.. cruise preview anyone? ..

alright, so i thought i would post a sampler of the cruise to get you excited to hear about our wild adventure for 10 days. it started out kind of rough got better, had a down and then got great! so for the preview i give you a picture and two videos.

{the grand tour of our bedroom.. narrated by yours truly}

{video from maho beach, cody's favorite i'm sure you can tell why}

{me at maho beach on st. maarten}

.. it's just a little cut ..

okay lets rewind and review.. thoracic outlet syndrome. remember the post i had way back when on this? alright. so after we did all the testing i made an appointment for surgery, since the surgeon is booked 6 months out. you heard me right, 6 months. i made the appointment in February for august 24th. it was his earliest appointment. it could be cancelled if therapy and strength training worked in restoring my feeling and motor skills. i started working extra hard with my trainer, doing stretches and following directions to a t. after 6 months of effort, nothing had changed if anything it had just gotten worse. so surgery was the only option left, other than dealing with it which we determined wouldn't really be a good option. 

i was told to show up at the hospital at 11am and check in. we did that and i did the whole pee in a cup draw blood put on a funny gown and attach bracelets and a tube to me deal. i was ready to go by about 11:45. we were sitting in our room waiting and the nurse came in an informed us that his surgery this morning took longer than they expected and that he was running about 2 hours behind. wonderful, cause starving to death was on my list of things to do that day. so we tried to keep my mind off of it, we watched some Steven seagal show on tv that happened to last 2 hours. perfect. after the movie i did one last potty break, just to make sure and when i got back to my bed the nurses moved me into the quarantine  room. your family can't be there the only people who can are the nurse and the anesthesiologist. so i waited for another 15 minutes and my dr showed up. he talked to me about the meds he would give me and asked if i had a bad history with anesthesia. after we chatted, you guessed it. i waited. shortly after a nurse showed up to pull me into my OR. yes i was awake for this whole thing. i had my surgery in OR 9. they wheeled me in and had me move beds. i climbed onto the other bed, adjusted my gown (i.e. untied it for the dr) and they gave me some oxygen. and i waited. after about 5 minutes i remember seeing my dr and then the world disappeared. i woke up in the recovery room with a huge bandage that went half way up my neck, to my arm pit and half way down my chest. and it killed. i was crying it hurt so bad. the nurses gave me meds and pillows and within about 20 i was feeling good. i had to stay one night there due to the fact that breathing can puncture your lung, nice huh? so they prepped me to move. we left the recovery room and out to the elevators where they tried to find cody. he wasn't in there, apparently he was going to the bathroom but his biological dad was there. yep so not the person i want to see when i first wake up from a painful surgery. i told the nurse i didn't want to see him and to take me up and come back for my husband. 

i was taken to my room 468. i was promptly greeted by my nurse and my pca. they hurried and changed my gown from the stupid itchy paper one to a nice cloth one, got me situated with my leg pumps (to prevent blood clots) and ice. sweet girls. within about 10 minutes cody got there and started feeding me ice and water, i was on a liquid only diet which later proved to be a good choice. i ordered some dinner, if you can call it that. it was tomato soup, diet coke and pudding. it arrived and i ate. after eating it was time to try and walk. this is where the liquid diet was my friend. i did well until about 3/4 of the way then i felt really faint and sick. cody had to run and get me a bucket before i lost it. yep everything came back. so it was off to bed and a dose of heavy duty anti-nausea medications for me. I did have a few visitors, my family all came and saw me in my super hot purple moo moo. Cody stayed with me until 11:30pm, bless his heart and then i told him to go home and sleep good. Good thing i sent him home. the night was filled with wake ups every 1-2 hours. the pca would come in every 2 hours and check my oxygen levels and blood pressure and then my nurse came in every three to give me more pain and nausea meds. crazy night, i think i slept a whole 4 hours between it all. the only plus was i was drugged so i was out within minutes of them being done. 

the next day i had some pudding and water and was up to walk again. good news, this time we did 3 laps, felt great and was in hardly any real pain. the dr came by, he took off the bandages and told me it went well. the surgery took a little bit longer and was a tad harder than he expected. he said everything in there was really tight. (really?!?! i could have told you that!) i stayed until 1pm, because they could give me a hospital grade anti inflammatory then that i definitely wanted before trying to survive at home. cody was glad to leave, if he had his choice we would have gone home at 9am. but it was alright. the next few days were spent living in the lazy boy chair at home, the only place that is comfortable, on pain killers and muscle relaxers and living in pj's and blankets. 

i am glad to report that it has since been a week and i have returned to work and normal-ish activity. it still takes a lot for me to wash my hair and to do my hair. i still take pain killers every 4 hours and i still sleep with ice and 7 pillows, but doing much better than before. as for recovery, i can't lift anything over 10 pounds until the end of September, and then gradually add stuff in. so it will be a journey. 

sadly this is the only picture i have from the hospital stay, i wanted to see the cut after the bandages came off the next morning.

.. a belated birthday ..

as mentioned in my 'ketchup' post my baby brother j* turned 17 while we were on the cruise. i did do a birthday shout out that posted on his day of birth but i thought i would do a follow up on what we did to celebrate. 

cody and i decided to shop for his birthday gifts while on the cruise and from the different islands we visited. so we came home with an array of items. we got him cocoa sticks from st. lucia (from a cocoa tree, unprocessed pure cocoa), a lanyard and patch from st. kitts, a bracelet from st. thomas, and a wood machete from st. maarten. 

the day after we got home was the birthday celebration. he chose to see harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2, followed up by cake and ice cream and presents. the movie was awesome, loved it. 

but i read all the books, multiple times and have loved watching every movie. yes i am a geek and proud of it. did have a few awkward moments, but we won't talk about those (no they weren't in the movie). after we finished up it was back to the house for cake and ice cream. he opted for lemon cake, which was quite good. here is a video of my other brother m* and family singing happy birthday to him.  and my brother apparently attempting to be a soldier. 

yes i do have strange brothers, there is no excuse for them unfortunately. we finished off with presents and then calling it a night. all in all i think it was a great day, even if it was 2 days late. 

so j* happy birthday, we are so glad (most days) that you are in the family!

