It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

The title is the best summary of the trip I can come up with! Instead of making one big post, I'm going to write several posts over the next few days with pictures of our adventures. I figured I'd go ahead and get the "bad" part over with so that I can spend the week working on the fun stuff!

Katy and I made it to Australia on my birthday and had a blast in Melbourne! Seriously, Melbourne was amazing and I'd love to go back sometime. The trouble all started for me when we landed in Cairns, Australia.

After arriving in Cairns, we picked up our rental car and had a blast driving on the opposite side of the road! We had about an hour and a half roadtrip before we arrived in Mission Beach where our resort was. The resort was right on the beach and had amazing views. The weather was terrible though... lots of rain... so we decided to go get dinner and hope the weather improved.

Immediately following dinner, I started getting the worst stomach cramps. They were very intense and the best way I can describe them is by comparing them to contractions, but in my stomach. So painful! I figured it was food poisoning, but my sister had shared my dish and was fine, so that didn't make sense. I spent the entire night vomiting and lying on the bathroom floor.

By morning, I wasn't any better. The stomach pains were just as intense and I was still vomiting even though I had nothing left. The folks working at our resort volunteered to take me to the doctor and I felt bad enough to do it. (And I rarely feel bad enough to go to a doctor! Hence golfing with a ruptured appendix...) The doctor gave me an injection for nausea and pain which did nothing for me. She sent me on to the local hospital, where they took xrays and an ultrasound of my abdomen. Diagnosis? Complete intestinal obstruction. Apparently the scar tissue I had floating around in my abdomen from my appendectomy managed to literally close off my small intestine! The hospital I was at didn't have the capability to run a CT scan or to operate on me, so they transferred me via ambulance to a much bigger hospital back in Cairns.

Things were still not going well for me. By then, they had me on morphine, so I was feeling less pain. But I was still vomiting constantly and they decided it was time for me to have a nasogastric tube put in to help relieve the pressure in my stomach. They inserted the tube into my nose and put it all the way into my stomach. The outside end of the tube was connected to a bag and I could now vomit through my nose without having to do any work. It was... a relief. I know, so gross though, right? And then every few hours they'd get a big syringe that they'd use to extract any other material in my stomach.

Besides the nasogastric tube, I had multiple IV's, a catheter, daily bloodwork and twice daily injections in my stomach or thighs to help get me back on track. Surgery was an option they didn't want to have to take because more surgery creates more scar tissue which can cause the same thing to happen all over again down the line. So the goal was to stabilize my body and let it work itself out, which in most cases it will do. It's just a painful waiting game.

My CT scan was still showing fluid in my intestine, so my surgeon was wary of letting me go but after a week of being in the hospital, I needed to go home. I missed my baby so much that it hurt and I wanted to finish "mending" back home.

Picking Caroline up was magical! She wrapped her little arms around me tighter than ever before and we hugged for probably 10 minutes before she let go. (And I think she only let go because Bentley kept trying to kiss our faces.) Our best friends, Matt and Kristina, had graciously watched Caroline and Bentley so that I could go on my big trip. They did me the world's biggest favor because I wouldn't have been able to rest and heal without knowing that sweet Caroline was being loved and cared for by them! They are truly the best friends we have and family to us and Caroline.

I'm still "on the mend" and have a fair way to go. I'm hoping things become more normal soon and that I feel a bit better.

Compounding my bad luck recently, last night I had a Pyrex dish fall on my foot. It's now sore, swollen and purple, but I don't think it's broken! I'm going to follow up with a doctor hopefully tomorrow just to be on the safe side. Plus one of my IV sites is swollen, bruised, painful and has a sore on it... so yeah, as you can see my luck kind of sucks right now. But in good news, I am hopefully getting all of my bad health luck out of the way before Benjamin comes home!

And sick or not... there is no place like no home and no better place than wherever my baby is! :)