Sweetness

Life around here has been pretty exciting as of late. I am ready for it to get back to boring personally. About a month ago my right arm started swelling and turning blue. After a couple doctor's visits and a second opinion I was referred to a vascular surgeon. Brad took off on a Friday afternoon to come with me for a veinogram.
I got to the surgical sweet and they cut my arm at the elbow and inserted dye in to my vein to track it. Well it went right in and stopped. I had a 100% blockage with a blood clot. Shock turned into fear as they admitted me to the ICU. I was lucky enough to have found all this out before the clot broke loose and moved. It was caused by my top right rib being too close to my collar bone. I know, who in the heck knew this could happen.
I spent two days in the cardiac critical care unit. I had to lay still because they left a catheter in my arm running through my chest giving me clot buster medication and high dose blood thinner. Then they went back in the vein a couple more times before they could actually remove the clot. After that I went into the cardiac step down unit and awaited another surgery.
I had my fist rib removed on a Tuesday morning. I am not going to sugar coat it, it hurt like a mother when I woke up. Brad was right there the whole time. My parents drove in the first night I was in the hospital and kept the kids the whole time. After the rib was out the surgeon went back into the vein to do a balloon and hopefully open the vein. All this seemed to go well. But a couple days after the rib removal I was howling and sweating. I had a hematoma. Just blood draining collected under the incision. They had removed my first chest tube/drain a little too early. I was in really bad pain. I had emergency surgery to remove the hematoma and put in a second drain. I had to have three units of blood and was now attached to what I affectionately called my "Cootie Tank".
I can't really remember most of the stay in room 709. I was hooked up to a pain pump for a couple days because chest tubes suck. Then I was doped up on percocette and morphine a lot too. But the whole thing lasted twelve days. Brad was with me almost every night. He bathed me. He helped me on and off of a bed pan while I was in ICU. He never once made me feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, he's my hero.
I was home for five days. I got the second drain taken out a couple days after I got home. I started feeling really good. I started helping with the kids and house work again. I thanked my mom and dad profusely and told them I thought I was fine and they could get back home. We got up on Sunday morning and got the kids and ourselves ready for church. We went and dropped the kids off in their rooms and went to service. In the middle of the choirs special I had to get up and walk around. I was really hurting and couldn't get comfortable. I started loosing my breath. This went on all day until it became unbearable at about five that night.
Off to the local ER we went. My best friend Laura(aka Supper Nurse) works there and came in for support. I had a chest X-ray and thanks to Laura some pain medicine. Well, there was blood in my chest cavity. So into the ambulance I went for the ride to Kennestone hospital.
That night was the worst pain I have ever felt. I hurt so much I puked and gagged for fourteen hours while waiting to go into surgery. There was Brad, wiping my face and trying to make me less scared. The rest is a blur. I know I had surgery, they found a bleeder. They removed 2.5 liters of blood from me, I got a real chest tube, and I got another transfusion of four units of blood. They hooked me up to the cell saver and also pumped my own lost blood back into me.
When I say a "real chest tube", what I really mean is a garden hose. The tubes were as big as 1" PVC pipe. They are inserted between you lower ribs and sewn in place. They hurt. I had a pain pump for five days that go round. I was on oxygen that go round too. I thought I may not get to come home. I cried and told Brad I didn't want to go to sleep because I thought I may not wake up. I asked him to please let my family still see the kids if I died and to go ahead and get remarried. I have never been so scared or so weak in my life.
I stayed five days the second time. I had the chest tubed pulled on a Friday afternoon and I was released. I have pneumonia in my right lung and am very weak but I am home. I have been home a full week now and I am getting back to myself. I can finally walk up the stairs without stopping to pant. I have been playing with the kids and doing laundry.
My parents have been great. They have been here for a month. They have kept the kids, cooked, cleaned and done what ever I needed. But the real MVP is Brad. He kept me every night in the hospital. He came home and kept the kids during the day and reassured them. My parents came and sat with with me while Brad had the kids. Brad slept every night on a hard pullout couch. He never complained about getting up with me at 3 a.m. to unhook me so I could go to the bathroom. He held my hand, he washed my hair, he dressed me, he walked with me, he helped with everything I had to do. But most important, he was there. I was so scared and the only person I wanted was Sweetness. Brad has jumped in at home and done so much extra work. He planned Tate's birthday party. He is the man all husbands should be.
I hope I never have to have another surgery again for as long as I live. I hope my hospital stays are over, but should I land back in I know Brad will be by my side. He may not be affectionate, but he shows more love and devotion than any amount of cards and flowers ever could. My brother and sister in law want to know why I call him Sweetness. They only see his outside. His a big stern man who is serious and removed. I see his inside, the unfailing love and devotion his has for his wife and children. Any man who will get you on and off of a bedpan and never once make you feel ashamed is a real man. A man who keeps better track of your medication than the nurses do is a real man. Any man who jokes and makes you feel like a person instead of a grotesque science experiment while giving you a bath is a real man. The man who stayed by my side for three weeks in the hospital with out complaint, I call him my Sweetness.