DAY 4

I guess today is a set back.... I went back to my habit of not eating! I skipped out on church and slept and watched movies all day. I ended up having some visitors come over which was nice to see people. I was awake for part of it but then once we began talking too much, I was getting very sleepy! 

We went over to my grandparents house on the Whatcott side to eat dinner. I couldn't even focus on anything. I got a very little amount of food to eat and then could barely keep myself awake. I don't really remember much of that evening. I was able to take pictures with everyone in the family which was nice and fun to look back on. I was so scared that someone was going to bump me and make me start hurting even worse! 

Today is the day that I was able to take off my bandages. It was actually really exciting to see! There was so much padding that it was scary to not have it on there anymore. I threw the bandage away and was able to clean it up a little bit. Remove some of the dried blood and clean the skin around it. I applied a new bandage on it, a waterproof one, so I could still be protected but also get in the shower which I was stoked about. I felt so super dirty even though I had just been laying there for days. The incision is about 3 inches in length. Crazy to think that a surgery could be performed in that small of an opening. This incision is on the left leg, in the front of my body. Right where the crease of your hip bends. 

DAY 3

Today is Saturday. I woke up feeling much better than the night before. I was feeling so good that I moved my loritab an hour back so they were farther spaced. I ended up eating for the first time since the surgery. My mom had bought me some chips to eat on the way home from the hospital but I could not eat any. I tested myself this morning and I was able to eat the bag. This made my momma so proud! I was able to roam around the house more and do a little bit of stretching with my hip. I had everything I needed right around me and I was golden. I still could not let go of my icepack. It had to be full of ice and glued to my hip. I had some bruising show up which was very interesting. The bruise was spotted along my leg and made me look like a cheetah. Today was a great day!

Later on, I felt like I could eat more food so I did. I had my mom warm up my Cafe Rio left overs, of course, and man was it yummy! I apparently was so hungry because I ate about half of the salad. This was a big step for me, I was slowly getting my appetite back. Since I had eaten so much for lunch, I did not eat anything for dinner which I guess was still okay. 

That night I got to finally get out of the house! It was a wonderful adventure. We went to my little brothers baseball game at Desert Hills High School. My mom made sure I had enough clothing on to keep me warm and she also took my blanket to wrap around me as well. I made sure we had my icepack and my loritab that I was suppose to be taking during the game. After we got there and having to crutch my way over to the bleachers (felt like a marathon distance) I was able to sit and enjoy baseball. People around me kept asking if I was okay and what happened, apparently my response to everyone was, "Im on drugs!" I never got cold once, and I was happy to just walk around. The bleachers were too hard to stay seated on. After standing for most of the game, I went and sat back down by my family and watched the game. There was a kid that got hit by a pitch right in the kidney area, thats gotta hurt! I was informed of this later that I had offered the kid my extra loritab that was in my moms pocket because he was in pain. My sister told me that it is illegal to sell it to him, so my response was.. "thats okay, I wouldn't sell it to him, I would just give it to him!" My whole family thought that was pretty funny! A few minutes later I took the loritab because it was time for me to, and had said, "Nevermind, he can't have it anymore, its in my belly!" The funniest part, I guess I was so high on the drugs that I sounded like I was high. My voice was high and I was just super happy!

DAY 2

Due to all of the many liquids in my body from the surgery, I woke up every hour at night to go to the bathroom. I slept in a large lazy boy rocking chair in the family room in front of the TV. With all of the drugs and the nerve block, I could not get out of the chair on my own to go to the bathroom. I had to call my mom each time I woke up so she would come get me out of the chair. Needless to say, she did not get very much sleep that night. 

Once morning rolled around, I was slowly starting to get feeling back into my leg. The nerve block was almost gone by 11 ish in the morning, which was nice. I could now get up and move around a little better because I had more control over my leg. From the way they had to move my muscles out of the way to perform the surgery, I was so sore! It felt as if the doctor had just ripped out my muscles instead. I wanted to cry each time I moved them! That meant, that each time I got up to move around, I would put much more pressure on my right side to keep me up, which in turn just made my right butt cheek very sore as well. All I wanted to do was sit there and sleep. So I did!

I still was not feeling very good and did not get a chance to eat anything before I felt nauseous. I kept taking my pain medicine along with the anti inflammatory medicine even though I had not been eating food with them. I made sure I drank a ton of water since that was the only thing that I could keep down. This went on all day long, making my mother a little worried about me. She made me eat a piece of bread with jam on it, which I ended up choking part of it down. I began to get very very sick! 

Everyone and everything was so loud. My head was screaming at me. My stomach was churning and heaving. I was hot, then I was cold. My hip was throbbing. I just wanted everyone to stop what they were doing and leave me alone. I finally ended up feeling good enough to fall asleep and stayed asleep for a good amount of time. I didn't wake up near as much that night which helped my mom out. 

DAY 1

Check in at 6 am on Thursday morning came to soon. 

