"A Sphincter Says What..."

For those of you who know me well, you know that I've been experiencing some terrible chest pain episodes throughout my pregnancy with Jaren. I started having them about month 5 and so I looked online on WebMD to see if I could find out what it could possibly be. The pain would come at night, often waking me up. It would come on strongly and spread from my chest to my back, eventually affecting my whole torso. It would be a horribly painful constricting pain in my chest. I would experience nausea and feel like I was burning up. Usually I would vomit and immediately feel better. Sometimes it would last for up to 2 1/2 hours of intense pain, never being able to find a comfortable position to be in. It would help to have a cold washcloth on my forehead or the back of my neck. It was just EXTREMELY PAINFUL! All signs pointed to gallstones. BUT, the only way to diagnose this problem was by ultrasound, and being pregnant meant that my innards were all squished together so chances were that I couldn't get a good reading by ultrasound.

Wednesday, July 25th - I had my first "episode" after having Jaren. I woke up at 4 am in extreme pain. I asked Ed to give me a blessing (a special prayer) for healing and comfort. I could not get comfortable and eventually vomited, but alas, I was still in a tremendous amount of pain. After a few hours I fell asleep. When I awoke later that morning I was still in some pain. (Usually I would be pain-free after the episode) Ed made an appointment for me to see the doctor and he thought I should get the long awaited ultrasound. He scheduled it for the next morning at 9:30. I had to fast and so I hadn't had anything to eat for what seemed like an eternity!

Thursday, July 26th - I went to Covenant Hospital to have the ultrasound, but had to wait until the next day to see the doctor to have him tell me the results and such. At this time I was pain free. At about 3 pm I was holding Jaren and I started having a horrible headache, one of the worst ones I'd ever had, so I called Ed and told him to skip working out and come home as soon as he could. Jaren was being fussy, which wasn't good for my headache and then the pain in my chest started again... I started to cry a little because my head was throbbing, my chest felt like it was going to explode and Jaren was inconsolable. SO... Oliver called Ed at work and told him to come home. He then took me to the E.R. and there I found out what I had suspected all along. I was FULL of gallstones! I was admitted and was getting ready for surgery the following day.

Friday, July 27th - At about 4:15 I had my surgery to remove the troublesome gallbladder. I woke up and was in LOTS OF PAIN, more than my recovery from having Jaren!!! They gave me morphine to control the pain, but it was not doing a whole lot. Dr. Gesme said that it wasn't over yet. I was like... "What?" I guess there was a renegade gallstone stuck in my duct that has to be taken out. (It just couldn't be easy... could it!?!)

Saturday, July 28th - Well, today I had to get a scope and get that stone out. I was nervous because the nurse said that I would have to lay down on my stomach for the procedure! OUCH! Yeah... that hurt. It was kind of crazy in there before they put me out. I don't know if it was a shift change or what, but people were all over the place. I actually saw the scope and it was long and thick (about as thick as my finger)! Yowzers! I must not have been out all the way because I felt them SHOVING it down my throat... I horrific feeling I must say... yes... SHOVING IT DOWN MY THROAT! UUUGGGGHHHH!!!! Yes... I do remember it! Anyways... Dr. Reedy performed the surgery and he had to cut my sphincter muscle to get out the stone that was lodged in there. Soooooo much fun!

Sunday, July 29th - Mom and Bry came to visit me in the hospital and Bry was making me laugh so hard... YEAH... Laughing after having your gallbladder out... not a good thing to do! Anyways... they let me go home today!

Pow-Wow with the Palmer's & Wawros... :)

*Wow... it's already been a week since the family has left us, but I had to blog about all of the fun we had on our vacation! On Tuesday, July 1oth, Jared (Ed's brother) and Emily came with their two girls, Aubrey, age 6, and Natalie, age 3. We've never met the girls before because they live in California! We all met up at Randy (Ed's brother) and Naomi's to wait for them to get there from the hotel. As they are walking up to the house, Oliver and Eden scream out the window, "Our cousins are here!" They were SOOO excited to finally get to meet them!

