08.24.09

Surgical Update

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:00 pm by kellgaston

I’m not a surgery novice — I’ve had several procedures in my 30 years. Ingrown toe nail removal, lasik, wisdom teeth extraction, a laparoscopy, and the egg retrieval for our IVF — not major surgeries by any means, but each was relatively painful and took a while to recover. This is in addition to giving birth to Nathaniel “naturally” (okay, so I had a single shot of stadol, but when it came time to deliver Nathaniel, there were no drugs running through my system). I don’t claim to be “tough” or have a “high pain tolerance” — I don’t like having surgery but I’m also not afraid.

I just thought this sinus thing would be no big deal. I actually told one of my clients that I was “looking forward to it.” This was for two reasons, I am tired of having recurrent sinus infections, and I thought I would get some rest.

Well, I was wrong. Recovery from this procedure has been extremely painful. I woke up in serious pain that did not go away for much of the day Monday. With both babies, I have been able to stop taking pain meds relatively quickly. Not so with this. I have taken all but one of my prescribed pain pills. My nose hurts — the stints have irritated the inside of my nose — I feel the constant need to blow my nose and I cannot do so, not for several weeks.

Maybe I have just become soft.

I go back for my post-op checkup tomorrow. Stints are to be removed. Yeah!

I’d better see some sinus relief from all of this.

08.07.09

Long Time Gone

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:29 pm by kellgaston

We’ve been busy. I know, that seems to be the story of our lives, but July is an especially busy month. I’ve really lost count of the number of birthdays — but there are some really big ones (Nathaniel, nephew Joshua, and DH) as well as our anniversary. Throw in a wedding and that’s one busy month!

So, a brief recap . . .

Fourth of July was uneventful for us, except for the cleanup the following day. Did I mention our loser neighbors who partied and left us to clean up their mess? Don’t get me started.

The next weekend (11th-12th) was the “southern” birthday party — a joint Wow Wow Wubbzy party for the little boys (Nathaniel and Joshua). We had dinner at Quinn’s before the party. Neither boy was very cooperative — Nathaniel wouldn’t even try the cake.
Nathaniel and Joshua with their cake

Nathaniel wanted to play instead of eating his cake (although he liked looking and trying to touch the cake).
alt="Nathaniel drives" title="img_2458" width="225" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-281" />

He loves Joshua’s little truck.

Both boys received some great presents and things were going well, when . . . Ava started vomiting in the middle of the living room. At first, we thought it was just because she’d gagged herself with sticking her finger down her throat. We quickly got our things together and headed to mom’s. Unfortunately, she kept vomiting on the way home. Poor girly. Uncle Arthur and Aunt Tina brought her some pedialyte. She was so tired by that time, though, that she wouldn’t drink it. We got her to bed late and tried to sleep. She slept fairly well, considering.

Nathaniel went to church with mom on Sunday. We hung around to go to my niece’s wedding shower, but the kiddoes just would not cooperate. 3:00 is just a bad time for little kids, so we eventually just headed home. Ava was much better and managed to keep down pedialyte. When we got home, we started letting her have some formula.

Dh went to work as normal on Monday. We had a quiet day at home. Nathaniel had some stomach issues, but no vomiting thankfully. Dh got home. I made dinner. Then, dh started feeling unwell. I had plans to meet Bloss at the gym so I went on. When I arrived home around 9:00, DH was in bed sick. He spent most of the night in the bathroom floor, sick, sick, sick. I ended up on the couch because I couldn’t rest with him getting up constantly. I had a feeling that I would be the next victim — so I decided to have a late snack.

Early in the morning, I started feeling very queasy. I felt like I needed to vomit, but could not. So, I drank some Sprite and finally, some relief, for about five minutes. Then, I felt awful again. This went on till after lunch time. I stopped feeling queasy, but then I hurt all over. My back was killing me. I hurt horribly until about midnight and was much better the next day. I managed to take Nathaniel to MDO on Wednesday.

After I recovered, I had to scramble to get things together for Meg’s wedding that weekend. I had to make fondant and icing for both the wedding cake and the groom’s cake.

Unfortunately, Blossom became sick on Thursday. Quinn had been the first victim, getting sick on Monday before even dh became sick. Mom became sick the Sunday after the wedding. One of my great nieces was sick the day of the wedding (the flower girl) and the bride and her sister became sick the week after the wedding as well. Too much yuckiness! Thankfully, I think we are all better now.

The wedding cake was quite the challenge. Meg did not have a concrete “picture” of what she wanted. She liked this part of this cake and this part of another cake, so I had to try and meld her ideas into one cake. It was my first attempt at fondant on a square cake — more challenging than the videos make it appear, especially when dealing with large layers. Ultimately, it was a joint effort, with Quinna and Blossom helping me paint the thing. Someday I will post a pic. I just hope Meg was pleased.

After the wedding, it was time to get ready for the “northern” birthday party for Nathaniel. We had pizza, I mean “pepa” and another Wubbzy cake. After dinner, presents, and cake, the kiddoes were able to play in the backyard because it was pleasant.

Then, there was dh’s party. We had dinner and went to Barnes and Noble. Not too exciting, but we had a good time.

Goodbye July!