oompa loompa hand

They stuck me 9 times until yjery finallu got the iv gioing . know wherer they put it? up by my arm p[it! now the vbruise in the pic is black. my skin's all orange and creepy. i can;t figure out how to scvan a pic today. maybe when i'm nopt so medicated. thank you for all thde emailsZ!

ii'm still alive

hey it's me. i'm ob percoset, and typing with one hand. i'm out. i'm fine. my arm is orange from that stuff they smearf all i ver you, my arm hurts like a motha!!!!!! my dr is so cool trhoughj he tookj a pic for me of my open hand. i;ll scan it in tinorrow. now gotta sleep. xoxo

Ok, let's try this again

I keep forgetting that tomorrow morning I'm going under the knife for my left hand carpal tunnel surgery. I have so much to tell you, full weekend, but I guess that will have to wait til I'm out of my anesthesia induced haze on Tuesday or so. CSP will post tomorrow to update y'all on my condition. If I croak you can still have my sewing machine Lisa. :) I don't go in until 10 which is way too late. Too much time for me to think about the fact that I can't drink anything. And if you know me, then you know I don't go anywhere without a beverage. I have more Tupperware water bottles than you can shake a stick at. Ooh, just remembered I need to shave my legs. Ok, see y'all on the flip side yo.

Girls just wanna have fu-un

First I want to say thank you to all you fabulous bloggy friends for your advice and support about my girlie bits. I am seeing another OBGYN next Friday for a 2nd opinion. My records are being faxed to their office as we speak. I can't tell you how much I appreciate having such a supportive, caring bunch of peeps like you.
Also, my left hand surgery is Monday the 12th. So unless my doctor calls in sick again I should be rid of my carpal tunnel soon!
Now, my girls told me that all this serious talk is fine and good but they want to show off their party dresses! They got all dressed up for our anniversary.


I love how Molly's tail wraps up around her dress.
Kiki isn't as thrilled to be dressed up. But Molly couldn't be happier to don a new frock!

Come on Mama, take my picture!!

OBGYNo she didn't!

Warning: obgyn talk ahead.
So yesterday was the medical day from hell for me. I mean, I know, it could be so, so much worse. I could be dead, or have cancer, or a sick child, or a laundry list of other problems. But the problems I do have are so frustrating to me I can't even hardly tell you. Ok, so what you don't know is that I'm on week 5 of constant, heavy bleeding. Back in June I had an endometrial ablation where they basically boiled my uterus out to stop literally months of heavy bleeding. Like can't leave the house without wearing a Poise pad and sitting on a towel no unstained sheets or undies left bleeding. And it worked. I didn't bleed. And then in November I bled a little but that was normal. Then again in December. Then it started in late January again and just hasn't stop. All along I've been told that my next option was a hysterectomy. Not fun. So I called my obgyn and made an appointment, but first I asked if I could just have a phone appointment instead of driving so far with all the bleeding. And it wasn't like she could examine me anyway, again with the bleeding. They said no that I had to come in because the hospital requires an exam, blood or not, within 30 days of surgery. So this meant I would surely be uterus free soon.
So I went. And the door was locked. So I went to the back of the same building I've been going to for over 8 years and that door was also locked. So I called and asked what door did I need to go through.

The lady said "Are you on Park Rd?"
Yes.
Oh, well, we closed that office.
Ok well where are you now?
We're at the corner of Blank Rd & Blanky Blank Rd.
I have no idea where that is.
(here she gives me directions)
Ok, well I'll be there in a minute. But why wouldn't y'all send out a notice that the office has moved?
Oh, well Blankety Blank hospital was supposed to send something out but I guess they didn't.
Ok, well I'll see you in a few minutes.
Oh, well by the time you get here you'll have missed your appointment.
But I wouldn't have if I'd been updated with the right location.
They didn't tell you when they called?
No. (yeah, they told me but just for kicks I went to the wrong place)
Well let me see about rescheduling you. pause..... How's tomorrow at 10:45.
-here's where I start to cry-
Ma'am I HAVE to be seen today. You have no idea about the bleeding and what a pain it is to just get out of the house and I've driven all the way from Blanktown (45 minutes) and I'll sit in the lobby all day til she can see me if necessary.
Sigh. Ok, hold on. ............ Ma'am? If you can be here at 1:45 she can see you.

