Post-Surgery Appointment

Today I had therapy then an appointment with the dr to follow up on my recovery. Therapy was good, I'm liking it cuz she really gets everything opened up and makes me feel like I am making progress. My appointment went really well, ok better then I hoped. I had an x-ray to make sure all my teeth were ok from having the wisdom teeth removed. I'm guessing also to make sure my jaw was ok too. He did say that I wasn't opening as much as average recovery would be, but he's thinking it has to do with the removal of my wisdom teeth at the same time is causing it. The big news(well for me), is that he said in the next few days I could slowly start chewing. Of course I can't go run out for a pizza or steak, it's only softer foods, but I'll take it! I did try a chicken fry today and it went good, I'm still going to try and take it slow, only trying once or twice a day and still having soups for lunch or dinner. He also gave me pictures from the surgery, most of them you can't tell what it is, but it is pretty interesting, but there is two pictures(one of each side) of the tool in my joint and you can see my ear....Those I can't look at long they freak me out! So they are away in a folder for now.

Pictures

I'm bored can you tell:) I wanted to post a picture of the gift my lawyers office sent. Isn't it pretty! And this is everything that it came with.

Also this weekend there was a little caravel down the street so we took the kids to it. Unfortunately there wasn't much for the kids to do except a bounce house w/slide and this crazy house thing. Here's daddy taking both the kids through the crazy house thing. This was N's second time I took him the first time then he wanted to go through w/Daddy.

And here is daddy and N throwing darts at balloons. I got to do three too. Both the kids got little stuffed animals from that game.Then N did a hammer game where you get something no matter what(basically you are just paying for the toy and the kid gets to swing a hammer for free:) but he liked it. He picked out this blow-up dolphin, that squeaks when you push it's fins. Mommy's loving it :(. Why he picked that and not a blow-up bat is beyond me, but he likes it!

As far as recovery goes one week post surgery I'm feeling pretty good. I'm really starting to feel like myself again and have energy. Though I can talk it does wear me out and it's still straining to do, but it's not bad. It was nice having N at school today so I could take a nap when M did which I think really helped me keep up my energy level all day.

Wish I know 7 days ago

Last night I sat talking to hubby about this whole recovery, which got me thinking about this post I'm not pissed per say, but more annoyed. I wish I had more knowledge of what I was up against before getting into this.

Therapy-I was told I would need some therapy for a few weeks. I wish they would have told me how intense it would be. I need to put popsicle sticks in my mouth to wedge my mouth open more. I'm suppose to get up to 20, at this point I can put 12-13 in without an issue and "force" in another 5 to get up to 17. Number 18 and I are having a hard time together. Then I need to gently push up on the sticks,basically pry my jaw open, so some day I can get to number 20. And this is done every hour. Then add in therapy at the rehab center which really isn't that bad I get a jaw massage then the whole above but of course she tries to push how long I can hold it for.

Soft Diet no chewing for 4-6 weeks-This is a BIG understatement! When I saw this I figured soups, soft bread. I went off everything I could eat the first week I had my braces on. Our jaws hurt so much my brother and I had soups that whole week. My diet consists of creamy soups, smoothies(that are very smooth), pudding, jello, and drinks. Scramble eggs is the chunkiest thing I can have and even that is tough. Even chicken noodle is hard, I had some yesterday thinking the noodles are soft, NOT, it's the whole opening and closing my mouth part that hurts. When I have to close my mouth and then try and mush the noodles so I can swallow...it hurt bad. I had gotten a bunch of soup before the surgery, but had to go out and get creamy soups today. I wish they would have been more clear or given examples of what I could eat.

Pain-I was told the wisdom teeth would be the part that hurt the most. Yes that was the part that was the most painful. But I wasn't ready to feel like jaw is stiff and feel like I have something in my jaw. It's not overwhelming pain it's annoying.Though when I'm doing the above therapy the pain can bring me to tears. For the most part I feel like someone punched me in my jaw and locked it in place, on both sides.

Over all I'm just frustrated right now. I think cuz I didn't or was as informed as I wish I was. I keep asking myself was it worth it? I think cuz I have a co-worker who also needs the surgery and since she found out I was having it, keep saying you have to tell me how it was. I know on Wednesday she'll ask me. Right now, I'm not sure if I had to answer I would say no, just cuz my range of motion is way less then it was and I'm miserable with having to live on the foods I will have to for the next month or two. I'm sure(and I hope I do) will change my mind in two month when I'm pretty much totally recovered, right now I'm not sure, all I do know is I have a lot of work to do to recover and get back what I once had before all this happened.

