Friday, July 31, 2009

Wedding video

Check this site out:

http://www.jkweddingdance.com/?562033c0

The happy couple is taking their popularity and channeling it towards a worthy cause- prevention of domestic violence. So, check the site and the video out!

RID Convention!

The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) is having their biannual national convention, starting tomorrow. For the first time in an almost ten-year career as an interpreter, I am going. It's in Philadelphia this year. Three coworkers and I are driving down together and rooming together. We figure we'll all become each others' bestest buddies or be ready to kill each other by the time we come home Wednesday night.

I'm really excited about it. I get really energized by conferences, workshops, or conventions. I guess it's because I love what I do? Or maybe it's just being around a whole bunch of other people who do the same thing I do, which, I admit, is somewhat out of the ordinary; we tell jokes that only other interpreters (or deaf people) would get, and when we swap work stories, they don't have to be prefaced with a huge explanation beforehand to explain why the story is funny or whatever. I just know I always come back totally gung ho to get back into the classroom.

I amalso looking forward to not having to carry around a diaper bag for FIVE WHOLE DAYS. I won't need to worry about packing enough for Mr Picky, or making sure there's enough wipes, or what do I pack for him to drink. I won't need to change a diaper for FIVE WHOLE DAYS. I won't need to make chicken nuggets and cut them up for FIVE WHOLE DAYS.

I'm really excited.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Stuff

Okay, first off, if you haven't yet watched this video, watch it now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbxnfGvEojg&feature=related

I've watched it several times, and each time, it makes me smile. Everyone just looks so incredibly happy, which is how a wedding should be. I mentioned it to my favorite deacon, a 70-year-old woman, today at church, and she beamed. "Oh, I saw that on the news! I haven't seen the whole thing, but what I saw, I loved! All weddings should be that happy!" When I got home, I emailed her the link for the whole video.

Frank is doing well. Thursday we stayed home all day, and my mother in law came over. She stayed for dinner and overnight, leaving Friday at 12:30pm, when I put Frank in for a nap. By Friday, he was acting a bit more cranky, which eventually I figured out was because the kid was bored, so I took him to the library and to a couple of stores after his nap. That improved his mood a great deal. Over the weekend, he's been fine, too, except when we had to give him his medication (an antibiotic- preventatively, and ear drops). He hates them both, and cries the whole time I put the ear drops in. Fortunately, yesterday was the last day for the drops, and tomorrow is the last time for the pink medicine.

I'm watching a show right now entitled "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant". I wish my pregnancy had been so easy that I didn't know I was pregnant!

Saturday I leave for Phildelphia for five days, for the national conference of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). I'm driving down with three coworkers, and rooming with them, and I can't wait! It's going to be so much fun. Oh, and I think I can get all the CEUs I need for the entire year in five day, too. :) I'm meeting a friend of ours from college, G, for brunch on Monday morning. He lives in NJ, just outside Philly.

I've been trying to weed, and get an hour here and an hour there done, but it's hard- number one, herding Frank at the same time makes it somewhat unproductive, so I have to wait until he's in for a nap, and number two, the mosquitoes are TERRIBLE this year! I have so many bites, and I think a couple of them got infected. I scar very easily, too, so it doubly sucks.

We finally got the deck furniture this week we ordered from Target in early May, and got it up today. It looks nice. Things are finally starting to look put together around here!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Surgery

Frank's surgery was this morning, at 9:30am. I wasn't terribly nervous about it until I got the phone call on Monday telling me the time it was slated for. I've been reading a couple of books to him about hospitals the past few days- Curious George Goes to the Hospital and Harry Goes to the Hospital. I've been talking the past few days about how, "Wednesday, we'll all go to the hospital. You'll go to sleep and the doctor will fix your ears, and when you wake up, Mommy and Daddy will be there." I'm honestly not sure how much of that he got, really.

He was in a great mood when we woke him up this morning, and was singing "Bob the Builder" the entire way to the hospital. This can get quite grating after a minute or so, because he only really knows the "Bob the Builder/Can we fix it/Bob the builder/yes we can!" part. He mumbles his way through the rest of it, and then sings nice and loud again for the chorus...and insists that whoever is in the car sings with him.

We got to the hospital at 8:20am, signed in, and I filled out paperwork while Darrel entertained Frank. At 9:15am, they took us back in, and we had more paperwork. We got Frank into his PJ bottoms and the blue hospital gown top. He sat there and cried the whole time. Once we identified to the nurse that I was the parent who was going into the OR with him, she gave me an outfit to put on over my clothes; as Darrel put it, "Look, Frank- Mommy looks like she's ready to go clean up a toxic waste dump!" It was a one piece white (disposable) jumpsuit, booties of the same material, and a hat. (If you've seen ER, then you know what kind of hat I am talking about.) The jumpsuit zipped up the front.

