Another Doctor Visit

So this time my primary doctor referred me to a surgeon.  I saw him today and he made it very clear to me that he would not be willing to perform a hernia repair on me because I am too high risk since I have had more than five hernia repair surgeries.  He said only under life-threatening circumstances (i.e. A strangulated bowel) would he consider surgery.  He said I am too fat, have hypertension and I have exhausted all surgical options for my health.  Basically I am screwed.  Death is my only option now!  Are any of you listening?  This is MediCare in action, or to be precise, ObamaCare!  Forget death panels, they now just consign you to extreme suffering and death and have done with you!

And for you who think I am being overly dramatic - my husband was with me this time.  He heard it all.

While it's true that I am everything he stated, I still believe I should have an assurance that should I have another episode of a strangulated hernia, as I did six weeks ago, that I should have options.  Whatever happened to laparoscopic surgery?  That's the least invasive method.

I decided this afternoon that I will go on and live my life in the best way I know how and let the chips fall where they may!  I am not giving up!  I want to live!  I will not just lay down and die!

My Health

Here I am sick again.  Another bout with a bowel obstruction.  Makes me sad.  This time I was blessed not to have surgery, but I was in hospital for three days with an NG tube down my throat into my stomach.  No food or water for those three days either.  Just Potassium Chloride, straight Potassium and two different antibiotics all being pumped into me rapidly.  I was dehydrated within just a few hours after the attack started.  Tony was with me every minute of the day except at night while I was sleeping.  I am so grateful for that - it was really hard to be in hospital this time.  I was given so much morphine and it didn't even touch the pain!  And what did I get in return?   A freaking major headache! Then the nurse wants me to take Tylenol and puts it in gelatin and tells me to eat it - gelatin melts, but the dry crushed Tylenol sticks to the NG tube and rubs against the side of my throat - ack - such pain!

Plus I'm not allowed to sip water to get the offending junk down!  Oy!  I choke and choke till I almost die!!  So if you think I look bad in the picture, you're right.

On Thursday night when I went to the ER I thought the pain from the strangulated bowel was horrible, but then after having two injections of Morphine I sat bolt upright on the gurney because the pain had moved to my chest and back and was so excruciating that I couldn't breathe.  I felt as though I was going die, I couldn't scream or cry because the pain was so bad.  The nurses performed two EKGs on me, which showed I wasn't having a heart attack, however my blood pressure was sky high and remained so until the pain subsided.  This was when the ER nurse/practitioner told the nurses to prep me for major surgery and called the surgeon.  But when the surgeon came he said no to any surgery until he ran some tests.  First a CAT scan was performed, which confirmed the bowel was strangulated.  The pain was still horrible as I was taken to radiology to get a complete set of X-rays with dye of my entire digestive system.  When the radiology tech rolled my gurney down the hallway to get the X-rays he left me alone in the hallway where i writhed in pain and was moaning, hospital personnel just kept passing me by, not even looking at me,  not even asking me why I was lying there all alone. A very unpleasant experience while suffering the tortures of the damned!  And scared to death.  Then finally, after a long time the technician came for me.

After the tests were over the surgeon told me he wasn't going to perform surgery because he was concerned after seeing my test results.  He said my insides are complicated and that even though this will happen again that it is best for now to just take one day at a time.  So I am.

What does that mean?  I just go on with my life as usual and wait for the next attack.  Limbo...

Post Mission to Cyprus

Here we are - home again. WOW! Can we say, "Culture shock?" The adjustments are just beginning. We have been mostly resting and sorting our belongings, trying to find a place to store things.

We went to COSTCO the second day we were home as there was no food in the house at all. We gave Ramona and Dan and family almost all of our food storage when we left, so we barely had anything available. We stocked up on canned goods since we hadn't been able to grow a garden in the past two and a half years.

Unbelievable! We sold our BIG house in Los Angeles, CA, moved to a small one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood and divided our time between LA and our new home in Lancaster. Mainly refurbishing and painting and cleaning. We didn't really live here until about a month before we left on our mission. So now everything old is new again! Ha!

Not hearing Greek spoken or reading any street signs in Greek has been a shock! I keep translating everything from English into Greek, how funny is that?

I'm certain we will settle in/down fairly soon. The sleep deprivation we experienced while on our mission has taken it's toll on both of us, and we are trying to keep from having any meltdowns in the interrum, until we have recovered.

We have already eaten a steak dinner at Black Angus and had In N Out Burgers too! The steak dinner tasted like it was made in Heaven! We haven't had any decent beef since we left home, only pork, chicken and fish. Cyprus is the island of pork! And yet they do not have decent hams or bacon at all.

The fourth night we were home I set out to prepare a lovely enchilada dinner, with rice and beans and salad, but whilst I was toasting the rice in my rice pot it suddenly for no reason EXPLODED! Yes it did! It blew up rice and oil in my face, which also flew all about the kitchen and family room. SCARY! Tony cleaned it all up while I sat on the sofa in a daze. Later I realized I was in shock. My upper body ached so badly from the tension and adrenalin rush I experienced. I am recovered today (the next day), and am a little apprehensive about cooking. Of course today we will go to Walmart and get new pots and pans - I will NEVER use my old ones again! Lesson learned.