*Visiting Amy*

A lot has happened this past month, and it makes me realize how important family is.  I know through all the hard times we have been through, it has brought my family so much closer.  My sister was nice enough to include all the information for me so I was able to keep a record.
-My sister Amy went in for surgery at the beginning of the month and things did not go well.  While she was in recovery her airway started to close and we almost lost her.  After that she started to get very sick again and they found that during her surgery they had nicked her bowel and all the toxins from it had leaked into her body.  She was septic and on top of that developed blood clots in her liver.  She was very sick and in a lot of pain.  They took her for another surgery to fix the bowel and add a filter so the blood clots wouldn't go to her heart.
Unfortunately, she kept losing the ability to breath properly.  She was in the ICU for 10 days on the verge of death. She was very miserable for a couple of weeks until finally she was stable enough to move out of the ICU and after after a week or so finally allowed to go home.  Once home she started having problems with her bowel bag and ended up in the hospital ER room several times over the next two days.  When that was finally fixed and sorted out we hoped for the best.
Soon, she started to get confused in her head and stopped making sense.  She was seeing things and convinced she was going to die.  She was taken by ambulance and checked into the mental behavioral unit of the hospital .  They labeled her as psychotic.  When LeeRoy and I went to visit her she recognized who we were which was an improvement but she looked and acted so differently.  It was like she was a shell of herself and still had a lot of fog in her mind.  It was very hard to see.  
Thankfully after a few days the fog started to lift.  She is now back on the surgical floor of the hospital with a one on one nurse taking care of her until her bowel bag is gone.  
Our has really come together to help and we are continuing to hope and pray for her to fully recover.  It will be a long process but we are so thankful she is still alive.
Thursday - December 15, 2011
A lot of this happened while Travis and I were in Washington for Christmas and it was the most horrible thing to be away from my family.  Thankfully once we got back home, Lori came and got me so we could all be together as a family.  I wasn't able to do as much as I hoped, but just being there...had a certain peace to it.  I was able to go to the hospital and see my sister.  It was a very hard and depressing thing, but I think brought us so much closer.  I told her things that I haven't in years, about how I felt about her and how happy I was that it wasn't her time to go yet.  I know she has been through WAY more than I can even begin to imagine, but I am so thankful that she is alive and getting better.