Week 5 Recovery

Not much to report, I have to take a nap after being up for a few hours. This works well with Nolan's schedule, but not so much with Isaac's. Everyone is sick in our house so I've had both boys home yesterday and today. When I put Nolan down for his mid morning nap, I lay on the couch and try to rest. Isaac thinks this is the perfect time to get in my face for some "Hi Mommy," and to pile trucks on top of me.
I have pains but I suspect they are normal. Nothing looks different so I'm guessing it's just things adjusting. Doctor said it would be a minimum of 6 weeks recovery and I see him next week. I can't wait to hear what he thinks and answer my question about that stitch.
I'm giving a speech tomorrow about my journey with BRAC1 and am praying that God helps me out. Hopefully I will wake up and miraculously not have a cold anymore.

Seasons of Marriage

A good reminder to never stop improving your marriage.

Overdoing it

Ok, Ok, I'm overdoing it. My friend Tiff back in NC and my bff here are telling to take the help. After today I'm calling uncle and saying I need help again. I woke up hurting and I didn't even get out of bed until 11:30. Then this afternoon after putting Nolan down at 3pm I needed to rest, my chest was hurting more. When David came home with Isaac at 5pm I told him I needed to go lay in bed for the rest of the night, but Isaac had other plans. I'm in a lot of pain right now and am just praying it goes away by morning. I guess the help I need right now are people to come in the afternoons to watch the kids. My freezer is overflowing due to my freezer group club so we don't need food, just childcare.

First and hopefully last bout of pink eye

Sorry if we infected anybody today, we have a coupon for the eye drops if you need it. Yesterday afternoon I noticed that Isaac's eye, the one he had surgery on, had a little discharge. Not unusual for having a cold, which toddlers seem to constantly have along with a runny nose during the winter. Then this afternoon both eyes were red and had a discharge, so off to urgent care we went. As soon as the doctor looked at him he said it was pink eye. Thank goodness we had left over drops from his surgery, because I hate going to CVS. Even if they say it's ready I always have to wait. I would like to go somewhere else but our insurance now makes us go there.
While at the doctor Isaac wanted me to show the nurse my boo boos, which I didn't. Then he told her that I have no more milk for the baby. She of course laughed. Thank goodness she didn't notice that he pointed to my thigh and said baby. Not sure how I'm going to convince him that I don't have a baby in my thigh, I guess I'll have to take up running again. Sigh.
Then when we got in the car I told him we were going home, he told me no that he wanted to go to Margo's house. I then told him that Margo, his speech therapist, was in bed. He then told me he wanted to get in her bed. I told him we can't get in other peoples bed. Thankfully the conversation stopped there.
Hope this give you some nightly enterainment tonight Tiff, while feeding AJ. PS- I want more pictures.

11 months!

So close to 1 year, but it doesn't seem that way since he's not mobile yet. He looks so proud of him self when you pull him up to a standing position, but he's not attempting to stand yet either. I do believe his first word is goggy (doggy). Sometimes he has a lot to say and says it loud, which lead to Isaac saying, "No baby!" Isaac calls Nolan baby since n's are hard for him. You can tell that Nolan envies his brother and wants to be a part of what ever he is playing with. He's been better with his eating. Today was the first day he's thrown up in a few weeks, as far as I can remember. And the only reason he threw up today was because he has a cold and couldn't stop coughing. I love that he is still a snuggly baby and hope that doesn't change.

Shoowee 4.5 weeks in to recovery

I'm tired, but not as tired as a new mama. I'm trying not to drink caffeine so that when my body is tired, I rest. I'm also to a point where I'm not asking for help when I need it. I feel like a new mom that needs to just work through the tiredness. It was easy to ask for help when I was on drugs because I was so loopy, but now I'm felling normalish.
While wearing the bra I just feel bruised, when I didn't wear it last night and got up to get Isaac ready for the bus; I had to put on the bra because it was intense pain. Not sure how long I'll be wearing this compression bra, but at least it's not rubbing my skin away and did I mention it has aloe in it. So maybe it will be like a spa treatment for my skin.
Just a conversation David and I had the other night about the scars where my drains were. I bet they feel like what it's like to have a bullet wound or maybe when they do a chest tube, like on Grey's Anatomy. (That's basically where we get all of our medical information from.)
Another conversation with Isaac tonight. He saw my c-section scar and asked about it. I told him that's where the baby came from then he points to my thigh and says baby. I then explained to him that they are fat and mommy does not have another baby inside. Yeah, has nothing to do with my recovery except that I am definitely not losing weight, actually gained weight after the surgery even though the drugs made it so that I could only eat a meal a day.

So far this week

Tuesday was my first time driving in close to a month and it felt so freeing! Almost as nice as riding a motorcycle. I took Isaac to speech and then to get a haircut, then I napped at it was about noon.
Wednesday I decided to try to take the day on by myself and it went well. I had just Nolan until noon then some help arrived at 3pm. It went pretty well of course I fell asleep on the couch at 6 and went up to bed at 8. I was also surprised that my muscles aren't sore from holding Nolan.
Thursday/today Isaac wakes at 5:30am and decides that only mommy can talk to him. I go in a couple of times to tell him it's not time to wake up because it's dark and everyone is sleeping, but by 6:45 I'm still hearing 'mommy' on the monitor so I send David. Apparently he didn't want daddy because he closed the door on daddy and just sat in his room saying mommy over and over and over. Then upon coming down stairs he's devastated that I switched the couches back yelling that the current one is cold. Which I had wrong in my last post, David said he doesn't like the fake leather couch because it's cold. But that's all the more reason he should sit with me. I'm now off to bed.
Hopefully tomorrow I can accomplish something around the house like laundry instead of just surviving.

