It’s Been A While…Again

I don’t know why I can’t seem to keep up with this blog! Four months have gone by since my last post, and a lot has happened.  In my last post I mentioned starting a new eating lifestyle.  I have gone grain free, wheat free, sugar free, and I have limited my carbs and dairy as well.  I noticed changes right away.  Here are a couple pictures…the first ones were taken as beginning shots.  The second set is just two months in.  I’m feeling so much better too!

Beginning…

   

Two months in…

   

Not a huge difference, but I can definitely see changes.  Those jeans were a bit tight on me at that point, but I can hardly keep them up now. Here is one more picture taken the end of November.  I can definitely tell a difference from the picture of me on the beach in the last post. WOOHOO!

Another really cool thing is that I became a Jamberry Nail Consultant.  If you have never tried these wraps, you have got to! They are vinyl wraps that go right on your nail with heat.  There is no dry time, no chipping, etc.  There are so many fun designs to choose from, and you get 2 pedis and 2 manis on each sheet. The wraps will last 2 weeks or more on your nails! Here is a picture of my first jamicure!

If you would like to see what Jamberry is all about, check out my website! You can find me at http://kampjams.jamberrynails.net  I hope you’ll stop by.  The new spring/summer catalog is coming out on March 1st, and there are some gorgeous new wraps! If you’re on Facebook I’d LOVE to do a party with you.  The hostess rewards for Jamberry are phenomenal! Here is what our new sample/accent nail sheet looks like!

So that’s the short of what’s been happening since October! I’ll be back soon to tell you more!

The Winds of Change Are Blowing…

Here it is nearly the end of summer and I have not posted! It’s been a busy summer.  There is a lot of change going on in our household.  Some of it has been tough…that refining type of change I mentioned in a post some months ago.  God continuously works on our hearts weeding out those things that don’t belong in our lives.  We have watched circumstances in our lives change all around us.  My job at church has changed, my husband’s job has changed, relationships have changed…and sometimes those changes are the hardest to take.  I’m not personally a fan of change…I like my little routine and I like to stick to it.  God has shown us this year that some change is good no matter how painful it is.  Often we don’t see that until much later and are able to look back on the ways God has worked for our good.

Here we are three weeks from the start of school.  That is one area in which there will hopefully be no change this year.  The kids will be part of the virtual online academy again.  They enjoyed it last year and did really well.  I liked being less hands on though I was still right here with them as they did their studies.  I just didn’t feel equipped to take on high school being the principle teacher, so this has been a very good experience for us.  The kids had a phenomenal mentor teacher, and really great content teachers as well.  I especially adored the English teachers.  It was a joy for me to watch them make writers out of my Lovies.  There was some pretty amazing writing going on in this household this past year. I was so proud because I did not emphasize that particular skill while I was teaching the kids…I concentrated more on their actual handwriting and making sure they kept up the penmanship as they both have beautiful penmanship. So I was glad to see them embrace the writing assignments this year, though difficult, and do really well on them.  Both children got 100% on their final writing projects which count as their final exams.  I was a pretty proud Mama.

Probably the biggest change coming up for us is going to be a dietary change.  I’ve been researching wheat and its effects on our diet and our health.  I have several health issues including diabetes and high blood pressure.  For quite some time I have had full body joint pain and headaches.  As I researched wheat and read testimonials of people who have eliminated it from their diets, people just like me were testifying that the same symptoms I’m struggling with were disappearing within weeks of eliminating wheat from their diets.  Some lost high numbers in pounds, others went off all medications pertaining to diabetes and high blood pressure.  Well…that was enough for me to really want to go for it.  I’m tired of not having energy and feeling crummy most of the time.  And I HATE doing insulin shots…four a day people! I also have to stick my fingers four times a day to check my blood sugar.  I’d do almost anything not to have to do that anymore! My mom gave me a copy of the book “Wheat Belly” and I’m furiously reading it and getting ready to purge my house of all things wheat.  I’ve already collected some recipes, and I’m looking forward to planning my first menu and doing our first wheat free grocery shop! I’m hoping this blog will evolve into one where I can share some great new recipes and meal plans and how the elimination of wheat (possibly dairy and sugar as well) are going for our family.  We’re all on board and excited to get started.

