Adventures of a Dysfunctional Gallbladder

Update: This post is somewhat old, but continues to bring a large amount of traffic to my blog. That's great!! After reading my experience, please take a look at my update to my gallbladder situation:
Complications

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I had my gallbladder removed 2 weeks and 4 days ago. Up until this much anticipated event, I spent a good amount of time googling other people's experiences and found that most people are idiots. The reason I'm writing this blog is so that maybe someone else out there who is scared to death of gallbladder removal (like I was) might come across my blog and get a straight forward account of my experience instead of the same old "OMG GALLBLADDER SURGERY IS AWFUL!!!111!!!11 I CAN'T EAT ANYTHING!!! I SHIT MY PANTS EVERYDAY!!!!11!".

Before I move forward, let me start off with my pre-surgery statistics.
Gender: Female
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Age: 26

Pre-surgery, I was an avid weight lifter in my work gym and watched what I ate everyday. I had gained a few pounds since August 2011 due to the fact that I was developing muscle. My point of mentioning this is that *most* gallbladder problems occur when people are either 1) overweight or obese, 2) have horrible diets and 3) have no daily exercise regimen. I did not fit any of the classic criteria. It just goes to show that the gallbladder can screw up for ANYONE.

In January 2010 (I was 24), I was hospitalized for chest pain. My grandmother had just passed away on Christmas day in 2009, and immediately after attending her funeral I was driven to the airport and flown back to California to go back to work. I never allowed myself to grieve and it played a massive toll on my body and my mind. I started developing chest pain and shortness of breath and my boyfriend (at the time.. he now my husband) took me to the ER. An EKG showed abnormalities with my heart so I was admitted. I went through a series of tests and it was determined that my heart was fine. What is considered "abnormal" for normal people is actually normal for me. They did determine that my potassium levels were low and that the chest pain was most likely related to that or it was from anxiety. My K levels were low most likely because I was just not eating enough due to my extreme dieting at the time. I was given K supplements and a pamphlet about foods with K in them.

I'm talking about this experience because I'm not sure if this chest pain was the beginning of my gallbladder problems or not. Some people I have talked to have described their gallbladder pain as being located in their chests and easily mistaking them for heart problems.

About ~1.5 weeks after this, I was sitting on the couch watching an episode of Ghost Hunters. I was waiting for Chad to get home because we were supposed to go eat Outback Steakhouse that evening. (Yes, I remember these details vividly!) Very suddenly, I feel very pain in my right side, just under my rib cage. I tried to move around a little bit but nothing would make it go away. I sat on the toilet and nothing happened. It sort of subsided after about 20 minutes but it never really went away. The first thing I kept thinking was "Is my appendix going to explode?" However, I didn't have any other symptoms that come with appendicitis. I went to Outback Steakhouse and the pain came and went that night... and every day for the next 2 years.
The only way I know how to describe this pain is that it was gnawing. It was everywhere on the right side. It would radiate to my back, down to my groin, and up to my shoulder blade.

3 days after this, Chad and I were supposed to drive down to L.A. to attend a taping of They Jay Leno Show (RIP). I was scared that my appendix would burst or something, so I went to our local Urgent Care. The doctor there told me that it was definitely NOT my appendix, but suspected it could be a problem with my right ovary. I called my gyno that afternoon and scheduled an appointment. I went to L.A. and enjoyed our weekend (experiencing intermittent pain in my right side constantly... but whatever).

When I went to see my gyno, she scheduled me to get an ultrasound of my entire abdominal region. The results said I had no kidney stones, gall stones, or ovarian cysts and that everything looks perfectly fine. Frustrated, I thought maybe it wasn't gyno-related so I made an appointment with my general practitioner (GP) to see if he could give me some insight into what could be causing my almost constant right side pain. I went over all of my symptoms with him and he scheduled me for yet another ultrasound and blood work. Again, everything came back completely normal. No gallstones, no kidney stones, and nothing abnormal to be seen. He tried to say that it was all in my head and that I should consider taking Zofolt or Xanax. UGH. No, thanks. I was on Zoloft when I was 21 years old, and served its purpose. I knew I wasn't crazy, but what was I supposed to think? Every single test was showing that everything was fine. What the hell was my pain being caused by?

