This poor guy I married has had a YEAR. A month ago today he had hernia surgery on both his right and left side. He's healed really well, but during what was supposed to be his recovery time I decided to have a medical misadventure. That's a couple posts after this one. He managed to take it in stride and is an excellent caretaker, far better than I am, and is doing very well. Yesterday he experienced his first sneeze in almost a month that didn't hurt, so hooray for progress!
Since he likes surprises, and I don't, I figured it would be fun to plan a secret with a friend who quilts. No, I will not give out her number. She's mine. You can't have her. 😉 She graciously accepted all my bins and boxes of old jeans and Tshirts and a certain pink ("LIGHT RED!") Ohio State sweatshirt and turned them into magic.
While he may have known a quilt was coming, none of us knew the timeline, nor how incredible it would turn out. Look at his delight:
She asked what our favorite colors are and I told her green for me and purple for him. She said it turned into truly a reversible quilt and was almost as excited by the back, above, as she was about the real thing, below:
For those of you late to knowing us, I am a Nittany Lion from Penn State whilst he is an Ohio State Buckeye. We met at a church camp in Pennsylvania- hence all the camp staff shirts bearing CAPNWP- the Camping Association of the Presbyteries of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Talk about getting a new lease on life. Some of those shirts are from high school, many from camp and college when we were dating and engaged, and a few from our married life together.
Thank you, sweet friend, for a most outstanding legacy gift that we are loving snuggling under at night. Thanks for using your gifts and talents on our behalf, and for you and your hubby's friendship to the two of us. We really appreciate you!
And for my sweet, most elite of husbands, thanks for being you, for covering everything and then some with your vows, and for loving me beyond my ability to imagine. What a wild ride! Love you!
Morning of Nov 10. Neither Thing Three nor I were quite pleased to be hanging out at the bus stop in the first snow of the season. I had JUST gotten the snow sticks inserted down the driveway because it was still warm enough to do it comfortably and the ground wasn't frozen and uncooperative yet. Whether it would have snowed had I not stuck them in is a mystery we shall never unravel.
Morning of Nov 9
November 8. I love that red bush of our neighbors'. It just blazes away cheerfully amidst everything else.
Both of these were Nov 7. I thought about how pretty the colors were and how many oak leaves we still have.
I've been procrastinating on buying new pants, but I thought I'd try some on a few weeks ago and figured I might as well check out the high waisted kind that everyone seems to be raving about.
Well...
Nothing wanted to go home with ME. Some of them looked like maternity pants on me and I don't know if that's because of middle age and hormones or because I have no boobs to break up my front so you don't just see belly or what, but I felt like they all made me look like Boss Hogg.
Some sister somewhere is just gonna have to show me how to do it right! Let's see some photos of all y'all rocking new pants!
You'd never know it now, but this guy used to be chubby. He was a round little pumpkin briefly, this Halloween kid of ours. Now he lays low, pretending he's nothing more than a skellie, stays out of sight, our introvert. His birthday card said something about "wishing you a birthday where people leave you the hello alone" or some such. He loved it.
Since he will move out SOMEDAY and everyone needs magnets for their fridge, he got cute Halloween ones from our local artsy festival. Dada found him a new-to-him pocket watch which winds to replace the one he accidentally washed. In the washer.
Two decades old or not, Thing Two has already been overtaken by Thing Three, who is passing us up left and right in the height department. When we saw HIS feet on an ultrasound in utero, we knew he'd be big. Thing Two just laughed and flipped his hair, doesn't care.
He also wanted a weighted blanket, which he got thanks to Dada and his estate sale fetish. He's a happy boy!
Could it be possible that we tie you out so that you DON'T get into prickly seeds like a big dummy?! I swear this dog can't be trusted any further than we could yeet him...
Boy, have I got a humdinger of a story for all y'all. It's long, though, so grab some snacks and settle in.
Once upon a time (actually, twice, but who's counting?), a gal had a medical port inserted to save the veins in her arms from being jabbed during the upcoming months of chemo. A port is a medical device with a catheter leading into a large vein right above your heart. It sits just under your skin and sticks up like a raised bubble about the size of a nickel. That way the docs and poke one spot to draw blood AND to insert IV dripping meds. It's especially helpful as nothing is supposed to happen to my right arm, meaning no blood pressure cuffs or blood draws or anything because of the threat of lymphedema (fluid retention). It does both jobs, in and out. However, my port decided this:
It broke away from the main section and lodged in the center of my chest. When, we don't know for sure. It worked fine in August and did not work in October. I had most of it removed last Monday, but this piece stayed behind:
Thing Two observed, "you have a straw in your sternum. Last time I checked, you are not a Capri Sun."
