What I'm up to, and what's next

 If I tell you this, you have to trust that I'm not crowing about it or trying to make anybody look bad, and you must understand I'm not putting myself above others who choose not to do this:

I am scrubbing the outsides of my kitchen cabinets today.

In my defense:

1.) It's my spring break. My Mommeeee is visiting and since she gets wiped out from travel, it's a good day to stay home and chat with her.

2.) I wasn't here last spring to do it as I was in the big city being radiated and didn't want to use my already-short weekends at home to do them then. Then time for fall cleaning rolled around but I started working at school  instead. Yes, it is an "or" situation, not an "and", hahaha. Anybody who has ever been to my house is now nodding in understanding.

3.) It is a really good set of stretches for this afflicted right arm and side. More on that later.*

I may never, ever get to my baseboards (looking at you, my bestie) but I can do these kitchen cabinets. I'm about halfway done. I'll be the only one who even notices that they've been cleaned, but I can tell you that I burned 100 calories in under half an hour, so if you're sick of the treadmill because it is STILL too cold out, well, grab your bucket and a rag, turn up some music, and off you go!

*************

Whoops. That key really stuck. Oh well. 

The scoop on my arm and all that jazz is this: in two weeks I'll have a procedure called a venogram in which contrast will be run through an IV and then watched with an ultrasound to see how compressed my vein is in that right upper arm/ shoulder/ armpit/ axilla quadrant. If it is open at all, the surgeon intends to inflate a balloon in there to "snowplow" it open the rest of the way and then will withdraw the balloon, similar to some heart procedures. I will be awake but under some sedation as they may want me to move that arm in various positions so they can see where bloodflow is being compressed, etc. I will be on blood thinners for 3 months following all that, which I confess to being less than thrilled about, but I understand that is to give the vein practice with easier bloodflow as it recovers. (My main concern is that one of my meds dries out my eyes and nose already and I don't want constant nosebleeds.)

If the vein is completely closed, then the surgeon will have a discussion with my plastics guy to develop a plan to take more drastic measures. Even if the procedure works this time, there's no guarantee the vein will stay open because it's been radiated twice, so we may end up with the second plan anyway. We only got the bare bones of that plan floated, but phrases like, "yes, something from a cadaver could work", "I'm thinking your veins in your legs would be too small", and "we sometimes use the jugular vein but that would be from your left side" were bandied about. 

In the meantime, I'll be starting PT for my shoulder range of motion and having more dry needling done, which I've done twice now and am amazed that it works. I am flummoxed that someone can stick half a dozen needles into me no problem and I feel better but every opportunity for a blood draw is fraught with stress. So weird. 😁

Anyhoo, back to the second half of my cabinets!

Ruminating about the essence of sheep

 One of my wool dryer balls hopped out of the dryer and skittered back into the no-man’s-land between the dryer and the washer. Into the dust. Into the dog hair. Where I couldn’t easily reach to rescue it. 

It got me wondering, “is it in the nature of sheep to get lost? Is that the essence of sheep, even once they’ve donated to become dryer balls, to determinedly get themselves separated and lost? Wherefore doest thou thinkest that thou is going?”

It reminded me of one of my favorite kid stories. One of our boys was in the high chair at our old house and we were poking Cheerios, chasing them around the tray of the high chair. I’d purposely pop them to bounce a little and say, “hey! Get back here!” It made the little guy giggle and so I kept doing it. Eventually I had to wander off to clean something up and I hear, “hey! Hah-bat-choo! Hey! Hah-bat-choo!” That was as close as he could get to “hey, get back here” and we still use the phrase regularly at our house. 

I confess to exclaiming it to my prodigal dryer ball. 

Don’t be that dude. Stay with your herd. Or flock. Or whatever you call a collection of dryer balls.

That works in life, too, you know. Find your tribe and bless ‘em! And speaking of tribes, a belated very happy 80th birthday to one of my parents’ besties! Thanks for being part of our tribe for decades. We are better people because of your friendship. Love you!

Whiplash

 

Seriously? Now, I ask you... who is in charge of this!?

Snippets from school

 We celebrated Dr. Seuss all last week which culminated in a party on Friday with One Fish Two Fish snacks and Cat in the Hat fruit kebobs. My coworkers are the best! 

We've finished the Olympics and moved on to March Madness, but with books. Daily we've been reading two books to the kids and they have to vote on their favorite, We have brackets made of painters' tape up on the walls with photocopies of the covers of each book, so once it is full I'll get some photos for here. So far, the Sleep Book won over its competitor, Fox in Socks was in the running, and so was Marvin K Mooney. They won't all be Seuss books, but that's what we kicked it off with. 

We've had two Silly Socks days. One of the 3s came in with these socks, above, which are possibly the cutest socks I've ever seen in my life! It took him a minute to get them to hold hands, but he got it!

You can see my Mary Jane with Wonder Woman sock in the bottom left, but you can't see the cape on the back of it, alas.

