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Sinus surgery – Day Two

Me and my gauze mustache
Me and my gauze mustache

I made it through the night all right. I got up once for more pain reliever, but was mostly okay for sleeping. I woke up at the crack of dawn. I was wide awake and actually feeling pretty good. First thing in the morning, I did the sinus rinse the doctor suggested. I used on of those Neil-Med Sinus-Rinse things where you squeeze the bottle and it shoots salty water up your nose. I’ve had one for a few years now, so I was well-aware of what it was going to be like. Except that you are never prepared for blood and goo coming out. Not ever, really. It was super gross and you should be glad that I was not coordinated enough at that point to take pictures.

Nick got the boys ready and took them to school and went on to work himself. I drank an Instant Breakfast beverage, took my meds, and sat on the couch with my bundle of helpful things:

  1. Plastic cup full of water with a helpful straw (some websites say you shouldn’t have a straw after surgery. I wouldn’t have been able to drink without it.)
  2. Big coffee cup full of tea
  3. Box of tissues
  4. Box of Q-Tips
  5. Nasal Moisturizer Spray
  6. Lip Balm
  7. Vicks Vapo-Rub

I only got up off the couch every few hours and only to a) go to the bathroom and b) get some more liquids. It was a process. Mainly I watched TV and dozed.

At lunch time, Nick came home, made me some soup, got me some more beverages, and went back to work. It was very exciting, obviously.

Some kind friends brought the kids home from school. One came in and made me some tea, one came in and let her kid play with my kids in the backyard for a while. Eventually I managed to send the spare kid home (I don’t remember him coming in, but there he was). Nick’s mom came and took boys to piano lessons. Once Nick came home, I went back on to the bedroom and retired for the day.

Once Nick came home, I went back on to the bedroom and retired for the day. Dinner was brought to me in bed. It was cut up into tiny, tiny chunks, which was good. One thing they don’t tell you about this surgery is how much your jaw will hurt afterwards. Maybe it’s just the RA giving me further problems, but I could barely open my mouth at all.

health

Sinus surgery – Day of Surgery

I couldn’t sleep in. I just couldn’t sleep. So up I got and dressed and ready to go so early. My husband and dad came with me to the little surgery center. It was filled with so many waiting people and an inconceivable number of babies. There was barely room for us all.

They had me go back to the starting room alone at first. The nurse I saw the week before at my PASS appointment was there to ask me questions. I answered them all, changed into a gown (with my sports bra and PJ shorts underneath, put on the socks they provided me and went back to the starting room to get my IV. That was actually the hardest part of the pre-surgery day. My hands have terribly knobby veins and it was quite pinchy feeling in my hand. They let my husband come hang out with me at this point. Just my husband; they said I couldn’t have my dad, too, due to space issues, but the patient in the cubby behind me had two people and the kid next to me had three. It was weird.

Anyway, soon enough they wheeled me down to the surgery room, which was full of people and light on bed space. Seriously, I felt like I was precariously balanced on a skinny board with a head rest. They put a mask over my face and talked to me a bit, then realized I wasn’t losing consciousness, and pressed the mask tighter to my face, telling me to breathe….

…and then I woke up and they were telling me that I needed to breathe deeper and slower. I had stuff covering my nose, so I knew they were done. I was freezing cold and burning up all at once. They kept trying to tuck me in and I kept trying to kick free. I could already breathe through both sides of my nose. I was stuffy, but I could breathe. Finally they uncovered me, helped me to a wheelchair, and let me go to the recovery room, where I was helped to yet a different chair.

In the recovery room, they brought me my husband, who said I looked better than he expected. They explained a few things and sent him off for the car while I sat in my wheelchair near the door.

I only remember one part of coming home: we hit a bump in the road and oh, did that hurt. Once home, I started to mentally perk up. I was starving and I wanted lunch. Nick had to go pick up my prescriptions, so my dad stayed with me. He fell asleep in the chair next to mine and I sat there and pondered the fact that I was more starving than in pain (the medicine from the hospital hadn’t worn off yet at this point). Nick came home, gave me drugs and soup and my mom came to pick up my dad. Then Nick fell asleep for a while, too. Having a loved one have surgery is very exhausting.

