Is she holding us hostage?!

It's Monday!! Back to blogging day :)
Some updates...
If you didn't sign on over the weekend, I put a post up even though it was the weekend. It wasn't part of our story, it was a fundraiser update! The Scentsy fundraiser is in full effect! Click on the Scentsy Fundraiser blog post on the right (under Blog Archive) to get the link if you're interested in ordering! We've gotten four orders as of this morning when I talked to Tonya. THANK YOU to the people who have ordered to far! :)

Also, our Donate button is certainly working!! We have reached $100 in donations (after
PayPal fees, we are at $95.89)!!! SO AMAZING!! I was not expecting to already have that in straight donations at ALL!! So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to Laura, Kristy, and Trista!

I am trying to get a ticker on the right that will show our donations and who made them (unless you don't want your name listed, which is fine too!). Hopefully I will figure that out this week!

Our weekend was a busy one but a great one! I hope all of you had wonderful weekends too! I'm sure I missed thanking a few people for sharing our blog over the weekend, I will try to catch back up, but if I miss your post, THANK YOU for sharing!!
Now that I think I've updated everyone on everything I know... it's time to get on with our story :)


Saturday morning I woke up before Dr Hyder got there to check on Danny. I had a busy day planned! Hang out with Danny, go home and shower and get ready, and then go to my friend's wedding!! I was so excited for this friend, who I was very VERY close to when we wre younger and we'd lost touch over the years. We had found each other on Myspace just a couple of months before and realized we were planning our weddings just two weeks apart from each other! I remember making a mental note to text her and tell her Happy Wedding Day. But first, I needed to make sure Danny was healing up well and that Danny would be okay without me for a couple hours.We also knew that his labwork was done, but the nurse couldn't tell us what it said. As we waited we talked about the cruise, which Danny was looking forward to and Dr Hyder still approved of. Some of the excursions probably weren't a good idea anymore, like the zip line. Others were still on our list, like touring the Mayan ruins...
"GOOD morning newlyweds!!!" Bright and early, as usual. This doctor is very dedicated to all of his patients!!
Dr Hyder looked at Danny's incisions. Asked him how he'd been doing, if he'd been walking. If he thought he could try to eat some jello, then some regular food if that went okay. Danny was more than ready! Then... it was time for the chart....
"Okay, looks like your labwork is done. The tumor penetrated the outside wall of the colon, which we already knew. But didn't grow into any surrounding organs... Okay... the tumor was cancerous. Out of the twenty six lymph nodes we took, only ONE was involved. ZERO involved would have been perfect, but only one involved is GREAT news!!" GREAT NEWS?!??!! He's kidding, right?! How is that great news?! THIS IS NOT GREAT NEWS!!!
"So, after your cruise, we will set you all up to start chemo. I'm not sure if radiation will be necessary, that will be the oncologist's call. This all will just be preventative. We will put a port in as soon as you get back..." blah blah blah. I should be listening to this... but... CHEMO?!?! My husband, my YOUNG husband, is going to have to have CHEMO!?!?!?! Ahhhh!!!
After more talk, some questions, some explanation and some casual chit chat, Dr Hyder left. I looked at Danny and let one tear fall. Just one.
"What is that? You think that was bad news, don't you?" Uhhhh, duh!!!!
"Umm, yes. For one, it was cancer!!! And for two, you have to have CHEMO!!" Did he hear anything the doctor said?!
"Yes, I know. But he took TWENTY SIX nodes, and only ONE was involved. ONE. Des, you can NOT look at this like it's a bad thing. It could have been so much worse! And it's not. I will have to have chemo, but I will be fine." So positive... all the time. How is he so positive? That's my job, I should be the positive one. Really, he's right... It could be so much worse... So much worse....
I kissed my husband... my handsome husband who had already lost more weight than he should've. My amazing husband who was going to have to have chemo!! Ahhh!!!
"Okay, I'm going to go home and shower. And then I'm coming back here. I will stay positive over all of this, but I can't go to the wedding. I can't sit through a happy celebration and feel like I do. I don't want to ruin the fun time for them."
"Alright babe. Be careful on your way there and back."
And I was off... I got to the car, sat down, and sent that Happy Wedding Day text. Only I also included the fact that I wouldn't be there. That WE wouldn't be there. I told her why. I didn't want to ruin her day, but I had to tell her. I didn't want her thinking we were just too busy to come, or forgot. Her response was one that made me cry.
"Ohh Destiny. Thanks for thinking of me and texting me! It's okay that you can't come. Be with Danny. You both will be in our prayers." I have the best friends! Even friends that I lost touch with for years and years still know exactly what I need to hear. I needed her to understand, and she did. I needed her to not be annoyed or upset that we couldn't make it, and she was fine. And I know she really will pray for us, and her mom and dad will pray for us.
I stopped crying, I was okay! I could do this! If Danny could put that happy face on and be strong, so could I dang it! And he is still here. He is alive. He is okay! He will go through the treatments to prevent it from ever coming back. So we never have to deal with this again. And then we can get on with life...
The rest of that day and the next are a bit of a blur. More visitors. Some games on the laptop. An email to our wedding photographer explaining what was going on and that I would get that final payment to her asap. She replied almost immediately and told me not to rush it. She would be thinking about us and if we needed anything, to let her know. She had become so much more than just the lady that took our pictures!! I was so relieved she understood!!
Danny moved on from jello to regular food. He was walking like a champ... except slightly bent over. All those staples made it a bit uncomfortable! We didn't have any trouble with any other nurses. And Danny could go home on Monday!! He had to keep the drain in, because it was still draining too much for them to remove it. They wanted that infection completely out of him before we left the state for a week and a half. They taught Danny how to empty it and told him to make sure he measured how much they collected so they would know when it was okay to remove the drain.

