I do not wish to make light of drug abuse or addiction -they are real problems and quite frightening. However…
I love my pain pills! I will just be honest and say that I’m not sure I could function without them right now. Yes, they make me silly and drowsy, but when they’re in full effect, I hardly have any pain in my throat. And when I have no medication coursing through my veins, I’m pretty miserable. Like – I avoid swallowing my saliva for as long as possible because it hurts so much. The downside of having a narcotic in my system is that I’m not much use to anyone else. Keeping this in mind, Mike’s grandma is coming over tomorrow to help me with the kids. If I didn’t take anything, I could manage keeping a level head with them, but I’d be in too much pain. If I take something to relieve the pain, I can hardly walk a straight line. With any luck, this will be a whole lot better in a few days.
And I promise – as soon as I’m not in agony, I’ll come off the happy pills. I’ll actually be quite pleased to get back to normal life where antibiotics and pain medications are a thing of the past.
I finally said goodbye to the gigantic nuisances in the back of my throat yesterday.
The good news is that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I expected to wake up from my surgery in screaming pain, but it wasn’t nearly that bad. I went in yesterday morning at seven, spent an hour and a half waiting in a bed with an IV in my hand, they got me in early for surgery and sedated me. The next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery feeling totally bizarre and the clock said it was nearly ten. The first few hours were weird, coming out of the anaesthetic, but my friend was there to feed me ice chips and get me a popsicle. I was pretty sick to my stomach for the first few hours, but it went away without puking. My throat definitely hurt, but I was able to swallow without too much pain and had lots of ice and water, some yogurt and two popsicles in the six hours I was there post-op. I’m probably more uncomfortable today, but my throat looks good – black with white spots is a good thing in this case.
The hardest part is not actual pain - it’s swallowing. I’m supposed to keep my throat really moist, because if it dries out, it could crack and bleed. But swallowing doesn’t just hurt – it feels nearly impossible. I tried to eat mashed potatoes last night thinking they would go down nicely, but in the end resorted to more popsicles. I suspect I’ll be on a popsicle diet for a week or so. I’m sure I can manage smoothies and other liquids as well, so I might try something brothy tonight for a change. The great thing about this is that once I’m healed up, I won’t ever have tonsillitis again! I can still get strep throat, but tonsillitis is worse in my opinion. I also suspect that when I’m recovered, I will have lost at least a little weight due to the weird diet I’m on. I was told to expect two weeks before I really feel completely better and am actually healed. I have things I want to do but I’m going to rest as much as I possibly can for the next two weeks. Mike is off work today and tomorrow and I already had the longest night sleep that I’ve had in a long time. I went into our room to eat a popsicle so that the kids wouldn’t bug me and ended up drifting off after I was done. I decided that it was a good plan to just go to bed and let Mike deal with Erik for a few hours. I went to bed before nine and Erik ended up going to bed easily without nursing and Mike came to bed at ten. Erik was up at one-thirty but spent the rest of the night with us so I was able to sleep pretty soundly. Mike got up with the kids at eight-thirty and I slept until after ten!
I’m going to the pharmacy to pick up some percocet a little later, so any pain should be taken care of. I don’t really like taking pain meds, so I’ll try to only do it for as long as I’m really uncomfortable.
Filed under: Mi familia
Today, I finally got to see my new nephew, Noah. Okay, so he was only born forty-eight hours ago, but still, it felt like an eternity not seeing him yesterday. My sister-in-law was transferred here and will be “boarding” at the hospital until Noah is ready to go home, which could be a week or so. He is a tiny little feather – holding him feels like holding a bunch of towels or something…he’s just so small. He looks beautiful, though, and very healthy, which is wonderful. He has lots of hair and looks quite a bit like his brother did when he was new. I’m so tickled to be an auntie again, but it is of course giving me the baby bug. Once these tonsils come out, I’m sure I’ll be more than happy to get pregnant again.
Filed under: Illness and Injury, Mi familia, The H Word | Tags: c-section, small birthweight
Well, I spent a good deal of time praying, worrying, and cleaning (yeah, I know…it was nice to stay busy) last night, and Mike and I stayed up playing Scrabble because I just couldn’t go to bed without any news. I feared the worst for hours because we weren’t hearing anything about the situation. Finally sometime close to midnight, Mike’s mom called and said that everything is okay. We have another nephew and he is TINY! 4 lbs 11 oz and 17 in. long! Being two and a half weeks early obviously has something to do with this, as his older brother was only two days early but weighed 5 lbs 8 oz.