I sat on the couch the rest of the day. I took my Tylenol-3, which I really needed by then, and the antibiotic they prescribed me. The kids came home at some point and were put to bed by Nick. I was mostly in a fog. Eventually, I took my last, much-loved dose of Tylenol-3 for the night and was put to bed, too.

Around the House, Parenting

Ben’s Percy Jackson birthday party

I’ve been running late on blog posting lately, I know, but here’s a recent one: Ben’s 11th Birthday Party. We had a Percy Jackson theme. We usually have beautiful weather for his birthday, but with the Polar Vortex and all, we had a cold, rainy day.  So we changed a few things up and moved the excitement inside. (I was going to link to the party idea page we pulled this from, but I’m not sure where the original came from. It looks like everyone’s using the same idea. Whoever you are out there, many thanks!)

Around the House

Last week of October

The last week of October was exciting, at least for me. I had a CT scan and got registered for surgery early next year.

 

Ben had an exciting week, too: a meeting for his upcoming trip to Camp Tyler and a visit to the dentist that resulted in three teeth pulled.

 

And then, of course, there was Halloween….

Everywhere But Home, Family Time, Friend Time

ALTON BROWN LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everywhere But Home, health

Back to life, back to reality…

We’ve had five doctors appointments this week. FIVE. To say it has been crazy would be the understatement of the week. I know this is not the health blog, but here, have a summary:

1 & 2. Together. David and Greg both saw Dr. Mitchell for well-child checks. It was fantastic.  No, really. David was supposed to be the model of good behavior getting a shot and he totally just wasn’t, so Greg freaked out and tried to jump off the table while getting his.

3.  I went to the ENT. Long story. I’ll post that on the other blog. You’ll love it. Really.

4. David had to have a TB test and we had to go back to have it read. He does not have TB, but the test was terrible for a kiddo. They injected this weird bubble thing into his arm and then told him to leave it alone for two days. THAT IS HARD FOR ANYONE!

5. Greg again, this time with Dr. Conflitti getting his arm checked out. It’s healing, noticeably. YAY!

 

Another thing: we were supposed to have a MUCH belated birthday party for Greg today, but we couldn’t because the school is having a Fall Festival today. 😦 We didn’t know because we were out of town for so long and no one thought to tell us about it when we came back. So now we have to reschedule. Again. Ah well.

Lastly: the next post will be AWESOME. Yup. It will.

Everywhere But Home, Family Time

Feast of Tabernacles 2014 trip

When last I wrote, we had gotten up early for an eclipse that we didn’t get to see… then I moved on to my doctor’s appointment (see my other blog for that post)…and we all loaded up in the van and drove off for New Braunfels, TX to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

The first night we arrived later than we expected and our accommodations were quite a bit different than we were expecting, but after five and a half hours in the van, we were grateful to be anywhere that had beds (even in bedrooms with no attached bathrooms or door locks).

The next day I spent the day entertaining & attempting to feed the vomiting child, so I missed out on everything. Nick took the other kiddos out for lunch and we spent the evening around the very empty Schlitterbahn Resort.

Day Two I finally got to leave our lodgings and join the land of the living, just in time for Family Day at Landa Park. There was BBQ, games for the kiddos, a mini train ride, lots of talking for the adults, and as an added bonus we got to take home leftover BBQ (which we ate on all week).

Day Three we had a fantastic breakfast out at the Buttermilk Cafe, which was packed and had a long line of people outside after us. We had church in the afternoon, dinner on our terrace, and then Nick took David back up to church for a dance that evening.

Day Four we paused activities so we could do some laundry, homework, and work-that-pays-the-bills (I’ll let you guess who did what). We followed all that up with dinner out at the Longhorn Cafe, which had fantastic burgers, friend pickles, and a mini-arcade that Nick and the kids loved.