 And the Olympics! BOY, did we have fun. I've never enjoyed the Winter Games more than this year. One of my coworkers made these bobsleds, above, and the skis, below, and we also had hockey games with pool noodles, ski jumps off the gym mats with pool noodle ski poles, a slalom course set up of hula hoops that the kids had to hop into from side to side on both feet, and on and on. They had a ball! We had so much gross motor time that we really saw a lot of confidence being built up, especially in kiddos we didn't expect to really get involved! It has been a very long winter of inside recess, so the chance to have something novel to try was a huge hit. 

Our kids even made "torches" from a toilet paper roll and red, orange, and yellow tissue paper, and then with that in one hand and a mini American flag in the other, got to parade through the lunchroom while the big kids chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" and the sound system played the Olympic theme. The 4s and 5s were thrilled. The 3s were dubious. All were adorable.  

The skis look a little worse for wear here, but the kids were absolutely delighted. I personally am sad that the Olympics are over and that we won't get to do it again for years! It was really neat to experience them for the first time throuigh these little kids who had no idea what the fuss was about and to then have them coming in each day asking, "what are the Olympics today?!"

Another random rundown

 So this will be a load of random, I'd planned to blog about the last of the teas from January but at this point I don't remember, so tough beans. Or tea leaves, I guess. They were mostly yummy and I've remembered to drink more tea this year than ever before, so it worked, I guess? Haha.

We are experiencing technical issues over here, as well. Thing One graciously lent me a portable keyboard for this post because my poor laptop, above, was baptized with apple juice and some of the keys are not sticky to the touch but are sticky underneath which results in a lot of frustration, random j's, and so forth. As you can see, the space bar is also missing, which makes things a little more challenging and renders moot most of what I learned in typing class with Mr. Hovis many moons ago. 

So., My phone is chock full of photos of my preK crowd but since I don't know who has permission to see them and who doesn't, I won't be sharing those visually. I need to clean out my phone storage for real, which reminds me of one of my most recent favorite preK quotes:

My nana caught an octopus FOR REAL.

Sounds like a children's book waiting to happen...

Weatherwise, we've gone from snow angels to throwing windows open and walks in the sunshine and the corresponding sinus headaches with the temps and pressure being all over the map. Most people I know are still dealing with a cough of some sort, or sinus congestion, or both. Why March feels the need to go from 20s to 70s and then back to the 40s and wet when we could all use weeks on end of 60s is beyond me, but I'm not in charge.

Arm-wise, I'm still playing phone tag with the big city folks about what they want to do to me next. There's been talk of involving a vascular department but I have zero ideas as to what that would actually entail other than thought bubbles containing, "stent?" "Removing a rib?" "Ballooning something back open?" Yeah, not getting all bent out of shape until we talk to the pros. I am against rib removal, though, for the record... and this is why you don't google things or talk to people who don't work in the spoecific department.

Meanwhile, I am still wearing The Reductor 23ish of 24 hours, including sleeping in it, getting stuck to my wool blanket because of the velcro, trying to put on/take off makeup and brush teeth when I'm not wearing it because it's hard to make my elbow bend to those angles while in the darn thing, and ain't nobody wants to see me do eyeliner left handed. It's been two and a half weeks of my 2-4 weeks, so we are getting there. 

I also graduated from my bag of foam chips to stuff into my bra to a small bag of beads. I find it completely ridiculous that I'm wearing a padded bra sans boobs, but the PT gal says that she does notice my scar tissue softening, so I guess it's working. I'm doing my exercises and my stretches and all the things, though I can't do them as often as recommended due to the limited mobility because of The Reductor. That's okay. I'll get there. Just keep chipping along. 

Thing One just teased me, "laundry basket emoji!" which is our shorthand for "Get your stuff outta the washer (or dryer)!" Must rescue the sheets. Be back in justasec...

Last week, we asked one of our brand new four-year-olds what his take was on the weather. He looked out the window and reported, "it's foggy... and rainy... and gross!" Spot on, my friend.

I texted Thing Three from the dentist and asked if he was doing okay. He replied, "i was kidnapped and im being waterboarded right now

it stings"

I can't even.

Thing Two informed us that the house shook and he wondered what was going on only to discover later that he'd been about 3 miles from the 2.9 earthquake Ohio had last week. I told my mother that it often feels like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs anymore. Otherwise, he says he is doing fine and that he prefers snow covered roads because it helps fill in the potholes. Poor Pepe. I hope he can keep it together through all the spring thaws...

Overall, we are doing okay. Hanging in there like everybody else between high points and valleys. Take good care of you!

Happy birthday, Gramps!

 I dunno how old my Dad’s dad would be today, but I always find it funny that his birthday is the same as the amazing Dr. Seuss! Today our preK crowd will be wearing pajamas and we will be reading one of my all-time favorites, the Sleep Book. It’s Seuss week, so there are lots of Shenanigans planned and I’m sure there will be plenty of spontaneous, kid-originated Shenanigans as well!

I will be wearing my minion pajamas bottoms- yes, the ones from Despicable Me- and I will most likely still be wearing them to my PT appointment right after school. Last week we had a silly sock day so I got to wear my Wonder Woman socks- which have capes on them, by the way- to PT and the woman who works on me approved highly. I’m just here for comic relief.

