A Gift Of A New Beginning

December 1st and we are at the beginning of the giving season. Walmart ads everywhere you look, charities that come calling, it's enough to drive you crazy! Fortunately, I believe the best gifts aren't the material ones, but ones that can change a life, be it yours or someone else's.

I was given such a gift about a month ago and it came straight from God! Granted, it came rather harshly but God knows sometimes I need that harshness to get my attention. I am talking about my recent surgery and how it gave me a major "do over".

Friday night, about a month ago, I was driving home from work. Although it was the start of a weekend, I wasn't happy. I was feeling very burned out and overwhelmed. I wasn't happy with my job, I was gaining, not losing weight and I was wondering if school and working full-time was really the route I should be going. I wasn't sure nursing is for me. I felt bored, frustrated and didn't know what to do! Little did I know that 48 hours later I would be in the ICU, facing emergency surgery.

As it turned out, the surgery cured the problems I had with my digestive system and I came home 12 pounds lighter. The hospital stay gave me a new-found appreciation for nursing given the amazing care they all provided me. My 3 week recovery and the boredom I had at home made me grateful to have a job to go to. I even have a do over for school as I had to drop out this semester but was able to get my classes at a campus 1/2 mile from my office starting in Spring.

I do feel I have a new lease on life. I was forced to stop and take a step back, look at my life and see that it isn't so bad. I am grateful for my blessings and consider the surgery one of them. It is amazing when you look back and see that God used something so scary for something good. It's awesome! Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

A Gift Of A New Beginning

December 1st and we are at the beginning of the giving season. Walmart ads everywhere you look, charities that come calling, it's enough to drive you crazy! Fortunately, I believe the best gifts aren't the material ones, but ones that can change a life, be it yours or someone else's.

I was given such a gift about a month ago and it came straight from God! Granted, it came rather harshly but God knows sometimes I need that harshness to get my attention. I am talking about my recent surgery and how it gave me a major "do over".

Friday night, about a month ago, I was driving home from work. Although it was the start of a weekend, I wasn't happy. I was feeling very burned out and overwhelmed. I wasn't happy with my job, I was gaining, not losing weight and I was wondering if school and working full-time was really the route I should be going. I wasn't sure nursing is for me. I felt bored, frustrated and didn't know what to do! Little did I know that 48 hours later I would be in the ICU, facing emergency surgery.

As it turned out, the surgery cured the problems I had with my digestive system and I came home 12 pounds lighter. The hospital stay gave me a new-found appreciation for nursing given the amazing care they all provided me. My 3 week recovery and the boredom I had at home made me grateful to have a job to go to. I even have a do over for school as I had to drop out this semester but was able to get my classes at a campus 1/2 mile from my office starting in Spring.

I do feel I have a new lease on life. I was forced to stop and take a step back, look at my life and see that it isn't so bad. I am grateful for my blessings and consider the surgery one of them. It is amazing when you look back and see that God used something so scary for something good. It's awesome! Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Giving Thanks

Things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving:

1) Having a job
2) Having a comfortable place to live, food on the table and clothes to wear
3) Friends that are forgiving, kind and loving
4) My family
5) The awesome fur children in my life: Beanie, Thor, Theo, Brunswick! I am grateful for their unconditional love and the humor they bring to my life
6) Living in L.A., where it is 80 degrees and gloriously sunny on November 26th
7) A new Bon Jovi album and their upcoming tour (NYC...May....YIPEE)
8) The amazing doctors and nurses at Northridge Hospital that assisted in my surgery and recovery. They are doing amazing work in sometimes difficult circumstances.
9) The wonderful care the nurses gave me reinforcing my desire to go into nursing.
10) The 12 pounds I lost after surgery and my renewed desire to keep it off and to take of the remaining 80.
11) TiVo, XM Radio, the IPod and my Blackberry. I am a techno geek and love gadgets!
12) My lack of desire to be at Old Navy tomorrow at 3AM, WalMart at 6AM or anywhere near a mall all weekend!
13) Coffee Bean
14) Getting my classes for Spring Semester and my love of going to school
15) Our selfless men and women in uniform and the freedom their sacrifices afford all Americans.
16) The Butterball hotline. I don't cook....never called it....but I am grateful it exists in case I ever need to roast a turkey.
17) That our house isn't in danger of being burned to the ground by someone deep fat frying a turkey. We are eating out this year.
18) The Food Network. I'm grateful for Alton Brown showing me the science being food, Guy Fieri showing me the best Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Paula Deen showing that butter isn't something to be feared.
19) My friends and I making it to the end of an insanely wild year with our sanity relatively intact
20) Humor. It will get you through any situation

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Giving Thanks

Things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving:

1) Having a job
2) Having a comfortable place to live, food on the table and clothes to wear
3) Friends that are forgiving, kind and loving
4) My family
5) The awesome fur children in my life: Beanie, Thor, Theo, Brunswick! I am grateful for their unconditional love and the humor they bring to my life
6) Living in L.A., where it is 80 degrees and gloriously sunny on November 26th
7) A new Bon Jovi album and their upcoming tour (NYC...May....YIPEE)
8) The amazing doctors and nurses at Northridge Hospital that assisted in my surgery and recovery. They are doing amazing work in sometimes difficult circumstances.
9) The wonderful care the nurses gave me reinforcing my desire to go into nursing.
10) The 12 pounds I lost after surgery and my renewed desire to keep it off and to take of the remaining 80.
11) TiVo, XM Radio, the IPod and my Blackberry. I am a techno geek and love gadgets!
12) My lack of desire to be at Old Navy tomorrow at 3AM, WalMart at 6AM or anywhere near a mall all weekend!
13) Coffee Bean
14) Getting my classes for Spring Semester and my love of going to school
15) Our selfless men and women in uniform and the freedom their sacrifices afford all Americans.
16) The Butterball hotline. I don't cook....never called it....but I am grateful it exists in case I ever need to roast a turkey.
17) That our house isn't in danger of being burned to the ground by someone deep fat frying a turkey. We are eating out this year.
18) The Food Network. I'm grateful for Alton Brown showing me the science being food, Guy Fieri showing me the best Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Paula Deen showing that butter isn't something to be feared.
19) My friends and I making it to the end of an insanely wild year with our sanity relatively intact
20) Humor. It will get you through any situation