Yes. Well.
It so happened that I had follow up appointments scheduled in the big city later in the week. We told Dr. A, the surgeon who did my lymph node removal surgery last fall, about the stinkin' port escape and she ordered another chest Xray (above) and then informed us that she STRONGLY urged us to not go back home, but to be admitted for a procedure to get the escapee out.
So we stayed in the hospital overnight after the follow up appointments, one of which was physical therapy involving dry needling. Now, one would think with my history of needles that even the phrase "dry needling" would send me for the hills. However, it was amazing. She must have stuck 6-8 in me, I lost track, and it's not all at once, but one at a time into the most tender and tight spots on my shoulder, chest, pec, armpit area. The needle causes micro tears which the body then fixes with fresh, new, loose tissue instead of the stuck together scar tissue that's causing the tightness. It's amazing! You can feel the release as the knots kind of dissolve. The timing was perfect too, because she released a ton of the tension in the right side of my neck. (That will be important later.)
So here's me in my fashionable gown with my heart monitor on and my ... whatever the thing on my finger even did... but I was saying, "ouuuuuuuch" like ET in the movie, hehe!
To review, one of the port's two jobs is to draw blood. Here's me, needing an IV to draw blood because the stupid port is busted and needs rescued! Gah! However, thank you, Bradley, the expert needle inserter who got it on the first try. Bless you!
So we meet with the surgeon and some of his team who will be doing the procedure. He tells us that it entails inserting a catheter into either my groin or my neck, hopefully my groin as it is a straighter shot, and then snaking that catheter up through my blood vessels, in through my heart, and into my pulmonary artery heading into my lungs where this stray piece is lodged.
Sorry, come again? This is the first time anybody confirmed that it's actually in my lungs. What?! It's through part of my heart? Oh my stars.
*Raising hand, essentially* What happens if this doesn't work and you can't lasso it?
"Well, then you'll need surgery."
Yeah, like, what kind? To what extent?
"We'd need to crack your chest."
YOU GUYS. THIS WAS NOT ON MY BINGO CARD FOR 2025!
So we prep ourselves for a potentially multiple hour surgery and off I go. I'd had nothing by mouth for over 15 hours and felt like my brain was a raisin. I begged every nurse I saw for fluids all day. Mercifully, they gave me two bags with the gentle anesthesia in my IV, but I remained awake and aware in there, which is also kind of wild when you think about it.
They swabbed both my neck and my groin with- I'm pretty sure it was Bactricide, which make me laugh because that's what we cleaned bathrooms with at camp- because I'm allergic to some of those pre-surgical cleansers and break out in hives. They got me all draped in the snazzy blue paper tenting for their sterile field and told me to turn my head to the left. My thought was, "ohhhhh dear. This could be terrible." My stress has always gone into a knot on my right shoulder near my neck, so that's tight even when life is good. By turning my neck to the left, that is going to compress the muscles on that left side, stretch the ones on the right, and if they have to insert another catheter in the right side of my neck where they're prepping, BOTH sides of my neck are going to be killing me. GOOD THING I'D HAD PT AND THE DRY NEEDLING! So I turned my head to the left like I was told and hoped for the best. Remember, we'd been told it could potentially take hours.
The worst part was actually the stabs of the anesthesia (Lidocaine) going into my groin. Three times. For the love of everything that is holy, WHY do people using that stuff not rub some kind of numbing agent on first and THEN stab you? Holy moly. I mean life goes on, but still! Have mercy.
The team is all in those huge aprons to prevent them from absorbing radiation with their paper gowns over them because they'd be using live xray to track down that piece so they'd know exactly where and when to snag it. Apparently it's called, "flouroscopy"- you can Google that. So that big boxy machine was right over my chest, with my head still turned to the left, with most everyone on my right side. Not gonna lie, there were few moments when I felt a big claustrophobic, but I could still see some other folks moving around and I could hear them and they WOULD talk to me when I asked something, so I hung in there.
I had two distinct thoughts about the whole thing:
One, is God greater than the focus of my fears? That was a question from a sermon several months ago that has really resonated with me. It's a resounding yes for me. I don't know why, but I'm often surprised to discover that it's true. Again and again, He is faithful.
Two, well, if He calls me home right now, at least everybody knows I love them!
This surgeon, Dr M, likes wordless music while he's working, so there's me and the crew, chatting about John Williams and "is this from Star Wars?" I heard some from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, more Star Wars, and so on. It was delightful!
