Odds and Ends...

My second day without a babysitter, and I am still alive and the house is still standing!  That's always a good sign!

Last night, Leo's dad Frank came into town and they went to a farm show here at one of the local arena centers...he stayed over night (and Leo left for work bright and early) so this morning it was nice to have someone to eat breakfast with chat with for a little bit!  He had to be home mid-morning so he couldn't stay too long (a farming friend was expecting some animal bedding to arrive that he needed some help with), but that put my day off to a good start!

Today has been relatively low key...I tried to get some things done around the house, write some thank you notes for the great flowers and things I've received over the past couple of weeks, and do a little relaxing as well!   So far, so good! 

I've been trying to keep a list of some ideas of things to write about on this blog-o-mine, and I have a bunch of "Odds and Ends" (hence the title!) that I wanted to mention in regard to previous posts or just things I've encountered as a result of the surgery.

Firstly, I wrote awhile back that surgery took a bit longer than was expected, but forgot to mention why.  Apparently, the bones and discs that were being repaired or removed had very strong evidence of arthritis from rubbing on one another, and it took the surgeons quite a long time to scrape out the poor quality bone.  When I heard this after surgery, I felt a little more validated in my pain.  Sometimes I worried that people thought that I was making up the pain (and sometimes I even wondered if it was really that bad when I was having a stretch of good days!), but the surgeon himself told my family that there was truly a reason why I was in so much pain, and that that was very evident in what they found internally.  Another reason why the surgery took so long was due to the curve in my spine.  Apparently, my lumbar curve is a little more exaggerated than usual, and when I was placed on my back to go in through the abdomen, that extra curve created little space between my lumbar bones and my pelvis, making it difficult to get at the backbones with a pelvis that wanted to be included in the party!  So, the process took a little extra time, but things still went as planned!

Another thing I noted when I was still in the hospital was how I had spots along my hairline and on the back of my head that were very tender, which I especially noticed once I was allowed to shower and wash my hair...well, it turns out they had put me into a halo-type apparatus to keep my head from moving around while they were working on my spine.  I still have one sore spot above my right ear that is still tender, but otherwise things have improved in that aspect.  Kind of makes me wonder what else they do during these operations!!

Also while in the hospital I had some serious cases of the hiccups, without any real reason for them occurring!  I still get them at home occasionally, and finally googled it and found that abdominal surgery can actually bring on hiccups!  I guess messing with the diaphragm, stomach, and even having tubes down your throat can bring on a case of those annoying convulsions!  Luckily, they've been occurring less and less (knock on wood!), but they aren't the kind cured by holding your breath or drinking water...that I've tried!!

I had also mentioned in a previous post about not remembering doing anything strange as I was coming out of anesthesia, but I alluded to some strange dreams that I had been having post-surgery that I meant to talk more about...well, I had dreams for about a week after surgery that people were working over me, like a nurse would be over your hospital bed, or your friends or family looking over you while you were laying down.  On numerous occasions, I would wake myself up trying to respond to my 'dream people' "No, I don't need anything!," "Thank you!," and Leo said one evening I was apparently trying to tell someone goodbye!  The dreams were very short (maybe they were actually hallucinations?!?), and I always woke up right away when trying to talk and realized that no one was hovering above me!  My 'dream people' generally were inquiring about how I was, if I needed anything, or were people who had come to visit.  And I know that this wasn't just me on strong drugs while nurses checked up on me all hours of the day and night, because it even was happening at home!  Uh, yeah, maybe I am going crazy?! :)

I have already started to receive itemized statements from the clinic and hospital regarding the cost of the surgery, and the amount makes me cringe!  I am SO thankful for amazing insurance, as we would not have been able to afford this without the insurance that we are covered under!  I don't think that we've gotten all of the statements, but the total from what we have gotten is comparable to nearly three times my annual salary!!  OUCH...thank goodness for out-of-pocket maximums!!

Tonight it is our neighbor Shawn's birthday (Happy birthday, Neighbor!!), and we are going to head out for dinner at O'Neils to celebrate with him and his wife as well as his sister!  I am so excited for my first real attempt at eating dinner out of the house!  Hopefully all goes well, and if not, there's plenty of room to walk around in if I need to get up and stretch out!  And I could really go for some fried mac-n-cheese bite appetizers (seriously...if you haven't tried them there, you must!!)...AMAZING!!

Alright, I meant for this to be a short entry, but again, my novelist side has taken hold...maybe if I get time tomorrow (who am I kidding, what else am I going to do?!?!), I'll write another entry!!  Until then, peace out!!