Speaking Too Soon

So in my last post I made comments about how life was moving slowly for me, with not a lot going on. You will probably not catch me saying anything like that again, because I have learned my lesson! After making those comments, life did a little flip-flop for me very quickly - the very next day actually!!! Here's what happened:

On Thursday, October 9, I was getting into bed at about 9:15. As soon as I crawled in and pulled the covers up, I started getting this stomach pain. I have felt this particular pain twice in the last few months, and recognized it immediately. It is not normal stomach pain, and it's kind of hard to explain - the best way I can put it is that it is the WORST pain I have ever felt in my entire life. I've been through appendicitis, three jaw surgeries, two knee surgeries and much more - and they don't even compare to the pain that I felt!! Well, the last two times that I had felt this pain before, the pain subsided within thirty minutes to an hour. So as soon as I realized that it was this certain pain again, I checked the clock so that I would know how much longer I was going to have to deal with the agony.

By 10:15, I realized that the hour had come and gone, and I had not felt ANY relief. I was in tears, crying because the pain hurt so badly. By the way, when I'm in a lot of pain, stomach pain in particular, it is very hard for me to sit still. I constantly shift into different positions, hoping one hurts less than the other, and I'm constantly moving my legs and feet - I think this is my way of trying to get my mind off the pain by thinking about moving my legs and feet instead. So when my husband decided to come to bed, I knew that I would need to relocate myself, otherwise my constant moving was going to keep him awake. So I got up and moved to the sofa and tried to curl up with my favorite blanket and make it all go away. Well, instead, I found myself running to the bathroom to throw up, which I hoped would help me feel better because I was beginning to get very nauseous. Unfortunately, it didn't help at all. I continued to be in pain, in tears and throwing up for the next few hours.

By 1:30am, my husband was sound asleep and I was still on the couch, rolling and writhing in pain. I had already looked up my symptoms on the Internet to see if there was something seriously wrong with me, and webmd.com was not much help. I tried watching TV and reading...completely impossible when you can't sit still and all your brain can think about is PAIN!! So I decided to look in the phone book to see if 24-hour clinics existed. I was in no mood to sit in the emergency room all night, but when I found that a 24-hour clinic IS the emergency room, I called the closest hospital in hopes of getting some medical advice. They wouldn't give me any medical advice over the phone, but told me they had just cleared out the waiting room and now would be a good time to come in.

After contemplating what to do and waking my husband up to get his advice, we were stuck trying to make a decision. I quickly ran to the bathroom to throw up one last time, and that was the deciding factor in what to do next. So, off we went to the ER at 2:00am.

The nurse on the phone was right - the waiting room was clear and I went straight back to a room. Within about an hour, I had seen a doctor who decided to do an ultra-sound on my abdomen. It didn't take long for him to see at least three stones around my gall bladder. Great. I had gallstones. Feeling somewhat relieved that I had not drug my husband out of bed and to the ER in the middle of the night for something as silly as gas, we then began to realize that this was something serious and not to be taken lightly. The doctor said the first order of business was to get my pain under control, start me on an IV and medicine and then wait for the surgeon to come in first thing in the morning. Morphine became my best friend, and my nurse who administered it to me heard "I love you!" from me all night/morning!! haha :)

At about 5:30am, I went ahead and called in to work to let them know I would not be there, and there was a chance I would be having my gall bladder removed that day. I guess somewhere around 7-8am, I was taken to have another ultrasound done, I guess to see if the stones had moved at all. Of course, they were still there and appeared to possibly be lodged somewhere, which was keeping me from passing them. Shortly after, the surgeon came in to give us our options - surgery today, or go home with some pain medicine and antibiotics over the weekend, and come back to be re-checked on Monday and possibly remove the gall bladder then. There was no way in the world I was going home for a few days to deal with the pain without my morphine, and we made the decision to go ahead and proceed with the surgery that day. I mean, why not? We were already there and it didn't look like we were leaving any time soon!

So we waited and waited for the surgeon to finish his already scheduled cases, and they took me into a private room at around 1:30pm. By 2:00pm, they were moving me to the holding room and prepping me for surgery. The surgery went fine, with the only concern being that it didn't look like things were flowing through my digestive tract like they should be. So with this in mind, along with the fact that my Billy Ruben and liver levels were too high, they decided to keep me overnight for observation. They said typically the levels go back down to normal after the gall bladder is taken out, but we would need to wait and have more blood tests done the next morning to make sure.