As always, August is a tough month for me.  This one has been more difficult than past years as this one holds a couple big milestones for us.  Madison would have graduated with the class of 2014, and she would have turned 18.  To honor those milestones we took some special photos in the cemetery.  We borrowed a friend’s lovely white cap/gown to do our special photo shoot, and it was just between my husband and me.  I will make copies to hang in our home…but it was really just for my Mama’s heart and the fact that I’ll never have a senior picture of her to hang here.  It was a very emotional time for me, but we were able to capture exactly what I wanted and I’m very pleased with the results.  I’ll share one with you…I could not keep my composure, so the emotion is written all over my face, but I love this shot and how the sun was shining on the beautiful gown hanging in her tree. I nearly fell to my knees when my husband hung it there because it was just so extraordinarily beautiful. Here it is…

Ok…one more…this is the beautiful blanket she was wrapped in when she was born.  The hospital let us keep anything that touched her, so this is one of my most precious possessions…

I have recently been in contact with one of the nurses that was with me when I delivered Madison.  She is arranging for me to go visit the room where I had her.  I’ve never been back and I’m certain it will be an emotional visit, but I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be in that room where I met her and held her for the most precious hours of my life.  I’ll keep you posted.

Hopefully I’ll have time to post more often as our family gets back into a routine soon, and life is lived out in our home for the glory of God!

A Very Scary Night…

My husband was on his way home from a business trip last night. He called just as I was getting myself ready for bed.  My daughter answered the phone, and when she brought the phone to me, she simply told me that Daddy needed to talk to me. I knew right away something was wrong.  His voice sounded agitated and scared. He proceeded to tell me that he drove into a white out (sudden flurry of snow that makes visibility impossible), lost control of his car, and rolled into the median of the highway….Panic ensued.

“When you say roll, do you mean you actually rolled the car?” The answer was yes. By this time I was screaming, wondering if he was ok, where he was, if police had been called, and how I could get to him.

When he hit the white out he could not see the road.  He drifted onto the rumble strip that signifies you are going onto the shoulder of the freeway.  He jerked the wheel back to the left causing his car to spin out of control  He crossed three lanes of freeway, narrowly missed a guardrail, and then rolled over into the median.  He couldn’t tell if he had rolled into oncoming traffic, so he began to panic.  Within seconds, a trucker who was going the opposite way on the freeway and witnessed the accident, banged on his window asking if he was ok.  When Andy said he thought he was ok, the guy busted the right passenger window out, and Andy had to crawl between the front seats on the roof of the car and out the window. 

The kids and I jumped in the van and took off for the accident site.  In retrospect, I shouldn’t have taken the kids with me.  I knew Andy was out of the car and safe, but coming up on the accident scene was one of the most horrific things I have ever experienced.  I could see the silhouette of his car in the oncoming headlights, and all four wheels were straight up in the air.  I FREAKED, and my poor girl got hysterical.  I couldn’t believe he survived this. Thank the Lord he was wearing his seatbelt.

EMS had come, but Andy thought he was ok, so declined an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital.  Given his recent health history, I was having none of that, so I drove him straight to the hospital once we had taken care of the car details.  He was put in a spinal collar right away.  They were not amused, given his history, that he was not brought by ambulance. They did an immediate chest x-ray because his airbag didn’t deploy.  He had a CT scan and other tests and everything came out fine.  He had some wounds they needed to clean up, but I was able to bring him home very early this morning.

This afternoon the trauma has hit all of us. What a scary night.  Tears have been shed, gratitude has been expressed to God for sparing his life once again, and we are very grateful to still be together the four of us.

We were told this afternoon that the car will probably be totaled. We’ll go take a look at it tomorrow and get all of Andy’s things out of it.  I’m very sad, as he LOVED that car.  But I love his life more, and I’m so glad he’s still with me.

Please pray for Andy as he deals with this trauma, experiences the impact pain, and is now dealing with a nasty sinus infection on top of it all. 

I can handle a sinus infection…so grateful I’m not planning his funeral…

I’ve shared this all on Facebook, but thought there might be those here that aren’t on my friends list there, and might want to know what has happened.  So I thought I’d share it here as well.  I’ll keep you posted on how he’s doing, and what happens with his car…

We “Broke” Our Nearly 16 Year Record…

No pun intended! I have bragged a bit at times that our kids are nearly 16 and 14, and we have never had stitches or broken bones…until now.

Parker was playing outside yesterday after lunch at the place he takes his elective courses for school.  He slipped on wet grass, and hit is knee on a small wall surrounding the playground.  His teacher asked if he was ok, and he seemed to be.  He walked back into the building and went to his last three classes.  He called me just shortly before I was due to go pick him up, and told me what happened.  He said, “Mom, it hurt so bad I thought I was going to throw up”.  I jumped in the car immediately, because vomiting or passing out are typical symptoms when you break a bone…this I know from experience myself.