Day Five we saw David off to raft the Comal River at the Rockin’ R with the rest of the teens while the younger kids and I entertained ourselves in the Schlitterbahn pool and hot tub. Nick was doing work in our lodgings again. It was a very uneventful day (except for David. He had a fantastic day).

Day Six was a big day for us. The younger kids sang on stage with the Children’s Choir and Nick got to give a prayer during the service. After church was over, we drove out to the Natural Bridge Caverns, which is a place I’ve wanted to go for years. We toured the caverns over the course of a couple hours. It was delightful! Afterwards, David did a zip line and adventure zone while the younger kids and I toured the gift shops. We finished up the day at the Tanger Outlets in San Marcos, where we got David some new clothes and Ben some Bible tabs and Gregory some dinner at Cracker Barrel (well, we fed everyone, but that was his choice).

Day Seven was our last full day at the Feast. The kids all had presentations they did with their classes. We ate out at The Faust Hotel (an historical hotel) and brew house for lunch. Nick and I loved it. The kids, not so much. We toured around the old downtown area for a while, visiting several little local shops and what-nought before going back and packing ourselves up.

Day Eight was a double-church-service-and-catered-lunch-in-between sort of day. We stayed until the end and then drove on home.

Overall it was a really great week. Quiet, for us, but great. 🙂

Here’s a slideshow of all the good parts of our Feast of Tabernacles 2014 trip. 🙂 Enjoy!

 

Everywhere But Home, health

First full week of October

Wednesday: More dental work today. And here I thought last times was painful… I had to have five teeth drilled on for cavities, so both sides of my mouth were numbed.

Thursday: Even worse pain than yesterday due to dental work keeping my jaw open for so very long. Still can’t eat.

Friday: I took Greg in to the orthopedic doctor and he needs surgery on his arm because it’s not healing. This is big and scary and I nearly fainted when I heard about it. Greg was calm. He is awesome. Please pray for us. He needs lots of healing and I need to stop feeling like I’m going to throw up out of anxiousness.

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Also, I had to take David in to have his hand x-rayed to see if it was broken. It was not. That is a blessing. I couldn’t have handled two broken kids. Oh, and then one of my new fillings fell out while I was on the phone trying to get my appointment rescheduled (it never stopped hurting since my appointment) since it was the same time as Greg’s surgery.. Yeah. It’s been a really freaky day.

 

Saturday: We’re trying to ignore that are bellies are empty for the Day of Atonement. Gifts help! It’s a Nathan Filion themed feast for me!

 

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Monday: At the hospital with Greg. They’ve been very sweet to him this morning. Nurses and staff have made him a goodie bag full of candy & chips & some balloons for his birthday. 🙂

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The nurse told us that Greg would sleep most of the day, but would have a perking up around 2pm. Instead, he was pitiful and restlessly in pain all day, slept from 5-6 and then perked up. We fed him birthday cobbler with trick candles at his request. He’s a weird boy.

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Tuesday: Greg’s pain levels fell by half from yesterday and the crankies seem to have disappeared, too! He’s lounging with his arm elevated & having a birthday do – over since yesterday was weird. He got his requested McDonald’s for breakfast AND dinner, a proper cake, and again with the trick candles.

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Wednesday: We got up to see the eclipse, but were thwarted by cloudiness. 😦 Every freaking time there’s something cool, the clouds come. CLOUDS: we do NOT love you today!!

Computers and Internet

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Exercise

First Time Trying Zumba

From my other blog…in case you are not reading it…

Lisa H.'s avatarThe Thousand Teeth

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.”

~Agnes De Mille

I am one of those people that can trip on my own feet, or even nothing, so trying a Zumba class sounded really intimidating. However, I made some friends yesterday at the gym and they were really encouraging about the class, so I decided to jump in there and try it.

Guys, it’s really fun! 🙂 I had no idea! It’s like a cross between bellydancing and hip hop, both of which I’ve done a little bit before with videos or kiddos teaching me. The instructor wears bells and is very perky and she didn’t mind me staring at her butt trying to figure out how she was moving.

I only lasted about 20 minutes into a thirty minute class, but some people stayed on for a second class, which seemed to be more…

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