Grateful

I keep putting off blogging.

Not because I don't want to.

Because I have so much to blog about and don't have the time to sit and type forever. LOL

Right now though I just want to express my gratefulness. I am so very grateful that my brother is alive and HOME AGAIN!!  :)

 He was released Friday afternoon and hubby picked him up as I was at work till 7pm.(My mom planned to come up again to stay with him again but wanted to wait till Saturday if possible)  I spent the night at his house with him Friday to help him out with anything he needed. I had to be at work Saturday at 9 am but it worked out as my parents got there at 9:30 am. On the way there Friday I stopped and got two sweet teas from McDonalds with no ice. (I know he loves his tea and I was pretty sure he hadn't had any yet) When I asked him if he wanted a McDonald's sweet tea his eyes got big and he was like YES PLEASE!  LOL  He was a happy man just to be able to drink his beloved tea again.

Run down for anyone who is just hitting my blog for the first time in several weeks. (I am so behind on everyone's blogs!) It has now been a month since we have been dealing with all of this.

Older brother admitted to hospital for bowel obstruction. Seven days of treatment using NG tube down nose into belly to try and suck out the blockage and it isn't working. (Nothing by mouth allowed during that time, so no food or drink entered his body in seven days other than IV stuff)  Exploratory surgery to find out what it going on and possibly remove portion of bowel. Found out that it was a ruptured appendix that had started healing over-adhesions were webbing out and effecting his intestines.  Surgeon gave him an appendectomy and cleaned out all of the tissue. Six days later he was released from hospital with an active infection. Nurses realized this was developing and asked DR's for antibiotics but they were not given. Four days later after a follow up appt. with a primary we took him back to the hospital due to infection. Surgeon tried to clean it out twice straight up but it wasn't working. (once in ER and once in his room)  My brother ended up with a second surgery that left him literally sliced wide open. He has to heal from the inside out.

 I do have pictures and permission to share but they are quite graphic so I don't want to just slap them up. I am trying to figure out the best way to post them up as clickable links so that you can choose to look if you want.

I am up several pounds from not taking care of myself and choosing comfort food. Family birthday party today and I hated hearing how good I looked. (I haven't seen this family since May) I hated it because I felt like a fraud. "How many pounds have you lost now? 40 right?" said a cousin. "Umm... well it was 40 but with all of my brother stuff it is more like 35ish now" was my reply. UGH!