i had a great few days relaxing in the hospital…

tuesday afternoon my stomach INSTANTLY started to hurt. it felt like i had eaten something bad…then it grew a bit in intensity but i was DETERMINED to go help my friend. so i went to Kims and cleaned her kitchen and bathed her girl and put her girl to bed and talked with her long into the night. at around 11 my tummy was starting to bother me big time so i went home and before i was home i was sure something was wrong. i keeled over on the kitchen table moaning and complaining (jokingly) to jon that my appendix was exploding. I changed and climbed into bed but with in ten minutes the pain had doubled. i was crying but it made it hurt worse so i tried to hold really still but that seemed to make it hurt worse so i walked around which seemed to make it worse.

no joking…lol

then i was positive i was dying. the pain had quadrupled since i had been home. jon pulled out some EMT books and then self diagnosed me as an appendicitis. we called a neighbor who came in to watch cooper sleep and went to the ER. i was in process immediately and had been diagnosed in one hour that it needed out. the man giving me the IV struggled in my arm for about ten minutes. the first vein was unsuccessful and the second worked after jiggling it back and forth for 5 minutes! i was in a rage about it. it freaking hurt! BUT it took my mind off of the tummy! the meds hit me INSTANTLY…which the nurse said was in the heroin family..so now i can say that i have done drugs…and that i hated that feeling of full body take over. I dont get how anyone would pay for that! (well, i guess i did! lol) Then jon said i proceeded to boss around people in the hallway that i could overhear walking by. someone was saying something like “How do they expect me to get there?” and i yelled…”walk!use your feet!” i think jon lies.

then i went into surgery. in and out in 20 minutes. 4AM

at 6 i woke up and was told a bunch of things all of which i promptly forgot.

at 8 i woke up starving and was told i would surely throw up if i ate so i went back to sleep.

at 11 i was up again and then i ate crackers and ordered a sandwich via hubby. mom showed up and we made fun of how poorly the nurses were doing. One nurse came in with my 2 pills and i said i wanted to start with one and take the other if needed…2 hours later i asked for the other which she decided she could no longer give me so i lived in pain for 2 more hours and begged for the pills numerous times. I took both the next time! lol.

i finally decided to take some morphine around 4…they said i would be leaving soon and it would help the car ride home…and i am sure it would have had i not stayed till 730! the paperwork for me to leave was “almost finished” since 4. then i took another hit of morphine to re-prepare for the ride home and here we are. i slept mostly till now. and i quit taking the hydrocodone today though because i cannot handle the itchiness it gives me! its like i have fleas! i woke up like 10 times just thoroughly scratching my body!

i am so thankful for western medicine where i can get that service! GLAD that the things that i complain about there this week are pitifully insignificant compared to the things my canadian family members have to complain about! so thankful this happened while we are not in socialized medicine yet! so thankful for our system and hope that we fight its continuance!!!

so here i am …my appendix was like 3 times the size it was supposed to be and ready to try and kill me…it failed.

one point…lindy

Just before we went off to shoot Hannah, (my trainer and friend with Flashes of hope) told us of a thank you she had gotten from one of the parents. They said that the love the photos of their child and that sending them to camp was easier when they knew what fun they had too and that the photos had helped her know their child enjoyed the time she sacrificed letting them go. This really weighed on my mind during the shoot. If cooper had cancer i dont think that i would let him go to camp. I mean i would but, wow, the strength that these families must have to allow their children and siblings to remain human and not a frail child. And they were just that! They were perky and fun! they loved being at camp and enjoyed getting their photos taken. I really am eager to see what the other photographers did in the their sessions.

I am so glad that i got the chance to be a photographer…but am glad that i will be a ‘ring leader’ at the next.

Processing the joy/sorrow that i felt there has been difficult. But what i gained is an even deeper appreciation of all our health, and of our families.

thursday i shot pictures at camp Good Times East of the children! They were so amazing. i gotta say that i am still trying to process that whole experience but will be posting pics of some of the kids as well as my story of that soon…but today its family time!

We stayed at my brother Josh’s and his wife Ashley’s home and played lots! our first day there we droe to the Romanose and hiked in. It was dreadful near the cliff, and even looking at the shot i took of cooper makes me feel sick to my stomach! the funny part is that that shot is totally fake perspective. if he had fallen it would have been 5 feet and then he could have kept falling until he rolled off the cliff but Ash stood right under him so that he would be fine…but still ~ its a bit intense for a 5 year olds mother to view. Fishing was fin, hiking was fun! and everything was fun!

Then we ate a lot of (key word ~ LOT) really amazing foods and chocolates and played at the beach. the slide show gives a good glance into the weeks adventures! enjoy!!!