Christmas pains...

So, you may be wondering why instead of wonderful Christmas pictures, I'm posting this lovely picture of a person's insides...well this little tiny part of my body, this itsy, bitsy, little appendix presented quite the set of problems for me the last few weeks. Our 1st Christmas together definitely didn't include an emergency surgery 5 days before Christmas!
It all started a week and a half ago with an upset stomach and what I thought was either food poisoning or a stomach bug (although I had never felt pain like this before!), that was on Thursday night, Friday night Dale insisted I go to the Urgent Care because I had a temperature, was throwing up and still had horrible pains. They diagnosed me with a bladder/kidney infection and sent me home with an antibiotic, and made sure I wasn't throwing up anymore. We were thankful for some relief and it seemed I was on the mend after a few days my fever had broken and I tried to go back to work on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, I went to my family doctor where he proceed to tell me that I should be feeling better than I was and there may be more to this than just a simple infection; but only the ER would be able to diagnose/rule-out what was going on. So of course, I'm freaking out, upset and scared to to the ER by myself (Dale was still at work), but I tried to process all this and I called Dale and soon we were both on our way to the ER, hoping to rule-out appendicitis...however, within 4 1/2 hours of being at the hospital, I was on my way to the operating room to have my appendix removed! Things moved quick and I couldn't believe all this was happening. The Dr. later told Dale and his parents (who thankfully had come to see me and spent the time I was in surgery with Dale) that it was NASTY inside there and it was 1 of the worst infections he'd seen in awhile! Of course, I couldn't do something simply! I ended up spending 2 days in the hospital and came home Thursday before Christmas.Since I came home, every day has been better, and I'm on some pretty intense antibiotics and still have some staples and a drain in to make sure that the infection is GONE; however, I am thankful I was home for Christmas and that we hadn't really planned on traveling much this Christmas.

Get well flowers from Green Valley Elementary- I'm blessed by a great school to work at!

Get well Roses from my parents! A great surprise delivery!

The bear was delivered with the flowers- this was Thursday afternoon after I had come home and showered finally!

While, this is definitely not what I had planned for our first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs., I am very thankful for many things! I am thankful that once I got to the hospital things moved quickly and I was seen and diagnosed quickly. I'm so thankful that Dale's parents were close by and they were able to be there during the surgery. I'm grateful for friends and family who came by and blessed us with meals, company, flowers, phone calls, texts, and a few last minute Christmas surprises. I am moved with compassion for those who have to spend holidays in the hospital and or alone...thankfully, I didn't wait any longer to go to the ER and thankfully, I was able to go to Dale's parents for Christmas day. Most of all, I am thankful for my wonderful husband- Dale has been AMAZING through this all! He won't let me do anything and makes sure I take all my medicine on time, even in the middle of the night! God has richly blessed us and I am so thankful for the man He has blessed me with!!! Maybe next Christmas I can do all the things I had planned on doing this year :)