On Monday Jake passed his final checkride and completed his C-17 training at Altus!! This is such exciting news because it means he's finally coming to California! He did such an awesome job through the whole program and I know he's so happy and ready to get to our new base and finally be out of the AETC training world. Today he drove back to our old base in Mississippi to gather all our things from the storage unit and start preparing to head west. And since I'm not much of a help with moving right now, his dad is flying out to help with the big move - Thank you Tim!!
I can't believe that in just about a week I will have my husband back :) It seems so surreal! These past six months flew by much faster than I ever expected but I am very much missing Jake - It's been 8 weeks since we've seen eachother.. Yikes!
Our next hurdle is to try and get on-base housing at Travis. We've been on the waiting list since last fall but still have 8 people in front of us. I'm really hoping we can get a house before we have to resort to signing a lease off-base. Until then Jake will live in a TLF, Temporary Living Facility, on base and I will come to stay with him as much as I can (Our dogs will still be living in Turlock until we get a house at Travis because the yard at my dad's house is so much nicer than forcing them to live in a hotel room with no outdoor area).
So thats the plan as of now. Yay for big exciting changes!!
Post-Operation Update
Well I can honestly say that this has been one lonnngg week. The surgery (and recovery) didn't go exactly as planned but in the end everything seems to have worked out just fine. Here's the story...
I went in on Thursday morning and was taken right back for surgery, and just an hour after surgery I woke up from the anesthesia and was cleared to head home. A short while after being home I started having really severe pains in my stomach, right below my ribs in the center. Without exaggerating, it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. The pain was so bad that it was causing me to pass out and throw up continuously. Nervous and scared, I rushed back to the hospital where my doctor met me to look at my incisions. I was given morphine and finally experienced relief from the horrible pain. The doctor said that everything looked fine and the pain was probably from built-up CO2 in my stomach from the surgery, although to me it did NOT feel like gas pain to me! Either way, the pain was gone so I was happy. The doctor admitted me to the hospital for the next two nights to keep an eye on my recovery and help manage the pain.
It really was such a blessing to be able to stay in the hospital for a lot of reasons. First off, the bed was super comfortable and helped to lift me up and down from the bed when needed. I was also able to stay on the good pain meds and have the comfort of nurses taking care of me through the night. But the most unexpected thing that happened is that my mom got really sick on Thursday and even worse on Friday and was unable to do much of anything to help take care of me, even though she wanted to. I felt so bad for her! Me being in the hospital gave her a chance to go home and work on getting well without having to worry about taking care of me (And now she's feeling much better by the way!).
On Saturday morning I got to come home and was happy to get settled in my own bed. The Doctor prescribed me Norco (Vicodin) to help with the pain and while it worked well and helped me sleep, it started giving me some awful side effects like chest pressure and nausea. Sunday and Monday I continued to take it easy and started to slowly wean myself off the heavy medication, which really made me feel much better. I think I'd rather have the surgery pain than the medicine side effects - I guess I'm just really sensitive to meds! Yesterday was the first day I was up and around the house and today was the first day I was able to completely stop taking my pain meds (Woo hoo!). I'm starting to feel like myself again, just a bit sore and slow-moving. I have my post-op check up tomorrow so we'll see what the doctor has to say about my recovery. I would say I'm probably pretty average... I'll have to take it slow for another week or two but it's not too horrible (with the exception of the first two days of course!)
The good news in all of this is that the doctor gave me confirmation that my gallbladder definitely was the culprit in this roller coaster of illness - He said it was inflamed and infected when he removed it. Thank goodness because I would hate to have been told that it looked perfectly healthy and was not actually the cause of my troubles. Now, I guess only time will tell if I am able to resume a completely normal diet again (I'm still too nervous to try some foods...) but at this point I'm remaining optimistic. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement! I'm beyond ready to put all this medical drama in the past and move on to bigger and better things :)
I went in on Thursday morning and was taken right back for surgery, and just an hour after surgery I woke up from the anesthesia and was cleared to head home. A short while after being home I started having really severe pains in my stomach, right below my ribs in the center. Without exaggerating, it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. The pain was so bad that it was causing me to pass out and throw up continuously. Nervous and scared, I rushed back to the hospital where my doctor met me to look at my incisions. I was given morphine and finally experienced relief from the horrible pain. The doctor said that everything looked fine and the pain was probably from built-up CO2 in my stomach from the surgery, although to me it did NOT feel like gas pain to me! Either way, the pain was gone so I was happy. The doctor admitted me to the hospital for the next two nights to keep an eye on my recovery and help manage the pain.
