Glad to be Home

Good morning, my dear blog friends. I slept in my own bed last night and had a 24th of July celebration with my kids. It feels so good to be home!

Drama Queen has kept you up to date on the happenings with the surgery and then the extra stay at the hospital because of the blood clots or more technically, the pulmonary embolisms. I was pretty groggy through most of the transport and diagnosis, so I didn't really understand what was happening. I just knew I was struggling to take a deep breath.

They loaded me into an ambulance for the ride to St. Marks. It was bumpy and uncomfortable on my poor back, but I already had an IV (actually 2 of them) and the blood thinners were running to keep me from having a stroke.

A visit from Twizlet.

They put me in a room at St. Marks in the PCU which is one level below ICU and then they continued to monitor me by drawing blood every few hours and I stayed on oxygen to help me breathe. I was pretty miserable, but I never felt near death or anything like that.

We knew that the stay would be at least 3 days to get me stabilized; I went in at 4:00 on Friday morning and was finally released on Monday just before noon.

I'm so glad to be home. Life is precious and sweet.

Need a Coupon? Look at Groupon

I watch for good deals all the time. It's one of those things you sort of have to do if you have a big family. But sometimes I have a need and I don't have a coupon. Like when Mother's Day was coming up and I wanted to send my MIL one of these cute Shutterfly books Drama Queen is always putting together for me.

That's when I get on Groupon. I know they will always have a coupon I can use, and they usually have several to make it even easier to order exactly what I want at a good price.
I'm so glad this opportunity to post on groupon came up because my MIL's birthday is in September and since I just got home from the hospital this morning, of course I haven't had time to order or buy anything.

I think this wedding book for Princess and the Frog is what I want to get this time. My MIL loves them all and she is happy to add a new one to her collection. One quick click here, and I just saved 50%. That means I can buy another book for me, right? 

I wonder what Drama Queen is up to...

**I received compensation for an honest review of groupon.**

Guest Blog: Our Little Valentine! by Princess

The Frog and I are so excited to announce we have a little one on the way! We are due on February 4th, 2018 and are 12 weeks along. Here’s to hoping these next 6 months have a lot less throwing up. :)

And, for your enjoyment, a picture of what the internet thinks our baby might look like. I personally think our little guy will be bald but I guess we will see.

Guest Blog: Update by Drama Queen

Hey Blogworld,

Just wanted to let you all know about how Momma's surgery recovery is going.  As you know, she went in on Tuesday to have some work done on her spine.  The surgery itself went very well.  The surgeon said it looked really good.  Mom spent Tuesday night at the hospital under observation and struggled a bit to get her breathing back up to normal.  Wednesday she spent home with us, and while she felt pretty sore, seemed to have more energy than expected. 

Pre-Surgery

Thursday was a lot harder on her.  The pain meds they gave her just weren't working as well and she was really hurting and ended up going up to bed at seven.  Around te,n she was spiking a fever just over 101 degrees, so Dad and I made sure she called the nurse.  They told us to have her take some ibuprofen and follow up in the morning with the doc.  Early this morning, she was having some trouble breathing so Dad ran her up to the ER before the sun came up.

Mom hates getting her blood drawn.

The ER team told Mom and Dad that she had a pulmonary embolism:  a blood clot in her lungs.  Because the surgical site is so new, they started her slowly on an IV-delivered blood thinner.  They then transferred her up to a different hospital where they could do spot-imaging to check out where the clot was.  They found that Mom has several clots in both lungs, but thankfully none near her spine.  The doctors say that if a clot finds its way back to where they just did the surgery then she will have to go back under right away or she would likely risk paralysis for anything below that spot.  The other thing they are worried about is if a clot finds its way to her brain which could lead to a stroke.  So it's a careful balancing act of trying to break the clots down with the blood thinners, while also not traumatizing where her spine is trying to heal.  Dad says we should expect that they will keep her at the hospital at least another three days, if not more.

The ambulance that transferred her.

 We have always known that there were risks with this surgery, but our wonderfully brave Mom has been in pain for so long.  She really needs and deserves to be able to live a good life without the constant fatigue and aches.  Please keep our Mom in your prayers.

Popsicles help her throat feel better.  Intubations hurt!