Is It March Yet?

I don't even know WHERE to start to summarize this crazy month! Not that anyone is REALLY that interested, but here are the happenings of February 2009...hopefully soon to be forgotten!

Feb 3rd - (Happy B-day Gramma!) It's about 10:30 pm and all of a sudden Ryan is crying in his bed. It's a different cry, so Ric and I jump up to see what's wrong. Yipppeeeee! Puke-age! At first we thought it was something he ate, but then....

Feb 5th - At about 11:00 pm, Megan is coughing and crying. Her turn! Yet another night this week that Mom and Dad got hardly any sleep. How do you explain to a 20 month old that she just has to get it out of her system?

Feb 6th - I get a call from my sister that ANOTHER sister is in the hospital with major back pain and no one knows what the problem is. She eventually gets moved to ICU over night so she can be watched, then sent home a few days later. She has an appointment the next week with doctors to figure out if she needs to have her gall bladder out. (There's a theme here...watch for it!)

Feb 7th - at about 8:00 pm, I'm sitting in the living room with Megan. Ric had gone out with Ryan to get my "birthday present." He returns with Shelly, my best friend. (Previously blogged about here.) Just about that same time, I feel that tickle in my throat and I start coughing. Uh oh...I'm getting sick while my best friend is visiting for my birthday! NOOOOoooooooo!

Feb 7th - 11th - Shelly hangs out with us, it was FABULOUS, but...I was sick the whole time!


Feb 10th - Happy 40th Birthday to ME! :)


Feb 9th - 12th - I continued to teach my classes with no voice, a nasty cough, and probably infected the PC's at New England Tech in addition to my students! Since I didn't slow down, this little resperatory virus won't go away! Ric is sick too, and ends up staying home sick. Luckily, the kids were over their little stomach bug and seemed to be doing OK.


Feb 14th - Valentine's Day. It was uneventful, though we did make sugar cookies with the kids. They were good and didn't last long.


Feb 15th - I'm STILL not feeling well with this respiratory thing, so I arranged with someone else in the Ward to play the Organ and fill in for Primary. Thank goodness there's actually someone else who plays the piano now!


Feb 15th - Around 6:00 pm, I start to feel naseous and pain in my right side. I can't be having a gall bladder attack, can I? No, I'll lay down and I should feel better in a few minutes. Maybe if I go to the bathroom, everything will be fine.


About 7:00 pm, I'm feeling worse, so I call GiGi to see if she might be able to come over to sit with the kids while I go to the hospital. She's out of town, but on her way back to RI, and will call when she gets here.


8:30 pm - I'm actually feeling better! Maybe it's all over and I can just go to bed. I do have surgery scheduled for March to get this taken care of, maybe I can wait until then.


10:30 pm - Nope...pain again.


11:15 pm - Called GiGi again, she's coming over to sleep on the couch.


Midnight - We arrive at the Kent County Hospital Emergency room. Why is Ric taking his "sweet" time with everyting? (Of course he wasn't it just seemed like it when I was in pain!)


Midnight - 4:00 am - Waiting....in the waiting room and then an exam room. They took blood, but nothing else. FINALLY at 4:00 am, I was seen by a doctor AND given some morphine! It was excrutiating! Unfortunately, they pushed the morphine into my IV so quickly that less than 30 seconds later, I puked! (Poor Ric, for better or for worse, right?)


4:00 am - 5:00 am - we determine that I should be transferred to Miriam hospital because that's where my surgeon is located. Looking back, I should have just gone there in the first place. I probably would have been given some relief sooner even though it was a longer ride. (Can't wait to see that ambulance bill!)


5:30 am - 10:00 am - In the Miriam ER, they scan my belly, to see the lovely stones that are causing my pain, do and EKG, take more blood, I'm drugged up and pretty happy, and I'm really tired. It looks like I'm going to be admitted. I send Ric home to relieve GiGi and get some sleep. (I try to sleep too, but that really doesn't happen.) I also give Ric specific instructions to contact someone from the group of ladies I have a workshop with that night to cancel the workshop.


10:00 am - I'm finally in my room...with a roommate. :( Oh well...keep me drugged and I'll be happy.


Feb 16th - President's day - The nurses are fabulous and keep me drugged. I can't eat though, because I may be having surgery soon. Wait, it's a holiday, things are moving REALLY slow around the hospital. I need an MRI to see if any of those lovely stones escaped into somewhere else in my body that could cause even more problems. No MRI's today - I have to wait until tomorrow....WHAT? Because it's a holiday? That didn't make sense...and I never really got an answer as to why I had to wait 24 hours for the MRI.


I'm labeled as "NPO" - Nothing Per Oral. Meaning, I can't eat anything. I'm just hooked up to an IV to keep me hydrated and drugged up.