So I got in and when I was called back to the exam room I hopped up on the table with my shaved legs and painted toenails and do you know she never examined me?? She told me she'd like to try an IUD before we get to the hysterectomy. I don't want a hysterectomy, but I want to be fixed. I'm tired of feeling light headed and bleeding all the time. I'd like to have sex again. I'm married and when I was a teenager I thought marriage meant 24/7 sex and you can't do that when your uterus is falling out! I'm tired of them telling me "well we don't like to remove the uterus when you desire children" when they are the ones who told me I can't get pregnant. Hell, SHE's the one who sterilized me with boiling water! So I started crying again while on the table. It's just so frustrating. I don't have time for this not to work. I will hopefully have a baby in less than a year and I can't be recovering from major surgery while trying to bring a child home from another country. And the IUD won't even be in until like 2 weeks from now. She says it should work by releasing progesterone into my uterus to prevent the build up of the uterine lining. Last year I took progesterone orally to make the bleeding stop and that didn't work, but she seems confident. Keep your fingers crossed. Cause if this doesn't work I may just rip my uterus out myself!

This kind of thing only happens to me

So I'm home. I should be in surgery by now. We drove 45 minutes to the hospital (the one by where we used to live) and as I was checking in the desk guy said "Oh, you're gonna hate me." Get this- my surgeon called in sick. I was like- can they do that? It's as if doctors can't get sick. Or at least they aren't supposed to. So, I'm rescheduled for March 12. The hospital gave us free breakfast so at least there's that. I was up til 2 this morning and back up at 5:30. I wanted to be tired so I wouldn't think about the fact that I couldn't drink after midnight. It worked. I'm tired. So now we're off for a nap. Jeesh.

Going under

Well it is a quarter to 7 and we're about to leave for the hospital. Just waiting for CSP to join me downstairs. I wasn't nervous until this morning. I'll have the boy post when we get home that I'm still alive!

Stick n slice

Today I went for blood work at the hospital. Monday I'm having carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand. I hope it won't be as bad as the right hand was. I'm thinking that since I know what to expect this time will be a breeze! Well, as breezy as surgery can get. My surgery is early in the day so I can come home and crash out for the rest of the day. This weekend will be a whirlwind of cooking and cleaning and painting to get ready for the week. Jon's taking off work Mon-Thursday to take care of me (and paint! I'm the trim girl, he's the roller man). I'm so excited too because Lisa is coming to visit on Thursday night! It will be so great to see her again. Sunday night will be my last night sleeping with an arm brace. Woohoo!

Punish the brave

I'm going to climb up on my soapbox for a minute just so I can rant a little and wave my fists around. It won't change anything, but it will make me feel better. The picture above is of my Effexor XR. I take them for anxiety. And since China changed their regulations, the simple fact that I take the above pills on a daily basis means I can't adopt from China now. China can do what it wants, and some of the new regs I understand. I don't agree with a lot of them, but I can see where China would feel the way they do. But the one that really sticks in my craw is the one where they say that depression and anxiety are severe mental illnesses and if you've been treated for either in the last 2 years you're barred. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a whole heck of a lot of people who've gone through the agony of infertility and come out without some sort of depression or anxiety. And to those who then went and got help, I say bravo. Would China rather a give a child to a woman who desperately needs help and lies or denies herself treatment just to get the child? Or a woman who realizes hey, depression and anxiety can be treated and I can have a normal, positive life if I just admit I need help? A correctable chemical imbalance does not a bad mother make.
Ok, getting off my soapbox now.

Snork

Well, I spent the weekend trying to get over this nasty plague. I'm up to the sneezing, coughing, snorking phase now. Meanwhile, CSP spent the weekend installing all of the lighting fixtures we've had sitting in boxes for weeks. He put up ceiling fans in the family room, kitchen, screened in porch, & master bedroom; lighting in the entry, hallways (up & down), breakfast room, laundry, half bath, master closet & master bath. AND he hung the big mirror in our master bath. Our house is finally starting to look more like a home. I CAN NOT wait to be able to start painting! And hanging things on the walls! Ooh, just remembered I need to take a photo of the m.bath, but I have been updating my 365 project with photos of his hard work. Click here to check, check, check- check it out.

