..a little setback..

my dear boys,

the first tuesday of every november is election day here in the united states. by the time you actually read this blog (if you ever do, let's be honest!) you'll probably be familiar with the history and reasons for election day, so i'll spare you the history lesson. the key facts are: this year was a big one! it was a presidential election year, and mitt romney (r) and barack obama (incumbent, d) were the candidates.

well, i took a big interest in the elections this year, starting clear back in january when the republican party started holding primaries. i'm a huge fan of mitt romney, and i started to get really excited and passionate about things when it became clear that he would most likely be the republican nominee. my reasons for supporting him weren't just because he's good looking and mormon (haha, i kid, i kid), but i really felt that this was the right man to get our economy back on track. his experiences in life, as a missionary, stake president, business man, etc..., in my humble opinion, made him much more qualified to turn our country around in the direction we need to be headed.

well, november 6th - election day - arrived, and i was a bundle of nerves the whole day. i was so excited that this day was finally here, and felt pretty confident that my man, mitt, had a decent chance of winning. we of course took a little stroll down to the city building to cast our vote (i know our vote doesn't matter a ton, since we live in such a conservative state, but that is beside the point. we vote based on principle) and for the rest of the day me and finn wore our "i voted" stickers with pride (sorry sam, they didn't give you a sticker). well, the polls started to close back east, so i settled down on the couch (after attending to both your needs, of course) to watch as the numbers came in.

the night drew on, and i started getting realllllly nervous for mitt. at one point i had to stop watching, i was just to nervous! we took a break and ran some errands with dad, and resumed our position on the couch a couple hours later. well, it started becoming apparent that barack obama would most likely win, and i started to feel sick to my stomach. i am not a fan of him for many reasons, and my heart just felt sad that america was picking the wrong person to lead our country at such a crucial time in its history. every time that stupid little chime would come on and diane sawyer would announce, "we have results from [another state]," (or whatever the crap she said) my heart sunk a little more. then she made the announcement that obama had the electoral votes needed to win, and dead serious, i got the biggest pit in my stomach. i became really frustrated and angry, and said some things on facebook i probably shouldn't have. ;) i was literally just so sick and so sad.

dad decided that i needed something to take my mind off the election results, so he suggested we watch that week's episode of dexter. i obliged. i fell asleep on the recliner halfway through, and when i woke up i was still so sick to my stomach. stupid barack obama and those damn democrats! haha i really thought they were the cause of my sore tummy. so i went up to bed with a glass of water, and thought all i needed was a few good hours of sleep to feel better. boy, was i wrong!

i woke up around 2 a.m. to feed you, mr samuel. you weren't awake quite yet, but i sure was! i was sooooooo sick. my stomach hurt so badly, and i was just sure i probably had the flu. i laid in bed, hoping that at some point my tummy would start to feel better, but it just seemed to be getting worse. luckily sam kept sleeping, because i was in no condition to feed him. i got out of bed and went to the bathroom. i felt so nauseas, like i needed to throw up, but i tried and couldn't. i couldn't go #2 either (sorry for tmi!). so i laid on the floor in the bathroom (tells you how sick i musta felt, for me to do something that gross!) and decided to say a prayer. so i knelt down, bent over of course, and prayed to my heavenly father to help me feel better and/or to know what was wrong with me. i knew something was probably wrong at this point, and knew that whatever it was, i needed to get it taken care of because i was in no position to take care of you two kiddos when you woke up the next day.

within seconds of asking for heavenly father's help, the answer came to me. like the scriptures say, the spirit spoke to me in a still small voice, and it said, "appendicitis." i had known people who had had appendicitis' before, and they all said it starts out as the worst stomach ache you have ever experienced. so i googled "symptoms of appendicitis" and researched it for a while. i was still a little skeptical (silly mama for doubting the spirits whisperings) because my stomach ache was right where my belly button is, and everything was saying the ache would be on the lower right side of your abdomen, where your appendix is. but then i found stuff that said it would start out in the middle of your abdomen, so after reading that i knew i probably was having an appendicitis.

i called grandma cindy, crying of course, and told her what was going on. i knew i needed someone i could trust to be with you two, since i needed dad to be with me. she came down, and off dad and i went to the hospital. while we were waiting for grandma to get to our house, i laid on the floor of our bedroom, curled over in the fetal position. i was seriously in more pain than i've ever been in!

