Lost and Found

I occasionally misplace things.
I am usually pretty good at retracing my steps. Every now and then I enlist the help of others.
For instance....on the way to the hospital, I decided NOT to take my phone in, too much for my loved ones to keep up with, so I left it in Bryan's car.

After remembering this 5 days later, I ask Bryan to look for it for me in his car (bending at the waste was slightly uncomfortable). He didn't find it. I get slightly panicked, but mostly sad that I can't find it and will have to rebuild the numbers that were on the sim card.

Guess who found the phone? My daughter (after I bribed her $10).
Guess where she found it? Under the seat in the car - where she could see it from her seat in the back.

So, this weekend, as my children get their Godparents, officially, I wanted the camera to snap some shots. I ask Bryan to go to my car to get it; telling him it's in there somewhere - I had it when I picked up Legare from camp and didn't bring it in.

He looks. He can't find it. So I go behind him and look under the seats. I found it today (a day too late). Guess where it was???? In the middle of the back seat, behind the other stuff he moved on top of it while looking for it. I didn't look on top of seats this weekend thinking he did - I looked under them.

So I guess we are both to blame. However, I think I need to either stop asking him to find stuff - cause he never does - or we need to invest in some kind of "How to Find Things" 10 step program for him.

Slow Driver

Hi, Slow Driver. How in the world did I get behind you and why are you going so slow?
Especially right beside this big truck.
Don't you want to get in front of him?
Because I never like just riding beside them like we're buddies.

Oh, Slow Driver, I just realized that you can't even see how quickly I've come up on you because your rear view mirror isn't positioned to see me - you must have been checking for boogers or spinach in your teeth and forgotten to put it back so you could see out.

Wonder when you're going to realize that I, in my big 'ol, non PC, gas guzzling SUV, have come up behind you? Do you feel me staring yet?

Oh, wait - something is in your hair - I can see you flicking it about. A lot.
I hope you don't have a pesky bee in your car.

Smart move, pulling out your make-up brushes to put that magical bee repellent on your face. That should definitely do the trick. Smart thinking - I should go get me some to keep in the car too; pesky bees. And I'll have to remember how the little hair trick definitely makes it stick better. Never mind that you almost hit the big truck - I"m sure he would understand the importance of proper bee repellent application.

You bee careful now.

Weird. Not HaHa.

Well, it'll be 3 weeks on Wednesday since my surgery.
All is still going well. I have been told that the tiredness of anesthesia has an equation.
It takes 3 weeks for every hour you were under for it to totally get out of your system.
That means I have 4 1/2 more weeks to go before I stop feeling tired after taking a shower or walking 100 yards. Just about 1/2 way there.

Everything is going rather well, I'd say. Except . . . my boobs still got sore this month as if I was getting ready to start my period (I do still have my ovaries, so hormones definitely still work). I think "it" would be happening about now. Imagine my surprise today when I realized that my abdomen is a bit swollen. Could it be bloating? What is there to bloat? Or could it be that I really just walked a hell of a lot today as I was getting Legare situated at camp?

I guess I'll know better next month if it happens again. Kind of funny (weird, not haha!).

Fleas

Yep. Fleas. All of my animals have them.
So, I do what any self respecting mother does and hop on PetMeds to order more flea medicine.
I did this Monday or Tuesday....it's already here today - can you believe that!?

I'm so excited. So I dose everyone up with the stuff you squeeze on them and give them each a Capstar. That's the pill that begins killing the live fleas within 20 minutes so that the topical stuff can start working it's 4 week magic more effectively.

I've always kind of felt sorry for, but also giggled a bit, at how funny it is to watch the animals scratch to death while the Capstar works its magic. It's a few minutes of misery until the fleas are all dead. Then - relief.

Except that I'm feeling awful for Felix (aka Trouble Cat). As the fleas began to start dieing this time he began running all over the house trying to find the perfect perch to get away from what ever it was that was making him itch. He was literally going mad. He jumped on the counter and tried to hide, he jumped on me and tried to hide, he RAN as I opened the door to go outside. He went under bushes, around the tree, up and over the fence...just like someone was chasing him. All the while letting out the most mournful cat sound you ever did hear.

He scaled the fence to get away and ended up hiding under the trailer in the driveway next door. Still with this awful moan. And panting. I am not laughing anymore. I am feeling horrible for my cat and hope he can make it through the next few hours of flea death. However, he has white fur and I was seeing a gracious amount of black spots surfacing in his fur, so hopefully it wont' take too long. Poor Guy! And per the Capstar product insert - this whole scenario is something, though rare, that can happen to cats.

