Almost Wordless Wednesday

Saturday morning my MIL and I got up early to hit the New Haven Flea Market. My coworker told me about the market- she went last year and found North Face, Tiffany jewelry knockoffs, Ugg boots, etc. She did warn me that she heard the place got raided earlier this year so the merchandise might be a little different.

My MIL LOVES flea markets so we headed down, unsure of what we would find. I should have taken a picture, but it was rows and rows and rows of fake purses (every label imaginable- Coach, Hermes, Dolce & Gabbana, etc.), jewelry, clothes, music, rugs, etc. It was pretty impressive, despite the fact that some of it was repetitive.

Sorry about my manly-looking hands but I got these three rings for $1 each. Super cute!

I have needed a clutch for a while and this fake Burberry clutch fit my iPhone and was only $7. Score!


I have also wanted a light gray purse for a while and this fit the bill as it was only $10. It's not my favorite, but for $10 it works!

My favorite purchase was the moose hat. CP HATES it which means I love it. Ha! Actually I have been threatening to get a hat like this for a while....once I found one (only $8!) for an adult (they also other animals like a cat and a cow), I knew it was allllll mine.

I wouldn't head to this flea market every weekend but it was not bad. All four purchases added up to less than $30 which is a good day of shopping for me!

Do you own a piece of clothing that your significant other hates?

Baby shower

Today my office held a baby shower for a coworker who is due in the beginning of January. I have to admit, it was a little hard. I am, of course, very happy for her. I have no idea if she had problems conceiving or how long they tried to have a child but at this point it doesn’t matter as she is almost to the finish line.

But during the shower my mind kept wandering to whether the office will ever get to throw ME a baby shower. Will I ever get to complain about a lack of sleep because I am too uncomfortable and big? Will I get to talk about the labor and delivery tour that I took of the hospital? Will I get to ask older coworkers about whether I should take a Lamaze class (it’s not applicable to me because I have to have a c-section, but still)?

When she was opening her presents I oooohed and aaaaahed with everyone. I mean everything is just so small and adorable! But afterwards while in a circle talking with the mother-to-be and four older women who all have kids I tried to play down my knowledge of giving birth/all things babies because I didn’t want to tip anyone off that we had been trying….or that I read pregnancy blogs…..or have talked about giving birth/pregnancy with friends that have kids.

Thankfully, the “NSC you are NEXT!” was not uttered. I have to be honest that I contemplated NOT going to the baby shower because I am literally the only childless married person in the office of child bearing age. The few others who could get pregnant or get someone pregnant are not in long term relationships (except for the gay guy and I don’t think pregnancy for either him or his partner is in the cards). I was terrified that someone was going to say something and I don’t know what my reaction would have been. Turn bright red? Start crying? Make a sarcastic deflective remark? Suddenly clam up? I have no idea.

These days not knowing what my reaction is going to be is tough. The hope that I have of getting pregnant is still tempered. I am still planning things for the spring thinking that we won’t be pregnant. If I didn’t do that I am not sure how emotionally stable I would be right now because if I can’t look forward to a pregnancy, I need to look forward to something else.

Non sequitur thoughts

Why does Buster feel the need to lay down in the bathroom every time I need to pee? He always cocks his head trying to figure out where the sound is coming from which is hilarious….but still. Why does he feel the need? Is it because I watch him pee every day? At least he gets praised while doing that- I just get a weird look!

CP and I realized that for the next few months while my uterus is healing we are going to actually have to prevent pregnancy. An odd concept after trying for a year and half with no results. But if what the doctor said is true (that CP’s sperm is okay and the endometriosis was the reason we couldn’t get pregnant), then we will have to be careful. Now I just have to wait and see if my periods are going to go back to normal cycles. *crossing fingers*

So I finally decided to check out Pinterest after hearing so much about it from you guys. I love the idea, but why do you have to request to get an invite? That is kind of annoying.

I think that this extra workload is going to be around for a while. The coworker who was put on a special assignment wrote on another coworker’s Facebook wall that she will be retiring at the end of the year. Since she is older, I don’t think that she is very tech savvy….so I’m not sure that she knows that I could see her post. My company won’t be hiring anyone to fill her position so although I hate my job, at least I’ll stay busy.

Would you get falsies for your dog? We will be fixing Buster after he turns a year old (waiting that long is better for his joints since he is a bigger breed) and CP wants to get false balls put in. I think that the idea is absolutely ridiculous, but CP claims that Buster needs them. Someone mentioned that Kim Kardashian had falsies put in for her dog and I keep asking CP if he really wants to be like Kim Kardashian…..but that doesn’t seem to sway him. Thoughts?

