You've probably noticed that I added some music to the Gonzalez Family blog. I hope you like it! Let me tell you where this comes from. I'll let you all in a little known interest of mine. You see, I've always wanted to be able to spin tracks like the best DJ's so I high light on the weekends as a DJ in the clubs around town. And by clubs around town I mean the Gonzalez Family club, aka home on the computer. Erika laughs at me for wanting to get down on the turntables, but I don't mind. I know it's silly, but I think it's fun. Since I don't have any REAL turntables, or anywhere to play DJ for that matter, I'm going to play DJ on our blog! I decided to go old school to start. I'll be playing Dj around here so I'll try to change it up at least once a week or so. I'll keep it family-friendly as well. I have been known to listen to music that most God-fearing folk would consider questionable, but hey, it's hard to not get your head bobbin' to a good beat! If anyone has any requests let me know! I do enjoy most types of music and I have an enormous collection (thanks, B!) so I can play whatever anybody likes! The Gonzalez Family blog is bumpin'!
Crank it up!
In time of test, Family is best!
Wow, after thinking about everything my family has been through this last year I get teary-eyed thinking about the wonderful friends and family that I am blessed with. There were times when I think this was harder on Erika than me. She took over daddy duties for a long time in addition to all the mommy duties she had. I have a wonderful mom who helped out a lot with the kids. Erika has a wonderful mom who flew out here to help out. Erikas dad and Beverly were there to help whenever we needed with whatever we needed. I can't even begin to name all the people praying for us and supporting us and calling on the phone and bringing things by the house to help make our lives easier. We had so much help and support that we owe so much to those who love us. I just want this to be a public thank you to everyone to let you all know how much we, me especially, appreciate all of you!
Erika, Jakson and Xander did more for me than I could imagine. You wouldn't think that a 5-year old boy could be much help, but Jakson was so considerate of me and the pain I was in and was ALWAYS there with a hug letting me know that he loves me. He would bring me drinks when I couldn't get out of bed and bring me blankets when I was cold. With a simple "I love you, Dad. I hope you feel better." my spirits were lifted. Xander was always there to bring a smile to my face. Such a sweet boy he wouldn't always know what to say, but was always kissing whatever body part he could reach, be it my hand, foot, or cheek. Both boys were always careful to not touch my stomach. The understanding they had of something they know nothing about was amazing. And of course Erika is the one that made it all happen. A sweeter person I have never known. They say that men are likely to marry someone who is like their mother. Erika reminds me of my mother in so many ways. The way she cares for others and her sweet, tender heart that can never say no. It's not easy to play nurse to a sick husband I'm sure, but Erika did it with a love and care and patience that only she could. Thank you.
Groans about Crohn's
Once I got into surgery it only took the surgeon an hour to operate this time. He reconnected my small intestine, put it back inside of me and stapled me up. A little easier than the first operation. So, over the next few days I recovered in the nice new hospital. Erika liked this hospital a little better because the room I stayed in had a couch for her to sleep on rather than a very uncomfortable chair.
Although it was still considered a major surgery it was much easier than the first. I was up and walking the day after surgery and was anxious to get out of the hospital. I could go to the bathroom on my own. No catheter for the fireman. And best of all, no more colostomy bag! Or, I guess technically it was an ileostomy bag....Anyway I was feeling good and excited to recover. The 3rd day at the hospital saw a slower recovery than I hoped, but I was on solid foods and out of there by Friday...I think. It may have been Saturday. Anyway it was a shorter stay than the first. I slowly recovered over the next month and things were going great until a few days before new years.
