Day #41- Instant Replay?!?

July 1st. Wow. Where is my summer going? I can't describe how nice it is to be home on this wonderful day. But I wish I was better able to get things done at school I need to do. But I refuse to leave my wife alone still. She is much more important than anything else I have to do.

So, to recap, I had to end that last post last night (June 30th) because we had to head to the ER in Provo. My wife had been feeling ill all day and started to feel achy all over, had a temperature, was restless, and the incision ached. Our home health nurse told us to go immediately to the ER in Provo. So, we put that plan into action pronto.

After I signed off, it was craziness in the house. I quickly made several calls and had people here ready to help with the kids in less than 5 minutes. I also had a friend over to help give a priesthood blessing before we headed out.

It only took three trips back in the house before I thought we had everything we needed. We still didn't (I forgot my computer bag for example), but oh well. We headed out on the two hour drive to the Provo ER. We tried to let everyone know what was going on while we were traveling. Sorry if we left someone out. We were a little pre-occupied.

We arrived at the UVRMC ER around midnight and got her registered and in. I was amazed we didn't even have to wait. I don't know if it was because there wasn't really anyone else there OR if they pulled up her medical chart and decided to admit her pronto. Either way, within 10 minutes of walking through the door, she was in an exam room in her little hospital gown laying in the bed waiting. Talk about NIGHTMARE Deja Vu. Fast forward 20 more minutes and we have an IV, a medical history, and a decision to do a CT Scan with contrast to check for infection in her abdomen.

It was 1:20am when she started drinking the CT liquid. She had to drink a small amount every 10 minutes and then wait an additional 20 minutes before they could take her to the CT Scanning room. I was struggling so hard to stay awake. I kept almost falling off the little chair they had set up for me. It was quite nerve wracking to sit and wait for the doctor to return and present the results. I couldn't decide if the long wait was a sign that they were doing a close inspection from previous CT Scans or if they were making preparations to get her ready for another surgery. Between that and fighting to stay awake it was a VERY long early morning. It was around 4:30am when the doctor came in apologizing for the delay. He said that the radiologist took longer to look at it than he thought.

He told us that there were no visible abscesses. He said that the incisions were looking really good and that the fluid around them was shrinking as well. So that was good.

He presented several scenarios:

1) He could treat her as if she had an infection, but he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to overuse the anti-biotics.

2) He could treat her as if she had a UTI and give her the anti-bitoics for that.

3) He could write the prescription for the UTI anti-biotic and then we could fill it if the culture returns positive.

4) He said that they could do nothing and discharge her. (This was NOT an option for us and we made that clear).

We explained that we lived 2 hours away and wanted the "plan" that would best serve us.

We decided that he would do a culture for the UTI and we would take a prescription for  the anti-biotic and fill it if needed. That seemed to work for all the parties involved.

When we finally left the ER it was 5am. We were exhausted. We knew that we wouldn't make it home safely, although I will admit it was VERY tempting to attempt. We ended up at Mr. Z's house. We didn't hardly move until almost 11am. We got ready for the day and got ready to head home when we were offered lunch and a movie. We decided that we would accept. After returning to Mr. Z's  home, we visited for a bit and then headed out to come home.

We made it home around 7pm and headed right over to my brother's to get my kids. My daughter was at bible school still, so we visited for a bit before heading out to pick her up. With the herd in the van, we returned to our home. AGAIN! Yea.

This evening has been spent simply spending time with my babies.

Oh, I guess I should share that Dr. G called my house this morning. My daughter told him that we had to take my wife back to the hospital. lol. He had also called and left a message on my cell-phone but most of it was static, so I am not sure what happened there. I can't really explain the feelings of having that man on the other end of the phone. I am not going to give a transcript of the call, but I will say that I didn't raise my voice in anger, I didn't feel angry anymore towards him, and I was able to communicate our frustrations and concerns. I could tell he was very sorry, very worried about my wife, and very willing to help in any way possible. He shared many ideas of what he had in mind and we discussed several options. I made it clear to him that we would not be suing him, that we didn't hate him, and that we planned to simply pick up the pieces and move on in our lives. We also told him that we would be finding a new doctor as we felt it would be awkward and there was a trust issue, but that maybe someday in the future we would think about returning to him. I expressed my anger over what his nurse had told my wife and expressed how inappropriate her comment was. I think I was able to share everything that I wanted to share. So, that is that.

