So the whole week leading up to Kassia's blessing was for sure an interesting one. We decided to fly out to Utah to have her blessed so all the family that wanted to could be involved. Leading up to our Friday departure date, I had to get quite a few things ready and undergo a test. Monday I had an Upper GI series done which required me to be fasting and do a bowel prep. I have to chuckle a little when they want me to drink a whole bunch of stuff because most of it gets thrown back up. This time they had me take laxative pills and magnesium citrate for my bowel prep. I was only able to take a little bit of the citrate at a time an I pushed it through my g tube. I have to say that was a little bit of an interesting experience because the citrate had some bubbles and that felt weird going into my stomach and then throwing it up. I must have kept enough down though because it definitely worked.
Once I got to the hospital, they had me change into a gown and then lay on a narrow little table. They then started to inject a barium solution into my stomach through my g tube. This was the contrast that would allow them to see my intestines and see if there was any compression or blockages. The barium sure made a mess because they would forget to clamp down my tube and it would leak. They had me lay on my back and then moved the fluoroscopy machine over me. The radiologist then watched the screen and would have me move to my side or stomach to get different images of my intestines. Once I was able to sit up, the barium started to come back up. I feel bad for those who have to drink it because it is nasty stuff. The radiologist then said the results would be sent to my GI doctor. It turned out that there was an area that was sharper then normal but the rest looked fine.
The rest of the week was spent getting ready to go to Utah. Since I have been so sick, we decided to extend my stay in Utah till I could be healthy enough to take care of my girls by my self. Once school started, in the morning, Sean would take Maia to a babysitter and then pick her back up and bring her home by noon. It was really starting to wear on him. It was a lot of back and forth. I have to admit, one of the hardest things with this sickness is not having the energy to take care of my girls. The first day Maia went to the babysitter I cried quite a bit. Crying was therapeutic and I have come to the understanding that there are things that are out of my control right now. I am very grateful that there are women in my life that are not only will to watch my child but that I feel 100% comfortable with placing my child in their care. I have been very blessed and some days I have to remind myself of that.
I had some dear friends that helped me this week to get through recovering from having my tube put in and through getting ready for our extended stay in Utah. It is a bit tricky to pack for a 2 year old and a 3 month old for a 3 month stay. I knew they would both be growing and I would have to pack not only 0-3 month cloths but also 3-6 and also 18 month and 24 month cloths for Maia. Then also enough cloths for me too. The hardest part for me was finding cloths that fit. I have lost so much weight that non of my clothes were fitting anymore, so a lot of my time was spent trying on my cloths and seeing what fit and what didn't.
On Thursday my dear friend Aryn offered to drive me to the doctors office so I could fill out some paperwork to get my records and to see if I could get my referral sent over to a GI doctor in Utah. On our way back she offered to take Kassia so I could get some packing done. I was hesitant but agreed. I went home and did a little packing and then was exhausted and took an nap. Sean brought Maia back at around noon and then she went down for a nap. I still had more packing to do of my cloths and my medical supplies but at about that time Kassia was brought back. She had just woken up from a nap and was a bit fussy. I pulled her out of her car seat and she was really warm. I took her temperature and she had a fever of 104! I was floored. Here we are trying to get ready for our trip to Utah and my barely 3 month old, has a fever of 104. The last time she had a temperature it landed her in the hospital for 3 days. I called the doctors office because it was just too high of a temperature for me to feel comfortable to traveling without having her checked out. The doctors office said that we should take her into the urgent care to make sure it wasn't something really wrong.
We ended up spending about 4 hours in the urgent care while they ran test and took blood work. I was feeling awful at this point but I had to push through it for Kassia. Luckily all her blood work came back normal and the doctor felt she just had a cold bug and she should be ok to travel. She said we were lucky that the Columbus airport wasn't testing for fevers because of all the Ebola that was going around.
I rushed home to take care of her and to finish packing. I'm so grateful Sean was there to work on the packing and keep me grounded. I was a bit of a mess. It was a bit of a late night but we did get everything packed and ready to go.
The next morning was an early morning as our flight was leaving at 6 in the morning. We had the car packed to the gills and I even had to carry our extra car seat on my lap. The girls were pretty good but it was early. Once we got there, we parked in extended stay parking and then hustled to the shuttle. Sean made me request a wheel chair to get through the airport and although it was humbling, I'm very grateful I did because it would have really taken everything out of me to go through security and walk to the gate. This way they wheeled right to the gate and in security they didn't give me to hard of a time with all my medical supplies.
Once we got to the gate Sean got some breakfast and fed Maia. Once we were all on the plane we could release a sigh of relief. It wasn't long until everyone fell asleep and we were on our way to Utah. We had a lay over but luckily Maia slept on both legs of the trip.
It was a wonderful feeling once we actually got to Utah.
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