{So Many Hats}

Let me just say....

That hearsay from a turtle is NOT admissable in a court of law.  He is taking second and third account stories and putting his own special twist on them.  I will admit to being annoyed, and trying to get out of surgery, but let me point out that by this time I was full of a LOT of morphine =)  Morphine is a nice drug, don't you think?  AJ did get to come to the hospital, and I did do a lot of texting on my Blackberry ... boy I like that thing!! 

"Do you still have your appendix? Hmmmmm...."

 So here is where the story actually starts to get kind of funny… well, not so much from Mom’s point of view, and not right then, but now that it is over, the story is entertaining.  So Mom goes into the clinic and her first question is “Do you take Tricare?” Well, of course they don’t so she is annoyed from the get-go that her insurance doesn’t work here and she is going to have to pay out of pocket for something she expects to be gas.  So she fills out all the paperwork, and just stands in the lobby because #1, there is noone there and #2, it kind of hurts to sit down.  So after a bit the nurse comes and gets her and does all the pre-checkup stuff like weight and height and blood pressure and all that, and then uses this phrase that will become standard (and annoying) over the course of the rest of the story…. “Do you still have your appendix?  Hmmm….)   She then asks mom for a urine sample for a pregnancy test.  Now Mom does not take too kindly to the request on account of the fact that the necessary ummm, arrangements for pregnancy have not been met, and on account of the fact that she has neither eaten nor drunk anything all day because of the intense pain so how in the world can she be expected to pee in a cup?  And let me tell you, the night went downhill from there.  After the nurse made her drink 5 dixie cups of water (she made it through 2 before she started to cry because it made it hurt so much worse) the doctor came in.  He noted the tears, asked what was going on, did some pushing and prodding, and repeated the question…. “ Do you still have your appendix? Hmmm….” At this point Mom was past the cranky stage and not to nicely informed him that people really needed to stop saying that and she narced on the mean nurse who made her drink water.   The doctor said that in order to do a proper diagnosis he needed blood work and a CT scan and his clinic did not have the facilities to do either so he was going to pre-admit her at the emergency room at St. Joseph. Now, if you have any idea how hostile she was BEFORE that little bit of information, it was nothing compared to what was coming.  First she asked the doctor if she could wait since she was headed back to Texas in two days and she was only there to have Christmas with her family and this wasn’t exactly a convenient time.  She then asked him if he couldn’t diagnose her there and had to refer her out what business did he have charging her $110 for a doctor visit.  She feels bad now but she was pretty ticked off then.  So… she called Gramma and asked her to keep the kids overnight just in case, and she called Eric and let him know that they had to go to the emergency room and that she was already tired of hearing, “Do you still have your appendix?  Hmmmm…..” So papa Eric came and got her and they went to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s where the first question was, yep, you guessed it, “Do you still have your appendix?  Hmmmm….”  I wonder if they teach that in medical school?  Well, after she got pre-admitted (with a small brown bag containing an even smaller plastic bottle for her “contribution”) she went to the “real” admitting place where the nice young man told her that “of course” they took Tricare and asked if she wanted any pain medication.  Well now that you mention it…. Isn’t insurance a wonderful thing?  So she got her little ID tag and some meds and she went to the waiting room (and to the bathroom for her “contribution”) and just waited.  It wasn’t too terribly long before they placed her back in a room and gave her an IV, and some fluids, and more pain medicine (four shots later she finally felt a little better) and started doing their thing.  After a few more rounds of “Do you still have your appendix? Hmmm….” it was decided that a CT scan needed to be performed.  I don’t know if any of you have ever had a CT scan, I haven’t, but I do know now after hearing this story that I don’t want to… but it was decided that Mom needed to drink a huge bottle of contrast.  I don’t know how to describe contrast because Mom doesn’t know how to describe contrast.  This is the best she can do “I have never known that water could be thick and this is the grossest thing I have ever drunk.”  Eric was all optimistic and he poured Mom this big glass of it and cheerfully said, “drink up!”  He had obviously never drunk contrast!  Mom took a big swallow and about puked on the bed.  So in the IV went more meds, these ones for anti-nausea and so it began.  Eric was telling Mom she was a tough Army girl and she could do this and she was getting pissy and telling him that he had no idea because it wasn’t him in pain and having to drink this junk and couldn’t she just go home and worry about this after Christmas…. And pretty soon the gauntlet was thrown down and Mom said she wasn’t drinking anymore until he knew what she was going through and so he took a sip and oh my goodness…according to Mom his face was hysterical, especially as he tried not to gag as he was saying, “that’s not so bad.”  But after that he did conclude that it was pretty gross and maybe smaller amounts would be better.  So he poured little ½ Dixie cups and Mom managed to drink one every 5 minutes until the junk was gone but she swears it was pure force of will and the thought that Army girls are too tough to be put down by nasty thick swamp water flavored with lemon Crystal Light which for the record is gross all by itself.  So a couple of more shots of anti-nausea meds and pain killer later, Mom was wheeled off for her CT scan and at the CT room they shot her full of iodine which made her body freak a little, she thought she tasted blood and got an instant raging headache.  At some point in all of this, they also gave her some Sulfa even though she was wearing a HUGE RED BRACELET saying not too.  We assume that is where the terrible headache came in…. they told her the next day that it had happened but that they monitored to make sure she didn’t go into anaphylactic shock… wasn’t that nice of them?!  So she was wheeled back up into the first room she came from and the doctor came in and said, yep, she was in the beginning stages of appendicitis and that they were going to admit her to the hospital and operate at 0500 the next morning.  At this point there were more tears, and some argument that if it was only beginning then it was no big deal and couldn’t they just give her some drugs and let her go home with her family for Christmas and what was wrong with these doctors, didn’t they know she was only home for 5 days and had no desire to spend two of them in the hospital?  Nothing doing though, they just patted her and left.

