My Nightmare that became a Blessing

Well l need to get some things off my chest and even though most of my friends already know about, I am hoping that my testimony helps others with health issues.

I suffered from severe Gerd and all the medicine in the world didn't help. I was choking in my sleep because the acid ate the LCD(I think that's what they called it), so there was nothing to stop acid from flowing up to the top and it was getting in my lungs also. In 2000, my gastro dr said it was time to have the nissan wrap done. This was supposed to be a quick surgery and gone home once I could tolerate soft food, but the surgeon punctured my spleen and almost bled to death, so it had to be removed. Well I was counting the days to go home and on Thursday they said I would probably be released on Saturday. It wasn't to be. I started running a fever and could feel wettness on my gown, but my husband didn't see anything, until he rolled me over and was covered in black. I acquired a hospital staph that ate through my intestines and had to be returned to surgery where the nightmare began. It turns out I also had an Enterrococcus infection (someone didn't wash their hands properly) and ended up with pneumonia and almost died. So from a 2 day stay, I ended up 25 days in the hospital. The nightmare didn't end. Without going into more detail, I had 14 surgeries all because I lost my spleen and the nissan wrap came unstitched and had to go through all of that again. But skip back to 2003, I had a headache on Friday, which was unusual for me and on Monday, my husband found me in bed with a fever of 104 and by the time he got me to the ER, it was 106. The fever wouldn't come down and my white cell count was 30,000, so exploratory surgery was done. Nothing was found----the Vancomycin had started to work, but not enough. I was walking the halls so I could go home and had to stop at the nurses station because I couldn't breathe. Never in my wildest dreams would I have to go through a code blue and taken to ICU where I spent 3 weeks---13 days of them on life support. They didn't think I would live, but I have a strong faith and fighting will and a wonderful support group from my friends at ABC--our crafting group. Even though I loved life, my bipolar became severe and there were days when I thought, "What the ---- is my life worth. I know I bored everyone with all my surgeries and for that I am sorry, but so happy that you all were there for me. Pity is something I hate, but support is a wonderful thing and whether you used both, it doesn't matter, I am here today because of you. Now into the future, I was scheduled to have the wrap done again in New Orleans, but Katrina had other plans, so had to wait almost 4 months for it. People kept telling me to find another surgeon, because I had 15 hernias, lots of lysis done to remove the adhesions, once having a blockage, and one because my intestines malrotated and were all on my left side with nothing on the right. My surgeon never charged me what the insurance didn't pay and that really should have sent off bells, but the day he told me he was closing his practice was the day every bell rang and my eyes opened up to a very scary reality------I will likely have more surgeries if the adhesions kinked my intestines, so just call me Tammy Wynette---you have to know her story.

Anyhoo, the point to this is Never give up, keep your faith and have a support group---life is worth the fight and I am a stronger person for it all. I no longer tell people when I am hurting and try to smile each day, because I am here. Call me crazy, but there are angels watching over you. To this day, I swear that my aunt and her daughter were holding my hand before I went into surgery and I had no medication yet, so was wide awake.

Use everything you are saving because you never know when the page will turn that holds your name. Count your blessings, even the bad things, because without them, you don't know how blessed you are. You will not hear this again, unless I need to let you know that I am in the hospital Again. God Bless You and Keep the faith.