My mother and I had to drive up Wednesday night in order to be able to check in on Thursday morning. We stopped in Provo to spend the night at my Aunt and Uncle Edgington's house. Because we weren't able to find out the time of my surgery until Wednesday around 2 pm, it made it difficult for us to fly up and find a hotel that was cheaper than $249 so we drove. I remember being very uncomfortable on the drive up cause I was so nervous with every passing mile. The surgery was going to cost more than we had first initiated, the time was hard for us to get make and finding a place to stay was ridiculous. We ended up just winging it and everything worked out. I arrived and checked into the kiosk at 6 am at the Pioneer Valley Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. We talked to a lady quickly about some of my information and then she walked us down to the surgical wing. I was then taken into the bathroom to get a urine sample. It is very difficult to go to the bathroom when you are so nervous! I then changed into a very large purple gown that was way to big for me and sat in a large chair. I felt like a queen (NOT AT ALL ACTUALLY)!

 From there a lovely lady named Valerie got my IV all set up. Problem was that she got the valve on my left hand so the needle wouldn't go in all the way so she had to switch hands to make it stay. The right hand was a success! :) I had to fill out some paperwork and wait until my room was all prepped and I had met all the guys helping out with my surgery! Dr. Dan Richards performed the surgery, Dr. Chen was my anesthesiologist, and Craig who was the PA. I was wheeled into the surgical room while I was still conscious, and man, it was full of equipment, it was almost intimidating! Soon enough, I started feeling that the room was spinning and I couldn't remember what Dr. Chen had asked me.. Then I was out!

....3.5 HOURS LATER....

I finally woke up! Well I attempted to wake up. I had been under so much anesthesia that it took me a very long time to wake up and gain consciousness! I kept asking the recovery nurse if she was okay and if she wanted to share some of the blanket with me. She asked me if I wanted some juice or water and I told her that my mom wanted some juice even though I hadn't seen my mom since before I left for the surgical room. Needless to say, I was definitely still on the drugs. After that, I became very dizzy and sick to my stomach. They tried to get me to sit up but I couldn't do it. The whole room was spinning and wouldn't stop. This feeling lasted for a very long time. I finally got to get dressed in my own clothes (which the mean red headed nurse made me do all by myself) and take a trip to the bathroom. I ended up throwing up instead. My leg also gave out on me, thank goodness I had a nurse right there with me to catch me. I made it back to my bed and laid there for many more hours. Smells would make me nauseous, too much talking would make me dizzy, and I was just wore out after taking a sip of water. I felt like I was on my death bed.
6 pm rolled around and I attempted to go to the bathroom once again. It took some encouraging but I managed to accomplish the task. I was now able to leave the hospital and head home. Once I got all situated in the car, we headed south back home to St. George. Without fail, we had to make a pit stop every hour to get up and move and take a bathroom break, I had wayy too much liquid in my body! (They pumped me full of 2 large bags of liquid and one small bag of liquid, plus I had drank about 24 oz. of water) Once we hit Cedar City, I was completely miserable. My  mom would not allow me to take any pain medicine because I had not eaten anything, but due to my pain level in Cedar, she made an exception and let me take a loritab with a nausea pill. I ended up going to the bathroom 3 different times in Cedar, which was quite the chore but it wore me out enough that I could sleep in the car for the last hour we had. I was never so excited to see my house! I got home and all settled in and was asleep before anyone could say goodnight!

Surgery!!

**ENJOY! I am on lortab and toradol for the pain and it makes me a little loopy. Sorry if it doesn't make much sense. I will revise later when I can think more clearly**

For those of you who don't know, I was in need of surgery on both of my hips because of my congenital condition and how they were shaped. The head of my femur sat a little too deep in the socket due to extra bone hanging out from the edge and it was rubbing on an area of my femur between the head and the neck that had a little extra bump on it. So with all this extra bone, they were rubbing together and making my labrum (medicine.net quotes "the labrum is a ring of fibrocartilage (fibrous cartilage) around the edge of the articular (joint) surface of a bone.") causing it to inflame and degenerate. Not very fun at all if you ask me! Having this has changed how I do a lot of things. The pain onset the summer of my senior year and being a competitive swimmer, it made things very difficult to overcome. I was in pain constantly and ended up doing 5 months of physical therapy, had multiple x-rays, did acupuncture (actually was pretty neat), took all sorts of calming medications (such as cortisone pills), all during swim season. I finally got an MRI in November of 2011 and none of the doctors here could see anything majorly wrong. My uncle recommended us to a doctor so we called and met with Dr. Dan Richards of Granger Medical in SLC in June of 2012. He is a DO and specializes in hips, so he was perfect for me. We met with him and they looked very hard at my MRI and told me that I needed to get shots in both hips of numbing medication to see how they felt. If the pain went away then that meant I needed surgery, which was the undesired route of healing. I ended up getting the shot in October 2012 and was able to ride a bike for the first time in 3 years, due to the pain before, and I felt so good on there. No PAIN! I went running, which lately I could only run .5 miles (pathetic I know) and there was no pain. We waited a few more months and went to go see Dr. Richards again in December. We discussed many things and it all boiled down to me needing surgery. :/ We decided to schedule the surgery on March 8th 2013. It was a friday and the beginning of spring break so I could relax for a week before returning back to school and work. I ended up getting a call from Dr. Richards office and talked to his nurse assistant saying that my surgery date needed to change because Dr. Richards had a meeting he could not pass up, so I rescheduled my surgery for Thursday, March 7th 2013. And soon the day arrived...

