posted on September 8, 2021
Hi everyone – I miss you all!! It has been two weeks since I have been at Union and I wanted to share an update from Cody and myself. Lots of things in our lives were going very well and our wedding date (September 4th) was quickly approaching. We were simply bound for a bump in the road. The reasoning we may never know, but we are nothing short of thankful to be home together again.
Two weeks ago I was driving home from work and had a stomach pain that felt like hunger pain. I had a snack and prepped dinner for when Cody would come home a few hours later. I didn’t make it long before I was feeling nauseous and curled up under all our blankets. By the time Cody got home I was on the bathroom floor and got sick about every hour that night. Morning came around and I wanted a shower, chicken broth, and a movie day to rest up before normalcy the following day. By that evening though, my stomach had an awful pain. We went to the ER where they did minimal tests but said a stomach virus is going around, gave me drugs, and sent me home.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the pain worsened, and nothing made it feel any better. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t lay down, and I couldn’t stand up straight. I slept upright with a fan a foot away from me, a cold rag on my forehead, and a heating pad on my stomach. The sharp pain would come in waves and I would wake up in excruciating pain squeezing Cody’s hand as hard as I could. My mind kept going back and forth between thinking they missed something and thinking I was the biggest baby with a stomach virus.
Saturday night the pain was the worst it had been and Sunday we decided to go to Urgent Care. They recommended Pepcid and to call my PCP the following day. Later that day I was so crippled, and Cody thankfully decided we needed to go back to the ER. I would have never admitted it, but I knew that was what we needed to do.
This time around we had two amazing doctors that palpated and did the tests we needed. They came back with urgency in their eyes and said we need to perform an emergency appendectomy. My appendix had been ruptured probably since the time we came in on Wednesday and my entire abdomen was full of the toxins. This would be my first surgery and I was so nervous. It was also 6 days prior to our wedding. Cody held my hand and calmed me down by doing simple breath work.
Surgery was performed that evening and the doctor came out to tell Cody that my case was the worst he had ever seen and a lot would need to be done throughout the week. I came out with a catheter, a nasogastric tube, and a stomach tube continuing to drain out the toxins. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything from Sunday to Friday but I could suck on ice chips and hard candies. Walking was encouraged and I insisted on making my slow laps every two hours holding onto my multitude of tubes.
It felt like no progress was being made for the first four days. In fact, Wednesday was a bit of a negative spiral and the day we officially postponed the wedding. However, things were looking brighter on Friday. They removed the NG tube and allowed me clear liquids which never excited me more! I graduated to soft foods on Saturday and a normal diet on Sunday.
Sunday evening the doctor removed the stomach tube and said I would be discharged Monday morning. It felt like this day would never come! Cody picked me up at 10am on the beautiful Labor Day morning for my first time in fresh air. We drove home and I took my first shower in 10 days. By 1pm, Cody and I were married!!! Our families put together a small ceremony for us at the pond and then we celebrated with soup and bread. It was everything we could have imagined. I was alive and home and with the people that mean the very most to me.
Cody sat with me every single day in the hospital. He helped me walk around, he played cards with me, and he sat there while I napped. He laughed with me when I needed adult diapers. He bathed me with a washcloth and shaved my legs while I laid in bed. He calmed me when the pain was really bad or the news really scary. I have 22 staples down my abdomen now which I couldn’t look at for days, but he made me feel more loved and beautiful than ever before. I am sorry this life event has taken Cody away from the gym as well, but he has been everything I needed. We love each other more than we could have imagined. I hope no one has to go through what we did, but I hope everyone finds a love that is even stronger on the harder days.
The recovery is going to be long, but we look forward to returning to Union this Monday. In the meantime, we are resting and just so happy and appreciative to be home together. We will see you soon!
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