Revision Surgery, finally, and a new BABY!

.  

My poor FACE!  July 8, 2018 I was walking in our parking lot, taking care of the dog stuff.  We have a pooper scooper that we use to keep the driveway cleared up.  I picked up a poop and threw it into the bushes and was walking back to the building and BAMM!  I tripped on something in the lot and couldn't catch myself at all, landed directly on my FACE on the as-fault.  Kelly came running to help me up.  Scared me more than anything, but felt ok.  It was a Sunday morning and I was asked to lead the Relief Society discussion that day!  I put ice on it, and then some bandaids and hiked up my big girl panties and went to church!  I led the discussion just fine.  It was ok and I was ok.  I don't know why I tripped in the first place.  Maybe I was tired from only having liquids and soft foods... I didn't have much energy for sure.  I needed surgery and finally I found Dr. Tersigni to do it for me.  

 Well, Doctor Tersigni at the Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay Oregon did magic for me July 18, 2018!  I was a bit scared, as usual, to go under and have surgery.... but I needed fixed so bad.  I was ready to NOT have a herviated and kinked small intestine that cased blockages and was so painful!  I went in on a Thursday and all went as scheduled.  The HARDEST part about surgery for me is the IV!!!  They have so much trouble lately putting in an IV!  After 5 tries, I finally had one in my forearm and would be comfortable.  When I was coming out from being sedated, I was crying.  I don't know why.  I was pretty emotional.  But it was over and I had a much smaller stoma - I was worried it wouldn't work, Lol.  It works fine though.  I had some nausea and throwing up from the pain meds though.  That concerned me a lot.  I thought I was having blockages again.  But it all turned out ok after they switched pain meds.  I went home on Saturday!!  I felt pretty darn great too.  I had pain at the stoma sight, it had to heal all over again, but I felt great.  I went to church the next day.  

My son and his wife welcomed a new baby girl into their family July 21st.  Her name is Rosalie Ann Muntifering and she's such a doll.  Dawson, loves her.  My son and his kids... so precious!  They live so far away right now, can't wait to make a visit up there.  Mel says that Dawson is so sweet to Rose and wants to know where she is as soon as he wakes up in the morning.  She took the two of them on a walk today, Aug 15, to go visit their Daddy at work.  He works within walking distance at the hospital.  Such a sweet family and the good news was AWESOME right after my fix me up surgery.  

 My daughter and her family came up to Oregon and camped and visited us a couple days.  I was only about 5 days our of surgery so they hung out around here and took trips during the day.  They took their kids to Sunset Bay, a place I often took Jennifer and her brothers when they were kids.  Her kids had fun wading, hiking and looking for crabs and sea life.  So fun to see them and play games and have meals with them.  Jen and Kevin are doing a great job with their cute kids!

August 3rd I went to the river with Daniel and Stephanie and we brought our blow up rafts.  It was so fun and relaxing after working SO MUCH for days!  It was a beautiful, perfect day.  Warm and made us all want to get in the water.  I puttered around a bit and then Daniel and Stephanie got in their raft and they tied me to theirs so I wouldn't float away  Lol.  I felt good, but getting out of that raft was HARD, Lol.  Daniel helped me and Stephanie get down the up the trail.  Stephanie is 6 months pregnant and I was only 2 weeks post op.  But it was a great little trip.  We were only there about an hour and a half.  We'd like to see about inviting Brad's family to come next time.  It's about half way between us.  

So I'm doing good.  Thank goodness I can eat again and I'm not having problems.  I met with Dr. Tersigni for a follow up and he said unless I have problems, I'm doing good.. no need to see him anymore.  So grateful!  I want to write a letter to the hospital about Dr. Lawson who wouldn't do the surgery for me to get fixed.  I went in to the Reedsport hospital twice and he wouldn't do it.  Oh well... but I want them to know he was negligent in my opinion.  

All is well and I'm doing good.  Kelly takes great care of me and I'm back to delivering and picking up trailers with him and Daniel.  Summer is almost over already!  Kelly and I take our first trip to take a trailer back to Nevada this SUNDAY!  Wow!  Life is good.  I try to do things that make me happy.  I led the RS discussion again last Sunday.  I enjoy doing that and in Reedsport they ask me a lot.  Kelly and I are giving a talk in sacrament meeting Aug 26th.  My first talk in a long time.  

No colon and rollin' but having trouble with blockages!