I went almost a year with this pain after that. I really believed that it was in my head. Everyone was making me feel like I was crazy.

Almost anytime I went out to eat during the two years of my pain, or after I ate a meal at home that contained more "substance" than normal (like homemade burritos, fajitas, spicy food...) I would wake up in the middle of the night with nausea and (sometimes) dry-heaving. I took a lot of Pepto Bismol and Gas-Ex. Like I mentioned in the beginning of my post, I rarely ate fried foods or foods with a lot of grease so I never saw the correlation between my pain and symptoms until much later on.

In early 2011 (I was engaged to be married in March 2011), I had a particularly bad episode of pain while I was sitting at my desk at work. It was that moment where I decided that I was going to find another GP who would listen to me and get another opinion without trying to force me on anti-depressants. I looked up another doctor that my insurance covered and made an appointment for after my wedding.

I was married on March 19, 2011 *YAY*! I went to see this doctor as soon as we got back from our honeymoon and he scheduled me to get a CAT Scan of my entire stomach. I went in on April 5 (my birthday) and had a CAT Scan. Once again, everything came back normal. The doctor said to give it a few more weeks and call him if the problem doesn't go away.

I waited... all summer... I traveled a lot. It got to the point where my pain became second nature. I basically got used to it.

Finally, in September 2011, I called him again and pleaded with him to help me. His reaction was to test my gallbladder function. He did this as a method of elimination, as he didn't believe it was my gallbladder. He didn't believe it was because of my lack of gallstones, and also because I didn't see an obvious correlation between my symptoms and fatty foods (which is what is typically seen).

I was scheduled for a HIDA scan. I starved myself all day and then sat on this table where they injected with my nuclear dye and watched it was it moved through my liver into my gallbladder and then into my intestines. There is a part of this exam where they inject you with a chemical that "tricks" your gallbladder into thinking you just ate a massively fatty meal. Man, that hurt! It recreated my symptoms 100x worth.

After the test, I decided to give myself a test. I was STARVING (the exam requires you to fast beforehand), so I stopped at Wendy's on my way home. I got a fried spicy chicken sandwich with mayo, and an order of spicy chicken nuggets. Man, those were SO GOOD! But afterwards, I experienced the worst pain in my right side yet. On a scale of 1-10, it was a 9.5. That's when I realized that maybe I DO have a correlation with my symptoms and with fatty food!

The next day, my doctor called me and said that the exam showed my gallbladder was "sluggish". A normal bile ejection fraction is 35%. Mine was 28%, meaning that my gallbladder was not functioning at it's full potential. He was surprised, but was pretty positive that maybe my pain was from my gallbladder. He referred me to a gallbladder surgeon to see what could be done (if anything).

I met with the surgeon whose attitude was "Your are young, healthy, skinny, fit, and you have no gallstones. I don't know if I want to remove your gallbladder." Instead, he sent me to a GI doctor to get an upper endoscopy done and to also get a third opinion from him.

I met this THIRD doctor, and I sat down with him and described everything that I was experiencing. His exact words were "That sounds like biliary disease to me..." but said he would perform the endoscopy on me anyway. I was so effing scared before the endoscopy because I had never been put to sleep before. I was given an IV and wheeled into this room where a nurse said "OK Megan! I'm going to sedate you now!" Almost immediately I felt like she had given me 300 Benedryls at once. The next thing I know I opened my eyes and there was Chad ready to take me home. The sedation made me sleep until 5pm that evening. That was pretty sweet, I'm not going to lie. Hehe!
That doctor said my endoscopy was completely clean and that he was going to send me back to the gallbladder surgeon with the recommendation of getting my gallbladder removed.

