Easter Fun

Marie in the Arrowhead Hospital

Marie in the Arrowhead hospital two weeks after my surgery.

Marie and I planned to go to Arizona to visit Hayden’s family during part of her Spring Break since we knew it would probably be the only time we could for several months. We decided to head as far as Las Vegas after I got off work on Friday night. We secured a hotel room in the Howard Johnson Inn Las Vegas Strip. We left home around 5 pm and drove fairly easily to Vegas arriving at about 10:30 pm. We went into the hotel and were given a room 141. We went for a walk, after getting our luggage into the room,  down and around the inside of the hotel. We then went right back up to the room and to bed. We woke up early and since there was no continental breakfast and the restaurant was not open until 10 am we just decided to leave. We got back onto I 515 and left going toward Hoover Dam. We traveled and finally stopped for gas in Kingman, AZ.

We drove further on US 93 and thought that we were on the right road until I noticed that the mountains ahead of us looked a lot like those near Flagstaff. Well they were and we had missed our turnoff 23 miles after Kingman. So we just continued toward Flagstaff and then went on I 70 to Phoenix. Well right about the time we were passing the outskirts of Flagstaff Marie mentioned to me that she had been bitten by something and the bites were itching a little bit. I asked if she wanted to stop and get some Benedryl but she said she could wait until we got to Hayden’s.

We arrived at Hayden’s and he was at another home studying while Cheyenne and the children were at her Aunt’s home for an Easter party.  We decided to eat our lunch so we took it into the backyard and then waited for about an hour until Cheyenne and the children came home. (During that wait Hayden had called and we told him about the bites and he and the other medical students he was studying with suggested that we get some topical cream to put on the bites so we went to a nearby Albertson’s and picked up some Benedryl cream which we applied to the five bites she had received.)We then had an Easter Egg hunt for Hallie and Leilah while Greyson napped. It was a lot of fun watching the girl’s look for the eggs and treats.
Later that night after supper we started to discuss the bites with Hayden since they seemed to be worse and we starting to swell and get red. I was worried because the one on her right arm near her shoulder was getting really red and looked as though it was going up her veins as well.  I gave her a blessing since Hayden had lefty to study again and we retired for the night. Well during the night they started to blister over the bite area and when she was getting up the one on her back popped.

We decided that we would need to get some medical help so just before breakfast was ready I took her to a local Emergency Care and the doctor there, Dr. Jeffers, told her he was going to send her to ER. She immediately said she wouldn’t go so he discussed the possibility of giving her some antibacterial pills to send home with her but finally she decided to go to the ER at Arrowhead hospital just a few miles away.

I took her to the ER and Dr Ronald K Sterrenberg there decided to have a second Doctor come in and look at her as well. They both decided that she would have to be admitted and given the medications directly into her blood stream if they were going to be able to stop the bacteria from spreading through her body. They decided that she had Cellulitus. She was not happy.

We were taken to a room on the third floor (303) and spent the rest of the day there and through the night until Monday afternoon. The Dr Vic also decided to have a second doctor look at her since it really puzzled them why she would have swelling on both arms not just one. They decided that it had to be bacteria from her skin that had gone into the body through the bites or that maybe she was just allergic to the bite venom. He also had an infectious disease specialist come look at her Monday. He saw the progress that she had made during the night and told her several, (many) times that she was going to be fine. It made me think that he was worried about it spreading to vital organs as well as I was and that they had been able to prevent that and he was not concerned about that anymore. SO we were able to leave that afternoon.

I had stayed the night with her in the hospital but the nurse couldn’t find and bed or recliner for me to sleep on so I pulled the three chairs in the room together and put some pillows on them and covered myself with a blanket she had given me. I did not sleep very well at all but did get some sleep before morning.

The bites had formed into blisters by Sunday morning but they would only release the liquid from one on her right arm. The others they told us not to touch. We wish we had now since the one where they removed the liquid has all but disappeared while the others are all large scabs that look like they will leave significant scars. Well for our four day visit with the children we ended up having them visit us in the hospital instead for the first two full days.

