and the madness begins...school holidays..DAY 2
After being off work for so long and sitting around the house with no one to talk to, I am looking forward to having the three girls home to do things with escpecially now that I am allowed to drive. The first day however meant Jessica was off to Garden City with a bunch of her friends and didn't get home till after 5...so much for spending time all together :)
I had a hospital appointment so I dragged the other two with me with the promise that I would take them to the movies afterwards. Of course being a public hospital, the appointment was an hour and a half behind so this meant alot of sighing and complaining from Madi who was bored. Ashlee had her nose stuck in a magazine so she was fine.
Anyway, we ended up making the movies at 2pm and saw Material Girls with Hillary Duff. It was definately a teen movie but wasn't too bad.
Day 2 we decided to go ten pin bowling. Expensive venture. $18 for 2 games, shoe hire, coke and fries and a games token. I didn't play, just took photos. Jess managed to get 3 strikes and a few spares to win both games. She was well ahead in the 1st one but she only just beat Ashlee in the second by 2 pins.
After the bowling was over bar the shouting, the girls had a couple of goes on the games. Jess and Ashlee went head to head on Daytona USA with Jess just beating Ashlee in the final lap. Like all good losers Ashlee blamed the equipment saying her steering wheel had a mind of its own. I know...doesn't sound like our lovable Ashlee does it???
Madi spent her token on a ball throwing game. It must have liked the way she pitched those balls cause she got the next 2 games free much to her delight.
Both games give tickets that can be redeemed for prizes. Madi got a ring while the other two got water balloons. Not sure thats a good thing, those two with water balloons.
Anyway, Jess is off to Wet and Wild with a heap of her friends tomorrow and the other two and I are having a DVD day at home. Madi is also going to do some baking. Should be a blast!!
Look out for the photos. CYA
State Champion...AGAIN
Today was the GKR State Titles and Jess ...as per usual...cleaned up her division. Even with me sitting directly in front of her as chief judge she kept her nerve and did a great kata.
Kumite (sparring) is a natural thing for Jess and she easily disposed of the other competitors in her division to bring home 2 gold medals and with that 2 State titles to her name.
Madi turns 11
A few weeks ago Madison turned 11. She is growing up so fast but she is still the sweetest little thing. John and I braved the 'Sleepover Party". Boy was that a bad idea. She invited 3 friends over and because we thought we would get it all over and done with we let Jess and Ashlee have a friend over to sleep as well...WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!
Madi and her friends played pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, the egg throwing game and the balloon game. They also gave us a fashion parade. It was a LOUD night let me tell you. They even braved the cool weather and went for a swim! Insane!
Meanwhile, Jess and Ash and their friends did a lot of laughing at the antics and then went upstairs and watched Dvd's, away from the madness of 4 eleven year olds.
All in all it was a good time and I was extremely glad that they all went home the next morning :)
Chapter 3...the long road to recovery
After another week and a half in hospital, and with the Infectious Diseases Department giving me the OK I was allowed an overnight pass out of the hospital. The only downfall was that after my 8am dose of IV antibiotics I had to come back to the ward every 4 hours till 8pm to have more. With the 8pm IV complete I would be able to sleep at home, in my own bed...HEAVEN. After checking with John to make sure he didn't mind driving me back and forth over the weekend (I would have killed him if he said no, I was desperate to get out of there) it wasn't long before we were on the road, heading home. Let me tell you, it was the best feeling to walk back into this house and just sit on my own couch. It's the little things that mean the most. The girls grinning at me, being able to leave if I wanted to, even to go to my own toilet...like i said...the little things.
Saturday morning found us back at the hospital for the 8am drug infusion. Dr Miller came to see me, checked that the previous night went without any dramas then gave me the go ahead to do it all over again. Woohoo! Then he said if my blood test came back good I might even be able to go home and stay there on Monday. Now, I took this news with a grain of serious doubt as I had been told this before. I had learnt not to get my hopes up. So, I got to spend another day at home, with 4 hourly trips to the hospital for more of those bug killing drugs. Monday morning arrived with me sitting on the edge of the hospital bed waiting for Dr Miller to come and give me some good news. Finally he arrived giving the all clear to go home..AND STAY THERE!! He didn't let me totally off the hook. I had to come back in a week to get checked over and then every other week to get my drain pulled out an inch at a time. I could live with all that...I was going home!!!
So, now you are all up to date...happy Steven? (that's my brother, he is the best brother in the world....yeah, he told me to say that) I have been home for 2 and a half weeks now and am feeling alot better. I lost alot of weight in hospital, about 10 kilos (so did John with not drinking and stressing out) and this means I have little muscle tone. It also means no karate for the rest of this year. When I first got home I didn't feel like doing anything let alone karate but lately I have been starting to miss teaching my class. I have decided that when my drain is out I will go back to teaching them. My class numbers have dropped while I have been away and I am keen to get back there. I might not be able to train myself but I can certainly help my students.
