Ive experienced some pain in my life and this wasn't the worst pain I've had by far, however on Friday when I started having sharp stomach pains in my lower right abdomen, I began the debate of "am I being a baby?" or "better safe than sorry." The pain was significant, but I was sure I could handle it and it would go away. Then people started telling me lower right means appendix and if it bursts it could be very bad. New year, new deductible, ER on a Friday night. What to do?
The "better safe than sorry" won the battle and after Josh's persistent urging to get me to go, we got in the car ER bound. Checked in at the desk and claimed my bench to lay down in the waiting room until the nurse called me back. First went the elderly man with his jacket on backward. He must have been in a hurry. Then the elderly lady who must have been in a car accident that day and refused to go to the hospital from what I could overhear. An hour passed and I should be next, until the guy who comes in with chest pain. The nurse tells us all waiting that they have no open beds. Finally they decide to triage us waiting and get our blood work started. She took me back where I had to ask for a bucket because I got sick and I think she finally realized there was some validity to my seemingly non-urgent stomach pain. She then let us wait in the family room with a much bigger couch.
After two hours in the waiting room, they finally have a bed for me. My nurse comes to put in an IV because they already suspect appendix and surgery but because the pain was so low and I'm female, wanted to do a female exam as well. In the meantime while she makes small talk, I tell her where I work and as luck would have it, she's a current masters student! That may make for an awkward future meeting in the hallway as she was fully engaged in the process of my female exam!
Next a CT scan which of course was inconclusive and they decide to admit me. This was my first overnight stay in a hospital and possibility of emergency surgery. Josh went home to get my glasses and such and came back to spend the night with me. This was happening at 11:00 at night. I hadn't eaten since noon and was starving but since surgery was a possibility in the morning, they wouldn't let me eat. However, with the help of Phenergen and Morphine I drifted right to sleep. Sleeping in a hospital is next to impossible because someone will wake you up every hour for some reason or another. I got about 6 hours of sleep but it felt like I had been asleep forever.
Finally around 7 the surgeon comes in with his passé of about 4 people. Scared to death by all the people I was pleasantly surprised when he said they weren't going through with the surgery. They made me eat lunch and dinner and get up and walk and finally discharged me around 6 Saturday evening. I was never so happy to leave a hospital.
Overall I'm happy I decided to get things checked out and happy to know its most likely viral however, still another expense to add onto recovering from Christmas, buying a house, and just shelling out $500 on a second appraisal. But doctor bills are interest free so it will be fine! I am thankful for no surgery and hopeful my next overnight stay in a hospital will be more planned and for a happy occasion if you catch my drift! :-)
Moral of the story: always go with better safe than sorry!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Life in the fast lane
I know I have been bad about updating this, however life has been moving way too fast for pit stops! It's been a roller coaster but a fun one! Usually I say I can't believe it's a new year already, but the last couple of months have been such a blur that I can!
So I just had to look back to see the last time I posted. September! Oops! Let me try to remember:
October: This was not a good month for us unfortunately. Josh's grandpa was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and the prognosis wasn't good. This month was full of lots of tears, evenings in the hospital, and late nights at his grandparents house when we weren't at the hospital. This same month his grandma had a heart attack so there was a good amount of time we were having real discussions with God trying to comprehend. The good news is that since then, his grandma has been doing well and his grandpa has begun chemo and at least has the pain under control for the most part. While we still have ups and downs with that, I feel as though we've all been able to come to the point of acceptance as much as can be expected.
November: This month a coworker accepted a new job and her last day at work was November 4. This will begin the 3 month stretch of AGAIN doing 2 jobs. Thankfully I applied for her job and was offered the position! Truly a blessing. It was a step up from my old job and a lot more money and an extremely easy transition. Also this month we decided to begin exploring possibilities of sometime in the future buying a house. We looked up 3 houses in areas we were interested in just to see if there was anything out there. I didn't expect to like any of them. As luck would have it, we both fell in love with the very first house we looked at. It had been listed for $60k and just recently reduced to $45k so the price was right. The elderly lady who had been living there had to go to a nursing home so they just needed to get what she owed on the house and needed to pay off some medical bills and then the rest would go to the nursing home since she had to get rid of all her assets. They accepted our offer of $35k! The house itself is in good shape but the inside hasn't been updated probably since the 70s and that is not an exaggeration. The bathroom has green tub, toilet, and sink. All the carpet is floral print or red checkered and wall paper on every wall. But with Josh's skills, he can do all the updates for just the expense of buying the materials so we can update it just how we want!
