helped with Anna, got us food, and tried to keep the situation at our house under control while we were gone. Our friend Jay took our crazy puppy Luna for a walk and then to his place so things wouldn't be so chaotic. Our friend Marcy offered to help with Emmett.
Meanwhile, I had a slight surgical complication and was having a nasogastric tube placed. Let me just say how fun that was.
IT SUCKED.
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| Normally, I would NEVER post this horrible a picture of myself. But it just goes to show how amazing it was that things turned out so well for us..... |
But I had no choice. I had been telling each medical provider with whom I came into contact in the last few days that my wedding was coming up. When I asked if I really needed the tube, dreading it because I would be conscious for it, I, in turn, was asked whether I wanted to make it to my wedding. I could stay there for a few days, suffering, and hope the fluid and air in my belly would go away on its own, and miss my wedding, or I could endure a very unpleasant 24 hours, get it under control faster, and try to make it there.
So I sucked it up and dealt with the tube.
Stay tuned for Part 2 - The Wedding!
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