And you wonder why we call him "Trouble"? If he's not into it, it follows him around.

Terrible Tuesday

It actually wasn't so terrible, I just couldn't think of something better to title this post about the odd things that happened to me yesterday - Tuesday.

It started out rather grand. Aileen (and her parents) had come to be with children while I went to the doctor for my two week checkup on Monday. This lead us to my children having a spend the night Monday night with Aileen and her family. All children involved were VERY excited. This lead to a wonderful evening of Mexican food for me and SLEEPING LATE on Tuesday morning.

Who am I kidding, my kids don't ever bother me in the morning - they're old enough that they rise and go do their thing without needing any help from me - usually. It still made for a very quite house. Bryan even woke later than normal and he even shut the door to the bathroom to filter the shower noise so I wouldn't be woken. It was great.

After he kissed me good bye, it didn't take but about 1 minute for him to be running back up the stairs hollering for me. Apparently our garage fridge had stopped working.

What? There were two frozen casseroles, frozen chicken packages, numerous frozen pizzas, one and 1/2 frozen popsicle bags and numerous "No Worries" drink mixes in the freezer. There were diet cokes (which is what he was going for), a full case of beer (which I'm sure will now taste bruised), a full bottle of uncorked wine and some Red Bulls that had been left here by some one some long time ago.

All of it had to be brought upstairs. To the already full fridge up here. Well, 20 minutes later the fridge up here was packed. TIGHTLY. with the things from downstairs. You know, most of you know what my house looks like, but for those of you who don't and are a bit confused by the upstairs/downstairs thing...our house is raised. We park our cars underneath on one side; the other side is finished and is the children's play room/media room. Upstairs is the actual house. All of the living space "upstairs" is on one level. There's not a second "upstairs".
The refrigerator "downstairs" was left here inside the house and when we moved ours in upstairs, it moved down to the garage to become a holding tank for food/frozen items and a pool beverage cooler. This morning I realized I how much we have been relying on it. I love our ugly little fridge down there.

A little putting 2 and 2 together and we have decided that the freezer door had not been shut fully upon last use causing this meltdown (I think that was me, by the way, not a child- ugh - and I know better). The fridge is now cycling again...items to be moved back down soon.

Then, I decided I had to vacuum. Even though Julia had done it for me on Sunday. The shedding of the cats is making it an every day necessity for the moment. The doctor told me to let my body be my guide. And since we have an in line vacuum system and I'm not toting around a big, heavy machine, I decided to vacuum the den and kitchen. I'd say it went rather well.

Then, about 5:00 as I'm getting the children fed an early supper so they can be full for their swim meet, the craziest thing occurred. As I was walking down the hall I had the feeling like I had just peed. Just like that. No warning, just the sudden sensation of "you've just wet your pants, you idiot". It came from no where. I was instantly irritated because I had been so excited and encouraged on the urination front since this surgery of mine. I couldn't believe this had happened.

So, I go to my the bathroom (I was just leaving the one in the hall), and what do I find? Instead of peeing on myself (in my pants), I find that I have actually sprung a leak. A blood leak. And it's more than a leak, it's a gracious, gushing amount.

I panic.

Of course, I have a fantastic doctor and she has given me her cell phone number. I call, we chat, she's going to call back after we give it a minute to see if it'll slow. I call Bryan crying and get him coming home. I call another mom in the neighborhood to get her to come get my children for the meet, I call my mom do get her on standby.

Doctor says this is probably nothing, hematomas sometimes bust through the suture line left behind "in there" and this occasionally happens, but she wants Bryan to bring me to her office anyway so we can all know and not have to wonder all evening.

So, a trip to her office and an elapsed time of 2 hours later - sure enough. . . no big deal. I've been prodded and poked and swabbed down, put on antibiotics, and told I would be sore for the next day or two because of all the poking, etc. to make sure to take some ibuprofen. Resume activities as normal. Vacuuming is o.k. (quick aside, when Mom asked what I had done earlier in the day activity wise and she learned of the vacuuming she actually scolded me with my maiden name. You know I was in trouble with that - ha).

And another aside, did you know that the Publix grocery store pharmacy offers FREE, yes, free oral antibiotics? So my generic Cipro - FREE. Thanks doctor for calling that one in!

