An UP-lifting Experience

UP-lifting experience" is what I had June 2 at about noon. I had to be at the hospital at 10:30 and was taken back to surgery probably about 12:30. I cant say I remember much of it or any of it for that matter. I have a hard time remembering any of it up to about 6:00pm. Which is a good thing right. You don't want to remember what happened during surgery. Dr Kaaki said everything went well with the hysterectomy and he worked on the vaginal area as well as the rectum area. That all went well but while he was working on the bladder and suturing it up (Hence the uplifting experience) he nicked my bladder and so then had to do some extra repair on my bladder and now instead of only having a catheter for two days I will now have it for 10 to give my bladder time to heal. That part really stinks. I wasn't thrilled about having it two days but 10 is the pits. I have a new feeling of empathy for those who have to wear one on a daily bases.

I came home from the hospital about 1:00 yesterday. I have to take antibiotics as well as a stool softener and a couple pain meds. Speaking of which, "Hey Craig, I need a pain med."

I slept well last night. I woke up every time I had to roll over but was able to fall right back to sleep. Was up for a little while at 4:00 to take some pain meds and then sat in the recliner thinking I would read some but only got about 2 pages read for I headed back to bed.

I had a little concern with the redness of my urine in my bag but just talked with the nurse and she checked with the Doctor who said that would be normal with the suturing of the bladder for a while.

My biggest prayer right now is the bowel movement. I am going to need to have to have one, more then likely, in the next 24 hours and I am NOT, repeat NOT looking forward to that. He did quit a bit of work down there too and so the first time is not going to be fun.

So that is where I am at right now. I actually feel pretty good all in all. I have kept in contact with my Trial Drug lady Karen and she has advised me to stop taking my Tasigna/Nilotnib til after I have finished taking the antibiotic. Thank you all for your prayers during surgery. I greatly appreciate it.

Battle of the Buldge

I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this or not but decided I would share. You never know when it might help someone else going through the same thing. Well, when I titled this Battle of the Buldge I truly mean it. This is something I have actually been dealing with the past almost 2 years. It is something I went in to have checked on my physical 2008 when I was diagnosed with my CML but didn’t do anything with. So, obviously it wasn’t bothering me to much but more of a concern.

After my physical this year my physician advised me that I see an OBGYN and have it checked. So that is what I did. First let me say Dr. Kacci (pronounced kacky) has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen! Sorry honey. I had a hard time catching everything he had to say. It didn’t take much of an examination for him to know that I had a prolapsed bladder and uterus. What does this mean? Well, basically that my bladder and uterus are falling and causing a buldge vaginally. What goes along with this? For me it means mostly constipation and occasional leakage of urine when I sneeze or cough. How does this come about? The main cause is from injury during childbirth, especially if the woman has had many babies or large babies (more than 9 pounds) I definitely don’t have many babies but my first born was a large baby of 9 pounds 1 ounce and I had a lot of pushing during delivery. Now let me say right now, DO NOT TALK TO MY SON AND BLAME HIM FOR ANY OF THIS! He is very sensitive and would feel incredibly bad!!!!

This last Monday I had the pleasure of having an urodynamics test done. This measures pressure and volume relationships in the bladder. Let’s just say that it is really hard to pee when you aren’t sitting on the toilet and someone is watching!!! And I had to pee!!!! What you have to do is go in with a full bladder and then sit in this birthing type chair and pee into a funnel which measures your pee and I believe pressure. Then they put a small catheter in you and fill you up and have you also hooked up to a few different wires till you say you can’t hold any more and have you cough a few times (to see if you leak) and then pee again. None of this was painful but annoying that I couldn’t pee without being moved onto a commode both times. Thankfully I had a wonderful nurse who was a great talker and had actually been through this whole process herself.

June 2^nd I am scheduled to have a vaginal hysterectomy and suture up my bladder to hold it in place (uterosacral ligament fixation, A & P repair, perineorrhaphy) along with, a Cystoscopy (looking into the bladder with a scope) ….Craig and I have some questions yet before all of this so have an appointment to meet with Dr Kacci May 25^th to get more information. Craig is concerned about a lot of things like why the total hysterectomy and what about recovery time. Remember, we are moving so are packing and unpacking which will be strenuous. We are looking at moving around the 15^th of June. We also have our United Methodist Annual Conference June 5-8 which I was suppose to go also, but by the sounds of my recovery I will not be up to going even if all we do there is sit.

So that is where we are at right now health wise. I am starting to wonder what is going on. Ok, so I turn 40 July 2 and I am telling you. From age 30-40 it hasn’t been all that great health wise with first my panic attacks and depression to my Leukemia to now this? So I am vowing that 40-50 will be much better. You can read more about the bladder and uterus prolapsed by going to these websites for more info if you would like. Again, I remind you to NOT give my son a hard time about this. He may be embarrassed or sensitive about the whole thing.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/uterine_prolapse/hic_uterine_prolapse.aspx

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/prolapsed_bladder/article_em.htm

As far as the move, we are closing on the house May 26^th and are very excited about that. We are all taking the day off and signing the papers, getting the kids registered at schools and then Craig also has a meeting at the New Hope church that night with several different committees to talk about his responsibilities so everyone is on the same page. The leader of new church start developments, Scott Hibben, will be there also to facilitate the meeting.

Craig and I went to “Boot Camp” last week May 10-13 which was very interesting and informative. Not only Craig and I were there but the pastor of New Hope church, Neil Cross (our mother church) and one of the lay leaders, Eldon, was there and so we were all able to hear and work together on a plan for the next 15 months. There is a lot to do in regards to starting a new church but throughout the week I was reassured more and more that this is what Craig is called to do.

You know hind-sight is a wonderful thing and I can look back now and see how God has been preparing Craig for this endeavor. First of all his upbringing was wonderfully Christ based and he was very active starting with his mission trips to Mexico, getting him to work with others to bring people to Christ who lived in difficult situations. Second, there was his Tent Makers training he had when he first got into Youth Ministry. I remember him talking about one even they had to do which was going to a mall and talking with complete strangers and basically asking them if the knew Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and how uncomfortable that was for him but yet how exhilarating that was. Then there was the Prayer Walking he has done here around the Geneseo Community, knocking on everyone’s doors just to tell them that our church was praying for them. Every step has been to prepare him for this next big step of reaching out to complete strangers and inviting them to join him in starting a new church. Heck, even his BA in Music Theater has helped him as well as his time as a manager at a sporting good store in Colorado. I am so proud of how he has willing stepped forward and is trusting Jesus in this new adventure of his life.

Well, we hope and pray all is well with each and every one of you. Remember to step out and trust God in all you do. Include him from the start in your plans because he may have bigger and better plans for you. Trust Him. He wont lead you astray.