Archive for October, 2006

Where Oh Where Has Debbie Gone??? :)

Monday, October 16th, 2006

I’m back.  My grandmother called the other day to tell me that she was worried about me because I hadn’t blogged since 10/1.  How GREAT is it that I have my grandmother reading blogs???? :)

The nurse came this morning and my staples are OUT!  WOOHOOO!!  This is my FIRST step to freedom.  Staples out today and shower tomorrow.  I’m SOOO excited for a shower – it’s been quite some time!! :)

For those that haven’t gotten the update, my second hip replacement went well on October 3rd.  I was released from the hospital on Friday, October 6th after a blood transfusion. It appears that the second surgery was just too much for my body to handle and my hemoglobin dropped to 7.9.  I was SO happy to leave the hospital and be in my own bed.  Then, last Thursday, Bethie arrived!!  For those of you who don’t know Beth, she has been my best friend since college and I just LOVED having her here.  There is something about your friends that have known you forever and STILL want to be around you.  She managed to not only “spoil” me but she also managed to spoil my husband and kids.  I was so sad to see her leave today.  Of course, we’ll see each other this summer at Cape Cod but if I had it my way, I’d be heading back to Philly with her!! :)

The doctor’s office called this afternoon and said I could try to drive in a few days and I’m really, really looking forward to that freedom!!  I’ve been in this house for way too long.  I’m really feeling lately that this surgery was a HUGE hurdle for me and now that I’m no longer in pain, that my recovery from cancer is going to go much better as well.  I’m looking forward to working out again and to get stronger and healthier every day!! :)  This year has been incredible but I honestly think that I’ve grown so much and so much good has come out of all of this!  I can’t thank my medical team, friends, family, neighbors….everyone enough for ALL the support they have given me!! :)  Here’s to making a FULL recovery!!! :)

I wish I could tell you all I got tons done while on bedrest but nope….Beth and I hung out a lot and caught up with each other, the kids and I read TONS of books and I’ve watched more TV in the past 10 days than I think I did all summer!! :)

I’m cropping on Saturday at Meredith Corporation and looking forward to that.  I’m hoping to get the template done for my Christmas cards and maybe start the kids school books for this year but we’ll see how much planning I get done this week. Either way, just being out of the house will be wonderful for me!

Well…that’s it from here.  Wish I had more exciting things to chat about but I just wanted everyone to know that I’m doing well.Deb

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Home today, back tomorrow!! :)

Sunday, October 1st, 2006

WOW! What a week this has been!  :)   I was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday morning for hip replacement surgery.  All did not go as planned – apparently, my hip did not look THAT bad on the CT scans.  They ended up taking the ball out which was dead bone because of the radiation and closed me back up.  There was some cloudy fluid and they weren’t sure if it was from infection or from the little pieces of bone that were destroyed.  We were told they needed to wait five days to be sure.  In the meantime, I was visited frequently by the oncologist, orthopedist AND the infectious diseases doctor. Yes, my room at Methodist was a busy, busy place.
 

We had lots of ups and downs during the week but here are a few things to celebrate:

  1. the hip ball was dead NOT full of cancer and they couldn’t see cancer when they went in but we are still waiting the pathology report.
  2.  I made it through the first surgery! :)
  3. My cultures have NOT grown yet so….the chance that this was an infection is extremely low but we’ll have the final report tomorrow morning.
  4. Again, I have felt such support from everyone- thank you all for the emails and calls to me in the hospital and to all of those that have made dinners for my family. Also, Mike cousin, Deb and grandma Gertie came all the way from Clinton, IA to take care of my kids and ended up cleaning my house and doing TONS Of laundry for us!! :)

Yesterday, at 2pm after lots of arguing, they agreed that my “spirit” needed to be home and needed some repair time. It’s very HARD to stay positive in a hospital.  So..we got a wheel chair and threw my stuff in a bag in record time and we were gone. It’s been SOOOO good to be home – ok..I know..I have to be back tomorrow before noon (they didn’t discharge me – just gave me a surgery furlough) and yes, it’s going to be so, so hard to go back but hopefully, this will be the last try and I’ll come out winning this time!! :) I slept in the living room last night surrounded by my kids who all thought sleeping on the floor was really fun and they have been so adorable – Mari wanted me to know they prayed from me at church this morning and Matthew and Nicholas made me lego sculptures to make me feel better.  I LOVE these kids.  I think Mike is really relieved that I’m home and back to a normal attitude.  By Friday, I was a bit scary and not very positive which for all of those who know me, is kind of unusual.  I, like everyone, have my days but I normally lean more on the positive side than most.Mari & I spent this morning listening to my IPOD (which is one of the GREATEST inventions). It was so fun to see the look on her face and to have those moments with her.

So what else have I done? Yup…scrapbooked AND bought MORE scrapbooking stuff – it’s amazing HOW much you can order on the internet in 24 hours!!  To anyone who knows a scrapbooker on bed rest, those QVC kits are amazing!!  CK has them now on clearance so I just bought three of the Celebrate You ones to do one for each of my children.  They are so cool in that everything you need (minus photos/journaling) come in little bags so you just open and create and you are done!! Much less to bring to the hospital but just so you haven’t lost faith in me Marilyn, I went in with two albums, an album kit and my Totally cool bag!! LOL J  I finished ½ a back to school party book and ½ of the HS all about me book.  Oh…which reminds me – if you get a chance to buy the HS Creative Escape book- DO IT! It is SOOOO worth the $15 price.  I’m planning on attending that one next year – hopefully with Mike since they have golfing for him. The nurses at the hospital were great and brought me in a SECOND table just for my scrapbook stuff!!  :) So….I’m off to Powell 469 tomorrow at Methodist.  Depending on how the surgery goes, I’ll be there some where between 4-6 days and then HOME!!  I can’t wait to have this all behind me!! And hopefully, I’ll be SO much stronger. I will tell you that already, my pain is so much less than what it was when I went.  The doctors said they were amazed that I was able to go this long because my hip ball was supposed to be the size of a racket ball and mine was less than a ping pong ball and squished up into the socket which was why the pain was so severe.Anyways, thanks again to ALL of you that have been so supportive. I’ll update again when I can!! :) Deb 

 

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