Home

Tim got to leave the hospital on Monday May 9. What a wonderful yet strrange feeling. Going home sounded great, but I was scared at the same time. Will he be all right at home? He did great Monday night and all day Tuesday. Then Wednesday afternoon/evening he started to get increased chest pain and it was hard for him to take a deep breath. I wanted to bring him back to the hospital but tim refused. He went to see the Dr Thursday to see the surgeon. He got a good report from him but we were still concerned about all the pain. Blood work cam back not so great. Tim had a CT scan Friday morning that showed his belly infection was finally starting to go away. There was a substantial amount of fluid on the right side of his lungs. This is what was causing all of his pain. So Friday afternoon he had to have a procedure to remove the fluid. They pulled a liter of fluid off form his right lung. While the pain is not as bad its still there. The bottom of his lung is not inflating fully and it still hurts to breath. He is taking it easy and will go for more testing on Monday.

I feel so helpless in this situation. There is nothing I can do to help with his pain. I continue to pray. God answers prayers. I am very thankful that Tim is still here with us. I know every day he will get stronger and continue to heal. Thank God for all the wonderful things in my life. May he continue to bless and strengthen our family.

Another low

Tim continues to stay in the hospital. He was starting to feel better and had a little bit of his sense of humor back. The thing keeping him in the hospital was his white blood cell count. It had continued to stay high. This is an indication of infection. He has been on 2 different very strong antibiotics every day and the numbers were still up. So today the dr ordered a scan of his belly to see what was going on. Results came back that he has abcesses in his abdomen. These are pockets of infected fluid through out his belly. This is the reason that it has taken him so long to recover from surgery. So tmorrow morning they will do a scan and put a big needle in his belly in several different places. He will be awake for this and I can only imagine that this will not be very comfortable. He has been through so much in the past few weeks and its like he can't catch a break. Hopefully after this he will start to feel better and will finally be able to come home. He will need to stay for a while longer in the hospital to make sure the infection clears. I miss having Tim at home. I have not stopped praying the whole time he has been in the hospital. Now I will continue with prayer. I know God is listening and will help him heal soon.

Ups and Downs

This journey has been a roller coaster to say the least. I thought my emotions were up and down from pregnancy. But I had no idea that Tim's hosptial stay would be like this. 2 weeks ago when this started I thought ok, we will go in for a few days and I will have my Tim back home and life will go on as normal. So much has changed in these weeks. First with his emergancy surgery. Then we have had a few minor setbacks on the road to recovery. It feels like Tim will have one great day and we are on top of the world. Then the next day he is so sick and in pain we wonder where those good days went. Today was one of those good days. After a weekend of horrible days and lots of tears on both parts we needed today. I am hopeful that we will continue to have more good days and less bad days. I want to bring my husband home from the hospital.
In other news I am still having back pain. I think stress, bad chairs in the hospital, and over doing it are all playing factors. I am resting tonight. Hoping that this gets better. I had some spotting this weekend and that is always a sign that I am doing too much. So I will do a few things at home and sit with my feet up and drink water. I want to keep myself and the baby healthy so I will be able to help Tim when he finally is able to come home.

Tim's Ordeal

Where do I start this long story? I will try to break it down and make it as short as I can. It all started on Wednesday April 20. Tim was having some abdominal pain. This started in the morning and he thought he just had to use the restroom. Well as the day went on the pains got worse. By the time that he got home from work he was barely able to stand up straight. I told Tim we needed to get to the ER. I was thinking he had something like appendsitis. We got to the ER at like 9:15. Got right in to a room so I thought we would not have to wait long. WRONG! The Dr first thought that Tim had something going on with his bladder so they wanted to do a scan. While waiting they did give him something for the pain but it did not help even a little. Bladder scan normal, next step a CT scan of abdomen and pelvis. Tim got taken back to have his scan at 2am. We sat around and waited some more and finally at 3am we were told that he had diverticulitis and it had caused a small hole in his large colon. He would need to be admitted and monitored closely and have IV antibiotics.

So Tim was put on nothing to eat or drink for 2 days and was given antibiotics and pain medications. He was slowly feeling better and was able to eat. He spent Easter weekend in the hospital. It was very tough for me as well as the children to be with out him for a holiday. Mondat Tim was doing great. He had his first full meal since the whole thing started. He wanted to come home that night but I talked him in to staying one more night just to monitor.

Tuesday morning Tim was ready to come home. I got the kids off to school and headed up to the hospital to bring Tim home. What I walked into was terrible. Tim was in the worst pain of his life. I have never seen him like this. I knew it was bad. I did not know what to do to help. He had already called his nurse and they were calling the doctors. Did not take long and he was surrounded by nurses and doctors. Off to CT to find out what was going on. We found out the he had opened the small hole in his belly and it was leaking. He would need surgery asap. Luckily we work with the best doctors around and they had Tim in the OR within the hour. He required a 3 hour surgery to remove the bad part of his colon and clean up the surrounding area. Surgery went well. Since then Tim is slowly recovering. He is not in near as much pain as he was before surgery.

