The Life and Times of the Miller Clan

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.

posted by rochelleandthegirls @ 9/11/2006 07:15:00 PM