Last year at this time...

...I was not enjoying life. I will let my daily emails that I sent out tell the story.

January 29th - Off To the Hospital

Just wanted to let you girls know that I am getting admitted to the hospital tonight. I had a CT scan this morning and I have a 10cm abcess on my intestine. They want to start IV antibiotics tonight and then the surgeon is coming tomorrow to determine if they can drain it or if I actually need surgery. I should know more tomorrow.
...Kristin
Jenn, will you send this to Jaime? I don't have her address in my Treo.
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January 30th - Update as of this morning...

Hi everyone...
I just wanted to give you an update as of today. Actually I will start with last night since I have only been talking to Scott. So yesterday morning I had the CT scan done. That was awful in itself drinking the disguisting contrast and then they had trouble finding a vein for the iodine. Yesterday late afternoon the Dr. called and he said that I have a 10cm abcess on my intestine. He put me in touch with a surgeon so I talked to him and he said that it needed to be drained and that he wanted me to check into the hospital immediately to get started on IV antibiotics. Last night when we got to the hospital the surgeon was here and it seemed like his story completely changed from when I had talked to him two hours prior on the phone. He immediately was talking surgrery and saying if I did have surgery they probably would not be able to re-attach my intestine immediately and that would reqiure a bag for 3-6 months (sorry, probably TMI but now you what I am dealing with here and what I am most freaked about). He said that he would know more this morning after he had read the scan with the radiologist. So, he came back today and said that he talked with the radiologist this morning and that it looks like draining the large abcess will work (mostly because I am pushing for the drain over surgery) but there are two other abcesses and one has developed a fistula (tunnel) that has attached to my abdominal wall. So, I am scheduled to have the drain put in sometime this afternoon and have a PICC line put in because they want me to go home on IV antibiotics. After we see how the drain works over the next 4-5 days then we are going to go from there.
Definitely not fun stuff but I guess it could be worse. I wish I was at Chang's:) Melinda, I included you on this email since you know first hand what I am going through.
...Kristin
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January 31st - Thursday

Hi all...
Yesterday I initially sent my co-workers an email and I was forwarding that all day so I decided to include everyone on one email this time. First of all I wanted to say thanks to everyone for your prayers, emails, phone calls, visits, flowers, magazines, books and CDs.
So last night at about 6pm they finally came and got me for the drain procedure. That was a quick thing - they used an x-ray screen to insert a needle into the abcess. I think that my first answer to prayer was when I got down to the procedure. They did one more quick scan to make sure they were at the right spot and they came and said that they were going to hold off for a minute because it didn't look as bad as what was described to him from the previous day scan. He came back and said that there was no change but that I probably had an "over zealous" report reader. He was planning on doing 2 drains but said that one would be sufficient. Now it is a "wait and see" game. They originally said this drain would be in 4-5 days but now they say that maybe they can pull it tomorrow. They have also decided to hold off on the PICC line too so that is good - the fewer the procedures the better. My goal is to get out of here tomorrow which I think is totally do-able. Everyone that comes in tells me I look like I am ready to escape :).
I never expected to be in the hospital this week but I know that God is in control and He has given me His peace that surpasses all understanding.
Hope you all have a good day and thank you for your support!
Kristin
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February 1st - Friday Night Update

Hello again...
Well, I didn't make it out of here today. Yesterday afternoon it was determined this drain would stay for 7 days as that would be most effective. So I will be going home with that. This afternoon they also put in the mid-line (like a PICC line). I will go home with that for about two weeks and right now the plan is to do IV antibiotics once per day. Right now the bacteria that is growing is gram negative bacilli and I guess they need to do a couple more tests on that to determine the best antibiotic needed. If they get that done tonight then I have been cleared to leave tomorrow.
I think that is everything for today. Kristin
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February 2nd - Saturday Night - HOME

Well, I did make it out of the hospital today. I thought I was going to be leaving around noon but there was one doctor who needed to sign-off on my release and he did not show up until 6pm. It was so nice to come home and take a shower and see my cats :).
There was (and has not been since Thursday) no discussion of surgery with checking out with the doctors. Everyone keeps saying how well this drain is working so I am very thankful for that. The nurse is coming to my house in the morning to show me how to work this midline in my arm for the IV antibiotics. The plan is to keep that in for about two weeks. I have to go for another CTscan on Wednesday to see how everything looks and then I think I get the drain pulled a week from Monday.
Thanks again for your prayers over the last 4 days. Continued prayers would be appreciated that the antibiotics and drain continue to work so as to avoid surgery.
Looking forward to sleeping tonight without someone coming in my room every hour :) Kristin
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So thankful it is not 2008 :) I had no idea what I was in for 3 weeks down the road.

**This is my first attempt at a scheduled post. If this posts at 8am on January 29th, I was successful!