I went to visit the surgeon one last time where he finally said he was basically convinced that my problems were from a dysfunctional gallbladder and that he would remove it laproscopically.

My surgery was scheduled for December 2, 2011 (I was able to set the appointment after Thanksgiving). My parents flew into Monterey for 4 days to take care of me so Chad would be able to go to school and focus and not have to worry about me.

I was a fucking basketcase before the surgery. I was SO SCARED!! I had no idea what to expect. They gave me some Valium beforehand but it didn't work. I started crying. They wheeled me into the surgery room and BOOM! The next thing I know I was back in my recovery room. The first thing I noticed was "My throat hurts!" I guess it was from the breathing tube they insert in your throat while you are under general anesthesia. Then I started feeling pain in my stomach. I lifted up my hospital gown and that's when I saw my incisions. I had 4 tiny incisions. 1 on through my belly button, 1 above my belly button, and 2 on the side where my gallbladder was.
They gave me 2 Vicodin and some shots of morphine through my IV but I still had this AWFUL pain in this spot in my stomach. They explained that they have to blow CO2 gas into my stomach during the procedure in order to make room for the surgical instruments and that it can cause gas pains. They had me stand up and walk around and that helped alleviate the pain. So if any of you out there are getting your gallbladder removed, my advice to you is to WALK after the surgery. That will have your gas bubbles move around and help the gas pains.
My surgery was at 9am and I was discharged at 1pm. Not too bad!

I started to get some horrible nausea, most likely from the anesthesia. I dry heaved when I got home and then went to sleep. I had no appetite at all. I didn't even feel hungry. I was uncomfortable at my incision sites.

The next morning (Day 2), I woke up and tried to eat some tomato soup. I slept on and off that day. That evening, I started getting REALLY nauseous and ended up throwing up all evening and through the night. The act of throwing up made my incisions hurt even more. It was horrible. HORRIBLE I TELL YOU.

The next day (Day 3) was no different. All day vomiting and I couldn't eat or drink anything without throwing up or shitting almost immediately (sorry for the TMI, but it's true.) I had a break down that night because I was scared that I made a horrible mistake by having the surgery. I also discontinued to use of Vicodin and switched to 2 Tylenol every 4 hours. It helped just the same. If you have bad reactions to Vicodin, try using normal over the counter Tylenol.

Day 4, I called the surgeon's office and asked if constantly throwing up was normal. His medical assistant said YES. She told me to eat jello, saltine crackers, and tea. She also sent me a prescription for Zofran, an anti-nausea medication. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. That medicine saved my sanity. It cured my nausea completely and I was finally, after 5 days, able to eat food!!!!! I took 3 Zofran that day (every 6 hours).

Day 5, I managed to eat through an entire sleeve of Saltine crackers throughout the day. That day I took 4mg of Zofran 2 times.

Day 6, I ate 2 bowls of jello, a pop cycle, more crackers, and Gatorade. I only needed 1 Zofran that day (in the morning).

Day 7, a week after my surgery, I was eating soup with noodles, bread with jelly, and turkey sandwiches from Subway. I also returned to work that day. My pain level was low and I didn't need to take the Zofran anymore to function.

After surgery, I weighed 105lbs. I lost about 10 pounds. But now that I'm eating enough calories, it's gone back to about 107lbs and has stayed there for about a week.

Everyday since then has gotten easier and easier. My constant right side pain I struggled with everyday for 2 years is gone (expect for occasional pings of pain related to my recovery and healing).
Everyday I find I can eat more and more things and I feel better and better.

As of today, I find I can't tolerate the following: oily foods, food with a lot of grease, candy, cookies, and cheese. If I eat any of these things, I almost immediately get queasy and it lasts for a few hours.