*The next day it was Oliver's 6th birthday and so we had a party for him at Byrnes park. This was the first birthday that he actually had cousins here, Aubrey, Natalie and little Lydia, 3 months old! They all had fun playing with Oliver and Eden's friends as well. We played kickball and dodgeball and grilled hotdogs for everyone. We also had a pinata for the kids and they got enough candy to be doped up on for the next century! We also swam that evening at the hotel that Jared and Emily were staying at.

Oliver posing next to his birthday cake.

Cousin Aubrey chasing Oliver during an exciting game of dodgeball!

*Thursday we went on a family picnic to the park at Elk Run School. The kids played on the equipment and Ed and Danny shared a challenging game of tetherball together! (All I could think about was the end scene in Napoleon Dynamite! "I caught you a delicious bass.") Ed briefly explained the rules of tetherball to me as Danny was calling him a cheater! Then we all went to Lost Island Waterpark and played a round of miniature golf... this time Ollie didn't pee by the tree, thank goodness! Ed and Jared reinacted "The Crane" scene from The Karate Kid movie as well, which I thought for sure they would come crashing down and bust their heads! We also went on go-cart rides. Natalie and Aubrey both wanted to ride with Uncle Ed, but Natalie rode with her daddy instead. Ollie rode with me and said that he had so much fun riding around so fast!

Eden, Oliver, Natalie & Aubrey having fun at the park.

Danny calling Ed a cheater during a game of tetherball.

Ed reinacting "the crane kick" from The Karate Kid.

Ed and I picking the Tiki's rather large nostrils.

*Friday was a lazy day for us. Some of the family had gone to Nauvoo for the day to see the temple as well as the pageant.

*Saturday the rest of the families got here. Aaron, Andrew and Aiden came along with Eric, Alex and Liam (We missed Agi, Ali, Ashton as well as Anna and Joshua. We also missed Matt and Kari and their family!) They all went swimming at the hotel while I relaxed at home with Jaren for a bit. (I had just given birth about two weeks earlier!!) Evidentally the guys were a little rough and someone broke a light with a ball... hmmm... I wonder who that was... :) So... they had to shut down the pool area to clean out the pool. After that we all went to the movies. Some of us saw "Harry Potter", some saw "Ratatouille" and the rest saw, "Transformers". After that we met up with Bill and Janene (Ed's Sister) and their kids, Carina, Gabe, Brittan and Derek. We caravaned over to our favorite restaurant, Las Margaritas, and had dinner there. We took up like four tables and two boothes. Some men were playing music for us while we were there, which was a nice surprise. I bet they were glad when we left... :)

The "Fam" waiting for a large enough area to eat!

Eden sharing her beans and rice with Natalie.

*Sunday, we had the baby blessings for Lydia Marin Palmer and Jaren Freeman Palmer at church. This was the main reason that the family had decided to come. It was a really special time to have so much of the family there! After church we had family pictures outside and then went to David and Janine's for lunch outside. *The weather was GORGEOUS the whole week! What a blessing!* We all sat and talked while the cousins got to play together. Then we played the game, Celestial Companions, which is a cleaner LDS version of the Newlywed Game. We were all laughing at some of the answers that were given! I think that Naomi and Randy beat us all! :)

The Palmer and Wawro Families getting our pictures taken outside of the church building.

Eric, Danny, Aaron, Randy & Lydia, David, Ed & Jaren, Jared & Bill.

