Oh goodness, I have been such a bad Blogger. There, I said it. I can't believe how I have neglected this. I truly wanted this to be a reflection of my life, something I and my family could look back on and remember what was happening in our world.
From the looks of this blog site, life has been pretty boring since right before Christmas. Yes, that is the last time I took time to write here. I was so frantic, trying to get everything ready for the kids to arrive. And they arrived and it was such a whirlwind of activities, well of course there wasn't time to write.
They all left on Friday and I woke up very sick on Saturday. Sick enough that I went to the Dr. for medicine. Severe upper respiratory infection, antibiotics and 2 weeks later, I was feeling well enough to accompany Ed on a business trip to San Antonio. We had so much fun! We took a Segway tour of Downtown San Antonio with friends, had some wonderful meals and lots of laughs. Thankful we did, because it all went down hill from there....
Ed started feeling bad on Sunday, another gall bladder attack. Fortunately he was a little better on Monday and we made our way home. Things were pretty good on Tuesday, but Wednesday I woke up with some now all too familiar symptoms. Lupus had reared it's ugly head once again. And then things got really bad. That pesky gall bladder started acting up again on Thursday and Ed was at the beginning of a two and a half week long nightmare. He toughed it out over the weekend and. I wasn't much help since I was down with a flare. We mostly just lay in bed and were miserable together. With the exception of Saturday, when we frantically pulled the house together for a second look by prospective buyers. More on that later.
And in the midst of all this, my Grandmother passed away on Friday the 17th. Needless to say, we were both too ill to make the trip to Tennessee for her funeral on Monday the 20th. She was my last grandparent and I was unable to be there to say goodbye.
On Monday, Ed finally decided to go to the Dr. They did some blood work and said they would call
in the morning. When he had not heard from them by 10 am, he called them. The nurse called back
and said, "You have a lot going on! Dr. Jennings wants you to go directly to the hospital and be admitted." And so it began.
The gall bladder was not a happy camper and since misery loves company, it got the pancreas very angry as well. Very, very angry. Which then got the liver upset. And that liver was so angry about everything, he turned Ed a not so lovely shade of yellow. Take it from me, it was not a flattering color for Ed. He was diagnosed with Acute Biliary Pancreatitis, extreme dehydration and jaundice. He was in a great deal of pain and was immediately connected to all sorts if IV's. He was a pretty sick boy. This was Tuesday, January 21st. His Lipase numbers were over 9,000. Should be around 100. Like I said, he was pretty sick. By Friday the 24th, his numbers were much better, but some new problems were appearing. He was not sleeping and becoming very confused. On Saturday, the confusion was much worse and he was becoming paranoid. He felt like his heart was pounding, so I checked his pulse. It did not sound very good to me, so I called for the Nurse. She agreed it wasn't right. They began to look for what was causing this and thought he might have a pulmonary embolism and/ or a
brain bleed/stroke. He was moved to ICU and things went from bad to worse. A
Neurologist was called in and another MRI was scheduled. Thankfully, there was no embolism or stroke/bleed. He was started on meds to help him sleep and they did nothing. Finally on Tuesday the 28th, he was given Haldol and after 5 days of not sleeping, he slept for 3 hours! Not much, but a good start. He slept some that night as well. Still sporadic, but at least a little. The problem was that he couldn't have the gall bladder surgery as long as he was still altered. He improved a little each day and finally on Friday the 31st, he was able to have surgery. But in true Ed fashion, there was a complication and another Dr. had to come in and do an ERCP procedure to move a stone blocking the duct to the small intestine. We were so thankful to have that behind us after all he had been thru.
Saturday was the day we had been promised for discharge, but Ed's liver enzymes were over 1000, when they should be around 30. It took some persuading and promising to come in for more bloodwork on Monday, but he was finally released! We couldn't get out of there fast enough! We
were so thankful to finally be home and sleeping in our own bed. While he is still recovering and we
have numerous Dr. appointments in our future, he is so much better and that is enough for now.
2014 has been challenging so far, to say the least. We have quite a few changes happening in our family. Remember that showing I mentioned earlier? We have sold our house! We will be moving to Tulsa and into Ed's parents house for the time being. Very mixed emotions about that, we know we are doing what is best for Ed's parents, it is just going to take some adjustment on all of our parts. But we have prayed about it and know this is the path God has planned for us.
Whew, I am exhausted just getting all of this out. And there is so much I didn't cover. Christmas was
wonderful with all of our babies here with us. Bittersweet, as it turns out to have been our last Christmas in this house. But wonderful, none the less.
Will try and do better in the future, but make no promises. The next few months are going to be busy to say the least.
Please pray for us all....
