Magic Ointment & Creepy Stuff

Got all my labs back~all clear there: no cancers or weird stuff. And saw Dr Freedom yesterday: incisions healing nicely. He was amazed at how good I looked just one week after surgery. (So am I.)

Funny thing is, I felt best last Wed-Sat morning...after that I must have done too much & slipped into a cotton-candy-brain-fog, exhaustion, and minor pain. But today I feel like I'm coming out the other side.

While my incisions looked good yesterday, those freakin blisters from the bandages didn't,  so my dr gave me a prescription that the hospital makes up special...it's an antibiotic/antifungal/cortizone ointment (they figure cover everything with one topical cream!).

Creepily, it's called Nipple Ointment and I'm putting it on my stomach.

I was a little afraid I'd wake up this morning to find 5 new nipples on my tum (1 per incision). Now wouldn't that be creepy?! Ugh!!! I want a reduction on the boobs I already have: I certainly don't need additional ones!!

Instead I woke up to find my incisions had gone from looking "good" to looking "pretty damn great"! (Those are medical terms, right?)

I mean this stuff is seriously great~it's like a magic serum!!! And (since I'm on the dole from the government) instead of costing me $65 for a mini tub of this stuff, I only paid $1.10! Nice!

Yesterday

(No comments on my ripples & bulges!)

Notice the blisters are bigger than the surgical incisions!

Today

(Ok~after looking at these maybe they don't look that much better.

BUT they feel wonderful!!!)

Anyway, I'm feeling sooo much better. Better than before the surgery, that's for sure. That freakin' endometriosis was basically like a spider spinning its creepy little web throughout my insides, attaching the web to all sorts of sundry internal organs...which  would explain why it hurt to even walk. (Like my analogy? Creepy, huh???)

Doesn't this picture make the endometriosis look like a spider web?

In case you were wondering, Endometriosis is a condition in which the tissue that behaves like the cells lining the uterus (endometrium) grows in other areas of the body, causing pain, irregular bleeding, and possible infertility.The tissue growth typically occurs in the pelvic area, outside of the uterus, on the ovaries, bowel, rectum, bladder, and the delicate lining of the pelvis. However, the implants can occur in other areas of the body, too. (I've heard of it showing up in women's lungs & spines!!! Yikes!!! Creepy!!!!)

Anyhoo...there you have it: my musings for the day. Guess my word for the day is "creepy." Does that make me creepy too??

Wearing Pink

Today is Cora's birthday...I'm wearing pink in her honor & to get out word on the impact of Congenital Heart Diseases and the importance of having a  Pulse Oximetry done on every newborn.

My niece, our little TeaRose had this test done~but I didn't realize what it was until I met Cora's mommy who explained what it was and its importance. I was surprised to learn that this simple, inexpensive test isn't done by every hospital in the US. If it had been done, perhaps Cora would be here to observe her birthday with us.........

Thinking of you today, sweet girl!

With Love, For Eva

The world lost a beautiful light this weekend. Eva Dien Brine Markvoort passed away March 27th at 9:30am. While the world feels her loss, we are also reminded of the incredible legacy of love, light, and hope that she has left behind.

Eva was honored, the day before she passed away with the Summerhayes Award for her work on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis. Quite a legacy for such a young life. You can view the beautiful video of Eva receiving this award here.

As you may know, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is near & dear to my heart and has been since I was about 12 years old when I first read a book about a family battling CF.  Eva's life illustrates why it is a cause that remains dear to me.


We found out, when my sister was pregnant, that she is a carrier of the CF gene~most likely passed to her from our mother. We had no idea. Fortunately her husband isn't a carrier & we didn't have to worry about Teag. We were "lucky."


I, for one, look foward to the day when "CF" stands for "Cure Found" and no child will have to fight the battle against this killer disease with the pretty nickname (65 Roses).


Please join me in praying for Eva's family & friends as they grieve her loss. Perhaps visit her blog & leave them a message. To learn more about Cystic Fibrosis & how you can help in the search for a cure, please visit this site.

Love, love, love

Cure-All

A Hat on a Cat on my Head...how do you accessorize?

My little spoonful of sugar really helps the medicine go down...in fact, I (almost) didn't even need pain meds today! I can't believe how quickly I'm bouncing back from this surgery (versus the other 2 I've had)!!

Pig Tails

How freakin' cute are Teag's pig tails?!?!

Helping Auntie_M feel better!

Don't You Just Love it When...

...you find out your skin has changed & is now SUPER sensitive to plastic bandages?? To the point that your skin forms nasty blisters & welts that burn & bleed when you are frantically (yet carefully) tearing off the bandages surrounding your recent surgery incisions.

I do.

 Fair warning (Ash!) the pictures are gross!!!!

Gag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post-Op

I am home from the hospital. Feeling pretty good. Have 5 small-ish incisions across my abdomin. Only had 3 pain med injections over night~and am now just on oral pain meds that are fairly mild. Still pretty tired from yesterday but feeling better overall.

The doctor discovered major endometriosis that wrapped around my uretter tubes between kidney & bladder~not a good situation: caused a lot of pain, but now I'm free of that!!

Thanks for all your kind thoughts & prayers!

Pre-Op

 Post -Op

My caretakers...

The incisions....

Gross: I know!!

Spring Blooms

St Paddy's Day Golf Tourney

Have I mentioned that my sister & her husband are a couple of  nuts?!?! Today they are playing in a St Patrick's Day Golf Tournament held at Mike's brother's house...and played against various friends & family.

