Wednesday, December 29, 2010

reflections of the last year! Happy B-day to me!

reflections:0) of the last year! Happy B-day to me!...:0)

Wow has it been a Big interesting, exciting and scary year for us and our family. We started out the year with our oldest (21) niece my sis’s oldest having thyroid cancer surgery on New Years Eve she heeled really well from surgery but, had to wait a few months for the treatment. In March we lost our wee wee dog Ruger he was 14yrs old he lived a good long life with us and traveling the western states with us. Then my beloved had his birthday and our niece started treatment for the cancer at the end of April and she also opened her own hair salon in there some where. The hardest part of the treatment might have been having to be away from everyone but, mostly her being away from her husband and baby (1) for a week because of the treatment. We took out our front yard with a sod cutter what fun that was to run really. My beloved was rolling the yard cart out to the curb stepped off it wrong went down and twisted his ankle. Ouch!
We made plans for a road trip in May to TX and NV. We spent a week in TX we got there very late on mothers day I wanted to be there to tell my grandmother happy mothers day in person she had moved there the year before. We spent a very relaxing week with her and my aunt who she had gone to live with. Then on the way home we stopped in NV for our annual family vacation with beloveds brother and sister in-law. While in NV I won my first ever hand pay jackpot I won 4,526 dollars it was so supper exciting we had not been there very long and it was my second twenty dollar bill. We put most of it in the savings account and had great plans for it. It helped pay for the road trip first and for most then we got patio furniture for the back yard and a small set for the front porch too. The rest was to help us put in the new front yard it never happened, while there beloved and his brother did some golfing they both lost a few balls and while looking for them beloved went down and twisted the same ankle and was put in a walking boot.
Before our trip I had redone my work schedule to watch my sisters youngest (9) three days a week at the end of June my sister went to HI with her husband and youngest and we house and dog sat for them. That same weekend I walked in the Relay For Life with there oldest I raised 195 dollars, I walked for my niece and in memory of my mother in-law and grandmother in-law. We also got two new kittens two weeks before that. I was having a great summer as was my beloved I was watching my sisters youngest we did shopping for meals and I helped her learn to cook and cut up veggies and fruit trays we played board games, Wii, side walk chalk and bubbles.
Beloved tried to take a physical fitness test at work went down on the other ankle and out it went. Ouch! We had the bad one splinted before the test and we should have done both maybe.
Along came July and we had our 17th anniversary on the 17th. Wow! Where does the time go? We spent the day together and that after noon went to my sisters Bar-B-Q and bon fire it was a great deal of fun. Then Aug started I was feeling slow and run down and told my beloved we needed a stay-cation at home a few days off for just the two of us but before we could make plans for it I got a bad headache over my right eye in the eyebrow area. My beloved said I should lay down take a nap and maybe it would help so I did and the next thing I really and truly knew it was mid. Aug and I was waking up in a hospital. I came to find out I had taken that nap sat up while having that nap screamed laid back down and went into a full on seizure my first ever. My beloved called the EMS I remember talking with them a bit and them walking me to the hallway of our home to the gurney and then little bits and piece of the next few days until I woke in another hospital 30 min away. The first hospital here in town sent me home twice in one day after giving me a CT scan and telling my beloved I needed to see my primary care physician and have a MRI why they did not give me one we will never know they also put me on anti seizure meds. The next day I went to my PCP she told us that they seen something in the CT scan and that it could be like a freckle some people have them and some do not at which time I said I did not feel well and she and my beloved laid me back on the table in the room. My beloved says I walked out of there on my own and that night we went back to the ER in town I recall being scared thinking I was losing my mind and crying; my beloved’s brother and wife went with us by the time we got there 15 min away I did not know whom I was my sis and niece meet us there. That night my beloved, my sister and niece took me to the hospital 30 min away my sis and niece were afraid I was dyeing, they had tried to go home before taking me in but, they got to the car and broke down crying and came back in and got us Thank goodness.
That hospital figured out what was wrong with me and saved my life. I was sick super sick they found a hole in my upper sinuses some how the bone had eroded and a small piece of brain had entered into it I also had inflammation on the brain all that was the cause of the headache and the seizures and you could see it all in the very first CT scan from the other hospital. I was put on heavy IV antibiotics in an IV and then an IV PICC line was put into my upper right forearm because the stuff was burning my veins I could feel it as I was coming around. I was let out of the hospital a few days later but, we had to go back every day for IV therapy for a month before they could do surgery to fix the hole in my head. My surgery was set for the 28th of Sep at the university, the local surgeon said he would rather I go up there because he was trained at a different time and they would handle my brain a lot less and we would hopeful have a better out come and I total respect him for that. I ended up having a Bifrontal Craniotomy Exenteration of the frontal sinus with obliteration of the frontal nasal ducts. What this really means in lay terms is that they did a bucket cut of the skin and then cut a hole in my skull, took that small piece of brain out, patched the hole in the brain sack, removed my upper sinuses, and replaced the skull piece put in plates and few screws. So, yes, I may now have a screw loose. Hehehehe
The surgeon did an awesome job because; I am still here and getting better ever day I am now a proud brain surgery survivor. It is a good thing I won that money because I can not work right now and it has gone to hospital bills and I can not drive a car state law says that you can not drive a car for at least six months after a seizure. I have a really cool scare that goes over the top of my head from one ear to the other now like a little girl hair band look; it is a badge of honor as I lived through this ordeal.
I have good days and bad days and poor beloved has to deal with them all along with my sister they are the two that have hardly left my side through this whole thing. I have had panic attacks and a hard time sleeping at first after I came home from the second hospital I was afraid I would lay down and never wake up again after what the first hospital did. I have gotten help from a psychologist it is PTSD she has been great at helping deal with all of this stress.
We also lost one of our dear friends, an uncle, that dear friends mom; and also one of the new kittens this year.
This has made me closer to my sister she is awesome she has sat with me held my hand given me a shower while I was sick, given me a shoulder to cry on, a swift kick on the backside when I needed it as well as so very much love....
We also found out that our niece still has cancer so now we wait to see what can be done.
Well, I told you our year had been Big interesting, exciting and scary.
I am just happy to be here and to have another birthday so Happy birthday to me!

Flexie:0)

1 comment:

LindainNCtoo said...

Happy Birthday, Flexie!!

For you and me, I hope that we both have better years in 2011!!