Back in the saddle again

Hey all! I know that you have all been itching to hear from Frankenstein herself, and I wouldn't want to disappoint. I have reached that point where I'm feeling well enough to do some things, but I'm quickly reminded that I can't, either with a twinge of pain, or a nasty look from my husband or other loved one here to help out. I've also reached the point where I have no excuse for why the thank you notes are still on my dresser apparently becoming a permanent fixture there. But, thankfully, I have yet to reach the point where I feel bad that I'm still wearing my PJ's all day, every day. To prove that I am getting better, I have compiled a list of general musings, observations, and grievances of the experience so far.


Three weeks post-op there are a handful of things that I know for sure...

First: Pajamas are a WONDERFUL thing, but what's better are pajamas that look like real clothes. Kind of like my own personal joke on society...it may look like I actually TRIED to look nice for you, but I actually just woke up from a nap. HA HA!

Second: Going to Walmart in pajamas, holding a stuffed dog, and sitting in a wheelchair will get you some weird looks if it is not completely obvious what your ailment is. I'm sure there are several people in Rockwall county that assumed I had more of a mental disability...

Third: Inevitably, the basket in the convenient "sit and shop" wheelchair will not actually be big enough to accomodate all the items on your shopping list, leaving the "pusher" with the responsibility of carrying the extra items.

And Finally: No surprise that the horribly overpriced, non-formulary, more than a dollar a pill vitamins you were prescribed will turn out to be the culprit for your nausea...making them the most expensive decoration in your kitchen.

Thanks so much to everyone that has kept me in their thoughts and prayers, and especially to those that were able to help out in one way or another. Ya'll are my heroes!

Sam is Home

Sam got home from the hospital today. Everything is going well, she's just really sore (understandably). They sent us home with a list of stuff she should and should not be doing, a list of medicine to take and a couple prescriptions. Considering they were just finishing up the surgery this time last week, it's amazing she's home already. It's nice to have her home again.

If you are local and want to help out at all, meals would be helpful (and cool). Seriously, could you see a fat guy like me turning down food?

Day three

Sam was doing pretty well today. She was resting a lot (thanks to morphine and zofran), but when she was awake she was a bit more like herself. There aren't any real problems now. She's still in the ICU, just to make sure everything gets healed up sufficiently. I think they plan on getting her up to walk tomorrow. I've seen some other people in the ICU do it, and it looks really difficult for them. I can't even imagine the pain she is going through. She is quite the trooper, and is doing her best to get better. I don't know how she does it. After seeing her I would never want to go through open heart surgery, but here she's done it twice now. She is amazing.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Also thanks to those who have helped us out so far. It is appreciated.

Update

Sam is in the ICU now and is doing fairly well. She was in surgery for 6 hours Monday. Everything went pretty much as planned. Except for some post-op bleeding that she was having. The surgeon had to go back in Tuesday morning at 3:00 to patch something up and drain the fluid that was collecting around her heart. So yeah, she pretty much had two surgeries in 24 hours.

Right now she is recovering fairly well. She's in a lot of pain (understandably) and really doesn't like the respitory therapist. I'm hoping she'll be out of the ICU tomorrow, but that all depends on how well she is progressing. We'll see how that goes.

Thanks for all the prayers sent our way. It'll take her a while to recover completely, but I know she can do it. She's a tough chick.

Prayers

Please include us in your prayers. Sam is going in for open heart surgery tomorrow (March 9th) at 5:30 AM. She's getting something done that they'll need to do every 15 years or so because of her heart condition. We're hoping that everything will go smoothly and the recovery will go well. So, if you're the praying type, we would appreciate being included for the next week or so.

I'll update her progress as much as I can through the week.

Thank you.

Today's Typo

I sent an email to someone today explaining how to select multiple values from a list in one of our computer programs. The email was something like this:

“Click on the first item, hold down the Shift key, and then select the last item you want and you will be good to go.”