i decided we should go to lds hospital. lakeview hospital is way closer, but i've heard bad things about it so i didn't trust going there. the people at lds treated me so well, and it didn't take long for me to realize we made the right decision in going there.

when we got to the ER, there was only one other person in front of me, and they were admitting her right as i walked in. thank goodness it was the middle of the night (3:30 am, technically) because i have always heard horror stories about waits in the ER. we were admitted right away, which was such a huge blessing, and i got some pain meds shortly after, which was an even bigger blessing! thank you morphine!!! almost instant relief. the doctor came in to talk to me, and recommended doing a CT scan to hopefully get some answers. we did, and sure enough, appendicitis. as weird as it may sound, i was relieved! it's not that i necessarily wanted to have surgery (i mean, hello, i had a baby 3 1/2 weeks ago) but i was glad to know that there was a clear-cut answer and a clear-cut prognosis: remove the appendix, deal with a couple days? weeks? of pain and be done with it. they scheduled surgery right away (it was about 6 am by this point) and that was that.

grandma cindy stayed home with you two because dad could not miss work. go figure something like this had to happen when dad was busier than busy. life always seems to happen that way, thanks murphy! ;) my aunt heidi came to the hospital to check on me when i woke up from the anesthesia, which i'll be forever thankful for. the worst part of this whole experience, in my opinion, was the 2 or 3 hours after waking up from surgery. oh my heavens! i pray that neither of you will ever have to experience any type of surgery or undergo any type of anesthesia (except maybe when you have to get your wisdom teeth removed?) bc it was awful! i can't even describe what was going through my head, it was just a little bit scary. i was like stuck in these two different places - reality and drug land, perhaps? - and i just felt loopy and weird. as soon as it wore off i felt much better. my tummy hurt, obviously, but nothing i couldn't handle with the help of a little medicine. :)

as soon as the doctors and nurses found out i had a baby 3 1/2 weeks prior to this experience, they were immediately concerned and felt bad for me. the surgeon who performed the appendectomy said that normally it's an out-patient procedure, meaning you don't have to stay at the hospital over night, but because i had just given birth and my body was recovering from that, she wanted me to stay overnight. in all honesty, i think she just wanted me to have a little break from taking care of you little rugrats! ;) her name was heidi jackson, and i really really liked her. i liked all the nurses and people who took care of my during my short stay, and am thankful to them for making this miserable experience a little less miserable.

it was amazing to me how much i missed you two while i was at the hospital. i mean, yeah you're my kids and i love you more than words could describe, but i had only been away from you for mere hours when i started to miss you both like crazy!! i even started crying. i'm sure my raging hormones have something to do with it, but i think that goes to show how deep a mother's love is. even through all the pain and discomfort i was experiencing, i longed to be home with my sweet little boys. :)

grandma cindy couldn't miss work two days in a row, so the next morning my aunt heidi came over to watch you two until i got home from the hospital. i'm so thankful to everyone who helped me during this entire experience, while i was in the hospital and also throughout my recovery. shawna ford (our neighbor) took finn one afternoon, which was such a huge help, even though it broke my heart to see his sad face as they drove away! my visiting teaching partner brought dinner to us one night, and my sweet visiting teacher, lindsey nielsen, brought dinner another night. grandma cindy came down after work nearly every day for a week, so that i could get some rest, and daddy-o was so great about helping around the house and with finn.

although i wish this whole thing never happened, i'm grateful for the things i learned. i learned to let people help when they offer, especially when you need it. i never really needed help after giving birth to either of you boys, i always felt really great shortly after. this was different though. i was in pain, and there were lots of things i couldn't, or shouldn't, do (such as lift finn). so i let dad and grandma cindy do the heavy lifting for a good two weeks, and i know that helped. i also learned so much about the power of prayer, and that our heavenly father will always be there for us when we need him. i'm so thankful to him for answering my prayer that night, and so quickly too, because i'm not sure what would have happened if we had waited much longer to go to the hospital.

and now that it's all said and done, i actually kind of like telling people the story - that i thought my stomach ache was due to barack obama being re-elected. haha, there is still a part of me that thinks he really is the reason for my appendicitis. all that stress! just kidding. it has been a couple weeks though, and i finally am starting to regain some strength in my abdomen. i am feeling much better, thank goodness! and just in the knick of time too, with the holidays right around the corner. now we can get back into the swing of things. :)

love,
mom