I hate hospitals

 Turns out I was sicker than I thought. In addition to my virus with a sinus and lung infection, I got meningitis. Don't know what it is? That's what wikipedia is for. By any account, I wouldn't recommend it. I spent this week from Monday through Friday in the hospital. It was bad. I hate hospitals. The worst part could have been being woken up every morning around 5AM to get my blood drawn. I thought being woken up via alarm clock was bad. Turns out I'm a really hard stick and I have really thick skin. That was pretty obvious after my IV went bad on day four and THREE nurses came in to try and give me a new IV. They all failed. My veins stink. Now my arms are covered with bruises where they tried and failed. If anyone has ever had an IV go bad in them, it HURTS. It burns like crazy. Anyway, my head was pretty painful too. They gave me lots of great drugs like morphine through my IV. They also gave me huge amounts of antibiotics, antivirals, and a lot of other nasties that made me sick to my stomach. One morning I threw up on the floor and it took like 4 HOURS for housekeeping to come in and clean it up. ick.

 Want to know a funny story? My first nephew was born the same day I was also admitted into the hospital. It was really hard for me to not have been there for my sister and baby Max. Being there for Lilly's birth was such a special experience for me. I cried when I first saw her. Clint knew I was sad about not seeing him so he drew this on my board in my room. He's a cute baby. As soon as I get some time to spend with him I'll take some pictures and post about him. He is such a sweetheart.

I loved my "Fall Risk" band. I think because it's yellow and those rooms have like zero color. And every time I looked at it the Taylor Swift song came in my head "she was a flight risk with a fear of falling". Yes, I know those aren't the same words, but whatever. My brain wasn't totally there. And it's still not yet, so too bad.

Clint was so great about taking care of me. He got really great at pushing my IV to the bathroom for me and holding my hand every time someone decided they wanted to stick me with a needle. His hand probably lost a good amount of circulation when they did the spinal tap. If you don't know much about meningitis, that's how they have to diagnose it. They stick a needle into your back and drain out spinal fluid to test....OUCH!

I'm really grateful to be out of the hospital. Being sick is a really humbling experience. I'm so grateful for my health now, even though it's much less than optimal. I'm really grateful my sight and hearing wasn't impaired. Oh, and that I'm alive. That's a pretty good plus. Until then, I have to deal with some nausea, dizziness, debilitating headaches, and some other not fun stuff. I can do this! I'm really nervous about getting caught up on school and if I can even do it. I missed two weeks of school. Even though I'm planning on being back in class on Tuesday, it's going to take awhile for me to heal and feel better and especially be able to actually concentrate and make sense of things.

I can't tell you how grateful I am for the support from everyone. I had some awesome friends come to visit me, mostly with Dr Pepper in hand that I was too sick to drink anyway. Your prayers and love and support mean the world to me. Thank you!

p.s. sorry if this is scatterbrained. My brain IS scattered right now.