So more of a crazy Tuesday. Not really a Terrible Tuesday. But Crazy Tuesday just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Summertime

Recouperation is going well.
I was afraid one of my puncture wounds was going sour on me, but after yesterday's doctor's visit I got the all clear on it. Just need some watered down hydrogen peroxide for cleaning for the next few days.

I'm excited that it's summer (even though we have already had so many summertime showers that it's CRAZY!), and have tried a "summer sherbert" look here.

It may get on my nerves and I may move it back to the refreshing blue. I may even try some more colors right after this is posted.

I am a bit disappointed that there are not any more colors to choose from on the template page. I can't quite get the actual color I'm looking for.

Enjoy the colors. Enjoy you summer!

Recouperation Update

Today (Wednesday) is exactly one week post surgery.

Yesterday was the first day with no serious drugs - all Tylenol. All day. Pretty good!

Last Wednesday: that was surgery day. I woke from it groggy and remember being very concerned at how bad the need to urinate was. I was told to relax - I had a catheter - ffyewff. I spent the night in the hospital after Bryan ran around trying to find some ice cream for me (Ben and Jerry Smores is very good, by the way). I could tell that though this was a major surgery, this was already better than a c-section. And I had two of those.

Last Thursday: I got the catheter out and peed for the first time. It took some patience, but I peed without having to press like a mad woman on my abdomen. Yay. Going to the bathroom got better as the day went on. I was told by my doctor that scar tissue from the c-sections had cause my uterus to suck up tight around my bladder...it was no wonder I had become a Detrol LA kind of girl. I arrived home from hospital around 3:00.

Friday: Sweet husband had a weekend engagement that had been planned prior to surgery so the kids and I moved to Mom's for weekend. I Realized 1/4 of the way to her house that I was uncomfortable riding in her car, and that even though I had gone to the bathroom immediately prior to leaving the house, I had to go again. I was quite uncomfortable sitting up. Since we were in the middle of the connector and there was no place around, I told mom to go to the Jr. League office (which was right around the corner) Having volunteered with them for 11 years paid off when the office manager met us at the car to help get me in to the bathroom before I peed on myself and in Mom's car. I felt much better after that! After arriving at Mom's I began to realize I was "going potty" every 10 minutes. This is for the birds. I started making myself wait 5 before I allowed myself to go each time and by the end of the day I was going every hour on the hour. Clock work, baby! I had also tried to take Tylenol in the middle of the day instead of Percocet because I was feeling pretty good (I had taken Percocet after all) and I ended up sitting around all day... ***ALERT REFERENCES TO FEMALE PARTS COMING- TO AVOID READING THIS SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH. NOW!!!*** ... I said I sat around ALL DAY feeling as if I had been a participant in a marathon dry sexual experience with a really large member of the opposite sex. Very Dry. Very Large. I was raw feeling. It was not good! I was back to the percocet at bedtime.

Saturday: I decided to continue with Percocet on Saturday; the feeling in the private region from Friday went away - YAY! Peeing was getting longer than 1 hour at a time too. All in all, a pretty good day.

Sunday: We moved back home on Sunday. My poor children had only spent Thursday nights in their beds since the previous Tuesday and were ready to be home. Julia didn't even stay in her bed that night because she was bunking with her brother while Mom and Dad were with us. We had the 4th in a line of fantastic meals Momma fixed for us and since we were at my house now and Bryan was home, he got to partake too. Up until now, I have been waking every morning knowing I had had surgery and taking proper pain meds for this.
I had great advice from a friend prior to the surgery; she told me to stay in a nightgown until I was ready to be back to normal. This keeps my brain and the brain of those around me in "Anne is still recovering" mode. So far this has been fantastic advice. At some point I have, however, moved to more of a beach cover up type of gown. And since it will need washing soon, Julia and Mom run out to try to find something for a "change" with no luck (our Wal Mart sucks - Belk finally delivers).

Monday: Julia starts volleyball camp, Mom and my sweet Mother In Law (MIL) have passed the baton and now MIL has the reins. Unfortunately, there was a death in the family over the weekend and she has to leave me for a little over an hour. But she returns with glorious Andolini's pizza for lunch for everyone. I spend the rest of the day in my gown on the couch with MIL, FIL and BIL. It was a nice, relaxing day and wonderful meal followed (I've certainly been fed well). Today I would say I was feeling pretty good! I didn't even take a nap. I started the day with pain meds and the Tylenol really did keep the edge off this time for the remainder of the day.