No, I don't have constant diarrhea like people claim they do. Honestly, if you try to eat a bunch of shitty food then YES you probably will shit your pants!

So here I am, 2 weeks and 4 days later, and I am great. AND I'm pain free. The gallbladder is a piece of shit organ. If ANYONE out there finds this blog, and is going to get their gallbladder out, then you should not worry. Don't be scared. You will be okay. If I can do it, you can do it!!!

Jillian overload pt. 3

Last night, I made Chicken Stuffed with Artichoke, Feta, and Black Olives. Of all of the recipes I've tried from Jillian's book so far, this was my least favorite.
Her recipe actually calls for pork instead of chicken. I'm not a huge fan of pork so I figured I would just use chicken breast. Maybe I should have just used pork, or stuck with something else that I think I would have liked better. It just didn't go that well together and I don't think I'll be making this again.

I ate the rest of the No Cream "Creamed" Spinach last night (about 2 servings worth). Since I hardly ate any chicken because I didn't like it, I ate 16 pieces of Ghiraradelli 60% cocoa chips (16 chips = 1 serving = 80 calories). hehe!

Tonight, my last night of my Jillian overload, is going to be Almond Crusted Chicken. I'll also be using the half a pint of cherry tomatoes that I forgot to use the other night and a cucumber mixed with red wine vinegar and a touch of olive oil as a side "salad".

Jillian overload pt. 2

Food updates!

The Whole Wheat Pasta with Zucchini, Tomatoes, and Lemon Yogurt Sauce was divine. It also made excellent leftovers that I ate for lunch yesterday (and I plan on eating the rest today). I've never cooked with greek yogurt before, but a lot of these recipes called nonfat plain greek yogurt so I ended up buying a large tub of it. The yogurt mixed with fresh lemon zest, parmesan cheese, whole wheat pasta, zucchini and tomatoes was very very tasty.

The No-Cream "Creamed" Spinach was also delightful, but not how you quite expect "creamed" spinach to be. Maybe that's because most of the creamed spinach I've ever had also had a very salty and vinegar-y type of flavor added to it, but this recipe only uses fresh lemon juice for that extra tang. When it's warm, it's delicious.

I sort of burned the Banana Blueberry muffins, but regardless they make an excellent addition to my already made Oatmeal Chocolate chip muffins. I wish they had more of a banana taste to them. The next time I make them, maybe I'll throw in an extra banana. Chad loves the Oatmeal Chocolate chips muffins and he actually finished off the whole batch last night. I'll definitely make another batch this weekend.

Last night for dinner, I made:
Roasted Chicken with Spinach Pesto: Also another hit with the husband! He had an intense hockey game last night, and ate a big bowl of this afterwards and loved it. It uses whole pasta (I used penne), and the pesto is made of fresh spinach, fresh parsley, walnuts, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, a touch of cinnamon, and other spices. I roasted a big chicken breast (about 1 lb) in the oven, and then sliced it up into thin slices. Then I tossed the chicken, penne pasta, and the pesto together is a large bowl. YUM!
One thing that I forgot to do was mix in a half a pint of cherry tomatoes. You were supposed to toss those in with the rest of the pasta, but I forgot and they are still sitting in my fridge. Oops. Regardless, we agreed that the tomatoes would have made a nice addition but were definitely not needed. I'll remember next time, though.

Tonight, my dinner will be Chicken Stuffed with Artichokes, Feta, and Black Olives. Jillian's recipes actually says to use pork tenderloins, but I'm substituting chicken breast because I'm not a big fan of pork. I'll probably have leftover No-Cream Creamed Spinach with it, and/or steam some frozen vegetables to eat on the side. We'll see how hungry I am.