I'm not happy that I am working today, but at least I don't work in retail and have to deal with crazy shoppers. What happened to spending time with your family on a holiday? I feel bad for all of the hourly workers that have to deal with people that PEPPER SPRAY others just for a discount. Unfortunately I think that stores are helping create chaos by holding these intense sales for only one day and at weird hours when people are tired/drunk. Why not buy more of the in-demand products and spread out the discounts throughout a weekend or a week? Even if the stores don't make the discounts as steep they could get more people through the door, produce less craziness, and get more product moved. Do you shop on Black Friday?

Comment so that I can be entertained during my very boring work day today!

Turkey Day!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am so excited about all of the yummy food that CP is making! CP’s grandmother, his mom and her husband are coming down from NH later today. We would have gone up to NH with the dogs, however I have to work on Friday. :-(

As usual, CP is planning on making way too much food for only 5 people. But at least I know where he gets it from- his mom is baking 4 (!!) pies (AGAIN) to bring down which is so ridiculous. Her excuse is that her friend and friend’s brother will be stopping by for dessert on Thursday night. Luckily I only like two of the desserts so I won’t be tempted by the other two.

Our meal:

Butternut squash bisque
Salad with pears and gorgonzola cheese (featuring lettuce from our garden!)
Turkey (currently sitting in a maple brine)
Mashed potatoes
Wild rice salad (healthier than stuffing)
Roasted root veggies (carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes)
Kale and bacon
Cranberry sauce (since CP is the only one to eat it he got it in can form this year)
Gravy
Dinner rolls (made by me!)

Dessert:

Pecan Pie
Squash Pie
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (made by me!)

Interested in what our meal looked like in 2010 and 2009?


Does your family make too much food for Thanksgiving? How many people are you having over to your house? Whatever you are doing, I hope that you have a great Turkey Day!

Looking forward to warm weather

Yesterday I alluded to our upcoming vacation….in three weeks CP and I will be headed to the Bahamas (Paradise Island to be exact)! My parents have a time share so we are staying right next to Atlantis FOR FREE. Yay for a free hotel!

Check out that water!!!

We really haven’t planned this vacation too much. Partly because that is our m.o. for vacations and partly because we have been too busy with having no power, my surgery, etc. I have been to the Bahamas before, but it was a quick cruise so I only got to spend a couple of hours on each island. CP has never been down there before so it will all be new to him!

This is not our usual type of vacation because it is a pretty touristy place. We certainly aren’t going to complain, but I think that it is going to be hard to get to a local restaurant to sample REAL food….not just the meal plan Atlantis tries to push on you (which we didn't get. $69/day? Ridonkulous). But, we are going to try to find a grocery store (locals have to get their food somewhere right?) to search out weird and new things to eat as we have a full kitchen where we are staying.

Has anyone been there? Do you have suggestions on things to do there? How about a nice restaurant? We will be there during my birthday which means we will be headed out for a nice dinner! I think that we are going to try to do one day of scuba diving. The doctor has cleared me for that, but I have a feeling that the doctor doesn’t realize how heavy the tank is out of the water. :-) I’ll just have to see how my stomach is feeling when we get down there. Other than that we have no plans except for kicking it at the pool/beach drinking fruity drinks.

Warm weather awaits…..

Back on the horse

Today is the first day that I am allowed to drive….but that’s not what I am excited about. Today is the first day since my surgery that I am allowed to exercise!* It’s just walking, but at least it’s something.

During lunch today I took Buster on a 25 minute walk. After that I took Fuzzy Britches for a 20 minute walk. For the most part, it felt great. I had a dull pain in my lower right abdomen, close to one of my incisions, but it was manageable. I have it when I am just walking around our house on a daily basis anyway, but I made sure not to push it too much.

So walking is my only allowable form of exercise for another three weeks or so. It’s frustrating, but I can only imagine how much pain running would produce. Even though I can only walk, it would be nice to lose a few pounds before our vacation- does anyone have any suggestions for walking weight off (other than just walk a lot? Ha ha.)? I know that losing weight/toning up is 75% eating right so I’m adding more salads/healthy things….the good news is that my two weeks off from the surgery didn’t add any weight to my body. I never asked the doctor if I could do squats, lunges, etc. so I’m guessing those are out of the question….along with weights. What is a girl to do??