At one point, I asked, "should I be feeling pressure in my throat?" I was assured that yes, that was fine, because he was snaking his tube around and that is exactly where I would be feeling something. Whew.
Then suddenly, everyone is excited and I hear, "twenty-one minutes!" You guys, this team got that sucker out in 21 minutes after prepping for it to take hours!
My sweet husband said when he got the call, he had time to think, "either this is really good news, or really bad news!"
The next two videos are for folks who enjoy doctor shows. You know who you are. Where are my House, M*A*S*H, ER, the Resident, Grey's Anatomy fans? This is the action part. The surgeon, Dr. M, had to time everything just right to lasso the moving part and drag it out of me!
This is the incision from my port removal last Monday. You can tell it's bruising up nicely, heh.
That tiny hole below is where they entered my groin to fetch that missing piece. Isn't that so crazy? It's itty bitty!
And THAT is the wayfaring troublemaker that caused this whole mess. You'll notice it is substantially larger than the 1.5 inches that we were originally told last week.
Tremendous thanks to Latifah, Aubrey, Kendra, Amber, Bradley, Dr. A, Dr. M, Amy, Krupen, Annie, Aaron, and the rest of the team whose names I either didn't know or forgot.
Thank you to my incredible tribe scattered everywhere from folks in the city who offered guest rooms to my poor, stressed out husband to the folks at home who were praying, not even knowing the extent or the seriousness of the whole situation. I have THE BEST tribe anywhere and you all bless us so much. Thanks for once again having our backs. We are putting in requests for no more medical adventures until I'm a little old lady!
And thanks to God, because who knows how long I'd been walking around with madmade materials in the middle of my heart yet He kept me fine and dandy. They say to worry about microplastics, but nobody warns you about the macroplastics that clearly are out to get you!
I don't even know how to relate this without .... I can't even. Words fail me. That makes blogging a teeny bit hard, haha. I'll give it my best.
Went in yesterday to have my port removed, which SHOULD be an "amen and hallelujah" situation because it means I'm done with all the major needlework and chemicals and all that.
I strip down to my waist and my paper... vest...
The surgeon comes in and tells me step one is numbing me up with multiple jabs. Think novacaine for your chest. Sure, fine, of course I get a little swimmy and a lot sweaty so I ask for a cold wash cloth behind my neck and I chew my gum and put my knees up and life goes on. I maintain consciousness, woohoo. Me, one point!
As I'm pointedly looking the opposite direction and the surgeon is happily scalpaling away and then calmly remarks, "huh. This should be longer."
Great.
"I have seen this before."
Fabulous.
"So, see this? It should be about an inch and a half longer."
This just keeps getting better.
"So, um, where would it go?"
"Well, could be heart or lungs. We will send you down for a chest Xray."
Okiedokie!
So downstairs we go to registration then to radiology. I get an upgrade to a fabric gown and get my front and side chest Xrays taken. The surgeon calls me immediately after I make it back into the waiting room to say, "Yep, I see it. My office will coordinate with Hospital X because unfortunately we don't do this here- you will need a radiology specialist to lasso it out."
Swell.
Somebody is going to lasso out my missing piece.
"It'll take longer than you'll want it to."
The setting up? The procedure itself? The recovery?
I tell people this story and they want to know why it isn't happening now, right this minute, yesterday, and the only thing I can come up with is
A) I'm still breathing- no shortness of breath or anything and
B) must have a regular enough heartbeat though nobody has asked about either of those things!
Apparently it was intact and worked for my PET scan in August but we know it wouldn't draw blood for my last oncology appointment in October. Has it been adventuring around this whole time? Who knows. Since I'm not experiencing pain anywhere other than the scar tissue/cording I am assuming it hasn't caused a clot anywhere, and he DID see it on my chest Xray. Does it stay put? Because I'm relatively active has it been just cruising along, making laps in my bloodstream? I've got some fun questions for whoever is going to lasso the darn thing!
I'll keep you posted! Put any port jokes into the comments.
'Tis the month of Thanksgiving, so our lead teacher began discussing why we celebrate that holiday in the first place. She took the kids back across the ocean to where people were boarding a boat called the Mayflower, how it took many weeks for the journey, how food began to run out, and how they finally arrived here.
When you buy a package of nylons or tights and they read "One size fits most", buyer beware. That means they will fit most of your lower body, not that they fit most of everyone's bodies. I spent the morning tugging my purple and black striped tights back up where they belong. Does anybody make clothes that actually fit anymore?