The irony is that the crisis got me to clean my bedroom – it’s not done, but I made great progress last night while I was waiting for news. I thought it we went to bed I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Then after we had gotten the good news and finished our game, I couldn’t fall asleep. I told myself that since the kids had been sleeping in until nine or nine-thirty the last few days, it wasn’t so bad – even if it was after two when I fell asleep, they’d sleep late and I could get seven hours of sleep at least. Well, I was awake before eight and couldn’t go back to sleep – thinking about that new baby, of course. They’re not here in town, but forty minutes away, so I was trying to determine how I might be able to see them while they are still in the hospital. And…trying to figure out what to do about my midday appointment today. It’s a pre-anaesthetic clinic and takes about an hour. The original plan was to have Mike stay with the kids through his lunch break and then have my neighbour come over when he had to go back to work. Now he’s working at the gravel pit for the day, which means he won’t be coming home for lunch at all. So I have to do some thinking and calling around to figure something out.
Add to all this my own personal stress, swollen face and pained jaw and I seriously need a vacation.
Filed under: Faith, Illness and Injury, Mi familia | Tags: Faith, high blood pressure, prayer, pregnancy
After feeling pity for myself and shedding a few tears over my bad day, I got a phone call to put it all in perspective. My sister-in-law, who is due July 7th with her second baby, was taken out of town in an ambulance to be induced after being in the hospital here overnight with high blood pressure. The baby is small, the placenta looks bad and I am terrified that something is going to happen to her or the baby. I have such love for her and that baby and her thirteen month old son. Our nephew was small – 5 lb 8 oz – and only two days early, so it seems this baby could be even smaller.
At the heart of my fears, right next to my worst one, which would be something happening to her or the baby, is another one – that regardless of what happens, things are going to get worse for me. That my situation will be ignored by everyone who knows her, and especially by Mike’s family. It is terribly selfish and an awful thing to feel, I’m sure, but I can’t help it. I am desperate for my own family right now. For parents or siblings who love me. For aunts or uncles or cousins who would offer help. But they are all so far away and can’t do a thing for me right now except pray. I guess the best I can do is to ask them to do that much, for me and especially for Mike’s sister.
So I’ll ask you as well (whoever you may be) to pray for our family – for Mike’s sister and her unborn baby, for her husband and their son and for Mike, Jenny, Elias, Erik and me. And pray that this would all serve to prove God’s power and purpose in our lives.
Today is not a good day. I have too much on my mind, too many things to do, not enough in my stomach and not nearly enough patience or clear thought to work through it all. I have six days before I go for more surgery and I still have so much to do. Meals must be made and frozen, the house must be cleaned decently, groceries must be stocked up.
Erik won’t sleep because he had a short nap earlier today in the car and then when I brought him inside. It’s my own fault. I should have woken him up instead of letting him sleep. This happened yesterday, too. I have insane pressure in my head and pain in my jaw and this awful feeling at the back of my throat that will not go away. I can’t decide if that part is something related to my wisdom teeth coming out, or my tonsils needing to.
I would love to do something really mindless right now. Or relaxing. But in the background is Erik crying and crying. And I’m not really sure if I can just let him cry today.
I also discovered that while Erik will not drink much milk from a cup, he will drink it from a bottle, which is nearly heartbreaking for me. I am so not a bottle person and didn’t want to be. Now I’m worried that if he needs something more than solid food when I’m having my surgery, he’ll have to be given a bottle. I don’t want bottle-fed children!!! My babies are breast babies!
In addition to all this, I am getting worried that my swap package is lost in the mail somewhere in the states. I have insurance on it, but no tracking numbers, so I have no idea where it is. My partner’s package for me is also not here yet. I mean, it seems a little trivial compared to the rest of it, but getting my package or my partner getting hers would cheer me up a bit.
I’m not on serious pain medication, but I feel like I am because my brain doesn’t feel quite right. I feel fuzzy, and I’m guessing it is from lack of sleep. Erik slept with us last night and I think I’m just going to let him do it for the next six days. I may have to wean him cold-turkey depending on how I’m doing after surgery, so I may as well give him what he wants now. I end up sleeping more if I leave him in bed with us than if I keep putting him back to bed or refusing to feed him.
I think I’ll go get a book, bring Erik into the backyard and use my nice comfy chair for an hour or so. I won’t have much longer than that because Mike will come home and I’ll have to come inside, do dishes, make supper and take care of things I’ve been avoiding all day.