Tim now has a belly full of air that is not moving. He looks more pregnant than I do. It is causing him great discomfort and has a hard time taking a deep breath. The doctors say he is heading in the right direction just rather slowly. We have been praying the he make a speedy recover. I know it is in God's hands and he will heal and come home.

Baby Wax week 16

I am 16 weeks pregnant today. I am feeling great. The nausea is gone. I have a few cravings but not anything crazy. So far it has been Stefanina's pizza and tomatoes. I have not gained any weight. In the first trimester I lost 4 pounds and I am still at that weight. That is a great start to this pregnancy. My goal is to only gain around 15 pounds.

We know someone who is an ulrasound tech. She was nice enough to look at our baby to see if we could figure out what the sex is. What we found out is that we have a very stubborn little one. It was so sweet to see the baby moving. It was standing on its head and would turn and look at us like, "do you see what I can do?' But the little booger kept its legs crossed for mos of the ultrasound. We did get a quick look but it was hard to tell. The ultrasound tech said that if she had to put money on it she would go with a boy. I said that was great and Trim is beyond excited. Layne said, "Are you sure it's not a girl?". Our big girl wanted a little sister to dress up! Jaxon is super excited and says this little one is already a great little brother! I am so excited but I will not by anything blue until we know for sure at our big ultrasound next month.

In other news I have started clinicals at school. it is so nice to finally be done with night classes. I am getting used to being in 2 different places during the day. It is wonderful to be at home during the evenings. I remembering what is like to make dinner for my family again! Jaxon continues to do well in school and is looking forward to the summer. Serena can not wait to start Kindergarden so she wants the summer to go by fast. If all goes as planned Laynie Lou will be going to public high school in the fall. I am excited and nervous for her! I myself love summer weather but am not looking forward to suffering through the heat this year. I have a feeling the air will be set way low with me inside and my feet up!

A couple weeks ago we had Terry, Amy, Bailey, and Jackson here. While there were here for a sad reason, a family member was in the hospital, we did enjoy spending some time with them.

Pregnancy ups and downs

I am 14 weeks pregnant. This week has proved difficult for me. I am starting to show which I think is so neat. But with a bigger belly comes a bigger back ache. My chair at work offers no support and I am hurting. I switched chairs and have started doing some yoga. I am hopeful that this will help. I am tired. Going to school 3 nights a week is taking its toll on this expecting mama. My last night of class is tomorrow. I am so excited that I finally made it through school. Next week starts clinicals for me. I have to do them part time so I can continue to work. This is going to take about 12 weeks to finish. I anxious to get through this because I am not so thrilled about the pay cut I will be taking. I miss seeing my husband. We get to see each other for about 30 minutes before I crash at night and for 10 minutes before Tim goes to work in the morning. I would love for us to be at home more but I know it just can not happen at this point in our lives. I am so thankful that we have the oppurtuunity to work so much and try to better our lives. But it is so hard to do. I have faith that things will get better. I keep praying for strength. I know God is walking with my family and we are so blessed. With out God I believe we would not be able to handle a lot of what we go trough. While I have had a hard week, I remember that we are going to be ok.

Showin off the baby

I had my first trimester screening this week. I got to see the baby moving and kicking and flipping. It was so neat and I feel like I could sit all day and just watch. I am already so in love with this child! The scan looked good but this is only the first part of a 3 step process. I had some blood work done and have not heard those results yet. In a couple more weeks I will get more blood work and then at 20 weeks we will have a more through scan than what is normally given. We will also find out what we are having at that time. I am so anxious. The days can not go by fast enough. I will be happy either way but it is very exciting to find out.

In other pregnancy news I am still having bleeding on and off. Mostly happens when I do too much. This past Saturday I bled all day long. That is a scary thing when you are pregnant. SInce everything is ok with the baby the doctor beleives I have something going on with my cervix. A varicositie is what she called it. And if I do too much then I will bleed. She wants me to take it easy. Try to sit more at work and not do as much around the house. Easier said than done with a big family, but I am trying to follow her advice as much as possible. I may have to post pone doing my clinicals at school. Because it would consist of a lot of standing and massaging. I don't want to push it. Everything else seems to be going really good.

Jaxon is going to do a series of tests at school. If he does well with these he will be placed in an accelerated program. I could not be more proud. He really enjoys school. Serena is doing really well in speach therapy and continues to improve on a weekly basis. Layne had a fine arts program that she did with church and her group took first place. Tim and I are truely blessed with wonderful children.