It really was such a blessing to be able to stay in the hospital for a lot of reasons. First off, the bed was super comfortable and helped to lift me up and down from the bed when needed. I was also able to stay on the good pain meds and have the comfort of nurses taking care of me through the night. But the most unexpected thing that happened is that my mom got really sick on Thursday and even worse on Friday and was unable to do much of anything to help take care of me, even though she wanted to. I felt so bad for her! Me being in the hospital gave her a chance to go home and work on getting well without having to worry about taking care of me (And now she's feeling much better by the way!).
On Saturday morning I got to come home and was happy to get settled in my own bed. The Doctor prescribed me Norco (Vicodin) to help with the pain and while it worked well and helped me sleep, it started giving me some awful side effects like chest pressure and nausea. Sunday and Monday I continued to take it easy and started to slowly wean myself off the heavy medication, which really made me feel much better. I think I'd rather have the surgery pain than the medicine side effects - I guess I'm just really sensitive to meds! Yesterday was the first day I was up and around the house and today was the first day I was able to completely stop taking my pain meds (Woo hoo!). I'm starting to feel like myself again, just a bit sore and slow-moving. I have my post-op check up tomorrow so we'll see what the doctor has to say about my recovery. I would say I'm probably pretty average... I'll have to take it slow for another week or two but it's not too horrible (with the exception of the first two days of course!)
The good news in all of this is that the doctor gave me confirmation that my gallbladder definitely was the culprit in this roller coaster of illness - He said it was inflamed and infected when he removed it. Thank goodness because I would hate to have been told that it looked perfectly healthy and was not actually the cause of my troubles. Now, I guess only time will tell if I am able to resume a completely normal diet again (I'm still too nervous to try some foods...) but at this point I'm remaining optimistic. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement! I'm beyond ready to put all this medical drama in the past and move on to bigger and better things :)
Surgery tomorrow...
- - - - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - - - -
Tomorrow morning at 9:30 I'll be going in to have my gallbladder removed. I'm really happy to get this over with and get back to feeling healthy but I can't help but be super nervous about this whole thing. I've never really had surgery before and hospitals in general make me all queasy... and lets not even get started on the whole IV thing - I HATE needles - eek! Prayers and happy thoughts are much appreciated...
I'm actually really surprised by how many people have had their gallbladder taken out - it seems like everyone I talk to lately has had this surgery! One thing I have gathered from talking to over a dozen people I know who've had this surgery is that the results and recovery time vary A TON. Some people said it was no big deal and were back on their feet in a day or two while others have told me it took them a month to feel good again; Some people said they could completely resume a normal diet afterwards and others said they have to watch fatty foods and dairy.
I'm usually an extremely optimisitic person but I can't help but think I'll be on the slow side of recovery. Any time I have a "routine procedure", such as when I got my wisdom teeth out a year ago, I seem to be very sensitive to the meds and have the pain tolerance of a baby. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself?
With all that said though, I am finding comfort in knowing that I have a great surgical team, a wonderfully supportive family to take care of me, and an ALMIGHTY God who loves me and wants the best for me. A saying that has been getting me through my nerves is this: "The opposite of faith is fear". What do I have to fear when I have faith that God will take care of me? Who am I to ever doubt Him? I know everything will be just fine and I will be so thankful that I got the surgery done and over with!
I'm actually really surprised by how many people have had their gallbladder taken out - it seems like everyone I talk to lately has had this surgery! One thing I have gathered from talking to over a dozen people I know who've had this surgery is that the results and recovery time vary A TON. Some people said it was no big deal and were back on their feet in a day or two while others have told me it took them a month to feel good again; Some people said they could completely resume a normal diet afterwards and others said they have to watch fatty foods and dairy.
I'm usually an extremely optimisitic person but I can't help but think I'll be on the slow side of recovery. Any time I have a "routine procedure", such as when I got my wisdom teeth out a year ago, I seem to be very sensitive to the meds and have the pain tolerance of a baby. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself?
With all that said though, I am finding comfort in knowing that I have a great surgical team, a wonderfully supportive family to take care of me, and an ALMIGHTY God who loves me and wants the best for me. A saying that has been getting me through my nerves is this: "The opposite of faith is fear". What do I have to fear when I have faith that God will take care of me? Who am I to ever doubt Him? I know everything will be just fine and I will be so thankful that I got the surgery done and over with!
Painful Braces & Gallbladder Trouble
- - - - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - - - -
Goodness, I have so much to blog about! The problem with that is that sitting down to write a post has become a completely overwhelming thought so I just put it off and put it off, all the while my list of posts to write grows even more. So instead of writing a massive update post, I'll just write on one thing at a time and see if that helps kick my blogging priority up a notch :)
As you probably can tell from my lovely post title, this post is a health update. Let's start with a quick recap on my braces situation. Can you believe they've been on for over 9 months already? Time is flying! This past week I had the forsus spring appliance added to my braces (remember when I talked about that in this post a while back?)... Check out my sweet new gear...