I drove the nearly 30 minutes to get to him.  He was sitting in the gym waiting for me.  I was able to get him out to the van, but it hurt for him to put any weight on his left leg.  This from the kids who has the most incredible tolerance for pain I’ve ever seen.  He’s had some pretty horrible injuries over the years, and now I’m wondering if they were much worse than we suspected, because we never heard a peep out of him!

Long story short…we went to the ER last night, had an x-ray, and Parker has fractured his tibia! The doctor took me back to look at the x-rays, and there it was.  If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.  I was totally shocked.  The doctor was concerned as to how he could be walking on it, and how he could have relatively no pain when she moved his leg around. 

You can see that the bone is cracked wider toward the surface, and then tapers off as it moves into the bone.  Thankfully it was not a complete break. The doctor was amazed that he was not in more pain.  I’m actually grateful he isn’t.

Parker was fitted with a brace that goes from his hip to just above his left ankle.  He was given STRICT instructions to stay off of his leg and keep it elevated until we are able to get him an appointment with an orthopedic doctor. We will do that this week.  He’s pretty bummed, but doing all right.  I have pain meds on the ready if he starts to have it.  He’s following his doctor’s instructions, so hopefully that will keep the pain at bay.

Here he is in the recliner last night…this will be his spot for until he is able to be up and on his leg again . He only gets up to venture down the hall to the loo. I’m even letting him sleep on the family room couch so he doesn’t have to get up to go to bed.

Will keep you posted on how he’s doing!

Update on my boy…

Andy has been back to work for a little over a week.  It has been going well.  He is still very tired in the evenings, and is not quite back to his normal self yet.  It will just take some time. 

His doctor would like to monitor his coumadin levels, so he will finish at the coumadin clinic at the end of this month.  He has been going once a week for a regular blood draw.  When he starts going to his doctor’s office, it will be every other week, and will just be a quick finger stick that will give us the results within seconds.  That will be great!

Please keep praying.  We are starting to receive all of the hospital bills now, and that is just depressing…

Andy has been back to church, back teaching his Sunday school class, and has gone with us on some shopping excursions.  That all still exhausts him, so we just have to take it a day at a time.  I’m SO grateful he is here…just so grateful.  I thank God every day that he chose to spare Andy’s life, because it very well could have gone the other way for us. Every time he calls me, or he pulls in the driveway, I breathe a sigh of relief.  I look forward every day to getting to hold him in my arms when he comes home.  I don’t think I’ll ever take that for granted again…

Will continue to keep you posted on our dear patient…

19 Years Ago Today…

On this day, 19 years ago, I was introduced to the most incredible man I have ever met. Andy is the love of my life, my best friend, my spiritual leader, and my soul mate. He is my biggest encouragement, and a gift from God. It was not love at first site that evening I met him. However, I knew as soon as he walked through the door at my sister's house, with one lone rose, and those beautiful green, tender eyes, that he was quite possibly "the one" :) My heart skipped a beat, and it has every time he has walked into the room since.

Andrew, I love you with all of my heart, and thank God every day for the 19 years I have known you. We had no idea when we met, all that God would give to us from His sovereign hand, but there is no other person on this earth that I would rather have gone through it with! Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift in giving me the one desire of my heart…YOU! Love you so much!

UPDATE ON MY PATIENT: Andy saw his doctor on Friday, and he was a bit concerned that we have not been able to keep Andy’s coumadin at a therapeutic level, and that he was just that week up to getting out of bed.  So his leave was extended, and my boy is home for another week.  We’ll see how it goes for a return to work on March 11th.  I’ll keep you posted…

One Month Ago Today…

On January 28th, around 10:30am, I got a call from my husband.  I sincerely thought from the tone of his voice that he had lost his job.  That was not the case.  Andy said he was having severe, sharp pains in his lower right abdomen.  It came on suddenly while in a meeting, and felt as if someone stabbed him with a 4-inch knife.

