One Week

So much has happened in such a short amount of time! I feel like I have been cut of from my little blogosphere and am now feeling up to regular postings again.

It has been one week since I've had surgery to remove my branchial cleft cyst. Surgery went well as far as surgeries go I guess. Most of what happened that day is a blur but, here's my recollection. Checked in at 6:30 a.m., went back to prep around 8:00 a.m., worked myself up so much about getting my IV put in I threw up as soon as the nurse got it in, I am such a baby. Anesthesiologist put the anesthesia in my IV, started getting sleepy while they wheeled me back, put me on the operating table and I was out around 8:30 a.m., next thing I remember was waking up in PACU (which I found out I was in for 2 hours before waking up) extremely sleepy. All I remember from that area is that I told the nurse that I liked her glasses (even though I couldn't open my eyes and wasn't wearing my glasses), my blood pressure dropped really low (like 70 something/something) and that the guy recovering next to me pooped on himself. I was transferred to another recovery room where Travis was and spent the next 6 hours in there struggling to wake up, forgetting to breathe every once and awhile, waiting for my blood pressure to get back to normal and throwing up IV fluids. Finally I woke long enough to move to a wheelchair and go home. Originally the surgeon was going to keep me over night but he was so pleased with my surgery that he decided to send me home that day, I was one of the first patients in recovery and the very last one out.
But anyway, it's been one week and recovery is going well, I am up and moving around and taking care of business as usual.

My super awesome cut

It's been one week since I've used shampoo. My hair is doing great! A bit greasy in the bangs but overall it feels pretty good! I'm pretty excited this is working out so well (so far).

Hair looks nice and clean still!

It's been one week since Lexi has nursed. I didn't nurse her the day of my surgery because I was pretty much dead to the world. Travis said she was nuzzling him at night but once she figured out he was the wrong person she rolled over and went back to sleep. I didn't nurse her the next day because I was pumped so full of drugs (I really didn't even know which ones) so instead of risking it she just didn't nurse. Then the days just kept going and now it's been one week. This may or may not be a coincidence but she has slept through the night 4 nights out of the week, which she's never done before in her life. (I am not suggesting that weaning your baby will make him/her sleep through the night. All babies are different. Weaning did not help Charlotte sleep through the night).

What sleeping through the night looks like

In one week, I've gotten further on a project I've been working on than I have in six months. I've been taking drastically large steps in order to be ready to start a toddler/preschool art group by Spring and I'm very excited about that!

Changes happening in the Art Studio!

I filled out my application for student financial aid. Yes, school again, and if it doesn't pan out this time I'm just cutting my losses. I have gone to school multiple times for art-related degrees, I finally just thought, why am I beating around the bush, I might as well go for just plain old art...education that is. 

ART TEACHER!

I am such a cool art teacher, check out my hot legs

We made our first appearance back to storytime. Once we got there I couldn't believe we hadn't been in so long and was wondering why, the kids love it and it's not even a hassle to get my butt up to take them. Glad to be getting back into the storytime groove.

Looking at the list now it doesn't seem like so much but I suppose when you think about doing all of this while recovering from surgery it seems like almost too much. So that's what's been going on since I've last blogged, hope all of my lurkers are doing well!

ENT Follow Up

It's not cancer! Yippee Skippy!

Turns out it's a Branchial Cleft Cyst. Whatever that means.

From what I keep reading it's actually a birth defect, one that didn't affect me until 25 years later.
I guess it's one of those things that requires certain factors to trigger its growth, and those factors just happen to be a complete mystery.

I'm not quite sure if it's dangerous or anything, I've read a few things that say if it's left too long it can abscess (which I don't think I'd enjoy much) and get infected, blah blah blah.

So surgery is scheduled for January 2011 to remove it and possibly a tonsil as well (yes, just one). I get faint just thinking about it. I cannot even fathom having surgery. I really would rather NOT have surgery but I suppose that's the only option I have right about now and I have to get over it.

So I guess my mission now is to figure out how to get Alexis to sleep without nursing because I will be staying in the hospital overnight, at least I have 2 months! Wish me luck with that!

Done With Meds

So I just took my last antibiotic a few seconds ago. I should be happy about it (and I am to a point) but I feel more discouraged than anything. There has been absolutely no change with the lump (mass? I really don't know what to call it...) So steroids and antibiotics did not fix the problem and I'm on to the next plan, CT Scan. I have a CT Scan scheduled for Monday afternoon. Not sure if the radiologists (?) will be able to answer anything but I'm gonna try and get some sort of information from them as to what they think. There are some things I need to do to prep for the scan, drink lots of water and no eating 3-4 hours before, etc. but the one thing they told me that really stuck was that with the contrast dye I will need to pump and dump breast milk and avoid nursing Alexis for 24 hours. Ha ha, yeah right...You will see lots of sites telling you that information, but here is one and another that will help you make the decision for yourself. Medical professionals will always usually tell you either to pump/dump or wean just to play it safe to keep their butts from getting blamed for anything. I honestly can't blame them but, I can't believe them either which is why if I have a question about a medication that is safe while nursing I will always ask my local LLL leader, they will give you the most recent information about a medication in your milk supply so you can make the decision for yourself. But back on topic, Monday is the scan and then I have to wait 2 more weeks before my follow up appointment to go over the pictures. That's going to be a looooooong 2 weeks, especially since that's when I'll be finding out if I do actually need a biopsy or not (hopefully not) and then it will be Thanksgiving!
So now that's where I am...

Good Little Mommy

Charlotte has taken quite an interest in nursing lately, I have no idea why now all of a sudden but I'm glad she doesn't even think twice about it. We had an interesting conversation about boobies the other day as I was getting her in the tub...

Charlotte: Mommy, look at my boobies!

Me: Yep

Charlotte: I got boobies just like you!

Me: You sure do, because we're girls.

Charlotte: Lexi has boobies too

Me: Yes she does, Lexi is a girl just like us. Do you know why girls have boobies?

Charlotte: So babies can drink milk from them.

Me: You are absolutely right!

When we were doing mammal week as much as I mentioned mammals make milk I did not once mention that milk comes from breasts, only that mommies make milk, I'm sure she got that just from seeing me feeding her sister all the time. I don't talk about nursing at all with Charlotte actually, I've never even told her it's called nursing and she's picked that up too. I'm just hopeful that she is this enthusiastic about nursing her children when she grows up. Here are a few other things she's been talking about when it comes to breastfeeding...

She's asked me to put her baby to sleep for her while I was nursing Lexi to sleep.

She talked about when she was a baby that she nursed like Lexi did (she weaned around 15 months so not sure if she actually remembers nursing).

Once I was talking to her while she was nursing her baby and she told me to leave her alone because she was just nursing her baby.

She'll make her baby pretend cry and say, "Oh, I just gotta feed my baby."

Not a day goes by that I am not amazed by what she picks up from just watching. She is going to be such a good little mommy one day.