.. ketchup? ..

alright so i realize that it has been entirely too long since i last posted. lets just say it has been a tad busy. so i will give you a quick 'ketchup' of sorts and then we can start posting fun stuff. 

we went on our cruise to the west indies (south Caribbean) BLAST! we left from san juan puerto rico and visited st. thomas, barbados, st. lucia, st. kitts and st. maarten. so much fun. we got sunburned and tan and mostly just relaxed which is great. i plan on blogging about each day and every island we visited when i get all the pictures put together and edited, hopefully this weekend. we got home on sunday august 14th at like 8pm. we went to bed and life started the next day. we celebrated my brother j* 17th birthday with harry potter and cake and ice cream. i went back to work that same day and worked the whole week. talk about busy. that weekend was crammed with stuff to get ready for the next week where i had surgery to have my rib removed. (to come in another post..) so the weekend was slammed with teaching a lesson, doing laundry, running errands and prep all i could for the following week. 

then last week, i worked 2 days. and on wednesday i went in for surgery and spent the last 7 days trying to recover. needless to say it has been a bit crazy. so i apologize. i promise to make up for it with a series of posts to come about our fun adventures, my gnarly scar and a few birthday parties (yes my birthday was on sunday a mere 4 days after the slice and dice). 

so stay tuned.. 

.. a birthday list ..

alright this post is a shout out for my littlest brother on his day of birth. 

This little guy, tender, was born August 13th 1994 at 11:21pm. I know cause I was 10 and I got to stay up late to answer the phone when my dad called to say he had arrived! 

{J* with M* my other brother, j* is the cutie on the left}

I have always had a special connection with j*. shortly after he was born my mom herniated another disc and couldn't carry him well, so after i walked home from school i got to babysit. then later in life when he was about 6 i was his mom for about 6 months while my mom recovered from a back fusion. we often had sister brother dates in which we did what he wanted every weekend. it was a blast.. so for you on your 17th birthday here is a list of 17 things i love about you..

1. your willingness to help, you will help with just about anything

2. you love and watch friends with me.. classic

3. you are pretty funny most times

4. you do awesome at shooting (he is on a trap shooting team and he pretty much rocks)

5. your irish jig!

6. you love movies as much as i do

7. we shared a bedroom for many years and it was always fun to wake you up at night and talk

8. loved our sister brother dates, they were always fun

9. the fact that you are so shy about girls, it is kind of hilarious

10. that we are going on a brother sister trip to new york in October, it is going to be so much fun.

11. that you ran your truck into a tree stump and you qualify that as not an accident..

12. that you love my puppies

13. that you ask my advice, and kind of listen.

14. the fact that as a child you only wore cowboy boots, and i mean always

15. the random pictures you leave on my phone, classic

 {didn't know they would come back to haunt you huh?!}

16. that you love art, sort of. that you try to appreciate it, and support mine all the way

17. that you are my little brother!

 Happy Birthday Little Brother! Have a Wonderfully splendid day!

.. as ships go sailing ..

alright, so as you read this this handsome stud muffin

 and i will be walking around puerto rico getting ready to board this

 and go sailing for a week. i have to admit i am a tad nervous about it and the fact that we are leaving jet home, i have bad separation anxiety. i know he will be good, my brother is watching him, i just worry. so the next fun blog post will be cruise pictures! yay!

so have a great week and we will see you august 15!

.. welcome to the NYC ..

last weekend i flew to NYC to hang out with a very dear friend of mine. we have been besties for years, like since high school and we have known each other for probably about 12 years. her husband got a job with a swiss bank and is attending training in NYC until the middle of august, after which they will be moving to san francisco. so i promised her that i would come out and see her in new york and of course visit often in san fran cause i love that city. so i went. cody stayed home with jet, it was a all aloner trip. i got in friday night and stayed until sunday morning. it was so much fun, and so hot i serious thought i would die. we spent friday night eating at the shake shack and then chatting at home, since i haven't seen her in a few months. then saturday, after out dose of cartoons - thanks z* for letting me watch with you, we left. we walked around mid town, had lunch, got a cupcake from sprinkles. if you haven't had one from there you should, delish! we walked to central park to eat the cupcakes and watched a street performer. then we trekked through times square, took a subway to wall street. we walked around and saw the NYSE 

the place where george washington was inaugurated as the president, and the famous Merrill lynch bull, and then had dinner. after dinner we stopped by the world trade center to just check it out and then started back. 

this is one of the buildings, and the little building at the bottom, kind of grey in color is the memorial museum.

at the subway station we split. my friend n* and i went shopping and her hubby and z* went home. it was fun to just go with her. after a hour or so of shopping we went home and showered and then z* happened. the whole weekend she had a thing with my phone. looking at pictures of jet mostly. she discovered the camera, i didn't really care but it was quite funny to pick it up and find about 40 pictures of z* on there. she is too cute. 

it was a blast and i loved every minute of it, even the blisters that covered the bottoms of my feet making getting home and adventure.