7:00 pm - Ric and Harry (friend and neighbor) stop by to give me a blessing. I'm sure I looked pretty scary, but I was grateful for the Priesthood and the comfort that a blessing gave me.


Feb 17th - still haven't eaten anything. Even the shrimp that the family of my roommate brought in smells good - and I don't like shrimp! FINALLY, at 12:15 pm - I have the MRI. Nothing escaped, so I'm scheduled for surgery after 5:00 pm.


While this is going on...my mom and Gordon are flying across the country. Not because I was in the hospital, but because they had planned to come out for a vacation a couple of months ago. It was just a coincidence that it happened on the same day.


Sometime that day, I also talked to Ryan who was so cute when he said, "Mommy, I want you to come home, we NEED you here!" *sigh*


5:00 pm - Surgery. After wheeling me in to the surgery wing, they make sure that my papers and stuff are all in order. the Anesthesiologist gives me something that starts to make me REALLY loopy. Then they discover that I don't have the results of a pregnancy test in my chart. (This may be TMI, but it's funny, so keep reading...) SO I say..."my last period was 2 weeks prior, and my husband has been "fixed" so there's no way I could be pregnant." Then one of the operating room gals said, "Unless you had sex in your hospital rooom last night!" Oh yeah...you KNOW that's just what I did! With my elderly roommate in the next bed and nurses checking on me all the time, I just slipped that in! RIGHT! We all laughed at that one. They finally found the test with the papers from Kent Hospital and we were on our way.


6:30 pm or so - All done! I'm in the recovery room. I'm moved back to my room and told that I'll probably go home the next day.


10:30 pm - I BEG my nurse, Anthony, for something to drink/eat. He comes up with some Chicken Broth and Ginger Ale - better than nothing!

12:15 am- I can't sleep (not that anyone sleeps in the hospital) so I call home to make sure that my parents got in OK.

Feb 18th - Finally...morning, and I'm REALLY looking forward to some breakfast! (Even though it would be liquids only.) The cart comes around, and nothing for me. By this time, I'm REALLY tired and frustrated, and want to go home. I cry and have a little pity party, then ask a nurse to track it down for me.

10:30 am - I'm seen by my doctor and told that I can go home...YIPPEEEEE! Ric picks me up, and we stop at Burger King on the way home. I'm slowly eating french fries (Yes, I know, not the best thing right after surgery, but I was desperate!) and feeling pretty good about going home.

Feb 18th - 24th - My parents are here and have a great time visiting. My mom seemed to like the idea that she could take care of us a little more than she would have. Ryan was a complete pain. We think that he had just had enough of the crazy changes this month, but didn't know how to express it. Megan was as cute as could be! I knew that my Mom and Gordon would just fall in love with her!

We didn't do a whole lot while they were here. I had hoped that we could visit the Boston Temple, but my surgery put that on hold. So we stayed around the house. My mom showed me how to can ground beef and chicken with my new Pressure Canner and Gordon and Ric worked a little on the trailer we have, making sure the lights worked.


Feb 20th - Remember my sister from before? It's her turn to have HER gall bladder taken out. Strange, it seems to run in the family. Watch out everyone else!

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So now there are just a few days left this month. I'm back at school, still feeling like a pin cushion, and you should see the lovely bruises I have!

I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else happens.

HOME!

Marni came home this afternoon about 2pm. Thanks to all of you that either called, emailed, or offered to help out in any possible way. She'll be on "limited duty" now that she's back home and enjoying some rest and naps.

Out of surgery

All is well and went well. She was in surgery for a little more than 1 hour and the surgeon has come out to tell me that everything went great. Marni's gall bladder was inflamed and the area is swollen a little, but nothing else was a concern. She'll be in recovery for a few hours and will stay another night here for follow up testing and post-op. :-( I thought she was coming home, but her liver enzyme levels need to be watched before she can go home (sorry kids).

Surgery underway

Well, it's finally happening. Marni is about to start surgery for her gall bladder and we're both relieved that it's actually going to happen. It'll be a few hours before she's out and recovered from the surgery and we still don't know if she'll go home tonight.

The family waiting room for the new surgical unit is beautiful and very well thought out, including a PC for me to update her status while it happens. Our (expectation) plan is for her to have the operation, recovery, back to her room and then discharge back home. We don't know how long this will all take. Then it's eventually back home and get Marni to bed for some real rest and pick up her parents tonight about midnight at the airport.

Who knows what tomorrow brings...

Ric

Day 2 for Marni at Miriam

Well, it's day 2 for Marni at Miriam Hospital right now.  She is doing the best she can considering she's not allowed to eat or drink at all, and doesn't get much sleep due to the other rooms and noises.  She actually just called to say that her MRI is done and now waits for the results. Once they decide what to do next for her, and finally get her discharged back home, I'm sure she spend a few days just resting and sleeping. Stay tuned...