I have alot of tests to go through over the next few months. They don't know why this all happened so I am still going to be poked and prodded a bit more before this is all over. Hopefully they will find what was wrong and fix it (hopefully without surgery) or will find out it was the appendix after all. Mid November is supposed to be the date that they will put everything back as long as they are happy they have fixed me. Unfortunately this means more surgery and another 5 day hospital stay. I can live with all that as long as everything goes back to normal.
Finally I have alot of people to thank. Firstly...John....to those who don't know, he is my ex-husband, but before this all happened we had decided to give it another go. Then I ended up in hospital so everything sped up a bit. I couldn't have coped with all I have gone through without his support. He is my rock. He looked after the girls, my house, did all the housework, came to see me everyday, took the girls to all their sporting events....you name it he did it. He is a legend and now I can't imagine life without him. Love you Johnathon. :)
To my 3 wonderful daughters who really pulled together during this stressful time. Thanks for not giving your Dad too much of a hard time. You all got moved around from pillar to post and didn't whinge...well not much anyway. You are brillant kids and I love you more than life itself.
To my family...Mum and Pop, Kylie and Stephen and Steven and Joyce (all the way in NZ), thank you for all your love and support. You got me through the tough times when I was pretty down. Oh and Mum...sorry I made you cry :)
To all my friends, karate or otherwise, Ross and Ella, Jenni, Brian, Ettore, Delio, Melissa and Celeste, Warwick, Ben and Issie, Janine, Sensei Andrew, Damien and Steven and anyone else I might have forgotten, thank you for all your thoughts and offers of help. I appreciate everything you have done over the past 6 weeks.
A special thanks to Sue. She is the teacher I work with at school and she has been wonderful, looking after Madi, picking her up and dropping her off after school. She saved me a lot of problems with school and I appreciate it. Also to Megan, Sue and Kathleen who made meals for John and the girls while I was in hospital. Also to all the staff at Greenslopes State School who donated all sorts of goodies into a gift basket for me. I'm still eating all the chocolate.
Chapter 2...it just keeps getting worse
ok, so I was allowed to go home. Just had to keep measuring the output and hopefully it would decrease over the next couple of weeks then it would be all over. John picked me up and took me home. I was
so glad to be out of that hospital even though I wasn't feeling that great. I spent most of the next couple of days in bed with minimal walking around. On the third day it all started to go pear shaped. I started to shake and feel cold and couldn't get warm. I had been taking my temperature every morning and night for my doc and when I took it that night it was 38 degrees. I took panadol with the hope that this wasn't going to be a problem. Half an hour later it had gone up to 39 and I knew then that another trip to the hospital was enevitable. We decided to call the ambulance a short time later.
Another check of my temperature by the ambo's showed 40 degrees, so it was a free (well, paid for in the power bill) trip to the hospital once more. An overnight stay in the emergency department then was admitted back to my second home...Ward 4E. They took more blood. By this time I'm feeling like a pin cushion and I'm sure those people are related to Dracula somewhere along the line. Dr Miller sent me for another CT scan to see what was going on. Unfortunately the news wasn't good. The scan showed another abcess had formed and with 3 doctors standing at the end of my bed with serious looks on their faces I knew I was in for something I wasn't going to like. Yep, you guessed it, they were going in again.
Apparently they didn't know why the abcess had formed but their solution was to cut along the same incision as before and have a look at what was going on,. they would put in 2 drains and...wait for it...here's the best bit....take part of my bowel out of my body, loop it around and attach it to the outside of my stomach and drain my bowel into a bag! Yeehah. Now wouldn't that make you happy if someone told you that. I mean, that only happens to old people doesn't it?? Apparently not! The scary thing was when Dr Miller said that he was not going to wait till the morning to do it, it was going to be
now...as soon as they could get me to theatre. I was very proud of the way I just lay there and nodded my head and said OK....but as soon as they walked out I kind of fell apart and John had to try and put me back together. I honestly was terrified of not making it through another surgery.....so worried in fact that I started freaking John out by saying things like this to him..."Tell the girls I love them" and "make sure you look after them" and even better....my biggest fear..."don't take the girls to Stanthorpe to grow up". I didn't think I had the energy to do it all over again or even want to think of what I had to put up with once I was through the surgery. John was the rock though, telling me it would be ok, that I would be ok and not to worry about anything. At that point I didn't believe a word he said but who could blame me.
Anyway....after another 4 and a half hour operation, most of which John spent pacing, I returned to the ward. I was pretty out of it so as soon as he knew I was going to be OK John went home to the girls. The next morning I had to face the reality of my situation. I had to wear 2 bags attached to my stomach..one that was going to be there for the next 3 months! I hated even thinking about it let alone looking at them. Dr Miller was very happy with how things went...at least one of us was!...and said that even though I had 2 drains in draining the abcess, one would come out in a few days. The other would stay in for weeks to make sure the abcess was completly gone. They took my bowel out to make sure I didn't get any waste in my stomach that would cause another one. My blood tests showed 3 different bugs that needed to be attacked by 3 different antibiotics. One was administered by IV every 6 hours. This meant being woken up at midnight for 2 weeks just to have these drugs pumped into me. If you are in hospital to have a rest...FORGET IT!