I got a reply a couple of minutes later that said:

“I don’t think I have that key on my keyboard. LOL”

I thought that the person was crazy. Who doesn’t have a Shift key on their keyboard? There are two on every keyboard! I reread my email, and noticed a small yet significant typo. Turns out if you leave the “f” out of “Shift”, it makes a whole new word. Oops. You would think spell check would pick up on something like that. It's a word, but come on, point out that you may be accidentally sending a vulgarity or something.

Who says we have to let it go?

For any of you that know our little family very well, you know that yesterday was a solemn yet joyful day in our household. A day we had been anticipating for some time. A day that Cameron especially was so excited about, that he acted like a child counting down to the last day of school. No, he didn't ACTUALLY mark the days off the calendar with a thick red marker...but I know he probably wanted to, and was most definitely doing it in his head. What, you may ask, could cause such longing and delight in the heart of a 30 year old man? Well, I'll give you a hint...





That's right! High School Musical 3 was released to DVD and Blue Ray yesterday, and there was much rejoicing in the Carter houeshold. Believe it or not, I completely forgot the impending date. Don't worry, I'm on Cameron's list for that one...I shall never forget something so important again. I actually had a dentist appointment in the morning, so Cameron took the kids to get an oil change, and pick up a prescription for me while I was at said dentist appointment. When I came out to the car, the first thing I saw was the newly purchased prize nestled safely between my seat, and the seat of my HSM obsessed spouse. Needless to say, we allowed the kids to stay up a little late last night so that we could commemorate the occasion with the ever important maiden viewing. While lacking in refreshments (we opted not to give the kids candy and treats since they were already getting to stay up later than usual) the interaction from the viewing audience (i.e. Dylan and Peyton) was unbeatable. From Dylan's break dancing to every song, and Peyton's back up vocals to "The Boys are Back" a good time was had by all!

Now, while we were excited for the release, the day also came with some bittersweet emotions. This, as you probably know, is the third and final installment of the High School Musical enterprise. However, thanks to Disney DVD, we can relive Senior Year as many times as we want. Believe me when I say we will. If Mr. Ortega is ever looking for an honorary cast member, he should look no further than my dear husband-he already knows all the songs.
So, in closing it is with a heavy heart that I say so long East High, goodbye Wildcats, and don't let the door hit ya Sharpay...

10 Things I Hate About You

When I was in college, my roommate, Becky, and I went to see the aforementioned movie in the theater. For the weeks that followed you could hear either of us at any given time reciting the ever-sarcastic line from the movie "I want you, I need you, oh baby oh baby" This, in addition to our dancing in the kitchen probably made other people wonder about the people living in our apartment, but nevertheless, we had a great time. I mention this as a preface to the following post. My little sister posted this on her blog in honor of Valentine's day, and I thought it was so cute, I decided to copy her. I just wanted to tell my husband that while these are truly the traits in him that drive me CRAZY they are exactly the things I would miss if he were ever not around. I HONESTLY want you, and need you, oh baby oh baby...



10: Your complete inablility to put your dirty socks in the hamper. I mean, I expect to have to pick up socks left around by the kids, but honestly, you would think that at least occasionally the kid socks would outnumber the dad socks, but alas...that is NEVER the case. Couple this with the Mountain Dew cans I find all over the house and in the garage, and you would think I have a 5th child.

9: That you never hesitate to open the dishwasher once the wash cycle has started. I know we forgot to stick in a sippy cup, or a spatula, but one of these days the dishwasher won't work anymore and you know I'll blame you. Can't you just hear it now? "I know the dishwasher is 20 years old, but I'm sure it's broken because you opened it 15 years ago!"

8: SNORING!!! I think that the only real reason that this bothers me is because I have a devil of a time trying to take a nap or fall asleep at night if you are not there. We haven't been apart many nights during our marriage, but those occasional business trips, or trips I took without you led to definite sleep deprivation for me.