 

So of course, Mom went into planning mode and told Eric to go home, get her government phone, the phone chargers, her book she brought to read, a bottle of water, a brush, hair ties and ME!  She had her blackberry with her so she took a picture (see the big bottle on the right hand table by the blue thingie?  That was the contrast!) and posted to her facebook that she was going in for surgery.  She’s a funny one like that… pissed at the beginning, but resigned and taking care of business the rest of the time, although I will say that she does NOT look too happy in this picture!  She also had to call and explain to Ladybug Sarah what was going on and tell her not to be scared because she wasn’t taking it well and Gramma thought it best she hear from Mom that it was all going to be OK.  She also called back to her unit and let them know what was going on just in case but told them that she had made it VERY CLEAR to the doctor that she was flying back to Texas on Thursday no matter what (and yes, this was Monday night… optimistic isn’t she?!).  So that is where I will leave this portion…. Mom admitted to the hospital, Eric headed out to get the stuff she requested and a 0500 surgery date for Tuesday morning.  Catch up with you soon for the rest of the story!!  

Christmas Excitement (part 2)

So on Monday morning when we woke up Mom STILL had a terrible stomachache.  The crummy thing was that Adam (one of the TLC employees) did not go to work the night before and Mom and papa Eric didn’t find out until the morning so they had to go clean Homeport first thing in the morning so Mom had to vacuum the whole restaurant while she had this bad tummy ache and it hurt to the touch and she was generally feeling miserable.  When she got back from the restaurant she came back to bed and she told me that she was weirded out though by the fact that she had not thrown up, there had been no instances of needing to run to the toilet for ANYTHING (if you get my drift) so she could not figure out why the intense pain.  We were all supposed to go sledding up on Mt. Baker but it was STILL snowing in Bellingham so Gramma called to see if we were going to do it and Mom said that it was OK if we didn’t, and Gramma, being the smart cookie she is, knew that if Mom changed a tradition/plan and didn’t care SOMETHING was wrong so she asked what was up and Mom said she had this bad stomachache so just in case maybe she should not be on the top of Mt. Baker and we could just find a park or someplace. Gramma said Mom should go to the doctor but Mom kind of blew her off and said she would figure it out.  So the kids came in and visited, and Mom called some friends for advice, and Eric looked online for information and they thought maybe she was suffering from a gall bladder attach which would have made sense because Gramma doesn’t have her gall bladder anymore and Mom does everything she does…. So it came to be sledding time and Mom went sledding.  Well, went sledding is kind of a misnomer.  She went WITH everyone to go sledding, but she just stood around and took pictures of everyone.  She couldn’t tolerate the bumps on the hill so she just stood still.  Well, Gramma kept nagging and so finally Mom called the doctor and asked them and they said that it was too difficult to diagnose stomach stuff on the phone so she would need to be seen but they were going to close because of the snow so she would have to go to the urgent care clinic.  Well, if you know Mom, you know she hates doctors, and she will only see Dr. Gav so she said thanks, and decided not to go.  She figured she just had bad gas or something and could not see spending all the money for an urgent care visit when they would probably tell her to take some tums and go about her business.  And besides, on Tuesday the family was supposed to go to Seattle and to the Pacific Science Center (one of their FAVE places) and to the Melting Pot (Mom’s FAVE place) so she needed to get ready for that. So Auntie Heather invited everyone to her house for lasagna, and everyone left the sledding site to go get ready.  When Mom got home all she wanted to do was go back to bed so she came to take a little nap with me and then she decided after that maybe she should just go see because the pain just wasn’t getting better.  She said it was really weird, the whole tummy area was swollen up and it hurt EVERYWHERE but she didn’t have to throw up, didn’t have to go to the bathroom, and didn’t have a fever or anything.  She also couldn’t eat though and so I think that is why she finally decided to go.  She told papa Eric to drop her off at the clinic, take the kids out to Auntie Heather’s and come back and get her because she should be done by then (little did she know!!).  So that was her plan.  As we all know… plans don’t always work out.  But ever the optimistic, Mom got cleaned up, dressed to go to Auntie Heather’s house for dinner, got the kids ready, packed everyone in the truck and took off for the urgent care clinic.  That’s when everything got REALLY interesting.  Come back later to find out what happened… WITH PICTURES!!!

