Incisions, Incisions

I have posted about this on Facebook but don't believe the full story has been explained.  In the past two weeks I have learned quite a bit and most likely will see later on what has been learned.

Two Sundays ago, Mark came home from church feeling like he had a stomachache.  The stomachache continued however, I did not know the extent of his pain.  As it turned out he was awake off and on all Sunday night (February 21st) and in the morning (the 22nd) we went to visit the local medical clinic.  The Physicians Assistant there determined that Mark needed to have his appendix removed and sent us to a Surgeon in Rexburg.  The surgeon we saw, examined him also, and promptly sent us to Madison Memorial Hospital.   While trying to put in an I.V. at the hospital the nurse who was working with Mark tried to access one of his veins 4 (four) times.  She told us that he has a lot of valves in his veins (I did not know veins had valves in them).  After trying that many times she decided someone else had better try and got another nurse.  After warming up his arm with a warm blanket she was successful on the first try.  Mark was taken to surgery and I was told it should be about an hour.  After an hour the Doctor came to Mark's room to tell me that he did not have appendicitis, the appendix was normal and that he could see infection and that he had a perforated bowel and would be in surgery for 2-3 more hours.  I was by myself and that sounded horrible!

Much of my time waiting was spent texting or talking with family members.  It was really difficult to know "who" to call or "who" would want to know!

It was explained after he had the surgery that one of the (diverticula) in the wall of his intestine had burst (explanation follows) and had spread infection into his abdomen.

Diverticulitis is a condition in which pouches (diverticula) that form in the wall of the large intestine (colon) become inflamed or infected. Symptoms can include pain, fever, and other signs of infection and may last from a few hours to several days.

Anyway, he ended up in the hospital from Monday to Sunday.  Most of Mark's siblings came to visit or called him on the phone while in the hospital or at home.  We have had food brought to our home to help feed the kids that are still at home, we are getting help feeding the cows by his brother Craig and his kids, and Justin and Candy have come home to help get projects completed as they have time on the weekend.  We are grateful that he has been able to spend the time to get well.  I have been grateful that Mark has an education, a good job, health insurance, sick time he hasn't taken and more and more and more things.  Grateful that we have the technology that would help him to get better and those that know what to do in these kind of emergencies.  I'm also grateful for the blessings and prayers that have been offered in our behalf.