~blessed

September 27, 2017

Tomorrow I'll be having (unexpected) surgery on my EYE.  Apparently the scar tissue is growing and they are worried that it is damaging my eye/vision so they need to go in and remove the silicone oil and peel off the scar tissue and evaluate what damage (if any) has been done and how to proceed! We are hoping and praying that this 4th surgery will actually be a Home-Run Success!  It has been a bit weird not being able to see out of my left eye since April 25th but wearing a patch (except at church and pictures) has helped with the headaches and there is a possibility that I won't have to have an air bubble, gas bubble or the silicone oil put back in my eye. I don't know if they will put my lens back in (later) because as the doctor said, "If the camera is broken it won't matter what lens you try to use". The best news is my right eye is still doing well and Billy's hip is doing fantastic so we're excited for those blessing! 

~airbnb - after hip surgery

July 31, 2017

 Airbnb 293 W 100 S Provo, UT  84601 

This is the front of the house that we stayed in.  It's in a great location - 

an easy drive (or walk) to anywhere in Provo or the surrounding area!  

It is especially close to the Provo Center Temple, which I loved!

Our entrance was here on the side.  I was worried to bring Bill home since 

our studio apartment was in the basement but there was a stair rail and a 

cement block on the opposite side so it was safe and sturdy for Billy.

We were greeted with a little goodie basket, free of charge, which was really sweet and kind!

This little place was adorable but tiny - I mean tiny in the most literal sense.  That being said, I must say that for such a small space they used the area effectively and efficiently to squeeze in all the necessities.  There wasn't a lot of space for our clothes, toiletries, bags, etc., but for someone who is just staying for a few nights it is an excellent choice.  Staying in so many different Airbnb's I've learned that if we ever have one in our home that it is imperative to take out any extra and/or personal items of all kinds from the rooms. This will help give the tenants more ownership and more room for their items.

Our situation was a little different as we stayed for 3 weeks while Bill healed from Hip Replacement Surgery.  My son Robbie, who is 6'2" bumped his head a couple times on the pipes that came down from the ceilings in many places.  We were able to use the space under the bed to store a few things. 

These are all "mini/junior" appliances - the CUTEST! Most of the cupboards 
were filled with dishes and appliances so we just put all our groceries in the fridge.

Since Bill would be recovering from hip surgery I was going to catch up on paper work but 
ended up putting all the extra groceries, clothes and boxes in the little space off the kitchen.  
Again, we were long term residents and had much more things to store than the average 
person. A bonus was there were washer/dryers just outside our door! So convenient!

~"hip" to be square

July 31, 2017

Bills Turn! 

Bill is very excited for his hip to be replaced as the 
pain was getting worse everyday and he could barely walk! 

He is all smiles for the future!

A little pre-surgery physical therapy training to do after surgery.

THE BIG DAY

Billy HIP Surgery July 31, 2017

Arrived St Marks - 6am

Took back to prep - 7:30am

We made sure to bring his C-PAP machine!

Bill had a really good nurse who had had her hip replaced so she was very
knowledgable as a nurse but also as an experienced patient!

Took into surgery - 8:10

Surgery is always scary because you truly don't know how your body will react
to the anthesis or how your surgeon is feeling that day.  You just have to trust
that everything will go the way it is supposed to.  I just don't want to lose Bill!

Surgery done - 10am

Visit with Dr Novak - 10:10am 

Recovery room 10-11am

While I was in the waiting room there was a Code blue.  It was a scary moment so I went up to the receptionist to find out which corridor the Code blue was in.  Fortunately, it was not in Bills wing.

A little recycling of the blood to take out fat and tissue then centrifuge and separate the red cells which are returned to the patient!

Cell saver machine - pretty cool!

POST SURGERY
Surgery went well and Billy stayed in the hospital for 3 days 2 nights.  They took great care of him and wanted him up and walking immediately.  I was with him for most of the time and got to visit with Robbie, Kelli, Linc and London as they live really closr to St Marks.  Robbie helped me move into our next Airbnb (next blog)! 

Follow-up appt - Aug 15th 1:30

Dr Novak - (801) 262-8486

Here is the replacement and the other hip. 
He should have 20 good years with this new Hip! Amazing!

Dr Novak went through the whole process trying to convince me that 
Bill was as good as new and that there are no limits to his activities!

It is so remarkable and completely amazes me that they can take damaged cartilage and bone, remove it then replace it with a prosthetic and metal 
stem that goes down into the hollow stem of the femur.  Crazy!
 

What will they think of next - if only they could make knee replacement as good!