Some time after noon on Saturday, the doctor came in and gave us the unfortunate news that instead of my levels going down, they went UP instead. I was staying there at least another night for more observation, and they would do the blood tests again the next day. I have to admit, I started kinda freaking out at this point, wondering if something more serious was wrong with me. But talk about being disappointed!! We had already had to cancel our plans to visit friends in Tennessee, and now they were telling me that I was to spend my entire weekend in that hospital room. Bummer.

Sunday morning finally rolled around, and after having my blood taken AGAIN, the doctor came in around lunch time and told me I was fine to go home!!! I was so excited and so was my hubby! We ended up leaving around 2:00pm on Sunday, which means we spent almost exactly 60 hours in that hospital. I was so ready to get all those tubes and needles taken out of me and get home and take a shower!!

I took the next two days off from work and stayed at home recovering. I was very sore and could not walk very well or stand up straight at all. I am almost 100% now, and my incisions are almost completely healed. I have my post-op checkup tomorrow so hopefully that will be the end of my gall bladder saga.

So, for future reference, next time it seems as if your life is moving slowly - be thankful!! I've always been told that no news is good news. In my case, no action in my life was good news!! Like I said, you probably won't hear me "complaining" or commenting on my slow moving life again...I learned my lesson!!!

So Behind....

Seriously, I have to get my booty in gear with this blog thing. I have no idea why it just continues to slip my mind!! Maybe because my life is going a little slow these days, with not a lot of action to report on!!! The most action my life is seeing right now is Alabama football!! Truth be told, that's about all I need :)

We have spent the last couple of weeks just taking it easy (a.k.a. watching football). The last couple of weekends we have either had family/friends over to watch the games, or we have simply stayed in being couch potatoes!! Two weekends ago we had a great brunch with some good friends and his family, which was awesome because it was the first time we had met this side of his family!!

Alabama football this year has become a major big deal, as we are now ranked #2 in the nation! I personally do not like the rankings, and wish there was a way to not even know what we are ranked. I mean, in the long run, what do rankings mean? Our first game we played a high ranked team, and they are no longer even ranked. Not to mention, we are only halfway through the season, with a lot of big games to play!! There is no telling what can happen b/w now and the end of our season. All I can do is hope and pray that our boys stay healthy and we continue to win like we've been doing! It's so fun and exciting to see our team "back" again! It's been a while, and I honestly didn't think it would happen this soon, but it has been a pleasant surprise this year! Justin and I are HUGE Nick Saban fans (how can you not be?!!), and it's awesome to see what he has done with our team in just two years. I can't imagine what we'll be like in another two years! It's a little nerve-racking to hear talks of going to the National Championship game, and I think it's a bit too early to even be throwing that thought around....but since it's out there, it's nice to wonder what it would be like to win! Kinda makes me wonder...should I be scheduling a trip to Florida right now?!! Who knows....all I can say is ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!

My mom has been sick for about a week now - she has been running a fever and has a whooping cough. She went to the doctor today and I'm anxious to hear back from her...I can't help but be worried that she might have pneumonia. Although it seems a lot of people are getting sick lately, I have been feeling okay, just trying to exercise like I should be doing according to my heart doctor! She is always on my case about my lack of exercise, and I'm really trying to work on that, as well as my diet. My diet is full of sugar (can't help it...it's my weakness) and I'm working on cutting that out completely. Or at least cutting down some!!

I do have some GREAT news about my friend Nikki............she ELOPED!!!! Yep, even though she has been planning for a June 2009 wedding, her and her fiance decided against prolonging their marriage and decided why wait?!! So on her birthday, they married at a chapel in front of family, and they are planning to have a reception for friends in June. I am so happy for her and the decision they made. I think it was such a good idea, and now they can enjoy an even longer marriage together!!

I guess that about wraps it up for now!! We are going to visit our good friends in Tennessee this weekend, and I am really looking forward to the trip! I love her kids and we always have the best time visiting them. Thoughts and prayers for safe travels are always welcome!! Please continue to keep Nikki in your prayers....she is responding well to her chemo treatment, but still has a while to go. As always, thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great week and weekend!!!!

ROLL TIDE!

This Time Last Month...

I seriously cannot believe that it has been a month since I posted my last blog!! I have really been slacking at my internet usage lately...I haven't been reading any blogs, posted anything, checking my daily websites or anything! I honestly don't know why though!!

The last month has been great though, I have no complaints. We have gone to the last two Bama games in Tuscaloosa, but unfortunately did not have tickets to the game in Atlanta against Clemson. I'm not sure if we will be able to go to anymore home games this year due to some weekend conflicts that came up in October. I guess it worked out better for us that the majority of our BIG games are away this year! Last weekend we went down to T-Town Friday night to spend the night with some college friends we haven't seen in a while, and we had a great time! Even though it's only an hour away, it sometimes gets hard to find the time to make the trip for a visit, but I wish we did it more often. This weekend we will do some kid-sitting for our cousin on Friday night, then watch football ALL day on Saturday!! It should be a great day for football with all the good games this weekend! (GEAUX TIGERS!!)

