THREE

THREE

Sunday, September 25, 2011

What a week....

Well, it has been a busy week. Grey had surgery on his eyes on Friday. He did very well. It was a bit more emotional for me than I had thought. I thought it would be similar to his surgery experience when he had tubes in his ears, but it felt like a bit more. He got to recovery, and in Grey fashion, he was angry. Anesthesia does this to many, and he is no exception. I had prepared myself for his eyes to be red, and a little bloodshot, but... they were really red, and his tears when he cried were tinted with blood. I had not prepared myself for that. He seemed comfortable nonetheless. They said it feels similar to having an eyelash in your eye for about 24 hours, and it is better to sleep it off. He had awoke that morning with a runny nose anyway; so ibuprofen/tyelnol, benadryl cocktail for 24 hours did the trick. The eyes are definitely better aligned. The surgeon Dr. Roberts said that there will be some variability of alignment for the next few weeks, but should settle into it's norm then. The white part (sclera) in each of the eyes near the corner, covering until you reach the iris is completely red. Eyes are just gross anyway... blood in them to me, is even more gross. I can take a lot of things.. but bloody eyes for him has been difficult to see. He doesn't seem to mind. He is very happy today, and although he doesn't like his drops 3x daily... he is great!

Todd and I had what we joked as "an epic" night with Lillian and Owen last night. Grey slept for most of the night. That made one living thing in our house that got more than an hour or two of sleep. Owen has been not sleeping well. Lillian has been getting up at 4am. Last night, Owen got up at 1am, and was awake for the majority of the night. None of the kids will lay in bed with us, and sleep... a blessing sometimes, but not last night. All we wanted to do was sleep. Everyone has a runny nose, and a bit of a miserable cold. Last night I think was THE WORSE night that we have had with the kids all home with us.
Owen is cutting all his molars, 1 already in, and also his eye teeth he is getting too. He's gonna have a mouthful soon! He also has a runny nose/stuffy at times, and wanted to be held upright. Note to self:need to purchase a recliner for bedroom STAT! So, after tylenol/ibuprofen/benadryl orajel cocktail at different times, he got intermittent sleep with Todd in bed. Let me just say, neither really slept.
Lillian had a runny nose, and didn't want to be laying down either. She is getting a molar and a front tooth. I fed her at 4am, her tummy was growling. Gave her some more ibuprofen, and 1/4 dose of benadryl.... and she and I slept sitting up on the couch from 5a-8a.
At 4a, the dogs begged to go down to the basement. A freight train could come barrelling through the house, and if you are in the basement, you wouldn't hear a thing. I think they slept a bit less than Grey.
Lilly, Owen, and I took a trip to our friendly neighborhood Urgent Care clinic for a check up. Lillian has a cold. (Thanks.... I appreciate the diagnosis) And, contrary to Owen not touching his ears, he has a pretty bad right ear infection. Antibiotics and a prescription decongestant, and hopefully (PLEASE GOD) it will be a better night!

Tomorrow I have my hernia repair surgery at IU North (Clarian North) in Carmel. Dr. Don Selzer is doing the surgery. I worked with him while working at IU Med Center in transplant and also while in the Surgical ICU there. Good doctor. Straight shooter, and skillful. I have to say that I wasn't expecting to be worried or anxious about this. It isn't even the pain or restrictions, or anything... I just have a lot to live for these days. Don't get me wrong, not that I ever did NOT have things to live for.... but my little family means so much to me, regardless of my time to time frustrations. Even though day in day out here wears a sister down, just to look at them makes me happy.
I have been through my fair share of surgeries. IVF (s), r ankle reconstruction, tonsils etc, exploratory lap for infertility stuff.. yatta, yatta...but this one is different. So, if you think about it, say some prayers for all of us!
Maybe I am just getting older. Sometimes when you have seen enough, seen a lot, seen too much in the medical profession... you realize that simple things can turn ugly. Therefore, Dr. Selzer will have specific instructions if this shall happen.
1) Don't keep me at Clarian North... send me to IU.
2) Do NOT let a resident/fellow intubate or operate on me... PERIOD (sorry... I know everyone has to learn, they aren't all bad, but learn on someone else...)
3) I need my bowels/bladder, and all internal organs... please handle them with care at all costs
4) Do not sugar coat things to me or my family... I will haunt you.
5)Keep me out of pain, or again, I will haunt you.
6) Don't shoot from the hip, if you don't know how to fix it... find someone that does. ......
Seriously, the list goes on. like....
7)If I am going to be a non-productive person forever, surgery stats don't matter... let me go (I know this is a bit harsh for an outpatient surgery.. he will laugh, but I will tell him anyway)

I'm sure Dr. Selzer will absolutely love putting me under anesthesia ASAP once we speak! Good thing Todd too has all of these instructions. I give all my medical friends out there my permission to be nosey and make sure that Todd is getting the information he needs if such disasters should arise. Can any of you tell I am a pessimist? I read this all back, and just laugh. Seriously... haha!