Needless to say: everyone dressed in theme....in clothing gathered from various thrift stores.

Yes: this is my family!!!

Nice polka-dots Tiff!

Gotta love Mikey's socks, huh?

Mike made the trophey...of course!

They are hoping it comes back home w/them!

And what does Teag think of her parents??? Well, she laughed when her mama got her up from nap & she saw what mama was wearing. She was still laughing when they dropped her off at our house!

Too freakin' funny!

Here Kitty, Kitty

Teagan likes kitties...a lot. She has gone from randomly pulling out their hair to (fairly) gently petting them, with various results:

Marie still doesn't trust her...

Gypsy lets her pet her, as long as she doesn't pull her fur/whiskers/ears/etc

But her kitty, Mako, has gotten really relaxed: while you can't see exactly what she is doing, Teagan is, in fact, brushing Mako's hair using her own hairbrush! How sweet (and smart) is that?!?!

I forsee her male cat sporting bows & ribbons anytime now!!!

What a good kitty!

A Happy St Paddy's Day To Ya

Yes, I know this is a day late...but what the heck!

I wore green & orange so my Irish-Prod grandfather wouldn't spin in his grave!

Yesterday, we took a little day trip to Third Place Books~where they urge you to Eat, Sleep, Read right there on their front windows...which, I of course love the concept of!

According to their website: Third Place Books is a general interest bookstore with over 200,000 New, Used, and Bargain Books. Third Place books is the deliberate and intentional creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. It is a fun, comfortable, and safe place to browse, linger, lounge, relax, read,eat, laugh, play, talk, listen, and just watch the world go by.

Sociologist Ray Oldenberg suggests that each of us needs three places: first is the home; second is the workplace or school; and beyond lies the place where people from all walks of life interact, experiencing and celebrating their commonality as well as their diversity. It is a third place. In his celebrated book, The Great Good Place,Oldenberg discusses how the cafes, pubs, town squares and othergathering places make a community stronger and bring people together.

They have certainly reached their goal!! This place is HUGE! It's welcoming. It's comfortable.

Teagan wandered through the aisles, looking in awe at all the books, and muttering "wow! wow!" under her breath. First we shopped...and then we ate: this place actually has an entire food court! It was really an amazing bookstore: totally leaves those national chains in the dust!

Have I mentioned that I love bookstores?!? And bookstores like this are my absolute favorite! I can spend hours in a place like this. Only thing is that it makes me sad that I cannot read like I used to.

But that's ok: I still love bookstores!!!!

And I think Teagan does too! Books, little chairs..what could be better???

                                       

  

                                        

Did I mention the food court? What could be better than books? How about kickin' BBQ beef brisket sandwiches??? For you Temecula folks: amazing! Sooooo much better than even Sweet Lumpy's was!!!

Yum!

It's Official...

I'm really truly having surgery on Monday, March 22nd! Probably around 10am.

Now that it is for real happening, I'm a little nervous! But the idea of never having another period ever again is thrilling! And no more crazy hormones or cysts or tumors. Ah~now that's a lovely thought!!!

My new Medicare PPO insurance came through big-time: that's right, I even get the robotic surgery described here rather than the old-fashioned "open surgery" hysterectomy.

It's only supposed to be a 3 hr surgery (max) and hopefully only 24 hours in the hospital recovering. Now we just have pray the surgery doesn't trigger to horrible of a pain flare-up with my other conditions.

Being Auntie M...

...means getting to spoil your nieces & nephew.....

Miss TeaRose is passionate about Winnie-the-Pooh & Happy Feet right now...which meant (of course) that Auntie M (and Gramma) had to try to find as many of the stuffed-animal characters from these movies as humanly possible: she now watches the movies clutching, Pooh, Eyore & a tiger (couldn't find a real Tigger) and a little Penguin. She also likes to hold the DVD cases. Too freakin' cute!

She loves dancing to Happy Feet...

but oddly enough her favorite part is in the special features section where there is an instructional video on the elements of dance. She LOVES it!!!

Oh~and here's proof that I really do exist:

Sharing yogurt~Yum!

As for Van & Kenyan, I got a bubble blowing machine (mainly so I wouldn't get so dizzy blowing the bubbles for them)...which they love!

Oh~and the cats love chasing the bubbles too! Which is good exercise for them: they've both gained weight since leaving CA & the large yard they used to have!

And of course, we had to bake & decorate cookies yesterday! The decorating really showed their personalities off to a T.

Van decorated with gusto & a spirit of muchness (eg-the more frosting, the better it'll be!). Kenyan, meanwhile, decorated with a quiet enthusiasm and a spirit of precission: everything planned out & executed with great care.

Of course this meant that Van was done decorating his share of the cookies in about 5 minutes. An hour later (after a quick break so they could have some hot chocolate & a cookie before Van went insane), Kenyan was still decorating her cookies.

Have I mentioned I love being the aunt? It means cheerfully spending time with them & spoiling them (within limits, of course) but then sending them home when they are on a sugar-high or just plain tired/grumpy! Ha ha!!

Case in point: Van had a minor melt-down yesterday....but I still love him to pieces even when he is a grump-a-lump! ;-) (Notice Kenyan's face of disdain: cookies & hot chocolate should not be mixed w/tears!)

(And YES, I know there is a ton of pictures in this post: I love taking them & sharing them!!)