It was a Thursday and we went to a friends house for a party. My stomach was hurting a little bit, but I didn't think anything of it. An hour after we got there my stomach was still hurting so I figured it was from being hungry. I ate some pizza and chips and dips, but nothin' doin'. I tried going to the bathroom, but the pain kept getting worse. I had erika take me home after I threw up in the parking lot. I thought that if I took a bath and rested all night I'd be fine. The bath was nice, but I didn't sleep at all. My stomach was in pain and got worse throughout the night without letting up at all. At 8am I called my surgeon because I was starting to worry. He thought that it might just be a flu bug going around that had similar symptoms. He prescribed pepto-bismol and to call back the next day if things didn't get better.
About 6pm on Friday Erika took me to the emergency room because I could move at all. We waited for a few hours before we could see a Doc. Once the Doc got to us he hooked me up with my best friend morphine and I started feeling much better. I had to get some x-rays and blood tests done to see what was going on. The Doctor found a thickening in my small intestine
which was causing a partial blockage. He didn't know exactly what was causing it so they admitted me to the hospital so my GI Doc could come and take a look.
We had to wait until 3:30am to finally get a room. I didn't mind too much because I was passed out most of that time on morphine. Poor Erika had to sit in the chair and wait. Her only entertainment being the crazy lady overdosed on drugs.
Over the next few days the Doctors ran more tests and decided to scope me on Monday. We were hoping to get out of there by that night because we didn't want to spend new year's in the hospital. The Doctor finally got a chance to scope me, from to top and the bottom, on Monday afternoon. He found 2 small ulcers at the beginning of my small intestine and at the end. He said there didn't seem to be anything in between so that was good. There were a number of things that could actually be causing the uclers and thickening - stress, post-surgery complications, infections, crohn's disease....At the mention of crohn's disease my heart almost stopped. Crohn's is basically the same thing as ulcerative colitis except it affects your small intestine rather than your large. The Doctor took some biopsies and would have the results in a few days.
Meanwhile I was put on antibiotics and acid-controlling drugs to help me heal. My stomach was still a little tender, but I was feeling fine. With some anxious prodding and pleading the Doctor at the hospital I was able to be discharged that night. Even though it was new year's eve I wasn't up to do anything too exciting so we ended up going to my parents house and hanging out there. It was nice and easy-going with no stress.
The next week I met with my GI Doc and my surgeon. Both of them looked at the biopsy results and said that they weren't worried about Crohn's as being the cause of my pain. What a relief that was! They kept me on antibiotics and I started to feel good again.
Since then I have been feeling great. No relapses. I do have to be careful about what I eat and go easy on lots of things that I love, but it's worth it. Erika makes sure I don't get crazy and eat tomatoes! Anyway, that's my ordeal up to this point. 2 steps forward and one step back is what I've been told so I expect some setbacks over the next few months. I can handle it with my family and friends at my side. The help we received throughout this whole thing was incredible!
Happy to be out of the hospital again!
Blurry shot of the staples, kinda looks like jabba the hut's eyes
I was pretty swollen after the surgery
I like to make up stories and tell people I got stabbed playing superhero at night :)
Half the man I used to be
So I go to see my surgeon again and he answers the million questions that Erika and I have about the surgery and life after and how it's going to affect us. After the first surgery I would have to have a colostomy bag (poop bag) to give my newly created pouch insides time to heal. I didn't care. At this point I was anxious to have surgery. That's how bad it was. So we scheduled the surgery for the next week.
October 22nd was the day of no return. Erika and I went to Cottonwood hospital at 5:30am. I got naked....for a minute, then i put on a hospital gown that shows your butt. The nurse hooked me up to an IV. We waited, watched a dumb little movie. The nurse came back and showed me how to use the pain button. then they wheeled me up to the operating room where my surgeon talked to me for a few minutes. Then, my best friend, the anesthesiologist came and put me out.
After a four surgery I was wheeled into the recovery room where I gradually came to. The surgeon let me know that everything went perfectly. The rest of that Monday was pretty easy. I slept most of the day and was on so much pain killer that I didn't really feel anything. At this point I also had a colostomy bag and a catheter in my yoohoo so I didn't have to get out of bed to use the bathroom.
