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.