Wound Woes

So you know how I mentioned that my inscisions were starting to look "normal" again? Um... that wasn't entirely true, but I just didn't feel like going into detail at the time. In reality, I've been having some problems with these little suckers. First off, they were closed with surgical glue, and just my luck, I seem to be one of those rare cases where you're actually allergic to the adhesive. For two weeks now I've been battling a nasty rash around my belly button inscision and unfortunately the hydrocortisone has not helped much. More unfortunate still is the fact that now this lovely rash has spread to my other inscisions... grrr. Kowing that the glue is the culprit, I've been working on trying to get the stuff off a little at a time each day by soaking them in warm Epsom salt compresses. Today I managed to peel off the last of the glue that was covering my 2 side inscisions and what should have been relief quickly turned into horror when I realized that as the glue came off... my inscisions split open, *GASP*!!!
Um, I'm pretty good about keeping calm when I see blood on others, but when its coming from me, and more importantly, from surgical wounds... well, lets just say I wasn't a poster child for "staying cool, calm, and collected." The room started spinning, my legs turned to jelly, and all of a sudden I was on the floor... heehee, I almost passed out! I called Ben who came running upstairs and wisked me off to lay down for a bit while he tended to my inscisions. We tried some of those little butterfly strips, but they didn't work. In the end I settled for some plain bandaids. The bleeding has subsided and I am pretty sure I'll be just fine... just not a nice sight.

The In's and Out's of Endo

Well, I promised a good excuse for not having posted in a while, and here it is. I went under the knife! Yeppers, I had to have surgery. :( I have
Endometriosis and on August 31st I had a Laparoscopy to diagnose the extent of the disease and to have as much of it removed as possible. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with Stage IV (severe) and had to have quite a bit of work done, including having my appendix removed. For years I've had several bouts of "appendicitis" that never really ended up being appendicitis, and I would end up being sent home from the ER with a huge bill and nothing to show for it except for some painkillers and no conclusive diagnosis. Turns out my appendix was covered in Endo and curled up and adhered to one of my ovaries, nice, huh? :P
The hospital stay was better than expected... I actually did not want to go home! I kept asking if I could take the bed home with me, I guess... I remember it to be quite comfy and made getting up and down a lot easier. The nurses were very sweet and helpful and I have to say that I now understand why they say women love their anesthesiologists. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown right before being wheeled into the OR and my angel of an anesthesiologist hooked me up with some NICE stuff that made me peacefully drift off into "I-don't-give-a-crud" land as I was being wheeled into the OR. I remember the nurses covering me with lots of warm blankets and an oxygen mask being put on my face and then I was g-o-n-e. :)
Recovery was rough... my mom came down for a week and 1/2 to help and thank goodness because I wasn't worth a penny! I will spare you all the details, but I'll just say it was not fun. As time goes by I remember less and less about that first week (probably thanks to all the Percocet I was taking) and thats probably a good thing!
It has now been 3 weeks and thankfully I am doing much better! I am back to work and teaching Seminary full time again and doing well, albeit exhausted, but I know that will pass with time. Whats interesting to me now is that before my surgery I had an "innie" bellybutton. Now that the swelling has gone down and my bellybutton inscision is looking more "normal" I've realized that my once "innie" has become an "outtie." Perhaps with time it will return to its former (innie) self, but for now I will have to be content with my new look... ;)

Fall Colors

I know its technically not fall yet, but we've had some cooler temperatures lately and all the stores have their fall/halloween/thanksgiving day decorations up, so I'm in the mood. I've been somewhat unhappy with the look of my blog as of late (I just never really liked the template to begin with) so tonight I scrapped the old one in favor of this. I probably won't keep this one forever either, but for now it's in keeping with the season, so it will do. :)

Confessions of a closet High School Musical-lover

Ok, so its been way too long since I last posted, I know. I've got a really good excuse(not nearly as good as Shannon's, unfortunately!) but more on that later. Right now there is something I must get out of my system... Last night I sunk to a new low, in Ben's words, and purchased a movie that will forever torture him and probably me too. For weeks I've been trying to surpress the desire, but last night it won and we lost. The songs would just not get out of my head, and so we decided to follow my brother-in-laws advice (His theory is that when you have a song stuck that you don't know all the words to, its b/c you need to listen to it all the way through and it satisfies something in your brain and then you can get passed it) and give my brain what it was yearning for...
I BOUGHT HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! :O
Oh and by the way Nate, no, it didn't work. I'm still walking around singing bits and pieces of all the songs.


This one tells it best: (sorry, the resolution is awful)