Doing Better!!

Im gonna try and make this short. I am doing much better compared to the first week and hospital stay. I actually am still on pain medicine and cannot drive yet. It has been a month since the surgery and each day seems to get better. I still have bad days here and there but the good days out weight them. Let me tell you I am definitely glad to be home. We had a time in the hospital. I was in there for more days than they originally told me. I also had a few other issues come up that they being the doctors said would likely not happen. Bradley did a wonderful job of keeping everyone informed. He also has been amazing through all of this. He is the BEST supporter and has done a fantastic job of taking care of me. This sounds kinda cheesy, but I love him so much more and in a deeper way than before. There were definitely things that no husband should ever have to do that he did and he did them with a caring nurturing attitude. He truly is the BEST and I Love Him So Much for that!!!!!

I have learned a few things from all of this, the first being I don't like IV's (many things can happen with an IV and a lot of the time nurses tend not to believe the pt.) this is just my observation. Second thing is I worried way to much about the catheter....lol it's the next best thing to sliced bread, when you gotta go and you can't, you will do anything it takes for it to happen. Enough said about that one!!! Lastly but not finally, I can see where people get hooked on pain medicine. I definitely am not "hooked" but I don't know if it's in my head or what but it makes everything (Pain, aches, and spasms) feel a lot better. I could go on and on with things I have learned and likes/dislikes about all of this. Let me just tell you that after all of this, I am sure giving birth will be a piece of cake...who knows maybe I will even try to do it naturally!!!! LOL just kidding Epidural here I come!!!

Anyways, I am doing much better. I still walk pretty slow but atleast I don't need my walker anymore. LOL If school started tomorrow, I would definitely say I still need time to recoup but hopefully in the next month all will be much better and I will be getting back to normal. I get a little scared just thinking about all the stuff I have to do for this school year and my energy level now and right now they don't match up. I feel lazy with sitting in a chair and laying in bed a majority of the day but it is the only thing that makes my back feel better. Believe me I would much rather be out running the roads than sitting inside with aches and spasms. Maybe later for all the curious folks out there I will post a picture of the scar. It is pretty long much longer than the dr. Originally told Bradley and my family after the surgery. It actually looks good...it is not bloody or gross looking nor does it have any stitches on the outside. The stitches are inside and I was glued up on the outside so it looks pretty good. I just have to get over the long scar that will be with me for the rest of my life. Again thank you for all the prayers and concerns. God is Good and continues to heal me each day. He truly has been my Rock and the One I look to for comfort!!!! God is amazing and I am so thankful to be one of HIS!!!!

~ Home ~

I'll go ahead and apologize to all the people that check this regularly and haven't had any updates in the last several days. We DID make it home safely.

The drive home was Kristin's worst nightmare. Every bump in the road was painful. The 5 hour drive turned into about 9 hours. She was never more relieved then the minute we pulled into our driveway.

Since then, the "nurse button" somehow got switched around and seemed to be directed at me. Even though it was hard work, it was fun to spend that quality time caring for Kristin. It was a full time job, however, hence the poor blog updates...

She has made big improvements over the last couple of days. She is starting to be able to do a lot of things on her own. She's starting to get a pretty decent appetite and she's also walking around the house a little without any help from the walker or a person. Some of the pain has subsided, being replaced by discomfort. Just the first step toward full recovery.

This is going to probably conclude my updates. Thanks to all who read and posted comments. They were very encouraging. The next update will probably come from Kristin herself...when she feels up to sitting at the uncomforatble computer desk chair for a while.

Thanks again.....

Doctor's orders...

Yesterday, Kristin was pretty groggy most of the day. I think it was due to having the catheter back in. When she finally got it taken out, she started acting a little more lively. So here's how it works...they took the catheter out of her at 6 pm, being sure to completely drain her bladder before they took it out. Then they tell her she has to pee before 12 midnight or the catheter has to go back in. It was already hard enough for her to pee, much less do it under pressure.

So the race was on. We called a couple of people to say special prayers for her bladder, then we set a schedule for her to try to pee every hour. By the time she had the first urge to go, it was 9 pm. So we had basically 4 trips to the bathroom before time was up. We started getting worried after the first couple trips resulted in an empty toilet. Then finally, by the grace of God, it all started working. From that point on, she was a whole new person. She just acted like she felt soooo much better.

We had the usual busy night last night, except with a few more trips to the bathroom added on top. But it was a good night. The closer it go to this morning, the longer spans she was getting between waking up. I think she had a couple of times where she might have had close to two hours straight of sleep.

The doctor came in this morning and was glad to see that she had pee'd well over the night. He immediately told her she could go home today, whenever she was ready. He answered her questions, wrote a couple prescriptions, then was off on his way. So now, we are waiting on my mom and grandmother to make it out here. They are going to bring us a more comfortable car for Kristin to come home in. Hopefully they'll be here sometime close to noon, maybe 12:30, and then we'll be back off to somewhere familiar.

Thanks to all who have prayed and continue to pray for her recovery!

The usual news...

So, in our first night in a regular room, I got to experience a little of what Kristin's nights have been like. I probably slept around 4 hours total, which was probably double what Kristin was able to sleep. I'm used to getting up after about 7 hours sleep and taking a hot shower and eating a tasty continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Last night left me wore out and glad that we were going home today...

Then the doctor came by...

He decided that the catheter should stay in a full 24 hours before removing it and trying to #1 naturally. That would put her getting it out at 6 pm tonight, therefore keeping her here another night even if everything were to go well. Oh, well. That's not too bad of news, considering that we figured if we were to be released today then we would have to stay in a hotel tonight and leave out in the morning. So regardless of how it worked out, we probably would have left tomorrow anyway. Of course leaving tomorrow is still pending that she is able to do her #1 business naturally. She told me yesterday "I never thought not being able to pee would be what kept me in the hospital longer..." So, although an odd request (and hopefully the only time in my life I'll ever ask for prayer for this), a little prayer for Kristin to be able to go to the bathroom would be nice.

On the other hand, I've got to take back my earlier post about her not having a walker. The nurse got her one last night but this one didn't have the two wheels on the front. It was just a regular ol' "big boy" walker. It was kinda heavy and wasn't as easy to get around on. She walked around with it once last night and then once again this morning. She didn't go too far...maybe just 10 feet or so farther than previous tries (probably about 50-60 feet). She told the doctor she didn't like the walker, so he made sure the physical therapist brought one with wheels with her next time.

A little later she got the one with wheels and you would have thought it came with a motor on it. She got on that thing and took off down the hall. I stepped it off a little after she walked it...it was right about 400 feet total of walking. Pretty big step. The physical therapist told her that the next thing she needs to work on is the speed of her walk. She's trying to get Kristin back to normal walking speed.

That's about it for now. I finally got to take a shower, so I feel better, and Kristin has been sleeping beautifully for almost 2 hours.

Remember that "tee-tee prayer."