Details later, but I just needed to say

Friends and family are the best.

I survived surgery although it was really rough. My mom stayed up with me all night in the hospital. She brought me another orange snuggie!, chocolate covered raisins for when I start eating more and some books and magazines.

My friend Nina (and her husband Greg) sent me a super cute card and a book.

Kandice and Jason stopped by yesterday with a bag full of goodies (fudge pops, cookies and cream ice cream and juice bars) and some awesome flowers.

Doug and Lisa stopped today and dropped off a coloring book (Yay!), flowers and a card.

Josh also had flowers waiting for me when I got home.

A BUNCH of other friends have texted, emailed and facebooked me so many good wishes it makes me feel warm and snuggly.

I may feel awful and have been sleeping non-stop really (and when I'm not sleeping I'm drugged up, so you are lucky this is all coherent), but all the love and support makes things just a little easier.

THANK YOU!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Weird medical news

I should be used to it right? Bleh.

This is the SUPER condensed version.

Last Wed, first appointment at new chiro.

He takes some x-rays, then comes in all concerned about the DETAILS of my fundoplication surgery. I tell him, he shows me my x-rays and there is something... abnormal on them.

I already had an appointment with SK on Monday (today) to discuss my flying anxiety so I decided to wait.

Pick up the x-rays at chiro office and head to SK.

She thinks things don't look right either.

Oh and I am SO thankful for the iphone in light of my 45 minute wait to see SK. That story involves an older patient who was having an allergic reaction, but waited all weekend just to go to the doctor office where she proceeded to go into cardiac arrest. AWESOME.

She sends me for MORE x-rays.

Do those.

Results - large hiatal hernia.

Um? BEFORE surgery I had a VERY SMALL almost non-existent hernia. Now it's the size of my fist when it the VERY SMALL hernia was fixed in Feb.

BUT, the radiologist would like to take a look at the original films that I picked up at the chiro's office early this morning. Chiro is old school films, radiologist is all on the computer.

So now tomorrow I have to get up early AGAIN and meet with the radiologist for him to look at the original films.

I have not gotten to sleep in since... last Monday?? OMG, I HATE mornings and this lack of sleeping in is ruining my LIFE.

Not quite, but almost.

Here is the image in question. It's the big perfectly ROUND thing in the middle of my chest.

My theories were:

1. Alien baby (I started watching V) - if this was the case I would make millions which would be awesome. SK even wants to be in a photo if this turns out to be the case. Lol.

2. Worm colony - there was this House episode where this porn star had worms. I ate a worm when I was little. I figured it just had dormant babies.

3. Third boob - since I had the reduction my breasts were angry and were creating a third interior boob to make up for lost tissue.

It looks like it's none of those, but the final diagnosis isn't confirmed yet!

Oh, and I got some Ativan for my flying anxiety.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Oh November...

I don't love you as much as October. October brings my family's birthdays (Pap AND Mom), in college it brought fall break (time to visit with said family), it brought falling leaves and most importantly it brought HALLOWEEN. Orange and black and ghosts and orange and pumpkins and orange and candy. I get to dress up, make a fool out of myself and wear crazy underwear that glows in the dark.

This year October was busier than usual, but just as great. It ended with a surprise whirlwind of activities.

Originally I wasn't sure if anything was going to happen. Things kind of kept falling through, but the week before the nothing happened everything happened. We made trick or treating plans with our little friend Fia. There was a Halloween party invitation. THEN last minute my Mikey called and asked if him and Amie (and a friend) could come up and spend Halloween with us.

[I will blog about all THIS in my very next post.]

That was fine, BUT we already had plans to drive to Newark, DE for Josh and Jason to go mountain biking at White Clay while I visited a very good friend in the hospital.

I've never met this friend before though. Strange as that sounds. We met on a chat board and bonded. She is such a strong positive girl. Unfortunately life has been handing her lemon after lemon. Michelle's blog is here. Check it out when you get a minute and give her some much needed encouragement.

We spent about two hours together talking about our mutual chat board and about life in general. She's transferring to Georgetown soon so she'll actually be further away, BUT I have friends down that way so I may be able to make a two for one stop soon. It would totally be worth it to see her again.

Now, I have to tell you a funny story about how I first "met" Michelle at the hospital. I got to the hospital and tried to get in. Door one - nope. Although it said "Temporary Main Entrance" it was locked. Uh huh. ER doors? Nope, the ER is temporary and you can't access the main hospital from there. Finally ALL the way on the OTHER side of the building is the "Main Entrance." Ugh.

Walk in the lobby and there are signs EVERYWHERE "Please check in at the visitors desk to obtain a visitors pass." I walk up to visitors desk and the lady asks "May I help you?"

"Yes, I am visiting a friend."

"Okay."

"She is on the 6th floor?"
"Do you need her room number?"
"No... I was getting a visitors pass."

"Oh, you don't need one! Just go on up."

*blink**blink*

Okay then. WHY are there all those signs??

