MY SURVIVOR DAY ~ 10/5!!!

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. ~ Isaiah 53:5







My son (the lion) at the birthday
party during my week and a half
of so called "Gas"... LOL
I was in so much pain during this party,
but I didn't let this little guy know it.

In case you didn’t know… I almost died on 10/5/11… literally.  After suffering for over a week and a half with what I thought was GAS (LOL)… it was determined that I had a very serious medical problem.  During the week and a half of "gas", I didn't stop from the  pain.  I nursed my hubby after having eye surgery, cleaned the house, donated items to Goodwill, flew to Houston for sorority business, took my son to a birthday party, I even tried to go back to work. At one point I was waiting for my medications to be filled at Walmart and I was crying in pain on the bench.  A perfect stranger asked if she could pray with me.  We sat right there on the pharmacy bench and prayed to God.  She didn’t know me from Adam, but she knew the God she served could meet all of my needs. Ooh Wee... the power of God! 



The morning of the 5^th my sweet hubby got my son dressed and took him to school.  While he was gone… I managed to crawl out of the bed and boot up my laptop.  This is how anal I am folks.  I proceeded to pay ALL OF MY BILLS.  Then I cleaned myself up in the bathroom. Put on fresh undergarments and clothes.  Wrapped my hair and got back in the bed.  Yes… I was doubled over in incredible pain when I did all of this.  Just because I am a medical professional… doesn’t make me smart. LOL!

 

 

My husband came home and rushed me to the ER at Medical City Dallas.  He held my hand and tried not to make me laugh as 2 nurses and 1 paramedic tried and failed to get an IV started on me.  I know am a hard stick, but I was just about to start my own darn IV after all of that.  I remember getting a lot of “GOOD DRUGS” while I was in there.  I guess that IV was good for something. :-)  Pain was a far away concept after a while.  LOL!  We were in the ER all day.  Having test after test and blood draw after blood draw.  I was really starting to lose it.  My personal OB/GYN (Dr. Joseph Carlos) was on-call for the ER. When he heard I was in the ER he rushed to my side.  Dr. Carlos is a awesome man of God and a wonderful doctor.  He actually hummed spiritual songs to me and held my hand as I wept softly during one of my tests.  GOD IS GOOD!



It was finally determined that I needed an exploratory laparotomy procedure because they weren’t quite sure what was wrong.  Dr. Ramon Quinones, another awesome man of God and great surgeon, was the Attending assigned to my case.  He strolled in and I just gazed at him. By this time folks I was higher than a kite on a beautiful windy Spring day, but let me tell you something… this dude right here… looked just like my father. I am not kidding. Even my husband agreed.  When he came closer to me I just had to say something.  I know good and darn well that drugs can take away a lot of your inhibitions (and common sense), but I wanted him to know that through my drug laced haze… I was still sane.  I said “Dr. Quinones… I want you to know that you look a lot like my Dad.  Soooo… when I wake from my anesthesia induced sleep and call you DADDY… just go with it… OK”.  He just laughed.  I don’t think he believed me, but we will come back to this point later.



During the surgery it was determined that I had ruptured my appendix. I also had an abscess the size of a baseball and a small bowel obstruction requiring 6 inches of intestine to be removed.  During my recovery my surgeon showed me pictures of the surgery.  It looked like a bomb went off inside of my body.  I was seriously sick people and remained in the hospital for 2 weeks.  During the 2 weeks they also had to rule out if I had thrown a pulmonary embolus.  WHAT!?!? 





Me... a day before I was released from the hospital
Still a little high, but my smile was slowly coming back... LOL

My husband was great during my convalescence.  He spent every night with me and slept on one of those incredibly uncomfortable fold out hospital couches. He would wake up during the night if I needed anything.  Sweet huh, well it gets sweeter.  He stayed with me all night… then he would wake up, for real, and go to our house… wake up my parents… get my son ready for school… load my parents and my son into the car… drop my son off at school… drop my parents off at the hospital to be with me… then go to work all day… pick up my parents at the end of the day… pick up my son and take them all home… then come back to the hospital to be with me.  He did this the whole time I was in the hospital.
Yep… my Honey Bunny is a keeper folks.