For the next 5 days the nurses and my wonderful Erika took care of me. I was stuck in bed for the first 3 days, but I eventually got up and started moving around. Apparently the more you can get up and about the quicker you'll recover. I didn't get jello until day 4. Living off an IV sucks. For the most part the nurses were pretty nice and did a good job caring for me, but there were a couple Helgas that I could have done without.
Finally day 5 rolled around and I was starting to feel OK. I was moving around and they put me on solid foods. NASTY solid foods, but solid nonetheless. The nurse came and showed me how to change my colostomy bag and how to take care of my stoma. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it had to be done. For those who don't know a stoma is the part of my small intestine that the surgeon pulled through my stomach so all of my waste exited there (except I still peed normally). It exited into my colostomy bag. Once the nurses and Doctors deemed me fit to go home and made sure that I had the proper knowledge to take care of myself I was discharged. This was Saturday morning. If I had stayed any longer I would have been transferred to the new hospital in Murray since cottonwood was closing down. I was one of the last patients there!
The first 2 weeks out of the hospital were rough. I had no energy, my whole body felt like I got trampled by wildebeests and I had to wear a colostomy bag. A colostomy bag needs to be changed every 2-3 days depending on the type of bag you wear. I preferred the designer Hollister bags. Just kidding. The first few times I had to change it and touch and clean the guts that were sticking out of me took a little getting used to. I just about fainted those first go rounds, but I managed to keep my composure and complete the task at hand. Believe me, it takes a LOT to get me down!
One of the hardest things about changing my bags was that I had to time it when my stoma wasn't active. When things don't exit where they're supposed to they just go when they want to. No more sensations of having to go # 2. I never knew when I was going to start pooping (so to speak) or farting for that matter. My stoma just did as it pleased. The challenge hear was not embarrassment. If you know me then you know what I'm talking about. No, the challenge was that my stoma would start oozing and excreting stuff, pooping, right after i cleaned it or while i was in the process making me have to clean again. It was a bit frustrating, but I eventually got the hang of things.
The last few weeks before surgery number 2 weren't great, but I was already feeling much better than before I had surgery. The bag made some everyday things difficult (and every night things, too if you catch my drift), but it was something I could have gotten used to if I had to. Lucky for me I didn't have to. Plus, it was kind of fun to gross out my nieces, nephews and sisters with it! I tried to keep some humor in my life. Keeping my spirits up was sometimes hard to do. Surgery # 2 would reverse my stoma and everything would be internal and I would poop the same way everyone else does again.
After a few visits to the surgeon he determine that everything was healing wonderfully. Being young and otherwise healthy I had an advantage to recovering quicker. We got surgery number 2 scheduled at the new Murray hospital for November 27th and I showed up early in the morning again. Once again I am out of time so I will have to continue the saga tomorrow.
Pre-surgery - waiting for the nurse - feelin' goooood
Post-Surgery - contrary to what you may think I don't ALWAYS look good
Back at home - If you're wondering, yes, that is where my poopies went! Luckily, Erika cleaned and changed it for me....SIKE! I'm a big boy, i took care of myself.
Front view of my stoma. How many people can say they've played with their own guts? You can also see the other 3 scars from the surgery. They make a compass. You can barely see the southern one.
Side view - my belly is sticking it's tongue out!
Life is a crapshoot
I an attempt to enlighten everyone who has questions about my health I've decided to put up a few posts that will give everyone a quick overview. Lots of you know that I have been sick for the last three years. This last year was especially bad as I ended up going through 2 surgeries. Here's a quick breakdown of what happened. About 3 years ago I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis which is basically an inflammation of the colon with ulcers and junk inside. Unfortunately it's a disease that is uncurable. If you know anyone who has this disease then you'll know it's about as fun as sliding down a sandpaper slide with no pants on. Actually, the Doc described this disease to me as having a large intestine (colon) that somebosy has rubbed with sandpaper. So that analogy is actually quite literal. It's a bloody, energy-robbing mess....20 times a day. The good news was that the symptoms could be treated and most people can live with this for their entire lives without being too affected by it. So, at this point I was just hoping I could get some drugs and life would be good again.