So up the elevators I go. The 6th floor has a bunch of offices when you step off the elevator. Not what I was expecting. Now I was on the hunt to find the patient rooms. Five turns (and one back track) later and I made it. I find her room and she isn't there! Lol. Her FI was, but he was sleeping. I felt bad but I had driven all the way there...

I had to wake him up. Poor guy. He told me Michelle was at PT and he had no idea when she would be back. Okay then. Off to the gift shop I go. I am walking down the hall out of her room and I see a young woman in a wheelchair. Then I notice a little bit of pink and orange bra sticking out. It's Michelle! I bought her that bra!! Lololol.

Yes I noticed her because of her bra. Only I would find a friend due to what undergarments are encasing her breasts.

I was super happy to visit my friend and super sad to leave her. The stay seemed WAY too short so I am hoping to make it to visit her again very soon.

After leaving her I went to pick up the boys.

Here is what I came back to

Ew and ugh. At least the foliage was pretty...

The ride home not so pretty. This is what I rode next too. It smells worse than it looks.

And that was the end of the first half of my Halloween day.

Whew.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

All about a Breast Reduction

So Thursday I got the phone call for what time I had to be at the hospital on Friday. (9:30AM arrival and 11:30AM surgery).

Thursday night I took some "before pictures"  Here is from the front.

And here is from the side.  Yes I know they don't look all that big to most people, but that bra is a 38DDD.  The band never rested on my ribcage because it was too big, but I couldn't find anything larger than a 36DDD and that was too small... soo... yeah.

I do have some braless, but you'll have to specifically ask me for those.  You can email me at mrsmjane@gmail.com.  If you do email me please give me your name, and how I "know" you, because I'm not just randomly sending those out!!

My mom came down Thursday night as well.  We took a few pictures before leaving the house Friday morning. 

 This is me updating my internet friends and talking to Meme on the phone.  Hi internet friends!!

How cute and happy I look before surgery.  :-P

Here is a picture of Mom and I before leaving for the hospital:

Yes I know it looks like she is cupping my boob.  She kind of was.  Lol.

  We had to cut each others hair before leaving.  It's some old wives tale for Good Friday.  So we did it.

          

These were all the in the car shots on the way to the hospital.  Fun stuff!!

When we got to the hospital, we went up to the short procedure unit and they had a private room for me.  I've explained this before, but I'll go over it again.  You stay in this preop room until the very start of your surgery so you can hang out with whomever brought you (in my case it was my mom and Josh).  It makes the waiting go by much quicker.

So while in my room I had to get naked, pee in a cup (to make sure I wasn't pregnant - I'm not), and answer TONS of questions.  This is also when I got my IV put in.  The girl THIS time got it first try, no problems, unlike my last surgery IV, but I digress.  

         

Josh and I posing in the first one and giving a thumbs up for the IV in the second one.

Mom and Josh made me put on my surgical cap so they could laugh at me.  I thought I looked super cute anyways.

Dr. Born then came in and marked me all up.  It was kind of weird, but I'm not too modest so I

 was fine. I also have pictures from this.  See instructions above on how to view these. He then took a picture of me for reference.  Three minutes later he was back, he accidentally deleted the pictures, so he needed new ones.  Oops.  Before I knew it the anesthesiologist nurse came in, gave me the drugs and the next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery.  

This was taken when I got back from the recovery room.  I was sleeping again. The ladies in the recovery room laughed at me because I wake up SUPER quickly and I'm always super perky, talkative and funny.  They said they'd rather have someone like me then the people that wake up all grumpy.  Not this girl though!!

Here are the drains that I had in.  Ugh.

Here is mom helping me walk around that night.  The doctor said I would heal quicker if I move around, so I went moving around.  I would also like to count the 4 bazillion bathroom trips I took.

Yum.  Breakfast.  I didn't each much dinner the night before, so I was kind of hungry.  I only ate the one slice of toast, some eggs and the milk.  I gave my mom the coffee, OJ and we dumped the cream of wheat.  Ewwww.

  

After breakfast I did a little computering.  It was fun, but didn't last long.  I wasn't in pain really, just REALLY tired and sleepy.  I still kind of am though.

Right there I am pointing our the patch behind my ear.  It helped with the nausea and I can leave it on three days.  Apparently people can get sick from this surgery... and since my last surgery I am physically unable to throw up.  So I really really needed this.

Just a little more computering.  Lol.

The MUCH smaller boobs all packed into an ace bandage.  You can also see the icky drains.

          

Just a few more random pictures of me.

So Josh had called me Friday night (he ran home while my mom stayed with me) and found a PRESENT for me!!  He brought it in today so I could open it.  The little cute card is above (FYI I *pph* my internet best friend Rachel).  And what was in the package??  

The Duggar book!  Not everyone will get how funny this is, but I do.  THANKS Rachel!!

          

Waiting to get discharged.  I had my ice packs on under my zip up hoodie.  It held them well.

In the car on the ride home!

Finally home!  It felt sooo good to be out of the hospital!!

