Are you ready for this?!?!

Alright everyone are you ready for this?  As of today I have lost 100 lbs!  That is right....100 lbs!  Gone.  Forever.  Praise the lord!  Now, because I am kind of an odd duck I wanted to help people gain some insight into what 100 lbs really is.  Adam and I went to Whole Foods tonight and found some really awesome people to help us out who were just as excited about my success as we are.  They were all too willing to take part in my shenanigans, which I must admit...I kind of love!  We wanted to show everyone what 100 lbs of butter looked like, but they didn't have enough of it for us to stack up, so we went with the white devil....flour.  Here are my pictures of the fun we had at Whole Foods...

This one was taken just a few days ago. Right before I hit the 100 lb mark!

My very supportive hubs! <3 him!

100 lbs of flour folks!  100 lbs!

Was that really necessary?

Well as per my previous post I was to have a stent placed in my stricture which I did on Tuesday April 24th.  Let me just say that I have had this stricture dilated twice previously and it did not hurt.  In fact my husband and I went shopping afterwards.  This time however, was an entirely different story!  I woke up in such horrendous pain and could not stop retching.  I told my nurse repeatedly how badly it hurt and I felt as though she wasn't listening to me.  She kept closing the door to my room because my retching and crying was apparently too loud.  Now, let me share something with you.  I feel no need to stifle my feelings especially pain.  Speaking as a fellow nurse, closing the door to your patients room because they are making noise as a result of pain is unacceptable.  Subsequently I was sent home on Lortab elixir just as I was after my initial surgery back in January as well as Zofran ODT.  Zofran ODT gets foamy, which isn't necessarily the best thing for someone who is already nauseous.  I literally laid in bed from Tuesday to Friday getting up only to pee.  I am not one to lay around after a procedure of any sort but the pain was excruciating!  This pain from a little stent was by far worse than the pain from having my guts rearranged.    This whole time since the stent had been placed I had been informing the surgeons office of the excruciating pain, nausea, and incessant vomiting but I was getting no where fast.  I was told that the reason that I didn't feel well was because there was no food in my stomach.  Well, let me just say I am sure I am not the only person out there who would be unable to tolerate food if they can't even tolerate their own saliva.  Thank God for my friend JennB who decided I was in rough shape and traveled 3 hours to come help me and take care of me.  She had been at our home for about three to four hours when she decided thats enough we are going to the hospital.  I explained to her just as I did to the surgeons office that it was very painful to take a deep breath and she had been witnessing me retching for the entire time she had been there...literally.

We get checked in to the ER and go through all that rigamarole and they do an abdominal CT and find nothing except inflammation.  They gave me IV pain medication and nausea medication and I was able to rest for about an hour, which is more than I had in days.  After the ER doctor spoke with the on call surgeon they decided I could either go home with a script for phenergan or I could stay in the hospital.  Being the ever indecisive person that I am I couldn't make up my mind.  I knew what I should do, but I also knew what I wanted to do.  We came up with the idea to try some water and see if it would stay down....no go.  Jenn helped me understand that this is where I need to be for now and that I am not going to get better if I don't let them help me.  So I stayed.

Five days later, and I am still here.  In my opinion I should be able to go home tomorrow, but of course none of this is up to me.  I will cooperate and do what they want me to do and I will give myself time to heal.  I got my intermittent FMLA set up which will protect my job, but of course this will all affect my income.  But I am trying to be in the mindset that my health is more valuable than a pay check.  Thankfully we have family who would be willing to help us out if it came down to it, and honestly we have been through tougher times than this and we will again in the future I'm sure.