A New Start

The new year is right around the corner and resolutions are going to be set. I am so excited about mine that I think I am going to start right away and make it a way of life. I have been full of positivity lately and I just want to serve other people. I want to write down every day in my planner of something I did for someone else, whether they know me or not. For at least one day a week and maybe later it turns into a few days a week, but I want to write either thank you notes or uplifting cards for strangers. I hope this works! I pray with all my heart that I can touch at least one life a month and hopefully much more. I know this will not be easy, especially with school and work but I know I can do it! It is giving my life a new start and hopefully it is giving someone else the strength they need to make a new start as well. 

-I got my idea from the movie, "The Letter Writer".

The Cleanse!

So me and my dear mother decided to be crazy for a week and do a cleanse. It is called the GM Diet if anyone is interested after hearing about all of this. It goes for 7 days and you have to follow a very strict diet and drink A LOT of water (10 glasses) everyday. The process goes as follows:

Day 1: Only allowed to eat fruits! (No bananas though).

It was a good day at first since you can eat as many fruits as you would like, especially melons. By the end of the day I was starting to get sick of all the sweetness that came from the fruits. I was craving something crunchy and salty, like a cracker! On top of all of that, you have to force yourself to drink much more water then normal so the bathroom became my best friend every half hour.

Day 2: Only raw or cooked Vegetables! (You are allowed a potato for breakfast)

Lets just say I was glad to see this day come, and the potato for breakfast was so delicious! Today wasn't too bad since it wasn't all sweets and the vegetables could be cooked or raw. I got through the day just fine and came up with creative ways to cook up food. I decided to stop drinking water past 8 PM so I could actually get some sleep and not always be running to the bathroom.

Day 3: Fruits and Vegetables :) (No potatoes or bananas)

Today was not very bad since I could mix and match between fruits and vegetables, sweet and salty. I was pretty hungry today tho and went to bed early due to hunger. It was very hard to drink the required amount of water because it was starting to taste very blah, so I have lessened my amount of water intake then what is required.

Day 4: Bananas and Milk. Plus a special soup!

Today was okay, but I lost a sense of cravings today so I was doing okay. I woke up and blended the bananas and milk together with some ice and it was yummy! The soup was actually really good but that could also be the hunger speaking. The soup has no limit but you are only allowed 8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. I did not reach 8 bananas but I got to my 3 glasses of milk. The soup was interesting to make since it was a bunch of random ingredients thrown together but heyy it was good.

Soup recipe: 28 oz, Water, 6 Large Onions, 2 Green Peppers, Whole Tomatoes (fresh or canned), 1 Head Cabbage, 1 Bunch Celery, 4 Envelopes Lipton Onion Soup Mix, Herbs and Flavouring as desired.

Pour it all in and cook it! Unlimited eating and makes a lot of soup.

Day 5: Consume lean meat and tomatoes.

(2 10 oz. portions of meat and increase water up to 4 quarts)

This was the hardest day since meat and tomatoes aren't the yummiest by themselves. Hamburger is okay but lets just say I barely ate anything all day long and went to bed so very hungry.

Day 6: Beef and vegetables. (unlimited amounts of both)

This day was a lot better then the day before. I actually ate some food and got full. I was okay with that. I could definitely tell that I did not fit into any of my clothes anymore. I had lost weight and I liked it.

Day 7: Brown Rice, Fruit Juice, and Vegetables

This was by far my favorite day and I was so happy to be on the last day. :) The brown rice was very good especially with a little bit of salsa (which is veggies) mixed into it. I have never loved fruit juice as much as I did on this day . Good day for sure.

Over all I only lost 5 pounds but I could tell that it was for sure off and not just water weight which was the goal. I could tell my body felt better and I had more energy. I had gotten rid of all of the toxins in my body, or most of them, and I felt great. It was a hard process to go through but I really did enjoy it and after it was all over, I did not want any sweets at all. That was a great feeling! I got offered to go get ice cream and I felt like eating an apple instead. It was definitely good for me to go through and it taught me to eat a lot healthier. I would do this again for sure!

Life's Little Pleasures

Once all the bad times and the negative feelings get the chance to leave, everything seems so amazing! There is positive things all around you, we all just need to open our eyes and look for them. Happiness to me, is the key of life! Nothing will work out or be accomplished to the best of your ability if you have a negative attitude. I decided to change the way I look at things and it truly feels amazing. I have an amazing family, have the gospel in my life, have the opportunity to go to college and choose my own major, be surrounded by the people that I enjoy and love, have unlimited opportunities to do anything I choose, I'm even being more positive about my body and appearance. (as you know, for women, its a little bit more of a difficult thing to be okay with) But I am trying and doing the best I can to look for the positive influences in my life. I can say I wake up every morning and am happy, even if I only got a few hours of sleep, and I CHOOSE to have a great day! I CHOOSE to L.O.V.E this life I have!

What do you choose to do?