Ric

Marni's troublesome gall bladder

After dinner last night, Marni had a very painful gall bladder attack and spent the night at both Kent and (now) Miriam Hospitals. Since she was scheduled to have it removed next month, they transferred her at the surgeon's approval. She is being kept for oberservation and tests to determine if / when she can have it out and how they will remove it.  She's in room 379B for today and tonight and is pain free right now thanks to some serious drugs and nurses. Not great timing considering her parents are coming to town for a week late Tuesday night and we'd planned to spend today and tomorrow cleaning up and getting ready. What a fine way to start a vacation week at the Levett house.     Ric

Overheard the other night...

We're starting to feel better here at the sick house (aka Chez Levett) ... a little bit anyway. There's so much to update here, especially the special surprise guest we had last week, but that will have to wait until my energy returns and I have a few more free minutes. Until then, enjoy something that I overheard the other night.

Dad: *coughing*

Ryan: What are you doing daddy?

Dad: Coughing my brains out.

Ryan: Are you sick?

Dad: Yes

Ryan: I don't want you to be sick daddy, and I DON'T want you have anymore frogs!

Day 4 of family virus sweepstakes that we've won

It's actually more like day 4, but this is day 2 in-a-row for me to be home out of work. We'll be dousing the house with Lysol and Clorox wipes later in the day to at least kill off anything that might still be lingering around and hopefully we'll be out of self-isolation by Saturday or Sunday the latest. Of course, with the kids who can and will get into anything that isn't clean it's really hard and you find yourself exhausted, and moving in circles to revisit where you'd thought that you've cleaned and picked-up.

Marni is still teaching her classes which is why I am home in addition to the fact that I also feel like crap as well. I'm lucky to be able to stay home to care for all of them and use my sick leave to get paid. I've made plans to be out tomorrow as well, but have to report on Saturday unless I need a visit to the walk-in clinic for some respiratory relief and a note.

Today's Providence Journal has a small article about the two strains of viruses that are spread throughout RI and the schools, one is intestinal (no thanks) and the other is respiratory which is what we all seem to have.

The gift that keeps on giving is back, again.

Despite the fact that we had a terrific time while Shelly visited from Colorado (making me husband of the year), cold and flu session #2 is upon the Levett house.  I was struck with it last month and the family mostly escaped with the exception of some runny-boogie noses, but now we all have colds! What terrible timing and I'm sure that Shelly is now flying back to Colorado and infecting everyone on her flight and soon, her own family.  Sorry about that Shelly, it's pretty much unavoidable when both Marni and I work with the "public".  Today, I have it, Marni's had one for at least 2 days now and Megan as well. So, since Marni is teaching today (short classes) I am home with the kids to care for them and Marni when she returns.  If we can just hold on for a few more days without getting worse, we're on vacation next week and will have Marni's parents visiting us as of Tuesday.

Ric

Husband of the Year!

So last night, Ric left at about 7:30 with Ryan. He said he was going to pick up a birthday present for me.

A half hour later, he walks in with....

MY BESTEST SEXY CELESTIAL SIS SHELLY! :)

I thought I was going to fall off the couch! Ric had arranged to fly her out here to surprise me for my birthday on Tuesday! Woo Hoooooo! He had warned me that he was planning something, and I would joke with him to make sure that it was sparkly! THIS IS WAY BETTER!

So now he's officially been entered into the Husband of the Year contest - and is already hands down...the winner!

I'm sure we'll post more adventures since she'll be staying here until Wednesday! (No idea how long I'll be on cloud 9 for this one! You'll all have to just put up with it! Ryan is already calling her "Auntie Shelly")

Hungry? Try these burritos!

Just in case you don't follow my "Get Me Ready" blog, I just posted the yummiest food storage burrito recipe - check it out!

A Letter to Our Neighbors

...if you happened to be looking outside this morning at about 10:00 am, while the snow was falling to the ground (sideways). You might have seen a 3-year old in just his diapers on the porch.

Before you pick up the phone to call DCYF or you wonder what Ric or I were thinking, please know that our 3-year old knows everything.

Ryan was begging that we blow up the pool in the back yard so that he could go swimming. He was even putting his swimming suit on! Because he wouldn't listen to me, I sent him outside to see if it was swimming weather.

After standing there for about 10 seconds, he came back in and stated that "it's too cold to go swimming outside."

There you go.

Go Stee-wers!

We're really not huge Steeler fans, but because Ric's dad lived in Pittsburgh, that's who we're rooting for.

When Ric went to clean out his dad's apartment after he died, he picked up this hat for Ryan. He's been wearing it most of the afternoon in honor of the "Stee-wers."

Hope you enjoy the game! (No matter who wins!)

PS - the washing machine is partially fixed...looks like it might have been a coincidence that something happened and Ric was the recipient of my wrath. :) Good thing he's forgiving!