Gifts and Recovery

My thoughts are still all over the place so if this post starts to jump around or sound dismayed(like I'm sure my last post did) that's why. It's hard for my to stay concentrated on things for a long time, so this post will not be long.
It's been a few days since my surgery. I'm doing pretty good, I'm still really tired and daze, but I'm good. I'm SOOOO glad hubby is home during all this, there is no way I would have been able to handle the kids and myself. Tomorrow will be my first day all by myself, which should be interesting. I still don't feel comfortable driving so we will be staying inside all day, the kids will be lucky to got out of PJ's. Hopefully I'll feel better about driving on Monday since I have to get N to school and I have therapy. Therapy is going good, it's a lot of work, my jaw is very sore afterwards, but I get a massage on my jaw which feels so good.
Yesterday, hubby went to go get N from school and I watched M for the 5mins(if that) he was gone. When he was gone I saw this lime green charger pull into the driveway, and the driver grab something off the passenger side seat. Then they got out of the car, I got up and went to the door as they knocked on it. The lady had this huge basket and asked "are you Rebecca?" And handed me the basket. It was from my lawyers office. It was all stuff I could eat/drink. How sweet was that. I got a bottle of ginger ale, bottle of raspberry soda, sipping coco mix, pomegranate smoothie mix, key lime smoothie mix, chicken soup mix, and onion soup mix.

Surgery

I'm not sure how long this post will be I'm going to try and get out the whole story, but that depends on how well I continue to feel ok. First thing first, I'm doing ok right now, I've very sore, and talking is hard to do, so fyi if you want to talk to me text me or email me...or just call hubby.

Grandma came over at about 10am to watch the kids for us. Then my friend T came over after work with her kids so grandma didn't have to drive at night and didn't have to be there all 8hrs. Thank you to both of them for doing that. We got to the hospital, I had to have blood drawn which thankfully they let hubby come be with me at that time, I don't do will with that stuff. Then it was time for my IV. By this time I had two little brake downs do to my nervous I'm so glad hubby was able to be back there with me, otherwise I think it would have been much bigger brake downs. Then I got the relaxing medicine. I remember telling the nurse and hubby "I feel something starting to work". That's the last think I really remember, I do have a "memory" 3 big spot lights and someone saying "we are going to get you by that table then move you on to it", but don't know if it was a dream or really happened. The next thing I remember is having a nurse tell me "it's ok, it's all over you're out of surgery." Then they asked me who came with me and I said my husband, they asked his name, then asked if I was ready to see him. I say yes! If I could I would have screamed it. I'm guessing I woke up in a panic, cuz I over heard one nurse telling another nurse she was handing me off to "she was in a lot of panic and anxiety when she wake up". Then I got wheeled to the first area I was at before the surgery and got to see hubby. As soon as I saw him I know something was wrong, he looked really upset and worried. I guess about 20mins into the surgery they call/paged him making him think something was really wrong. The dr wanted his consent to pull another tooth that he was concerned about(more about that tooth later). Hubby gave the go ahead since the dr was worried enough to have to stop and ask him. I guess hubby was worried (not only about the page) but that I would be upset. Other than that we stayed around for awhile I had to try and drink, then we got to go home. I was so happy to be home. For the most part I have just been sleeping, or trying to, it hasn't been easy since I have to stay on my back, have my head elevated, and ice packs on my cheeks constantly.

Now my other tooth that was removed. In Nov 05 I had to have a root canal done, we found a dentist that was down the street. I went in, paid the $300 plus for the whole thing. The dr did the drilling part, but I had an infection going on so he gave me meds for it and we scheduled to have the post done a week or two later. Well, the morning I was suppose to have the post done we had to take N to the ER with a fever of 105 due to ear infections so I called and left a message on a machine cancelling my appointment. We had been up all night. Over the next few weeks I tried to call back and reschedule, but could never get a hold of anyone, and then it was disconnected line. Then I had the car accident and just never did anything with it, since it didn't hurt. Well since then It's cracked and basically have no tooth left, so the Dr yesterday that it was really bad .

Sad Day

M had PT today, her therapist wanted try and see her before my surgery so we didn't have to worry about that. Plus, we aren't sure how much talking I'll be able to do and she always ask me lots of questions about how the last month has gone. We talked and she confirmed that it would be in M's best interest to start getting PT at the center like she does OT and will with speech too. (Here's the sad part) that means that she will no longer be her physical therapist. We LOVE Ms Jodi she's been there from the beginning and has always helped out with any therapy questions I've had. She's really become a good friend through all of this. She also loves M(which really who doesn't:)!), and M loves her. So today was more than likely the last day she'll be out. I already told her I would keep her updated on M's progress, and told her to stop by anytime. I did take this opportunity to get a picture of her with M for M's scrapbook, since she's a big part of M's progress. I just hope M's next PT is as good a Ms Jodi, and that M likes her.

Rock 'N Roll Baby!

One of the things that N kept telling us he wanted for Christmas was a guitar, every time we went to Best Buy he would want to stay and play Guitar Hero or when we walked by the guitars at Target he would try and put one in the cart. We did think about getting him one, but a real one(even if it was junior size) seemed a little much, what if he didn't play it or played with it to hard there goes $150 down the drain, plus the money to get it fixed. My first thought was to try and find him a cool toy one, but the only ones I could find where either baby toy ones, or girlie ones(and I mean screaming pink and glitter girlie). I finally just gave up and figured we would rethink the idea next Christmas/Birthday.


