After a rough weekend, I guess I should have expected it to be a rough first day back at home. After a rough night sleeping for me, it was hard for me to get up and get everyone else up. Everything was done from the day before except laundry needed to be put away. I had to have Justin lift it for me of course. Keturah and I butted heads as usual, but today was worse because I was short tempered from lack of sleep and increased pain and anxiety. So, Jared had to be put on parenting duty and make sure Keturah finished her homework before bed. Did he? I will find out tomorrow I guess. Justin finished almost everything on his list, and Abishai played and played and played. He played toy store, Simpsons chess, lots of Lego building, wrestle time with Daddy, and screen time. Jared and Benaiah had their normal routines.
Meanwhile, I had yet another consult with the gynecologist about my upcoming polyp surgery. I was able to cancel the cyst surgery because it's elective at this point. It's 5cm vs 10 cm when it must be removed. And in another twist of the plot, my blood pressure that has been on the higher side of normal might be because of the estrogen in the birth control pills I'm taking to stop the bleeding from the polyps. So, after just getting my prescription refilled today (thank goodness I hadn't picked it up yet), a new prescription will be sent to the pharmacist for progesterone only pills (the kind you take when you are breastfeeding). Alrighty then. I guess I'm glad we got that figured out quickly. The doctor didn't like my new self prescribed protocol for the cyst, but whatever, we will prove her wrong on that one. Next step is to schedule the polyp surgery, and I'll just have to make sure I'm well on my way to healing from my other incision before then. Thankfully, this one won't be an incision, but there will be bleeding and maybe cramping like after giving birth. I definitely can handle that. I just have to be careful what they use on the day of surgery and what I'm prescribed afterwards, etc. I had two other appointments scheduled this week, but moved one routine chiropractic adjustment so he wouldn't have to try to avoid my wound. That also frees me up tomorrow afternoon to pick up prescriptions and a couple of groceries before taking Keturah to dance. Justin's small group starts the following week.
In other news, Shauna did get the biopsy results back and there was NO CANCER in what they removed during her lumpectomy! At least one person's hopes, dreams, and prayers have been answered. She won't need radiation at all. She will still do the highly recommended double mastectomy at some point, but it can wait a little bit. That's great news for her.
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| You have to read to the end of the book so you don't take things out of context, but, here goes. |
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| That's how Job and I feel right now. |
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| Great partnership. My mom would have loved Dolly Parton and the Smallbone brothers together. |
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| Post op day 6. still very tender on the lower half where the red is and at the very end were the stitches' knots are. Plus I get shooting pains at times, too. Trying some OTC lidocaine 4% roll ons to see if it will calm down enough for me to function. |
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| Time for these to hit the trash. I'm glad I picked up a new pair a few months ago. Pretty pastels, same style, only stripes. |
On Wednesday, my arm and I had a long day keeping life afloat. I worked on everything from paperwork and phone calls, to going back to the dermatologist because she wanted to see me before prescribing antibiotics (which she did end up doing), to picking up my mediations and some grocercies, and then taking Keturah to her first theater dance class. My arm and I hurt like crazy and just want to cuddle up with YouTube and our phone games. The kids worked on their schooling but I'm going to have to make sure I get time with each of them tomorrow. We simply ran out of time today. They also had their first Bible class of the year with Grandpa Johnson and the cousins. Yeah!
The dermatologist said that I probably have a staph infection and/or my body doesn't like the external stitches so I'm reacting to that. Only 6 more days of outer stitches! Can't wait! So, I have antibiotics (and I'm taking probiotic to combat it), and antibiotic ointment to use. I got my polyp removal surgery scheduled for the first week of October, which means my arm should be ok for that one.
And just like Shauna got great news yesterday that they found no cancer in the tumor they removed, which means she is cancer free, so am I! They got all the melanoma! Yeah! Cancer free! Now, for the hard part of healing. Which is a great analogy, it takes a year or more for an injury to heal, why do we expect people with any mental, emotional, spiritual drama to heal in 6 months to go about their business as always. We need more time to heal, change,
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| Pikachu' visited us this morning! |
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| Benaiah bought these pumpkins for us! I don't know why he didn't buy a B for himself though. And I was just in Kroger today! Ugh! Next time I'll get a "B" just for him. |
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| Time to change some attitudes. But It's been hard being in pain and focusing on my own health symptoms. My patience doesn't last that long theese days. |
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| Respect the boundaries. |
Thursday I woke up with some vertigo, and maybe I could have pushed through and gotten to my counseling appointment, but decided to postpone it a week. I'm glad I did because I got to stretch out my day and not feel rushed with school. Keturah and I had a heart to heart chat about both of our bad attitudes in the last two weeks, so maybe, just maybe, she caught on to what I was saying and understood at least some of it. She won't share her real feelings with anyone, but says she's writing in her diary. which is a good start. She seemed to be calmer after that and more smiley and giggly with her siblings. She gets her homework done, but not always in a timely manner and definitely not with a good attitude. It's been a weird and rough two weeks. Thank goodness the next surgery is a full month away.
