Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Columbia: One City, Two Tales

The weekend of September 11 Nick and I enjoyed a trip back to Columbia.  We arrived on Friday night and were scheduled to leave on Monday morning (more on that below).  I know you all don't want to read a novel about our trip so I'll keep it short.  I do want to include a HUGE thanks to our friends who made the weekend so fabulous.  Thanks so Rex and Paula for providing such comfy accommodations - that became even more important later on - and for chauffering us around town.  Thanks to Kelly and Michael for arranging all the details of an amazing weekend.  You guys really went all out to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves!  Thanks to Tom and B for sharing your tailgate fun with us, and to Christian and Angela for hanging out with us at the game and hosting us in your home on Saturday night.  Thank you to Laura, Lauren, and Kelly for putting on the most precious baby shower for Baby H and me!  Finally, thank you to all our friends who welcomed us back to Cola and helped us celebrate our Columbia visit and the impending arrival of Baby H.  We loved seeing all of you and already miss you sooo much!
Here I am with Laura, Kelly, and Lauren, the shower hostesses.

The TRUMC crew. 

FFF ladies with the bump.

Anna and Melissa

Outside Williams Brice Stadium

With Angela and Kelly at the tailgate


Nick with Carter, Michael, and Christian at the tailgate

At the game.  So thankful our seats were in the shade!

Now, for our second tale.  On Sunday night Nick got really sick - vomitting and in excruciating pain.  I called my mom, a former GI (gastrointerological) nurse, who told me how to do the "rebound test" for appendicitis.  Since Nick freaked out so much when I did the test, it was apparent that he had it.  We headed over to the Providence emergency room (in Columbia - not Waco, obviously).  To make a long story short, the ER staff was great, and after a few hours, lots of Morphine and Zofran, bloodwork, X-rays, and a CT scan, Nick was admitted and prepped for an appendectomy on Monday morning.  He had the surgery around noon, spent the night in the hospital, and was released Tuesday after lunch.  We stated Tuesday night in Columbia, and flew home on Wednesday. 
Again, HUGE thanks are due to our friends who helped us through this crisis!  An anonymous fairy godmother kept us in our hotel for the extra nights we had to spend in town.  Kelly rallied all our church friends to pray for us while Nick was in surgery and recovering.  Mollie, Kelly, and Laura all came to the hospital to visit, each bringing food and goodies, and Mollie who is also our pastor prayed with us before Nick went under.  And sweet Michael lent us his car for the duration of Nick's stay so that I could freely go back to the hotel as needed, we could leave the hospital promptly after Nick was released, and I was able to run necessary errands, like picking up Nick's prescriptions.  I can't imagine how different this experience would have been without all your help.

3 comments:

Anna M said...

What a great summary of your trip--and even with Nick's surgery, you still wrote about it in an upbeat way. You look GREAT by the way!

Joanna said...

You are so beautiful! That baby is growing slowly but surely! So sad for Nick, but glad you got it all taken care of and that he's feeling better!

kelly said...

I still feel guilty about the end to the trip...glad you've recovered, Nicholas! Miss you already, L!
xoxoxoxo