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Friends Are Family

I don't have a problem being single. I totally buy into the idea of being able to do what I want, when I want. What scares me about living life single became glaringly apparent after my recent health scare: when you are single, who takes care of you when you are sick or when you get old?

The truth is that when you are single, your friends become your family! The good friends step up and take care of things when you can't. Thank God I am blessed with some wonderful friends. Val, who took me to the hospital, had the presence of mind to remember what hospital contracted with my insurance and sat with me in the ER. Selena, Robert and Shannon, who came to visit and comforted me with pictures, books and just their presence. In return, I entertained them with incoherant, morphine induced mumblings and ramblings. Terri, who checked in and prayed for me! There are many others who left wonderful get well messages on Facebook. I am grateful for all of them! Their love and support helped greatly!

So when I get scared of being alone and sick, I think of the wonderful friends that helped me recover and know that if the tables are ever turned I would do the same for them. Just like family. Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Friends Are Family

I don't have a problem being single. I totally buy into the idea of being able to do what I want, when I want. What scares me about living life single became glaringly apparent after my recent health scare: when you are single, who takes care of you when you are sick or when you get old?

The truth is that when you are single, your friends become your family! The good friends step up and take care of things when you can't. Thank God I am blessed with some wonderful friends. Val, who took me to the hospital, had the presence of mind to remember what hospital contracted with my insurance and sat with me in the ER. Selena, Robert and Shannon, who came to visit and comforted me with pictures, books and just their presence. In return, I entertained them with incoherant, morphine induced mumblings and ramblings. Terri, who checked in and prayed for me! There are many others who left wonderful get well messages on Facebook. I am grateful for all of them! Their love and support helped greatly!

So when I get scared of being alone and sick, I think of the wonderful friends that helped me recover and know that if the tables are ever turned I would do the same for them. Just like family. Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Surprise!

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. Oh boy, did I live this addage two weeks ago! I left work planning to spend the weekend studying for my mid-term. 24 hours later I was in the ICU at Northridge Hospital, dehydrated, borderline septic and looking at emergency surgery to fix a diaphragmatic hernia. What?? I am someone who never goes to the doctor. I am remarkably healthy, but it is God given and not because I am acting responsible for my health. Needless to say, I have never been to the ER.

I hadn't been feeling well and thought it was the overly spicy burrito I had eaten at midnight. The diagnosis at Urgent Care was gas. A $40 prescription for Previcid didn't help because 12 hours later I still felt crappy. Sunday afternoon, as my roommate and I were discussing whether or not to spent the $100 copay and go to the ER, I felt a searing pain shoot across my body and up my left shoulder. It felt like someone was slicing me open with a burning hot knife. I broke out instantly in a cold sweat and the question was answered. We were off to the ER.

The average wait in a L.A. County ER is 4 hours. I knew I was seriously in trouble when I got in after 45 minutes. I was severely dehydrated and had a very high white count. Luckily for me, I was busy concentrating on breathing through the pain otherwise I probably would have been terrified. I was just happy to be out of the misery that is the ER waiting room and on the way to having the problem solved. After a CT Scan, X-Rays and an Ultrasound, the culpret was found: I was born with a hole in my diaphragm and my bowel, stomach and intestines had moved up through the hole causing it to tear right behind my heart. The great thing is that once they knew what the problem was, I got drugs....good ones...morphine...wahoo! Relief!

I had surgery the next morning. I remember being woke up, wheeled into the surgery room and then waking up in recovery. The surgery was a success. They tried to do it laproscopicly but got in and found the hole was too big so I was opened up all the way. (I have a lovely scar that runs from the top of my chest to my belly button, no bikini in my future). They put a mesh wiring over the hole and pulled everything back down where it is supposed to be. I even have a DVD of the aborted laproscopic attempt! Cool!

The next 3 days were spent in the monitored care unit. I was hooked up to the heart monitor, catheter, IV and oxygen! This was the real deal. The day of surgery I slept. I remember 5-10 minutes of Gossip Girl but that is it. On my second day I was sitting in a chair and walking with the nurse without a walker. I only went a few doors down but by the time the physical therapy staff came, I could do two laps around the unit with the walker. This is probably why when Selena, Robert and Shannon came to visit, I could barely stay awake. Well...the walk and the morphine! On the third day, more sitting and walking and less morphine. Fourth day, doc came in and asked how I felt about going home! I said great! He said my progress was remarkable but there was no real reason for me to stay. Fine with me! I was home to watch Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night and actually stayed awake to see it.

Recovery is a work in progress. I feel less and less pain every day and last night I was actually able to sleep without a Tylenol PM! I can bend over but still am not supposed to lift anything. I am back to work next week and I am actually looking forward to it. Cabin Fever assists you in appreciating having somewhere to go everyday!


It has been two weeks...just two weeks... but I am feeling better and better every day. I am grateful for my health and will take a more active role in maintaining it! Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.