Utah Trip

We were lucky enough to spend three weeks on Utah over the holidays. It was very fun and very busy. We drove up on Tuesday, December 17. I was a bit nervous about making the drive with Dean, but he was an angel. We decided to just leave when he woke up for a feeding in the morning. He slept from 10-4:30! We had to pack up the car and such, so we left our apartment around 6. Dean was actually awake most of that time, but fell asleep again at about 6:20 and slept until about 11 or so. Or later? We ended up only stopping to feed him TWICE on the whole trip and he only fussed the last 20 or 30 minutes. Here he is in Beaver, about 8 hours into our trip:

We went to Megan's when we got there for dinner and for Dean to meet everyone! He had a lot of cousins to meet. I tell you what, he had no shortage of entertainers during our stay.

Wednesday we drove to Orem for Trevor to work on a homemade gift for Melissa. While he was doing that, I helped Anne and CC make this cookie tree. And ate way too much candy and had a short (less than five minute) attack. Then I had another one that night. Ugh.

Sidenote: I had been having the pains since Dean was about 3 weeks old. The first time it happened, I almost woke Trevor up to take me to the ER. I had no idea what was happening. But it went away finally after about half an hour or so. It happened the next 2 nights as well, and then more sporadically. I thought maybe it had to do with my body rearranging itself back to normal after pregnancy and labor. When it kept happening, I finally went to the doctor the Thursday before we left. She thought it was acid reflex and gave me a prescription for zantac. She did say that the other possibility was gallbladder, but it really sounded more gastrointestinal. I was told to avoid greasy, fatty food. Really easy to do during the holiday season.

Thursday Trevor was supposed to fly to Texas for his interview. Unfortunately, Salt Lake had a snow storm and the airport closed down. The judge couldn't interview another day, so Trevor decided to drive. My dad volunteered to go with him, and my mom had them take her car since it was 4 wheel drive. So off they went. They drove to Grants, NM that night and stayed in a pretty terrible hotel. Then they drove to Amarillo Friday morning (cue George Strait song here) for the interview, and then started driving back. They again stopped in Grants and then drove the rest of the way on Saturday. I spent the time hanging with family and stuffs.

OK, a day by day breakdown is going to be way too long. So for now I'm going to skip to the highlights. We tried to split our time pretty evenly between the Coxes and Ortons. We went to church with Anne our first Sunday and Dean got to wear his super handsome new outfit from Melissa and Jenny Jo. He celebrated by having his first real blow out. Thank goodness for Zote soap! We also had a fun sing along with their neighborhood. Really, who doesn't love singing Christmas carols? And we had a cookie making night at Trevor's cousin's house. Again, a bit rough when you're trying to avoid eating fatty foods. Seriously, I was surrounded by buttery goodness.

Christmas Eve day we drove down to Price to see Pa. We got another 4 generation picture with him. He is doing really well. It was fun to see him. We went to McDonald's for lunch. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and side salad. No fries :( My cousin Amy and Aunt Terri were there too, so it was fun to see them. As the pains I had been having had moved over to the right and gotten longer (like 3 hours!) I was pretty sure it was my gallbladder. Amy had just had her's out and she told me to go in while I was having an attack. Nurse Terri agreed. Duly noted.

Christmas Eve we had our traditional Aebleskivers and little smokies. I love little smokies. I decided to throw caution to the wind and eat them even though they are fatty. And my Christmas miracle was that I didn't have a gallbladder attack either Christmas Eve or Christmas day!! Of course, Papa read The Other Wiseman and we were blessed with a "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" recitation by Mima, Megan and Eric. After Mike and Cara got there, we did our Christmas play. Dean was overstimulated beforehand and was crying pretty hard. We finally got him calmed down for the play, and he was super quiet and good the whole time! He was a great baby Jesus! And then the play was over and he cried again.

We drove to Orem that night so we could be there for opening presents in the morning. We got spoiled! Trevor once told me that his life would be completely perfect if he only had an iPhone. Well, his life is now perfect. We had a yummy dinner and had fun hanging out the rest of the day.

Friday Dec. 27 we had dinner at Megan's. Then we went to put Dean to bed and we went to go see Saving Mr. Banks. I really liked it, but it was much sadder than I was expecting. I had heard to bring tissues, but I expected more of a feel good kind of cry. Nope. Anyway, on the way home, my gallbladder started acting up again. We got back around midnight. I was just awake in pain for much of the night. I think I might have dozed off for a little bit somewhere around 2 am but was awake pretty quick after that. I finally fell asleep at 5, only to be awakened by Dean needing to eat at 6. Overall, I got about 2 hours of sleep tops. The pain faded to a very dull ache, but never totally went away.  Then I had lunch and holy hannah, oh the pain! We decided just to go to the ER. They did some tests and decided to just admit me and do the surgery that day. They found I had a blocked bile duct, so I had to stay in the hospital and have another surgery on Sunday morning. My mom took care of Dean. Thankfully he took a bottle without any problems. I had to stay in the hospital until Monday morning. Only Dean's blessing was scheduled for Sunday night. The show must go on! We just had the blessing in my hospital room. At least it was memorable, right?!

Having surgery was lame, but I'm so glad I had it. It is SUCH a relief not wondering every time I eat if it's going to give me an attack. I no longer go to bed each night wondering if I am going to wake up to excruciating pain. And the pain is gone! The pain was mostly because of the blocked duct, so I was still in some pain (dulled by pain meds) after the first surgery to actually remove my gallbladder. When I woke up on Sunday morning from anesthesia, it was sweet relief! I could instantly tell a difference. Of course I was in pain from the surgery, but that pain is so much better than having the gallbladder pain. And I'm glad I was able to have the surgery in Utah where I had so much help. I was glad that my mom could take Dean so Trevor could stay with me (the first night...he could only take so much of that hospital cot). Everything worked out pretty well. Dean and Mima got to be good friends.

I had to take it easy the next little bit, but we were still able to have a great week in Utah. We went to Art City Trolley, saw Frozen, had a fun New Year's Eve (although I went to bed before midnight. No way I was staying up that late!) and just enjoyed our time with family and friends! It was such a fun vacation!