What I did on my summer vacation: spent a whole lot of unexpected time in the hospital

It all started with the word “no’ written just above my right knee. “Yes” was written on the other knee, and on July 9, I got a new knee replacing the one that said “yes.” I did so well after surgery that Dr. Bhargava let me go home a day early. Everything was great for six days. Then it wasn't.

Wowzer, the pain in my stomach was unbearable, so my husband took me to the ER at St. Francis. The next morning, I had surgery on a ischemic bowel secondary to a hernia. That meant the blood circulation to my bowel had been cut off and 4 inches of it had died. (I'm sorry if you're eating breakfast.) Dr. Beamer fixed it and even though it hurt afterward, it hurt much more before surgery.

So there I was In ICU for a couple of days, glad to be alive but not thrilled with the timing of having to have two surgeries in one week. Life if full of surprises.

I wish I would have kept count of the number of staff taking care of me. It's amazing how many people one patient sees. The thing I also noticed: It's a bunch of young people. As I came out of the fog and could think and talk, I got to know a little about them.

At the end of their 12 hour shifts, the nurses and certified nursing assistants would come in with their replacements. Nurses wear light blue scrubs and assistants wear dark blue so they came in a color coordinated group ready to leave or to take over.

A nurse named Amy put a heart by her name the big dry erase board. She had a new stethoscope that had rhinestones all over it. It fit her personality perfectly. Amy is pregnant with her first child, as is short and feisty Karissa, who, like Amy, is going to have a boy in September.

As much as I liked everyone of these people, I could not talk them into giving me a tall glass of ice water. Ice chips helped, but talk about a drop in the bucket.

A physician assistant also named Amy was so pretty, it made me want to put the sheet over my head every time she came in the room. Her husband, Jason, also worked at the hospital. He took a sonogram of my heart. They were a great couple with a nice story. And my goodness did Jason have some muscles.

Remember when David Letterman came back on the air after his heart attack? With tears in his eyes, he thanked the people who had taken care of him and got very choked up. I can see why. I hope I thanked those many people who helped me while I was there.

Besides those mentioned above, Tyler and Jodi in ICU, Dr. Beamer, Dr. Ebersole, Dr. Albertson, Dr. Alex Ammar, nurses Kelsey, Ryan, Megan, Mallory and Kyle convinced me I would get better each day. There are simply too many to mention. But thank you.

Leaving the large team of caregivers and coming home was a little scary. My husband does a great job of taking care of me, but he's only one person. But we agreed on the way home, we could do this. Support of family and friends has been amazing and we're grateful.

It has been a time to let my stomach heal and rehab my knee. That's what I've been doing. I'm not used to lying around, but sometimes you don't have a choice. I've had plenty of time to think about "what I did on my summer vacation" and it has reminded me of how important good health is. When I get impatient, frustrated or discouraged, I remind myself that I will get well. And I won't forget the number of people who promised me that and put me on the road to recovery.

I also will keep in mind what it said on the bottom of the food sheet that came with every meal in the hospital: Compassion at every point of human contact.