I Swear I'm Not A Junkie

So it's been a while since I actually updated my blog with what we have been up to! I am feeling a lot better. Still really tired all the time and if I get up and do a lot my stomach starts to really hurt but other than that I feel great compared to 2 weeks ago! So here's what we have been up to:

On Monday (my birthday) I had to go back into the hospital for the Lithotripsy (Light Wave Shock Therapy) procedure. It was just a same day surgery so that was definitely nice. Anyone that knows me though knows how much I love birthdays and celebrating them and I love mine 10 times more!! Stupid kidneys had to ruin my birthday...I won't ever forgive them! For those of you that have been in the hospital know that before a nurse or anyone talks to you they make you repeat your name and birthday to verify they have the right patient...do you know how annoying it gets after like the 10th time of someone saying "Oh its your birthday today. Are you so excited that you get to come to the hospital for your birthday" or something to that effect? Needless to say I was depressed and sad and in pain...not a good birthday. I did get a $25 gift certificate from the hospital to Brick Oven though as a "Sorry you're here on your b-day" present which was nice (I would have preferred $25 off my hospital bill but I'll take what I can get!) I also got a couple collapsed veins and a whole lot of bruises from a nice nurse who couldn't get the IV right!! Double thanks to her! I hate walking around now in short sleeve shirts because I feel like everyone is starting at my arms (the other arm looks equally bruised and battered) wondering what kind of drugs I am on or if my husband beats me (the answers are none and no in case you are wondering) So back to the hospital...so we got there at 2:45 like instructed only to find out that my surgeon was running late. He works out of Payson Hospital and came up for the procedure for me so you can't really complain when he is coming out of his way for one patient! One nurse let us move into a post-op room that was a lot bigger than the pre-op rooms and also had tv's since it was my birthday so that helped pass the time. They came in and offered Trent all sorts of snacks and sodas while he waited...lucky him...I had been starving now for almost 24 hours and my mouth was so dry! So after 3+ hours of waiting I found out that it was my turn to go into surgery.

The anesthesiologists told me what would happen and then proceeded to sing happy birthday to me...it was quite hilarious and actually helped a lot with my nerves! Then it was off to the procedure room. They had me sit in this bed that is kind of like a recliner chair. Don't remember much after that point until I was in the recovery room and someone was standing over me saying over and over "Emily you really need to wake up now" One thing I have found is that I have a hard time recovering from general anesthesia and while the normal person can start waking up in less than an hour it takes me closer to two and then I am still really groggy.

Once I got back to Trent in my post-op room I found out why the chair was reclined. Apparently they fill up the bottom (underneath my stomach area) with water and then the machine moves over the top of me and so I was sopping wet as well as the bed I was laying on. I could barely keep my eyes open so I had Trent and a nurse help me change into dry clothes. I then laid there for a good couple hours before they would let me go home. Apparently I have really shallow breathing and so they wouldn't let me leave until I got my oxygen levels up so one of the nurses was teaching me how to breathe and showed Trent how to watch my levels. If it would drop below what it was suppose to be Trent would wake me up and help me focus on my breathing. Once I had kept my oxygen levels at normal for a certain amount of time (I was in and out of things so you will have to ask Trent if you want exact details) they said that I could go home.

Trent took me home and then went and filled my many prescriptions and picked up Erika from his Mom's house (I think!!) the next couple days are foggy. I seriously felt like someone had used me as a bunching bag and it hurt to breathe, sit down, lay down, breathe, swallow, use the bathroom, walk, etc. I slept a lot and only could sit down for about 5 minutes at a time before I felt all dizzy and like I was going to throw up everywhere. I have to collect and strain my urine until I go back in on Monday...really disgusting and really annoying if you ask me! It takes like 20 minutes just to go to the bathroom and I have to make sure that I go at least once every 3 hours...totally annoying! I will be happy when that is over with! The good news is though that I have seen pieces of the stones so the Lithotripsy worked! I had a total of 6 stones when I went in two weeks ago. The surgeon removed two of them when he drained the infection from my kidneys when I was admitted on Wednesday and then the remaining 4 were blasted on Monday.

The final process in this whole mess happens on Monday. I am once again admitted to the hospital where I will have x-rays taken and if everything looks good I will be put out again and the doctor will go up in and remove the stints. I will be so happy once those are out too! Those are almost worse than the stones! There are literally a pain in my side! I found out Friday night that I go in at 9 am on Monday morning and should be in the hospital for approx. 5 hours as long as everything goes okay...I am guessing it will be 6 since I don't recover so well from the anesthesia. So once again we are going back to the hospital...I hate the hospital and I hate feeling sick and I am going to HATE the bills even more once they come!! I am pretty sure we have met our deductible for this year for sure! Thank heavens for health insurance I would be having a mental breakdown right now if we didn't have it!

So enough crappy depressing news on to happier things...like my birthday party! Trent and his family threw a birthday party for me last night at his parents house! It was like the 2nd time I had actually left the house in like a week so it was really nice. His Mom cooked this homemade potpie stuff she cooks that I like. It was really easy on my stomach (since I haven't eaten anything but crackers in like 2 weeks either) and everyone else likes it too so its a win win situation! Trent and Erika had gone done to his parents house earlier that day and decorated everywhere and picked up my b-day cake. He got me a princess cake and when he went to go pick it up he was like man there are way to many words on that cake for it to just say Happy Birthday Emily...man they messed up! So he gets the cake and the baker had written "Happy Birthday Princess Emily" on the cake...BAHAHA....the girl was like "Hope your little girl likes it!" Trent looked at his order form and sure enough it just said Happy Birthday Emily...they just decided to be creative! Oh well it was good for a laugh! I will have to get pictures from my Mother In Law of me blowing out candles and such since we didn't get any.

I got money, a cute necklace, cute earrings (green of course), fun summer dishes (green as well!!) , a glue gun, and a fire proof file safe. I have been wanting a filing cabinet for forever to keep all of our information in one place and so Trent got this one so we can put all our important files somewhere that will make it if our house burns down which is really awesome. He is really good at getting gifts that aren't on my list that I really like...he doesn't give himself enough credit for this! From my side of the family I got gift cards to go shopping (wohoo!) , the new Rachel Ray Cookbook (love it...it actually has recipes of things I would actually want to eat and lots of pictures!) and an external portable hard drive so I could back up all my pictures and info on my computer and keep it in my new fireproof safe for safe keeping of all of our memories!

I feel really spoiled that I got the attention I did! I also got the following flowers from Trent & Erika, Work, and My Parents and Brothers! They look so pretty and make the house smell so good! That night Trent's parents had Erika spend the night so we could go see a movie and then sleep in and have some overall peace and quiet. It was nice (but exhausting)! So now that I am drained and need to go to bed I think I will end this post! I just turned around to see this:

I know...I am a horrible mother. It is almost midnight and Erika is still up (well not anymore). How cute is this though. She climbed up on Trent's lap and fell asleep...what a Kodak moment! This week I have totally slacked at being a Mom. Erika has spent more days in her pj's, eating breakfast at 11:30, missing meals, staying up late, having 3 naps a day (with Mom of course!)! Please don't turn me into CPS! I swear once this is all over I will get back to cleaning my house, doing laundry, paying attention to my family, and cooking dinner...until then...its on the back burner!