Our Family History

Part 9:The beginning of a rough year

Our not so little family was finally complete and I was looking forward to settling in and figuring out how the logistics of a family this size were going to work. I didn't get the chance before everything fell apart. Remember I mentioned how I stayed sick while I was pregnant with Matt? The hospital continued to tell me that I had gastrointestinal flu and I had ultrasound after ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay. Not once in all that time, not once in any of those ultrasounds did they notice the real problem. I never really got to where I felt normal after Matt's birth and when he was 3 weeks old I started to get really sick again. Now that I didn't have a pregnancy to worry about I was not going back to the hospital to have them tell me again that I had stomach flu, so I tried to ride it out. After a few days I started feeling a little better and everyone relaxed. Mike was gone to work and after a little convincing Mom and Dad left and went out to a movie they had been planning on seeing. Not long after they left it hit me hard. At the time Audrey was only 7 but if it wasn't for her I would not have made it through that day. She would get Matt's bottles and kept the other 2 entertained. I had Matt setting in a baby seat next to the commode because I couldn't move. By the time someone got home to take me to the hospital I really thought I was dead. Not to be too sickening but the stuff I was throwing up was pure acid and was literally eating up my throat and mouth. When we got to the hospital I'm not sure what we were expecting but we thought it would be something simple that they could just give me some medicine for. In reality we were in for a long journey. Within no time they told us that they would be keeping me for awhile and that I would be having emergency surgery. I was full of gallstones; they were no longer just in my gallbladder they were now moving through my system. It was 4 days before they could do the emergency surgery, not because of shortcomings on their part but because I was too sick and not considered stable enough for surgery. Those 4 days were very difficult. I was worried about my kids more than anything, I knew they would be well cared for but I still wanted to be with them. Finally I had surgery and believe it or not was released on the same day. I was so glad to have all of this behind me. I couldn't have known at the time that it was just the beginning.
Part 10: It always gets worse before it gets better