Update on the Family!

Kiana started school and absolutely loves it. She is excited about all the things she is learning and all the friends she is making!!! She and Kennedy are always inviting the neighborhood kids over so our house is always crazy with kids. Kennedy had a hard time for the first couple of weeks when Kiana would leave, but she is doing better now and loves to wait outside for Kiana to come home on the bus. Kaylee is all over the place and into everything. At her 15 month check-up she weighed a whopping 17 pounds. At the rate she's growing, she'll be in her infant car seat till she is three! Greg is busy at work trying to get everything running smoothly at the Utah Pet Center and the Pavillion Inn. He is working about 60 hours a week. He has also had to do a lot of traveling to trade shows the past couple of months. The kids, and me especially, love it when he is home and can't wait till things slow down at work. As for me, I am doing much better, and hope I never get that sick again. A lot of people have asked what happened so here is the jist of it. I had been sick with a Sinus infection for about three weeks. My doctor put me on an anitbiotic, which didn't work, so she switched me to a different one. During that time, I had to go in for a colonoscopy (they are so wonderful). For those of you that don't know, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colotis when I was 21, so I have to go in for these wonderful colonoscopies about every 5 years. Wednesday October 17th was the day of my Colonoscopy. They took some biopsies during the procedure. Everything went fine, and there was no problems. That Friday I went to bed early because I was very tired. When I woke up Saturday morning I could hardly get out of bed. I had a fever and I felt like I had been beaten with a metal bat all over my body. Greg wanted to take me to the ER, but it was my Great Grandmas funeral that day and I wasn't going to miss it. We went to the funeral that morning, I had to hold on to Greg to even walk. On our way home, my hands and feet started going numb. He again wanted to go to the ER but I said no just take me to an insta care. When we got to the insta care they took me right back took my vitals and said your going to St Marks ER we have called them and they are waiting for you. By time we got the the ER I was in so much pain I could barely walk. They took me right back and started running all kinds of tests. They thought maybe my sinus infection had gone into my brain so they did a CT Scan on my head, which came back fine. Then they thought maybe I had an infection in my chest so they took an x ray and that was fine. During all of this, they also got a urine sample, which was fine, tested me for influenza, also negative, and drew more blood than I knew I had, which showed I was definately sick with something they just couldn't figure out what. While all this testing was going on they had me on iv fluids and started injecting me with Terridol, which is like ibuprophen x 1000. It did not help with the pain one bit so they started me on Morphine through my IV. It helped take the edge off, but I was still in a lot of pain. Towards the end of all this I started to have diarreah, yes they got a sample of that as well. As they sent that test off, the Doctor came into the room to tell me I had all of them baffeled. He said they were going to let me go home, but I had to come back tomorrow to follow up with him and make sure I wasn't getting worse. I asked him if I could have some more morphine before I left because I was still in so much pain, he said no problem, I will go get the nurse and have him put it in your IV before he takes it out. He left and by the time the nurse walked in my heart started racing and my blood pressure dropped to 74/30. The nurse said I can't give you this and ran out and grabbed the doctor. Next thing I know I am not going home, but being admitted to the PCU floor. I was told that had that not have happened and they had sent me home, I probably would have died that night. Once in my room, they started hooking me up to all kinds of monitors. During all of this the results of the poop sample came back showing I had a bacteria called C-Diff. From what the doctor told me, C-diff is usually caused by taking antibiotics, and rarely causes problems with the exception of some diarreah. With me they figure I got the C-diff from the antibiotics I had been on for the sinus infection, and when I had the biopsies taken during my colonoscopy, they c-diff toxins got into my system and that is what caused all the problems. Needless to say I was on a liquid diet for 4 days, had to have iv antibiotics every 6 hours, had to have magniesium and Potasium by IV several times a day, also had to take potasium pills 3 times a day, and have blood drawn twice a day. During all of this, I was so nausiated, they gave me an anti-nausea drug by IV called Phengran. I did not know I was allergic to it, but quickly found out when I instantly started uncontrollably jerking. They had to give me two doses of IV benadryl which knocked me out for almost 24 hours. After three days in the PCU, the doc. said I was stable enough to move up onto the regular floor, WHOOPEE!!!! After one day on that floor and no problems, they finally released me! HALLELUJAH!!!!! Two weeks and $13,000 later (we have great insurance so it only cost us $50) I am feeling better and very very happy to be alive! This experience made me realize how quickly your life can change and possibly end. I make sure to tell my family every day how much I love them, and enjoy life even more.