7: How much better you are than me at basic computer programs. I mean, I expect you to be able to navigate complex computer things better than me, since that is your job, after all... but come on! I can wrestle with the computer for HOURS trying to get something simple to work, call you in tears, to have you tell me to wait til you get home. You get home, press 1 button, I swear, and everything is fixed! DISGUSTING!!!

6: Buying you presents is IMPOSSIBLE!! I can probably count on one hand the number of times in our relationship when I have been able to surprise you with a gift that you just loved that was not a DVD or CD. This especially gets on my nerves when you never fail to pull out all the stops to surprise me for birthdays or Christmases. I always love what you get me, and I usually don't have to make you a wish list. It's just not fair!!!

5: Your uncanny ability to make me feel guilty by not making me feel guilty. You never hesitate to let me sleep in, take naps, go out with friends, etc. and you openly encourage me to do so. Even to the point of kicking me out of the house to have lunch with a friend, and not only watch our kids, but the friend's kid(s) as well. I feel guilty for not doing the same for you, but you never complain. I don't think I deserve you.

4: Your love of sports. I was kind of thrown in the deep end when we got married. From no sports, to all day-every day sports was a little much to handle. Getting ready for work to the sound of Sportcenter got to be like a security blanket. Thank Heaven we are no longer to the point where we watch pre-game, game, and post-game anymore. I am thankful to you that I can now carry on an intelligent conversation about sports. Nice to know that I am tall enough to win the slam dunk competition...

3: Your CHARM. It is so impossible to stay mad at you, no matter what you do to make me mad. I'm also a little irritated that you passed this trait on to Peyton. If there's anyone I need to be able to be mad at, it's a two year old.

2: The look you give me when you think I'm talking nonsense. Whether I'm talking about a solution to a problem, or a design idea, it is inevitable that you will not understand my concept right away... and look at me like I'm crazy. Eventually, I make my point, you can "tweak" it a little, and everything falls into place. But until then..."you got some screws loose, lady".

1: Your T-shirt addiction. Even though you know that I love how you look in "dressier" clothes such as polo shirts, you are hopelessly addicted to T-shirts, and will change into one as soon as you get home from work. I rarely even get a dressy shirt on a date. Come on...it's not like I'm asking you to wear a tie!

And there you have it. Now for a special message just for my dear husband...

Happy Belated Valentine's Day Everyone!!!

Aching Arms

So the other morning I woke up and my whole left arm was sore. It was sore all day long. Why? I have no idea. I must have slept on it wrong. You know you're getting old when your body is sore when you wake up in the morning. Luckily we just recently bought a new mattress along with some bedroom furniture that should be here sometime within the next decade. That may help my body to not hurt all over in the mornings, but I kinda doubt it just because I am that old.

Anyway, the next morning I woke up and my left arm was fine, but my right arm was sore. It was hard to pick things up. It almost felt like I had done some forearm exercises, which I knew wasn't the case since I haven't lifted free weights in . . . nine years. I chalked that aching arm up to being old too, until later that night. Sam's siblings have gotten Wiis recently, and every now and then we play Mario Kart over the internet. I've been practicing playing a lot lately because I was tired of losing to Sam's Brother's wife. I pulled out Mario Kart again and noticed, "hey, my arm may be hurting because I am pressing down on this button for two hours straight." Yeah, I strained a muscle playing Nintendo. I may as well buy a walker and a wheelchair now, because it can only go downhill from here.

Chorus of Coughs

Last night Andi came into our room and stated that she just threw up. (Thanks goodness for kids who know how to get to the toilet, trash can, or sink to do that.) Soon after she finished telling me that, she threw up again. I guess she wasn't just making stuff up to get out of her US History test tomorrow.

This morning I was sitting around with the kids, and the other three were taking turns coughing and sneezing. Add that to the puking, and it was like we had Ferris Bueller's keyboard in our house. Woo hoo, I'm gonna use it to call in sick tomorrow!