Homemaking on the Homestead

I was going to try and reply to everyone that left me heartfelt comments on my “Update” post. My energy level is limited so I decided to let you know here instead. Thank you, thank you for your prayers, concerns and positive thoughts. It means so much to me. I'm doing a little better each day. I have a couple follow up appointments with my doctors this week and I'll see where I'm at according to them. Right now my biggest desire is to get to the point where I can swallow liquids again. Swallowing is a labor for me as my throat is healing. They told me it would take time for the swelling to go down and things to stabilize. I can swallow soft liquids, such as smoothies or nectar and some soft foods such as applesauce and mashed potatoes but in very small amounts. Not enough to sustain me or keep me hydrated. They sent me home with a feeding tube where I'm getting the calories and water needed to heal and recover. I'm praying that...

I finally have a little bit of energy to be able to update you all. As many of you know in mid January I went in for surgery on my hiatal hernia. The surgery went as was planned up until the very end. I'm not going to go into all the details but a very bad mistake was made by one of the surgeons resulting in a tear in my esophagus. It required emergency surgery to fix this and I was intubated and sedated and in ICU for 5 nights. I spent another 3 or 4 days in the hospital and then was able to come home. Because I have wonderful support they could let me go home that soon. I've been home a week now and it was a rough week. So many adjustments to make and strength to regain. Amazing how quickly and easily we lose our body strength when we don't use any of our body for 5 days. I have weekly and twice weekly visits from a registered nurse, physical therapy, occupational therapy and a speech pathologist. This has literally turned my life upside down. ...