2 years ago...

I still can't believe where I was two years ago...

I was lying in the ICU of the University of Utah in a coma. Feeding tube down my throat. EEG wires making my hair look Madusa. Branch playing Christmas music and Frank Sinatra so I could hear it Branch wanted to spend every second he could with me. At night he didn't even leave the hospital, he went down to the burn unit and slept on a wall! Mom brought me a metal Christmas tree for my room. The rest of my family visiting when they could.

Meanwhile, Little Miss got to spend a lot of time playing with her cousins. I think Cedar fell in love with her...She was immediately weaned from breastfeeding and did incredibly well. She was able to go to two Christmas parties and even got to see Santa! Sorry the parties were so somber. My bad!

Before I was there I was really sick. I had woken up 2 weeks previously and preceded to throw up 8 times for the next several hours. I was so sick I took a pregnancy test! The next day I was fine, then started the whole process again. After going to the doctors and crying in the waiting room wanting my mommy, I was told it was an ear infection.

We flew to Utah the next week and made it to Green River, where I saw another doctor who said it was an ear infection. I could still touch my chin to my chest so they didn't think it was meningitis. Then the night of the 18th and morning of the 19th I went downhill. I don't remember much except we were staying downstairs at my sisters house, Little Miss was in the family room and I was throwing up and going in and out of consciousness. Jacob carried me upstairs and put me in the car while Branch sped to the ER at the U of U hospital. I do remember waking up once and telling Branch he was going to fast. That is so like me.

That is the last thing I remember for a couple of days. I am told that my sister Sarah met Branch at the hospital and was able to come back in the room with him, where...she was able to see me in all my glory...Sorry about that. I hope you can get that image out of your head Sarah! I also was told that my mom knew the Director or something like that of the ER, who was able to keep everyone updated and helped speed the process along.

I was put in medically incuded coma from Dec. 19th and was woken up on the 21st. I got to sleep for 3 days! As they were waking me up they had tied my hands to the bed so I wouldn't pull out any tubes or wires, but they didn't know how flexible I was and when no one was around I pulled "a gumby" as they said and took out the feeding tube. Luckily I didn't damage my vocal cords with that stunt! When I was more fully awake I remember being more sad that I missed the 2 family parties then I was about being in the hospital. I also remember I needed to pee and everyone kept telling me I had a catheter and I could just go, but I hate catheters and I really felt like I needed to pee. I think I said that about 50 times in an hour.

So as you know it turns out I had Viral Meningitis. It sucked. I wouldn't recommend it. But the point of this post is I want to point out some of the miracles that happened in this time.

*The fact that we were in Utah near a lot of family when I went downhill. Neither Branch or I had to ever worry about Little Miss.
*That mom knew the lady from the ER and were taken care of really fast at a great medical facility.
*Little Miss, who was only 8 months old at the time, was able to do so well considering.
*My mom fought for me when they were going to put my birthday wrong, which would have severally limited the financial help we were able to receive.
*That it was Viral instead of Bacterial...it could have been so much worse...

Anyway, sorry for some of the details...but they really happened. I have more I want to write about later. Thanks for reading!

For Branch...

This song is for Branch. I heard it for the first
time the day before we found out we were having a boy...

Brad Paisley - Anything Like Me