Thursday, February 25, 2010

Being sick sucks.


Well, I caught a bug.  I have a cold and I'm feeling kinda grumpy and yucky and I'm totally blaming Allan.  He had it first and I did my best to stay clear, but when you live with someone, things like this are hard to avoid.  I tried to fight it and deny it, but the little bugger won. 
What really stinks is that I can't take any medication since my surgery is next week (OMG, my surgery is next week!).  So here I am drinking lots of fluids, using my neti-pot, inhaling eucalyptus (I fill a large bowl with hot water, swirl several drops of eucalyptus oil in it, and cover my head and bowl with a towel to inhale the steam).  My nose is raw from blowing it so much and I sound like Fran Drescher--okay, I don't sound THAT bad.  
Its snowing today (AGAIN), and many people have a snow day (as do I), but Allan had to go in to work.  I'm thinking he needs to stop by the Vietnamese restaurant on his way home and get me... I mean, us some pho.  haha!  Mmmm...that sounds so good right now.  My throat is killing me! Starve a fever, feed a cold, right? This cold needs soup, stat!
Tuesday is the big surgery day and I can NOT be sick! I have so much to do this weekend too!  I have my level II reiki practitioner certification on Friday and Saturday.  I wanted to get this done before the surgery; lets hope it doesn't get cancelled due to all of this snow.  Friday night, Allan and I are headed to King Of Prussia Mall (the largest mall on the East Coast) to get a few things.  Sunday, I work.  Monday, we drive to Jersey to take our pups to the doggie-sitters, our friends Erica and Joe who used to be our neighbors in Puerto Rico.  Crazy, huh?  Thank goodness they are willing to take care of our babies for us!  Big thanks to E and Joe for opening their home to Kekoa and Romeo.  :)
Tuesday is the big day.  I probably won't sleep at all on Monday night.  My nerves will be all over the place! 
My girlfriends Kori and Karen sent me the funniest care package ever!  It was filled with a ton of goodies!  Some of them being:  bags of Jelly Belly's (with the labels changed to "Sh"elly Bellys), dark chocolates, crossword puzzles and games, a Harlequin romance novel titled, "Showdown With The Sheriff" (haha!!!), a personalized blanket with a picture of Kori on it wearing a Snuggie™ (I will have to post a picture of that later--I about pee'd my pants!), a karate book (don't ask) and other silly inside jokes and things to comfort me pre and post surgery.  Thank you, ladies!  I love you so very much, and I'm still laughing at all of the fun goodies! xo

Well, thats about it for now.  I'm going to drink some orange juice and take a nap in desperation to kick this cold!  

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hips Don't Lie


So, with my March 2nd right total hip replacement surgery quickly approaching, I'm beginning to feel slightly nervous.  Last week, I had issues with my hemoglobin (iron) being low, the Dr.'s  diagnosed me as anemic.  They told me that if this did not change, I couldn't donate my own blood (in case I need it for a transfusion) and I would have to delay my surgery.  I quickly started taking iron supplements, vitamin C (for absorption), and adding a little bit of meat to my diet--yes, you read this right! (of course making sure that its the organic, grass-fed good stuff...and boy, I'm not gonna lie, its pretty damn good). I know, I HAD to do it.  I needed to raise my hemo. levels significantly so that they wouldn't postpone my surgery date.  My Mom already got her plane tickets to come up here and everything!  The doctors expected that it would take me a month or two to raise my numbers to where it needed to be, and it actually only took me one week.  So, Monday I was able to donate a pint of my blood, and proceed with my pre-op physical exams. Everything went really well. I guess my body was really needing that extra iron. 
I also met with the physician's assistant at Johns Hopkins that will be there during my surgery.  He was extremely nice.  I felt like he would have been a friend that I grew up with or something.  To my surprise he was the same age as me!  At first, I wondered if he was too young for this job, then I quickly realized that it is I that is not as young as I thought I was! hahaha!  He answered ALL of my questions and assured me that I made the best choice with Dr. Valaik.  He told me that the doc is very meticulous, takes his time, and won't leave the O.R. until everything is just right.  That's exactly what I needed to hear.  

My throat seemed to be in the pit of my stomach the whole time, and the only way I could remedy that was to make dumb jokes the whole time.  That's my nervous habit--bad jokes.  At the blood donor office I taught the ladies some yoga--tree pose to be exact.  I joked with the sweet Romanian lady, Anca, who took my blood, about people calling her Dracula (what? C'mon she had a very thick Transylvanian accent!).  It just seemed like an obvious, yet ironic joke.  We were both doubled over laughing! I even asked the P.A. dude if he thought the Doc could carve a lightning bolt design while cutting into my hip, honoring my last name.  Uh, yeahhh... He laughed and said that he'd bump the surgeons arm on accident so that it makes a squiggle.  That's when I realized I probably should stop joking around...

Wow, less than two weeks to go...I'm a nervous wreck.  
Why do they call us patients, anyways??? I don't feel patient at all. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

ANOTHER Snow Day!

Here are a few pics from last weeks snowstorm.  The snow never really melted and we are expecting another 12-24" today!  I've NEVER seen anything like this.  The snow is blowing sideways and it is dumping!  This Texas gal seriously needs to get some snow boots! Snow Angels/Snowmen to come soon.  ;)