Good Friday morning!  Mike wants to thank everyone for the many birthday wishes he received yesterday.  He had a good day in spite of me being down all day.  Jenna came over after work with Tyler and made Mike brownies and Mike cooked a great dinner.  Of course sharing his birthday with his grandson was the best gift for him.

I am still very sore and bruised and moving slow, but each day gets a little better.  Thank you very much for all of the get well cards and wishes.  I am loving them!  So sweet of everyone!  Makes my day!

On with my story......as I was being wheeled into ICU tears started flowing because I just couldn't believe that I was going into an ICU.  I had never even really visited anyone in an ICU before and here I was going to be a patient in one.  Plus the fact that I was feeling so sick and had a massive headache didn't help either.  The nurses helping me with the whole transition were fabulous.  I quickly realized that everything would be fine.  By Sunday night my pancreas enzyme numbers had dropped to 600.  That was good news.  By Monday early, early morning they had dropped to 300.  Yay!  Now we were getting somewhere.  Meanwhile I am still so sick, throwing up all the time and still had a monster headache.  My surgeon, who by the way is not only my surgeon but a good family friend, Dr. Susan Hahm came by and saw me and said it looked like it would be a day or two still before we could do the surgery.  But the latest blood reports hadn't come back yet.....so in the meantime later that afternoon, a good friend of mine shows up and asks to pray with me.  At this point it hurt to even open my eyes so I didn't really see her but knew she was there and she held my hand and started praying.  During the prayer my surgeon came in and said, "Leslie I am ready to do surgery on you right now."  The latest lab report had come back and my numbers had dropped to where she could do the surgery!  WOW!!  What an answer to our prayers. I mean seriously I felt such a miracle taking place.  Hard to explain.   Things started to move quickly then.  As I was being wheeled to surgery the tears started coming again.  I couldn't believe that I was going into surgery.  I didn't want to have surgery (I did because I knew it is what I needed to get better, but I didn't). I got there and my anxiety didn't let up until they put me under.  Thankfully she was able to get it out laproscopically.  To be continued and finished tomorrow.......I promise!

I wanted to put a picture of my Ty man up today.  He was just chillin with Nani here.  Did you all miss seeing him?  :)

Thank you for your continued prayers.  My biggest prayer request right now would be to stop coughing.  It is about to kill my insides.  It hurts so much to cough and I still have that lingering cough from the bronchitis.  I will start putting up the prayer requests again next week.  In the meantime could you keep my friend Stacey in your prayers for continued healing.  Thanks.

Have a great day everyone!  Today is another gift from God and He is so Good!

Good Thursday morning!!  First off I would like to wish my sweet, loving, helpful and gorgeous hubby Mike a very "Happy Birthday" today!!  We had originally planned a big birthday dinner for him last night but we all know that life can throw you a curve ball and that plans can change at any moment.  So I am looking at hopefully celebrating sometime the end of next week.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your prayers for me during this whole ordeal!  I still can't believe that this all happened.  What a crazy and very unexpected thing!  God was so good and continues to be.  If this had to happen the timing of it could not of been better.  The right people were at the right place at the right time.....just incredible!  I had already put Tyler down for the night and I was actually in bed too just reading when it hit.  Let me just say that I would rather of given birth to a child then have that pain again.  I have done both and believe me.....giving birth was easier.  Mike had to rush me to the hospital but I knew Jeff would be able to take care of Tyler until we got back.  Little did I know at the time that I wasn't coming back.  Mike made it back before Tyler woke up in the morning and my sister-in-law Noni took over from there.  She and my brother Donald were in heaven spoiling Tyler until Ryan and Jenna made it back home from their trip. 

While I was in the ER they were quickly running tests and trying to figure out the problem so they could give me some pain meds.  I have never in my life begged for pain meds but I was begging for them to hurry.  I actually thought I was going to pass out I was in so much pain.  I had the best ER doc on when I came in and he and the staff took such great care of me.  After figuring out that I had pancreatitis I got the pain meds and was out.  It didn't last long because pain meds and me don't get along well and I got very sick with them.  So not only was I sick from the pancreatitis but with the pain meds on top of that I was throwing up all the time.....even with the anti-nausea drugs they were giving to me.  And remember I am still coughing from the touch of bronchitis I had too.

A normal pancreatic enzyme level should be 0-10.  Mine was in the 2000's.  They would have to wait until they were in normal range until they can do surgery to remove my gallbladder.  Some patients have to wait up to two weeks in the hospital to have that done.  I KNOW it was from all of you praying for me that my levels moved so quickly down and they were aggressively treating my pancreas to bring my levels down too.  I was moved from the ER to ICU where the nurses there also took such excellent care of me.  I will continue this story from here tomorrow.....

I am still very sore but in no more pain.  My family is taking awesome care of me.  I have so much more to say but it will turn into a novel if I don't stop somewhere for now.  Just want to thank you all again so very much for your prayers, love, and support for not only me but for my family.  We felt them!  Please continue to keep me in your prayers during my recovery.

Have a fantabulous day everyone!  Today is another gift from God and He is so Good!  Thank you God for getting me through another rough spot in life.  Through my weakness your strength shines!

Also I hope if Mickey or Peggy Dale read this today that they can give more details.....but when I was in the hospital, Jonathan and Nora Dale gave birth to Peter Isaiah Dale.  Don't know exactly when or how much he weighed and stuff so if you see this today let us know.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!  I know Mike and Jenna already saw Peter and they said he is adorable!  So happy for the whole Dale family!

Leslie is SO happy to be home and sleeping in her own bed without 17 jillion wires and tubes hooked to her and that infernal blood pressure cuff that tries to pinch her arm off every 15 minutes! LOL.  She is sore but feeling pretty good, she thinks she may be up to blogging tomorrow (maybe you'll even get a picture of Goobie).

Leslie thanks you all for praying for her and she sends her love.  God is GOOD.

SHE'S HOME!!!!  They released her this evening and she is HAPPY to be home.  More details tomorrow

Leslie had a big smile on her beautiful face when I came in this morning, it did my heart good.  She is still very sore but doing much better.  The challenge will be to keep her BODY in the hospital when her MIND wants to go home!  Now that she's feeling better, she wants OUT OF HERE!  I would be surprised if she is released before tomorrow afternoon but we will see - I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for your prayers, I am reading your comment to Leslie so feel free to comment to your heart's content.

God is Good!

UPDATE 9:00 pm - I just left Les for the night and she is looking the best she has since Saturday night, she even stood up at the bedside for a little while.  She's pretty sore and that touch of bronchitis cough isn't feeling so great right about now.  She's going to try to keep away from the pain meds, hopefully she will have a good night and feel even better tomorrow.

UPDATE 3:30 pm - Surgery is done, Dr Hahm said everything went well.  Leslie is OUT!

I've finally got some information worth posting.  Leslie's pancrease enzymes are back down where they belong so they are going to do her gall bladder surgery today, probably around 3:00.  She is still having problems with headaches and nausea, probably from her pain meds.  Looks like the last medication they gave her about half an hour ago has knocked her out so she can get some rest until they take her to OR.  I will keep you posted with updates.

Mike