Sore back?...I don't think so! Chapter One
Well...where do I start. I think it all began as long ago as the 17th of June, the day that Jess and I graded to Shodan (1st Dan Black Belts). I was beginning to suffer from back pain. Not alot at that stage but enough to think it was just a muscle strain. For the next 4 weeks the pain gradually got worse. The right hand side of my lower back was continously aching. I tried a few things to try and get some pain relief. I went to a sports massuse and then to my chiropractor (both who seemed to think it was a muscle problem) but it didn't get any better. I started to think it might be a kidney stone as I have had one of those before and the pain and position of the pain was very similar. I decided to go to the doctor and had some xrays but they didn't find anything. My doctor said it was a muscle strain and told me to take nurofen and rest. I had be taking nurofen by the handful for the previous 3 weeks so I knew that wasn't going to help.
It finally came to this. Tuesday morning the 11th of July I woke up in a huge amount of pain. Rang school to say I can't come in (which wasn't good as it was the first day of Term 3). Managed to drive Madi to school, came home and started throwing up. I knew then that things were out of control so ended up getting to the hospital. I was in emergency at 9.30am and they had no idea what was causing the pain. I got morphin (thank god for drugs) and was pain free for the first time in weeks. Hours passed with numerous doctors poking and prodding me, asking a million questions over and over again. They eventually called in a surgeon and she started all the questions over again. She started talking about my appendix but didn't seem to think that that was the problem.None of them had any idea what was wrong with me. She said she would admit me and get her boss (Dr Miller would you believe) to have a look at me the next day. I eventually was admitted as a sugical patient and ended up in the ward at about 5pm that night.
The next morning I was sent for a CT scan. That afternoon Dr Miller came to see me, spent 5 minutes talking to me, feeling my stomach and back and decided to put me on the 'board' which meant surgery. He seemed to be convinced that it was my appendix so they would start with a laporoscopy (a small incision and a camera having a look) and see what they could find. He warned me that if it was the appendix they would have to make a bigger incision (belly button to bikini line) to get it out. At this stage I didn't care, I just wanted the pain to stop.
Thursday the 13th of July at 10.30am I was prepped and ready to go. Dr Miller said to John that the operation would only be a couple of hours. FIVE hours later I was back in the ward with a very relieved John who had been stressing big time all the time I was away. I woke to find that I had had the big operation and was now missing my appendix. I was stitched up and had a drain in. Dr Miller came to see me and said that my appendix had burst, probably about 3 weeks ago and the fact that I was still here was pretty amazing. Apparently an abcess had formed around the appendix so they had left a drain in to drain any extra fluid that was still there. All in all I was going to be ok, a week or so in hospital and i would be able to go home....so of course with everything looking good...something
had to go wrong!
As soon as they started talking about me going home, I started leaking bowel material out of the wound that had previously had the drain in. Of course it did.....I was destined to stay in that damn hospital forever! Anyway, this happened at night so it took hours for them to get a surgeon in to have a look. Finally one came and told me the worst news I had heard so far. She said that I would have to go on a tube fed diet for 6 weeks so the fistular (a hole in the small bowel) healed itself. I wouldn't be able to eat anything and would have to stay in hospital for the entire 6 weeks. As you can imagine I was devestated. There was NO WAY that I was staying in there for that long. The next morning Dr Miller came and kind of put my mind at rest. He seemed to think that the fistular would heal itself with me on a low fibre diet and I would be able to go home with a bag stuck to the outside of my body collecting the waste that was still coming out. He said it would probably take about 2 weeks for it to close up and the leakage to stop. Although I was disgusted at having to have a bag on all the time I was happy to go home and deal with it there.
BUT...as you can now guess....with my luck or my BAD luck it didn't end up with a happy ending...see chapter 2 for the rest of this neverending saga.
Long time, no see...
Yes I know, it has been a long time since I have put anything up on here...but this time I do have a good excuse. I was in hospital for 4 weeks with 2 rounds of major surgery but I will explain that soon. First of all lets talk WORLD CHAMPION!!
Jess and I competed in the World All Styles World Championships on the 1st and 2nd of July on the Gold Coast. This is a competition where all different styles of martial arts compete against each other. Jess did an amazing job to win the continuous sparring division making her WORLD CHAMPION! I was very proud of her. She took on girls twice her height and double her weight without batting an eye and won. The photo below is her with her trophy and with Shihan Stacey who is the chief assistant instructor for GKR.
As for me, I was struggling with a sore back (although it turned out to be so much more than that) but managed to make the finals for the sparring only to come 2nd. I was really disappointed with my results but considering what I go through in the next few weeks I did OK.
After the bowling was over bar the shouting, the girls had a couple of goes on the games. Jess and Ashlee went head to head on Daytona USA with Jess just beating Ashlee in the final lap. Like all good losers Ashlee blamed the equipment saying her steering wheel had a mind of its own. I know...doesn't sound like our lovable Ashlee does it???