December: This month mainly consisted of keeping my head above the water. After a month of doing 2 jobs things start to pile up. I officially started in my new position this month so at least I was finally getting my new pay! We were supposed to also close on our house this month but instead it consisted with us fighting with US Bank and deciding to switch to a new bank. Oh and then throw Christmas on top of all that. But we did have a wonderful Christmas!
January: We're only 5 days in but things are already happening. We spent the new year at home just the three of us and it was perfect. They finally did the second appraisal on the house that we had to do since US Bank wouldn't release the first appraisal to the new bank even though I was the one to pay the $400 for it. So hopefully now we just wait for the paperwork and close this month! Also they interviewed and offered my old position to someone who starts on the 24th!
I think that sums up the last quarter of a year pretty well. I think overall I have truly learned to be so thankful for all the blessings in my life because I have been blessed with so many. For the first time in a long time, all feels right with the world, like it's finally my time. Last year was full of other peoples weddings and births of other peoples babies and while I was so happy for all my friends, I was beginning to wonder when good things were going to start happening for us, especially during October. But God had a plan and now He is providing for us.
My goal is to keep this updated and catch up on all I've missed in the blogging world. Especially when the new girl comes I am sure I will have much more free time! I'm happy to be back!
So I just had to look back to see the last time I posted. September! Oops! Let me try to remember:
October: This was not a good month for us unfortunately. Josh's grandpa was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and the prognosis wasn't good. This month was full of lots of tears, evenings in the hospital, and late nights at his grandparents house when we weren't at the hospital. This same month his grandma had a heart attack so there was a good amount of time we were having real discussions with God trying to comprehend. The good news is that since then, his grandma has been doing well and his grandpa has begun chemo and at least has the pain under control for the most part. While we still have ups and downs with that, I feel as though we've all been able to come to the point of acceptance as much as can be expected.
November: This month a coworker accepted a new job and her last day at work was November 4. This will begin the 3 month stretch of AGAIN doing 2 jobs. Thankfully I applied for her job and was offered the position! Truly a blessing. It was a step up from my old job and a lot more money and an extremely easy transition. Also this month we decided to begin exploring possibilities of sometime in the future buying a house. We looked up 3 houses in areas we were interested in just to see if there was anything out there. I didn't expect to like any of them. As luck would have it, we both fell in love with the very first house we looked at. It had been listed for $60k and just recently reduced to $45k so the price was right. The elderly lady who had been living there had to go to a nursing home so they just needed to get what she owed on the house and needed to pay off some medical bills and then the rest would go to the nursing home since she had to get rid of all her assets. They accepted our offer of $35k! The house itself is in good shape but the inside hasn't been updated probably since the 70s and that is not an exaggeration. The bathroom has green tub, toilet, and sink. All the carpet is floral print or red checkered and wall paper on every wall. But with Josh's skills, he can do all the updates for just the expense of buying the materials so we can update it just how we want!
December: This month mainly consisted of keeping my head above the water. After a month of doing 2 jobs things start to pile up. I officially started in my new position this month so at least I was finally getting my new pay! We were supposed to also close on our house this month but instead it consisted with us fighting with US Bank and deciding to switch to a new bank. Oh and then throw Christmas on top of all that. But we did have a wonderful Christmas!
January: We're only 5 days in but things are already happening. We spent the new year at home just the three of us and it was perfect. They finally did the second appraisal on the house that we had to do since US Bank wouldn't release the first appraisal to the new bank even though I was the one to pay the $400 for it. So hopefully now we just wait for the paperwork and close this month! Also they interviewed and offered my old position to someone who starts on the 24th!
I think that sums up the last quarter of a year pretty well. I think overall I have truly learned to be so thankful for all the blessings in my life because I have been blessed with so many. For the first time in a long time, all feels right with the world, like it's finally my time. Last year was full of other peoples weddings and births of other peoples babies and while I was so happy for all my friends, I was beginning to wonder when good things were going to start happening for us, especially during October. But God had a plan and now He is providing for us.
My goal is to keep this updated and catch up on all I've missed in the blogging world. Especially when the new girl comes I am sure I will have much more free time! I'm happy to be back!
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