Same ole couch

I wanted a new couch because David refuses to sit on this one since it's fake leather it makes him sweat. But I think everyone that visits prefers to sit on my gma's old love seat. I tried out the striped couch but it was smaller than the one we had and not as easily to clean. But on the plus side all the pillows and decorations match even better.

Follow-up with Nurse Practitioner

Since my plastic surgeon's mother died he will not be opening his clinic back up until March 7 and I have the first appointment. I was starting to freak out because I've got no one monitoring me and I'm now 4 weeks out. I was seriously considering finding another surgeon just to take the implants out so no one has to follow up on me.
So I met with the nurse practitioner today and she was able to answer all my questions and put me at ease. She said that I'm healing fine, I have full range of motion with my arms, but still can't lift thing that are high up or just plain heavy, such as a baby. Next week I can ease myself back into caring for Nolan. I have this weird sensation that definitely has to do with my muscles but it's not soreness exactly, she said it's probably spasms and may take a year to go away. Also my chest is very cold and gets very cold when I drink cold drinks, she said that should go away.
One of my concerns was that I can feel the implant on the right side, where there is still a muscle stitched back, which is supposed to dissolve. She said that it actually looks really good because there isn't any dimpling, but if it is a problem then the doctor will order physical therapy. So of course tonight I raise my hands above my head and see the dimpling. That's what the first picture is of, you can see it above the scab/glue. OOOOOHHHH, I almost forgot the bra lady came and fitted me for some new bras, which are fabulous and have aloe in them. They are sooooo comfortable. I am cleared to drive, but David's not cool with that yet since having a conversation with me is like play pictionary or catch phrase. Overall I feel like I'm healing better than expected, but I still feel like I need mid morning naps.
This is kind of unrelated but last night I slept through everything, the baby crying, David getting up, everything. First thing I heard this morning was the dogs barking, which meant Shannon was here and I needed to leave for my appointment. I think I was ready in 3 minute, but that was some good sleep.

One of the main reasons I had a mastectomy at 31

Please share with others re: FORCE opposes companies being able to own a patent on our genes!! FORCE has testified at USPTO about this issue. http://www.facingourrisk.org/advocacy/current_action/uspto.php

Busy Day

I went out shopping with a friend today in hopes of incorporating the yellow and green couch more into the room. So here's what we did. We moved this beautiful quilted piece from above our mantle to above our bed, which was my mom's intention when she made it because of the colors. I wanted to move the cafe rods that I have upstairs with the children's names on them down to the kitchen area to display artwork but came across these birds on a wire at Target. I still have 5 random birds to stick to the wall.

Next up we got a wire tree that has hints of yellow in it to go about the mantle and I have hopes of surrounding it with pictures.

I should have gotten a better picture with the rug in it with these awesome pillows. We got quite a few pillows to try out, so some will be going back since we aren't pillow people.

I also hung up my anniversary present to David, which reads "Huang est. 2007."

Lastly we hung up this yellow mirror that seems to have been in my family awhile. I'm glad I'm actually getting to throw some more color into our home.

But I'm not sure about this one. At first I thought it might go well with the rug in the living room, but this chair is ORANGE and clashes with everything. David wants to keep it though and it is quite comfy for $15. I did not nap today, haven't taken meds for a few days, and am wide awake right now. While in contrast my son asked to go to bed 2 hours early and my husband wanted to follow suit. I'm not sure if they are sick or just wore them selves out while I was shopping.

Incredibly Blessed and Thankful

I've had people from my small group at church, my Mother's of Preschoolers group, and my Christ Care group all come to help you out this week and I feels like saying "Thank you," just isn't enough.
I must admit I wasn't happy yesterday with our lack luster 5 year anniversary, but today made up for thanks to our small group. Our small group from church came to our house at 9:30 as promised and went to work doing laundry, vacuuming, and even shampooing our rug (that some how got run over by a truck with ink on its wheels). There was also an attempt to shampoo the new couch but it was decided it wasn't a good idea. On top of this they watched and feed our kids, and dog (who stole a whole lotta pizza). I have no idea how I'm going to thank all of you for helping us and we will continue to need help. I attempted to pick Nolan up out of his highchair and was not able to lift him an inch.
Now on to our daytime date, David and I got to spend 4 hours together kid free visiting antique malls and picking up Isaac's new bed. We may not be romantic but we are still in love and truly blessed.

BIG boy bed

We've upgraded Isaac to a twin bed with drawers under it. He's actually using my old sheets tonight with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He was soooo cute, as soon as I walked out of his room to get something he jumped it bed and got under the covers. At first I grabbed my old McDonald's sheets and first saw this guy on the pillow case and thought it might be a little scary for the first night. Below is a picture of both sides of the pillow case. Brings back memories.

5 year anniversary

This morning started out with my good friend Shannon bring over a cake for us. Then I presented David with his present, which is wood because I'm trying to stick to the traditional presents for anniversaries. Then David gave me a wonderfully written card with a AMEX gift card in it. No big frills here. Although I wish I were up to doing something more. I tend to have really high expectations for holidays.

A little humor for my SAHMs