*I sort of cheated and took Buster for a 25 minute walk yesterday because I had to get out of the house! Shhhhh.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This is what our street looks like 2 1/2 weeks after Winter Storm Alfred. Our town has promised to pick up the tree branches- we just aren't sure when.

The dogs have enjoyed their new chew toys.....


Especially this limb....

Fuzzy Britches' favorite thing these days is to squeeze herself into the smallest places possible....here it is under a side table.

Being at home while CP works has made me bored....so I made a test batch of dinner rolls for Thanksgiving. They turned out great!

We also had very brown bananas so I made banana bread muffins with raisins. Yum!

Despite lots of leaf stalks breaking due to Winter Storm Alfred, the brussel sprout plants are surviving and the sprouts are getting bigger!

Winter beets are looking good under our winter greenhouse.

Spinach on the left, swiss chard on the right and out-of-control lettuce in the back!

New trees

Earlier this summer, we received an advertisement from the Arbor Day Foundation. If we joined (for only $10), we would receive 10 free trees and 2 shrubs for planting (the trees you receive depend on your location in the country)! We don't have a ton of room in our small yard, but we have been looking for a tree for the front yard and we would love a nice shrub to cover up the concrete wall on the back of the garage....so we sent in the membership fee and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to Saturday. What looked like a newspaper bag arrived in the mail with 10 dormant trees and 2 dormant shrubs. The instructions suggested planting them in a raised bed or garden for a year so that the tree doesn't have to compete against weeds. Because of our winter garden we didn't have any room for the trees in our raised beds so I decided to plant them in pots. I planted all of them in case some don't make it (if all of them end up surviving I will have to find family, neighbors, or friends to plant the leftovers!).

The dormant sticks

I am hoping that the trees survive the winter. I can either leave them near the side of the house (where they are now) or bring them inside to our sunporch. They will get more sun outside, but will obviously be subjected to the cold. If I bring them inside they will still get some sun (but not full sun) and will stay at least above freezing. Any thoughts on what we should do?

Meanwhile, this is what the trees will look like YEARS down the road....

Crapemyrtle

Eastern Redbud

Sargent Crabapple

Washington Hawthorn

White Flowering Dogwood

*I was not asked to write about the Arbor Day Foundation- I just wanted to get the word out!

Finally some good news in 2011

With every passing day, I feel a little bit better. Today I was able to get out of bed unassisted with only a twinge of pain in my stomach. That is quite a difference from a week ago when getting out of bed by myself elicited moans of pain. My doctor is allowing me to work from home this week and thank goodness he did (and that my company allows that)- I was getting extremely bored at home while CP did work. Turns out there is only so much tv you can watch (and that’s when we had power).

I had my post-op appointment on Thursday. I had wanted to post about it on Friday but OUR POWER WENT OUT AGAIN. I was seriously going to shoot someone, anyone. But luckily it came back on in the late afternoon and lives were spared. :-) The appointment went great. The doctor usually sees patients two weeks out so he was surprised to see how well I was doing only a week out.

Basically he believes that the reason that CP and I have been unable to get pregnant is because of the endometriosis* he found during the surgery. To recap, the doctor found three things: the fibroid, endometriosis, and a cyst.

-The cyst that he found was not a big deal (it was benign) and he removed it because if we ever do IVF down the road, it can be mistaken for a follicle.

-The fibroid was big (size of a baseball) and stretched my uterine wall. It probably would have caused a miscarriage, but wouldn’t have hindered actually getting pregnant. He took pictures that I REALLY wanted to see (because I’m weird like that) but couldn’t pull them up while we were in the office. Boooo.

-The endo was a surprise to find. I don’t have any of the symptoms (bleeding in between periods, pain during sex), but the doctor said that often times people don’t have symptoms (the one symptom that I did have was irregularly heavy bleeding during periods but that is also a symptom for fibroids too). The only way to really know if you have endo is to have laparoscopic surgery (less invasive than mine). I obviously no longer need to have that surgery as my doctor was able to remove all of the endo. I guess I was kind of lucky to already be heading in for surgery for the fibroid because I got a two-for-one surgery! Ha ha. I was a “Level 2” endo patient which means that it wasn’t too bad, but it was located in a bunch of different places. I didn’t have any scar tissue from the endo which is great news.

