Some of my battlescars!!

This is Gentry & me in the hospital bed. I still had my triple line catheter in my neck at this point. Gentry always liked to take the balloons that people had brought up home with him!

This is GROSS I know, but it's so much easier to explain sometimes with pictures. For those of you who tend to have a sick stomach at stuff like this...well, consider this your warning!! This is a picture of my neck after they had discovered I had blood clots in my neck. Bruising I knew would go away, but my concern was the blood clots and AWFUL pain!

The other huge bruise was from the port-a-cath that infiltrated and the UGLY bruising that went along with that. I makes me "shudder" to even think about reliving those days!!

Then finally this is the top of the inside of my right arm where all of the TPN (IV Nutrition) filtered out into my body instead of my veins. I am SO THANKFUL for the body's own ability to heal itself if we can just be patient! I hardly have any scars or bruises from my arm or neck.

THANKSGIVING DAY IN THE HOSPITAL!! But we tried to make the best of it. Dale brought in Cracker Barrel's Thanksgiving Dinner and pumpkin pie, and we were so pleased with that, but we couldn't help but wondering what our families were doing and wishing we could be there with them. But we made the most of it. We played games, watched football, walked the halls & played with Gentry. Gentry even curled up in the bed beside me and took a nap with me. Now that is the "sugar & spice" part of parenting I wouldn't trade for the world.

Christmas Evening! We all took family pictures and I didn't want anyone to see my face with it being SOOOOO HUGE from the steroids, but mom finally convinced me in her gentle non-pushy way, that "this is life" and Gentry will want to remember years to come. So, I set my foot down about getting dressed, but fixed my hair and put on my best new pair of pajamas and posed...for what it was worth.

I'm getting sleepy, so I need to head to bed.

Enjoy life and get to living it!!

Melanie

P.S. There will probably be a "Gent-stories-time" soon. He's been saying AND doing so many cute things lately that I want to capture them in prose and film so I won't forget in years to come. Thanks for spending a few minutes of your time reading about The Rutland Household. We've had rocky roads, lots of ups and downs, a lot of dreams come true, a life and laughs and adventure and tears and shoulders to cry on, but all in all, I can say that I am truly blessed among women for what God has so graciously given to me in my life.

Love always - Mel

Back To The Land Of Blogs and Widgets!

Hello to all my long-lost cyber buds! I CANNOT believe it's been over two months since I've even signed on to my blog. I should be ashamed of myself, but I guess I have a valid reason.
For those of you who don't know, I was hospitalized on Election Day, November 4th and spent the next 28 days in the hospital. I finally got to go "home" on December 1st. Home being at mom and dad's house.
I had gone to my doctor that morning of the 4th for unexplained, continuous nausea and vomiting and just overall fatigue. He told me (as nicely as possible) that I looked awful and needed to go next door to be a direct admit into the hospital. Who knew that would land me there for a month!
The story is so long and detailed, I'll try to give you the gist of what all happened without having to write an entire book.
When I was admitted they found that I had acute pancreatitis and my gallbladder was enlarged. There was talk of taking my gallbladder out, but didn't want to take it out with my pancreas being so inflamed and infected. So, they waited for my enzymes to show some improvement in the labwork. I was also severely dehydrated when I went in and after 6 or 7 tries to get IV access for fluids, they finally decided to put in a central line in my neck. After three failed attempts at that, they brought in a second surgeon who finally was able to access my veins. PAIN!!! I also went into a flare with my lupus during this time and had to start IV steroids.
My pancreatitis was not resolving on the antibiotics alone, so after 4 days of being in the hospital, they stopped all food and kept me "NPO except ice chips" (nothing by mouth) for the next 16 or 17 days!
I was started on TPN (nutrition in an IV bag) that bypasses the GI system and keeps you nourished while you're unable to eat real food. Along with that came fingersticks to check my blood sugar four times a day. I have a new level of empathy for diabetics that have to be stuck multiple times a day with those lancets. My fingertips were so bruised by the end of that ordeal.
I had started responding to the treatment and was actually getting better, but my doctor was fairly certain that I was going to have to be discharged on the TPN (nutrition) and I needed a permanent IV access to be placed.
I was found to have blood clots in my neck from the central line that they placed the day of my admission, and a scan of my chest showed my veins were small and "shriveled". (Is that a word???) Anyway, one surgeon came in after hours that Friday night and said he would attempt to place a Port-A-Cath which is normally an easy procedure and you have an IV access under your skin that barring any complications of infection can stay in indefinitely. After 3 attempts, he was finally able to get my port placed in the right side of my chest just under my collar bone, but during the procedure, my lung was "knicked" and I started bleeding internally and my lung slowly started to collapse.
Now, my surgery to have the port placed was on a Friday evening and they checked my blood every morning and for some "unknown" reason, my red blood count kept dropping dangerously low. I was given several units of blood over the weekend while they were trying to figure out the cause of my bleeding.
In the meantime, I was just out of my mind in pain and thought maybe that was to be expected after the port placement. Turns out, once another chest X-ray was ordered 4 days later, I was found to have a "pneumothorax", (collapsed lung). I was placed on oxygen and a pulmonary doctor was consulted to place a chest tube in my right side to drain the collection of blood that had accumulated in my lung and to re-expand my lung. I've NEVER EVER experienced pain like I did when that tube was placed. I had to have it in for about a week and slowly my lung started re-expanding and I was weaned off of the oxygen.
THEN...when the nurses went to change out the needle one night and start my TPN, there was so much swelling around the site of the port that when they inserted the needle, it didn't go into the port. They "thought" it was in the port, so they hooked the TPN up and started it going wide open. But it kept leaking around the site and I had to change gowns 3 times before I finally realized that something was terribly WRONG. After an hour of the TPN going, all of that "nutrition" was infiltrated through my chest and down my right arm. You should see the pictures of how awful it looked. My mom took pictures it was so unreal.
So...finally on Dec. 1 I was discharged with a non-working Port-A-Cath, orders for home health and physical therapy and the hope that in time the swelling and bruising would go away enough for the port to try to be accessed again in hopes of salvaging what had happened with the port.
My nurse came out yesterday to attempt to access and flush it again, and it didn't work, so I'm scheduled to see a NEW surgeon in a few weeks for him to take out the old one and they'll decide at that point if they want to put another one in and take my gallbladder out!
WHEW!! Have I totally confused you?? I'm a little hazy on all that happened myself, but I know that I am getting better and stronger with every day that goes by.
My parents opened up their home to Dale, Gentry and me for us to stay with them while I got back on my feet. I was not strong enough to be able to "keep house" and do the stairs out at the farm. I could not say enough "thank yous" to convey how much it has meant to me to have their support over the past few months.
My whole family were amazing throughout the whole ordeal. My sister was a lifesaver so many times throughout my hospitalization. And my brothers and sisters-in-law were amazing too. I KNOW I could not have handled all I went through without the support of my family. I felt that I was carried by the prayers of everyone who took the time to mention my name to God.
I am so grateful that God was merciful to me one more time and spared my life. I came so close to death that I just don't want to take one day for granted.
I know there are so many other things I want to say, but I guess I need to get some rest for now. I hope to be more faithful with my blogging and keeping in touch. I'll post more later!

Much Love - Mel