Oh, and please keep good thoughts for us as we have our social worker visit tomorrow. She has to check out the new digs and make sure we're still fit to be parents.

Girl just can't catch a break

I guess it's true that everything happens in 3s. First my house is a construction war zone. Then my Pappy dies. And now I'm sick and missing both my Mom's & Olivia's birthday parties. I was over at my sister's house the other day, laying on the sofa with my eyes closed. All the sudden something is in my mouth. Joey had stuck his medicine dropper in my mouth. And of course he wouldn't need a medicine dropper if he wasn't sick. They've both been coughing til they puke and now I am too. Nice.

In stitches

I got my stitches out on Friday. That's what my wound looked like before. It's healing pretty nicely now. My doctor said I'm doing really well. I still have some achey pain if I try and lift anything too heavy or bend my hand a certain way, but I can't tell you how cool it is to wake in the morning brace free and be pain free!

As far as the 365 project goes...I'm using Photoblog for this project. They put your pictures in a cool calendar format so it's easy for me to keep to the project. Click here to see my progress so far. A whole 2 days worth!

Something else I wanted to share with y'all is this beautiful box my little sister Morgan made for Jon & me for Christmas. It's to hold mementos from our adoption journey. I love it so much. Please click to enlarge. She stained the wood and hand painted the lady bug. On the edge of the lid she painted "Our Journey". I've planned on writing letters to Ling Ling and this is the perfect place to store them with other mementos.

My right hand man

I have never had so much to blog about, or so many cards and letters to send, until this past week when I couldn't use my right hand at all. Let me tell you, living one armed is hard. Don't believe me? Take your dominant hand and strap it to your body and not get it wet and live for a week. Jeesh.
Friday I went for my follow up dr's visit and he cut off the cast. Oh, the relief of finally being able to scratch my itchy arm! I'm in a wrap now, I still can't write without a good bit of pain, still can't grip anything, but it is getting better and better every day. Without my wrap on I can type for a few minutes so I wanted to update. My dr says I'm doing well and we'll look at operating on the other arm in a few weeks. I go back the 29th to get my stitches out.
I learned that if you take your percoset too close together you get really happy and things are freaking hilarious.
I'm having cabin fever. Jon won't let me drive so I've been trapped here until his days off. My meds make my vision all blurry so I can't read too much, nothing is on tv. But my mom's coming to take me to a movie later so I can get out of the house. Yay!
I've been enjoying all the Christmas cards that have been arriving- such cute ones!
Ok, time for me to go try this shower thing on my own. CSP had to bathe me last time (he's been taking really good care of me). I can't hold both my hair dryer and my brush, and make up application is tricky at best with my left hand, so I've been looking like a raving crack ho lately!

PS- BPOH participants: please have your photos ready to post on Wednesday!

My public

Thank you for all your sweey commenys and emails. You guys wovk! I 'm on pervcoset anf typing wiyth my left hand. CSp loooved that yall commented on his post. I think it has gone to fis head. He keeps bringing jars to me and fays can you open tghis for me to which I reply hah very funny. He said aftwer this same exchange this morningn ":well, at least my public gets my humor!". You're his public. Hr has a public!

She lives!

Hey this is the husband. She is O.K. Nothing exciting to report which is the way we want it. She is in a lot of pain but that is expected. She thanks you for your comments. She enjoyed reading them when she got home from the hospital. We will update later if her arm falls off or with any other exciting developements.

