Me Being Sick!

By Saturday night on August 6th I was feeling absolutely terrible. I went to bed early hoping I'd feel better in the morning. Before I went to bed I told Richard how bad I felt. I was having a hard time climbing our stairs. By the time I'd get to the top of the stairs I was dizzy, out of breath and my heart was racing, plus my limbs felt like led. Not a good feeling. I think I kind of freaked him out. We are not used to me being really sick. I just kept pushing it aside thinking I'd feel better the next day. But really, I was getting worse.

So I woke up Sunday morning still feeling terrible. Richard called his mom to have her come over right away so he could take me to the hospital. I kept telling him that that was silly. But luckily, he didn't listen to me. So away we went to Raymond Emergency. They took me very seriously and did a whole bunch of tests on me. A ECG, a chest x-ray a bunch of blood tests and more. Then we waited for the doctor. It was Dr. Greg Smith. He came in and told us that my hemoglobin (so my blood) was own to 92. Normal is 120 or above. I found out that I'm normally at 150. So that explains why I felt so terrible. He said that I was bleeding internally. He said he wasn't too concerned that it was probably just a stomach ulcer. But the puzzling piece was that I was experiencing no pain in my stomach area, which is odd if I had an ulcer. None the less, he gave me medicine to help with that and told me to take it easy for a while and not do anything strenuous so my body could rebuild it's blood.

So we came home and I had a nap. Shelly had taken the kids to Cardston, so that made it nice and quiet at home. I ended up with a really weird but very painful headache later in the afternoon. So bad that I was in tears. We called the hospital and I talked to the ER nurse and she told me to come back in. Richard was getting very worried and asked if I wanted a healing blessing and I said yes. So he called our neighbour, Rod Foggin to come over and help with the blessing.

It was a very comforting blessing and in it I was promised that I would fully heal, but that it was going to be a long road. I wasn't sure what that meant and neither was Richard but we both felt very peaceful after the blessing.

Went back to the hospital and they ended up giving me a shot of morphine to help with the headache which it did. We came home and I went to bed. Woke up the next day and just took it easy. My family rallied together and came up with a plan that would help me with my kids. Mikah and Shaylee phoned and asked if they could both come back with Chase and stay at our house and they would take care of the kids. Of course, we said yes. They got here on Wednesday morning. Loved having them here. Plus Mikah has her licence so she was driving everywhere. I ended up sending them all to Lethbridge that day to get groceries. They were a HUGE help! Plus they kept the kids busy and happy!

I couldn't lay flat because of my headaches, so Richard came home with a new recliner. He's so sweet!

Mikah and Shaylee taking all my kids and going shopping!

They got a bunch of candy for a movie night! Ha ha! Crazy kids!

Well on Thursday I was feeling worse. So much so that I was in tears that afternoon. I just felt terrible. Richard came home and took me into Raymond. They did my blood test and found I had dropped down to 82. That made them concerned. So I ended up going in the ambulance (Richard rode with me) to Lethbridge, where a specialist met us in the ER. By this time I had a horrible headache again. They gave me morphine through an IV. The specialist admitted me into the hospital and told me I was going to have a scope done the next morning.

They took me up to my room and got me situated. Richard stayed for a bit, but I just kept falling asleep cause I was kind of out of it with the morphine. So he ended up going home. My dad had to come in and give him a ride home.

The next morning I was still in a lot of pain with this piercing headache. They wouldn't give me anything because I was going for the scope. Luckily I was one of the first patients with the scope. They got me and the nurses felt bad cause I was crying. So as we were waiting for me to go in, they got me cold wash cloths and put them around me head. It felt better and I was able to close my eyes and almost fall asleep (I had a terrible sleep that night).

They did the scope and took me back upstairs to my room, where Richard was waiting for me. The dr had told me that he'd be right up to explain what was going on. Well we waited and waited and nothing. The nurse came in and asked me to drink this special water because they were taking me down for a CAT Scan in an hour and a half.

To make a very long story a bit shorter, they found in the CAT Scan that I have a tumor in my stomach and also a tumor behind my stomach surrounded by swollen lymph nodes. Kind of shocking. Especially when the Dr is explaining this to us and how he took a biopsy of the tumor in my stomach and sent it off to be analyzed. Both Richard and I were very shocked. The Dr. said that I needed to clear my calender for the rest of the summer and all of fall because this was not going to be a short road we were headed on. He didn't know if it was cancerous or not but he suspected that it is. We were both pretty devastated. It took a few days for it to really hit me. Not the news that we were expecting, that's for sure.

He told us that he's keeping me in the hospital until my blood levels start to go up. So I was in the hospital for 5 days. It's not very fun staying in the hospital. Being poked all the time, and woken up from a dead sleep in the middle of the nights!!

I always had a cold cloth or an ice pack on my head. Really helped!

I was freezing in the hospital, until Richard brought me these awesome, bacon and egg slippers!

Yay I finally get to eat something solid!

As you can see, I was very happy!

And there I am with the ice pack on my head! Ha ha!

My kids were pretty worried about me. They came and visited me on Saturday. Poor DJ wouldn't even come close to me. He was upset and worried and his whole body was shaking. I finally got him to come give me a hug. Then he warmed up to me. Makes me sad to see my kids so worried an upset over me. I loved having them visit me and we had fun laughing and telling stories! Then they had to go! Our families have been amazing in taking care of our kids. I haven't had to worry about them. I knew they were being taken care of. They've had a lot of fun with cousins and grandparents! I'm so very grateful to everyone!

Jill and Mikah taking my kids bridge jumping!

David jumping with Mikah and Shaylee!

I loved getting all these awesome pictures from everyone! My kids had so much fun!

I had lots of visitors on Sunday too and then on Monday DJ and Jill came over and hung out with me for a bit. Oh on Sunday my kids came again and brought me some yummy salads to eat! That made me very happy! I was finally able to eat something.

Brianna and Abbi, when they visited me on Sunday! Love my kids!!

DJ being so goofy on my hospital bed, with my stuffy!! ha ha!

Peek a boo! Loved hearing him laugh!!

So I came home Monday evening. My girls had gone to Cardston to spend time with Shaylee and Mikah at the Stewart Farm. They had so much fun out there! I loved hearing all their crazy things that they did! Crazy girls! Ha ha!

We came to pick up DJ after I got out of the hospital. He was having fun playing basketball with his Uncle David!

My ward has been amazing. Really, I'm blown away with how much people have stepped up and helped us. I've had people message me and send me uplifting posts and texts. Its really been amazing! Plus I haven't had to worry about meals at all. So that helps a lot too. Makes it possible for me to rest and take it easy. Cause that's what I needed to do. I had to call and quit the Handi Bus and then I had to find a full time sub for my school bus and get it OKd by Westwinds Division. Which they did, so that's good. Now it's just taking it day by day and waiting for our next step.