Here we go again...

I went to see Dr. Jacob (my obgyn) in June and he was ecstatic with my weight loss!  (I've lost around 80 pounds since I saw him last year.) He told me to lose weight and I would not hurt as much.  I was kind of frustrated that I was still hurting from my surgeries 2 years ago, and I had some hernias in my abdomen, that while they didn't hurt, they stuck out and made me feel like I was 5 months pregnant all the time. Case in Point: Family pictures. lol  Cute pic, but I look 5 months pregnant in it.

 We had talked about my hernias and things last year (and last December with my regular doctor-Dr. Kimball) and they both said the same thing, "As long as they are not bothering you, we'll just let you continue to heal."  This year, Dr. Jacob said, You've gotten yourself healthy, let's fix those hernias!  He also talked about removing my extra skin because that may have been pulling on my scar tissue and causing some of the pain, and removing scar tissue that had built up.  He also said that it may fix all these issues so that I may not have to wear my abdominal binder every time I exercised.  That would be nice!  He gave me the name of 2 surgeons at the same office as Dr. Lichti (he performed my surgeries 2 years ago), but said he didn't want me to go to Dr. Lichti because these other two were younger and more up to date with current practices. Lol.  Wouldn't have mattered, Dr. Lichti retired. Because we wanted to wait until our insurance reset, I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Cook on September 11, 2013.  I was kind of nervous to hear what he had to say, and excited at the same time.  Having some of the problems I've been having corrected would be awesome!  I was not, however, looking forward to more surgery.  We went and saw Dr. Cook and we talked about what was going on, he looked over all my past surgeries (which took him forever to do), and we discussed what Dr. Jacob had told me (Dr. Cook said it would be the same surgery as last time, I was just healthy going into it--scary!).  He said that I was a great candidate for surgery and how about we do it on the 19th, the next Thursday! Aaaagghhhh!  I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't, "let's do this next week." lol  I couldn't do it the next week because of Melon Days.  I kind of had a commitment there.  We looked at his schedule (he was leaving town for a vacation and wanted to have it done enough time before that, or wait until after that so he wouldn't be gone while I was in the hospital), and we checked ours and decided that September 27th was the day. My surgery was scheduled as the last surgery of the day. Because it was going to be 4-5 hours long, Dr. Cook wanted to be sure he had enough time to do everything.  The morning of my surgery, I got a call from the hospital saying that one of their other surgeries fell through and they wanted me there sooner than I could drive to Provo.  Talk about stressful!!  Then, as we were heading out of town, our van broke down.  We had to wait until John's parents could bring us a car and get the van back to town.  I was stressed out and in tears!  Good grief, could anything else go wrong? My parents beat us to the hospital, so at least I got to say hi and bye to them before I went in. :)  We got me all checked in very quickly, talked to Dr. Cook briefly, and then I was whisked away.  John had the little kids with us, so they got to see me shortly after my surgery.  I think it freaked Lindey out a bit to see her mama like that.  She just stood by the bed and held my hand. What a sweetheart!

John's parents brought the rest of the kids up for the weekend, so I got to see all of them that day.  My friend Kelly came and saw me several times during the week I was in the hospital.  I just love her.  She is one of those friends that you can not talk to for several months and pick up just where you left off.

Feeling pretty good, considering. :)

All of my kids with me, before Grandma and Grandpa Millett took Eli and Lindey home with them for the week.  I think it was important for them to see me and know that Mom was going to be alright this time around.

Pictures from where John sat, by my side. :)  Sure do love him and his willingness to go through this again with me!

