Running With Hope (Hebrews 12:1-3): Hospital Update 3.28.17

To say it's been an eventful and rough 5 days since I last posted would be an understatement. I've tolerated the IV antibiotics well over all. I was furiously working on trying to finish a surprise DVD slideshow for my Uncle Mike's birthday, but didn't quite get it done, so made some adjustments. Then my port got sluggish and there was a fiasco and it got deaccessed without being flushed with heparin and then two nurses tried getting it, but couldn't get blood return and the second nurse that tried was super painful when she tried to flush it (stinging and hurt so bad...wasn't good). They were thinking it was clotted so the doctor ordered a "clot buster" and on Monday one of my favorite nurses tried and got it on the first stick WITH blood return which meant it wasn't clotted. They pulled my other IV they had had to start since my port wasn't working for Friday/Saturday. I ended up in a lot of pain Saturday night...so much so that I took one dose of morphine for sinus and lung pain, then woke up about 12:30 with tons of abdominal pain--it was like a 10 on the pain scale for me which is pretty bad, so the doctored ordered another one time higher dose of morphine and when I woke up briefly a few hours later I was super dizzy and light headed. Well about 5AM (just as my nurse went home and the charge nurse took over for her) I started throwing up and couldn't stop. It was absolutely miserable. Due to so many different averse reactions I can't take any anti-nausea meds so they ended up giving me Ativan or Lorazapam. It's a pretty strong drug that's typically used for anxiety, but it makes you super sleepy so it helped me sleep through the nausea so I stopped throwing up. The sad part was I was continuing to throw up Sunday, the only day Jord had to come down all day, so they had to give me more Ativan, so I basically slept the entire time Jord was here. I needed it, but it was a bummer not to be able to talk or really remember the visit because Ativan is like a short acting valium, so I don't really remember much from Sunday.

And it knocked me out so good, that when my brother got here to see me he couldn't get me to wake up so Justin finally has a reverse picture cause he's usually the one that falls asleep or won't wake up.

I have absolutely no recollection of him being here. Netta, Mike Pattie, Travis, and Cassie also came to visit and our surprise worked--Uncle Mike was completely blown away by the video. I absolutely LOVE making them--it's so fun to encourage people and look back over the memories. Netta videoed people on her phone asking them what they thought of the video and I remember bits and pieces but I told her today that I need to watch them again so I can actually remember them now that I'm not on Ativan LOL.

Yesterday was a much better day. No throwing up, no Ativan, so I actually remember the day. Sadly, although Gina got my port in one stick, there's a leak or something going on with that because it was stinging and swollen to the point where I was in tears in so much pain. So they had to stop using it again and start another IV in my other arm so I'm now on my third IV and they are leaving my port accessed because it's not infected but something is definitely not right with it. It's super frustrating because the whole reason I got a port last May after I got better was to make treatment easier. Thankfully, my regular IV's have been so good that they have been able to draw labs from them instead of having to poke me extra times. Both arms are sore and my port area is still swollen, although not as much as some of the fluid has absorbed into the skin. Thankfully it was mainly saline and not a medication running through the port at the time. The plan now is to get an ultrasound done on the port and depending on what that shows, I may end up in Interventional Radiology (IR) where they can inject dye to see if there is a leak. If there is a leak, then the port will have to be replaced which means minor surgery.

None of these things are what I had planned, but none of them surprised God. Not one of these changes to MY plans came to me until it came through the hands of Jesus--while it has been a more challenging 5 days, it has also been 5 days that has me desperately needing Jesus, and as Joni Eareckson Tada says, that's a good place to be. I've done these hospitalizations so many times now, that there is a part of me that is prideful and goes, "Ok, I've got this now." Nope. I don't got this and I need Jesus every step of the way and these challenges and setbacks, while frustrating, are also bringing me to the end of myself and making me depend heavily upon Him and His strength because there is no way I could make it on my own.

Due to all these things, the time seems to be flying and sinus surgery is T-minus 6 days now. I'm looking forward to getting that behind me so that I can start healing and work towards getting home--although we will be moving out of our rental and into Mom and Dad's house as soon as I get out of the hospital...and one exciting thing is that we put an offer in on a house and they accepted, so pending inspection, we will once again be homeowners! I'm really excited about that prospect and praying that the inspection goes smoothly--the inspection is Monday at 3:30 if you would like to join us in praying!

Here are some pictures of my hospital adventures over the last 5 days since I last updated you. Hope you enjoy them! Oh yeah, I got a mini-fridge too, on loan from some family friends for which I am extremely grateful because then I don't have to worry about my Kombucha or Almond milk or other things like that getting thrown out after a week when they clean out the fridge. Yay for the "little" (but really big) things! :)