Where did September go?!?!?!

Wow, I don't know about all of you, but September just flew by me!!! and we experienced a few events that were totally unexpected.

Monday the 9th September I went to have some bloodwork drawn at the hospital in the morning, little knowing that I would be back later that evening to be admitted for a 5 day stay with Pancreatitus!!! I got sick around lunchtime thinking it was just a really bad case of acid reflux, but later in the day when I could no longer hold down any water, I knew it was time to go to the ER.

The kind doctor ran his tests (we were thinking maybe food poisoning)and he came back with information that normal pancreas enzyme levels are around 50-100, mine were over 3,000. We were a bit shocked. They quickly had me on a drip as I was very dehydrated and also gave me morphine which took about a minute to take away the excrutiating pain and sent me to sleep!

Over the next few days they ran a whole bunch of tests which required drawing blood and did ct scans. The upshot being my pancreas was extremely inflamed with a gall stone blocking the duct, and my gall bladder was not functioning properly and would need to be removed. But it was too dangerous to do that with my pancreas being in the condition it was. The remedy? Rest and a liquid diet. For three days it was just that drip, and then I was graciously give broth and jell-o!

Family and friends were a great help during this time in looking after Shaun and our sweet kiddies. It was hard being away from them, but the doc finally released me on the Saturday.

Ten days later I had my gall bladder removed and stayed overnight. I was a bit nervous about the surgery as apart from wisdom teeth removal, this was my first major surgery, but the doctors and nurses were really kind and talked with me about the procedures, even joked about interrogation via anaesthesia ;-) They told me I hadn't said anything as they put me under :-) I remember one of the nurses putting the vanilla smelling mask over my face and taking one breath. That's all. Then I wake up seeing Shaun walking into my hospital room :-)

I had lots of help from dear friends at our church after I returned home. Help with meals, household work and taking care of Hannah and Nate. Such help really is a blessing. We take for granted our stomache muscles. When they are impaired it is so difficult to do anything! But i'm thanking the Lord for how all of this turned out for the best. It has been a bit of a trial, but i'm glad to be over the hurdle and on the mend. Oh, and liquid diet + gall bladder removal = weight loss (for me anyways ;-))

Looking forward to what October will bring ;-)

S.