Back to Yesterday - Tuesday: It's officially 7 days post surgery. I woke feeling a tad uncomfortable but Tylenol was all I needed. All day. Yay! Just before lunch time I had a crazy dizzy spell and really thought I was going to pass out. MIL said my color was bad enough she was afraid I was going to pass out too. I kept a bit of a dizzy feeling for the next few hours, but this passed and I continued on the path of recovery. I decided (with the help of husband and MIL) to forgo the kid's swim meet because of the dizzies (Julia placed 2nd in IM and swam up in the 11-12 relay for a 1st place, and got another ribbon or two but I can't remember which stroke - Legare placed 1st in his relay and would have been 1st in his freestyle heat had it not been an exhibition heat).

And now, here I am on the brink of Wednesday up at 5:00 because of the pant-y, scared dog (thunderstorm). My stomach has one place on it that has an odd feeling. I know it must be where some of the scope or tools went in, but it feels very odd. I have the ugliest bruises you ever did see from one hip bone to the next. Luckily they just look like bruises, they don't feel like bruises. Over all I'd say I'm feeling pretty good. Dad says he's amazed at how well I've recovered and how quickly. He remembers Mom's 12 day hospital stay when she had her hysterectomy. thinking to self: does anyone really stay in the hospital for 12 days anymore? short of being a premature birth or terminal? hhhmmm?

I am, however, very hungry and craving doughnuts for some reason. I guess that's my body's way of saying I need to boost my blood sugar. Maybe that will keep me from getting dizzy. Think I'll have to try that!

Note to Self:

Self,

The doctor has given you Percocet for a reason. Please don't sit around thinking the Tylenol has "knocked the edge off" but still feel uncomfortable in certain unmentionable areas.
TAKE THE DAMN PERCOCET! I promise, you'll feel much better. And if you're really in pain, the Percocet won't make you too sleepy. You're recuperating from a MAJOR surgery. THAT is what is making you sleepy; you were sleepy today with just the Tylenol.

It is ok to take the Percocet.
Feel better soon!

Love,
Self

T Minus 60 Minutes

The long awaited surgery is here. I have to be up in about 55 minutes to get myself ready and shower with the "Professional Degermer". Seriously, that's what it's called.

And of course I have had a horrible night's sleep. I have been prepping my house for days for my being down and off of my feet for a few days and still have more to do. My sweet husband was so cute pleading with me to leave the house alone and get some rest. So I finally got in bed around midnight. WIDE AWAKE.

I tried to watch some TV. I tried turning off the TV. I got up a few times and went to the bathroom "one last time" (I can't wait for this surgery to help cease that activity). I then noticed my back was in a crick (all of the nesting and cleaning did that today I think). I got up and rolled on my back thingy. I finally fell asleep.

I have had fitful sleep. I woke about 30 minutes ago and came to the couch to send Bryan an email of people for him to email after the surgery is finished. (Movin', it just dawned on me I should have put you on that list - I'll let you know separately.) I'm chalking up this fitful sleep to the way you feel as a child waiting for Santa to come....so excited that he's coming, yet a bit nervous that maybe you were bad and he's really not going to visit your house.

This surgery has the potential to do so much more than just cure me of my monthly curse. It also has the potential to take away much of the constant tiredness and a good majority of my peeing issues. Of course all of this excites me.

I am a bit nervous just because what if it doesn't help with those things....but those really will be a bonus, not the main reason for doing it in the first place. I also am nervous that I'll miss the alarm, be late and have to reschedule this thing. And I don't want to do that. I am also on edge because I want a drink of water and it's past midnight, so I can't have anything. Which also reminds me that I can't eat now either. Which of course makes me hungry.

Just yesterday when Legare learned that I couldn't eat after midnight, he was very concerned for me and asked if I would be able to eat again after my surgery. I think he was bit nervous that I may never get to eat again. It was pretty cute!

So now I have 35 minutes before I need to get up - ha. At least I'll get some good sleep tomorrow, right? Ooops, that's really good sleep later today it is "this morning" already. Maybe I'll get good sleep. But maybe not, they don't usually do a good job of letting you rest when you're in the hospital. You know, all the constant checking your vitals every few hours. Sleep is sometimes pointless.

Anyway - I have Mad Libs for people to fill out with me when they come to visit (my children are looking forward to that), and I have cards to play with for those staying a while. I also have a book if I find myself alone and not sleeping.

So - T Minus 20 minutes 'til shower time.
Singing Off