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Category: Living the Life

Coming Out of the Fog

So the surgery on Thursday went well. They had me good and doped up so that I didn’t really even feel much of anything until the next day. The cyst was removed with no surprises, exactly as we had hoped. I slept for most of the day, only getting up for a small dinner and to see the kids for a bit in the evening.

Friday I felt great. I was surprised that I wasn’t hurting too much and decided that I felt good enough to go with Hubby to take Evie to her 18 month check-up at the doctor’s office. After that we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few things, picked Zach up from preschool, and decided to go ahead and eat dinner out. I was doing just fine until just about the end of dinner when Zach had to go to the restroom. As I waited for him I started getting a little dizzy feeling. Fortunately, Granny came in to check on us and I was able to go sit back down right away. I had definitely overdone it.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were pretty much a fog. I slept off and on. I’d get up for a while, only to find I needed to go back to bed. Between feeling dizzy and having a queasy stomach, I really couldn’t sit up for very long at a time. By Monday evening I was feeling a bit better, but with a lingering headache (probably due from a combination of too much sleeping and forgetting to take my Zyrtec).

Today, I’m finally feeling a little better. I got up, showered, and even fixed my hair this morning. I was feeling pretty weak afterwards, but was glad that I made the effort to do my hair. I had some breakfast, hoping that it would give me a little energy back, then went to Wal-Mart with my in-laws to pick up some groceries and a few other things. Again, I was pretty worn out after Wal-Mart but I needed to go.

This afternoon I’ve been trying to do a few little things but resting in between. I managed to put away a basket of Zach’s clothes and now I’m resting again. Everything I do seems to take a whole lot of effort, but I am trying to take it slow.

My pain is pretty well controlled and only bothers me when I do a lot of walking around. I stopped taking the Percocet on Monday and have only taken Naproxen since then. My incisions are healing, though they are now starting to itch like crazy and I have some really pretty purple and yellow bruises. This is the first surgery I’ve ever had where they have used glue to close everything back up instead of stitches. That is a little weird, but at least I’ll have less scarring on the stomach that no one will likely ever see again.

The kids seem to be handling everything really well, though that is probably because they have the attention of Granny and Papa to distract them. Evie keeps wanting to come up in my lap and every time she does she has to look at my “owies”. She has also been searching for owies on everyone else’s stomachs as well and doesn’t understand why they don’t have any.

I am so thankful to have my in-laws here to help out. They have been taking care of everything including getting to kids to and from school and day care so that I can rest. I don’t know how I would have done it without them.

The fog is definitely lifting today and I’m so glad to feel a little more like myself. Hopefully in another day or two I’ll be able to go into work for a little bit. But do you want to know what I’m really looking forward to? Being able to put on a pair of jeans again!

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Say Good-Bye To My Little Friend

Thursday morning I’m going under the knife.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I had been talking to my doctor about some abdominal pain I was having.  Well, last Friday I finally got in to have an ultrasound done to see if they could find anything.  I got a lovely surprise right away when the technician told me that she needed to do a vaginal ultrasound.  Uh…I wasn’t exactly prepared for that.  I just thought she was going to rub some gel across my stomach and look around on top like all of the other ultrasounds I’ve ever had.

She had me go to the restroom and empty my bladder before hand.  Then I positioned myself on the table and she got started.  She took the first glance at the screen and asked me if I had emptied my bladder all the way.  Yes, I had.  She had a funny look on her face and said it looked very full, which had me a little worried.

Then all of a sudden she said, “Oh, that might be a cyst!”

And yes, it was most definitely an ovarian cyst.  According to the measurements on the ultrasound, it was about 9 centimeters.  Um, yeah, that might just explain the pains that I’ve been having.  9 cm is nothing compared to the cysts I had removed when I was 19, but my doctor and I both decided right away that the best course of action was to get that thing out of me as soon as possible.

It wasn’t exactly the news I was hoping to hear on a Friday afternoon, but I am glad that there was a definite answer as to what was causing the problem.

So, I’m scheduled for surgery at 8:30 Thursday morning to have my little friend removed.  (I’ve been trying to come up with a name for it, but so far I’m drawing a blank.)  The surgery will be outpatient as long as they don’t discover any other abnormal things hiding out in there and I’ll be back home with my family that night.

My in-laws were planning a trip up here anyway, so they came up a little bit earlier so they could be here to help out with the kids and things around the house while I’m not able to.  They’re just awesome like that.

The good news is I get an unexpected vacation from work and will hopefully be pain-free after a couple of weeks.  The bad news is I’ll be hopped up on pain pills and will probably sleep through most of that time off.  Wait…why is that bad?  I’m going to need some time to come up with an answer for that one.

Even though I expect this to be a very simple surgery with no complications (*fingers crossed*) I’d be very appreciative of any prayers, happy thoughts, or positive vibes sent my way Thursday morning.

So, anyone want to name my cyst???

If you want to know how I’m doing, your best bet is to follow me on Twitter as I’m more likely to update there than here.