So since yesterday I have only taken TWO pain pills.  I had one oxycodone right after I woke up from surgery and one this morning because at some point in the middle of the night I rolled over onto my side/stomach and REALLY irritated the drains.  Ouch.

Other than that I just take 2 tylenol every 4 hours and put on the ice packs occasionally.

I wasn't discharged until the drains were out.  Having the drains out.  Ugh, ouch, ewww.  I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't that bad.  Ha.  It was.  But after that all seemed well.

Josh helped give me a sponge bath and he washed my hair in the kitchen sink.  

So that was the surgery and what we did today.  I'm doing fantastic and I love how little and PERKY they are.  Yeah!  I can't wait to see them when the nipples stop bleeding and I can just look at them and admire them.  I'll try to keep the healing process updated for anyone interested.  

*hugs and kisses* and thanks for ALL the support!!

mj

Good, Bad then Great

Today started at my final follow up for my fundoplication.  I saw Dr. Prats one last time.  He asked how things were going.  Of course I gushed about how great I'm doing and how thankful I am that he did this.  He told me that I was one of his favorite patients ever and he wished every patient was like me.  Duh.  

Honestly though, he had a medical student with him and he explained to the student how much easier life is when you have a well informed patient.  I went in knowing the details of the surgery, the potential outcomes, the different types of surgery, etc.  He did his job of explaining it all to me, but he said explanations only go so far and he appreciated how prepared I was.  Yes, I am very awesome thank you.

I was also cleared to eat or drink whatever I want.  I've had no dysphagia or problems, so he told me to keep eating small meals and if something doesn't feel right, don't drink/eat it again.  Lol.  Thanks.  I also do not need any more follow ups, but I am welcome to call him anytime to ask questions or even just to chat.  Ha.  He loved me!

Oh, he made a funny then about my next surgery.  We were discussing my top incision (that looks the worst) and how my bra rubs against it keeping it from healing properly.  He told the med student "she's having surgery to correct that."  The med student had a puzzled look on his face and I was like "I'm getting a breast reduction, but only so that Dr. Prat's scars look better."  It was funny.  Well, at least we all laughed.

So after that I headed over to the little pharmacy area in the building.  My plastic surgeon is across the street and he told me to go to this pharmacy to get my gauze pad prescription filled.  These are what I will use after surgery to keep those incisions looking good.  I get up to the counter and drop off the paper.  

Pharmacy tech "ummm... like you can buy these like over the counter."  I explain I know that, but I would like her to fill it because my insurance will cover it that way.  "Ummmm... but then I like have to do paperwork and stuff."  I offered to fill out the paperwork for her.  She handed it over and said "they like only cost $16 so, like you should just be able to afford it."

I was super polite the whole time, but honestly, what was the big deal??  The "paperwork" was my name and address and I had to sign like 3 spots.  That's it.  And yes, that is worth $16 to me.  I clip coupons to save $.50 on soup, so yeah I will fill out paperwork for $16.  *sigh*  I got my gauze pads.  I am happy.

After that I head over to the hospital to get my bloodwork (just a CBC - typical for presurgery) done.  Last time this wasn't bad, BUT, my registration lady was a former patient of my plastic surgeon.  She had also had a breast reduction by him.  She then called three nurses who had also had reductions by him and we had a little pow wow.  They told me how absolutely wonderful he is and how he is meticulous and how perfect their breasts are now.  

I was getting a little worried they would whip them out right there.  Nope, thank goodness, but check in took FOREVER and I saw several people glaring at me.  Oops.  

I then headed back to get my bloodwork done.  They are remodeling the hospital, so it was in a different place than it was just 2 months ago.  So I go in, they call me back, I go into the new row of chairs and the lady that I know gives the new girl to me.

She introduces herself and is super happy.  She then prays to Jesus and sticks the needle in.  She then introduces herself again (I think she was nervous).  I tell her she did a very good job and she proceeds to pray to Jesus again.  Ummmm... yeah.  I don't really care, but she's going to eventually get someone who does.  Let's hope they aren't too mean to her since she really was great at her job.  

After my adventures I headed home to wait for Rachel's update.  When it came in, it was not what I was hoping.  Ugh.  Rachel is one of the sweetest most selfless people I know.  She is such a genuinely great person that all this stupid medical stuff is getting ridiculous.  The doctors do not know what her "special Rachel bumps" are and won't know for almost a week.  Ugh.  They cut into her collar bone and neck to remove these things.  

She sent pictures and she STILL had a smile on her face.  She is such an inspiration to me.  

I let other friends of ours know.  They responded overwhelmingly.  This is what I needed.  To see people reaching out to others with support and good thoughts.  Now to anyone reading this blog, please keep Rachel in your thoughts/prayers/whatever you do.  

So that was my day today.  Tomorrow I am heading to a friend's house in the morning to take pictures of his old hot tub being craned out and his new one being craned in.  This should be interesting.  I'll post some pictures of this.

*hugs and kisses*

mj