It is VERY late and I am VERY tired. Tomorrow is another day with more stories waiting to be discovered and shared. Until then...

Later...

Day(s) #39 & 40- Work and Play...and A Trip to the ER. AGAIN!!!!

 Wednesday, Day 39 of our adventure. I plan to continue this style of posting until after our visit to both her doctors up North in mid-July. I figure at that point we will know what is going on and then we can resume "normal" completely. I do want to include the Family Fun Event Benefit Dinner that some wonderful ladies in town are putting together for us. It will be on July 18th in the Green River City Park. It starts at 5:30pm and goes until 8:30pm. From what we know there will be a dinner, auction, ball game, and lots of games for kids to play (carnival style, I believe). We are grateful for all who are working to set it up, and look forward to being there to thank everyone in person for all their help, love, and support. We hope to see you there too! :)

Wednesday started off with having my oldest son at the church by 8:00am. He had a cub scout event that he needed to be at. I wish I could have gone with him, but I needed to be home so I could watch the baby while my wife went for a walk with some friends. She had a great time and I enjoyed spending time with my little herd. I watered the front lawn and flower beds as well as the garden. It was nice to be up and going early as we have still been sleeping until 9am. I guess it is because the kids are all sleeping in longer as well. I guess that is what summer is all about. My son came home shortly after that as well.

After all of that happened, I was able to head to the school and begin the "Clean Sweep" event in my room. I started by emptying out my closet and two of my cupboards. I was able to get one closet cleaned out. My goal is to discard anything that I haven't used in the past two years. This includes teaching resources, materials, and supplies. I hope to get at least two dumpsters full out of my room this summer. I have a donate table that teachers can go through to see if there is anything that they can use in their classrooms before I toss it out. It has been nice to do so far and I think the final product will be great.

We stayed at the school (my wife had walked over with the kids for the free lunch program and then stayed to help) until about 3pm. We headed home so that we could relax for a while.

We dropped the kids off at bible school at 5pm, ate dinner around 6pm (thanks SO much again for all the help) and then went to my parents house to visit. With only my two little ones, it was a nice, quiet visit. When bible school ended, I went and picked up the kids and we finished watching America's Got Talent (whatever!) and The Voice! Finale before heading home and ending a good productive day.




Day 40- June 30th. It is hard to believe that it has been 40 days since this whole series of events began. My plan was to get get up early and head to the school and work. That didn't happen. We awoke to thunder and lightning. It was AWESOME! I loved hearing the rain, and it made the day nice and cool. I taught a voice lesson around 10:30. We sent two of our boys with my parents to the races in Price and then we had lunch and enjoyed several visitors. I love when people stop by to see my wife. It really brightens her day, something she can really use.

I dropped the two other kids off at vacation bible school. I promised them that after they finished we would all get some ice cream at the Chow Hound. When I returned home, I noticed that my wife wasn't feeling very good. I couldn't tell if it was the heat of the house, the flu, or, heaven forbid, an infection. We went to pick up the kids from bible school and headed to get ice cream. My wife ordered items, but didn't eat any of it. That began to freak me out. I knew this game and I wasn't going to have it.

We left and came home and I called home health. The nurse told us to go immediately to the ER in Provo. So, I am going to sign off so we can do that...

Later...

A Trip to the ER (Blah)

Yes, it is true. I went to the ER on Sunday. Happy Halloween to me. For the full story read the excerpt from my wife (with some of my additional commentary added in. Being I was mostly not conherent the whole time, I think we will go with her version!