If you have toddlers at home you really need to go enter my latest giveaway on my Reviews page. You can enter to win one of 5 pairs of Stride Rite’s new SRT shoes and I assure you they are awesome!

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Summer Ends Too Fast

The temperatures have cooled down, schools are starting up, and just as we’re finally starting to really enjoy it, summer has to end.  Over Labor Day weekend we took one last trip to my dad’s lake house.  We had an amazing time riding around on the pontoon boat, fishing with the kids, sharing meals, and just spending time together (me winning the game of Scrabble was just a little bonus!).  There’s really not much more to say, so I’ll share some of my favorite photos from the weekend instead.

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Because Your Boobs Are Worth It

pinkribbonLast Friday I had an appointment with my OB/GYN.  It was just my regularly scheduled yearly exam to check all the girly bits so I didn’t think anything of it.  I had a few questions to ask her because of some pain I’ve been having that I though may be related to PCOS, but otherwise I’ve been pretty healthy since I’ve seen her last.

Just as I expected, everything turned out just fine.  Since I do have a history of having ovarian cysts and I’ve been having pain, she scheduled me for a pelvic ultrasound.  Then she brought up having a mammogram.  Most women don’t have their first mammogram until they are at least 35, sometimes 40.  But, with my mom’s history of breast cancer, my doctor wants to take all precautions and I’m totally fine with that.

My doctor had the nurse check with my insurance and she scheduled me for a mammogram on Monday.  I was expecting to have a little more time to prepare myself, but might as well just get it over with, right?  I wasn’t really nervous, but wasn’t exactly ready to get my boobs all squished and flattened either.

When Monday came along I headed over to the imaging clinic for my mammogram.  It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it wasn’t the most horrible thing I’ve ever had to do either.  It was quite uncomfortable, well okay it hurt, but only for a few seconds at a time.  And then it was over.

The good news is that everything checked out just fine for me.  Now that I have my baseline done, it will be much easier in the future to detect any changes that might occur.  I’m glad that I got it done.  The next time it won’t be so bad because I’ll know exactly what to expect.

The bad news is that so many women don’t get mammograms.  Either they don’t have insurance and can’t afford it, or they just keep putting it off until it is too late.  The reality is that mammograms don’t catch everything, but having regular mammograms does greatly increase the chances of a lump being caught in time to do something about it and possibly save your life.  That makes the pain a little more worth it, don’t you think?

Coincidentally, I received an e-mail on Monday from my friend Amy telling me that she is again participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on September 20th.  On top of providing education and mammogram screenings for uninsured and under-insured women, the Komen foundation is the largest private funder of breast cancer research in the world.

Even though money is pretty much always tight these days, I try to squeeze out a little each year to donate to Race for the Cure.  Not only am I supporting a cause I absolutely believe in, I also get to support the fund-raising efforts of one of my very best friends.  If you would like to help, you can donate to the Portland Race for the Cure through Amy’s page.  If you do, I’d love for you to leave a comment or send me an e-mail to let me know.

And by all means ladies, get those mammograms.  It just may save your life.

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Returning From Crazy

Two weekends have passed now since I posted my Weekend Goals.  Out of my ten goals, I have now accomplished 6.  I knew it was ambitious to begin with, but thought maybe with a little luck I would manage.  Somehow I never can accomplish nearly as much as I think I can.  I’m guessing it has something to do with the three other people that live in my house.

Not only am I behind on my goals at home, but now I am incredibly behind on blog posting again.  I have all kinds of things lined up, waiting for me to write about them on my various blogs, but I just can’t find the time to do it.  I spent most of my free time last week working on another little design project instead.  I haven’t even managed to upload any photos in nearly two weeks which just isn’t like me.

On top of all that, I am way behind at work.  My computer at work was running slow and my hard drive was nearly full so we replaced the hard drive with a bigger one and took about a week to get all of my software loaded again.  Then last Friday, just as I was putting the last few pieces in place, it crashed…over and over again.  It was suggested that we replace the processor and memory, so we did that and I had to start all over from scratch again.  Now, a week later, I’m still sitting here trying to get everything back to where it was before all of this mess.  I have accomplished some work in between fiddling with the computer, but I am still very behind.

Regardless of everything that has happened in the last couple of weeks, I have high hopes for this week.  My computer is at least at a functioning level again so work will be a bit easier.  Zach’s swimming lessons are done (hopefully I can post about that soon!) so I get my Monday and Wednesday evening time back.  Plus, I have a nice 3-day weekend at the lake to look forward to.  Even though I still have a million things to do, somehow I just feel a bit calmer today.  I feel like I’m returning from crazy just a little bit.

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Weekend Goals

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I’ve always been a list maker. If I don’t write it down, I’m most likely going to forget it. All week long I’ve been thinking of things I want to do this weekend since we’re having a rare weekend at home (with no plans!). Since I don’t want to forget, I decided I better get it out of my head and onto paper. Of course, it also does double duty of letting my Hubby know what my plans are for the weekend. Now, can you guess which items on the list are my priorities???

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