Last week was just nuts. In addition to the gas line at the high school being struck which caused school to be cancelled for Thing Three, I also had a two hour fog delay. We repeated the process on Tuesday, and though the gas line had been repaired, school was still cancelled for him as well as for me this time because the fog was still hanging around come bus time after the two hour delay. I think Wednesday everyone was on time, but I was subbing in first grade instead of hanging with my preK friends. Thursday I was back with my 3 year olds and then Friday was a work day and aides weren't required to report, and Thing Three also didn't have school because his teachers had a work day as well.
My Mommeee arrived Monday afternoon and left Saturday morning, so we had a great, long visit this time. Thanks for making the trip! I miss you! Dada had been in Mexico for work since Sunday, and he made it back safely to us on Saturday after my Mom arrived home.
This week will hopefully be a little less bananas, though I'm back in first grade on Wednesday again, and Thing Three has no school for conferences on Friday. Our school has them next week. I can't believe it's the end of the first quarter already...
My hindsight-is-always-20/20 observation is to not schedule surgery wherein your recovery requires no lifting within the same year as having lymph nodes removed in your arm. Hopefully none of you will ever go through the experience, but if you do, be forewarned that the second surgery and no lifting will set back your PT and stretching exercises rather alarmingly. I've been experiencing a ton of tightness throughout the right side of my chest, right armpit, shoulder, and neck. Over two weeks ago it was so bad that I whimpered when bending over to tie my shoes; the combination of extending my arm while having it tightly in front of me pulled all kinds of muscles in what felt like all the wrong places. At times, while stretching, I sounded snappy like a KitKat bar. As anyone with cording can tell you, the snap kind of takes your breath away a second and you're wincing the whole time you're working, either because it actually does hurt sometimes but also in anticipation of it zinging another stab of pain. For instance, I do 10 reps of various exercises, and sometimes the snap won't come until the 9th rep! Then you hesitate in dread a moment before starting the 10th, and breathe deeply when that set is done. I'm not particularly a fan of sounding crispy. Dada, however, is enjoying working on me with the massage gun we got; meanwhile, my vision when he's doing it makes me feel like the Blair Witch Project choppiness and it reminds me of how we'd vocalize as kids riding our bikes on our brick street, "heeeeyyyaaaaheeeeeyaheeeeya"... oh well. This, too, shall pass. I certainly won't win any Heisman trophies anytime soon!
School has been entertaining. For the most part, the kids are a hoot and I love the staff. I am tired of the squabbling over who is the line leader, but generally I am having a ball. I'm thrilled to be able to help. I missed so much time last year.
Our weather has finally cooled off, I'm super behind on #Inktober, I have plenty of small projects to keep me busy when I'm home, and I'm glad for the time we had with my Mommeeeee. Too bad she didn't take Bos with her when she left. (I can hear you laughing, Mom. Pipe down.)
Did I blog that we had to put Honey down? I don't think I did. Our Honey girl was elderly and way past decrepit, so we made that worst best decision and our wonderful vet helped us send her off pain-free. Bos never even noticed. He still scurried to her dish for days afterwards to see if she'd left him any morsels and then he'd look at us like, "how rude." I think the only reason he'd miss any of us is because he doesn't have opposable thumbs.
One more football game and then the marching band season winds down. They've already had their concert and we learned the hard way to sit in the center of the auditorium versus towards the back. Having a line of trumpets three rows behind you is not recommended. Had it been drums, I'd have been great! I love to feel the beat in my sternum!
Have a wonderful week, everybody, and stay healthy!
Today has been the Monday-est Monday that I’ve had in a long time. It started off with a very late in the game fog delay notification for Thing Three. We were both already up and around, and mostly ready for our day.
Then I got my notification that my school also had a two hour fog delay.
So Thing Three napped while I tidied things up, got boxes ready to ship from the post office before I went to school, and so forth.
He wakes up, puts on finishing touches, makes himself to not get on the bus this anfternoon because I need to take him to his orthodontist anppointment, and heads out. He catches the bus, I wave to the bus driver and heads back in to feed Bos and then head out, reminding myself.to pick him up at school later.
I’m almost out the door when the phone rings. It’s his school, again, this time saying a gas line has been hit at the school and the buses will be returning all secondary students to their homes because nobody can be near the gas leak. ALSO, because the buses have to return everyone, they can’t pick up any elementary school students. School is cancelled for everybody.
Happy Columbus Day.
Laughing to myself, scribbling Thing Three a note about welcome home, see you later, I head to the post office, get my boxes all stamped with the self-service kiosk and try to yeet them into the drop box.
It’s jammed.
The main section is closed. It’s Columbus Day.
I head down the street to a toy store, asking if they also ship USPS, just in case, and the answer is, sadly, no.