And by "sweet" I actually mean horribly painful and awkward.
Between the jaw and cheek pain caused by the giant spring, and the tooth pain caused by the added "power chain" to close the gaps in my upper teeth, I was in misery for the few days following my appointment. But now, the pain has worn off and my mouth has adjusted to the new appliance so all is well :) This spring is a great option considering my other ones include wearing braces with rubber bands for two years, or having surgery to have my jaw realigned (eek!)... Yeah, I'm definitely appreciative of this hard-working little appliance in my mouth. And the exciting news is that I only have two more appointments before the braces come off for good! Just in time for my sister's June wedding :)
Alright, moving on to my gallbladder trouble... Two weeks ago when I met with the surgeon, he was not convinced it was my gallbladder giving me trouble - He gave it an 80% guess that it could be the problem which to him wasn't enough to go through with surgery. Honestly, I very much appreciated that because I was not at all wanting to rush into a surgery, especially if it wasn't going to do any good.
So anyways, the doctor decided to put me on a strict, low-fat diet for two weeks to see how my symptoms responded. This diet has been MISERABLE - No dairy (no milk, cheese, whaaat??), no butter, no eggs, no chocolate, no tomato sauce, nothing fried or cooked with oil, no bacon, only lean/grilled meats, no gravies, and absolutely no eating out (as there is nothing on most menus that adhere to my diet plan). Thank goodness I was still allowed to have coffee or I might not have made it! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have horrible eating habits so this was definitely a new experience for me. But to my wonderful surprise, within just two days of eating on this diet my pain and symptoms were gone! Not better... but actually GONE. I continued on with the diet and have felt almost completely back to normal ever since!
Then, this past Saturday night all of friends decided to go out to Mexican food. I was NOT going to stay home just because of this dumb diet. Mexican food is my absolute favorite! I knew I couldn't have any chips and salsa but I thought I'd go ahead and try to eat one chicken enchilada, with no cheese of course. Harmless right? Nooo. That night the pain came back with a vengence and this time it not only was in my chest but it also radiated around my back which was a completely new symptom. I guess I overlooked the fact that the tortilla was fried in oil...oops! Anyways, today I had my follow-up appointment with the surgeon and he now says without a doubt that I need to have my gallbladder removed. I will be scheduled for the surgery to happen sometime within the next two weeks. I'm really praying that this will relieve my pain and let me resume life as normal again, and I'm hoping for an easy and speedy recovery as Jake and I prepare to move to our new base next month. Prayers are very much appreciated! I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!!
As you probably can tell from my lovely post title, this post is a health update. Let's start with a quick recap on my braces situation. Can you believe they've been on for over 9 months already? Time is flying! This past week I had the forsus spring appliance added to my braces (remember when I talked about that in this post a while back?)... Check out my sweet new gear...
And by "sweet" I actually mean horribly painful and awkward.
Between the jaw and cheek pain caused by the giant spring, and the tooth pain caused by the added "power chain" to close the gaps in my upper teeth, I was in misery for the few days following my appointment. But now, the pain has worn off and my mouth has adjusted to the new appliance so all is well :) This spring is a great option considering my other ones include wearing braces with rubber bands for two years, or having surgery to have my jaw realigned (eek!)... Yeah, I'm definitely appreciative of this hard-working little appliance in my mouth. And the exciting news is that I only have two more appointments before the braces come off for good! Just in time for my sister's June wedding :)
Alright, moving on to my gallbladder trouble... Two weeks ago when I met with the surgeon, he was not convinced it was my gallbladder giving me trouble - He gave it an 80% guess that it could be the problem which to him wasn't enough to go through with surgery. Honestly, I very much appreciated that because I was not at all wanting to rush into a surgery, especially if it wasn't going to do any good.
So anyways, the doctor decided to put me on a strict, low-fat diet for two weeks to see how my symptoms responded. This diet has been MISERABLE - No dairy (no milk, cheese, whaaat??), no butter, no eggs, no chocolate, no tomato sauce, nothing fried or cooked with oil, no bacon, only lean/grilled meats, no gravies, and absolutely no eating out (as there is nothing on most menus that adhere to my diet plan). Thank goodness I was still allowed to have coffee or I might not have made it! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have horrible eating habits so this was definitely a new experience for me. But to my wonderful surprise, within just two days of eating on this diet my pain and symptoms were gone! Not better... but actually GONE. I continued on with the diet and have felt almost completely back to normal ever since!