Under the knife

It's a little after midnight and I have to be at the hospital at 6 am. My surgery is at 8. I've been so busy the last couple of days getting ready. Going grocery shopping & doing laundry. Today I had lunch with Shannon then came home and cooked like a mad woman.Above you see 2 containers of spaghetti sauce (1 for lasagne and 1 for spaghetti), 1 container of sauce for beef stroganoff, and the big orange bowl is full of CSP's favorite dip- sausage/velveet@/salsa. Then I made dinner, which was really breakfast. Scrambled eggs and this: A ring of crescent roll dough with a sausage/cream cheese filling.
I think we'll be all set now for the next few days food wise. I can go to bed right after I answer a couple of emails, order Christmas pug photos, and send my library book request list to my MIL.
I'm a little nervous about tomorrow. Lots on my mind. I found out today that one of my favorite aunts is in the hospital. She had a nose bleed the other day that wouldn't stop. The doctor sent her to the hospital and they've discovered she has leukemia! This is so awful. She's under going a bunch of tests to see how advanced it is.
I was able to secure an appointment with our social worker to come check out the house but she can't come til mid January! I wish it were sooner. I want to get this dossier done!
Ok, I'm gonna wrap stuff up and get upstairs. Oh, I've pre-written a couple of posts (things I wanted to tell you anyway) for the next couple of days. But I will get CSP to at least update to post on the surgery.

If I had a million dollars...

I'd so ditch most of our Christmas ornaments and go with all the cool new colors out there. Like these lime green, aqua, hot pink ones. I also saw a black and white tree and it was just stunning. Sigh. Looks like we'll be stuck with what we've got for a long time. We went to Km@rt our first Christmas together and decided on a blue and silver theme, and while I like it, I'm a little bored with it and frankly, I have the shopping disease.
Anyway, I'm gonna do the Christmas edition of BPOH! So take your photos and be ready to post them on the 20th. That gives me a week to recover and everyone still has plenty of time to decorate. And be sure to leave a comment here with your email address if you're not already on my email list for reminders.

I'm leaving in a few to go to the hospital for my pre op blood work. I have so much I need to do before I lose my right arm! So many posts I want to write (of course NOW is when I remember all the things I want to blog about).

Have a great weekend and get to decorating and picture taking!

Handy dandy

I've been getting some emails about my surgery and the recurring theme is "what a crappy time for surgery". Last year I had to have a d&c just a couple of days before Christmas and this year I'm having the carpal tunnel surgery so I guess I'm getting used to it. I just can't wait for my arms & hands not to hurt anymore. Thanksgiving was tough as it was served buffet style and after adding just 1 item to my plate I couldn't hold my plate any longer with just one hand. I can't hold a magazine in one hand and flip through with the other. I'm losing strength and grip and I'm having trouble opening bottles and jars now. Talking on the phone is a painful activity unless I can go hands free or cradle the phone between my head and shoulder. I had wanted to knit a scarf and hat for a Christmas present but it hurts too much so I may have to put that off.
I have a week until my right hand surgery and I can't wait. I have so much to do in the next week- preparing my house for Christmas, wrapping presents (good thing I'm finished with my shopping), finishing my Christmas cards (I have a few left if you want to get on the list, just email me your address if I don't have it), taking the pugs' picture for the cards, unpacking some more boxes from the move. So much. I want to cook and freeze some meals since cooking with my left hand will be a challenge.
Now would be a good time to hire that personal assistant. I wonder if I could get one that would work for leftover Halloween candy?

I'm a danger to myself even while I sleep!

This was going to be a boring ol update post, but now you lucky devils get a near death story to boot! But you'll have to wait til the end- muhahaha!
-Our bed situation: the king size mattress is still in the family room, however, we've been upgraded! My mom gave us 2 twin mattress sets that my little sister used to have in her room. They were covered in a plastic anti-allergen cover the whole time and Morgan only used them from ages 6-12 or something so she didn't weigh but a thing so it's like they are brand new. We pushed them together and it's like we're sleeping on a king sized bed again! Woohoo! I can sleep with my arms at my sides! Now CSP just has to get the bed frame upstairs (won't fit- shocker!) and we'll be all set. (foreshadowing!)
-Health: my arms are doing well. The braces really help. We're putting off my surgery for a while because we just can't afford to do that and finish our dossier right now. My arms can wait. My knee is also getting much better. My Ortho recommended physical therapy but I just didn't see the need to pay $80 a week so someone could tell me what exercises to do to get it stronger when we have Google. My only weak points right now are after I sit or sleep for a while and try to get up, and going up and down stairs, or after a long day of walking it will tighten up and buckle. So I'm really pleased with all my progress!
-House: I'll be devoting an entire post to all the reasons why no one should ever build with CP Morgan, but that will have to wait for another day. We're slowly getting unpacked. It seems like we moved in then all kinds of things happened to slow me down, but I'm picking up speed. We have to wait on painting and putting up lighting and ceiling fans until CP Morgan comes in and fixed our ceilings so we're still living in a white box with horrible lighting and no one is allowed to visit yet. But we'll get there!
-Nephews & Neicelet: LOVE and adore them. Jacob has become really affectionate and loving and gives the best hugs. Joey has become a lint eater. This kid will sit on the sofa and pick fuzz off the afghan and eat it. He will choose sock fuzz over real food snacks. Bizarre. Oh, and did I mention that Olivia regularly says Shanny now? Melts my heart.