From my wife's blog:
      Sunday started out as a normal day.  Everyone was feeling pretty good.  Halfway through Primary, Ian came and found me and told me that his stomach hurt.  He was in tears, so John decided to take him home.  When the rest of us got home from church, we ate lunch around 2pm and had a pretty relaxing day.  We watched TV snuggled under a blanket, I worked on my ward newsletter, the kids played.  John started not feeling well (again) and getting a headache and a fever.  About 8:30pm the kids were getting hungry, and as it was almost bedtime and we hadn't done anything about dinner yet, I put Eli in his high chair and was going to whip something up for them to eat real quick.  While I was doing this, John went to the bathroom.  The next thing I heard was a faint bang, and a few seconds after that the kids yelling, "Dad fell!!" I went running into our bedroom to find the lamp knocked off the nightstand, the Kleenex box smashed in the windowsill, and John laying on the floor next to the bed with his head against the wall about 6 inches from the floor.  It seriously took me about 30 seconds to wake him up.  The kids were freaking out, Zander was crying, and after I got everyone calmed down, we got John on the bed.  He said he didn't know what had happened.  He went to the bathroom, started feeling dizzy, so he walked along his sink, the tub, and my sink to the door so he could lay down on the bed.  He thought he had made it there, but apparantly passed out before he got that far.  He kept complaining that his hip hurt, but it wasn't the side I found him on, and I don't think he could have rolled over from where I found him, so we're not sure what happened.  He also had a few scrapes above his left eye, again, not the side he fell on. After making sure he was okay, I asked him if he wanted a blessing.  He said yes, so I called his Dad and a neighbor (thanks, Dale!) to come over.  His mom came with dad, and called Shlisa, John's sister in law,  to come check him out. (She is an EMT) Thomas and Shlisa came and after giving him his blessing and making sure he was okay, Shlisa suggested we take him to the clinic.  He's been having migranes which don't run in his family for about a week and a half, and sometimes he feels lots of pressure behind his right eye and it goes blurry.  She said since we didn't know how hard he hit his head when he fell it would be a good idea.  I called the local P.A. and had him meet us at the clinic.  Being Sunday, they weren't open.  They did a urine sample which came back normal, and a strep test that was negative. (John's throat started feeling really dry that afternoon.)He didn't like that John was only 35, and having 3 or 4 migranes the past week either and was worried about Encephalitis (swelling of the brain). He wanted blood work done and possibly a CT scan.  Since we are rural, if they did the blood work there, they wouldn't get the results until Tuesday and he didn't want to wait that long. They gave John some tylenol, and so, thus came a trip to the ER.  By this time it was almost 10:00pm.  John's dad offered to drive us, and his Mom stayed with the kids and got them to bed. (Thank you both!)  
   We arrived at the ER in Price at 10:45pm and by 11:15 John was admitted and in a bed with an IV and blood samples taken.  Around 11:30 an ambulance came in with a patient that had diabetes, congestive heart failure, and wasn't really coherent.  Of course with our luck as it is, they put him in the bed next to us, so we got to listen to him wail and scream for the entire time we were there.  He wasn't really comunicative with the nurses.  Just kept wailing away. :)  We waited until 1am to see Dr. Perkins.  He came in and did the usual temp, light in the throat, eyes, etc.  He said he could see some puss way back in his right sinus. (where all the pressure, and blurriness is occuring).  He also said he has a virus that is related to Herpes on the roof of his mouth and in his throat.  He had me look at the spots so I could tell if there were any more, or they got bigger after we went home.  They looked like pimples.  Really red with a white head.  He wanted a CT scan done (he was worried about the puss behind his eye and wanted to make sure that everything was okay everywhere else in his head.  The Dr. also told us that they may possibly do a lumbar puncture depending on the results of his bloodwork.
  They took John for his CT scan at 1:30am.  While he was gone, they moved us across the way to a bed that had opened up.  The nurses felt bad we were stuck next to the wailing man.  Although we could still hear him, it was much quieter. :)  They brought John back at 1:36am.  
  At 2:24am Dr. Perkins came back in with the results of the CT scan.  He said his brain was normal, which was what he wanted to see.  John also has some pollups and systs in his sinus' on both sides.  His septum in his nose curves to the right, and we may need to have those things taken care of in the future.  We weren't really surprised to hear this--his mom and his brother have both had surgery to take care of the same thing. John's blood and urine all came back normal, so no lumbar puncture, yea!!   The Dr. said that they usually don't put people on an antibiotic for sinus infections, but since it's been going on for 10-12 days, it was necessary.  To help with the antibiotic (they are hard on your stomach) he told us to get Kefir yogurt to coat his stomach.  He said to drink lots of fluids, and to get lots and lots of rest.  For the virus in his throat he told him to chew sugar free gum like Stride, or Orbit.  There is an ingredient in there that fights the bacteria in those kinds of infections.  We thought that was interesting.
  The nurse came in at 2:44am to take the IV out, gave him his first dose of antibiotic, and released us from the hospital.  We were out of the hospital at 2:55am.  Of course, at that late hour, there was no grocery stores open in Price, so we couldn't get the yogurt, and just came home.  
John's dad stopped for Gas in Wellington and to get a drink.  The clerks were doing shift change and were counting out the till, so we didn't get out of there until almost 3:30am.  
  We made it home around 4:30 and after figuring out how to set the alarm (that's usually John's job), fell into bed.  I got 3 whole hours of sleep. John got a few more as he slept on and off at the hospital.  I had to get the kids up and ready for school, and with two little ones at home, a nap was not in the forcast. I was actually feeling very blessed that I wasn't feeling the effects of my late night.  I was able to care for John and the little boys and even canned a few batches of apple juice.
  John's parents went back to Price to fill John's prescription and get the yogurt and gum for him.  They needed to fill a prescription anyway, and it made my day a lot easier!  Thank you, again!  We could have had the clinic fill the prescription, but they can only dispense once a day at 3:30pm.  We decided we didn't want to wait that long, and our grocery store doesn't carry the yogurt anyway.
  Ian called me from school at 11:30am saying his stomach hurt.  I asked if he wanted me to come get him, and he said he wanted to wait until 1pm so he didn't mess up his perfect attendance record. (He hasn't missed a day of school ever!)  I told him to call me if it got too bad, but I never heard back from him.  John and I decided to take him into the clinic.  He just hasn't been himself.  His appetite was less than half of normal, and he usually doesn't complain unless it's really bad.  After school we ended up at the clinic (2nd time in two days).  The P.A. just shook his head at me. :)  He concluded that he thinks Ian has an ulcer.  (**They are NOT caused by stress.  Just an overproduction of acid in the stomach.  My 10 year old is not worrying himself to death--just thought you should know.)   :)  So Ian is now on an acid reducer as a two week trial to make sure that is really what it is.  He's been on it two days now, and hasn't had a stomach ache, so yea!  That was a fairly easy fix.  The P.A. told us that after a month we could reduce the dose, and after 6 months, reduce it again, and hopefully after that he'll be off of it completely.  Hope it works! :) 