Our Family

*Monday morning Aaron, Eric and the boys left to go back to Utah. We wished we could have seen them more, but we were SO GLAD that we had the time that we did to spend with them. That day, the rest of the family went to Backbone State Park which is about an hour east of us. We rented the beach lodge and the kids swam and built sandcastles and stuff. Bill got really creative and made a sand sculpture of a mermaid. There were also paddleboats and canoes to rent as well! We rented a canoe and took the kids around the lake... pretty much in circles since we really didn't know how to maneuver the darn thing! Eden was yelling, "I want to go back... I'm gonna die!" I was laughing at Ed because of all four of us... he's the Eagle Scout! Don't they teach you how to steer a canoe in the Boy Scouts! All the outdoor stuff I know how to do, I learned from watching "Survivor"! :) Anyways... we had a good laugh! We also played some board games in the lodge as well. The kids had a ball, like they always do! Later, we packed up and headed to Independence to eat at the Pizza Ranch. As we were driving back home, it started to rain and then just POUR! We were definitely in a Thunderstorm. I'm glad Mother Nature waited until the last night that our company was there to really let loose! We were in Jared and Emily's hotel room and they were just loving the weather! We said our goodbye's to the Wawro's that night as well. We ended up staying at the hotel and watched a movie with Jared and Emily and the girls.

Carina, Aubrey and Brittan playing in the water.

Bill making a sand mermaid. Ollie thought it was pretty cool.

Eden and Natalie strutting their stuff on the beach!

Derek and Oliver throwing handfuls of sand into the water.

Our first family canoe ride that didn't even last 15 minutes! Eden thought she was going to die and wanted to see the beach again!

The last time the kids saw each other. Jaren and I in the chair. Eden, Carina, Aubrey, Natalie, Brittan and Ollie in back. Derek and Gabe in the front. They had a BLAST together!

*It was hard to say goodbye to everyone! It had been 7 years since we'd see Jared and Emily! It's been at least 3 since we'd seen everyone else. We had so much fun while they were here. I really hope that they enjoyed spending time with us as well! The kids REALLY miss their cousins. Just today, Eden said that she wanted to have a sleepover with Aubrey and Natalie. I had to remind her that they live in California!

Squirt gun fight with Great Grandpa

Well my Grandma and Grandpa Young came up to visit us and to see little Jaren for the first time. The kids always love to see their Great Grandparents! Oliver was outside and then Gramps disappeared outside as well. I saw Grandpa come in and refill the water tank of a large squirt gun in the kitchen sink. I followed him outside with my camera in hand... (because I'm the "Palmerazzi" of course)... and got some fun pictures of them soaking each other! Gramps would say, "Oh, I'm out of water," or "Oh, my gun's broken". Oliver would fall for it and start walking over to Gramps to check it out and then Gramps would squirt him and start laughing. Of course Ollie catches on and does the same thing to Gramps! It was so funny watching them play together in the driveway! Ollie was SOAKING wet afterwards!

Just call me... COLONEL MUSTARD!

Well, Jaren is two weeks old today and he's doing really well. Yesterday he had his two week checkup and the doctor says that he looks just perfect! It's so fun to see him smiling in his sleep!

Ed was changing Jaren's diaper and he said that Jaren has "mustard poops". So we now lovingly refer to him as, "Colonel Mustard"!!! (Which we thought was quite hilarious!)

Oliver and Eden love to hold him and feed him. Oliver was feeding him the other day and was trying to burp him when all of the sudden Ollie says, "Oooowww! My chest hair!". Evidentally Jaren was clawing Ollie's skin on his chest! (Jaren is always tugging away at Daddy's chest hair, so Ollie thinks he has some too!) I need to cut that kid's nails!

We are so excited for next week because most of Ed's family will be visiting from all over; Texas, Utah, California and Hungary! We wish everyone could be here for this reunion! We will get to meet two of our nieces for the first time ever! Oliver's 6th birthday is the 11th and he will have some cousins there to celebrate with! The kids are so eager to play with their cousins, that's for sure! Lydia (our 3 month old niece who lives about 5 minutes away) and Jaren will both have their baby blessings at church on July 15th. It will be wonderful to have so many relatives there. I'm sure we'll all have a blast!