Financial Challenges Support Group
This community is for people who are struggling to meet financial obligations of any kind. Financial challenges include everything from the day-to-day challenges of making ends meet to managing credit card debt to bankruptcy. Get support from others who are going through similar obstacles on the road back to financial stability.
I'm back!!! Hopefully longer than the last time. A little review. I do this more for me than anyone else. It's my way of not forgetting and remembering how my Higher Power stayed close to me.
After five weeks of countless tests, I had open heart surgery on September 15th. I spent the next five days in the hospital and was released as everything that could be done was done. Now it was just a matter of me with follow ups and getting into a rehab program.
My first checkup was nine days after my release. It was Monday morning, the 29th of September. Long story short... this checkup would be the only one I had. The doctor put me back in the hospital and ordered more tests. I was losing blood... I was white as a sheet, weak and going downhill fast.
My new hospital stay for the first couple of days was uneventful.. I was being stabilized and the blood thinner I was on was also monitored. As everything began coming back, I still was losing blood. Now I was stable enough to have a colonoscopy. After the tests on Friday morning, I was told I had a mass in the colon about the size of a golf ball and a half dozen polyps. With my blood being thin and everything kind of lo0cated together, the doctors thought the best course of action would be to remove that section of my colon a foot of it.
So later that day, on Friday October 3rd, I had my second major operation within a month. This one kicked me big time. I never really recovered from the first surgery and here I was with new war wounds on me.
After the surgery, my body didn't want to wake-up right away so I was put on a liquid diet, which is broth, jello, Italian Ice, tea, and a juice... I lived off of this for six days breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Now, here it is October 9th. I'm starting my first full day of being back home. I'm nervous, scared, anxious and all those other feelings that don't make me feel safe. Safe as in being in my own mind.
I do have to have some bloodwork done later but my day is one of being lazy and doing things extremely slow. I don't want another visit with any hospital.
So, since September 15th till October 8th, I had two major surgeries. In all six hours of laying in an operating room, fourteen hours in recover, and out of those 23 days, 15 of them have been spent in a hospital.
After five weeks of countless tests, I had open heart surgery on September 15th. I spent the next five days in the hospital and was released as everything that could be done was done. Now it was just a matter of me with follow ups and getting into a rehab program.
My first checkup was nine days after my release. It was Monday morning, the 29th of September. Long story short... this checkup would be the only one I had. The doctor put me back in the hospital and ordered more tests. I was losing blood... I was white as a sheet, weak and going downhill fast.
My new hospital stay for the first couple of days was uneventful.. I was being stabilized and the blood thinner I was on was also monitored. As everything began coming back, I still was losing blood. Now I was stable enough to have a colonoscopy. After the tests on Friday morning, I was told I had a mass in the colon about the size of a golf ball and a half dozen polyps. With my blood being thin and everything kind of lo0cated together, the doctors thought the best course of action would be to remove that section of my colon a foot of it.
So later that day, on Friday October 3rd, I had my second major operation within a month. This one kicked me big time. I never really recovered from the first surgery and here I was with new war wounds on me.
After the surgery, my body didn't want to wake-up right away so I was put on a liquid diet, which is broth, jello, Italian Ice, tea, and a juice... I lived off of this for six days breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Now, here it is October 9th. I'm starting my first full day of being back home. I'm nervous, scared, anxious and all those other feelings that don't make me feel safe. Safe as in being in my own mind.
I do have to have some bloodwork done later but my day is one of being lazy and doing things extremely slow. I don't want another visit with any hospital.
So, since September 15th till October 8th, I had two major surgeries. In all six hours of laying in an operating room, fourteen hours in recover, and out of those 23 days, 15 of them have been spent in a hospital.
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
As I thought about it a little bit, I realized that your HP is truly with you, on many levels.
First, He kept you alive until your check up date,
Second, they found yet another health problem, and were able to take care of it. I wonder what this might have caused down the road had they not caught it now.
Third, it should not cause you any financial outlay, since your deductible for this year is already met. Wow
I am glad that you are at home now, I pray that this is the end of your health discovery path. What a month you have had.
Do you have speed dial on your phone? My husband and I have 911, the non-emergency police, and the non-emergency fire department numbers all on their own speed dial number.
We have a tendency to forget that those services are there for us, and we drive each other to the ER, when it would have been so much better to just call 911. It has happened to us several times.
I hope you don't need those numbers anymore, but they are good to have anyway.
It sounds like you are doing what you are supposed to do...being lazy and slow. Enjoy it while you can, because pretty soon you will be back at work baking, baking and more baking.
Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress, we continue to pray for your health and speedy recovery. God bless you.
Toty
The attitude of gratitude with this latest surgery was that everything that was removed was non-cancerous.
No more internal bleeding, staples from colon surgery have been removed and my appetite is returning. The best thing about the week though was finally being able to sleep on my side. I slept six weeks on my back and never got comfortable with it.
Monday I have a blood check and a check-up with cardiologist and then Tuesday I start cardiac rehab.
Through this all I have found a true friend. I know her from AA and her service work is helping people like myself. She has driven me to different appointments and more then once visited me in the hospital. And she has never asked for anything. So Friday, I got her a thank you card and a $50 voucher from a local gas station.
Like I said, she has never asked for anything but it just seemed right... a couple of my6 doctors are 30 miles away and that's one way.
Take care,
Toty
Second surgery it was just to painful to sit behind the wheel... having my legs stretched out to reach the pedals to way was unbearable.
And with the pain meds I was taking I legally couldn't drive.