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!

1 down 3 to go!

We had our Stallone Christmas Eve Eve Strikes Back last night. Leah was in town from Chicago. She and I ran errands after dropping Claire off at preschool. Leah served as my chauffeur yesterday because I am still suffering from a viral eye infection that is distorting my vision and causing light sensitivity. So if you see me with sunglasses on inside or even at night - you'll know why. That's how I roll.

After preschool Leah and Claire took their nappy naps. Mike got the house ready and I wrapped for hours. Grandma and Grandpa Stallone, Dad and Pat, Dana, Denny, Brian and Tiffany and Aiden all came over and we stuffed ourselves silly with yummy appetizers and Grandpa Stallone's red sauce and meatballs recipe. I've been making it on Christmas Eve Eve for a few years now and I must say I'm getting pretty good at it!

Claire got tons of presents: princess tennis shoes that light up, a princess phone, tinkerbell car keys, snow boots, a really nice Raggedy Ann and Andy doll, Dr. Suess book, a piggy bank that makes noise when you 'feed' it money. Lots of cute clothes. It was a wrapping paper frenzy! Claire and Aiden played really well together and were so cute. It's so cool to watch them grow up together. They're buddies.

I was too busy to take pictures, so if you were there and you did - please email me some!

Sick of Being Sick

The Lowder House has just been full of sick, sicky, poo-faced, sick babies. It's been NO fun! It all started with Claire waking Aunt YaYa (that's Leah) up in the middle of the night at Nana and Pop's house the Friday night after Thanksgiving. She was writhing in pain because her tummy hurt and it freaked everyone out. After a call to her pediatrician's exchange, Mike, Nana and I packed up the car for the 20+ minute ride to the ER. I had to sit in the back with Claire because she was crawling out of her skin. It was horrible. After 5 or so hours in the pediatric ER, two x-rays and a CT scan later, appendicitis was ruled out. A viral gastrointenstinal infection was their best guess. She bounced back the next day playing with Jack and having fun. Sunday we drove home and she was still groovy. We decorated the tree and everything. Still smiling.

Monday she was a tired ballerina after her 2 1/2 hour long dance class. We rested. Tuesday I dropped her off at preschool. An hour later the nurse called and said she needed to be picked up because it appeared that she had pink eye. I had already scheduled her a follow up appointment with her pediatrician to check on her since the ER visit, so with Grammy's help she was picked up from school and sent to Dr. Terrill...where she was diagnosed with double pink-eye and a double ear infection. Two different antibiotics. I took the rest of the day off and we rested.

That was almost one week ago.

Since then she's been up almost every night with fevers of around 101 degrees. She wouldn't eat or drink until a couple of days ago. She finally requested macaroni and cheese on thursday night around 10:30 pm. And you know we made her some Macaroni and Cheese! Today her spirits were up and she was more like herself, thank god.

Meanwhile, I've been getting sicker and sicker. I called my doctor last tuesday for him to call in a prescription, it seemed as if i was getting a sinus infection. Felt horrible. During this sick den, Mike and I were still trying to work most of the week, but that was hard. This weekend I had a meltdown on the phone with my mom because we all had cabin fever in addition to actual fevers. I had to go to work but REALLY didn't want to because I was sick and exhausted and I knew Claire would probably give Mike a hard time. When I came back from work with my head absolutely pounding out of my skull - Mike told me that my parents had come to the house with some groceries! I almost cried. Sherbet, pasta and sauce, cereal, apple juice, etc. It was so thoughtful and appreciated! (But as Claire reports "no pizza"!)

I took her back to the pediatrician today. They think she's making slow and steady progress. On the drive there, I asked Claire if she hurt anywhere and she said "Moooom! You're not the doctor. You're just a mom." Hmph!

(Sound familiar Nana!?!?!?)

I am getting worse by the minute. I feel like I have Strep and am getting Claire's pinkeye. My glands are SO swollen I feel like I'm gonna die and my ears are killing me. I was running a low fever today and went back to my doctor. They switched my antiobiotic to a $50 version. So THIS one better be worth it!

I'm so exhausted. But I can't sleep. It makes no sense. I lay down dog tired and then I just toss and turn. When will this end? I have SO much to do this time of year. Selfishly - I'm bummed because we had to miss my work's holiday party and I had to cancel a potentially very cool Christmas Market show. I feel like everyone's sick of us being sick, but we're just not getting well fast enough. I'm supposed to work a full day tomorrow and can't even imagine running a support group at 6pm tomorrow night. ugh.

Please keep us in your prayers and feel sorry for us. Ok. I'm kidding about the last part.

And I better be well in time for my birthday!!! :)