Roarin' Roadsters Rock!

This is the road I made for my five and three year old boys in our living room.  The past couple of days they had been getting into trouble in their room and I wanted to keep them in the living room with me so I could watch them. I remembered something I saw on Pinterest with roads made out of masking tape so I thought this would be fun. I didn't have any masking tape but I had some blue painter's tape so I used that. Masking tape would probably be better but this worked so I used it. I made roads all over the room and put their toy garage in the middle. They had a ball playing with it all afternoon. We kept it up a couple of days but after we vacuum, we may do another fun road!

Fun day at home

Today I put painter's tape on my living room floor in the shape of a road.  I got the idea from Pinterest and thought I would try it. They had so much fun zooming their cars around the room.  I will post a picture later.  My recovery has been steady and slow. I am feeling better but I don't feel up to my old routine yet.  Wednesday was my first day in over two weeks being home alone with my youngest boys while everyone was away to work and school.  It was fun to be mom again but I was pretty tired by the evening.  I am just so appreciative of all the help I have had the past few weeks with the meals and babysitting.  I love my family and friends so much!

Update on my recovery

Today I got my catheter out and I feel so relieved...so to speak. ;-) As inconvenient as it was though, it did one good thing; it made me sit down and rest.  Now that I have it out and I can do more, I am having to work hard to not clean my house and bake cookies.  But, I'm not complaining. I have had it so good. I have had so many people bringing us dinners and babysitting my boys so I can get extra rest that it has really helped my recovery.  I need to just keep telling myself that in a few weeks, I will totally be back to normal and I will be complaining about having to clean my house and cook meals so I need to just enjoy this time and concentrate on getting myself well.  I am so grateful that I am healing up and that I was able to get rid of "Cathy" (my catheter). It was difficult to shower and to sleep and just to function with that thing so now that it is gone, I will be able to be more comfortable. I am mostly just tired and not in pain so I am grateful that my recovery is going well and I know I will be back to routine soon. Life is good.

Hills and Valleys

this is the stuff they also give you for a colonoscopy. It's nasty stuff!

my beautiful candy bouquet my mom got me..I shared with my family of course.

bruise on my arm from the first site she tried to put the IV in. It looks a lot better now than it did.

This is the before shot before I got my hair cut from Cara. She gave me an amazing hair do and I forgot to do take the after shot. Oh, well.

A shot of my other arm with where they took blood and Kalli in the background saying, "mom! did you really have to show me that!!"