Sorry this is such a downer. I just needed to vent.
Filed under: Home Sweet Home, Illness and Injury, Life, in general | Tags: housekeeping, surgery recovery, tonsillectomy, wisdom teeth
Well, I’ve quit my pain pills already, which is great because I was starting to get overwhelmed by all the different times and doses of meds throughout the day. I also thought that the naproxin might be making me feel sick, so I thought I’d test my theory. Unfortunately, I was dreadfully sick to my stomach most of yesterday and ended up getting less than six hours of sleep because it took me so long to fall asleep and then Erik threw up and wouldn’t sleep in his own bed and I had to try to fall asleep next to him smelling puke. (Big breath out, that was quite a sentence). So this morning I felt great when I woke up – not too tired and not sick. And then I took my antibiotic. Within ten minutes I was hurting bad again. I had some breakfast and I do feel a bit better now, but I have to eat with my afternoon dose and if it still makes me sick, they’ll give me a new antibiotic. This SUCKS because when I get my tonsils out in a week, they’ll have to give me another antibiotic. Three different antibiotics in a month is a bad thing. So with any luck I’ll feel better this afternoon.
Last night I wrote a long to-do list and a shopping list. My plan is to get as many loose ends tied up this week as possible and to stock the cupboards and make at least three meals to freeze. I don’t want to resort to sending Mike for take-out all the time, so while I feel decent, I’ll make a few things that he can throw in the oven when I’m recovering from my surgery. The kids have basically eaten macaroni and cheese and alphaghetti all weekend, so I figure it’s probably a good idea to have more options for them.
I’m quite certain that my list contains lots of tasks I won’t manage to get done, and I’m not going to start much until tomorrow, as I was told to take three days to rest after surgery. I feel good enough to get a few things done, but I’m going to try to keep it to making phone calls and other things I can do without moving too much. I’ll have to stretch my grocery shopping out a bit if I don’t want to totally wear myself out and at the moment, I’m beyond thrilled that my house is in decent order right now because cleaning it like crazy does not sound like it would feel great. I’ll have a bit to do right before my surgery, just to make it a friendlier place to be for my friend who is coming to watch the boys, but otherwise, most of the big work is done. Except our bedroom. Which I am NOT looking forward to cleaning. 
Anyway, the good thing is that the recovery from having my teeth out seems to be going as fast as I expected it to, although I am a bit concerned that my jaw will still be stiff next Monday, which could be bad for a surgery that requires reaching back into my throat. I’m just guessing that they have to keep your mouth wide open to do that.
I’ll keep updating as things change, but then I may be silent for awhile depending on how busy I get and how hard the recovery is next week.
Filed under: Holidays, Illness and Injury, Life, in general | Tags: Father's Day, surgery, wisdom teeth
Well, it could be worse and I’m certain that my tonsillectomy will be worse. At the moment, it’s mostly the pain in my jaw and cheeks that’s bothering me - I’m assuming from all the stretching, pulling, etc. that they had to do to take my teeth out. Yesterday my lower lip and chin were numb for nearly seven hours and I was starting to worry that they had hit my nerve and damaged it. It was back by bedtime, though, so I went to bed pretty relieved. I also had three nosebleeds yesterday, which are apparently a by-product of the surgery. I’m still icing my face twenty minutes at a time because I’m a bit puffy. I really don’t like it when my face is puffy – like…at the end of pregnancy, but it’s a bit more centralized around my jowls…I don’t really like the idea of having jowls. I have all sorts of lovely instructions for the next few days, like brushing my teeth without going too far back, swishing with nasty prescription mouthwash for a few days, then nasty salt water for another few days. I’m just hoping that I’ll be done with all those things by the 29th.
Good news about the 29th is that everything seems to be falling into place for childcare and rides to the hospital – I still have to arrange for someone to pick me up from the hospital, but it may be late enough in the day to have MIke come for me.
Today is Father’s Day and it does suck to not be able to really give Mike a nice Father’s Day. We’ve always had a deal that on Mother’s Day, I get to do pretty much whatever I want while still fitting in time with his family, and vice versa on Father’s Day. I will still have to rest as much as possible today, especially with my next surgery looming eight days ahead of me. I already gave Mike his gift and just have to write in a card for him. I realized with a bit of dread that I didn’t send my dad a card, so I will just have to call him and maybe send an e-card. I vow that I will not forget to do one of those things today (as I once forgot to call him on his birthday…and didn’t even know it was his birthday until three days later!).
