Home from the Hospital

Hi everybody!

I got discharged from the hospital around 11am yesterday. Man, what I wouldn't have given to stay there another couple nights. Everyone was so kind and helpful (the nurses, all the visitors, etc), plus all the fancy, high-tech health gadgets made things a lot easier—electric ice packs, humidifiers, suction for my mouth, and the ever-so-wonderful PCA (the button I could push to inject pain meds into my IV). I was all around a much happier gal at Hoag. Here's a few glimpses of my experience there:

In the recovery room. Way high on meds/coming off of anesthesia. Very confused, unable to talk, and had hard trouble breathing because of the NG tube (taking blood out of my stomach). And it took 6 hours to get me into my room. But YAY—I had done it.

Finally in my room. Couldn't see the ocean, but had a great view of this handsome face the whole time.

...I and even felt up for a kiss to two :)

He fed me a lot...

...and gave me foot rubs, among other nice things.

Most of my time at the hospital consisted of this: sleeping...

...trying to eat/drink

...and just hanging out. (Oh,  that's "Cheeky," the big-headed monkey that my dad got for me during the surgery. Awesome.)

 I've actually been surprised at how well I've been able to talk. It might sound like a bunch of gargles to you, though, so I had Nathan translate just in case:

...Home has been a bit of a different story. Lots of medicine to take orally, which is really hard and most of it is disgusting. Eating takes all of my energy, and drinking the pain meds, anti biotics, and anti imflamitories makes me nausous. It's basically strug-fest 2013 over here. But without the help of my amazing fiance and caring parents, strug-fest would look a lot more like mission impossible, so I'm beyond grateful to them. Most of all, though, I'm in awe of how good God has been to me the past 85 hours or so...I've had relatively low pain and nausea and I've been surrounded by the most loving, wonderful people that are taking great care of me and making me feel His love so profoundly every minute of the day. So, thank you—for the flowers, for the visits, for the soup, for the just-checking-in texts, for the support, and for the love and help that is make all of this possible (hoepfully you know who you are)!