My gastrointestinal doctor put me on a drug called Asacol first thing. My symptoms started to go away immediately. I felt pretty good for about 6 months and I was only going to the bathroom about 3-4 times a day (complared to 15-20). About that time things started to decline. This time the Doc gave me Colazal. This helped a little bit, but not much so the Doc put me back on Asacol again so I was taking both drugs. Things improved a bit more, but after a few months things went downhill again. For some reason my body just did not want to respond to the drugs anymore. After 100's of blood tests and multiple colonoscopy's (yeah, cameras in places cameras shouldn't be) the Doc was sure of my ulcerative colitis and could only perform these tests to make sure I was going to keel over.
So, now the Doc puts me on Prednasone which is used to treat all kinds of stuff. I got better, but had all kinds of side effects - headaches, acne, oily skin, shortness of breath. But those were all better than dealing with the disease itself. Since Prednasone is a steroid it can only be used for short periods of time so I was back to the Asacol after a few months. This time the Asacol really didn't do much of anything except empty my wallet. $200-$300/month for drugs is more than anybody wants to pay. The Asacol worked just well enough to make life tolerable, relatively speaking. So, really this disease was taking control of my life. One plus though, I can tell you where the nearest bathroom is anywhere in Utah county!
The next year or so was up-and-down. Up being the days where I had some control over my bowels and down being the days when my bowels had control of me. Having diarrhea for 3 years straight and going to the bathroom 15 times a day will take it's toll on anybody. There's no worse feeling than being stuck with no control. Driving in the car was a dreaded task that I avoided if at all possible. At this point in when I started losing so much blood in my stool that I had to start getting blood transfusions. In the olden day I would have just bled to death very slowly so you can imagine how thankful I am that I live in a time when medicine and technology is top notch.
The next 8 months saw multiple blood transfusions which each one coming a bit sooner than the last. The Asacol was pretty much doing squat at this point and we started looking into other treatments. we tried all kinds of stuff from natural herbal healing and aromatherapy massages to Xango juice and Kangen water. I've never been one to believe that any of these things would grant the miracle that so many swear by....and I was right. Some of it was tasty and some of it felt good, but my health stayed the same.
My doc dedided to put me on a medication called Remicade. I had read a lot about it and talked to my Doctor about it a few times. He was reluctant to put meon it because it is a last resort and there's no going back to anything else once you start treatment. The treatments for Remicade were 1st treatment, 2 weeks later you get treatment number 2, 6 weeks later treatment number 3 and then every 8 weeks after that for ongoing treatment. At $6000 a pop this was not a cheap treatment, but after talking with Erika we decided that if would make me better then it would be worth every penny. Luckily our insurance would help out and make it bearable.
So I started Remicade. It's an intravenous medication and takes about 2 hours per dose. After the first dose (and a blood transfusion the next day) i was starting to feel like things might get better. 2 weeks later I went in for dose number 2. I didn't notice much of a difference, but the Doctors said it could take a month for my body to respond. After a few weeks there was no improvbement. When I went in for dose #3 I had lost a lot of faith in how well Remicade was going to work and figured that this dose would make or break the deal. If my health didn't start improving soon then it was time for more drastic measures. The only thing that could completely get rid of my disease would be to physically take it out of my body, infected body organ included.
Since Remicade did not help at all my Doctor sent me to see a surgeon. At this point going under the knife was my only hope at getting rid of this infernal pestering in my bowels and hope to have a normal life again.
So, IN A NUTSHELL that's the story of my life for the last 3 years. My condition was much more severe than what we hoped it would be and my body didn't respond to treatment like we had hoped, but in October 2007 when I met with my surgeon I gained a renewed hope. At this point I'm honestly sick of writing about it so I will write about my actual surgeries another time. Perhaps tomorrow. for now, here's a few before and after pics to see how much weight I've lost! You can click on the images to view larger pics.
