Shena's Surgery

I re-did the entry for Monday, March 7, 2005 today...please scroll down to that date to see it.

Work & Play
Shena's surgery got moved up two hours from 3:00 to 1:00, which meant she had to be there at 11:00, and so I had to leave work at 10:00 to take the boys over to the Lundrigan's, then go back home to pick her up. Kind of hard to get anything done when you only have 2 full hours at work. I felt like I was just getting situated and ready for the day when it was time to leave.

Talked to Jim Goldschmidt today. We had talked about going golfing this weekend down in Charlotte (where he lives) with Trey Patterson (both buddies from High School). I was calling to find out if he had made a tee time already. I didn't feel real good about leaving Shena here on Saturday. Cade is supposed to have a primary activity day. Plus we thought the weather was going to be decent (55 and sunny), but turns out they have now forecast about 45 and windy, which would not be fun at all. I'll have to go down another weekend.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Took Shena up to the Women's Hospital at about 11:00 to check-in and get her ready for surgery. Most of the time was pretty boring...especially for Shena. She didn't really have anything to read...she said she was too nervous. She spent 45 minutes in her prep room staring at the ceiling tiles. I at least had a book to read ("A Random Walk Down Wall Street" - probably boring stuff for anybody who isn't a geek and really into the stock market...but VERY interesting to me). I was hoping to re-write my Monday blog in the waiting room, but there was no hard surface to put my IPAQ keyboard on, so I only got one small paragraph written while she was in surgery. I was able to sit with her for about 15 minutes in the prep room before she went in, and the surgery itself only took about 15 minutes. We spent MUCH more time getting ready and recovery than the surgery. Dr. Lowe came out to the waiting room about 1:40 and said that everything had gone fine and that she was in recovery. He said that I had about an hour before they would call me back to sit with her, so I decided to go and grab a bite to eat. I hadn't eaten yet, and I was getting pretty hungry. I ran by Taco Bell, put some gas in the car and then came back to the waiting room. At about 2:30 they called into the room and said that Shena was getting dressed and I could come into their lounge area to wait for her. They made her sit for about 15 minutes to make sure she didn't puke and to make sure she felt alright, then sent us on our way. Last time she had a D&C, for some polyps, she was still pretty drugged when I went into the lounge to pick her up. She slept that day for another 1/2 hour while I waited. Today she was pretty conscious, but she also said she was much more sore than she remembered last time. Just before we left, the nurse gave me her prescriptions (antibiotics to fight off any infections (2 pills a day for 7 days) and a drug that is supposed to shrink her uterus to help cut down on the bleeding, but will cause her some cramps (3 pills a day for two days)). She also said "no sex" for 2 - 3 weeks. If you talk to me in the next 2 - 3 weeks, you'll know why I'm so grouchy.

I got her to the house about 3:05, got her situated and somewhat comfortable on her bed, then headed out to get her prescriptions. I called Leesa to see exactly what time she needed to leave her house to run her errands. She said 4:00, so I thought I could make it, but she said not to worry about it, she will take the boys with her and then drop them off at 4:45. What a lifesaver that was. I wound up getting part of her prescription at Wal-Mart, and then the other half at CVS because Wal-Mart didn't have one of the drugs in stock. That meant I didn't finish until 4:00. Since I had a few minutes, Shena had asked me to bring her home a smoothie from "The Juice Shop" (raspberry rush, no banana). I ran down there and got back to our house at about 4:30, just in time to give Shena her first dose of drugs, pick up the house a little bit before the boys got home, and run to Eckerd for some ibuprofen. Leesa dropped the boys off at 4:45, along with our dinner (lasagna and texas garlic toast) from Susan Williams. All I can say is, we have some AWESOME friends. We have had so many people offer to help we had to turn several people down. That is a good feeling, to know we are cared about. Thanks to everybody who has been helping out.

Speaking of which, we were supposed to feed the missionaries tonight, but because of our situation, we asked the Yow's to fill in for us. Carolyn had to go to Burlington, but Bobby said that he would take them out to eat. Another example of friends helping out. I would have felt bad to have to call the missionaries and cancel on them.

Ashley Ward stopped by at about 5:15 to drop off salad and dessert (orange sherbet) and talked to Shena for a few minutes. Shena's only "real" visitor, which is actually fine with her. She got plenty of phone calls, and she was probably up for that more than several visits. Ashley also brought some flowers by.

Kelson and Cade were excited to see us. They had a good time at Lundrigan's but they always make us feel good when they haven't see us in a while. They act like they are really glad to see us. Leesa said that Kelson fell asleep with his chin propped up on his hands. She said she would e-mail me a copy of the picture. When I see it, I will post it. He decided he wanted an orange tonight, so he got in the fridge and pulled one out. Shena pulls hers kind of weird. She starts it with a knife, then uses a spoon to get all the skin off, then pulls the knife back out and scrapes the "white stuff" off the orange. She says the white stuff makes her gag. Anyway, Kelson could get the orange, but couldn't reach the knife and spoon, so he recruited Cade to get into the silverware drawer to get them out. Cade wasn't sure what he wanted, so he would pull something out (like a fork) and say "This?" and Kelson would say "No" or "Uh-huh." Pretty funny. Those two work together pretty well, using each other's strengths. Cade can't ever get packages or wrappings off candy, cheese sticks, etc....but Kelson is good at it, so Cade will get out two cheese sticks out of the fridge and give them to Kelson, who will open them.

Lettie called to check on Shena. Cade talked to her for a few minutes, but then said "Where's tio (Marcos)?" Not sure why he thought Marcos was with her, but I think it offended her (not really). She was like "ask your mom to dial his number." So she did, and Cade talked to him for a few minutes. Not sure why he has wanted to talk to Marcos so much recently.

Arellano Update
Got a voice mail message from dad today (he's in Mexico for a couple more weeks). He said "Hi guys. Just checking in. I have tried everybody but can't find anyone." Poor guy. Probably made his only trip this week down the hill from my Grandma's ranch to town (where the phone is) and can't get anybody in his family to answer the phone.

Marcos, Lettie and Adam have all called to give us their condolences and love. Very nice and we appreciate it. No matter what anybody says (including myself sometimes) my family is good people!

Christensen Update
As promised, Cherie sent Shena flowers today. She called a couple of times too to check on her baby. Shena also got a phone call from Erin and Alyssa (that I know of). I know it's hard on Cherie not being out here right now. We had already started planning the trip in October when the baby was going to be born. Not sure what will happen now.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:40 - 6:40 - I'm getting better at waking up on time. Hopefully I can trick myself into never thinking "just 15 more minutes" again...yeah, right.

TODAY:
Breakfast: None

Lunch: Taco Bell - steak gordita supreme, no tomatoes, bean burrito, no onions - Mt. Dew - while I ran errands (getting Shena's medications) I walked into CVS and a guy walked out with a Vanilla Haagen Dazs covered with chocolate and almonds. For some reason it looked really good and I bought one myself on the way out.

Dinner: Lasagna (thanks Susan), piece of wheat bread, nothing to drink. It was a rushed dinner because I was trying to get the boys to eat and get them bathed and ready for bed, while getting Shena to eat something so that she could take her medications.