Life of the Anxious girl...

Open Heart Surgery    Boy, that is one scary title. Open heart surgery... Open heart surgery. Being 33, just days shy of 34, those are words I had heard, but never prepared for. You read it, you hear about it, you may even know someone who has had it, but it doesn't hit home until its YOUR 11-year-old son.    Hunner was born with a complex heart. One that is near backward and placed incorrectly in his chest. Missing pulmonary vein, a sizeable VSD/ASD. For 10 years, we have waited and watched, we have had countless cardio appointments, procedures, and diagnoses.  It was not until his cardiologist realized that Hunner's ASD had grown from 8mm to 12+mm in a year, that we knew this was not going to go away on its own and as Hunner grows so does the list of issues with his heart.     Vanderbilt. We wait so impatiently for his MRI appointment, counting down the days until August 16th, 2019.  We pack up and head to Nashville for an MR...

Well, its been one day shy of five weeks since surgery, recovery is slow but it's getting better as the days go on. I wanted to write this particular blog to let you know some things I wish I had known before the surgery and about the recovery process and some advice from me that might also help you!  Let's start off with some questions to ask your surgeon: 1. How long is the surgery 2. How long is the hospital stay 3. What should I expect in the coming days? 4. What are the types of surgery offered to me? Da Vinci, Laparoscopic, Abdominal, or vaginal. 5. Can I have my prescriptions filled before my surgery day? 6. How do you plan to expel the extracted organs? 7. How soon can I do normal daily things after surgery? 8. What types of over the counter medications should I expect to need? 9. Will you be gluing, stitching or stapling my incisions. 10. What should I expect in the hours leading up to my surgery? I also suggest you make a list of questions you want to ...

Hysterectomy....boy what a word, scary for most women, but for me its a lifesaving word.     Let's start from the beginning way back in Feb. 2008, one of the best days of my life, but little would I know it would turn into much more than a life-changing decision. On February 6th, 2008, my son, last baby was born via a planned cesarian, also on this day I opted for "permanent" birth control, having my tubes cut tied and burned, a decision that seemed so small, but boy it sure wasn't. That surgery would all to quickly turn out to be one of the worst decisions of my life.    Within days of having the tubal, I knew something was wrong. I passed clots, bled large amounts, and the pain was indescribable. This is something I would deal with off and on for the next 11 years. If there was a test to have done, birth control to take, or a temporary solution we tried it. Some would work for a few months, some weeks, some not at all. Eleven years I spent feeling l...