Then on Tuesday I had to do a return to Target and we had time to kill so Hubby, M and I decided to go look around since they have a huge clearance sale going on now. Tons of toys on clearance(along with clothes...got some nice new shirts too:)!) Anywho, we where wondering down the isles seeing if there was anything good on clearance. We saw lots of good deals, but then I ran across this guitar! It was just what I had been looking for and only $7. It's pretty need you push one of the 4 buttons and it plays a song(one of four) then laser lights light up at the bottom where you would play at, and if you move your fingers it will play along with your fingers movement...ie play more of the song when you wave past the laser. N has been playing with the thing since he got home that day!

Showing off the new guitar...like the pose?!

On this same day, hubby saw that they had Guitar Hero(with the wireless guitar) for $24. I'm so not kidding it's normally about $100. Of course we picked that up too, both hubby and N have been bugging me for months for the game. Though N likes the game, he's not very good at it and likes to watch Daddy play it more. It's a tough game let me tell you even on easy mode. Anyways, that's my little rock 'n roll son, I guess we will be looking into getting him a really guitar for next Christmas if this keeps up:)

Trying to play Guitar Hero

Happy Birthday My Baby Boy!

Today my first born turned 4! I'm so proud of him, and love him so much! He's such a character, always has been, but every day he says something or does something that just makes you laugh and notice how special he is. He's also getting a little "attitude" lately which is very comical. Like yesterday morning, every morning he comes in the room and goes over to daddy and says "Come on Daddy" and they go in the living room to watch cartoons. Well, yesterday daddy wasn't moving as fast as N would like and he started getting a little attitude saying "Daddy come on, cartoon time!" Hubby started chuckling(it was very funny how he was try to be demanding), and N goes "It's not funny!" Over and over all demanding and sweet like, which just made us both laugh even more, and it got to where N was trying to say "It's not funny!" and was laughing.

Anyways, to my sweet silly little boy, who isn't so little anymore, Happy 4th Birthday baby! We love you so much!

Party Time!

Today was N's party and he had a blast! Unfortunately there's a cold going around school so none of his schoolmates got to come, but he had is long time friends show up, and still had lots of fun. Here's the living room all decorated. I had plans to show the table and this cool balloon set up, but guest started coming, and I forgot:(

Here's the CAKE! Bumblebee-car form.Blowing out the last candlePresent time! Very happy to get the nerf wii game!Transformers!!
Play time!!M looking cute!The aftermath! After all his friends left this is what we did the rest of the night, moved from toy to toy.Someone had a good day!

Still Here

I'm so sorry everyone, I haven't posted in awhile. It's been crazy around here the last few weeks. Every week it's been something. Nothing really terrible, just craziness.
The day after Christmas I got an UTI, that was fun. Then on the 30th after using it at a store my credit card was stolen, but I didn't realize it was gone til the 2nd cuz I didn't use it till then. They charged a bunch of gas on it, so the bank is working on crediting the charges. Then we come to this week which we have N's party, so I've been trying to clean the house little by little so I'm not killing myself Saturday or Sunday morning. I'm doing pretty good, just have to dust the living room, wash the kitchen and bathroom floors and vacuum(though that will wait till Sunday, since we'll have to do it that morning anyways.) Tomorrow I also have to bake N's cake and frost it, which I'm looking forward to, and also a little nervous about. And to add to all that I'm still super nervous about my surgery and it's getting closer, so it's been sneaking in my thoughts a lot more.
I'll try and post a picture of the cake tomorrow night if not for surely on Sunday night along with party pictures. Also to family and friends I'm so sorry I haven't gotten out Thank you cards, I feel terrible being so late. I wanted to do the cute photo cards like last yr, but then the whole card thing happened and....well it didn't happen, so I'm slowly getting them done, but thank you for everything the kids love all their new toys!

Transformers!!!!

I'm so excited today we went and got all the stuff for N's party(well up to 8 kids worth of goodie bags, if more RSVP I have to get more goodies). I'm so excited I love doing party's for the kids! If you didn't already guess my transforming loving son is having a TRANSFORMER party. Everything is transformers including the cake which will be bumblebee in car form. Except the cups us adults want big cups not little things, and the kids are getting juice boxes so I got regular red plastic cups. And also the "girl" goodie bags have some Tinkerbell stuff instead of Transformer. I found this really cool bubble set at Walmart for the bags. It's a pack of 8 bubble sets for $3.50 and you get(for each "set") bubbles, a large bubble wand, normal size wand, tray, and straw wand that you blow to get big bubbles. That's a lot for $.50 each kid! All I need to get now is the balloons which I've got to order from IParty next week. And each kid will get one of those too to take home...see decorations then I get rid of them hehe!
Next thing on the list is to test out frosting. I'm on the hunt for some buttercream frosting that is not to sweet/sugary tasting. All the one's I've tried are just to sugary, they are really good, but you can only have a little bit of the frosting otherwise sugar rush. I found two today that I want to try. One I think will be really good so fingers crossed!