Weekly Review October 27 '08

For those of you who are really paying attention, you've probably noticed I'm a bit late getting my weekly review out. Sorry to keep you all waiting with baited breath (hee hee)...my excuse is that I had surgery on my eye last Thursday (the 23rd) and I have not been up to doing a whole lot since then. Especially things that involve using my eyes! Ok, I guess technically I could type with my eyes closed come to think of it, but I was just trying to take it easy. And guess what? I am not very good at taking it easy! There is nothing that bugs me more than being forced to lie around and do nothing when I can see that a lot of things need to be done. It's just a good thing that I am usually so healthy because I'd go crazy if I had to be an invalid all the time.


When I told people I was having surgery on my eye, most of them assumed I meant Lasik. I wish! No, I was having a blocked tear duct fixed. And by fixed, what I actually mean is they created a new tear duct--apparently for adults, there is no way to "unblock" a tear duct once it is blocked. I was suprised when I read up on the procedure that it's been around since the early 1900's. It's outpatient surgery and fairly minor, but for healthy me it was the most major surgery I've ever been through. My scheduled surgery time was 2:15 but the surgery before me started late, so they didn't get me back until 3:00.

I had an interesting conversation with the nurse who was helping me get ready. She saw on my chart that I had atrial fibrillation, and she started asking me questions about it. As I answered her questions, she looked more and more anxious. I finally told her not to worry, I was sure my heart would not act up during surgery; I haven't had any trouble with it since my last pregnancy. She said "Oh, I wasn't thinking about you...I was thinking about me. I've noticed my heart fluttering a lot lately, and I'm pregnant." I told her she might want to get that checked out really soon!

The anesthesiologist I had was an interesting guy. He came in, introduced himself, and said "I'm the man you'll be sleeping with this afternoon. But don't worry, my wife knows what I do for a living." I couldn't help it; I had to laugh! He asked about my kids, and when I told him their ages and got to Seth, he said "Oops!" I informed him that Seth was not an "oops!", he was a "finally!" He also commented that my 14 year old must be giving me a lot of trouble--I was happy to say that actually my 14 year old is a great kid!


So anyway, they did the surgery. I don't remember a thing about it, which is good! That's the fifth time in my life that I've been "put under" and coming out of the anesthesia this time was the worst experience I've ever had. It really didn't bother me the other four times, but this time I felt pretty miserable. The left side of my head was throbbing, I was incredibly dizzy, nauseous, my throat was burning (from the breathing tube they put down while I was out), and I was so cold I was shivering violently. I remember thinking in my head that I never, ever, ever want to do this again! The first thing I saw, though, when I opened my eyes was Frank standing at the end of the bed, holding Seth which was reassuring. After I recovered sufficiently, we headed home. I wasn't thrilled that we had about an hour drive ahead of us (I had to go to Bethesda for the surgery) through rush hour traffic (it was about 6:00 by then); I was afraid I was going to get sick to my stomach on the way (I'd already done that once) but thank goodness for the HOV lane...we got home quicker than I expected. And I didn't get sick again. I was still very uncomfortable all the way home and I really wanted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't seem to do that. I was more than happy to just crawl into bed when I got home!


After resting and drinking some chicken broth, I started to feel quite a bit better and I slept decent (although fitfully) that night. Friday morning the bandage came off my eye. It looked pretty nasty! It still looks pretty nasty, but now a lot of the swelling has gone down at least. I still look like I got a big punch in the eye, though. Pretty spectacular colors...purple, yellow, green, red. Oh, and those five beautiful stitches...lovely! I wasn't supposed to bend over or lift anything for 72 hours, so Frank stayed home on Friday and took care of me. I pretty much laid around like a slug all day Friday and most of Saturday, too. (Although I have to confess...I did start picking up a few things on Saturday!) On Friday I had to put ice compresses on my eye every hour--20 minutes on, 40 minutes off. On Wednesday I go in for my follow up appointment and get the stitches out. Fun! Enough about my eye!


What happened the rest of the week? Well, let's see...last Sunday Scott made English trifle for us. He had to do it for his cultures & cuisines class (he missed the lab where they made it at school because he was sick.) It was actually quite good. He had to make a shortbread-like cake and homemade vanilla pudding (brought back memories...I haven't made, as in cooked, pudding since I was a child!). Then we crumbled up the cake and layed it with the pudding, cool whip, and sliced peaches. Yummy!