Then, this past Saturday night all of friends decided to go out to Mexican food. I was NOT going to stay home just because of this dumb diet. Mexican food is my absolute favorite! I knew I couldn't have any chips and salsa but I thought I'd go ahead and try to eat one chicken enchilada, with no cheese of course. Harmless right? Nooo. That night the pain came back with a vengence and this time it not only was in my chest but it also radiated around my back which was a completely new symptom. I guess I overlooked the fact that the tortilla was fried in oil...oops! Anyways, today I had my follow-up appointment with the surgeon and he now says without a doubt that I need to have my gallbladder removed. I will be scheduled for the surgery to happen sometime within the next two weeks. I'm really praying that this will relieve my pain and let me resume life as normal again, and I'm hoping for an easy and speedy recovery as Jake and I prepare to move to our new base next month. Prayers are very much appreciated! I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!!
Five months down, One to go!
- - - - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - - - -
Way back at the beginning of September, I said goodbye to my husband and sent him off for 6 months of training. Back then I remember thinking that March was forever away and that time would definitely pass so slowly until we were back together. Today I realized that its already February, which means that there's only one month until we're back together and at our new base! 35 days to be exact...
Where has all the time gone? How is it already February? Granted I was dead to the world for 2 months - Oh shoot, wait, pretend I didn't say that - I'm not talking about being sick anymore :) But aside from that and the awfulness of being away from Jake, my time here in Turlock these past 5 months has been pretty awesome! I get to have coffee or lunch with my mom most days, spend time with my little brother and dad most afternoons, and have girl time with my friends most nights. Life is good! I had forgotten what it's like to live by my family and best friends... and it's wonderful.
Here's a picture of me and my favorite girls on New Years Eve. I've known them for over 10 years and am so happy to have them in my life.
And thankfully I haven't been only hanging out and sitting around for the last 6 months (or I'd be going CRAZY by now). I've been working 25+ hours a week designing and doing schoolwork for 12+ hours on top of that. Having more time on my hands has been great for my business and I've been able to put in the time it needs to really get started and keep growing. I've been booking design clients steadily now two months in advance (which is great for budgeting my income) and in April I'll be moving to a full-time, 40 hour work week!! I can't say enough how amazing it is to be working for myself and doing something I enjoy. School has been going well too, although the classes are SOO very challenging at times. But in March I will have completed the first portion of my certificate and will be over half way done with the program already! Although school has been hard, I really do enjoy it and with every class I get more and more excited about my new career path.
Hmm, what else do I have to tell you. OH! As most of you know, my sister is getting married in June so as her MOH I've been in full wedding planning mode. I'm so excited for her and feel lucky to be involved every step of the way - I don't want to miss anything! This wedding is going to be FABULOUS! Can you feel my excitement? :)
I had the pleasure of designing their "Save-the-date" postcards a few months ago. Here's the front of the card... Aren't they just the cutest couple ever??
Well, I think I'm going to end on that lovely note. I have lots more to say but it's late and I need to get some sleeeep. I'm just so happy to be blogging again! Did you miss me? :)
Where has all the time gone? How is it already February? Granted I was dead to the world for 2 months - Oh shoot, wait, pretend I didn't say that - I'm not talking about being sick anymore :) But aside from that and the awfulness of being away from Jake, my time here in Turlock these past 5 months has been pretty awesome! I get to have coffee or lunch with my mom most days, spend time with my little brother and dad most afternoons, and have girl time with my friends most nights. Life is good! I had forgotten what it's like to live by my family and best friends... and it's wonderful.
Here's a picture of me and my favorite girls on New Years Eve. I've known them for over 10 years and am so happy to have them in my life.
And thankfully I haven't been only hanging out and sitting around for the last 6 months (or I'd be going CRAZY by now). I've been working 25+ hours a week designing and doing schoolwork for 12+ hours on top of that. Having more time on my hands has been great for my business and I've been able to put in the time it needs to really get started and keep growing. I've been booking design clients steadily now two months in advance (which is great for budgeting my income) and in April I'll be moving to a full-time, 40 hour work week!! I can't say enough how amazing it is to be working for myself and doing something I enjoy. School has been going well too, although the classes are SOO very challenging at times. But in March I will have completed the first portion of my certificate and will be over half way done with the program already! Although school has been hard, I really do enjoy it and with every class I get more and more excited about my new career path.
Hmm, what else do I have to tell you. OH! As most of you know, my sister is getting married in June so as her MOH I've been in full wedding planning mode. I'm so excited for her and feel lucky to be involved every step of the way - I don't want to miss anything! This wedding is going to be FABULOUS! Can you feel my excitement? :)
I had the pleasure of designing their "Save-the-date" postcards a few months ago. Here's the front of the card... Aren't they just the cutest couple ever??
Well, I think I'm going to end on that lovely note. I have lots more to say but it's late and I need to get some sleeeep. I'm just so happy to be blogging again! Did you miss me? :)
