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!