So far, since I've been eating nothing but whole unprocessed foods this week, I can tell that I don't feel as "empty" as fast. Before, I was eating two granola bars for breakfast and would get that empty stomach feeling in less than two hours. Now that I'm substituted the granola bars with the muffins and fresh fruit, I can tell that I don't feel as drained and empty as fast in the morning. I'm going to contribute it to the fact that the muffins are much more nutritional and aren't packed with weird chemicals.
I also haven't experienced the "sugar crash". Around 2:30 or 3:00pm, I would always feel like I was going to fall asleep on my desk. I don't feel that as much now.

I have some other thoughts too, but I'll wait until I'm done with my "diet" on Friday morning. Chad and I plan on eating somewhere Friday night, where I'll probably indulge in a good bit of processed food for the first time in a week. That will be the real test to see if I feel any different afterward.

Jillian overload!

Let me start this post by saying that I (or my husband) certainly don't have any problems when it comes to eating healthy. But I've decided to take it a step further and try to eat a whole food diet for the next four days.

My goals are:
1) Eat nothing but whole foods starting today until Friday morning
2) See if I feel any different during the course of this experiment
3) Take this experience to learn how to incorporate an organic and whole-food diet into my current diet to give myself an even cleaner diet

I've been using Jillian Michaels' Master Your Metabolism cookbook as a guide (thanks Eliz!). I absolutely love Jillian so much. She has taught me so much about living a healthy lifestyle, both physically and mentally. All from either watching her shows, reading her books, or using her workout DVDs.

Last night, here is what I made:
- Grilled Lemon Chicken: From Jillian's cookbook. DELICIOUS! The marinade contains fresh lemon juice and zest (I got my lemons from an organic produce market down the road), olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, basil, and a few spices. I marinated a few pieces of chicken breasts and then had Chad grill them on our George Foreman. Then you top them off with extra marinade and kalamata olives. Even Chad thought this was a delicious meal.
- Russet Potato Salad with Arugula and Lemon: Her book suggested to make this as a side dish with the Grilled Lemon chicken. Yeah, I'm basically obsessed with this dish. I used 2 russet potatoes, arugula leaves, and celery, all organic and locally grown. The potato salad dressing consists of fresh lemon juice and zest, red wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, and some spices. Very delicious.

For lunch yesterday, I made:
- Mediterranean Tuna Wraps: Also from Jillian's book. Unsalted tuna fish, mixed with some olive oil, a hard boiled egg, and spices. Folded into a whole wheat flour tortilla and topped with organic alfalfa leaves. Very good! but it wasn't very filling... so I made:
- Guacamole: I'm very particular about guacamole, and was very surprised that Jillian's very simple recipe turned out to be so flavorful. I got two avocados, 1 fresh tomato, 1 red onion, cilantro, and some spices and lime. I bought some pita chips to eat it with. I can't wait to eat some more of this tonight!

For breakfast this morning, I ate:
- Chocolate Oat Muffins: From Jillian's breakfast chapter. These muffins are amazing. Contains honey instead of sugar, whole wheat flour instead of white, dark chocolate chips (60% cocoa), rolled oats, chopped walnuts, orange zest, and other spices. One muffin = 170 calories and they are so flavorful and delicious. They are much better than eating a granola bar.


Tonight, I'll be making Pasta with Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes in a lemon-yogurt sauce, and No-Cream "Creamed" Spinach, both from her book. I'll also be making Banana Blueberry muffins, to compliment to Chocolate Oat ones I already made.

I'll update tomorrow with my reviews.

Our Wedding :)

Well, after a year of planning, stress, and anxiety, OUR WEDDING HAPPENED! And it truly was the best day of my life.

I'm proud to say that I successfully planned a wedding from 2500 miles away. PHEW!