I had a Primary presidency meeting in the morning and book chat in the afternoon on Tuesday, so that was a busy day. There was supposed to be a Court of Honor on Wednesday evening, but it got postponed because of a miscommunication with the district commissioner. Of course, we didn't find this out until after we showed up! I had gone over to the church for that with Seth (Scott and Tanner were both supposed to get merit badges and Scott was getting a rank advancement) but Frank stayed home because he was experiencing kidney stone pain most of that day. I was pretty nervous about that because my surgery was scheduled for the next day and I didn't want to have to postpone it since I'd been waiting to have that done for nearly 3 months! (Plus I didn't want Frank to have another kidney stone, of course!) I said a prayer that night, and I asked for a miracle. I said either the kidney stone needed to pass or it needed to move to a spot where it wouldn't be causing Frank any pain. That prayer was answered...by morning, Frank wasn't feeling any pain at all, and the pain has not come back since! I am grateful because I really needed him to be able to take care of me the first couple of days after surgery. Friday evening was Pack Meeting. Jared got his Bear badge. Frank took all the boys and went to that...I didn't go; I stayed home and "watched" Phantom of the Opera. I say "watched" because mostly I was listening while lying flat with an ice compress on my eye...and even when I was watching, I couldn't really see that well. I thought that was an appropriate movie for the occasion, considering half my face looked pretty ugly.


Scott and Tanner went to spend the night with a friend Friday night. Jared had a soccer game Saturday morning. We thought it would be cancelled because of rain, but the rain didn't really kick in until later that morning. I'm kind of glad I missed the game, because it didn't turn out to be very pleasant. Frank reports that the referee gave the ball to the other team every time it went out of bounds, no matter who touched it last. In addition, the other team was playing very rough and the referee never called any fouls on them. As a matter of fact, one player on the other team elbowed two players on Jared's team at once (sending them flying), then he slipped and fell, and the referee called a foul on our players, and gave the other team a free goal kick (which they made). Frank said at that point, he called out "call the elbows!" The referee looked at Frank and threatened to call the game right then if he said anything else! Frank says he was tempted to say "Go ahead. There's no way they can win anyway with the way you are officiating." but he bit his tongue and didn't say anything. The final score was 5-2; Jared's team lost. Jared was such a good sport about it, though--I was really proud of him! He just shook it off and moved on. I'm glad I wasn't there, because I absolutely hate it when I feel like things aren't fair. Just listening to Frank talk about it made my blood boil!


Kudos go to Frank this week for cooking, cleaning, running errands, and being the primary caregiver for Seth while I was recuperating from surgery. Oh, and he took really good care of me, too! He waited on me hand and foot. One of the things he made for me was something the recovery nurse suggested--ramen soup with an egg cracked into it. It's kind of like egg drop soup, and it's actually surprisingly good--try it! On Saturday Frank went out to get a haircut (very short--it looks great!) and to do some birthday shopping for Jared. While he was gone, I had the boys unload the dishwasher and re-load it with all the dishes that had accumulated on the counter, take out the trash, and fold all the laundry. I have often said that I am the only person who picks things up around here, and I think these last couple of days proved my theory!

Yesterday was our Primary sacrament meeting program. I think it went really well! I just might have stayed home except I really wanted to be there for the program, and felt like I needed to be there to help. We got there on time in spite of the fact that we got up an hour late, thanks to our "smart clock" which automatically resets when we go off daylight savings time. Too bad the clock was programmed years ago and now the date that we go off daylight savings has moved back a week! Our clock didn't know that, so it reset for us. We were having a leisurely breakfast at what we thought was about 6:45, when Frank noticed all the other clocks said 7:45. Yikes! Only one hour until we needed to be at church. I am proud of us for making it--especially me, since I am moving slower than usual these days. I skipped out of church a little early yesterday, though. It was my week to conduct and that wasn't easy because the kids were so totally wired (not too surprising). Any other time, I think I could have handled that, but since I wasn't feeling too great and kind of wanted to crawl in a hole anyway it was just a bit too much for me! About half way through the second hour of Primary I decided I needed to go home. Frank rounded everybody up, we went home, and I crashed for about an hour. I felt better after that.

Today hasn't been too eventful. I managed to get the kids to school and back, so my eyesight is improving. It was nice to be able to do some of the basic chores that needed to be done. Other than that, I tried to lay low.

We heard some sad news at church yesterday--a 17 year old boy in one of the other wards in our stake was killed in a car crash on Saturday. His sister was also in the car, and she is in a coma in critical condition. The boy was supposed to be taking one of the girls in our ward to homecoming that night. Just so sad! When Scott came home from school today, he said he didn't eat lunch because at Seminary this morning he found out that all the youth in the stake were having a fast today for Caitlyn (the girl in the crash). He doesn't really know them, but I think it is great that he wanted to do that! This kind of thing has been happening in our stake too often lately--less than two years ago a brother and sister in another ward were killed in a car crash. It makes me grateful that my kids are ok so far!

While I've been kind of out of it the last few days, Seth has not stopped growing. He can now point to body parts (eyes, mouth, nose, tummy...) and when I look at his little I Spy books with him, he can find all the objects he's supposed to find! When did he figure that out?

It appears that our really beautiful fall weather is gone. It has been much colder with rain a lot of the week. Today has been very gloomy, but still pretty with the fading fall colors and the pearly gray sky. Jared said this morning that the world looked "upside down" with the sky looking a lot like the ocean. He was right!

We just found out this morning about Rachelle's surgery--we hope it goes well and that she recovers quickly!