You've Been Through a Lot

So I just passed the 2 month date on my surgery.
But the first surgery has almost been overshadowed at this point.
Who am I kidding? It's absolutely been overshadowed.
I went to see Dr. Roller today for a checkup from my gall bladder removal.
When his nurse was checking me in she kept commenting on the week that I was in the hospital and the two ER trips. She said she just kept getting fax after fax and could not believe it.
For those keeping score - Gall Bladder removed. Kidney Stent placed. DVT in arm within 5 days.
It's a lot.
And in case I am tempted to try and forget that - every. single. doctor reminds me!
Tomorrow it looks like I will be calling my kidney doc again because of an ongoing issue that shall not be named.
In the mean time, I await a referral to a hematologist. We're hoping to get an "all clear" to get me off of the blood thinners... which may help the "issue that shall not be named" as well. :O)

So - for those following along at home still. I have lost almost 60 pounds. It actually might be a little quicker but my current issue (thanks to the gall bladder removal in great part) is an almost complete aversion to just about every food imaginable.

I thank God for the original surgery. Without it the week long hospital visit and the aftermath would have been worse.
The gall bladder (which wasn't the worst the doctor had seen, but was pretty ugly) and kidney stone episode would have happened. But I would have been a brand new patient for all the surgeon's involved.
Instead of that, I had a top notch surgeon ready to go and familiar with me.

So many things to be thankful for! 

Wedding is in barely over two weeks. This past 9 months of engagement has been nothing like I had planned. But on 9/1 I get to become Mrs. Davis. So all-in-all things are just grand.
:o)
-Gina

It's Been a Long, Hard, Weird Road

Yikes people.
My life since the last time I blogged has been a roller coaster both physically and emotionally.
I can't sugar coat it. It's kinda sucked. :O)

Sunday July 22nd went to the ER in the afternoon (about 5 pm) thinking I had a kidney stone lodged somewhere.
I had already been through several days of not being able to keep anything - food or liquid or meds - down so I was pretty sure that I was also severely dehydrated.
Multiple tests, pokes, prods and vomiting hours later they finally settled on a kidney stone and multiple gall stones.
My weight loss surgeon (WLS) does gall bladders too so he asked for me to be admitted.
I didn't leave the hospital until Thursday afternoon.
The gall bladder was removed on Tuesday.
I was still in a lot of pain (and not able to keep anything on my stomach). They were pushing fluids in me which is a part of the reason why I stayed in the hospital for this whole time. The problem was that my veins were shot and kept blowing and such (whatever that means).
They wanted to put me into surgery again and help my kidneys... but I thought they were getting better (and all tests seemed to point that way too) so I said no let's do medicine and see if we can avoid that...
I was out of the hospital on Thursday night.

I ended up back in the ER on Friday morning - different ER on the advice of my WLS.
Dehydrated again.
Multiple sticks and prods to try and get IV's in.
Call to kidney doc - surgery to put in stint.
Surprisingly they let me go home.
On the way home, my arm felt weird and was a bit swollen but I was so happy to go home I barely noted it.
About 4 am I awake to find my hand and much of my left arm swollen badly.

6 am - back to the ER where the doctor sounds the alarm bell quickly. But I still didn't know why!

Diagnoses - left arm has blood clots. One is on the surface. One is deeply embedded in my upper arm (DVT).
I'm actually thankful that, at the time, I didn't know how dangerous that was. Everyone was freaked out. I was (in the words of the ER doc) "oddly calm."
I think that was God's protection on me honestly.

So the last few days have been a blur of pain meds, self-administered blood thinning shots, and pills.

Every day gets a little better.
I am thankful for much.

Wedding in less than a month now - YIPES.
Pray with us that what needs to get done, get's done. And that my stress level stays nice and low. :O)
-Gina