Helping you live healthy and happy!: Happy New Years Eve, Eve

Happy almost 2013 to everyone!

What a year, 2012 has been a year of joy, changes, travel, playing, crying, dancing, working, teaching, running, weddings, happiness, sports, unknowns and love.

My year included:

lots of family time with my baby girl
another happy year with my amazing husband
job changes
gaining an appreciation for "date night"
travels to Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, California
watching Adam play a lot of basketball and softball
Addison's first birthday
getting even healthier and fitter
weddings of some great friends
my Broncos ending the regular season 11-0 and securing the #1 seed in the AFC
the worst/best Christmas ever

My Christmas season started off normal and exciting. Addison didn't like Santa this year which was not surprising. We had some great celebrations with friends, co-workers and were getting ready for all the fun with family to begin Christmas Eve. I then received called from my brother and step-dad Christmas Eve morning and they were concerned about my mom.

I then drove to Blaine to check on her. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed the previous Thursday (20th) and had been doing fine. When I got to my moms I found her delirious, with labored breathing and cold. We took her to the ER expecting there was an infection from surgery or dehydration.

For the next couple of hours we watched doctor and nurses run in/out of her room trying to figure out what was going on. Finally after a couple of hours they felt she was stable enough to move to the ICU and wait for more tests to come back.

Things they found going on with her:
Lungs
Heart
Kidneys
Liver

Lungs- right lung collapsed, has pneumonia and on was placed on a ventilator until Friday afternoon (5 days). There is still lots of fluid in there but at least is now clear. The pneumonia is still being treated with antibiotics. They feel the pneumonia was caused from her not taking deep breaths after surgery because of the pain. Some blood and a scab from the surgery site fell into her lung while she was sleeping Sunday night which collapsed it. She probably didn't wake up because of her pain medication.

Heart- Started with really high enzymes. They were not sure if she was having issues with it or if it was just the stress of everything else. Now its doing great, high enzymes she had Monday have now came down. Her blood pressure was really low from being dehydrated but has been finally stable. Her blood pressure was so low it damaging the kidneys.

Kidneys- In kidney failure and not coming back yet. She was super dehydrated from not eating and drinking after surgery because of the pain. They started dialysis last week and that will continue this week. Also because they cant give her a lot of pain meds because of possible further damage to her kidneys they were keeping her heavily sedated. She is now conscious but still having trouble focusing and thinking from all the toxins in her body.

Liver- In liver failure, hepatitis, cirrhosis and some still unknown spots. Today it was still failing and enlarged but not getting worse. She was born with liver cancer and 2/3 was removed with her gallbladder and she had chemo when she was 6 months old so her liver has always been damaged. There is also the daily ibuprofen from headaches from not sleeping well because her tonsils were too big, years of drinking and the recent pain meds from surgery.

She is on the road to recovery, it might be long but at least there is a road. We have been very fortunate to have so many thinking and praying for her this last week. We have also been fortunate to have the doctors and nurses working around the clock attending to her every need. 2013 will be a much better year for my mom!

Here is to a Healthy and Happy 2013. Tell those you care about how you feel and make the time to do the things important to you in life. Who knows what 2013 will hold!