Back from the hospital and recuperating!

Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for me during my surgery! It was so greatly appreciated. I am home recovering. The surgery went well. I had esophagus surgery on Wed, the 13th. (for those who didn't know...it all happened rather quickly and we were unable to tell many people - one day doc appt. next day - surgery). I have had choking spells for 3 years now. I have a disease called achalasia and it causes the esophagus to shut tight and food/liquid would lay above the stomach rather than enter in. This is what caused the choking. I am home and recovering. They cut my esophagus to make the opening larger. They made 5 incisions and were able to do the surgery with no problems, other than it was extremely thick to cut through they told Brian. I will be skinnier soon as they changed the shape of my stomach with my surgery. They took a portion of it to cover the work they did so food won't enter back up, making it smaller. I am on an all liquid diet for about 8 days. Then a very mushy light diet for about 4 weeks or so. Jump start to that spring diet! (*trying to find the bright side! LOL) Brian, my darling and ever devoted husband took such great care of me and family and friends brought meals so we are holding up nicely. Thanks for all of you who knew and prayed.

Much love and praying that this post finds all of you and your loved ones in good health! I thank you in advance for your loving prayers and your faithfulness to God.
Love,
Tammy

No posts for a few days....off to have surgery!

I had my doctor visit today with the surgeon regarding my esophagus problem. For those who don't know, I have been having choking fits for about 3 years, where food or water come up and I can't breathe. So at last I will be having a surgery that will fix this. Hopefully forever!
They will be making a cut through 4 of the 5 layers of the esophagus, which will then relax that muscle so that the food can enter my stomach, rather than sit in my esophagus. The term for what I have is called achalasia. Boring details not needed. LOL
When it came time to schedule the surgery, he found that he had a cancellation for tomorrow and if I was willing he could do me then! My thoughts on this are ...I am tired of choking all the time (at least 3-4x week) and I want to get this over with!
SO ...in I go! Plus I get to lose some weight too...woohoo!
I will be on a liquid diet for 6 days - that's clear jello and broth! Ugh! Then after that it's 3 days of thick liquid, milk, ice cream, etc. And then it's 2-3 weeks of a very strict light mushy diet. SO....look for a thinner me in about 4 weeks! LOL Maybe I will take a new picture of the new me for my blog. LOL
Thanks for your prayers and see you when I get back!

Blog header for Stamp Owl

For some reason, I felt compelled to create a blog header (out of the total wild blue yonder mind you) for Stamp Owl. We aren't close friends (yet) ;o)...and I had no reason to do it. She didn't ask me and I didn't even tell her I was making her one. LOL I just started one last night ...found a really cool blue owl and went for it!
It's one of those things where you hear a little voice whisper in your ear, "Make this woman a blog header right now." ...and you answer back..."ME?" ...."You talking to me???" "Who is talking to me??"
However not knowing who owned the little voice in my head but hoping it was God...I obliged. You gotta worry about a girl, when she starts listening to the voices in her head! LOL
Perhaps Stamp Owl and I are meant to be friends and this was the door opener. I can tell she is a super nice lady from Australia and I am honored that she liked the header and was willing to use it! She probably thought I was a little nutty at first!
Her original header was a little plain (just the top that came with the blog) and she really makes some super incredible cards! I thought her worthy talent deserved a worthy blog header! I previously have only made mine here and one for my calligraphy site at:

Calligraphy by Tammy

Frances' header was my first... So visit her site and check out the new header in it's new home! Plus she has some amazing cards there too. You will be glad I sent you!

Stamp Owl's Studio

Now for some computer buggy reason, I can't see the header since she installed it on her page. So I shared it here as well. If anyone else knows why it won't show up on my computer, please let me know! I emptied the cookies, cleared the history, deleted the temp files ...rebooted the puter....I did it all. And still it won't show up on her blog. So I am looking for a more profound reason than the ones listed above.
Stupid computers! If you go to her blog and see it, let her know, so I can figure this one out! ;o)

My apologies...

I am so sorry for the lack of content on my blog as of the past couple weeks. I have been dealing with several personal problems along with my own health issues. (I will be needing surgery in the next couple of weeks-but more about that later). My father as well as a dear friend-Shelly have had their cancer return after previous treatments. Another friend- Mary Ellen, just found out she has cancer after having major surgery to remove a large tumor as well as parts of her colon. She will be having a port put in to begin chemotherapy next week. And another of my son's friends' Mom (my friend too) Denise is ready to begin radiation for breast cancer after having had a tumor removed over the holiday.

My dear brother in law Eric, lost his Mother and her husband Jack this weekend in a freak accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. They perished after leaving the car running in the garage of their home. It is so very sad and so unexpected. They were not that old, I believe in their late 60's. It is so sad to lose someone in this manner. My blog seems to be turning into a grief blog at times...but the Lord has made grief my ministry, so I must tend to the people in my life who are grieving with my heart and soul. My dear nephews will greatly miss their Grandma and Pappap Jack. I send my heartfelt sympathies to Eric and his entire family. They are a loving wonderful family and JoAnn and Jack will be missed greatly.

Concerns for family members who have lost loved ones or whose health is failing have taken precedence over my hobby. I can't help but feel overwhelmed at the thoughts of what my dear friends and family members are enduring and it has certainly left me feeling less than creative. Their problems are so much larger than mine...but I do have to deal with my own surgery as well and the fact that we will soon need to sell our beautiful home that my husband built for us, due to the economy. It saddens my heart greatly, because Brian built it just for our family. Though these things pale in comparison to cancer and losing loved ones.

I have been stamping some swaps for SCS and as soon as things settle down a bit, I will be posting all of those goodies for you all to see. There's some fun stuff there, like bookmarks, cards and Artist Trading Cards. House Mouse prevailing, of course.

I pray the good Lord finds ALL OF YOU in good health, with little worries such as these I have listed above. When things are good, we must take the moments to jump for joy and be thankful and grateful. A dear friend - Lena, on a SCS thread reminded me that I need to stop and even count one good thing through all of this sadness and write it out to share. It made me stop and think of just one thing that was giving me joy at that very moment. It turns out it was our newest "fuzzy" family member - Gizmo who was wriggling in my sweatshirt at the time. I will leave you curious as to just what a Gizmo is! But rest assured, he will be featured soon on this very blog! He's just too cute not to share! And no...it's not a hamster like the little fella holding those flowers at the top of my blog.