Student of the Week!

We are very proud of our little man for getting Student of the Week at school!

And only two weeks later he came home with it AGAIN!!

Jaden-boy likes to chat with his friends instead of paying attention at school. We started a behavior chart, and every day he is good and pays attention at school, his teacher sends home a smiley face. We told him that when he gets 10 smiley faces, we will have a family game night. Jaden gets to pick the games, Jaden gets to pick the junk-food, etc. He has come home with a smiley face every day since! So we are planning the first game night for this Friday!

Way to go Jaden! We are so proud of you!

One week later...

One thing I've learned... Just because a surgery is "outpatient", doesn't mean it's not a big deal.

I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Even after I stayed overnight in the hospital.

I thought it would be a few crappy days and then just gradually get better from there. Because I'm a healthy person. And dog-gonnit I worked my butt off (although it's very much still there) in the gym wholeheartedly believing it would slash my recovery time.

The last couple days my pain has been worse on the spot where they removed the endometriosis. Worse as in, I took a percocet and an hour later I was in tears because it felt like my abdomen was on FIRE.

I don't know why I've always been dumb with pain killers. Someone always has to tell me to take them. I'll complain to Trev about a headache or something and his response is... did you take something for it???

Like, duh.

My thinking has always been more like.... what's causing my headache? Figure that out and it will go away.

So of course he asks how many percocet I took.

Just one. The Rx is 1-2 pills every 4 hours.

He made me take another one and call the dr. today.

"It's common to have pain after surgery" (this was the on-call doc, not my doc). But increased pain? After a week? Oh well, everything else seems to be fine. So I guess I'll listen to her and take more percocet.

So, this is still what's crutial to my survival. 2 bottles of pills (I also have 600mg motrin), pen and paper to write down what time I took them (cuz I can't remember a darn thing), something to eat with them so they don't end up in the toilet, and the cute bag they gave me at the hospital. Ok, it's not really cute. It's ugly, in fact. But I was surprised at how thorough it is. Tissue, the notepad and pen, chapstick, trash bag, comb and mirror, toothbrush and toothpaste, cards (because it gets boring), and a few other things.

Oh, and the remotes and cell phone are pretty important too! The piano makes a good holding spot for them. :)

My poor little Jaden-boy got sick the other day. You know it's bad when this kid takes a nap!! Luckily it only lasted like 12 hrs. Poor little man.

Of course it got passed to KynnLee too. Again, very lucky it only lasted like 12 hours.

It wasn't long before Jaden was playing boxing on the Wii and KynnLee following him. SO CUTE!

Poor Jaden has been cooped up for days, but he's been REALLY good for me. Since I had to up the dose of percocet, I've just been really tired. And since KynnLee has been sick, I can't send her to someone's house so I can rest. Plus the fact that I don't sleep well at night. All that and cleaning up vomit made for a horrible day on Friday!! It might even make the top 10 list.

So Saturday my dear friend Dina came to my rescue. She came and hung out with the kiddos for a few hours, and I took a 2 hour nap! I didn't realize how badly I needed it until I woke up. I think it was the best 2 hours of sleep I've had in over a week!

For those of you that are easily embarrassed, or call out TMI (too much info.) on people, go ahead and skip this last part. But I thought it was totally blog-worthy. :)

With Trevor getting ready for tests he hasn't had a split second to go to the store. And if he did, I wanted him to spend that split second here helping me. I really contemplated a trip to the store yesterday, but decided I probably wouldn't survive. So Dina happened to ask if I needed anything from the store or anything.

So, we really need diapers.

Anything else?

Ok, I need UNDERWEAR!! You can imagine with 4 incisions that run from the belly button to the c-section, it's impossible to find underwear that don't cut across any of them. Well, I happened to have only 3 pair that don't really put any pressure on them. I've been rounding up laundry to wash just so I can wash my underwear. With the increased burning pain I've had (I'm blaming it on forming scar tissue), even my loose fitting lounge pants really hurt and I've even been holding my waist band away from them.

These saving-grace underwear that I have come from Victoria's Secret. And look a lot like this...

Yes, I know. You imagine someone having surgery and needing to wear these nasty grandma-looking underwear. But grandma underwear hurt!

I'm sure you can tell by looking at them why they don't hurt. I tell you though, if I didn't have other underwear obligations, I would have 2 DRAWERS full of these babies!! They are SO comfy!

So my awesome friend went underwear shopping for me!! She did a fantastic job. It would have been fun to go with her. :) And now I don't have to worry about throwing in a load of laundry every other day.

Gosh, when did my blog become rated R? First it's strip dancing, now it's sleezy underwear... you know I'm gunna blame that one on the drugs!!

Surgery

I suppose surgery is blog-worthy material?? Besides, I'm really bored and need something to do while I have a few minutes of non-drowsiness. :)

I guess I will start at the beginning, since what I had was pretty rare.

Jaden was born in Utah via c-section. Sometimes when a c-section is performed, the endometrial cells can migrate and start growing other places. I remember my c-section incision never really felt better.

When Jaden was 2, I could feel painful bumps on my abdomen, about 2 inches above my incision. I went back to the same dr. and he said I had endometriosis of the abdominal wall caused from the c-section. This happens in like 0.04-0.3% of c-sections. LUCKY ME!!! He said he could remove it, or it could be removed at the next c-section, so in the meantime he treated it with continuous birth control pills.

It came time for KynnLee girl in Kentucky and I had a hard time finding a good doctor. Due to many reasons, I had switched doctors halfway through my pregnancy. I kept telling the new doc about my condition and she would either write me off, or would say "if I see anything while I'm in there, I will take it out". I trusted that she heard me and would take care of it.

