Back in July, we took my entire family to the world and we had a blast. And since we have gone so many times, Andy and I stepped back so that my family who hadn't been in years could enjoy the rides. My mom, seeing that we spent most of the time waiting on everyone else, and handling my nephew and my then 18 month old son, offered to watch Logan while Andy and I got away in the spring.
With a life revolved around a hockey schedule, we decided that a week just mom and dad sounded good. And so we took her up. Its not every day one gets this chance and so plans began to form..
Which brings us to this past Jan....
As I mentioned, this has been a brutal month. On Jan 28th I went into work, happy that it was a Friday. My stomach was acting weird, but I didn't much think of it. It was only coming and going anyway, and so I ignored it.
I ignored it all day, even as the pain continued.
By four thirty, as I was meeting Andy at the ice rink I could barely walk, and was crawling to the car where he was waiting. Andy, for all that he knew kept offering me Pepto Bismo, thinking everything would be fine. But as we went on the way to pick up my son from my in-laws, I knew something was going wrong. Its hard to explain exactly how I felt, but for those women that have been in labor, I can pretty much say that it was the closest thing to labor pains, and I knew I wasn't expecting.
I ended up calling the doctors, and found myself in the ER by 7. By midnight I was being tested, going through MRI's, CAT Scans, in which they couldn't find much. So I did more extensive testing, more MRI's more CAT Scans. And that's when they discovered a blockage in my colon. I was scheduled for a colonoscopy (sp?) by 6 on Saturday. By this point, I had been up for 22 hours (my commute into DC takes 2 hours on a good day) but the pain was getting so bad I was willing to do anything to relieve it.
The procedure worked....for 6 hours. And so back in for further testing.
Turns out that while it was blocked, my colon had actually twisted into a knot, and wrapped itself around itself. And so with that, I found myself having emergency surgery on Sunday, January. 30th. Where I had 17 inches of my colon removed, but what I did get a bonus, turns out they also decided to remove my appendix at the same time. Without food for the entire 8 days,
I also missed my son's 2 year birthday. Thankfully my family understood and we celebrated a week later....complete with a Toy Story 3 theme...
(My homemade Alien, and Hamm cupcakes)
I was in the hospital for 8 days, I left the hospital smaller than I went in, and without some of my intestines. I will be returning to work on Wed for the first time since the event. I still am not able to pick up my son until the end of March, and have not been able to eat much.
Now the question, would I even be able to go on vacation?
At the same time, my husband was offered a chance to expand his duties. Not only would he be working during the games, doing interviews and all during the home games, but he was now being offered to travel with the team, a chance he gladly accepted and less than a week after I got out, he found himself on the plan with the big guys, as they made their way to the West Coast, where he was gone for ten days.
To this day, I have seen him for maybe three days full, and have talked to him even less. But with his new job, would the vacation be in question?
Not if I had anything to do with it.