Christmas Excitement (part 1)

OK… so I was so flummoxed by the fact that I went so long not blogging and I was sneaking the blog in while Mom was working… (shhhh, don’t tell Big Brothers) that I TOTALLY forgot to put it in green… but it was me.  OK… now that I have cleared that up, and let you know that it is in fact me again, let me continue to tell you about our Christmas adventure.   

 

So after the day of shopping and whatever, we went home to Bellingham and snuggled into bed.  Let me tell you though, it was kind of a scary ride because of all the snow.  Weird that all of us came from living in Texas and flew right into blizzardy conditions.  Anyway though…. The whole family took off on Saturday morning for Christmas at Gramma and Grampa’s.  And I know what you are thinking… Christmas wasn’t on Saturday this year.  You are correct, it wasn’t, but sometimes you just gotta have Christmas when Uncle Sam says you can have Christmas, know what I mean?  Well, I didn’t go for the Christmas thing… Christmas is weird, everyone getting new toys and stuff and you kind of worry that you won’t be loved anymore… so I just stayed home with Peanut and Zipper and we played around while everyone went for Christmas breakfast and presents.  Well, noone came home until like, 7 o’clock at night!  They were gone for almost 10 whole hours.  It was SO crazy!  Turns out that they had their big breakfast, which mom says was SO YUMMY, and then they opened presents, and then various people did various things, and mom and gramma and auntie Heather made a scrapbook present for Gretchen and by then it was getting late in the afternoon and people were hungry again (although how they could possible be hungry after the pounds and pounds of food consumed with Grampa’s amazing Christmas breakfast I have NO idea….) but they were hungry again and so they prevailed on his love of cooking and I am pretty sure that mom and Auntie Heather did the big brown eye thing and Grampa made hamburgers for everyone (and let me tell you, he is an EXCELLENT hamburger maker!) and they chowed down and then everyone left to come home.  Well, mom came home with a TERRIBLE stomach ache.  She thought she had food poisoning (turns out the hamburger wasn’t quite as cooked as it should have been and she didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to hurt Grampa’s feelings and so she just ate it.  I thought that was kind of funny given the e. coli lecture from the day before but whatever….) and so she just got in her PJ’s, grabbed me and snuggled into bed.  Papa Eric tried to get her to take some meddies but she was afraid that it would mask the pain and she would not know if it was too serious so she said no.  So Daniel came in and played some songs on his guitar, and Sarah hung out in the bedroom too and mom kind of relaxed and tried to sleep.  Well…. The next morning is when things started to get interesting… I am going to start a new entry for that though, because I don’t want it to be so long that you don’t want to read =)  Besides, maybe I can get back in some people’s good graces with more than one post in a month… two in one week!  One can only hope.  Peace out dudes!

Way back in December

So here is mom… I am not in this picture because seriously I did not have any desire to go out in the snow in a tee shirt and Seahawk hat.  And let the record show that she had just bought it at JC Penney and then wore it out into the snow to take her picture to send back down to El Paso to all the perfectly sane people that were basking in the fact that Christmas was 70 degrees and sunny.  I was snuggled up in the truck sleeping… it had been a long couple of days… Mom and I left Friday night and headed for Houston to pick up the kids.  It should have been an easy trip… we were supposed to land, get picked up by the airport shuttle and then Shannon would bring the kids to the hotel.  Well, after waiting for about an hour for the shuttle that never showed up, Shannon ended up picking us up at the airport and then taking us to the hotel.  I decided to take a little nap while everyone went to dinner but they told me about it when they got back… they walked for MILES (Ok, probably just like 2 miles) to get to a restaurant for dinner… they decided on Mexican food… I like Mexican food… the whole instant gratification thing with the chips and the salsa on the table, which is good for me!  Anyway… so they went and had dinner at Pappasitos Cantina and then came back to the hotel and crashed out…. We got up the next morning (SO EARLY!) and headed for the airport on the shuttle.  We flew to Seattle with no problems but when we got there I saw TONS of white stuff on the ground.  And I didn’t even have a JACKET!  It was crazy!  So the family was in the mall shopping and I was snoozing when the picture was taken.  The family also had lunch at Red Robin (Sarah’s request) and here is a funny note… you will need it to understand about the hospital later… Sarah and Daniel both ordered burgers and Mom made them have theirs well done.  She got a weird look from Eric and she said that she didn’t want the kids to get E. Coli poisoning but if he wanted to kill himself with it he could.  So he had his medium.  You will need to know that later =)  So they did all of their Christmas shopping, and drove home from Lynwood in a snowstorm and tumbled into bed to do Christmas the next morning.  Ok… gotta run, I will tell you about Christmas soon, cuz it leads to the hospital stay… so crazy!!!!