It was not really a lot of fun even though Hayden had brought the Hunger Games book over so I read it to her while she lay in the bed. That ended up being a little bit fun.

Well for the rest of the story about the oddities of this trip. We left Wednesday morning in plentu of time to get home by 8 pm but at Kingman I didn’t look at the map again and we ended up driving all of the way to Barstow CA before I figured out we were way off track. It didn’t help that we were listening to a book on tape so the time went very quickly. I kept thinking we were not on the right road but just figured I was off in my calculations. Next time, if there is a next time for that route which is supposed to be shorter, I will pay a lot more attention to the roads I travel. So we didn’t get home until 11:30 pm and I was back up at 3:45 am to go to work. It was a long day.

 

Note: Tuesday April 16, 2913 I called the Inn and the lady there assured me they had no bedbugs because they have Terminex come in every month and spray for them. There was no way, she said, that they could have bitten her there.  I am not so convinced myself. Any people coming in between the last application by Terminex could have brought them with them anyway and they could have still been there.

My first major surgery at age 59

I have been very blessed throughout my life to never really have any major medical problems. So when I get a hernia at age 59 it set me up for my first major surgery operation. I was working at SupraNaturals in October 2012 when we had a batch of product that we had to put into big tote’s (large containers made for liquids that hold around 275 gallons.)

 We had been putting them into bottles but there was a problem with the bottles and so we had to dump a batch of them back into the pasteurizing tank to get the liquid into the totes.  We dumped them into 6 gallon buckets and then I would lift them three feet or so to the top of the tank so I could dump them. I knew something was wrong but never having had a hernia I didn’t know for sure what it was. One other fellow helped me dump some of them and I was grateful that I didn’t have to do all of them. Well I had my annual check up for my thyroid coming in November so I waited until then to ask the doctor about it since it still continued to cause me pain throughout the day at times. He couldn’t find one so I just left it alone until February when I knew for sure it was a problem and went back in for another checkup on a Friday that I didn’t work. Sure enough he knew it was a hernia for sure that time since it was sticking out quite a ways. He had me go in for a consultation with Doctor Craig Cook the next Tuesday. That was the 12^th of February and I was scheduled for surgery the 15^th of March.  I suffered with it for the next month and was just always trying to be careful not to stress it any more than it was already.

Wednesday night, March 13, I asked Scott and Jeff to give me a blessing. Jeff anointed and Scott sealed the anointing and gave the blessing. I didn’t know until after the blessing that Scott had been through similar surgery only his was much more intense. I was very touched by the fact that either could have given the blessing but Scott was the one who should have since he knew what I was really up against. It is so neat to have sons whom I can call on late at night and will respond to the call even when not easy to do at a spur of the moment as I had given them.

I had a wedding to photograph on the 14^th of March and that day was pretty hard since it hurt as well as the usual pains that I get in my body from carrying around a 16 pound camera all day. So when the call came that night at the reception that I was suppose to be in the hospital by 6 am the next morning I was very glad.

However as 6 am rolled around Friday morning and I was being processed into the hospital I wasn’t so sure anymore. I had great nurses and Doctors and when I went into surgery at 7:30 AM I was not expecting to be out by 8:30 AM. I actually didn’t wake up until around 10 AM from the anesthesia but I was able to leave the hospital by around noon after I had been successful in going to the bathroom.  The first time I couldn’t get any urine out but an hour later and a lot of water later I finally could so they let me go home. It was a long morning for Marie however as she had to sit and wait for everything until she could take me home. 

The following is Marie’s list of the Doctors and Nurses:

Tracy – Explained everything when we first checked into the hospital.

Barbara – Put in the IV tubes.

Olivia – Shaved the site area for the operation.

Dr. Mark Critchfield - Anesthesiologist

Chris – regular nurse before the operation

Dr. Craig Cook – performed the operation. He also went and talked to Marie after the surgery and explained that I had two hernias. One on each side. Fixed both of them at the same time and instructed her to tell me to take the entire week off from work. I was in recovery for about an hour and a half.

Kenneth – helped Amanda bring me ack to my room after waking up.

Amanda - She was my main RN that morning and was with me until I was loaded into the car with Marie.