I’m now at school, getting ready for a half day of 4 year olds while my boxes sit in the car.
Have a great day, and may yours go smoother than mine!
My poor flowers. They've been mostly neglected, yet somehow this beauty appeared and made me smile. Thanks, Foxglove, for hanging in there and being your vibrant self!
One of the other teachers comes into preschool to do art projects when her own students are having a special class like PE or music. The red paper with the black C for cat was the example, but it was not shown to the preschoolers.
They were given verbal directions.
Maybe that's how Salvador Dali got his start...
* * *
The kids were told to color three apples: one red, one yellow, and one green. I received several which were varying shades of red/orange (okay), very pink (hmm), and most definitely blue (BLUE!)
One of our students who didn't use red, yellow, or green looked right at me as I assessed her blue, purple, and magenta apples and asked, without batting an eye, "isn't that hilarious?"
* * *
Take your teacher friends out for ice cream and let them tell tales. You'll be hard pressed to hear funnier stories. Have a good weekend, everyone!
I think there's probably a reason that the human race generally has children when parents are younger versus older, and it is directly related to the energy level of those little ones. Whew! Preschoolers are hardcore, let me tell you. Especially ones who have started school determined not to nap. Ever. Silly little peeps have no idea they're missing out on one of the highlights of life. Ah well. With age comes wisdom.
That's what they say, anyway.
The students I'm working with are adorable, precocious, ridiculous, sweet, funny, earnest, enthusiastic ... and are wearing me out. I don't want to use the word "exhausting" because it's still early days, but I am amazed by their determination to stay wiggly at nap time and chatty when they should be quiet-ish and, despite announcing repeatedly that they're hungry, much more interested in entertaining their friends than eating their lunches!
AND, for the love, why do they have to go to the bathroom 15 minutes after they were just reminded to go?
Anyway. We've been going on dot hunts when discussing circles and releasing butterflies and making alphabet books and God bless these brilliant women I work with because I am sheerly there for backup as they present all these incredible and adorable ideas. Letter B's that we've turned into bumblebees, D's that have become donuts, you get the idea. I love that I can quietly whisk the old supplies away and prep the new things while the teachers are explaining what will be happening next. Even if we have to repeat it. Many times.
I love the staff where I work and these families. I'm having a really good season right now and I'm almost afraid to jinx it by saying anything, but I know some of you wonder so I want to keep you in the loop.
Not sure which kids are allowed to have their photos displayed or not, so you'll just have to envision little people yourself. We have three year olds on Tuesday and Thursday and 4s and 5s on MWF. Last week, one of the 3s decided she wasn't pleased about being dropped off and therefore wasn't going to sit or join the group or sit by herself and stood and stood and stood, only to fold herself in half physically, face down in my teacher friend's lap. Bless the teacher, she adjusted and kept reading to the group right over the top of the little flower's half-prone body. The little one eventually came around and was participating later on, so all's well that ends well.
We hosted Donuts for Dads and are gearing up for Grandparents' Day in a few weeks. We even survived our first two hour fog delay, which means nobody is there long enough to offically have to take a nap, so we had a lovely picnic outside and got to see many airplanes, some butterflies, AND two bald eagles!
Healthwise, I'm mostly good. All cleared from the hysterectomy, attempted to get back into yoga last week, lamented/raged how much range of motion and flexibility I lost over the summer because of no yoga, and am back at it today. There's more neuropathy in my right arm than I'd like there to be- it often feels fizzy- but I'm not dropping things or in pain from it, so I guess either it'll get better or I'll get used to it. My armpit/pec(?) whatever on that right side has been really extra tight the last several days which is not making me happy, but at least it doesn't feel like a cough will kill me anymore. Sneezes were also terrible, but my body has apparently figured that out because most of them have been aborted, haha! You just don't think about what is connected until something goes wrong. I'm sure it's fine. It's already better than it was late last week.
Thank you all for praying me/supporting me/loving on me to get me to this point! I think this has been my favorite back to school yet!
The above photos were on my walk yesterday. While fall isn't my favorite season, I'm learning to appreciate the russets and golds.
Below, some of our mornings. I dunno how we get any fog when things have been as dry as they've been. Doesn't seem like there's enough moisture to MAKE fog, but I guess that's why I'm not in charge of such things.
It has been hot enough that I still haven't wanted to bake, and that's saying something because I LOVE cookies. I owe some to some friends, so no, you guys, they're not lost in the mail; they're still ingredients.
Anyway, here's hoping we get slightly cooler temps, but more importantly, RAIN. It's been dry for... months? Things are sounding quite crispy and today is only the first day of fall. Could have fooled our yard!