There is a Father’s Day fundraising brunch this morning at church to raise money for a team going to Zambia in September. We’re up earlier than normal and going to be heading out in less than an hour, so I suppose I’d better have a shower or get dressed..or something, since I’m sitting here writing in my pjs. 
Filed under: Illness and Injury, Kiddos, Life, in general | Tags: kids, stress, tonsillectomy, wisdom teeth removal
This week has been stressful enough for me. Yes, that’s right, I’m done with stress. No more for me, thanks.
Oh, wait, there’s more that cannot be avoided. Great!
First the week in review. Sounds nice – like a radio show – doesn’t it?
Monday: Erik’s birthday and party. Went well, didn’t cause me too much stress in the end, weather was good enough to eat outside. I did, however, have a small run-in with a door frame. In which my toe collided quite painfully with it. And a later incident where I put a steak knife into my middle finger while trying to get frozen pudding out of a small thin plastic cup. But otherwise, it was a good day.
Tuesday: Erik’s one year check-up. Found out he is seriously under-weight and has swollen lymph nodes…or something like that. And also that he doesn’t have enough “words”. He’s only a year old, for heaven’s sake!! How many normal one year olds have a three word vocabulary? Well, not mine, anyway.
Wednesday: Jenny had a dentist appointment. Found out that her thumb-sucking is starting to morph her jaw. Great. Had a lovely picnic in the park, though, after her appointment and the kids got rub-on tattoos (of Spiderman and My Little Pony..you can guess which child had which), face painting and got to use sidewalk chalk (the city was putting on some sort of free thing for kids there).
Thursday: Bible study in the morning where only one other person showed up. We took advantage of the babysitting for half of the regular time. I wrote a poem, we talked, I held her baby and then we went home. I then fed Mike some lunch, fed the kids, put them to bed and left with Erik to the hospital when my babysitter got her. We sat through a very long pre-surgery appointment where I learned all the risks of having your wisdom teeth removed, like nerve damage or death!! Erik didn’t help as he decided to be grouchy the entire time. Groucy and sick and wheezing. We then went to another part of the hospital where Erik had blood drawn to test his kidney function and a number of other things I don’t really understand. Went to the bank and the grocery store and rushed home to relieve the babysitter who could only stay so long. Went shopping after supper by myself, but somehow didn’t feel much less stress.
And, deep breath, for the finish.
Friday: Erik had his one year shots, rather uneventful, Elias fell and scraped his knee in the parking lot leaving the clinic. Had a phone call soon after getting home, finalizing my TONSILLECTOMY. Yes, that’s right, my swollen, diseased tonsils are coming out on the 29th of this month. That’s like, ten days away. And Mike and my mother-in-law are both working and cannot get out of working on that day. And my sister-in-law will be eight days from her due date on that day. The good news is that I have a friend who offered to help me with the kids. With any luck, I can send Jenny and maybe Elias to another friends house and then the one who offered would only have one or two of the kids rather than all three.
I guess I skipped right into next week without even realizing it.
Yeah, so the week to come holds lots of planning and probably cleaning. Getting ready to be on my back for a good deal of the time and in pain for the rest of it. Tomorrow morning I get my wisdom teeth pulled. Sunday I’ll attempt to say “Happy Father’s Day” to Mike and call my dad…at the very least. Monday I’m still supposed to be resting from the wisdom teeth surgery. Tuesday through Sunday will be making and freezing meals, stocking up on sore-throat friendly foods (pudding, anyone?) and arranging the details of the 29th so that everything happens just right. I can feel the stress already. The good news is that I only have one appointment (as of right now) on Wednesday and not much else going on. I should be able to get things done without having to go out much during the day.
In other, somewhat unrelated news, I was hoping to join another Craftster swap once I have feedback from the one I just finished, but it looks like I should take a break until I’m recooperated from my tonsillectomy. Depending on the swap theme, it could be easy enough to do while I’m still a bit under the weather, but I’d rather wait until I’m totally out of the water as far as post-operative bleeding goes (doesn’t that sound like fun?). So as fun as the swap I just did was, I will have to wait.. Oh, well.
All this busy-ness may also mean a break from blogging, just to give you a heads up. Just because I don’t write for a week or so doesn’t mean I died on the operating table. I mean, I suppose it could mean that, but it’s pretty unlikely.
Filed under: Kiddos
Here’s a few pictures of Erik over the last year – it always amazes me how they change so quickly!
June 15th, 2008
September, 2008
December, 2008
March, 2009
June 15th, 2009