On Wednesday, March 16, Chad and I boarded a plane from the Monterey airport to LAX. From LAX, we flew to Chicago. From Chicago, we went straight to the Asheville airport! We checked into our hotel (the Doubletree Biltmore) that night, where they gave us chocolate chip cookies upon our arrival.
This was the first time I ever had alcohol on a plane. I've always been either too tired, sick to my stomach, or drugged up on Dramamine. But since flying has become a major part of my life now, I'm becoming better at it and no longer require drugs.
We ordered two of the Sunrise Sunset cocktails, which was basically a Tequila Sunrise, but with vodka instead of tequila. When I said this to Chad, he replied with "So what's in a Tequila Sunrise then? Rum?" I had to explain that a Tequila Sunrise has TEQUILA in it. :P Sorry Chad, that was way too funny and I had to share it!

Thursday, March 17th
Chad and I woke up, took showers, had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and drove straight to the Register of Deeds to get our marriage license. That took about a half hour. When we were done, Eliz was already in town so we met up with her at Wild Wings! Not long after, Jacob and Robbie met up with us and I watched WVU win (yay!). After a few drinks and food, Eliz and I went to Packs Tavern for the UNCA alumni viewing party of UNCA vs. Pitt. Being that I hate Pitt more than anything in the world, I enjoyed watching my little alma mater play against my biggest rival. UNCA held themselves very well, especially in the first half. So proud of my little school!
After this, Eliz and I drove to her hotel so she could check in, and Lindsay met us there to give us a ride to El Chaps, which was our restaurant of choice in college. Paulina met us there, too. After this, Lindsay drove us to Bier Garden where I resumed drinking. Lindsay had to leave because she had to work in the morning, but Joe Phillips, his friend (I don't remember his name), Heather, and her friend (I don't remember his name either) all eventually met us out and I got pretty wasted. I hadn't drank this much in a long long time, but it was bacherlotte party so why not??

After this, we were informed that Asheville now has a bar that has NINTENDO. Yes, you can sit at this bar and play Nintendo. It was a dream come true. I cannot believe that this bar did not exist while Eliz and I were still students.

Here is a picture of me at the bar posing under a picture of Goomba:


I was still in my UNCA shirt from the game earlier, and I have no idea what it was that I spilled all over my shirt. Ha!

Eliz and I took a taxi back to my hotel to hang out with my sister Sarah and my brother Kevin at the TGIFriday's bar. At this point, it was about 2:30am (way past my bedtime, even for Pacific time), and I was really pretty drunk at this point. I went back up to my room and settled down in bed. I did not puke!! yay for me!

I knew Chad was out with his friends, but I decided to send him a quick text (the best I could considering how drunk I was) telling him that I love him and goodnite. I quickly got a text back from one of my friends who was using his phone to let me know that he was beyond gone and that they would be bringing him back to our hotel soon. About 45 minutes later, he was "delivered" back to our room in one piece. :) It was about 4:00am when I finally passed out.


Friday, March 18th, the day before!
This was a rough morning, complete with lack of sleep and hangovers. We checked out of our room at 11am (since we both had separate rooms the night before the wedding). I ate TGIFridays with my mom, dad, Jon, Natalie, and little Caitlyn. Then me, all of my sisters, and Eliz went to get our nails done. It was really a lot of fun. I am definitely going to be doing it on a regular basis because it feels good, I like having kept nails, and it's just fun.
After I got my nails done, I met my parents who then took me to the Bohemian to check into my bridal suite. It was a pretty amazing room! I got cleaned up and dressed for the rehearsal. There was a wedding going on at 7pm that night, and I started to freak out (probably due to overall stress, lack of sleep, and still hungover). There were people from this wedding hanging out on the terrace where we were supposed to be rehearsing. Luckily, the event coordinators kicked them out for me, and we got to do our rehearsal without any problems.
After that, we had what I thought was a fantastic rehearsal dinner at Province 620. I had spaghetti and it was very very good. Chad's parents picked a fantastic place and planned a great dinner.
Chad and I were so effing exhausted at this point. We said our goodnights and he retired to his friends for the night. My bridal suite was really big- too big to be by myself. So my mom and Aunt Jo spent the night with me. It was great to have company. :) Despite being SO FREAKING TIRED from hangovers, no sleep, and jet lag, I didn't sleep that much.


