What can I say...it's just not our month

Well our lives have been very interesting over the last month or so. The Sunday Katie came home from the hospital I got a blood clot in my leg and went to the hospital. Luckily it turned out to be a superficial clot so it won't move anywhere. We stayed with my mom till Friday that week while I kept my leg up. The next week was fairly calm at home but that next Sunday night I started having horrible abdominal pain and ended up back in the ER. We were there all night long and ended up having x-rays, ultrasound, and a CT scan. They told me that they thought I had a cyst on my colon. We had to take Katie back to Salt Lake for her checkup that next day so I decided to get some pain medicine and make an appointment to see the surgeon later that week. We went to Salt Lake with Katie and her appointment went great! They took her off of her oxygen and said they were happy with how her heart looked, we still need to watch her close for changes but they were very happy with how she was doing. While down in Utah, I was still in a lot of pain, and I just didn't feel right about the diagnosis they had given me, so I made an appointment to see another surgeon in Idaho Falls for a second opinion. By the time that we got back to Idaho to pick up the kids from my parents I was in horrible pain and I could not wait another minute to get help. We called the surgeon in IF and told him what was going on and he said he would meet us at the ER at EIRMC as soon as we got there. They reviewed my CT scan and they were very puzzled but felt the original diagnosis was probably not the case, but I definitely had some kind of mass in my abdomen that needed surgery. They took me in to surgery immediately and ended up with an incision from the sternum to below the belly button. It turns out I had a very rare diagnosis; Intussuseption of the bowel. I had a growth on my appendix that was the size of a hot dog and then my large intestine had grabbed a hold of it and started pulling it upside to digest it, which continued and I had half of my large intestine inside of itself and some of my small intestine. the tissue of most of the large intestine was damaged and they ended up removing my appendix, the growth, and about 18 inches of my large intestine. I stayed in the hospital for 5 days after that. So we are staying at my mom's again while I am trying to recover from having a baby and abdominal surgery. Greg wanted me to put a picture of the staples on here but I wouldn't go for that. I am so thankful to have my family so close to help me I do not know what I would have done without them. Poor Austin has really had a hard time, and now I can't lift him for six weeks. We are hoping this is the end of a very long streak of craziness. I am looking forward to just staying home and hugging my kids for a while.

Katie Brielle

Our new little angel arrived on Wednesday, February 24th! My water broke just before 6 am and she was born by 8:30 am. Everything seemed perfect but when they took Katie in for her newborn exam in the nursery they came back and told us that Katie had a very loud murmer in her heart. After having an eckocardiogram she was diagnosed with having pulmonary valve stenosis. Basically the pulmonary valve in her heart was very thick and was not working. They life flighted Katie to Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake City. Greg flew down with her and I had to stay at the hospital in Idaho Falls. Having to stay there and not knowing what was going on was horrible, I just wanted to be there with Greg and Katie. My wonderful sister Lori came and stayed with me in the hospital until I was discharged. My dad drove me down to Utah, while we were on our way, Katie was taken in to have a catheter put into her heart. They fed a catheter through her vessels and inflated a two balloons to stretch out the valve in her heart. The procedure was a success and her valve began to work. We spent several more days in the hospital but were able to come home that Sunday! We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support everyone has given us. We know that Heavenly Father heard all of them and we are so blessed to have our little Katie here with us in our home. She is on a little oxygen and we will have to keep watching her close for any changes, but she should have a very normal life. While at Primary Children's we met so many people that had very difficult situations they were dealing with and we felt so blessed that Katie was going to be ok. Primary Children's hospital is such a wonderful place for healing, they truely perform miracles there every day, and the staff are so caring. We are going back to Salt Lake for a followup on Tuesday so hopefully we will get more good news!