No Vacancy!

We have always been extremely gracious hosts. I learned early on in my life that having an open door policy with those you are close to is an important part of life; open communication, open home, open kitchen, what have you... We (Luke and I) have always allowed our friends and family to use anything we have as needed, to stay with us without expecting anything except a thank you, to eat, drink and hang out at our home without bringing anything. 

We love each and every one of our friends and family members. But the more gracious we are the more we end up getting burned. 

We opened our doors to some of my dad's friends, they flew up and stayed with us, ate our food, used my dad's vehicle. My dad paid to fly them on a float plane and have a guided fishing trip, paid to take them out of Seward to go ocean fishing. AND WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN? After limiting out on Halibut, almost limiting on Ling Cod (which most Alaskans know is pretty hard to do) and catching 2 kings, some silvers and a black bass.... They took ALMOST ALL THE FISH..... Without a second thought, without pitching in for the trips.

When asked about it they played it off that, "you guys have tons of stuff in the freezer, you guys get to fish all the time"

Who can go out on a charter ALL the time?!?! Not us, we were lucky to go out in 2008 and this last weekend. That is FIVE years.... 

It completely pisses me off that someone would do something like that and then just brush it off like they did NOTHING wrong, not ASK about the fish and then tell ME that I don't need it! 

Needless to say our "open door" policy will be revised, which makes me really sad but obviously people these days are more selfish then we are and will take advantage of getting to experience Alaska in its full glory. 

Appendectomy

Nothing sucks worse then being sick as a parent. Not being able to give your child the proper attention and care is always worse then what you are even feeling, except yesterday. I woke up not feeling too good, decided maybe because we had an early and light dinner the night before I was just really hungry. Made breakfast for Ford and I, still wasn't feeling very hot... A few hours later (now around 10:30 or 11am) I started feeling REALLY bad. I text Luke at work and asked him to come home as early as possible. Laid down on the couch and couldn't even get back up by this point the pain was worse then anything I had felt during labor (and my epidural was given really late in the game so I am pretty sure I experienced most of the labor process for myself without intervention). Luke got home around 2:30 after Ford has tried to climb on me and I burst into tears, which isn't normal for me. I walked into my knee surgery, walked to my labor room, I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance for "being a woman"... My dad got home a few minutes later and said, "here is my appendix scar" ... Of course that is exactly where my pain was radiating from so we decided that the ER was the best option. 

We got to the ER around 4, only took a few minutes to check in. Obviously being female they wanted to rule out ectopic pregnancy or a problem with my uterus so I had a urine, blood and Pap test done.... Urine and pap came back normal. Blood showed elevated white counts but nothing crazy so because of my pain area and that we did a CT scan. The contrast isn't too bad going down, I didn't think it was great but it wasn't horrible. Had to wait 90 minutes for the scan, as soon as I got the contrast in my IV during the scan I projectile vomited EVERYWHERE. I felt so bad as the radiation tech had to strip me down and basically sponge bath me.... But at least she didn't have to clean up the CT machine! We waited for results, of course I puked at the worst possible second of the scan BUT they could clearly see a calcification in the area and swelling/some infection. So the surgeon on call was asked to come in to look at the scan and chat with me. We decided there was no reason for a second scan and that regardless of continued observation I would need surgery so just to, "get er done". 

It was about an hour and then the pre-op crew came in, drugged me up and took me to surgery. I remember moving onto the table, talking to the anesthesiologist and then nothing until I was shivering like CRAZY... Then I remember waking up to the nicest male RN and of course feeling very woozy, etc etc. took a while but by the time I got up to my room for the night I felt okay. Especially after the IV pain medication and some fluids. Finally being able to drink water was AMAZING!

Luke stayed with me for about an hour then I told him to go home. He wanted to take me with but I had to wait until I could get IV antibiotics this morning and they wanted to make sure I was eating without issues too. Luke went home about 1 and I got to sleep on/off from about 2 to 6. Probably got around 2.5-3 hours of sleep total. At 6 I got vitals done, got to eat some crackers and take an oral paid med to make sure I could keep it down. At 8 I it breakfast, got more vitals and the surgeon came in not long after so that he could check me out. Said things looked good and I could go home in a few hours. Of course it takes a while to check out BUT by the time Luke and Ford arrived it was only like 30 minutes we had to wait until we could leave. 

It's nice to be home and I'm glad my appendix didn't rupture because if it had I would be in the hospital for 4-7 days. Less then 24 hours is much better, I also felt almost immediately better, unlike if I had bacteria in my abdominal cavity. 

I am so thankful that God blessed me with a knowledgeable hospital staff, that was fast working and not overly fussy about doing a bunch of unnecessary things... That he blessed me with a fast and easy surgery and hospital stay AND that he has blessed me with a great family who is taking over most of Ford's care without being asked too. Some people wouldn't say a surgery is a blessing but I know God has his reasons for things so I will just take the healing day by day and see what his plans for me are :)