Saturday, March 19- the BIG DAY!
I woke up, took a long shower, and went back to the Doubletree right at 10:00am and met with my hair and make up stylists from Lola's Salon. They were so much fun and they did a GREAT job with everyone's hair. The make up artist was very very careful with my skin sensitivities and I had no problems. It was so much fun to sit around and watch all of my sisters and their kids get their hair done.

After this, we went to the Bohemian to all get ready in my bridal suite. Everyone got dressed, and all the kids put on their flower girl dresses. They were all SO CUTE!

When I put on my dress, and was sitting there waiting, I was seriously so nervous i felt like I could throw up. When my dad came in and said it was time, I wanted to throw up then and there. Not because I was afraid of getting married or anything, but I get anxiety when I am the center of attention.

After all of the stress and nervousness, the ceremony was perfect. It was exactly what I imagined it would be. Short, simple, too the point, yet still very meaningful. David did a fantastic job being our officiant. Since all of the little flower girls walked down the aisle with their mommies, they ALL did a fantastic job with no meltdowns! I couldn't believe it. I was fully expecting atleast 1 niece to completely breakdown (which would have been completely fine! They are kids!) but they DIDN'T! They all walked down, dropped the little petals on the ground, and stood up there with their mom's like little angels.

And the weather-- OH MY GOD. I couldn't have asked for better weather. Sunny, around 75 degrees, and a slight breeze. They even got to remove the plastic tarps from around the terrace and we got to say our vows in the beautiful weather.

Our first dance was hilarious, because Chad and I had no idea how to dance! And we were like "Uhh, so what do we do? Everyone is watching..."

Eliz and Jacob gave their speeches which was very special to me. Standing in that room, with my Chad, and all of our best friends, and our families, was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced. I think it was the one moment in my life where I felt truly happy.

From there until the end consisted of great food, great cake, and lots of dancing. It was great to see old professors, friends, family, and to all just have fun and dance.

Something to note is that when Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" came on, the dance floor got a little insane. As a result, someone jumped on my toe. My sister and her husband, who are doctors, diagnosed my toe as broken. I have pictures on my phone that show the black and blue bruising.

Afterwards, Chad and I didn't get the have the relaxing wedding night that you see in movies, mostly because we had to clean up my bridal suite (since it was used for all of us to get dressed), and then we had to walk to the Doubletree (with my broke toe) and clean up his suite. Luckily, Terry, Robbie, and Jacob came up and offered to finish. Thanks guys!

We went straight to bed. It was a VERY VERY exhausting week. The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, returned all lost items that were left in our room to my family members, ate lunch at Jersey Mikes with Eliz, and then went back to the airport to check in for our flight to San Diego to begin our short honeymoon. While our wedding night was exhausting and uneventful, we definitely had a GREAT TIME in San Diego, which I will detail in my next blog which I will write later. :)

Food for Thought

There are two active nuclear power plants in the state of California.

1. The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is located outside of San Luis Obispo, and is said to be able to withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake from the nearby San Andreas, Hosgri, and Shoreline fault lines. The Hosgri fault is located 2.5 miles away from the nuclear reactor. The November 4, 1927 Lompoc earthquake (magnitude 7.1) is thought to have occurred on this fault. There has been much controversy over this plant.


2.The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is located in San Diego county. It is said to "built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake directly under the plant", and also has a 25 foot tsunami wall for extra protection. It is located very close to the Cristianitos fault, which is believed to be inactive at this time.

TSUNAMI WARNING!!!!

Chad and I moved to California in 2009, fully expecting that we would encounter things like earthquakes and mud slides.

Once a year since we've lived here, we've had a tsunami experience. The first two (one triggered from an earthquake in American Samao, and the second triggered from the earthquake in Chile) were tsunami advisories. While they *did* occur, they were not noticeable by any means. Meaning that we stood on the beach and didn't SEE anything different occur.