*********TMI WARNING: If you don't want to read details of my surgery, don't read this post....just sayin*******
Last Monday, the 30th, I had my surgery. I lived to tell the tale! Hopefully, this tale will not be too boring or long-winded but it is my story and for me so I guess I shouldn't worry about it. ;-)  The top picture is the GoLightly that I had to take Sunday night before the surgery to clean me out. I was so gung ho when I started. My goal was what it said on the instructions: 8 oz every 10 minutes till it was gone and that's 96 oz. so I figured I started at 4 p.m., I'll be done by 6:30 p.m. I shiver as I write and remember.....yuck!!! I did pretty well the first hour but by 5:30 and half-gallon later, my body was done. It wouldn't take another ounce of the stuff.  I felt so wrung out. I was on a clear diet all day and had only had hot chocolate, a bowl of chicken broth and water so now instead of just being hungry, I was just nauseated.  I tried not to beat myself up..I knew I had done the best I could do so I finished preparations for being gone during my surgery for my family.  The next morning, Scott and I were off to the hospital at 5:15 a.m. (my doctor requested that I be first that day because he said I would be a difficult case).  We checked in, they took some blood, then I changed into the hospital gown and settled in bed to wait.  A nurse put my IV in, which was very difficult because I had been fasting, it was hard to find the vein. One of the pictures above is what my arm looks like now where she attempted the first IV.  I have a monster bruise that doesn't hurt very much now but it stung at the time.  At about 7 a.m., I said goodbye to Scott and they wheeled my bed into a room which was prepatory to the surgeries.  There were about six people in there.  One guy waiting to get his knee replaced, and other various patients.  My goal through this surgery (and still is) was to be as pleasant and happy as possible to everyone. So whenever a nurse came over to talk to me or doctor or orderly, I tried to give a good smile and be happy even though I was feeling anxious.  So we got the pre-stuff done...I signed my life away that I wouldn't sue the hospital and then a nurse warned me about the Versaid she was injecting into my IV.  As they were wheeling me down the hall to the operating room, I remember asking the nurse if I would remember my conversation with her and she said, maybe, maybe not.  The next thing I remember is waking up and puking.  The surgery was over.  The best case scenario was a laparascopic hysterecotomy and cystoscopy (they wanted to check and make sure my bladder was okay) that would be an hour.  Well, best case didn't happen. :-) My doctor later said to me in jest, "You like doing things the hard way don't you!"  Anyway, three and half hours later they were done. I am so grateful for the skill of my doctors and I know they did a great job.  (TMI WARNING******)  They ended up leaving my right ovary so I won't have to worry about taking pills for estrogen replacement.  They took my left ovary and uterus.  When they got to my cystoscopy, there was a lot of scarring on my bladder that they had to fix and to do that, they had to open my incision wider so it wasn't just laparscopic anymore.  The first thing that I remember coming out of the anesthesia is hearing that the surgery was a success and had been 3.5 hours and that I would have to keep my catheter for two weeks.  TWO WEEKS!!! NOOOOOOOO!  So Monday, I floated in and out of anesthesia all afternoon and didn't really wake up until 5 p.m.  They had given me an Interthikol which is like a epidural that lasts 24 hours and so that first day I felt great so to speak.  Tuesday, I could feel it wearing off and I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  My shoulders were so sore and I was just achy.  But I ate pretty well Tuesday.  The hospital food tasted pretty good.  But by Wednesday I was fighting nausea. I wasn't doing very well Wednesday night and by Thursday, my hematocrit had fallen to a 22 (I think you want to be above 30).  So Thursday I was given two units of blood and by the afternoon, my hematocrit was up to 33.  Friday, I was doing better so I was discharged at noon and my mom took my to my parents house to rest up.  One thing I must say about the hospital before I go on with this narrative:  They took good care of me for the most part but there was a nurse there that I just felt like didn't take good care of me. One of out of many is a good track record though!  I had some good chats with my nurses and techs that took care of me and asked them about their families and it really helped to get my mind off my troubles talking to other people.  My mom came to see me every day and my kids and hubby came often but for the most part, I really felt so sick this time I wasn't up to visitors. It really was hills and valleys.  One minute I would feel elated to be able to watch Family Feud and not Diego and the next I would be fighting a bad headache.  One minute I would be grateful to not be making meals and doing laundry (a regular vacation at the hospital right! uhhhhh...no) and the next moment, I would be puking and miserable.  Through the bad moments, I really tried hard to be pleasant and not complain but it was so hard.  So on with the story...are you still with me?  I went to my parent's house till Monday late afternoon and it was so nice to be a selfish being for a few days.  My mom would make me meals and fill up my water bottle and she tucked me into bed the first night when I was having trouble getting comfortable with my catheter.  My dad would share books with me and visit and played piano for me.  One night, my parents came downstairs where I had set up camp in their basement and we watched Star Trek and Dick Van Dyke together.  It makes me choke up to think about how much that meant to me to spend time with them.  I really didn't want to leave but I did miss my kids and family.  But as soon as I came through the door Monday, I'm back to work. I can't help but think about the bills and the kids school projects and schedules. I really do love it but it was a little overwhelming at first.  I would say the hardest thing to deal with right now is my catheter. (TMI WARNING*****)  It doesn't hurt but it just annoying to carry around this bag and everyone knows what is in it...yuck!!!  I am keeping it as sterile and clean as possible and on antibiotic so I don't get any infections but it so hard to be patient waiting for the doctor to take it out.  Monday I have an appointment with Radiology to do an XRay and make sure my bladder is healed and then two hours later I have an appointment with the doctor who will take it out if the Xray looks okay.  My kids are fascinated with my little bag...my five year old asked me point blank "Mom is that your pee?" Ugggghhh.....I wish I could hide sometimes.  So, generally I have been feeling well. I have been struggling with nausea because of the six different medications I am on but it hasn't been too bad. As long as I take my pain medication, the pain isn't too hard to manage.  The hard part is being patient with my family for being normal, needy and noisy and being patient with myself.  I feel so useless and want to go back to serving my family and serving in my calling.  It has been a great break but for instance Sunday, I found out one of my counselors was sick and I just felt so bad that I couldn't be there Sunday to do my job.  In fact, at the very time of primary that day, I was sitting at my mom's house struggling with a very bad headache just sitting quietly waiting for the medicine to kick in and praying to Heavenly Father with all my might to help strengthen me through the pain.  The best lesson for me here is that I can serve people the best when I am at my best so I need to take care of me and there will be plenty of chances later for service.  I am so grateful for so many family members and friends and ward members who are helping me and my family through this time. I thought I could do it by myself but I can't.  The meals that people have brought have helped so much and the many hours of babysitting my younger boys have helped and is helping me sooo much.  I don't have far to look for help...everyone is so kind in offering help and I just am so grateful and happy for the evidence of so many people that love me.  So for now if I look extra cheerful and bouncy happy, know that I am not crazy. I'm just trying to make the best of a hard situation and it is either laugh or cry on this roller coaster ride and I choose to laugh.