I finally got my birthday wish...

Me with two kind visiting friends on my 26th birthday in the hospital

I wanted two things for my birthday this year: 1) to go out to dinner with Brent and 2) to eat a birthday cake (that I didn't have to make) with friends that I love.

The first one happened prior to my birthday and the next thing a few weeks later.

I apologize that this post has only pictures of me but I want to remember this birthday just as it was.

Even though being in the hospital sucked (sorry Mom) bigtime, I still felt so loved. Look at all the flowers and cards in the picture!

I mean, I am loved and it felt great!

Okay, sorry-

The slew of wonderful things people sent while in the hospital

So, why was I in the hospital?

In case you care, here's what happened: Um and this is a really long story. Sorry, K?

On Sunday after eating breakfast, I started having terrible stomach pain in my lower abdomen. At first I thought I was suffering the effects of the nacho's I'd eaten at a youth activity the night before and I was about to have what Brent and I call the "cha cha cha." Oh dear was I wrong. So wrong! I continued to have pain and cramping over the next 12 hours. I even made Brent stay home from church because the pain was so bad. I told him that if by midnight I was not significantly better, we were headed to the ER, because who can handle more than 12 hours of that kind of pain? Sure enough, midnight came, we called a neighbor (thank you, Emily!) to come sleep at our house, and we were on our way. I hate the ER. Really really hate it. It takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to even be seen by the doctor and know what the heck is going on. So, there we waited, more pain, more awful pain. Did I mention it was really painful? A cat scan was done and we waited another two hours and they put an IV in me with morphine...finally, peacefullness at last! Okay, I'm going to make this story shorter, because who cares? The doc came back and said I had free air in my abdomen which was an indication of a perforation but they didn't know where or how severe it was. An emergency surgery was in order, and I was admitted to the hospital. Brent and I were pretty scared. The surgeon came in and told me I would have a 12 inch incision done verically on my abdomen. He also said there was a chance I would have to have a colostomy. If you don't know what this is, google it. Terrible. By this point, there were probably a dozen people in the room asking me questions about my insurance, prepping me for surgery, and it was to say the least, overwhelming. I could tell Brent was nervous and scared by the way he paced the floor as he made phone calls to our families, our bishop, and made arrangements for Brooke. At one point, we asked that everyone leave the room, because we both knew it was time to call on Heaven for help. The bishop sent someone over from the ward and he assisted Brent in giving me a Priesthood blessing. What an incredible blessing that was in a moment of great need. Even through all the pain and nervousness I was experiencing, a feeling of overwhelming love from our Heavenly Father flooded my entire body and all I could feel was gratitude. No less than 15 minutes later did the surgeon enter the room, announcing, "we're not doing surgery!" and relaying to the nurse, "don't put the catheter in!" Brent walked in with him and he explained the situation. Now I should also quickly add that something similar to the incident happened last May. I had the same pain and was in the ER. They did the cat scan but the doctor said it was normal. They gave me pain meds. I felt better in a few hours, and actually left on my girl's trip the next day. Anyways, upon telling the surgeon earlier about what happened in May, he said he went and looked at the cat scan to compare with the one I had just done. Incidentally, the one from last May was indeed not normal (dumb ER doctor!) and his reasoning was that if I was able to get better last time, then they would opt to not do surgery, keep me in the hospital on pain meds and antibiotics to see if I improved on my own. We were grateful beyond anything! I have no doubt in my mind that the surgeon was inspired to go and look at the old cat scan so that we wouldn't have to do surgery. This was definitely the better route. They started all the fluids, meds, and antibiotics and I was kept there from Monday morning until thursday morning. SIDE NOTE: I also must note I did not eat from sunday morning until thursday morning because they didn't allow me to. It was very strange reintroducing food into my body and foods that I would usually consider very bland were making my taste buds crazy! By wednesday afternoon, I was feeling significantly better but they wanted me there one more night just to be safe. I went home on thursday and felt more sick than I ever did in the hospital... go figure. Apparently I had a reaction to one of the antibiotics and had a metallic taste in my mouth and was more nauseous than I had ever experienced. After feeling like that all day, I finally stuck my finger down my throat for the first time in my life and threw up 7 times. We're pretty sure I threw up most of the fluid, antibiotics and 32 ounces of the crappy drink they made me take before the 2nd cat scan. Sorry to be graphic. So I was finally on the road to recovery. It took about 5 days to get a lot of my strength and appetite back which then took us to Easter and when we finally had birthday cake. So, just in case you are still reading.. what's next? Well, I had a cat scan today to see if the free air is still in my abdomen. Then I will have a colonoscopy next month that will really get to the bottom (no pun intended!) of this and will tell us if this is 1) worst case scenario: Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Collitis or 2) a bleeding ulcer(s) that caused the perforation which could have been caused by the medication I've been taking for my rheumatoid arthritis. We're sure hoping and praying for the latter! So that's the story...

And lastly, I just want to mention and remember all of the lovely and kind people that helped us during that week. There were many kind visitors, long-distance family who sent flowers and cards, people who watched Brooke, people who brought in meals, multiple people who called from the ward to check on me, a friend in the ward who came over the day I got home to blow dry my hair because I was too weak to do it myself, and of course, my wonderful husband, Brent for giving me that beautiful priesthood blessing, who was back and forth at the hospital multiple times a day, while taking care of Brooke and the house while I was gone, working, and of course nursing sick little me back to normal health when I got home. In times of need and adversity, it is so nice to feel the support of friends and family who care about you!

My hostess cupcake cake donning 26 candles

Nothing better than cake, bluebell ice cream and friends to celebrate and play games with

YAY.

Next up:

Easter and our trip to Utah!