Hello, my name is Karen. I live in Oil City, Louisiana. which is in the good ole U.S.A. I've been married to my wonderful husband, Bobby for 11 years. It is the second marriage for both of us. I have 4 children by my first husband. A son: Shelby, age 32; a daughter: Amanda, age 29; a son: Zilmer, who would be 27, he went to meet Jesus September 12, 2004; and last but not least, a son: Timothy, age 24. I have 3 children whom I did not give birth to, however; I am raising them. I do not like the word step, these are my children in my heart. A daughter: Rebecca, age 18; a son: Randy, age 16; and last but not least, a son: Norman; age 15. I have 6 grandaughters, and 1 grandson. The twins, Desiree and Celeste, age 12; Jordan, age 6; Makenzie, age 5; Anthony, age 4; Briana, age 4; and last but not least, Aubrye, age 4 1/2 months.
I am also a big animal lover, we have a great dane named Scoobie Blu; 2 schnauzers; 1 named Southern Belle and 1 named Rhett Butler; a little mixed breed named Sunshine; a bearded dragon named Pedro and 4 turtles.
I had a colon resection surgery done January 20, of this year. I started leaking at the place that was resected. I almost died. They put a tube down my nose, to suck all the poison out, for 3 days, then took me back into surgery, and did an ileostomy. This happened in the course of a couple of weeks, from the time of the first surgery, until the second. I was in the hospital about 3 weeks. A week after I came home, I went back in for dehydration. A couple weeks after my return home for the second time, I went back in, because I had more infection. They put a drain tube in me, which finally got taken out about 3 weeks ago. I'm doing great now. I have to have another surgery, toward the end of this year, depending on how well this has healed, will depend on which surgery it is. If every thing has healed properly, it will just be a matter of closing up my ileostomy. If everything has not healed properly, it will mean trading out my ileostomy, which is the small intestine; for a colonostomy, which is the large intestine. I was kind of embarrassed to tell everyone what kind of surgery I was having, when I first found out. However, after all I've been through, I'm just greatful to be alive. If there's anything else you want to ask me, feel free.