Andy works in the city.  It is a city that I won’t even drive to unless I HAVE to.  He works in a pretty unsafe part of it, so I’m always a bit worried about him.  He talked about going to a hospital just a few doors down from his office, so I KNEW the pain was REALLY bad.  I told him that there was no way he was going to that hospital…what if they admitted him?  The kids and I would have to drive there to see him, and that wouldn’t be good.  I offered to get someone to come with me, and bring him home myself.  That was our plan when we hung up.  Andy called me back a few minutes later, said he couldn’t wait, and he was driving home then. :(

God protected him, and brought him home safely.  When he arrived, I was outside to meet him.  His face was a gray color, and I had to help him into the house.  I lay him on our bed, and started palpating his abdomen.  I was looking to see if the pain was surface, or deep.  It was deep.  Here is where I should have called 911.  He would have been seen immediately at the hospital.  Instead, I drove him, and we waited for 30-45 minutes in the waiting room :(

Once seen, things moved very quickly.  Tests were ordered, blood was drawn.  A few hours after we got there, Andy got sick to his stomach.  Some of the worst wretching I have ever heard.  I thought he was going to throw up his lung or something.  He spiked a fever, and his WBC count started to go up signifying an infection.  Doctors suspected appendicitis, but he had more symptoms.

They admitted Andy to observation, and there we remained for the next two days while they did tests to try and figure out what was wrong with Andy.  On the second night, a CT scan with dye was ordered, and we found the culprit.  Andy had suffered a kidney infarction, or “heart attack of the kidney” as the kidney specialist explained it to us.  It killed 2/3 of the tissue in Andy’s right kidney.

The next 10 days were spent doing tests to figure out where the infarct started from, why it happened, and treating the damage it did to Andy’s body.  He suffered extreme fatigue, relentless fevers, severe pain requiring many doses of dilaudid, and headaches.  Several specialists were called in. He saw a urologist, kidney specialist, infectious disease doctor, a hematologist, a cardiologist, and a vascular surgeon.  The last doctor told us that if this had happened in Andy’s heart, brain, main aorta, or carotid artery it would have killed him.  It is very rare to happen in the kidney, but this time it did. Thanks be to God!

Andy was put on coumadin, which is a blood thinner, and had to remain in the hospital until it was at a therapeutic level.  He has it checked every week, and they lower/raise the dose based on the blood work results.

After 10 days inpatient, Andy was released, and came home to recover.  He was released on February 6th, and is still home 2 weeks later.  He has just this week started to be up most of the day.  Up until then, he was still extremely tired and fighting fevers, so he spent most days in bed.  He is seeing his doctor tomorrow, and is hoping to return to work on Monday.

What a month! Andy will remain on the coumadin for 6 months.  If he makes it through that time with no more incidents, he can go off of it.  If there are anymore incidents, and he lives through them, he will be on the medication for life. 

Phew! Please pray for Andy, that God will continue to restore him to health, and protect his body from anymore infarctions.  Please pray for me…I’m a nervous WRECK about him going back to work on Monday.  He is 45-60  minutes away, and that is causing me great worry.  He’ll have to change his job a little (no more lifting, or working with sharp objects).  We have to watch every little scrape, cut, bruise, bump, wall, whatever.  It may look like nothing, but Andy could bleed internally. Our ENT doctor even told us that he would be treated in her office as an emergency if he gets a nosebleed.  She’s worked with coumadin patients, and would know what to do.  That was comforting…

Here’s my boy when he started to feel a bit better…

One of my favorites with his sweet girl…she was so worried about him…

  
And another…

Getting ready to leave the hospital…

Walking out with my man…a bit blurry, but I love this picture…

Morgan took this last one.  He was smiling because he saw the van pulling up to the door, and was so glad to be going HOME!

I’ll keep you posted, but for now we are on the road to recovery, and I almost have my boy back to his normal self. Praise God for that!

Still Recovering…

Sorry I have not been around.  We are still recovering here.  Andy is shooting for a March 4th return to work, but we’ll see how that goes.  Recovery has been difficult and slow.  I’m a bit overwhelmed with life right now, so blogging has taken a back seat.  I’ll be back as soon as my man is better.

I’m not sure anyone even reads this blog anymore, so maybe you won’t even know I’m gone…

A Frowning Providence…

Sometimes life brings us frowning providences.  Those ordeals God brings us through to make us more like Him, to cause us to trust only Him because there is nothing else to trust in, and make us realize that He is our only hope.  Our frowning providence started two weeks ago tomorrow.  I very nearly could have lost my husband.  When I think about the circumstances of two weeks ago, my head spins.  I weep for the grace God showered on us by sparing Andy’s life, and for working things out as He did.

Andy spent ten LONG days in the hospital, and finally came home this past Wednesday.  We’ve spent the past couple days tackling Mt. Laundry, Mt. Trash, Mt. Dirt, and Mt. Dishes that piled up because I was too tired when I got home from the hospital each night to wash them. We’ve also been caring for our precious patient, and thanking God that he is here to be cared for.

