Apendicitis Sucks

So, this year Halloween wasn't so fun. About 4:30 pm I started having a pain in my side. By 6 pm I was in horrible pain and my entire abdomen hurt so terribly and was super tender to the touch. Zeus was tired from working all weekend so between the two of us, we sat on the front porch with Mia (non-costumed, sadness) and passed out candy. I'd heard of someone experiencing something similiar, had gone to the ER and had an ultrasound etc., and it had ended up being gas pains, so I was really holding out on going in. However, by 9 pm I thought I might be dying. It was worse than labor pains not only because it hurt so bad, but because it was constant and just would just NOT stop. We headed to the ER where they did blood work and even a CT scan. My white blood cell count was slightly elevated and my appendix was slightly enlarged, but they were perplexed by how sore my entire stomach was. At about 3 am they admitted me to the hospital and my appendix was removed the next morning. When they went to take out my appendix, they found a pocket of puss that they had to suction out as well, which was probably the cause of the extreme abdominal pain. Luckily, they were still able to do it laproscopically, so I have three small incisions versus one longer one that would have had to go through four layers of muscle. Ouch! Because of the extra "goody" they had to suction out, I got to stay an extra day in the hospital. Got home today and feeling MUCH better than Monday, but still generally crappy. This is my second surgery this year, you think I'd be over it by now. In the last two years this is my third surgery. Man, between Mia and Zeus and I, we've had seven surgeries in this household in the past 16 months!  Sheish!  I say, enough all ready!


Luckily we were able to have some fun before "the appendix" took over and ruined the last few days.  On Friday we trick-or-treated at the nursing home. On Saturday we "Trunk-or-Treated" at the church parking lot. We hung a spider web over the hatch of my car and hung our home made decorations and spider rings on the stretched out web. I think it turned out pretty awesome, and apparently others agreed because we won second prize in the trunk decorating contest!  Yay!

Looking pretty great, eh?

Sofia and Sara rocking the cake walk, and Mia and I rocking the cake walk. 

Cake walk winners and their winnings. 

Sara and Fia trunk-or-treating.

Mia surprised us by carrying her own bucket at actually walking from car to car for a little bit!

Zeus worked his part time weekend job was was able to jet over after work and catch the last few moments of trunk-or-treating. Mia's cheeks are full of candy in this one. lol

Mama and papa and Mia trunk-or-treating. Cute little butterfly!

Man, we just can't get enough of her!  :)

On Sunday after church, we went to two Halloween themed activities. The first was our friend Chrissy's little mommy-and-me Halloween party and the second was at the University of Texas for students and their family. What a full, full day!

Mia looking cute as a bug in a rug on Sunday at church.

Sofia and Sara decorated scary mummy cupcakes at Chrissy's.

Sara and Fia also painted some mini-pumpkins. 

Mia caught up on her snuggling of some good friends we haven't seen for a bit and charmed everyone in her little butterfly costume.

Then it was off to the Erwin Center at UT for their Halloween celebration. Zeus was able to get out of work a few hours early and meet us there.

Fun Halloween peek-troughs. 

Mia thought the free balloon was the coolest thing ever.

Sara and Fia fished for candy and bowled for candy. 

I gave Fia a ride on my shoulders so she could see the dancers. Her dress made for a cute bonnet and a silly photo op.  :)  

I got recruited to help with the super complex scary face Sofia chose when grandma's hands got tired. Man, at times I wondered if I would be able to even finish it!

Grandpa helping Sara with her happy jack-o-lantern.

My easy ghost one for Mia, Sofia's scary grin, and Sara's happy pumpkin.

We were able to get them out and lit before their papa got in from the airport.

That night their papa finally flew in from Germany to join the party. However, Zeus still got some quality Sofia time in before her papa took over. They have such a fun bond and it's fun to see them together.