Work is still going great....I usually have about one phone call a day that could potentially put me in the worst mood ever and really upset me, but I have learned to laugh it off and not worry about it. Some of the things we hear on the phone is so absurd that I can't help but laugh at these people! Ah the pleasure of having a job :)

Well, that's all for me right now....not too much to update on. My friend Nikki is continuing to respond well to the chemo, which is great news! I also got an update on Baby Esmerlada, which actually turned out to be Baby Dulce...we're still not sure where the confusion came from! They were able to find a doctor in Mexico that would do her surgeries, so her family does not have to deal with the stress of getting all of the proper papers and visas to come to the U.S. Please keep her and her family in your prayers!! I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend! ROLL TIDE and Go LSU!!!

A Miracle in the Making

First off, I want to thank everyone who has been praying for the Glaub family. I know they will continue to need your prayers for a long time.

Second, I want to tell you all what an amazing person my former boss is. She is truly inspiring. She ("T") has an amazing gift of helping people, and the story I am about to post is an awesome example of how God has used her to potentially save the life of a child. Please be aware that the pictures below are graphic:











T has a friend who is originally from the Birmingham area, but moved with her family to become missionaries in Mexico. She recently wrote about a 4 month old baby girl named Esmerlada Domingues de Luna. This little girl is in serious need of our prayers. Her friend wrote this:

"They need money or someone who can do the surgery to fix her mouth. As I was watching her mother feed her, the very first thing she did was to put a plate in her mouth so that she could take her bottle. If she doesn't get the surgery I do not know how long she will make it. imagine growing up in poverty and still be disfigured for life. So I ask that you pray and let God lead your hearts."

After T read the story, she immediately went into action and began doing online research. She began emailing people and was amazed when people began responding so quickly. Within a few hours, an organization made contact with a doctor in Texas that specializes in the particular surgery that baby Esmie will need. T got a very exciting email today from the doctor who has agreed to do the surgeries for Esmerlada!! This is what it said:

It was wonderful to briefly speak with you today about Esmerlada, the Mexican child with the bilateral cleft lip and palate. I am glad to help in any way to bring her to Corpus Christi to repair her lip and palate. Just to re-confirm what we spoke about:Please forward pertinent data such as date of birth, full name, height and weight, parents’ names and recent length and weight.(any other known medical problems? – heart? etc)As I stated, I would lean toward a 2-stage repair of her lip (doing one side first, then the other in 6-8 weeks) and then the palate before she is a year old. She needs to weigh at least 10 pounds before we consider operating on her – just a good judge of her overall physical condition.She also needs to have a hemoglobin concentration of at least 10 gm/dL – this should be checked rather soon because she may need to have iron supplement with her feeding. About her feeding – I will send you several Haberman bottles ( and a couple of Ross nipples as well) which have a little wider and softer nipple to help in the feedings – The child should be held upright in your arms when feeding, and not flat. It is not unusual to spill some formula on the sides because of the clefts – don’t be alarmed by this – you don’t want her to be choking on her feeds though – and this is avoided by positioning her body. She needs to be feeding at least 2-3 oz every 3-4 hours. If she is only breast feeding, sometimes this takes so much work that they get too tired to finish the meal before it’s time for the next feeding – these Haberman nipples make it easier to direct flow into the mouth with a whole lot less work. I will send you several pamphlets on the management of cleft lips and palates – in Spanish and in English. I will see if we can get some free formula sent to you from Mead Johnson. I will be glad to do the surgery for free. With health care costs skyrocketing, the problem is that our hospital will most likely want some reimbursement for the surgery – I will try to get an estimate of what they require and also try to find some local donors – any ideas from your end would be helpful. We should be able to provide a free place to stay once they arrive in Corpus Christi. You stated that you can work on getting the child and her mother papers/visa to come to the US. If there is a problem with the parent’s papers, maybe there is a family friend or relative who is legal and can get power of attorney to accompany the child. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on this and get her here within a 4-8 weeks.


I was so stunned to find out that within such a short period of time, T was able to get in touch with the people that are so willing to help baby Esmie. The fact that she has found this doctor/organization that want to help this baby is such an amazing accomplishment. T has helped save this baby's life, and I cannot imagine what that must feel like. She has a 4 month old daughter herself, so this situation was very close to her heart.