~Hippy Hippy Shake

I think Billy was feeling a little left out and wanted to feel some love coming his way so we went to the orthopedic surgeon, Dr  Novak, to see about his hip pain!  
So now we have scheduled Bill to get his hip replaced on July 31st!!! 

When Church Headquarters asked if our "affairs" were in order we just didn't know how much they were "not" in order!!! So our mission is on hold until ???  If I can get eye clearance by Dec 19th we can still go to India - if not we will have to resubmit our mission papers and start over. Bill's hip should only be a short recovery (a month or two)- our biggest hurdle (after the silicone oil is taken out of my eye and a new lens is put in) is to make sure my right eye won't do the same thing. That is why it was so great to be able to laser it when we did (well, 90% of it 😅😅😅)!   Over the next couple months we will keep close tabs on it!

~bright eyes

The craziest thing happened to my eye last week and here is the play by play commentary (for some 'put me to sleep' nighttime reading 😉😉😉!)! 

THURSDAY 4/20/17 (April 20th -24th)

We loaded Bills truck up and headed to Vegas to Willie and Grace's house to drop off a few items ~ I am parting with all my treasures to any of my children that will take them! 

We arrived around noon and got to watch Sadie and Isla in dance class for a few minutes ~ what can I say but . . . ADORABLE!  We then headed to McDonalds and I started getting a headache and thought it might turn into a migraine. I had forgotten my migraine medicine so I went and got some Migraine Excedrin. It seemed to help the headache but my vision was still weird and I saw some baby flashes out of my left eye and along with that were little black dots, also to the left. The dots and floaters started looking like a little swarm of flies and at times I would swat at them. This was not my normal migraine aura.

We hung around Las Vegas until about 9pm and since every so often the lightening flashes were still there Bill said we needed to go strait to the ER when we arrived in St George.  Side note: many years ago (1999) our new Utah family eye Doctor, Dr Siddoway (the best), told me to never mess around with flashes of light or lightening bolts in my eye because when I was 40 he said I had the floaters of a 70 year old and flashes would indicate the floaters had detached from my retina.  We drove home from Vegas that night and went strait to the ER in St George. The ER Doctor took a CT-scan but said he thought it was just a migraine aura (but we knew he was wrong).  I know all my migraine symptoms so we figured at Willie's house it really wasn't a migraine but the headache was from the strain on my retina.

 

FRIDAY - We packed more stuff into Bill's truck and into my SUV to take up north to Robbie and Kelli's and also to take to the Alpine house. I am still getting semi-frequent flashes and dots in my left eye so Billy took me to the eye doctor at Lens Crafter (since we had gone to him a couple times before). Dr Bennion says it looks like one of the blood vessels had broken and there were floaters trying to pull away from the retina. When I had gone in for an exam in 2014 they had taken a full picture of my eye so they could compare changes from then to now! He recommended we see a retina specialist in Salt Lake City since we were headed up north.  We left StG late afternoon and got to Robbie and Kelli house around midnight ~ safe and sound! Math Equation: If car A was going 60mph and car B was going 80mph how much longer would car B need to remain at the gas station stops to maintain her speed the whole 300 miles:  Answer: about 4 stops, 20 minutes extra at each stop 😛😛😛!!!  

SATURDAY- Robbie and Kenny & Lindsay helped Bill (and me 😉) rearrange the alpine basement garage and I was able to get rid of some (not a ton, but some) things!!! For a hoarder, like myself, this is a huge accomplishment!  I'm afraid Billy over did it a bit but he was able to find a good resting spot before we filled the basement back up!  I was still getting baby flashes in my left eye but we have an appt on Monday to see a Retina Specialist so I'm not worried. Kelli was at home getting ready for the blessing and all that entails ~ we all know what a monumental project/task that is!!

SUNDAY- Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful!!! Kelli had the house looking spectacular! Everyone came over around 11:30am for brunch and pictures then we went to church and Robbie gave London a beautiful baby's blessing!! We came home and ate (more of the delicious food) and visited with everyone. Kenny and Lindsay were with us too, and we played some games later that night!

MONDAY- we went up to the Alpine house to pick up Billy's truck and take everything to DI. As I was driving home from DI, around noon, I went blind in my left eye. It started with long stringy floaters that just kept increasing more and more then got larger and larger til they were like a spiders-web that covered my eye. Then all of a sudden a semi-black film/sheen covers my pupil in my left eye so that I couldn't see out of it - at all. It SCARED the living daylights out of me. I drove to Robbie and Kelli's with my left eye closed. I could still see shadows of things but whenever I opened my left eye I started to cry because I was literally blind In that eye and I thought I'd be blind from here on out. 