Here is my version:


I was watching Ghost Hunter's Live Event. I needed to use the restroom. I had had a fever all afternoon so I was huddled under a blanket. I hate having to get out of the blanket where I am all warm and toasty to go to the bathroom. As I stood up, I felt a little lightheaded, but not more than normal. I headed to the bathroom. I started feeling nauseous as decided to head back to bed. I remember feeling like I was going to faint. I remember calling for my wife as I worked my way around the edge of the bathroom to my bed. The next thing I know I am being shaken and I see my wife and kids looking at me. I was feeling a little freaked out and then the pain and lightheadedness hit me again. I finally made it up on the bed. After that most everything is a little hazy. I remember going to the clinic, answering questions, riding to Price, and off and on in the hospital. By the time we left, I was feeling really pretty good. (I won't be when I get all the bills. I may have to sell my house to pay my bills- :) )


Thank heavens my parents were around to help out. We would have really been in trouble without them here. Thanks mom and dad for your help and love. They made a special trip to Price the next day to get my medication AND yogurt the dr. recommended. Again, thanks mom and dad. And thanks to the school staff who helped my sub (who had NO lesson plans provided) make it through the day (I have amazing students as well!).


I am glad to report that I am feeling much better these days. I hope that it continues. I was getting very tired of feeling sick! I am still sore, I am still a little tired and weak, but I feel a 1000000000% better. 


I have to thank my amazing wife for all her love and support. I know I scared her and I feel bad about that too! Sorry honey! :) Love ya!


Later...