We then went to another waiting area, this one with some toys, which cheered Frank up a bit. Oh, and the nurse gave him stickers, too, which are always a winner. We met with the anesthesiologist there, and Dr G came in to talk to us for a few minutes. Darrel had never met Dr G before, so I introduced them, (Darrel's comment later: "Boy, their styles [both ENT doctors] really are very different!") Once that whole thing was over, it was time. We took Frank's shoes off, and I followed Dr G and carried him into the OR. The OR looked exactly like the one in the Curious George book, a fact I pointed out to Frank...who was not at all impressed by it, mostly because he'd been crying constantly since we took his shoes off.

I sat him down on the table, and the anesthesiologist moved him towards the pillow/head area, so that he was sitting there, looking at me, with his back to her. She gently placed the mask on his face, and held him and the mask firmly. He didn't fight- he just sat there crying, looking utterly defeated. I gently held his hands, told him I loved him, he was doing a great job, and when he woke up, Daddy and I would be there. In less than a minute, he was completely limp- it took me by surprise as to how quickly it happened, truthfully. And it was a bit creepy seeing it happen, and seeing him so limp like that, more limp than when he's sleeping, even!

Dr G escorted me out of the OR and pointed me back towards where Darrel was waiting. He also complimented me on how well I'd done. "Yeah, we get some parents in here...they get very emotional, which obviously doesn't do the kids any good. You did a great job and so did he."

Darrel and I went back out to the waiting room. 45 minutes later, Dr G came out- everything went fine, Frank was in recovery, and when he woke up, someone would get us. 15 minutes after that, we were informed that he was awake. We hurried back, and he was sitting on a full-size gurney, looking so tiny...and crying. As I approached him, he sobbed, "Can you pick me up?" We maneuvered the IV lines and pulse ox monitor, and I picked him up and held him. They wheeled the gurney out and a recliner chair in, and I sat on that, holding him. He lay his head on my shoulder again and fell asleep almost immediately, and stayed asleep for another hour, when we were moved to the secondary recovery area. He woke up enough at that point to indicate something of an interest in a Teletubbies video they had there...and threw up, twice. It was pretty much all blood and mucus the first time, and it wasn't much- apparently that'll happen because it gets into his stomach during the surgery. The scond time, it was applesauce and "Grover juice" (white grape juice, so called because there's a picture of Grover on it).

We left at close to 1pm. He fell asleep in the car almost before we left the parking lot. As I told my mother later, "It was like he was narcoleptic- he was crying, 'Waaaa-'. I looked back at him, and he was snoring!" He slept the whole way home, waking up when I undid his carseat. We tried to get him to drink or something, and he drank a few sips of Grover juice...and yakked all over one of our couches and himself and me. *sigh* (Side note: I think I need a new couch, it's that bad.) However, once I was changing his clothes after this fiasco, he looked up at me and announced in a clear voice, "I feel all better now!!" *giggles*

A short while later, he said his belly was hurting again. I took a chance because he wasn't being whiney about it (With him, whiney + "my belly hurts" usually = vomit soon; statement of fact about belly hurting usually means extreme hunger.) and gave him half a bagel...which he tore into like a freaking animal, he was so hungry!! I cautioned him to go slowly, but he kept tearing into it. He kept that down, drank a full Grover juice, ate a few bites of applesauce, and two chicken nuggets between 4pm and 7:30pm. I think he'll be fine. ;)

Side note: His voice is really high pitched now. It sounds like he's been sucking on helium. (They had told me this could happen, and should clear in a few days.) It's freaking hilarious. I have to work to keep from giggling each time the kid talks!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Surgery is scheduled...

...for July 22nd. I don't yet know what time, but it should be in the morning, since, as was explained to me, they take younger kids earlier. He's having ear tubes put in, and adenoids taken out. He is also having what's called a tonsil ablation (sp?). Basically, this means they are not removing the tonsils; they are instead, shaving them down, leaving some tonsil tissue. It sounds like a win-win situation for him: it has approximately the same recovery as just adenoids and ear tubes (a few days), and a fraction at most of the pain associated with full tonsilectomy, because they don't cut away onto the throat muscle, not to mention much less risk of bleeding and stuff. (The surgery itself should take all of a half hour, a fact that surprised me, but apparently, as far as surgeries go, none of these are very complex.)

The doctor recommended this as opposed to simply leaving them or removing them altogether for a few reasons: Just because he's never been diagnosed with tonsilitis doesn't mean he won't be in the future, and chances of that happening are much less with less tonsil in there. Same goes for sleep apnea, which he currently does not have; it doesn't mean he couldn't develop it at some point in the future, but the chances are much less.

Time-wise, the 22nd works out well for us, too: it's well over a week before I leave for my RID convention, which means if he takes longer than expected to recuperate, I'll still be around to take care of him during the day. We're not going away on vacation at all after that, either. And it's just over a month before I go back to school.

Still, though...this is my baby going in for surgery. He's going to be scared and confused, no matter what books we read him beforehand or what we tell him! :(