A Truthful Mama Tells it Like it Is

We discharged from the hospital around 11 AM on Saturday. My nurse, Kisia seemed super annoyed that we were staying until we had to leave. She came in earlier that morning, maybe 7 am ish, and told us that we could leave whenever we wanted. I asked "What's the latest time we can discharge?" "1PM." "Ok, we'll probably stay until around noon since we can't check into our hotel until after 1 PM." Big sigh... "K." The other nurse or medical assistant helping us said that we and one other patient were the only ones left. All of the nursing staff gets to leave on Saturday when the last person discharges.... so that makes sense. Kisia was annoyed because she didn't want to work, she wanted to enjoy her Saturday I guess.  We checked into the Microtel. It was better quality than the Extended Stay America. But the rooms were... micro. lol. I've never seen a room so small. I slept most of the day. For dinner we walked 1/4 -1/2 mile do...

Surgery Day! I had a rough night. The cleanse made me feel super nauseous. Having an empty stomach, starving, and only being able to drink made me feel icky. Plus having to poop every 5 minutes was not fun.  I finished my cleanse around 6 PM. Everything that was coming out was just clear liquid. The nurse told me when that starts to happen, and if I have more of the gatorade / miralax mixture left, I don't need to finish it. So I left about 1/4 unused. I went to bed at 7:30 PM because I was so exhausted. At midnight I woke up with my tummy rumbling so I rushed to the bathroom. I was confused because that time it wasn't clear liquid, it was green with fecal matter. I thought I had screwed up the cleanse and I had surgery in a few hours. What if my bowels aren't all the way cleaned out and he's not able to work on my bowels like needed?! I had a few more "stools" like this. I called the after hours number and Dr. Arrington called me right away. I felt so bad w...

Many have been following my journey with endometriosis lately. If you're unaware of what this surgery is, refer to my previous post: " What Endometriosis Feels Like.... for me." This post is all about the preparation: how I came in contact with this surgeon, how I went about booking flights, hotels, etc., what I ate during my bowel preparation, and everything leading up to the surgery. I'm sharing this very personal information because I don't want others to suffer like I have. Just having a diagnosis gave me hope. Learning about solutions to heal my body from being in a constant state of pain made me eager. My daughters are at risk of developing this awful disease. So here I am ready for surgery, 3 months after stumbling upon this life-changing information and I'm trying my best to document all of it. Because living life with 17 years of unexplained pain is not OK. First, I've had some people ask me how I even scheduled surgery with this out of stat...

Endometriosis:  Endometriosis  occurs when tissue that should line the inside of your uterus, the endometrium, grows outside of it instead. ... Surrounding areas may become inflamed or swollen, and scar tissue and lesions can develop. The most common site for  endometriosis  is on your ovaries. -webmd Endometriosis is known as the 'invisible disease" because it does not show up in blood work, on ultrasounds, in colonoscopies, during pap smears, etc. Most doctors are not qualified to go much further than diagnosing. The only way to see it is to do a laparoscopy where the surgeon opens you up through the abdomen. More sophisticated surgeons /radiologists can diagnose endometriosis from a MRI but they have to be very knowledgeable on what they're looking for. Most OB/GYN's and radiologists miss it completely. Many women, myself included, have been mis-diagnosed for years because endometriosis can spread to places other than just your ovaries, causing a variety ...

I suffer from mom-comparison. It’s a thing. And when I googled it, just now, there’s 53.4 million results… I can only assume you do too. Why am I soooo tired? Others moms are up in the night and they can still function. Why is my house such a mess all the time? Other moms take time to clean their house during nap time. I can’t survive without a nap during that time, or at least a pretend nap where I lay on the couch and try to shut my brain off. My husband does the night time feedings for our newborn because I’m so exhausted, even with 8 hours of sleep. How do all of the moms of the girls in my daughter’s preschool class have time to do elaborate hairstyles each morning… by 9 AM?! The answer is simple: they don’t have an autoimmune disease. I know because I was that mom… the one who did my daughter’s hair each and every morning. The one who had exercised, read scriptures, eaten a healthy breakfast, and showered before my baby woke at 7 AM. The one who had cleaned the house and alr...