Meanwhile, I was able to take a walk with Abishai after lunch and all was cute and fine until it was time to leave Grandma's after spending an hour with her. We played board games, talked, played with the wooden bowling set, and then Abishai made himself fall off his trike into the grass for a good laugh. Grandma and I talked too long, so Abishai went back inside and said he was sleeping over. That was the beginning of the hugest trantrum this kid as ever had. He creeped along the hallway to Grandma's bedroom, where Grandma held him down while I attempted to put his socks and shoes on. I left the room because Grandma said she would just carry him to the car and drive us home. Well, they came out of the bedroom with Abishai crawling on his hands to try to get away from Grandma and Grandma holding him by his ankles in the "human wheelbarrow position. Leah and I just laughed and laughed. But when Abishai continued to wail, we stopped laughing and Leah picked him up, and went through the house to the garage to the car. I went out the front door and by the time I saw them again, Abishai was upside down in Leah's arms. We forced him into the car, I was in the backseat and he crawled into my lap, but I had to hold his arms down so he wouldn't open the back door and cover his mouth so he wouldn't scream so loud in our ears. I almost called Benaiah who was home at the time to come help us. It was awful! So, we got him home, I got him to calm down by watching a couple of videos on my phone (he had already had his screen time for the day), distracted him from the screen after I shut it off by some books on music sitting by us, and then all was calm. He spent the rest of the day being off and on clingy to me, but no more tears. He just started throwing these big fits last week. I don't know what the deal is besides me having surgery must have triggered something. He does look at my stitches with concern. I don't cover them up at home because the bandages itch and irritate my skin no matter what I use. So, that was a fun episode of life.
Speaking of stitches, I finally took off today's dressing that I had on for about 7 hrs, and wouldn't you know, I popped the bottom stitch! Ladies and gentlemen, I have been SO careful and protective of not overusing my arm like the doctor said. I have occasionally reached a tad too much, or maybe held something a tad too heavy, but it wasn't terribly much. Anyway, I can't find the knot on the bottom end of the stitches and at least one whole stitch is undone. I'm able to tighten the current last stitch and have taped the end in place for now. But if I move too much, it will come undone on it's own. I can't retie a knot because the end is too small. So, I guess I'll call the doctor tomorrow to see what I'm supposed to do over the weekend. If it's ok to let the new last stitch out, I can go ahead and pull it, have a better tail, maybe retie it, or at least tape it better to my arm until Tuesday when the stitches are supposed to be taken out in the office by the nurse. Annoying, but at least I know that the stitches don't hurt when they slide back and forth under the skin. I was so worried what next Tuesday would bring. I think they will hurt a bit depending on how the skin is forming under each one, but it won't be excruciating pain. I'm such a fun patient, aren't I?
Other than that, it was a beautiful day, and I tried again to get myself and the kids out for a bit. And again, I wasn't that successful because despite being up "early" at 9:30, including Keturah, school wasn't done until 3pm. Ok, then, whatever. I made sure all the windows were open so we could at least feel the fresh air. I started losing energy right before dinner too, so I didn't put up a fight about it. Hopefully we will get to go to park day tomorrow, but that depends on what the dermatologist says. Oh joy.
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| 100% yes. |
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| "I'll cut it for you, Mommy! Just watch!" And boom, he did! |
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| Is this how you line up bowling pins? Lol. |
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| There's extra light on the wall and on the door and if I had taken a video, you could see how the light was "dancing." Keturah was in the hallway with her kitty cat shirt that has the sequins on it and the sun from her window was reflecting off it and bouncing off the hallway walls. |
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| This is my song, Mommy! And the pwiano student needs to do this page in this book! Also, Abishai sang the whole verse to "Good morning to you." twice today in the sweetest voice to wake me up. He also sang Happy Birthday to Jdustin (not a typo, Abishai puts a D in there somehow), who turns 14 in just 4 days! |
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| Can see the little line in the crevice below the last actual stitch? That's the tail of the stitches. Eeek! |
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| Not the best lighting, but the square patch of irritation on the bottom there is now a triangle shape so the antibitotics are working. 8 days post op. Still tender. Now itchier and more yellow/loose skin that I'm cleaning off before I put more ointment on. Don't know if it's the remnants of cream, normal skin dandruff, or extra stuff, but I'm being careful not to pick too much and making it raw. A bit more blood to clean off tonight though from the dressing rubbing on it for 7 hrs. At least I got to keep some of my freckles and moles, eh? |
The End
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