Andy will be recovering at home, and can’t return to work until after he sees his doctor on February 20th.

I’ll be back soon to tell you the story, but I’m still trying to process it all, and think clearly again.  We are exhausted…simply exhausted.  It was a long 2 weeks for all of us.  Graciously, ladies from our church have signed up to bring meals for a couple weeks while I care for Andy, and a couple of friends have offered to come over and help me clean/organize our house.  I am grateful…

I would appreciate your prayers.  Andy is weak, tired, sore, and has a few weeks of recovery ahead of him.  His body suffered quite a trauma, and it could have been so so much worse…

My sweet Love when he was so very sick…

I’ll be back to tell you what happened once our home is back in order, and we have caught up on our sleep.  Please keep Andy in your prayers as he recovers over the next couple weeks…

Still Here…

Just wanted to pop in and say that I’m still here.  We have come down with a horrible flu bug that just doesn’t want to leave us! :( My husband went back to work today, but the rest of us are still down.  I am on day 17, and still woke up today with body aches.

With all of this rest I’ve been getting, I had some time to play around with my blog layout a bit.  I’ve been wanting to do something with it for a while, but haven’t had the time. A friend of mine reversed the layout of her blog, and it inspired me.  I wasn’t sure I’d remember how to do it, but I think it turned out pretty well…

I’ll be back when I get my family over this bug…stay well everyone!

Sick, Sick, Sick…

Tuesday evening I started to feel like I was coming down with something.  I went to work for a bit on Wednesday morning, carrying a container of clorox wipes everywhere I went to wipe down everything I touched.  I lasted a couple hours, before I knew I was really sick and needed to head home.  I worked for a bit at home, and then gave in to the illness…

It hit like a mack truck! By Wednesday evening I made the decision that we were all staying in, and I headed to bed with a fever, chills, body aches like you wouldn’t believe, a stuffy head, and just generally feeling awful. I hardly slept that night.

By Thursday morning I was REALLY sick, and got an appointment with my ENT.  Now…you know I’m sick when I let my husband drive (bad eyesight…I do all of our driving except for when he goes to work), and I let him drive both ways. :)  My ENT is able to do a lot more extensive checking into the nasal, ear, and throat passages, and I listened as she talked to her assistant on the computer.  Severe swelling, fluid in this ear, very red, definite infection…not good.  I was diagnosed with the flu (which is going around like gang busters right now), a severe sinus infection, and another ear infection.  Thus, the reason the whole left side of my face and head hurt like the dickens, and even my cheeks were swollen :(.  An antibiotic was prescribed, and home to bed I went.  There I have remained since.  I cannot remember the last time I was this sick.  The coughing ensued Friday morning, and that is non-stop.  My head hurts, my chest hurts, and I have been miserable. 

Morgan got a hold of my phone, and thought it fun to snap some photos of her sick momma :) :(

This Contigo has been my friend.  Morgan keeps filling it up with hot tea, and it stays warm for hours.  I love it!

This last photo Morgan took on one of the worst nights. My head hurt so bad that she helped we wrap it tightly in this blanket.  She gave me a little feather on top, and snapped a picture of it…

We are doing laundry, wiping everything down with clorox wipes, washing hands, and trying to be careful around here so no one else gets this horrible flu bug.  I’m sure it’s inevitable, but I’m trying to hold it off as long as possible. 

I hope you are all staying well!

Please please pray…

Hello friends, this is my dear friend Allana.  Allana was diagnosed with leukemia this week.  She just gave birth to her sweet miracle baby, Nisa Faith, on December 16th.  After years of infertility, several miscarriages, and at least one stillbirth, God finally gave her the desire of her heart…another baby. 

Allana is in the fight for her life, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would join me in bathing her in prayer.  She has suffered so much since I’ve known her, and her faith has never wavered.  She is so strong, and is totally trusting God right now.

Allana starts chemotherapy tomorrow morning, and this will be such a rough road.  The hospital she is in has given her a private room on the oncology floor, and her husband and baby are allowed to stay there with her.

Sam and Allana run a ministry full-time, and have 5 other children at home.  Many have come along side to help with the ministry, and with the kids, and any financial burdens that may arise.  Please pray that God will provide every need for Sam and Allana, and most of all that God would grant complete healing to Allana’s body, and she will win this battle she is in against cancer.