This time... wow. Let me start from the beginning.

The last thing I do before I go to bed is check facebook and twitter on my iPhone, and then read a book until I can't keep my eyes open. I remember reading on my twitter feed how there was a 7.9 earthquake that just hit Japan (this is about 9:45pm). I mean, we ARE along the ring of fire, and while that is substantial it is really nothing out of the ordinary.

If you know me, then you know that I sleep with the TV on (I picked this up from my mother... who also sleeps with the TV on and it rubbed off on me). We were both awoken by the Emergency Alert System at 1:30am... you know that BEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEP "this is only a test" thing? Yeah... except this wasn't a test. It clearly said we were just placed under a Tsunami Warning. WTF? Our last two experiences were only advisories... I didn't understand how this was different.

I later learned that a tsunami warning not only means that a tsunami is going to occur, but that it is expected to be greater than 3ft.

We both got out of bed and got on the internet trying to find out if what this was about. CNN, MSNBC, and the Weather Channel were all going pretty crazy over it and kept showing those awful videos of that tsunami wiping out the agriculture fields in Japan. That, and it was upgraded from a 7.9 to an 8.9... which is unheard of. Is that tsunami seriously what we were going to get on the west coast?!

At this point, I was kind of scared. And I didn't fall back asleep until 3:30am because I kept checking the local news to see what we were supposed to do (if anything).

I woke up again at 5:00am because my phone was blowing up with phone calls, texts, facebook messages, and tweets from concerned family members and friends on the east coast who were just waking up. Thank you for all of your concern <3

It was at this time where Hawaii was about to get hit. So I stayed up until 7:00am (when we usually wake up for work) and watched all of the footage of the ocean water receding and then inundating on Hawaii. No, it was not nearly as devastating as Japan, but it was certainly noticeable with the human eyes.

I got to work at 8:00am, and despite the lack of sleep during the night, I was ready and prepared to work a full day and to provide as much support to our Navy as I could. I watched the local news live on the internet and watched as Santa Cruz (located approx. 30 miles north of Monterey, on the northern edge of Monterey Bay) got hammered:



Here is a photo of the surge entering the San Francisco Bay (courtesy of Steve Winter, tweeted by The Weather Channel):



AMAZING....

This was a wild experience. It made me realize that Chad and I really live in a place that is susceptible to natural disasters of catastrophic proportions... and that we don't have any sort of emergency plan. I found some handbooks from USGS that help you get started with building a plan. During the next few weeks, I'll be working on starting a food storage incase something were to happen here.

Now we'll always remember that we were hit with a tsunami just a week before we got married!

Tomato Soup

I'm posting this recipe as requested. If you are as obsessed with tomatoes as I am, then you will love this.


Megan's Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients:
3 pounds of tomatoes, peeled OR 4-5 cans of diced tomatoes (if real tomatoes are out of season)
1 yellow onion, diced
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup basil (if you can get fresh basil, use it!! It tastes so much better)
2 tablespoons butter (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp pepper

Directions:
In a large sauce pan, put together tomatoes, onion, chicken broth, and basil. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Using a strainer, strain the entire mixture so that you separate all liquid (tomato juice and chicken broth) from the solid tomatoes, onions, and basil. Save all of the liquid in a bowl, and move the solids to a food processor. Blitz all of it until it is smooth, and then move blitzed solids and the saved liquid back into your sauce pan.
Add flour, butter, skim milk, and pepper. Mix well. If you think the soup needs more salt, I like to blitz another can of tomatoes and add it rather than adding straight salt.

This entire pot yields about 500-550 calories, depending on how many tomatoes you use. If you use anything more than skim milk or light "butter", then that will also up the calories. I usually eat about 1/4 of the pot with something else, like a grilled cheese sandwich. 1/4 of the pot is about 125-135 calories.