Long time, no posts & Final to my surgery

     Sorry about not posting for quite some time, but I have been rather busy.  So I want to start with saying that I am doing and feeling great!  This is a drastic change from 10 days before my last post.  Before surgery for approx. 2 months I had been feeling awful, and then my surgery nightmare, and post recovery were not too well for me on the health field.  Well that all has changed...Pentasa + Remicade = My great feeling/mood.  My body is finally starting to repair itself, and the major sign of that was my period came back.  I'm sure plenty of women would love for their period to disappear for a month or 2, but I know that I'm really not doing well health wise when it does.  So for now I am grateful for its return.  Before my doctor and I had this figured out this combination I was finding it rather difficult to be up beat about life in general.  I've always tried to maintain a positive attitude, and think I put on a good front for those people who I wouldn't consider extremely close (mom & boyfriend).  Extremely close people get to listen to me gripe, cry, whine, complain about crohn's and how I feel that day.  I've missed about 50 days of work in the past 7 months because of my illness...fortunately I co-own a housekeeping business and my partners have been very understanding and picked up my slack.  So quick recap, I'm feeling great and everyone is noticing, which must mean I'm a grump butt when I don't feel well.
    Rowan Atkinson is hilarious.  Whenever I write a new blog I start up Netflix and choose a movie at random from the different categories.  Today I chose Mr. Bean's Holiday, and I'm enjoying it and becoming distracted by it.

     Now I'm going to finish telling everyone about my terrible surgery experience.  I had told you about my drainage bags, and how my intestines didn't heal to one another for a few months after surgery, and my surgeon discussed possibly going back in for a colostomy.
Well I was in my hospital bed and my surgeon came in and said my drainage levels were finally stabling, and if all went well I could go home on Monday, which was 1 day away.  So I was feeling great even with my lack of sleep, and my boyfriend was there.  We were watching Food Network because I'm a glutton for punishment, and it was 9:30am from what I remember.  My mom had just texted me saying she would be in to see me later that day because she hadn't had much rest either.  I never even had a chance to respond because the next thing I remember my heart felt like it was racing, and my breathing became abnormal.  I told my boyfriend that I didn't feel good & thought I may puke; he handed me my bucket that was at my bedside table and I grabbed on to it just waiting.  The next thing I knew my vision started to go in and out, and I told Seth, my boyfriend, that I couldn't see and then my muscle control went.  My head dropped down, the bucket fell from my arms and my vision was gone entirely.  After that I only remember that I was trying to tell Seth to call my mom, but I couldn't say anything.  At this point in my mind I started freaking out, I couldn't see, move, or speak.  Then I sort of blacked out, and the next thing I remember is a nurse asking me how many fingers she was holding up.  I was panicked because I still couldn't see, but my speech had returned.  She proceeded to ask me about my sight, and I told her that it looked like an old television screen all black and white little squares.  She then asked me to squeeze her fingers with each hand, make a fist and push against her hands.  My vision restored itself.  She moved to my legs, and asked me to do the same but with my feet.  I tried with all my might to move my left leg, but couldn't.  My leg was numb from the knee down.  I was stable though, and my heart and breathing had returned to normal.  After 3 hours my left leg returned with full capabilities. My boyfriend told me that 5 nurses had rushed in after he had left the room to grab someone when I slumped over in the chair.  They hoisted me up on the bed, and when they had done so they opened one of my Hickman ports, and I began to bleed out as well.  I was then informed that it was suspected that I had a TIA /Mini-Stroke and Pulmonary Embolism.  I had to stay in the hospital for an additional 6 days after my stroke to make sure that it didn't happen again, and I had to be cleared from neurology, cardiology, and gastroenterology.  This sucked!  My brain scan came back clean, but my heart scan showed I had a tiny hole in my heart.  My cardiologist would not fix the hole unless I have or had another stroke or another heart complication.  So this means that I will be on a low-dose aspirin regiment the rest of my life.  I am so very grateful that I had no residual damage from my stroke, but it makes it hard explaining to new doctors what happened because they expect something to be wrong with me.  I do believe that from my stroke my depth perception is off because I have noticed that I seem to bump my head a lot more than I use to.  It's almost like I lose sight of things and a concept of how far away they are like when I lean over or into things.  I understand that sounds so weird, but has anyone else experienced anything like this?      
     But there you have it, My whole hospital surgery story, and let's hope when I have to have gastro surgery again that it goes better than my first.  The reason I say when is because my surgeon already said I will need to come back in 5 years time for my other infected portions, but I currently feel great.  My current medicine list is as follows;
*Remicade every 6 weeks
* Pentasa 8 pills every day
* Iron supplement 1 every other day
* 81mg Aspirin 1 every day
* Multivitamin 1 every day
* Metamucil as needed
Total count of pills in a day = 12

    Well I hope to get into some structured schedule for writing this blog, but with this nice weather I don't know how likely that is to happen.  Please stay tuned for more on my life of being a crohn's casualty.