Well, she didn't. I know it's really rare and hard to diagnose, but it had already been diagnosed FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!! There were 3 Dr.s in that office, and one of them said that he'd never seen it, but had only heard about it in Med school. I'm gathering that they just didn't know how to diagnose it. All she had to do was listen to me and do a little research. I had no problem finding out all kinds of info. on the internet.

Trevor had been bugging me forever to find a Dr. here in Cleveland to get it taken care of. It's extremely painful and hadn't been treated since I had KynnLee. Besides, he got tired of me complaining about it and making him feel the bumps. :) After the idiot that delivered KynnLee, I was very skeptical on trusting anybody.

I finally found one at Cleveland Clinic. There's lots and lots of OB/GYN's, but I did my homework dog-gonnit! I found Dr. Falcone who is also the OB/GYN Department Chair, and something-or-other with the Chief of Staff. I needed someone who was a good surgeon too, and he sounded good to me!! :)

He knew exactly what I had. He had seen it and treated it in his office. He immediately ordered a CT and an ultrasound. There it was, bright as day! Don't need any medical background to see that!!!

Do you see it? I will give you a clue, it's on my ab muscles.

My oblique muscle to be exact.

Hard to believe that tiny thing was causing me all that pain and misery.

Ok, now that I'm totally embarrassed that you all have seen my insides... fat layers, butt muscles, etc. Those look like tough abs and toned glutes, right??? Riiight.... Actually I've been busting my butt in the gym hoping it will help with recovery.

I was very impressed with not just the doctor, but his office personnel, nurses, etc. He even gave me a card with his email, phone, his nurse practitioner's phone, etc. And they were so good to answer phone calls and email!!

The first available date for surgery was during Trevor's finals, and another date that was kinda sketchy. They encouraged me to schedule it when it was convenient for us.

I had like 5 pre-op appointments a week before surgery. I met with an internal medicine dr., anesthesia, his nurse practitioner (who was WONDERFUL!), admitting, etc. and the actual Doctor. They were pretty thorough. They went over the whole procedure, which I admit I was a little more freaked out after that. I wish they would have left out the part with the breathing tube. She (the NP) said that I would be sedated so deeply that I would need a breathing tube that would breathe for me. FREAKY!!

Trevor made fun of me because I made sure to give myself a manicure and pedicure, color my hair, and tint my eyelashes before surgery. And I did it all at my in-home salon ;). Hey, when you look good, you feel good!! I was just trying to help myself feel good! :) The funny thing is that I was telling Micalla that Trev made fun of me for painting my toes and she said, "Oh yeah, before I have surgery I make sure to paint my toes and nails, get my hair done, and tint my eyelashes". HA HA HA HA!!! Great minds think alike!!! I thought that was awesome!

And I would like to rub in Trevor's face that all the nurses and doctors liked my cute toes! Funny story... pre-op nurses said something about my cute toes. I told them that I used to dance and I had to take good care of my feet and I kinda had a fetish ever since.

One of them looks at me and says "You made good money then, huh?"

"What?"

"I bet you made good money being a dancer"

"Uh, no just danced like in high school. I was a teacher too but that doesn't pay well."

.... she thought I was a STRIP dancer!!!! LOL!!!

The other nurse gave her crap for having her mind in the gutter then she told me "Hey, look at it this way, you've had 2 kids and she still thought you were hot enough to be a strip dancer!"

I told them maybe I should take up strip dancing to put Trevor through school!! HA HA HA!!!

I was glad they were making me laugh because I was pretty freaked out. And they took Trevor away from me.

So they get the IV started, send Trevor away, and take me to this strange, dark, creepy triage waiting or something.

Then all these cute ladies bring me to the OR and make sure I'm ok. I can't believe how many doctors were in there, I thought a few of them were nurses, but they were residents. The anesthesiologist was a lady, there was a nurse anesthetist, a nurse anesthetist student, 2 resident doctors, 1 chief resident, the actual attending doctor, and who knows who else was in there. But they all liked my toes (TREVOR!!!) and I had to tell them that my cute husband is going to be a foot doctor so I have to have cute feet. :) They thought that was funny. Then the super cute nurse anesthetist student put a gas mask on me and told me to breathe deeply....

I ended up staying overnight. I wasn't thrilled about it, but to be honest I would have been miserable at home. I had the compression sequentials on my legs all night, kind of felt like a mini massage. And I was on this really cool bed that had air pockets all over, and about every minute an air pocket would go up, then move to a different one. It was so comfy. It helped prevent bed sores. It also made it so I wouldn't be stiff staying in the same position. I need one of those at home.

One of the residents came and saw me late that night. 2 more that were in the surgery came in the morning, and Dr. Falcone even came in the morning... a Saturday morning!! Impressive! Random people would tell me that Dr. Falcone is a VERY good doctor. The NP, the lady that checked me in at the surgery ctr, the pre-op nurses, etc. (let me just tell you that the dr. that delivered KynnLee left the OR before I was sewn up, and I didn't see her again until my 2 WEEK appt! That's right! She didn't even see me in the hospital!) They all seemed a bit impressed that I had been up and walking a bit. Hey, I survived 2 c-sections, I can handle it!

Can't wait for the swelling to go down. I kinda dig incisions, I want to look at them but they are all steri-stripped. I have 4 incisions, my c-section incision, 2 small ones on the sides, and a bit bigger (super sore) one in my bellybutton. I better not have an ugly bellybutton after this. That's all I've got going for me. I managed to have a stretch-mark-free belly after 2 pregnancies, but I can't say the same for my hips and thighs. :(