Then on Halloween we decorated Halloween cookies before the trick-or-treating took off. Sara and Sofia were able to wear their costumes one last time for a trip around the block with their mom and dad and grandpa while Zeus, Mia, grandma and I held down the fort and handed out candy before the fateful trip to the ER. Man, no wonder my appendix gave out. Way too much Halloween fun going on in the past few days!

Got home from the hospital today and was suckered in to going and sitting by the pool while everyone swam. The pool by the house was finally on lock-down so we went to the neighborhood YMCA. Good times!  Go ahead, I know you're already singing it... "It's fun to stay at the Y, M, C, A!"

Nikki, Sofia, Sara, Zeus and Mia swimming in the pool at the YMCA today.

Sofia and Sara could swim all by themselves with the life vests on and thought they were super cool.

Though you can't tell by the look on her face in this photo, Mia enjoyed swimming and her life vest as well.  lol

Anyhow, it's time for my next dose of antibiotic and pain meds, so I'm off to pop some pills and catch some much needed rest. Nightey night.

Survived!

I survived my second c-section surgery, though alas, this one did not have the end result of a beautiful child as my last one did.  I even got the doctor to take a picture of my fibroid for me.  Score!  She was out of the office today, but I'll get to see it (and her) tomorrow.  Cool beans!

I thought I'd upload a few quick photos (no, not of the fibroid, of my hospital visit) from today and yesterday, while I wait for my new pill version of pain meds (no more IV) which are overdue and I'm HURTING from overdoing it a little today.

Luckily for me I have a great surgeon and not only did she do a great job, but I got to keep my uterus!  Bonus!  :)  There was a slight risk that if they couldn't get the bleeding to stop that they might have to remove it.  Luckily, all went well and I have a newly fibroid-less uterus that is nicely stitched back together.

See my subtle yellow "FALL RISK" bracelet.  I got that BEFORE I even went into surgery.  They must have heard about my "weak ankles".  Oh wait, THAT bracelet was because of all the fantastic pain medicine they were going to give me during and after surgery.

Oh yeah... that's what I'm talking about!  Why are there three of you and why are your faces inverted?  Did I mention that morphine and I don't mix real well.  Yeah, it is super duper trippy and I think I should probably never EVER have it again.

A friend from church watched Mia for us for two days.  Thank you Amy!!!  It was so hard being away from Mia for that long!!!  Thankfully Zeus took pity on me and brought her up to the hospital for a quick visit tonight so I could get my fix.  She got to meet my night nurse who's name is Angelita, so close to hers, and we even ventured down a floor to the NICU and got to see some of the wonderful ladies who took care of our little family 6 1/2 months ago when Mia was brand new.  Those five days seem so long ago.  She was so teeny and new and now we have a fabulous, determined, much larger, teething 6 1/2 month old.  Wowza!

Mia and I getting our "snuggle on".  She tried to pretend that she didn't remember me, but I wasn't buying that garbage!

...Chilling on mama's hospital bed while mama was overdoing it and walking around a little too much...

...and eating one of her favorite, most delicious books - 'Bubbles, Bubbles'...

My heavenly Angelita nurse just showed up with two Vicodin.  Hopefully all of my little morphine friends from last night will be far away and will allow me to get some peaceful, uninterrupted, non-crazy dreaming sleep tonight.

Wish me well!

Under the Knife

It's my turn to go under the knife now.  Mia has a free pass on this one, thank goodness.  Tomorrow morning we drop Mia off at a friend's house for the day and head to the hospital that I had Mia at to finally remove that darn fibroid of mine. 

We have to be at the hospital at 6 am, so it's going to be an early morning.  They take me back at 7:30 am to start the procedure.  Basically, I'm getting a bigger and more intricate c-section type of surgery and when they remove the fibroid from the top of my uterus and put it (the uterus) back together, they'll tuck it back in and hopefully that will be that.  The sadness of it is that I have to go through that all again and but this time without the reward of a beautiful little baby.  Sadness!