 

 

Some of the well wishes I received
in the hospital

I was so blessed when I was in the hospital. Family, friends, sorors and co-workers came to visit me and called me.  People sent their well wishes and flowers.  My son’s Pre-School teacher even watched him for the first two nights I was in the hospital so my husband could be by my side.  My sister-in-law slept in a hard hospital chair by my bedside so my husband could get some much needed rest. My mom helped me with everything and I mean everything. From getting out of the bed… to using the facilities… to brushing my “girl gone wild” hair.  My sisters called me everyday… it was like they were there rooting for me every step of the way.  The love I felt from my father as he helped me walk in the hospital halls, grinning from ear to ear, was palpable.  One of my previous patients even had his church mission team make me a prayer knot blanket (a prayer is said for each knot tied on the blanket).  The staff at Medical City was great too!  They have truly earned their Magnet status and then some.  I tried not to tell anyone that I was in the medical field when I was there, but it is pretty hard when some of the doctors on your case actually know you.  For instance the Internal Medicine doctor consulted on my case was one of the physicians dedicated to my hospital UR committee that I personally chair.  So much anonymity... LOL.  God lined up a good team of doctors on my case.  I could not have been happier.  There were times I couldn’t stop the tears of joy from streamed down my face.  Know this… God Is Awesome and he knows what he is doing.   

 

 



These are the Coach sunglasses I
purchased to help with
my recovery... LOL!

So I finally got released and went home. My recovery was slow and hard.  There were many times I cried myself to sleep due to the pain.  Depression even tried to creep in and rear it’s ugly head. One of my sisters flew down to be with me and she held my pathetic little hand when I hit rock bottom.  She let me get out all of my tears.  I could not understand why I wasn’t getting better.  She sat on the edge of my bed and talked me down from the ledge I had created for myself.  There were so many times I thought the light at the end of the tunnel was a train coming right at me, but it was only God shinning his light so I knew which direction to find him.   

 

I finally made it to my first follow up appointment with my surgeon.  You know your were pretty sick when the surgeon’s office staff refers to you as the “miracle patient” when they realized which patient you are.  It was determined that the baseball size abscess that God created in my body saved my life.  Most of the “bad stuff” stayed in the abscess… keeping me from going septic.  PRAISE THE LORD! Remember when I told you that the surgeon looked like my Dad.  Well (it wasn’t just the drugs talking)… I was right and the staff thought so too.  The whole team came out to sneak a peak at my Dad.  My surgeon and my Dad could have been 1^st cousins or something.  Dr. Quinones was great and his staff was wonderful.  His head nurse told me that Dr. Q has his entire staff pray for ALL of his patients.
IS THAT NOT INCREDIBLE!!


Well… as you can guess… I finally recovered. To God be the glory.  I have absolutely NO DOUBT that God has a purpose for my life. So I have vowed to celebrate 10/5 as my Survivor Day. It’s incredible how much your perspective on life can change when you ALMOST DIE! I try to live everyday knowing that I have a purpose. 

10/5/13 ~ My pic with Zeus (the Bull Mastiff)
as we prepare to "Walk To End" Alzheimer’s









10/5/13 ~ My family and I took turns breaking open the
geode rock my hubby brought back from Lake Tahoe. 
We found a beautiful mineral treasure inside.



 

10/5/13 ~ 2nd Annual Party in Pink Zumbathon Charity Event
(Breast Cancer Awareness). My pic with the Zumba instructors.

10/5/13 ~ My friends and I got our "Zumba on" for a great cause.
Party In Pink for breast cancer awareness!

 

10/5/13 ~ I ate my "Survivor Day" 
dinner with family at my favorite
restaurant in my town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, 10/5 is a concrete reminder for me that I have the sweet victory that comes with being a child of the King.  The Big Guy upstairs saw fit to keep me around… so I know there is a purpose I am still around.  I even was fortunate enough to attend a church service that “perfect stranger” that prayed for me at Walmart.  Look at God go!!!  When I finished my last half marathon… I had tears in my eyes… thinking about how far God had brought me. This year on 10/5… I rolled out of bed sending praises up to God, I gave back to worthy causes, laughed with my mouth wide open, got my "fitness on", spent quality time with my family, smiled a little brighter, I reached out to love ones and made it a point to LIVE OUT LOUD! My eagle wings soared just a bit higher that day.  Amen & Amen.

Me... after my last half marathon (8/24)
Glory To God!!

Until next time… happy (thankful to be able to) running

~ LR…OMM40:31