Since it’s March and we will have St. Patty’s Day to celebrate soon, I bought our yearly Lucky Charms so there’s a happy teenage boy munching away this morning. Congrats, everyone, for making it through February!

Have a great day!

Check in

 Sorry for the radio silence. The weather finally broke from the awful cold and tons of snow, so I've been sneaking in time outside in the fresh air as often as possible. We've gone on a few walks, I picked up some winter-downed sticks and even cleaned up some of every dog owner's nightmare when the snow finally melts.

I've also worn my compression sleeve faithfully daily for months to little avail. My right arm is swollen and feels almost solid and when you press on it, you leave imprints. The next post is all about the next steps there, so I won't belabor the subject. It's tight clear up into my neck and I'm not seeing much relief despite all the various exercises I've been given to do. It is what it is right now.

School is going well. These are the first Olympics our three-, four- and five year olds have experienced, so we've been having a ton of fun adapting the Games for these young kids: 

-We used wheeled, square scooters with nap time mats folded on top of them for bobsleds. One kid would sit in the middle while a partner kid would push them across the gym.  

-They stood each foot on a paper plate and skidded around the gym as speed skaters.

-We stood gymnastics mats on edge to make huge hockey goals, gave the kids pool noodles and a ball, and they played hockey. 

-They stuffed red, yellow, and orange tissue paper into toilet paper rolls as their Olympic torches, and with torch in one hand and a small American flag in the other, toured the school while the bigger students chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" to our preschoolers' great delight for Opening Ceremonies.

It's been a ball. What a great activity for the dead of winter. Thank you so much, Olympians, for all your hard work and sheer grit and, if I'm honest, the complete insanity of some of your sports!

Lo, I shall call you The Reductor

 

I had a CT scan yesterday which went pretty well as far as I could tell, and then I had a PT appt after that. My physical therapist moaned in dismay when I updated her on all the lymphedema happenings because she'd last seen me in November and the swelling hadn't really picked up yet then. 

So we got to work. I got a Reduction Kit. Its job, while it's worn 23 of 24 hours a day, is to more seriously squeeze my arm to help the fluid get where it needs to go. The compression sleeve I'd been wearing was more of a maintenance sleeve and we've gone past maintaining and into the realm of "let's reverse this process."

I now have in my possession two soft fabric sleeves with thumb holes. I slide into one of them and then add this velcro contraption over top. It has 8 separate sections to pull snugly over the 2 bands inside. She asked, "where can I number them so that they're unobtrusive?"

"Oh no. I work in a preschool. Number those suckers right on there and we will practice counting!"

I've only slept in it for one night at this point and I have to say that I got tangled in the covers a little bit less than I expected. Wardrobe might be a bit tricky for the month that I'm to wear it. Today I wore a tank top with a loose, drapey, poncho type sweater over it. Blouses are not going to work right now as they were already tight over the compression sleeve and this is substantially more bulky. 

I was resigned to wearing it forever, so I asked, "won't my skin get pretty wimpy if it never sees the sun and doesn't get out in the fresh air?" She was horrified and corrected me immediately, "oh! I'm SO sorry. This is only a 2-4 week thing, not a forever thing! We just need to reduce the fluid and get that skin soft again. This isn't the rest of your life!"

Whew.

Thankfully, it's still going to be wintry for awhile in Ohio, despite the 65 degrees it hit yesterday, so I'll be able to get away with tank tops and sweaters, I think. 

Today, the plastic surgery team meets to go over my CT results and my measurements and all that jazz to see where my lymph system or circulatory system is having trouble.  They had contrast in that IV yesterday and will hopefully be able to see "where the dam is spilling" or where things are compressed to the point they're draining ineffectively. I sure hope it showed something! Then they hope to come up with a plan for how to help me, including surgery if needed. They talked about how they'd most likely need to transfer skin from my back to the area that's been radiated twice so they have healthy tissue to work with as they clean up whatever is happening in there. I am not even going to try to speculate what that all involves, but I do know that removing lymph nodes from my belly (where they don't really do much) into my right arm is a possibility. Beyond that, I decided I'll just wait and see because someone on that panel may say, "hey, I read about XYZ so maybe you could try that with her!" No sense in getting stressed about it before any of it has to happen. 

Meanwhile, none of my three year olds today asked about my new sleeve, though I am sure the majority of my fours and fives tomorrow will give me the third degree! I plan to draw bugs which correspond to the numbers on the velcro panels- 9 fruit flies, 8 ants, etc. down to one large bug like a praying mantis or something. If I'm going to be in this thing, might as well make it fun. Good thing our Resident Artist is home to help as well!

As far as prayer requests go, I don't even know other than A) a good plan that bodes well for ideally no/few issues in the long term and B) that can be done between school and vacation, again ideally, and C) that everything is healed before our Christmas in July party so that I can be living life! Just DON'T pray for patience for me as I figure out how to finagle all of this stuff with my left hand because I'm right hand dominant, of course!  

Don't take your elbows for granted. It's all fun and games until you can't bend your arm...