I am asking that you all please pray for this baby and the doctor that is willing to do her surgeries. What an amazing human being this doctor is, as well as my friend T. Please pray that all stays on the right path and that the baby meets all of the necessary medical requirements needed to proceed with the surgery. Pray that there are no problems getting the baby and her mother papers/Visas to come to the US to have the surgery. This process is a true miracle in the making and I am so proud to know that my friend has put this together out of the goodness of her heart. Thank you all for reading......God is so good.

R.I.P. Geoffrey Glaub May 24, 1999 - August 16, 2008

Little Geoffrey passed away peacefully yesterday morning, with his parents at his side. I cannot begin to imagine the pain and sadness that comes with the loss of a child. Although I only had the pleasure of meeting him once, it is clear in reading his journal how loved Geoffrey was. He had a true love for music, Star Wars and reading, and was an incredibly smart 9 year old. The picture above is of him at City Stages...his parents stated this was the highlight of their year. It was at this time that his parents began to realize that something was wrong, thus beginning the horrific journey that has lead them to this. He will truly be missed. Please keep his parents, family and friends in your prayers.

Urgent Prayer is Needed!!

I've been asking for prayer for Geoffrey Glaub for a few weeks now, and things have apparently taken a turn for the worse in the last 24 hours......his Caring Bridge site only says this:

Geoffrey was taken to the Pediatric ICU this morning around 8:30 a.m. Your prayers are needed more than ever.

Please say an urgent prayer for him.

Where Does the Time Go?

It hit me today that it seems its been forever since I updated my blog! When I signed on I couldn't believe that the last time I wrote was in July!! It's amazing how fast time goes by. Isn't it funny that when you're young, you never really understand the concept of time? You just do your thing and listen to the "grown ups" talk about how time flies, and before you know it, you're one of those grown ups talking about how time flies. I can remember thinking in elementary school that every year of my life seems to go by faster than the last. The same still holds true, only they're going by way too fast for my liking!!! Sometimes I wish life had a pause button...just to give yourself enough time to soak in those precious moments, or to give your memory everything it needs to remember something exactly as it was so that you'll never forget it. There have been many moments in my life that I would have loved to hit the pause button....awesome Alabama football games, concerts, special moments with my husband or family, my dad's funeral, a fun night out with friends....the list could really go on and on. But unfortunately, that pause button does not exist and we have to rely on our memory to keep those moments locked in tight. I'm always scared my memory is going to crack open and leak some things out, never to be retrieved again. I hope I am years and years away from that happening because I have a lot of special memories in there that I never want to let go of!!

Things have been pretty quiet lately....Justin has finally finished his summer work which means he's not out of town all the time! We enjoyed our first full weekend together this past weekend, and it was awesome! We spent most of the weekend watching the Olympics, and ventured out to the movies on Sunday. I have to say that this year's Olympics have got me pulled in completely! I made sure to stay awake last night to watch Michael Phelps swim and win his 2nd gold!! I'm totally obsessed with him right now! I'm hoping that he breaks the record for most golds because he is an amazing athlete and I believe he deserves every gold he goes after. He is truly gifted, and the way our American team handled the French comments that were made about them just goes to show you how much class our athletes have. I think Michael Phelps is right there at the top of those classy athletes. I hope you all were able to catch the opening ceremonies...they were outstanding! I wish I had counted how many times my mouth just dropped wide open!! The creator of that show deserves a gold himself! How one creates a spectacle like that is beyond me....I would love to sit down and pick his brain to see where in the world he came up with his ideas!! To have an imagination like that is a true gift as well.

I have been dealing with some family issues lately, but at this point, all I can do is pray about them, and ask you to pray for them as well. My job is still fantastic! I continue to learn new things all the time and do not have one complaint!! It is now 19 days till Alabama kicks off against Clemson at the Georgia Dome!!! I am so excited about this season!! I wish we had tickets to this game, but I will be just as happy spending all day on my couch eating good food and watching good football all day! My only complaint is that we play late, so I have to spend all day anxious in anticipation waiting for our kickoff!! At least there will be plenty of good games on to pass the time (here I am wanting the time to go by fast....makes no sense huh?). We are also planning a fun October full of Panic shows - some in New Orleans for Halloween and some in Atlanta!! This is the first year they have played this venue in New Orleans since 2003 and I am so happy about going back! We have so much going on in the next few months with football games, concerts, traveling to visit friends/family....I'm really looking forward to it! Nothing beats Alabama football, good music and good company!! I'll just have to do my best at savoring the moments to come because life has no pause button.......

In closing, please continue to pray for Joe, Geoffrey and Nikki. I think these are three people that could really use a pause button right now, and could probably teach us all a lesson in the concept of time.