I will keep you posted as I get updates.  Thank you so much for your prayers!

An Update…

We got back into the swing of school just in time for me to come down with the flu. Blech! I would almost rather have a cold any day! I thought it would just be a 24 hour thing, but it seems to be hanging on.  Morgan has also come down with something in her eye.  It doesn’t look like pink eye…maybe a blocked tear duct or something like that.  I’ll be taking her to the doctor in the morning.

While I was resting yesterday, Morgan took it upon herself to do school on her own.  She asked for some cardboard from a box in our laundry room, and about an our later came up with this…

A darling little project on Africa! She had all sorts of fun facts on the board, and did a little presentation to show it to me.  It was great.  She did the presentation again when Daddy got home. I think the “principal” was very impressed!

Hopefully I’ll get better soon, and we’ll be able to get back to our lessons on Monday.  I hope no one else gets this either!

On The Mend…

First of all, let me apologize for my “rant” about the care I received at the hospital the other day, and for stating they had lost my business.  I was reminded yesterday that ER doctors are NOT specialists.  They do what they were trained to do, and that is help people, to the best of their ability in emergency situations.  Most of the time they are “fixing things” until the specialist can come and evaluate the situation.  Sometimes they do things that were not necessarily in your best interest, but I believe they do their best.  I was not treated poorly at all throughout my stay, and I was wrong to say they would not get my future business.  In fact, I had the best nurses, very caring techs, and the two doctors I saw were genuinely concerned for my well being. So I apologize, dear Beaumont…you have always given me the best of care, and will continue to…though hopefully not in the near future.

That said, I saw the specialist yesterday.  I’m REALLY glad I saw him.  He is the one that set me straight regarding the ER doctors. He was baffled by some of their choices, but explained that they are not specialists, and can only evaluate and treat the situation based on their level of expertise. 

Dr G. on the other hand, is AMAZING.  He had the most beautiful, comfortable, inviting, relaxing office I have ever set foot in, the nicest staff, and GREAT care.  He is a teaching physician, so I got to listen to/watch him teach a resident all about my condition.  I got to look at the diagrams as well, hear why he didn’t agree with the radiologist’s rendering of the CT scan (again, he is trained to read what he sees, it may not always be absolutely what is there), and be the guinea pig for her to take a peak and get to see it all up front and personal.  It was fascinating to me. 

Dr. G began by making sure the good ear was clean and not starting an infection itself.  Then he VERY GENTLY checked out the bad ear, being as careful as he could not to hurt me.  He took a culture, and then explained to me that my infection is very severe and one of the worst he has seen.

I do NOT have mastoiditis.  What the radiologist thought was mastoiditis was fluid that has built up because of the infection, and because my ear canal is so swollen, it has had no place to go.  The ER doctor that saw me first did one thing that he should have done.  He inserted a “wick”, or rather JAMMED it into a very swollen ear.  It is a tube full of antibiotic that is inserted in the ear canal.  It touches the ear canal on all sides, and distributes antibiotic to places that drops would just pass right by.  The bad thing, is that the second doctor that saw me in the ER removed it for some reason.  Had he left it in, I might have been much better by the next day.  They also switched my drops to one that Dr. G felt was not fighting the infection hard enough.  So he switched me back to the one I was prescribed at Urgent Care the night before ER.

Yesterday, Dr. G put another wick in, and told me it would fall out when the swelling has gone down.  I just touched my ear a second ago, and I can feel the tip of it right at the entrance to the ear canal, so it is on its way out! :)

Today, I feel like a new woman.  I do not have that constant awful throbbing pain in my ear and neck area.  It is more like an ache now, and getting much better.  I can hear a little in my ear today, and I think once the wick is out I will have my complete hearing back.

The best part…I am heating pack free!

I am not to let any water get in my ear for the next week, and will keep taking my oral antibiotic, and use the drops.  I’ll use my Ibuprofen for any pain I experience, and will see Dr. G when I return from my vacation next week.  I’m guessing the wick will fall out in the next day or so…

I am almost over this horrible ordeal!  Thanks for your prayers!

Now what kind of person would I be if I did not give you a warning based on my experience?  This was my first ear infection, and what a way to break myself in!  I have had problems in the past with my ear clogging up, and have had to go to the doc to get it taken care of.  If you go through this, DO NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to flush it out yourself with a home remedy, or let Urgent Care irrigate it with great flushes of water.  You can do terrible damage to your ear that way, and can make an already brewing infection MUCH WORSE.  Been there done that.  ENTs prefer a gentle suction method they can do in their office, or a small instrument that I hardly felt (they did this in the good ear…the bad ear was not ready for that yet.).  Do not take your ears for granted, and see a regular doctor when you are having a problem with them.  I will never do that again.  I now have an ENT I trust, and he is the one I will see for any further ear problems.  They SPECIALIZE in every aspect of your ear, and know what to do for it.

