My Family Visits!

This has been a very busy month for us! And even though I had surgery, I was still able to enjoy a much anticipated visit from my family!

It was a difficult planning process to get everyone to Wa and Or for a planned deep sea fishing trip in Astoria, OR and a visit to my house, but mission was accomplished! With some driving, some flying, some going to Wa first, some going to Portland first, then some leaving from Wa, some leaving from Portland... see what I mean by difficult?

The trip started with my Mom changing her flight to come out early when I went to the ER and was admitted to the hospital for my gallbladder issues. The plan was then changed a little, since Devan and Ginny were supposed to be here next and we were going to go to Seattle and do some fun things etc.. BUT unfortunately I was not healthy enough for that, so they came out 1 day later than expected and just relaxed around my house and played with the girls. Then Danna Lee and Adam were next to arrive via airplane to Seattle. They were here 1 night and the next day we ALL drove to Astoria, OR to Ginny's parents house where there was Lance & Jena (drove from UT), CL, Jeff, and Kirrah, my Dad (flew into Portland), Katie, Doug and girls (drove from UT). Can anyone even understand that?

The next day was the deep sea fishing day for those that were going. (some of us stayed behind), BUT the captain of the boat called at 11:30 that evening and cancelled on us! Poor Steve (Ginny's Dad), was up bright and early searching for another charter to take all 11 people that were supposed to go fishing.. after a lot of searching, cursing, and yelling, another boat was found and they were now schedule to leave the next morning. Since there was no fishing that day, we all went to the beach and had a great time! We played in the tide pools and touched the sea anemanie, starfish and played in the sand. It was absolutely beautiful and fun for us all to be together. That evening Ginny's family hosted a bonfire on the beach. The kids loved sliding down a hill of sand and to this day, I am still finding and cleaning up sand.

The crew went fishing the next day and even though it wasn't a very good fishing day, the weather was beautiful and they all had a good time. Austin was sea sick, but still managed to catch the biggest salmon, and I can't wait to eat some of it for dinner this week!

Now it was back to our house in Yelm with Katie and her family, Mom & Dad, CL, Kirrah, and Jeff (who left the next morning via airplane out of Portland). Everyone else drove back to Ut.

The next week we had a great time going to Mt Rainier, the lake in my community, the pool in my community, and a night in Seattle.

I loved spending time with everyone and Tyler and Kai loved having their cousins here. Thanks to everyone for helping out when I couldn't lift anything or hardly do anything myself because of surgery, but I had a lot of fun and I loved spending this time with my family!

Enjoy the pictures from our adventures below!

The Seattle Aquarium gift shop

Seattle Aquarium

The jelly fish were Kai's favorite.

Kaite, Mya & Ellie

Grandpa helping Kai touch the sea anemone's

On the dock at the lake

Doug jumping

CL jumping

Afton and Kai loved to whisper secrets to each other

Steve (Ginny's Dad) was amazing the way he filleted the salmon that was caught on the fishing trip.

These were the salmon caught

This was the salmon Austin caught

The sea lions on the barge in Astoria, Or

Tyler loves doing hand stands everywhere. She looks pretty good, huh

Yummy a completely sand covered smore

Everyone together

The beach bonfire in Astoria, OR

Just the girls!

Just one week ago...

With a few very busy weeks ahead of me and a lot planned, I never anticipated my life to be completely turned around and have everything change so rapidly...

It all started last Saturday, I woke up in the middle of the night and did not feel well and started vomiting, I figured I either had a touch of food poisoning or some sort of stomach bug, so I took it rally easy on Sunday and ate small portions of mostly soup, but I still didn't feel very good. Then, when I woke up on Monday, I went downstairs and to my desk to work when I started to have some severe pain in my stomach and what felt like terrible heart burn or acid reflux. The pain rapidly got worse and I had to go get Austin out of bed to take care of the girls because I was is so much pain. After about 20 min, we called my neighbor to come help and see if she may have any idea as to what might be going as she is a retired RN, she gave me a couple pills for acid control and anti-nausea, which almost immediately came back up and I continued to vomit and the pain just kept getting more and more intense and I could not stand it anymore, I knew I had to go to the hospital and get help as I had never been in this amount of pain before. Austin had a very important Dr's appt that day, so we decided to have my neighbor take me to the hospital and Austin would find someone for the kids, got to his Dr's appt. The hour drive it takes from my house to the hospital must have been the worst hour of my life. The pain never once gave up, no matter what I did and I continued to vomit. All I could do was pray the entire way that I had the strength to make it to the hospital..

After getting to the ER, and put on IV pain medication, they did x-rays and an ultrasound and we found out that I had a gall stone that was lodged in my common bile duct and was blocking everything up. The only solution was surgery to remove the lodged stone, then surgery to remove my gallbladder.

Because of the lodged gall stone, I was also diagnosed with pancreatitis and put on IV antibiotics to try and help with that infection and inflammation, which had to improve before any surgical procedures could be done.

On Tuesday, I had a procedure called ERCP to remove the gall stone. I was out under anesthesia that supposably keeps me awake during the procedure, but I don't remember a thing All went as planned with that procedure and a 6 mm gall stone was successfully removed.

I didn't feel well after the ERCP and I could not keep my clear liquids down, but I was on heavy pain medication and I was just relieved that I was not in too much pain.

On Wednesday I went to surgery to remove my gallbladder as there were more gallstones and the only option was to remove my gallbladder to prevent this problem in the future. I was pretty nervous for this surgery as I had never been under general anesthesia before and I was not sure what to anticipate for recovery, lifestyle change etc..

The surgeon and OR staff was really incredible and they did an excellent job. My gallbladder was successfully removed by way of Laparoscopic surgery. The surgeon did say that things were worse off than he had thought and my gallbladder was very sick and definitely needed to come out. My pancreas was still very inflamed and 1 quart of fluid that was also removed. Which in turn, I got a good "talking to" from the surgeon before I was discharged the next day of how I had to take it very easy and let my body heal... which means no running at this time.. ugh.

I was released from the hospital late Thursday evening and now I am on my road to recovery.

I am so grateful to my amazing mom who came to my rescue to stay with my kids, so Austin could stay with me and to help me this next week as I am not allowed to due pretty much anything!

I am so grateful to my husband who stayed with me every minute he could, while taking care of the kids the first day, picking my mom up from the airport, still managing to get a 90% on his Biology test and go to class etc..

I am grateful for my great neighbors, and friends who helped out where they could and offered so much help, support and prayers..

I am grateful to eat food again! I went almost 1 week not eating anything and even though I have started out slowly, I am grateful to be able to eat again!

I am so grateful that this is a minor set back and I should make a full recovery with very little changes in my life..

So.. all of this happened just 1 week ago, amazing what can happen so fast and change everything around me so fast. I am blessed and grateful for all the wonderful people in my life and I am trying to take this time for a step back and a break from my busy life.