Well living with no colon hasn't been easy for me.  At first, it was ok and great.. no problems then the end of April, four months after my colon was removed, I had a very painful blockage that sent me to the Pahrump NV Emergency Room.  I had a friend take me, Melinda.  I had to drive to her house, her teenager was using her car, and she took me to the ER.... I was in PAIN the whole time.  My stomach felt all in knots and in pain.  I was having a small bowel blockage!  Argh!  I was nauseous and after being admitted, I threw up in a bag they gave me and wow I felt so much better!  But they wouldn't let me go home.  I had a Priesthood blessing by Brother Witten and Aimie's Dad.  That was so nice.  Melinda and Kelly arranged it.  Kelly was out of town taking a trailer up to Oregon when this all happened!   I stayed over night and they let me go home next day after they saw everything was ok.  My CT scan only showed inflammation of the small intestines, probably where the blockage was.  I threw up before the scan.  

Since end of April, I went on to have 5 more blockage episodes.  I went back to eating normal foods and wow did it kick me in the intestines!  I went to the Medford hospital when I was visiting Kevin, missed Aleah's  birthday party, but I did celebrate with her family the night before her party. When I'm in the hospital, the way they clear blockages is by putting an NG tube down my nose into my stomach to suck out fluids, that takes the pressure off and the blockage can pass.  If I throw up enough at home, it seems to clear.  I had two blockages at home that I was able to take care of myself by inducing vomiting and it cleared ok.  I was then hospitalized in the Reedsport hospital 2x in 10 days!  The CT scans there showed a herniated small intestine pushing up into my stoma area, causing blockages.  :(  Second time I went in at 10:30pm, the ER doc said I needed surgery, but when he called the surgeon on call, Dr. Lawson, the surgeon, said "Oh just put an NG tube down her throat and she'll be ok in the morning"  I was so mad!   I had my scans and xrays taken in Reedsport within 10 days of each other sent them over to my surgeon inn Las Vegas for her opinion on what to do to NOT have this keep happening.   She called me and said I needed to have surgery to have this fixed.  She said she could NOT do the reversal until I have it fixed and I'm healed up from all of this.  Well, Dr. Shank in Reedsport said he'd do it, but went on vacation for three weeks.  I was willing to fly to Vegas and have Dr. Wishev do it for me!  Then I went to sacrament meeting her in Reedsport and who was visiting?  Our stake president, who is a wonderful surgeon!  Kelly talked to him after the meeting and Dr. Tersigni told me to call his office Monday and schedule a pre-op appointment!  YEA!  So I've been in to see him.  I had my scans and xrays sent to his office and he knew right away I needed surgery.  It was not elective and needed fixed.  I was so glad to hear this... I've been eating soft foods and liquids for three weeks.  I have my surgery this Thursday, July 19th.  I'm glad this is getting fixed.  I'm so mad at the Reedsport surgeons and how they handled my care.  They didn't care.  All for the better because I have total confidence in Dr. Tersigni.      

 So I've been having Herbalife shakes, McDonald's shakes, V8 juice, juices, and soft pasta is ok and small amounts of bread.  I also figured out that cookies and candy don't block me, they are fine so that's hard.... cuz I just want to eat cookies all day!  Lol!
I went to my son's house in Roseburg and spent the night with him, his wife and four kids... we went to Cooper Creek Reservoir and had a nice Summer evening.  They brought a canoe and Brad and I took a turn canoeing a bit.  I enjoyed watching all the kids and Brad and Rashelle play in the water.  :)

Then the next day, Rashelle, me and the kids ran some errands and I left to go to Phoenix to visit Kevin and his family.  I brought V8, fruit snacks Herbalife shake mix and brownie bites with me.  :)  I enjoyed hanging out with Kaylynn and the kids.. they love to show me their room and their latest things they are doing.  :)  Kevin has access to these jet skis from work so he wanted to so a test run and invited me to come along!  He and the Young Men are all going to Lake Shasta for a week next week and the leaders are bringing boats and jet skis and canoes.  So.... I drove a jet ski on Emmigrant Lake!  It was sooooo fun!  I was a bit scared cuz there were a lot of waves and wakes to maneuver around.. but I had so much fun.  When I got tired, I got into another guy's boat while Kevin tried out his fast newer jet ski.  Then we went back to the dock to load up.  Well, today, two days later, I'm pretty sore!  I'm not in any kind of shape to do physical activities!  Lol.  But I'm happy I went with him.. fully clothed and all.  We wore life jackets, of course.  This photo is after they were loaded and we were heading out.

So life without a colon has been hard, but it will get better.  I'll have to heal up again.. but my wound will be in the same place, I'm glad for that.  When I left, Kelly said, "Don't go to the hospital!"  :)  And I didn't!
So next entry will be about my surgery to get all fixed up.  My weight is good and I'm feeling good, just kinda weak from having soft foods only.  I haven't had meat in weeks.  I think that is what blocks me bad.  Mashed potatoes or french fries, I can handle.. yea!