I’m glad I went to the ER, because they steered me in the right direction, and did the best they could to get me out of the worst pain I have ever experienced to date.  I never want to go through that again…horrible horrible horrible is an understatement.  I will NEVER EVER be annoyed by a crying child with an ear infection.  It has never annoyed me, but now that I have experienced it myself, OUCH, and I know what you’re going through…cry away! It stinking HURTS!  I was in fact in tears when the ER doctor first came in to see me.

Please take care of your ears and treat them carefully.  You cannot replace them… Ok….I’m stepping off of the box now…

***The wick just fell out, and I CAN HEAR!!!!! WOOHOO!!!***

Still waiting…

I’m still in a lot of pain, still swollen, still fighting infection.  I was not able to get an appointment with the specialist today as promised, but he will see me tomorrow at 3:30…it cannot come soon enough.  I am really looking forward to relief.

We have not been happy with the hospital that cared for us this time.  Things were not handled in a timely manner though we stressed that I have no spleen and things were urgent.  It’s a very LARGE hospital system, and out of that whole system they apparently could find only ONE ENT specialist to look at me.  He couldn’t come to the hospital when I was there, so I had to wait to see him in his office until this week.  That boggles my mind when I sit and think about it.

My dad was in a hospital 90 minutes away when he went through all of his heart stuff.  It was a LONG drive, but well worth it for the great care he received, and the care his family received while we waited for him to get well there. I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

The hospital we used has always been very good, and I even had a baby there.  Up until now, I’ve had no complaints.  This time was awful.  I don’t think I ever should have been sent home in the condition I was in, knowing I am diabetic and have no spleen.  I have a friend whose husband was in the ER just a couple nights before, and he was treated terribly.  I don’t think there’s any excuse for that. People are sick and hurting, and should never be treated in a way that makes them feel like they are a burden, or that they are not being taken seriously.

In any case, I’ll be seeing this specialist tomorrow, and I hope he can help me get some relief.  In the future, I’ll be going to my little country hospital nearby, or making the LONG trip to the other one for the care that patients deserve when they are feeling awful. Sad to say…the other place has lost my business…

A Very Different Week…

Last weekend I noticed that I was having a hard time hearing out of my left ear.  I have had to go to my doctor on occasion and have her flush it out when the wax has built up for some reason, so I figured that was what was going on here.  Monday was a holiday, so my doctor was not in.  I went to my sister’s house that day, and noticed that my ear was feeling increasingly more “stuffed up”.  I went on Facebook that night and some friends suggested some home remedies.  I tried the solution of peroxide with water, and let it sit in my ear for a few minutes before letting it drain out.  Nothing helped.  It seemed to plug back up in just a few seconds. 

Wednesday morning I woke up with terrible pain in my ear.  I had never had that before.  I suspected an ear infection, so I called my husband and asked if he would take me to Urgent Care when he got home.  We went right after work, and only had to wait for them to prepare a chart for me.  I explained what was happening to the doctor, and she looked in my ear.  She saw wax, and that was pretty much blocking her view from anything else.  She said she would put drops in my ears, and then the nurse would flush it out for me. She would check it after that to see if I had an infection. All of this took place over about 30 minutes.  The flushing out hurt, but it also seemed to bring relief.  I remember the moment that the nurse seemed to break through whatever was blocking my hearing.  But when she showed me the little basin of what she got, it didn’t look like times past when I had had this procedure done.  My ear still hurt.  When the doctor came back in, she accidentally looked in the wrong ear, and we all got a chuckle out of that.  When she looked in my left ear (for 2 seconds), she told me I had an infection, wrote me a script for oral meds and drops and sent me home. End of story?  Uh, not by a long shot.

The next morning I woke up, my ear was completely plugged again, and the pain was like nothing I have ever felt in my life.  It had me in tears several times throughout the day.  My husband called my doctor, and she told me to come right in.  Andy was still at work, so I had to drive to the office feeling like that, and my head practically resting on my shoulder because the pressure helped a bit.