I arrived at Robbie's and Bill parked the truck and I got into the passenger side of my car and when he looked over at me and asked what was wrong I burst into more tears and said, "I can't see out of my left eye". He drove me to the retina specialist (who was very good and thorough). Dr Faber did all the tests and told me I wasn't going blind but there was a tear in my retina and the film was blood covering by my eye from the tear. He scheduled surgery for the next morning. 

TUESDAY- Surgery went well. The anesthesiologist freaked me out a bit beforehand when he started talking about the procedure and the sheet of 'something' that they would have covering my face and that I would really be awake ~ Hello??? ~ have I mentioned that I am extremely claustrophobic (I had to be put under for a MRI and again both for the pulling of my tooth and then again when they put the screw in my mouth for my implant!)! Finally when Dr Faber came in (and got me to lie back down and stop crying) he told me that we would be just fine with the mild sedation and not fully knocked out ~ phew!  Anyhooooo, once he started the procedure he found 3 tears that he lasered and then he had to put in a gas bubble to hold everything in place. So the gas bubble makes for a longer recovery but is safer for healing.  I won't have my sight back for a little bit but he feels it was a great success. So the good news was that my retina did not detach!! He also said that during the surgery I said, "Bill, are you taking pictures?"  Too funny and not surprising at all!!  Bill brought me to a hotel after the surgery, so it was completely dark and silent (and we wouldn't have to share a bed as I needed to remain as still as possible). I rested and slept most of the day. They served dinner here (at the hotel) so we just walked down (with my head down) and had enchiladas and salad - I can't even drink a glass of water w/o a straw cuz I'm not supposed to look up 😵. I've got a bit of a headache and I have to lay only on my right side. I'll have cataracts between 6 mos to 3 years and will have to have a 2nd operation. All is well though and it could have been so much worse so I do feel very blessed. Billy and Robbie gave me a priesthood blessing Monday night . 😇

WEDNESDAY- more freakiness--

Had follow up appt today. At the Dr office this morning I got feeling really sick and so nauseated that I felt like I wanted to die and then I just passed out 😵😱😴 (for just like 15 seconds though). The Doctor rushed in and said that this sometimes happens when they take the pressure of the eye. When I woke up I was all clammy and could barely talk. I just sat there and listened to everyone talk. 

It's called vasovagal syncope. When the eye is touched or pressed against, the nervous system causes the blood pressure to drop, and the person faints. This can happen during installing eye drops, eye pressure test, or other procedure where the eye is contacted. 

During a vasovagal response, a person might experience:

• Pale skin ~YES
• Lightheadedness
• Tunnel vision, blurry vision, or "graying out"
• Nausea ~ YES
• Feeling too hot ~ YES
• Cold, clammy sweat ~ YES
• Yawning

Finally I felt back to normal but talk about weird!! 

Went back to the hotel and rested and Robbie, Kelli, Linc and London came over for a swim!  We have a follow-up next Monday so we're going to stay here in slc then go back to St George next week to finish packing out. My eye still hurt for a couple days and felt like someone was poking a stick in it but that's normal so I'm not worried!  
I still have to look and keep my head down until my appt on Monday (and only sleep 💤 on my right side). 

THURSDAY- I'm doing a 100% better! Minor headaches and just keeping my head pointing to the ground as much as possible (quick look-up for pics 😏). I've just been taking it easy and sleeping and resting.  The kids came over for another swim! 

What a weird week!!

BUT it was a total blessing and a MIRACLE in so many ways: 

1. This happened here and not in CAMBODIA or INDIA

2. Because Dr Siddoway told me to not mess around with lightening flashes when the ER guy said it was just a migraine aura we knew he was wrong. 

3. Billy insisted that I go into see an eye Dr the next morning in Stg.

4. That Dr said to go to a retina specialist. 

5. Bill called and they "happen" to have appt available Monday (and the call was made Friday - what are the chances!?!).

6. The retina tore right before our retina appt so it was taken seriously and surgery instead of freezing the tear. 

7. The Doctor just happened to have an opening for surgery this morning.
8. The timing of it all still made it possible to deliver a load of stuff to Willie's, Robbie's and the Alpine house plus the day of the blessing was not ruined and I could be a part of that. (This also reminds me of when my lung collapsed in 2005; the week Willie returned from his mission.  The whole family was out for the celebration but I was not able to be at the airport for his return because I was in the hospital. BUT we were able to fly to NY to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant 2 weeks later and the collapse of my lung could have happened in the air but didn't ( a story for another time 😉). 

CRAZY! Heavenly Father was sooooooo watching out for me! 😇😇😇