Recovery: Day 1

In retrospect, last night was pretty good. Linley did have some ups and downs as you would expect.

On the up side, she did get some much needed rest. The nurses were also very nice and helpful. They were very attentive and really helped the experience be more positive. I stayed there with her and was glad to see her be able to recuperate some. It was also nice to have a good visit from Dr. Gaufin this morning. He has been very forthright and very helpful to spend whatever time we need to answer questions. She did take a walk up the hall this morning and stood up on her own so that was good too.

On the down side, she did throw up 3 times between last night and this morning. I guess that's not too abnormal considering the anesthesia, but it was hard to see her throwing up, knowing how that must feel to her tender back. She also has been dealing with a lot of pain. They gave her some stronger stuff than the morphine they had her on this morning. That has seemed to help her.

Anyway, I'm not much of a blogger but I wanted you to know how she is doing. Plus it's a good excuse to post this picture on here when she can't do anything about it...he he he.

It's Been an Interesting Day...And It's Not Over Yet

Updated below...

Hi guys,

So I've never posted on a blog before but I told Linley I'd update her blog once everything was through with her surgery. I can't exactly do that yet, but I did want to write something for now.

This morning we came to the hospital (as instructed) at 10:00. We got through all of the pre-op stuff pretty quickly. Then we sat, and sat, and sat...for over 5 hours! Neither of us could believe it. Anyway, it was ultimately just over a 6 hour wait before she got into surgery. It's now 6:45 p.m. So, I thought I should at least write something. She has been in surgery for almost 3 hours now. I talked to the operating room nurse for an update a little while ago and they said to expect at least another hour in surgery, then 45 min to an hour for time in the recovery room. Needless to say, I know the inside of the pre-op area and the surgery waiting room pretty well by now.

I'll update this post a little later once I know more. But before I sign off for now...let me just say THANK YOU! to all of you for your overwhelming support and outpouring of love. We really appreciate your friendship.

See you a little later.

UPDATE: I just talked to the doctor and the results were somewhat mixed for me. First, he did say that she is in really good physical shape and her bones were in great shape. I guess her spine is a little different story. She was originally classified as a grade 1 (25% vertebrae slip) but he is saying she is actually closer to a grade 2 (50%). So, because of this and because of some cysts he found in the nerve canal on the vertebrae above the ones he was originally fusing, he actually had to do a two-level fusion. I'm not exactly sure what that means in terms of extended recovery time or other implications. But for now, I'm just happy that she made it through it ok. The surgery ended up taking almost 4 hours and it was a little nerve wracking for me. But I'm glad she made it through the procedure. I'll let you know when I know more tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the big day…

Well I’m not sick so let’s keep our fingers crossed that it will stay that way.  I’m scheduled for my surgery at 10:00 tomorrow (Tuesday).  Austin is going to keep my blog up to date with how everything went.  He said he was going to take pictures of me in the hospital so get ready for some sweet pics of me without make-up :)  Anyway, I guess by tomorrow afternoon this will all be over with!

BYU duck pond

On Saturday I thought it would be fun to take Kylie to feed the ducks.  There were several children that morning that had the same idea, so the ducks weren’t really interested in the bread.  I have a feeling those ducks are really well fed :)  Anyway, Kylie had fun throwing the bread to the ducks and also chasing after them.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Hogle Zoo

Yesterday my friend Jessica invited me to go to the zoo with her and her son Nico.  Of course I said yes, who doesn’t like going to the zoo!  It was a nice day out and the kids loved the animals.  I’m not sure which animal Kylie liked the best… I’m thinking the monkeys.  Anyway, it was such a fun day.  Oh, by the way, does anyone know an easier way to get to the zoo?  The instructions I printed off of mapquest got us lost.  Anyway, here are some pictures.

Kylie in the middle of saying “whoa” while looking at the monkeys

Kylie and Nico

Jessica and Nico

FHE in the park

For FHE last night, I thought it would be fun to take Kylie to the park.  This is the first time she has been old enough to really appreciate it :)  She had such a blast sliding down the slides.  I think she could have gone down them all night :)  She also got a kick out of swinging with me.  When I put her in her own swing, she liked it for about a minute and then she looked totally bored.  Anyway, we took almost 200 pics from that night (got to love digital cameras) and came home with some really good shots from our fun night out.

Date night

Austin and I got to go out on a date last night, thanks to Damian and Jenelle who offered to watch Kylie.  We haven’t been on a date in a really long time, so it was nice just to go somewhere together.  We ate at Iggy’s for the first time and it was really good.  Then we went to the movies and watched Coraline.