And then it was Monday! Finally!! We had everything packed up and ready, we were just waiting on Dr Hyder to sign that wonderful piece of paper saying Danny could leave! And we waited. And waited. Every other day Dr Hyder was there bright and early, but not that day.
He finally got there and apologized for being so late. It was late afternoon and we had been sitting around for hours, expecting to leave any minute. Everything he had planned that day got a late start and ran too long. We completely understood. Going home wasn't as important as people's surgeries and such. Really, we would've waited even longer if we'd needed to. We were just happy to be going home!! Dr Hyder checked over Danny, and then signed that piece of paper!! WOOHOOO!!!! Now we just had to wait on the nurse!
Click click click click... Here come's someone... I wonder if it's the nurse, to check us out!!! Nope.....
"Hi. Daniel Crabb?" No... that's someone else sitting in that bed, still in a hospital gown... ugh...
"I'm _____ _______. I'm here to go over payment. Your insurance should cover blah blah blah" blah blah blah blah. I was only slightly paying attention. I was hungry, I was ready to go!!!
"So, I just need the $250 good faith payment and you'll be good to go!" THE WHAT?!?!! The lady had my attention now! Danny spoke up...
"Nobody told us we had to pay anything. And they definitely didn't tell us that we had to pay it TODAY."
"Well, I'll need to get the payment before you can leave today." What is this? Is she holding us hostage?!
"What if we don't have that $250?! This wasn't a surgery or stay that I chose. This wasn't an option. I didn't get plastic surgery because I wanted to look different or something. I had a surgery that saved my life. You're telling me that if I don't give you a check for money I don't have, that we can't leave?!" He just took the words right out of my mouth...
"I have to get the good faith payment..." This lady's job seriously stinks. I couldn't do what she does... I could NOT tell people, when they were planning on checking out and finally going home, that they can't until they wrote me a check... Time to speak up... I still had the cash in my purse from our wedding, gifts and the dollar dance and such. We'd planned on using it for stuff on the cruise... Slight change in plans! Thank goodness we hadn't had a chance to get to the bank!
"Danny, I've got it. We will just use cash from the wedding..."
"The wedding?" Oh now the lady wants to get to know us?!
"Yeah, we got married on the 13th. Then on the 18th found out he had a tumor. Then less than a week later we checked in here for the surgery. I haven't had a chance to go deposit this, which we were saving for our honeymoon. So here you go..." I handed her the money, even though it kind of hurt to do so.
"Gosh, now I feel guilty, taking this..." GUILTY?!?! You feel guilty NOW?! You didn't feel guilty about throwing that on us as we were planning to leave even though we had NO CLUE about this. But NOW you do?!?! This lady needs to get out of here...
"Can we get a paper showing we paid that please?" Danny thinks of everything! And I'm sure he noticed the death stare I was giving that lady.
"Yeah, I will be right back." And off she went.... Click click click. Man those heels are annoying.
I dug out the rest of the cash we had in our envelope. Added it up, then added it to the amount we had in checks. We still had enough to do the shore excursions we were most looking forward to, we would be okay.
The lady with annoying shoes came back with some paperwork and quickly left. And then in walked our favorite nurse!
"I'm so sorry it took so long! I had to help another nurse with a patient and it took quite a bit longer than I thought it would. So, it looks like you're all checked out and are good to go! I will go grab a wheelchair and then we will go over the instructions for the next few weeks again, and then I will see you off!" And she did...
We were on our way home and Danny told me to take it easy on the curves. I guess every jolt and bump wasn't helping him. I tried to ease up but I couldn't really change much... We went and picked up the pain meds he needed from the pharmacy by our house and then went home. As soon as we got there the real food on top of being in a car and in pain hit Danny... He threw up, caused an incision to bleed, and I began to wonder if we came home too early.... Maybe we should've stayed for another day or two??


Tomorrow I will write about the rest of that week. Please continue to read, follow, and SHARE! :) Don't forget about the donate button and the Scentsy fundraiser which is active now! :) Thanks everyone!!