Anyway... 4-5 days, I will be back blogging hopefully. Like I said, send some prayers our way.. not only for me, but for Todd and the kids, and everyone helping this week to get through with relatively low stress!

I'm so dramatic these days... lack of sleep I think.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Haircuts and what-not








I had intended on blogging long ago. There is indeed still a lot going on. Does the picture to the left summarize it?









Some updates.
Todd made it back from his trip, he had a great time. No work trips planned anytime soon for him. Yay!


I had an appointment with the surgeon this week. What I was hoping would be an easy surgery on an outpatient basis, turned into the planning for a 4-5 day inpatient stay. Sounds like this surgery will be quite the adventure for these hernias. I have to get them done. The pain is more and more, and with the pubic symphysis bone being so close to the hernias, they can very easily get pinched and that would be an emergency. I need to talk to the scheduler this week. I think he is going to have me do another CT scan, and asked me to schedule as soon as possible to avoid any small bowel damage related to the location. Super. However, he said the recurrence rate of the hernias with the mesh placement (I need synthetic mesh placed in my abdominal wall as well) is about 10%. That is good news. I am taking it one day at a time. For some reason, I am a bit worried about this surgery. Perhaps because he said it is one of the most painful surgeries that he does. Can’t wait.
Owen is doing very well. I think he is saying “ball” now. Most of his words are “dirwwt” (which sounds like a little English accented toddler saying “dirt”). He also says “dutch”…. No idea what that is. He likes to yell when he gets outside to hear himself echo and he still thinks barking at the dogs is really fun. It seems like he has been teething for months, but he is getting his molars. He walks very well, and can out and out run at times when he doesn’t want to get caught. He is adapting to his shoes well, and when outside for wagon rides is now starting to want to walk instead to ride.



Lilly the princess… She is still quite the eater. We have cut out all formula during the day, they only get 2 bottles…. One before the afternoon nap and one with 2 oz of formula along with whole milk before bedtime. By the end of the month, we will be done with formula. She is doing fine with that, and so is Owen. She likes sitting on the dinosaur we have, she should be pushing it instead. She still is not walking. She has been holding on and cruising around furniture etc, for months now. We do have physical therapists in the house weekly for Grey, and we are just working with her the way we work with him. I think it is a confidence thing. The therapist seems to think the same. We are going to push her a bit harder for a few weeks and see how she does. Her new thing is taking off all her clothes and her diaper in her crib. Lillian may have to wear a onesie until she is 3. She has quite the personality!


Grey has lots of things going on in the near future. He has his eye muscle surgery on Friday Sept 23rd. It’s coming up so soon. That is an outpatient surgery that we should see instant results. Very happy when we have that behind us. He is also progressively eating better. He is trying new things, and taking more bites of them all. We are going to a feeding clinic in Fishers called Feeding Friends. He is doing well with it, and my goal is before Christmas, we will have him eating and also walking. He will likely keep the feeding tube just in case until spring. That is pretty common. He is pulling himself up, and cruising as well as Lillian is. They both are pushing toys all over. Grey is improving very quickly. We went to the developmental peds doctor at Riley last week. Dr. Brei is his name. Great doctor. Seems like they are never really full of reassurance when you go, however this time, he said, “If you would have told me that Grey would look like this today, 6 months ago, I would not have believed this. ‘’ He then said that we should pat ourselves on the back for what we have done for him, and as well as how hard he has worked. Dr. Brei told me to make sure we keep up the good work, and as soon as he has better oral coordination he will be ready to wean off his feeding tube. AMEN! He is very verbal now a days. He wants to be heard! I think he still likes growling more than anything though.
Fall is coming. I love fall. I cannot wait for frost though. Ragweed season has been overwhelming this year! We are still debating on Halloween costumes. I think I have convinced Todd to do a “themed” Halloween, since our days of being able to actually pick their costumes and coordinate them are limited. We hired a cleaning lady. Her name is Angel. It is fitting! We have to cancel our trip to Orlando for mid October. It isn’t going to work with my surgery.

Jasmine’s leg is feeling better. She is back to jumping over the couch. Unfortunately, I think she has a UTI. To the vet we go on Monday.

The kids got their hair cut at Cookie Cutters this week. It was as painless as it could be.





Owen didn't mind the haircut, unless she touched his ear.


















Lilly is concerned.












Grey tolerated it all.