My doctor looked through our health records and concluded that the endo was likely the sole reason I wasn’t getting pregnant. He checked CP’s sperm analysis and although the number of “good sperm” swimming around is low, CP is producing more than the normal amount of semen and should have enough good sperm to get my pregnant. This was music to CP’s ears. It also made me happy because this is what I wanted all along….to be the reason that we didn’t get pregnant because it is often easier to fix whatever is wrong with the woman than it is to fix what is wrong with the man.

We do have to wait until the end of January to start trying again (for my uterus to heal), but my doctor said that we have a great chance of doing it on our own now that the endo is gone! In about a week and a half the Lupron will be out of my system and I’m hoping to get my period sometime soon afterwards (but who knows how long that is going to take). I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much….


* Endometriosis is the growth of endometrial tissue-which normally lines the uterus-in other parts of the body. Endometriosis typically grows in the abdominal cavity and most often attaches to the ovaries, fallopian tubes, outer surface of the uterus, bowels, or other abdominal organs. Endometriosis growths, called implants or lesions, often bleed during menstruation, causing pain. They may also develop scar tissue (adhesions) that can interfere with an organ's normal function. Scar tissue can also cause pain and difficulty becoming pregnant.

Recovery

This week has been at times painful, at times boring, and at times annoying. The first night in the hospital was a mix of short bouts of sleep, then bouts of pain. I asked for morphine twice and then decided that twice was enough for me. The second time I think that the morphine resulted in a 30 minute long hot flash which originally convinced me that I had an infection in one of the incision sites (temperature turned out fine).

CP brought cut up pineapple that I tried to eat throughout the night. The nurse brought water and ginger ale- the latter to help move the CO2 gas out of my stomach.* At 2:30am the nurse had me sit up in bed which felt like my insides were ripping apart. Eventually I stood up with shaking legs and walked around the nurse's station (walking helps with soreness the next day).

After getting discharged with a prescription of Percocet and Motrin, CP took me home to no power (thankfully he hooked heat up to the generator Thursday night). I feel asleep on the couch while he picked up my mom at the airport.

My mom was here until Monday morning and was a big help. She helped CP move fallen limbs from Winter Storm Alfred, wash dishes and take care of me. I know that she would have done more cleaning-wise if we only had power! After EIGHT DAYS of no power, it finally came on Sunday night- and thank goodness. Reading put me right to sleep, now at least I can fall asleep to the tv.

I feel better than I thought I would. Walking isn't too difficult, it's just sitting up. I have someone help me when they are around because otherwise it is seriously painful. Having to pee in the middle of the night is the worst because I would feel bad asking CP to wake up to help me get out of bed. Also, weird movements trigger pain.

Even more painful than sitting up is the constipation. Percocet and Motrin both constipate people which the doctors warned me about. They didn't warn me that a stool softener once a day and five laxatives in addition to fiber-friendly foods would result in the most painful bowel movement I have ever had on Monday. Thank goodness that is over with....

Today I have some bruising and soreness around all of the incisions which is normal. My belly is still inflamed, but hopefully that goes down soon. Cross your fingers my post-op appointment goes well today!


*During the procedure the doctors pump CO2 gas into the stomach to blow it up. After the procedure they remove as much as possible, but inevitably leave some. The gas is eventually absorbed by your body, but often patients have shoulder pain for a day or two after surgery like I did.

Fertility busters

As you saw from yesterday's post, I survived my surgery. During my surgery I was placed on a table with an incline with my head towards the floor. I guess it helps to move the organs out of the way for the robotic arms to do their job. It took a little bit longer than expected because while the doctor said during the pre-op appointment that he would take a look around my uterus to make sure there was nothing else going on, he didn't expect to find a cyst and endometriosis.

I had some trouble waking up after surgery. CP was supposed to be able to see me afterwards (the doctor finished around 4:30pm) but around 6:30pm he left to take out the dogs and feed them. I remember being wheeled from the recovery room to my hospital room and every time we hit a bump it HURT. Once we got to the room I asked for CP and the nurses told me that he had to go home so I didn't get to see him until 8pm or so.

When CP told me about the extra infertility-causing items in my uterus, I was surprised, crushed and in a way, relieved. I guess I always figured that it couldn't just be the fibroid and CP's sperm. Maybe now that my uterus has been cleaned out CP and I won't even need the help of a fertility doctor?

But then again, cysts, fibroids, and endometrosis ALL can come back. Whichever way we work on getting pregnant, we need to do it as soon as my uterus heals (three months) so that the pregnancy will keep those things away. I definitely don't want to have to go on Lupron again, take birth control or go through another surgery.

I survived!

