How I'm Feeling

i had my tonsillectomy on wednesday morning. it was quick - but NOT painless. I felt surpringsingly well on Wednesday. Mom came into town to help take care of me and Claire. Thursday I slept most of the day. Watched Seven Pounds and 500 Days of Summer. Friday was getting worse and by Friday night I was in so much pain it was scary. The surgeon's nurse called to check on my on friday and I told her i was concerned because the pain meds I was prescribed to take every 6 hours were only lasting 4. She said to go ahead and take a dose every 4 hours. Within 24 hours of that phone call I was needing to take the hyrdrocodone every 2-3 hours. that's what i mean by scary. mom called the surgeon on friday night and he recommended that we go to the ER so we could get a stronger narcotic like percocet - which he couldn't call in. Saturday around noon, Mike took me the MoBap ER and they took good care of me.  It was kinda funny, they took me to triage with two male nurses, a female ER doc and Mike and asked me a bunch of questions. the first being "So you're having throat pain?" I'm like - yeah! That's an understatement. I don't think she saw that I had just had a tonsillectomy. By using hand signals and facial expressions I told the nurses' about my symptoms and current medications. Every once in a while I would need to rely on Mike to talk to them. The funniest part was when the nurse asked when my "last menses" was. I looked to Mike and showed him 3 fingers for the 3 years i've had an IUD. He looked at me like i was crazy, i don't think he heard the question. so the male nurses were probably like - oh geez! dude doesn't know what menses is. I just held up three fingers and looked at them all hopefully. the nurses think it's an auction. 3 days? 3 weeks, 3 hours? Finally Mike gets it and tells them 3 years. We all had a good laugh. Then a new male nurse (many male nurses here) gave me the quickest and painless IV i've ever had. He was done before I was able to exhale. I want to hire him as my personal IV'er! They took me to a private ER room that I immediately recognized as the one they put psych patients in because it had no windows, artwork, doorknobs or tv but instead had a camera to record all my crazy behavior. Tony, the IV nurse said he was going to give me naseua medication b/c the pain meds might make me sick. He gave me dilaudid and said I would start feeling it within 15 seconds. I'm like feel something good or bad? He said I'd get really dizzy and lightheaded until my equilibrium caught up with me. He was very right. Around 15 seconds later I go "WHOA!". my legs and arms felt like they were floating and i asked mike to come over and "rub my legs so they stop floating". I'm sure he was amused. That was SOME GOOD STUFF! The pain went away within 5 minutes and I was feeling good! They observed me four several hours and gave me some IV fluids and another dose of the good stuff and then sent me home with liquid oxycodone and a liquid steroid. so all these medicines make me really sleepy. mike and i watched Taken with Liam Neeson last night. it was horrible acting and an unbelievable story and i fell asleep an hour into it but i was happy to hang out with Mike because I've been spending so much time alone lately. This morning my mom leaves :( She's probably sick of this high-maintenance household! She was such a big help! I want Mike to go and get my coffee ice cream and another flavor but not sure yet. I also want a peanut butter milkshake - yay! Ok - back to nappy time.

Dubliner's

Mike's work organized a post-holiday party at the Dubliner off Washington in downtown Saint Louis. What was the theme you ask?...well "fancy hats" of course!! With less than 2 weeks notice to assemble a "fancy hat" AND an outfit that could accompany a "fancy hat", I was scrambling. Luckily, my girlfriend Carrie went through a self-proclaimed 'hat phase' in college and lent me one. It was more 'funky' than 'fancy' but it all worked out. When we arrived at the party we were greeted by Mike's co-workers who were donning construction hats, beer can hats, sombreros and even a handmade Cap'n Crunch hat! Pints of Guinness were drunk and so was Mike :)

Good Read

I just finished reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger over the weekend. It took me a while because I was ill the entire month of December...but not because of the book. It was interesting, unique, gritty, riveting and so romantic. I just wanted to cry tears of happiness when I flipped the last page. I haven't seen the movie yet, it's on my netflix queue, but i'm hoping it will live up to the expectations laid forth in the book.

Plus Eric Bana's in it. mmm!

Under the Knife

I am totally bummed to report that I need to have a tonsillectomy on Wednesday, January 27th. (Happy Birthday to you Jenny!) The tonsillitis I had in December was just too killer and the ENT Specialist I was sent to thinks it's for the best. I have to take TWO WEEKS off work, which sucks because I'm not even going to be on a tropical beach or anything! Just laying in bed catching up on The View and eating ice cream. Now normally, this would be fairly appealing, well the ice cream part anyway. But I'm not cool with wasting 2 weeks worth of vacation time on being sick. thumbs down.

Claire keeps asking to check my tonsils. I guess she wants to take full advantage of looking at them while they're still there. I keep reminding her the doctor's gonna cut them out and the look on her face is just priceless!

One cute reason

The other morning, Claire and I were in my newly painted bedroom. Claire looked around and said "Our house is beautiful! Let's stay here for a while!" And that's why I love being a grown-up!