The board where the nurses would update my progress. :)

One of the things they told me to do while in the hospital was walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.  I had to go on 3-5 walks per day.  I got pretty good at it, and would apparently walk quite fast.  The nurses and other patients in the halls would joke about it.  Before the kids left, Ian challenged me to walk a mile around the nurses station before I came home.  It was 26 laps to make a mile. He had gone on a hike for scouts on Oct. 2nd.  I texted him off and on throughout the week, and I knew he was going on the hike.  I texted him this: "Since you went on your hike-I went on my own--I did it!  Hit one mile in laps tonight, just for you :)"
His response? "That's epic!" Lol  He'd been cheering me on all week long and checking my progress.  I love that boy. :)

My sister, Adrienne, showed up for a surprise visit on Sunday--they were in Salt Lake for a baby blessing.  It was sure great to see her and their family! Melinda also came up and saw me as well.  It's so nice to have great friends who are willing to visit (and spend the night on an uncomfortable hospital couch!). My friend, Heather came with our friend Heidi Taylor who moved away from Green River the end of July.  It was so fun to see them and get to visit! I also had some friends I haven't seen in years come to see me.  Michelle Bunnell Leckie from my CEU college days, and Jamie Bocanegra who was a good friend and neighbor when we lived in Orem.  Both of them were friends that we could pick up right where we left off even though it's been years.  I love that! :)  It was so awesome! See the oval shapes on the board (below) by Adrienne?  I asked Dr. Cook how much skin they had removed off my abdomen and that was the picture he drew to show me.  The big one is skin, and the smaller one is other tissue that was scarred.  He predicted 8-10 pounds gone!  That is so crazy to me!

I had John hang the pictures of my kids on the wall before he left on Sunday. So glad we got those done before my surgery! John wasn't able to sit at the hospital with me this go-around.  I missed him like crazy, but we texted and  talked a lot on the phone, and it was okay.

It was kind of fun that one of John's cousins was one of my nurses. (Sharee Hansen) She brought me some interesting news one day.  They had taken out my appendix (Dr. Cook wanted to make it so they would never have to go into my abdomen for any reason ever again.), and I guess they sent it off to the lab to test it, and it came back positive for appendicitis.  I would have had to have it out anyways!  What a blessing that was. :)
I did have a few things I wanted to note about my hospital stay.  My epidural started to come out the 3rd day, which was not delivering the pain medication the way it should have. They checked it and said it should still be in far enough to give me some meds so they left it alone.  That was so not fun, and until it came out completely they didn't get me regulated on other pain medications, so I was pretty much without pain meds for a full day.  Ouch! Another time I had gone on a walk around the nurses station.  I was doing well enough the nurses let me go by myself.  I just had to have help getting in and out of bed.  After I finished walking, I called the nurse to come and help me.  My friend Kelly had been walking with me and stayed until the nurse showed up, but had to leave then so she could go to work.  I was sitting on the edge of my bed and the nurse got called to go do something else.  She asked if I'd be okay for a couple of minutes, and I said yes.  She left and I waited, and waited for her to come back.  I waited for 15 to 20 minutes.  All I wanted to do was crawl back into bed.  My legs were shaking, and I couldn't lift my legs back into bed by myself, so I was stuck there on the edge of the bed.  The buttons on the hand rail of the bed were not connected, and my nurse call button was on my table, against the wall on the other side of the bed.  So was my cell phone.  John happened to be on his lunch break and gave me a call.  I was in tears because help was on the other end of the phone and I couldn't reach it.  I'm still not sure how I was able to reach it, but somehow I did.  When I told John what was going on, he got off the phone with me and called the nurses station.  He called me back and waited with me until someone came.  It was a good 3 minutes until someone showed up!  John sure wasn't happy!  I was just glad to be back in bed.  I got a visit from risk management, the head nurse and the director of the surgical floor. Lol  They assured me that it would be dealt with. I didn't have that nurse any longer, and I had several of the higher ups checking on me regularly. :)

I was in the hospital for 8 days.  They would have released me on Wednesday because I was doing so well, but John couldn't get away until Friday.  I was secretly glad that I had a couple of extra days to heal before having to be "mom" again.  John came and picked me up on Friday, October 4th,  to take me home.  I walked in the door to find this sign from the kids.  Man, I love them.  :)  I've got the best kids!

This is Dr. Cook and I at my latest appointment on December 18th.  He is happy with my progress and wants to check on me one final time in March.  It has been an experience!  I am still healing, and wearing my abdominal binder every day, but I think good things are to come.  Yes, I am glad that I went through with the surgery.  It can only get better from here! :) Thank you, Dr. Cook!