When my doctor went to look in my ear after I described the last few days to her,  she could not even get her instrument into the ear canal.  It was not wax, it was completely swollen shut.  In fact, my whole face and cheek surrounding it were swollen.  She was VERY concerned, as was I.  Because I don’t have a spleen and ANY infection can be very serious for me, and I am also diabetic,  she thought it best to send me to the ER.   I agreed.

We left for the ER as soon as my husband was able to join us.  I sat in triage for nearly 90 minutes in EXCRUCIATING pain, fighting back tears it hurt so bad.  I was finally taken to a room, and I could hold the tears no longer.  The doctor came in as I was wiping my eyes.  He said this didn’t look good if ear pain was causing me to cry.  He took the same instrument my doctor had checked my ear with.  He barely put it up to my ear and said,  “You’re not going anywhere…we’re keeping you, and I’m going to have a specialist look at this”.

I was immediately started on an IV, which in and of itself would normally send me into an anxious fit…I didn’t give a rip.  I just wanted her to get that thing in there, because I knew it meant GOOD pain meds were soon to follow.  I have had both Vicodin and Dilotid before, and they stop any pain I have had, and wipe me right out.  They gave me Dilotid first, and though it made me more comfortable, it didn’t take away the pain :(.  That told me I was in serious trouble. 

The nurse ran some blood tests to check my kidney function for a CT scan, and to check my white blood count.  It came back very high which means a serious infection.  Next the doctor came in with a tiny tube called a “wick”.  He needed to insert that in my ear to “open it up” to be able to get drops in.  Yeah, right.  This would hurt… I could not bite my lip or clench my teeth, because it hurt my ear too much (I had not been able to eat or drink anything all day). This was a very painful procedure, but it enabled the doctor to put 5 glorious numbing drops into my ear.  Again, it didn’t take away the pain, just soothed it a bit.

Next I went for a CT scan.  I warned the tech of my fear of the contrast because it made me nauseous each time, and I didn’t like the closeness of the machine.  She said she would be with me most of the time, explained the whole procedure in detail to me, so I was able to relax.  It was over before I knew it.

I was taken to a room on the ER Observation unit,and there I stayed until Friday night.  The CT scan came back showing that I have Mastoiditis, which is an infection of the mastoid bone, or temporal bone of the skull behind the ear.  It usually is the result of an ear infection gone bad, but not having a spleen probably greatly contributed.  This is a very serious infection any way you slice it because it can lead to more serious infections like meningitis, or inner ear infections.  I was immediately put on IV antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory medication to take the swelling down, and dilotid every 4 hours, and the numbing drops.  Needless to say,  I stayed in my bed the whole time I was there.  No tv,no phone, no lights.  I just slept when the pain didn’t keep me awake.

The ENT was unable to make a consult at the hospital, so I will be going to his office on Monday.  They sent me home Friday night with oral antibiotics, a script for Vicodin for the pain, those numbing drops, and 600mg of Ibuprofen to try to take this swelling down.  That is the reason I have no hearing, or very little in my left ear right now.

I have very little pain for a couple hours until the meds wear off, and then I’m miserable until I can take the next dose.  One of my nurses fashioned a wonderful little heating pad for me yesterday, and I kept that pressed against my ear and face most of the time.  When the heat wore off, I just kept it there for the pressure.  My husband took a picture of the patient using it… I know, bed hair! :) I didn’t care, believe me…

 
I am home now, resting in my own bed, taking the meds prescribed for me, and praying for some relief soon.  I’m praying that God will protect me from the side effects of this condition, and that no further infections will develop.  If my symptoms worsen at any time, I am to go right back to the hospital.  Otherwise, I will see the ear specialist on Monday and see where we go from there.  We leave for vacation a week from Monday, so I’m hoping I’ll be better by then.  In worst case scenarios, that bone has to be surgically removed because of the damage to it, or the risk of further dangerous infections.  I’m praying it will not come to that.  I’m praying that my feeble immune system will be able to kick this infection’s tail, and get rid of it.  I don’t really want to go through a major neck surgery right now. :(

I’ll keep you posted as I can.  It’s painful to sit up for too long right now, so I’m pretty much just keeping up with Facebook and emails on my iPhone because I can lie down.  I have a  hard time getting on my blog on there… If there is an update and I’m unable to write it,  perhaps I’ll have a friend do a guest post for me.

I hope we’re able to get relief, healing, and solutions soon.  I also hope they can give me some preventative measures to keep this from happening again, as it seems  I may be prone to it now with a weakened immune system…I’ll let you know how it goes…