I’ve wanted to see this movie for a while now.  It was in 3D and I must say, it was really good.  I like weird movies like that.  Nightmare Before Christmas is probably one of my all time favorites.  Anyway, it was really good.  I kept my 3D glasses and had Kylie sport them this morning.  What do you think?  I think she looks pretty cute :)

My little princess.  She is growing up way too fast.  She is such a smart little booger.  Her all time favorite thing for me to do is play flash cards with her.  She has over 100 cards that have different objects on them like an apple or a rabbit.  I lay about 10 cards down at a time and say, “Where’s the apple?” and she’ll point to it.  She knows all of them.  She has knows how to do 13 different animal noises.  I’ll try to upload a video I took of her this morning doing her animal noises, it was so cute.  She also LOVES watching SpongeBob Squarepants.  She could probably watch it all day long.  Well, I guess I should go do something while Kylie is asleep.  Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week!

So maybe this was a blessing in disguise

Hey guys. So I was pretty bitter the other day when I found out I couldn't have my surgery. But after thinking about it, there was a reason I wasn't suppose to have it that day. I just think that it's funny how I had 101 degree temperature the morning of my surgery and then that night my fever broke and the next day I was fine. It really sucks that I have to wait 2 more weeks before I can have the surgery, but here are the reasons why thats ok: my mom got to spend 5 days with us this time and then she is coming back out and spending 2 more weeks with us, I get to play and hang out with my little girl for a little bit longer, I get to work on a quilt I've been dying to do, I get to bend over for 2 more weeks :), and I can run for 2 more weeks. I know there were some other things but I can't remember them right now. So anyway, enough about that. I had such a good time with my mom while she was here. We got to go shopping and eat out and on Saturday we went to Park City and shopped some more :) I think Austin probably wishes I were in the hospital right now because I spent a lot of money that day. :) My mom had such a blast with Kylie and Kylie just loves her to death. We went on a quick walk on Sunday down by Utah Lake before my mom's plane left. Here is a quick slide show.

View Album

Get your own

Anyway, I'm going to once again live up my last few weeks of freedom. See ya later!

Why me???

I'm not getting surgery today. I got a fever yesterday and it never went away so I have to reschedule it to March 24th. I'm not really sure what else to say....I think it may be awhile before I stop crying and asking why is this happening to me, but deep inside I know this happened for a reason even if I'm not quite sure what that reason is. Anyway, looks like 2 more weeks of obsessing about this...

One more day....

So today I went and got my blood work done for my surgery tomorrow. For me that was the hardest part! For those of you who knew me in my college days, you must be thinking, "What!" I used to give plasma twice a week for 3 years and didn't mind at all. Now I think my veins are screwed up from it because whenever I have to get my blood drawn they end up fishing around or having to stick me multiple times. But today was my lucky day because the lady got it on the first try. So anyway, she told me that I was first priority tomorrow and that I would probably be getting it done at 5:30 in the morning. I was excited because then I would still be half asleep. She said the only thing to change that time was if they had to do a brain surgery. Well guess what...they must have had to do one of those because they bumped me to 11:30. So anyway, tomorrow at 11:30 I will be getting a new spine! Well, at least a small part of my back will be new. I went shopping with my mom afterwards and I started to feel really crappy. My head was killing me, my nose started running, and I thought I was running a fever. I haven't had a fever in 2 years. I started to feel better this afternoon, but now I'm not feeling so hot. I really hope I am better tomorrow because I know they won't do surgery if you have a fever. I do not want to push this surgery back! Anyway, I will try and remember to ask Austin to update my blog after he finds out how I did in surgery. Well, I hope everything goes well....

My sweet husband

I love my husband. He’s just the best :) On Saturday he told me that since this was my last Saturday before my back surgery, I could do whatever I wanted. So I decided to go to the mall, go tanning, get my hair cut, and go to Golden Coral. Kind of felt like I was fulfilling my last dying wishes… JK I’m going to be just fine on Thursday. Anyway, I had a great day. I went tanning and fried my face off (but it felt sooo good) :) I went to Fantastic Sams and at first I was going to just get a trim and highlights, but then I decided that I wanted to do something different for a change. I have been wanting an “A line” haircut for quite some time, but was always too chicken to do it. The last time my hair was this short, I cried for like 2 weeks. It was one of those horrific experiences where I told my hair dresser that I wanted my hair cut to my shoulders, but she kept chopping till my chin. It looked awful. But that was 10 years ago and I decided I should probably get over it and try it again. I love it you guys! I finally feel like I’ve gotten to that “mom stage” where you end up cutting your hair short. After my hair cut we ate at Golden Coral. It seriously felt like a coral, there were people EVERYWHERE! It was crazy in there, but I still loved it. Plus we celebrated Jordans birthday that night, so I got to eat yummy cake. All in all, it was a great day. I’m going to be glad when this surgery is over so I can stop thinking about it.

My mom is coming tomorrow night!!! Yeah! I’m so excited that she will be here for 2 weeks. Well, enjoy the pics of my little Kylie bug :)