This is what I tried to post from my phone in the wee hours of Friday morning:

Surgery went okay. It ended up lasting 4.5 hours. I didn't get a chance to talk to my doctor afterwards, but CP talked to him. Not only did I have a baseball-sized fibroid tumor, but the doctor also found and removed endometriosis AND a benign cyst. Triple threat!

No wonder we haven't been able to get pregnant!!!

Morphine is the bomb-diggity but the after-effects of anethestia suck. Everytime i get cold i start to shake uncontrollably. That doesn't make my belly area feel good at all.

Going under

Fibroid surgery is tomorrow. I’m not worried about it because I am too busy at work and then when we are home, we are dealing with the whole no power ordeal. I keep telling myself that having no power could be worse, but then again, how sanitary are things going to be around my house when I get home from surgery if we don’t have power? We have been heating water on the stove (thank goodness for a gas stove) in order to wash dishes, but we would have to heat a lot of water for a shower!

CP found a Courtyard about an hour away that has an open room for the weekend and was urging me to go there (worried about me? Or not wanting to deal with my complaining? A little of both?). I don’t want to spend the money- I also worry about being able to sit in a car for an hour. I would just rather be home than in a hotel. I’ll hopefully sleep most of the powerless-days away anyway. I HAD planned on a bunch of trash tv watching, but with the power out I guess I will read a lot of books and be very very bored.

Our power company says our electricity should be back on by Sunday at midnight. My timeline until then:

*CP and I head to the hospital tomorrow morning at 10:30am.
*Surgery starts at 12pm.
*Surgery should last until 3pm or so.
*I stay the night at the hospital with heat and electricity (CP will go home to be with the dogs).
*Friday morning I am released from the hospital to a home with no power, heat, hot water, etc.
*Friday afternoon CP picks up my mom from the airport. My poor mom is flying out for the weekend to help CP out and will have to wear sweaters all weekend and a headlamp! Moms are great.

At least the temperatures for the next five days should be in the 50s during the day.

I may not be posting for a bit. First we have to get our power on. Second I have to be able to sit at a computer (my work laptop does not allow for WiFi and we don’t have a tablet) long enough to craft a post. I’ll try to at least update that I survived! :-)

In the meantime, I have a few restrictions for the next couple of weeks:

*Stairs only once a day so that means staying on the first floor all day (where we have a bathroom, the couch near the fireplace, and the kitchen) until I am ready for bed.
*No driving for two weeks (!)
*No walking for exercise for two+ weeks.
*No lifting anything for a month.
*Eating, showering, etc. should be normal, but I won’t have much of an appetite when I am on the heavy drugs the first couple of days.
*I may have some pain the first couple of days as the CO2 they have to pump into my stomach gets absorbed into my body. It tends to be pain in your right shoulder (weird).
*I will likely have bruising and soreness for a week+ in my incision points.

As my doctor said, this is major surgery on the inside (to the uterus), but not major surgery on the outside.

…..And here we go!

Winter Storm Alfred

Winter Storm “Alfred” hit our town at 12pm on Saturday. CP and I were in the middle of trying to put up greenhouse plastic on our raised beds when the snow started. Afterwards we had lunch, ran a few errands and came home before the roads got bad. By 4pm, in the middle of doing laundry, our power went out.

The dogs when it first started to snow

The greenhouse plastic held up through the storm!

Out came the headlamps and hand-crank lantern we bought after Hurricane Irene. We grabbed bags full of wood to start the fire. Heavy snow mixed with the leaves still on our trees spelled disaster. Soon after we started to hear tree limbs crack and fall down to the ground- at least one every five minutes. That continued through Sunday morning.

Our street is a mess




At least the dogs are enjoying the snow (Sunday morning)

Buster's first snow (he LOVED it)!

The first two nights we slept downstairs on the floor in front of the fire in our sleeping bags with the dogs. Last night we decided to sleep upstairs in our bed because the low was only going to be 30 (only! Ha ha) and our backs were a little sore. CP was able to procure a generator from a coworker yesterday so we were able to save the hundreds of dollars of homemade food and CSA beef in our downstairs freezer. Work has power so I have been there the past two days. Going into work means the ability to take a hot shower and the chance to plug in my phone.

There are no estimates on when we will get our power back and my town looks like a war zone. Things could be worse though. We have tons of limbs down in our front and backyard from neighbor’s trees, but nothing hit our house or cars. It would just be nice to have power….and heat….and grocery stores/gas stations/ATMs/etc. open.