Wow, what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. It started on the 1st with my 7th round of chemo. I know, a Saturday? BUT, my doctor didn't want to wait any longer so she let me have Halloween with the girls and then start chemo the next day. Things went pretty much as normal. I was released within 5 days with the only complication being my blood pressure sky-rocketing again. I was very weak and sick to my stomach. On Saturday, I woke up with EXTREME back pain. After a couple of hours, my mom went to the pharmacy and got my pain pills- thank you mom!! About an hour later, I was able to get out of bed. I even told my mom that I was feeling better and might even be able to do some things around the house as long as I was sitting. We both decided that I should try to eat something before I got too ambitious. I sat down at the table and ate some wonderful red beans and rice. I was finished eating and was sitting there talking to my mom and Rob when the next thing I know I told my mom I got real dizzy all of a sudden. She told me to put my head between my legs and then the next thing that happened, I could hear Rob calling my name, but I couldn't answer him. I was riding a roller coaster and could hear him calling me, but I didn't know what was going on. Finally, I became aware of what was happening. Apparenly when I went to put my head between my legs, I shot straight back in my chair, stiffened up and my eyes rolled back in my head. I was completely unconscious. When I figured out what was going on, I was still sitting at the table, but Rob was holding me up calling my name and my mom was on the phone with 911. I was able to tell Rob to get me to the couch and I felt better once I laid down. Within just a few minutes, the firemen arrived and started to do all the tests on me. I immedietly became nauseaus. I started throwing up a lot. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived. They got me on the stretcher and waited until I stopped throwing up. I was able to give them all my information. The worst thing about all this happening was the girls were home. Emilee came in, saw me and went back to her room. Natalie was a little helper. She's gonna be our medical person. She got the dogs in the back yard, held the front door open for the EMT's and helped wherever she could. Anyways, the EMT's said it sounded like I had a seizure. Once I got in the ambulance, the nausea subsided. They put an IV in me and gave me some Phenergan on the way to the hospital. I felt better, but to be on the safe side, they gave me more when I got to the ER. The ER doctor decided to do a CT scan to see if there was any brain damage. When it came back, everything was normal. They kept me in the ER for about 4 hours and kept pumping Phenergan in me. Finally, I got up to the floor and got a real room. I kept getting Phenergan throughout the night and the next day, they took me for another CT scan and again it showed nothing. My blood pressure continued to climb every time they took it, but my heartrate did too. I don't know what my number of heartrate is how many beats per second on minute or whatever, but my normal is 100. As soon as I stood, or went to the bathroom, it would climb to anywhere around 150-170. My doctor decided to watch it and put a heart monitor on me. All of my nurses would come running every time I got out of bed. It was kind of funny, not that it was climbing, but to see the nurses running. My doctor then decided to schedule an EEG. I got my EEG on Tuesday, which was an awesome experience, but I'll get to that story in a minute. Anyways, after my EEG, I was discharged. I went home and spent most of the afternoon on the couch. When I went to bed, I took my temperature which is an everynight routine. My temperature was 100.4 which at 100.5 I'm supposed to go immediately to the ER. I was very frustrated. Rob told me to take some Tylenol and wait an hour and see what happened. An hour later, my temperature was 101.1. For some reason, I thought it was supposed to go down when you took Tylenol...silly me! I called the on-call doctor and told him my story. He said he didn't want me to spend the night in the ER, especially since I had just been discharged that day. He told me to watch my temp through the night and call him back if it went up and he would send me to the ER. I took it every 10 minutes for about 2 hours. It slowly went down. I finally relaxed and went to sleep when it got back in the 99's. I called Dr. Lee in the morning and she told me to go to the hospital that I was being admitted...AGAIN!!!!!!!!! The nurses were all laughing when they saw me and told me that if I missed them, I could just come visit without having to get sick. There wasn't a room available, so they put me in the outpatient room with a face mask getting antibiotics. I was in there for around 4 hours. It was miserable. FINALLY, I got a room. I was in until Friday morning. Talk about total craziness. I'm just glad to be home.
Now, about my EEG. I have to say it was one of the most awesome experiences I have had in the hospital. It started normal, my tech came in and introduced himself as Mike. He then asked me how I pronounced Mullins and asked me if I was related to Rich Mullins that wrote the song "Awesome God." I told him yes on my husband's side and we just started to have small conversation. After a few minutes, he asked me if my president won the election. I told him no, he said his didn't either, but then the awesomeness started. He said he was waiting for his King to return. I about fell out of the bed. I told him I was too and the conversation began. I mean, what an awesome way to start a conversation about Jesus. My EEG should have taken around 30 minutes, but it ended up taking closer to an hour and a half. Come to find out, my tech travels around with his brother and another friend playing music and preaching. It was incredible just to have a conversation with someone who has so much passion about sharing the Gospel that it just filled me with joy. Their ministry's name is
Cross Hair Vision and I'm glad they are out there spreading the Good News. Thanks Mike!
With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!
Emilee, me (with my wig), Natalie and Rob
Rob and I in front of my parent's Christmas tree
I'm a Southern girl- is this how you are supposed to wear gloves?
Our ENTIRE family on Christmas Eve
The Lymphoblasters (our team) - the red balloons are for supporters, the white balloon was supposed to be mine for survivors (my mom carried it for me and Rob carried my survivor t-shirt) and the gold balloons are to represent the memory of someone who lost the fight. We got two gold balloons-Emilee and Natalie carried them in memory of Ethan Powell and Sully Farrar.
The kids had a blast! Here is Emilee with her balloon hat!
And Natalie with hers...
I worked on our banner for three days in the hospital. It kept me busy and was a lot of fun! Our team members signed the bottom to make it complete.
Rob and Natalie hanging out before the walk started
They had dinner catered in from Olive Garden. This is my mom and dad enjoying all the great food!
This is my other family- the Feazel clan. They moved in next door to us when I was six years old. Ashley and I (the one in the brown shirt) became best friends and soon sisters by choice. We are all still very close and I consider them an extra set of parents and now I even have two more nephews. Evan is in the stroller and Eli stayed at home since he is only 6 or so weeks old. Thank you to each of you for driving all this way to walk with our team for the society and for me! I love you guys!
This is one of my other friends Beth and her oldest son Lane. We have been friends for about 7 years and I can't imagine going through life without a friend like her. She has been there for me through thick and thin (so have a lot of my other friends!!). I love her bunches and her three sons! Thanks for coming out guys...can't wait until I feel better and we can scrapbook again!
Me and Rebecca- Rebecca is the first person I talked to at the society on the day I was diagnosed. As a survivor herself, she helped me so much and still does more than she will ever know.
Rob and Me
Me giving my speech
Rebecca, Me and Tara (from the society)- they are both over the East Texas walk with Tara focusing on the Tyler walk
Me and my best friend Beth
Even my nephew came to see me speak