October 2007 and October 2006
This diet was killing me!
I'm Mexican, not Ethiopian...really!The time you think you're missing, misses you, too!
Being at work isn't a bad thing. Most of the time it's good. But there are always those days that just seem to drag on and never end. Today is one of those days. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been bad. It's certainly better than a kick in the nuts, but it's always hard to be somewhere when you're miles away in your mind. Luckily tomorrow is Friday and I get off early. I enjoy my long weekends and look forward to relaxing a bit. Oh....yeah....who relaxes on weekends? Like there's nothing else to do. We're actually thinking about selling our house and there's a few minor things we, I mean, I need to fix to make it presentable. At least it's nothing major (just some caulking and painting really), but it still takes time away from laying on the couch with a bag of goods and letting my mind dwindle to a state of near-unconsciousness while the TV drones on between a medley of sports, cartoons and old movies. If you catch me drooling please be kind enough to wipe it from my face. Thanks.
Chillin' like a villian
Last weekend Donny and Cami came over with their fam. We grabbed some outback and hung out at the house for some good old-fashioned fun made new. We had a good time watching Erika and Cami duke it out. Erika is normally not one to engage in fisticuffs, but she can get pretty mean when she wants to. Then just for more kicks we let the kids go mano a mano as well. Bay and Xan are the funniest to watch because they really get into it, but Mariah and Cora did a good job representing the double X's. Here's a few pics from the night.
Chillin' on the couch with my baby
Cami cheesin' it before gettin' worked
The boys playin' a little good old american baseballBay learning to hit homers from the pro
Don't you wish your boss was cool like mine?
Joe can cook!
Kids say the darnedest things
I don’t know what it is about Jakson, but he is always saying something to make everyone laugh. Jakson and Xander are both little comedians. The difference is that Xander tries to be funny and Jakson just simply is funny. It’s always random, too. The other day as I’m driving home from Grandma Susie’s house Jakson says, “Hey Dad, the other day I tried to fart and all it did is make my pants warm.” How could I help, but not laugh? Just one of the many insightful thoughts coming from Jakson or Xander. Maybe we should keep a list of these deep insights for later. Jakson and Xander are still so innocent that the truths they profess seem so much more comical. You can always count a kid for the truth!
The Producers
Jakson and Xander LOVE to play with the camera. We always find little surprises on the camera as we're loading the pictures onto the compy. Do you think they have a future in show biz? Production?
It's warm again...for eskimos!
It's been snowing like crazy here! I am a brown man in a white world...literally. We had lots of snow for Christmas and there's only been a few days in the past month when the ground has not been white. I don't mind. I love the snow. I got to take Jakson and Xander to donuts in the church parking lot. The same church parking lot I did donuts in with Brandon so many years ago. I didn't see the mark in the fence where we hit it the first time...Here's a few recent pics.
Picture me rollin'!
I found this skull in the woods...
OK, so the Gonzalez Family blog has had a change of look. Jakson and Xander both like skull designs (on their clothes anyway) so this is what we have! I would like to keep our blog updated a lot more since last year we really didn't ever update it at all. Only time will tell how that goes...
New Year, Starting Fresh!
2007 was an absolutely crazy year! We faced many challenges in every aspect of our lives, but as the end of the year came and went things started to look better. So far in 2008 things have gone very well. Yes, we know, it's only been a week, but we like to be optimistic. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. 2007 wasn't all bad though. we had lots of good times with friends and family. We'll have to post some pictures of the good times from last year later when we have time.
For now we want to wish everyone a happy new year and thank everybody for all the prayers and support you've all given to us throughout 2007! I thought I'd end this post with an appropriate quote by Albert Schweitzer: "Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory."