For those of you who know my inquisitive nature, I really want to see this cantaloupe size growth that I feel when I lay on my stomach and that I can feel in my belly when I lay on my back.  Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, I'll be out cold as they take it out.  I asked my doctor if I could see it afterwards and maybe even see what it looks like on the inside of it.  She gave me the strangest look.  She said that they have to send it to oncology, but she could take a picture of it with her cell phone to show me if I wanted.  :)  Yay.  I'm kinda sad I can't see that sucker in person and poke and prod it, turn it this way and that, and see first-hand what's been hanging out in there over the last year.  Que ser a ser a. 

Wish me luck!

Steristripless

On Thanksgiving, the steristrip was peeling up around the edges again, so I trimmed it back a little more.  When I trimmed it along the bottom, we could finally see all the way across the bottom part of her upper lip.  I was seriously amazed at how smooth and seamless it looked!  When Zeus got home and I showed him, he was amazed too and kept saying, "Wow, did you see her LIP?" 

Well, yesterday the last of Mia's steristrip came off!  Okay, so it was helped along by my little turkey who rubbed at it and about gave mommy and daddy heart failure.  It was hanging by one little stitch and we decided that instead of waiting for her to grab hold of it and rip it away, possibly doing more damage, that we would try and gently remove it.  Luckily we were able to detach it from the stitch without having the  actual stitch come out.  Whew!

As you can imagine, we've snapped a FEW pictures.  :)

Who me?  Pull of the steristrip???  No, not me... pure innocence.  :)

It's still red and irritated, especially around the stitches.  The dark spots are stitches, and the larger spot on the right is the stitch the steristrip was hanging by.

They did a vertical incision underneath each nostril and then down towards her lip.

I looked over at Mia as she was playing this morning on her play mat.  This is the view I had, and had the strange thought, "My baby has a lip now."  Strange.  It's not like she never had a lip before, but it just struck me this morning that her upper lip is continuous now.  Wow.

Loving the play gym and STILL trying to pull everything into her mouth.

When all else fails, there's always the thumb - though she still has a death grip on the hanging butterfly mirror with her other hand.  Silly girl! 

...and as always, my super happy girl is rarely without a smile!

Mia's waking up from her nap, so gotta run.  She's dressed for the day now, so I'll have to try and get more pictures.  :)



Days Five and Six

Day Five - Monday, November 15, 2010

Wow, what a rough day!  Mia didn't eat or sleep well at all and was fussy again.  I'm thinking I may have stopped the pain meds too soon since she was still not herself.  We started the Tylenol again and that helped, but we still ended up doing lots of holding and snuggling as well as popping her in the stroller again to go for a distracting walk.

Sucking on that lower lip... again.  :)

Still a little bruised and swollen.

Oh the sadness!

Lulled to sleep by the beloved swing - thanks again Haggards!!!

Just can't help but smile... on a rough day, little darling.

But then sadness again...

So we bundled up and went for a walk.

..which ended up cheering up the little munchkin...

...and lulled her right to sleep.  Wonderful stroller - thank you craigslist!

Mia striking a lounging pose in her super-duper insulated outfit that she wore on the stroller outing sine it was CHILLY!

Changing back into outfit out of the super-duper insulated one now that we're back home.  Even with the arm restraints off, it still takes her a few to realize she can actually bend her arms again.  Pobrecita!

Day Six - Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Day six started out well for most of the morning and early afternoon, but then it went down hill rather quickly later in the afternoon.  Thankfully, after a long afternoon nap, Mia was in a good mood for visitors later that evening.

Cutie-patootie in her pj's first thing in the morning.  Thanks Amy for the pass along pj's from the twins!

Early morning smiles.

Had to take off the bib for the cute saying on the onesie - she is TOTALLY "mommy's little alarm clock", and since surgery that little alarm clock is going off at 6 am instead of 8 am.  Sadness for the mama!

Another new first - BUBBLES!  We've never had bubbles before, but now that she has her new little lip she's doing all kinds of new little things!