Our not so great Adventures of July...

So let me just start off by saying that July was DEFINITELY not my favorite month. It all started the morning of July 7th. I started gradually getting this subtle pain in my lower right abdomen. At first it kinda felt like cramps so I didn't think anything of it and got ready to go to work. I get to work at 12:30 for a 30 min massage I had scheduled and the pain started getting worse. By the end of giving the massage this pain had me almost doubled over and I was walking like a hunchback. I ask the chiropractor if he thought maybe it could be my appendix and he was thinking it could be and told me I should go to the ER just to make sure. Of course, we don't have insurance so I go home and just try to rest it off, see if it'll go away in a bit. I text Sean at school just to let him know what's going on and he heads home in case we need to head to the hospital. Sure enough, by 3 o'clock Sean is rushing me to the ER because the pain got so bad I could barely even breath and couldn't stand up without almost falling over! We get all checked in and they hook me up to an IV and give me a ton of pain meds and start the testing! They did a CT scan and an ultrasound thinking it was either kidney stones or appendicitis but of course...found nothing. So they said it could MAYBE be kidney stones, but if it was, the stones were too small to catch on the CT scan which means they are small enough to pass on their own, OR it could MAYBE be appendicitis but it is too early to tell because they didn't see any inflammation in the ultrasound. So they send me home and say come back in 24-48 hours if the pain doesn't go away or if I get a fever and prescribed me with some pain meds to help get me through. Friday, the pain was still bad, but no fever so we decided to wait it out a little more. Saturday was okay most the day and we ordered pizza for dinner since I was still drugged up and not in the mood to make anything. About 2 or 3 hours later... the pain is EXCRUCIATING again, we take my temperature and it's 103, so we are rushing to the ER AGAIN and by the time we get there the fever is up to 104, so here we go again...another IV and pain meds. The doctor was asking about our activities and diet the past 2 days and I was telling him I didn't have an appetite all day Friday or Saturday during the day and then I had 1 piece of pizza a few hours ago. He then said it sounds like my gal bladder because the one way to tell is to eat something greasy and see if it sets off and attack. So good news (sort of) I thought because now we have an idea of what is causing me all this pain! But wait...they can't get me in for testing till Mon or Tues...3 days later! Are you kidding me?! I have to wait LONGER?! So they send us home and say to call first thing Monday morning to see if they can get me in...NOPE! Have to wait till Tues at 11am to get in! Also, before the testing I have to not take pain pills or drink anything 6 hours prior. So back to the hospital we go! And let me tell you..NOT being on pain pills with that pain made me feel like I was dying! And the test requires me to lay on a table for an hour while they insert some dye into an IV that will make my gal bladder glow, and then inserting some more drugs to see if my gal bladder will react the way it is supposed to. And of course, this guy cant give me results because he's just a radiologist, not a doctor. So he sends us home and says we will be getting a call about the results. We wait....and wait...and wait...NOTHING! So we call first thing wed morning (6 DAYS later!) to see what the heck is going on and APPARENTLY we are supposed to find our own doctor so we can go to him, the hospital can send him the results, and then we have to pay the doctor to tell me the results. SERIOUSLY?! How hard is this? So we go to a doctor and yep...I have gal bladder disease and have to get surgery to get my gal bladder out RIGHT NOW. So we rush over to the hospital and have to wait an hour before the surgeons are ready for me. So I'm hooked back up to an IV, more blood and urine tests, and by this time I am shaking uncontrollably in pain with a high fever and they keep wrapping blankets around me to try to get me to stop shaking. In between here and when I get out of surgery...I have no recollection. I remember coming out of surgery and looking pregnant because they had to pump my stomach with gas during the surgery. Luckily they didn't have to slice me open to do this surgery, I just have 4 tiny incisions so I wont have a huge scar and I have an oil I have been putting on so even these little ones wont be noticeable. Then they had to keep me over night because of the fevers. All through this whole process Sean is RIGHT by my side and even slept in a very uncomfortable chair right by my bed over night. His friends Chucky and Dave came and brought him some food and Shyn came too...but I dont remember much about what happened while I was in the hospital. Next day...FINALLY back home! Bad news...I have to be on a "soft, bland, NO fat food" diet for 2 weeks. Do you know how hard that is?! It was basically oatmeal (made with water and no added butter, milk or sugar!) and applesauce the whole time. However, if you are trying to lose weight fast, this is the way to do it! I lost 8 pounds in 10 days! Not that I needed to lose weight though and I would DEFINITELY not recommend doing it that way...not sure how healthy that really was.
The next day, July 15th, was Sean's 26th birthday! Shyn generously helped me in surprising Sean by taking his guitar into the shop to get fixed right after he left for school, picked up balloons and even made a cake! All I was able to do was frost the cake and call into "The Olive Garden" for his favorite dinner...Chicken parm, breadsticks and salad! It was torture not being able to eat it...although he did share a breadstick with me :) I wanted him to be able to enjoy his birthday a little bit and not worry about me all day so I had a couple of his friends come over for a movie as well. I went to bed early but he stayed up with his friends and partied a little longer!
Side note: His same generous friends who brought him food in the hospital and came over for his birthday, brought over one of their extra Playstation3's the week I started getting sick so I had something to do while I was stuck on the couch this whole time and even came to "babysit" me while Sean was at school. Also, Sean's family and I got together and gave Sean money to buy his own playstation3 for his birthday! He was so excited! However...I kind of had to FORCE him to buy it because he felt bad spending that much money on himself through all this.
So now that the surgery is over, you'd think everything is fine right?? NOO! I was STILL getting high fevers (101-103) every few hours. So I'm getting thrown in a cold shower, having ice on my head and neck, and taking 800mg of Ibuprofen every 4 hours. I call the doctor and he says.."Well, call me tomorrow if it doesn't go away". We call him the next day...GUESS WHO'S NOT IN THE OFFICE?! So I make an appointment to go and see him, AGAIN. This is the only doctors appointment Sean isn't able to go to with me because he had a test he had to take at school so he told me to make sure I was very persistent and not to leave till I get an answer! I tell him everything that has been going on and basically he says that it is common to get pneumonia a week out since I had a breathing tube in during surgery, but after listening to my lungs he said they sounds fine and everything is normal. Not good enough. So I press more....getting a fever of 103 when everything is fine means something IS NOT FINE! So he comes up with, I may have a tiny collapse in my lung and taking deep breaths brings in some inflammation and it's the inflammation that is giving me fevers and I just need to keep taking deep breaths and watching my fever and everything will be fine. Lucky for the doctor, a couple days later everything WAS fine. No more fevers! (I say lucky for the doctor cause I have a husband who was about to file some lawsuits and a mother in law who was ready to drive up here and smack someone upside the head!)
So FINALLY, last week (Almost a month later) I am finally back to work full time at both my jobs and getting my energy back and eating normal for the most part! Still can't eat that much junk food or anything to greasy, but I guess that's good right??
After applying for Medicaid and getting denied twice for financial help, we finally are receiving help from the hospital and they took about $10,000 off our bill so far. Hopefully more continues to come off cause we still have a few thousand dollars we have to pay.
So needless to say, we are both SO glad July is over!! And let me tell you, I appreciate my husband more than ever now after how loving and helpful he was through this entire process. I can't even describe the love I felt from him having him right by my side the whole time and I know now, even more how perfect of a man I married :) He is the BEST and I still don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm not complaining! I love every second I get to spend with him!