Ok, you've been patient long enough... I was sleeping peacefully on my twin/king bed last night when I awoke while drowning. See, you're not supposed to have your machine higher than your head, but the bed frame has to be taken apart and put back together up in our room (CSP built it himself) so we're just on the mattress/box springs right now and my bedside table is higher. And somehow, some time during the night I managed to pull my machine off the table and tipped it so it was standing on the humidifier part on the bed. And all the water in the chamber raced down my tube and into my nose. I woke up in a panic (mainly because I was drowning! in my own bed!) and ripped my mask off. In the process I broke the little plastic piece that holds the strap on. I coughed and sputtered and cleaned up my mess and tried to rig my mask back to my face to no avail. I managed to get some sleep last night, but not much. My throat is killing me today. But the good news is that the way my machine fell meant that the water went away from the motor. Yay!! But no one is calling me back from the supplies place- probably because of the holiday. Boo!! Oh, and what was CSP doing throughout my ordeal last night? Sleeping peacefully on his twin mattress side of our ghetto king bed, blissfully unaware that I was facing one of my least preferred methods of dying. Thanks for all that marital support there, honey!
So there you have it. Proof that even while sleeping I'm a major klutz and a hazard to myself!

We have an aggressive agenda today folks

Lots to tell you, so sit back & get comfy.

-If you're participating in the Halloween BPOH- remember to post your pics tomorrow! I can't wait to see everyone's spooky haunts!

-We closed on the old house today. Woohoo! It's done! We no longer own 2 homes AND we cleared enough $ to finish our dossier! So excited about that! We'll still need to save for the China trip, but I'm just thrilled I can get this finished up. I totally cried at the closing table because of it. Also because I was literally running on 1 hour's sleep. We procrastinated and frankly just have too much crap, and I can barely walk cause of my knee so it took forFREAKINGever to clear out the old house. We pulled an all nighter and got to bed at 6:30 this morning to get up at 7:30 to leave at 8 for the closing. We came home and crashed til 6pm today. I'm seriously doing some major purging of stuff and having a ginormous yard sale.

-Got my MRI results finally. Too bad I'm not a pro athlete, I would have had those results by the time Sports Center came on. I have an old football injury. I tore my ACL, I have a ton of fluid in my joint that must be drained (don't like the sound of that), and there is deterioration around my patella. Patella sounds like a dish at Olive Garden. I go in the morning to the Orthopedist (sp) to see what's next. I pray I won't have to have surgery. Or if I do maybe they can do a 2fer and take care of my arms at the same time. I wouldn't mind if they threw in some lipo, a tummy tuck, butt reduction and a pedicure while I'm out.

-I'm officially an old fogey. Lots of those combo restaurants going up- you know half Taco Bell half KFC? Those types. I don't like it. Don't mess with the formula. I don't wanna go somewhere where they are a seafood/Mexican joint. Stick to one theme. I don't want my egg rolls hanging out with my pizza.

-Sharing is caring: if you need anything from Sephora now's the time to get it. Enter JACKPOT for your coupon code and you'll get a goodie bag FULL of fabulous super sized samples. Everything from lotion to perfume to lip gloss.

Ok, I think that's it for now. Thanks for your time, you can go back to your day now.