Disaster averted

Last night I walked in the house after work only to be met with "There's cat puke ALL over the bed. And oh yeah, there's cat shit on the floor." Gee, hi, nice to see you guys too.

So I go in to see about the cat puke ALL over the bed and it was ALL over his side of the bed. Good kitty kitty. But holy christ! Was that ever a load of cat puke! It was all more or less cleaned up thanks to my other cat who eats the puke when I can't get to it fast enough. But still, it had to have been there a while because it had soaked through the comforter, through the blanket and into the sheets. So, off to the washing machine I go.

First I washed the comforter. Which is a real fun trick. Try washing a king size comforter. NOT fun. The annoying thing is how long it takes the damn thing to dry. So, I stuck it in the dryer for 3 full drying cycles, flipping it around at the end of each cycle so that hopefully it would be dry everywhere. I had just started it on the 4th cycle when about 5 minutes into it the dryer stopped. Oh, and the burning smell, did I forget to mention that?

Luckily, I did not start the dryer on fire. It wouldn't start back up but the thing was almost literally on fire, it was really really hot. I think if I had not noticed that it stopped it would have caught fire. Then I would have been seriously screwed.

Last night I got the "talking to" of a lifetime by my husband about how most people don't wash their comforters at home because their machine aren't big and strong enough. He told me that I was the one who was going to have to come up with the money to replace the dryer that I just ruined.

This morning, I checked it - just for shits and giggles. Works.

No fire. No broken dryer. No money out of my pocket.

All's well that ends well.

The Road to Surgical Recovery and Enlightenment about my Biological Father

Today is day 7 and I'm feeling better. Still not great, but better.

Last night I finally slept all night long in my own bed! What a difference that makes. I know I've said it before, I really really love my sofa, but not as a replacement for my king size pillow top mattress for any more than a couple hours here and there. I still can't sleep on my stomach, which is annoying since I'm a stomach sleeper, but I realize that these things take time.

The surgi-strips came off all my incisions on Tuesday. Came off. Pulled off. Same difference. I think they were what was causing some of the discomfort I was having because once they were off I felt a little better.

So, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and know that full recovery is just a few more days away. And I've lost all the excess weight I gained by not eating anything at all for 4 days. Finally! I think my body realized one day (Tuesday) that I had all this excess fluid and it was all "get that out of here" so I spent a lot of time peeing.

On another note, which should probably be a totally separate post, I learned some information about my biological father while I was in the hospital. His brothers wife (aka - my aunt) is a CNA and was working the floor I was on the day I was there. I hadn't seen her for a while so she came in and we were chatting. Later on, when my mom and I were in there alone, she came in and brought us up to speed on "the family". Seems Cliff (biological father) had a stroke a while back and appears to be nursing home bound for the remainder of his life. Sucks for him, doesn't it? Evidently he's in Maryland, or at least that where he was when this happened. He called them up asking if he could come live with them but they told him no.

Honestly, I don't care about him or his health or where he lives, so long as he doesn't live anywhere near me. Cruel? Maybe, but in my opinion his opportunity for me to give a rats ass about him was given up in the early 70's when he walked out on my mother when my sister and I were babies. I never understood how he could do that when I was a kid/young adult, and after my daughter was born it bothered me even more.

There is no way on God's green earth I will ever EVER walk away from my daughter. She is the best thing that's happened in my entire life and I'm lucky to have her. And I remind her of that every single day.

Besides, I have a Dad that I see and talk to several times a week. He's the man that married my mother on April 9, 1976 just weeks before I turned 4 and my sister turned 5. He was there when I learned how to ride a bike, lost my first tooth, went on my first date, he taught me how to drive, paid for me to go to college, walked me down the aisle, was one of the first to hold my daughter, and was there when I was having surgery last week. THAT is what being a father is all about.

Picture from my surgery

Here it is - this is what I looked like when they booted me from the hospital less than 24 hours after yanking my appendix out of me. It came out of the spot with the bandage under my tattoo, the incision is about 1/2 an inch long. The surgeon went a little lower than he usually does so my tattoo could be sacrificed. Thanks Doc! (he's the second to cut me open and spare my turtle, see the other scar? C-Section)

It still amazes me that they make an incision on the LEFT side of your body to remove something that's on the RIGHT side of your body...but I guess that's why I'm not a doctor.

I'm also trying to figure out how I gained nearly 7 pounds from the time I was first taken into the doctors office to be examined and the time I left the hospital after surgery considering I ate NOTHING for 24 solid hours, then ate nothing but 3 spoon fulls of disgusting hospital jello and a little bit of apple juice in the following 24 hours. I didn't have solid food until supper time Saturday night and I had surgery at 5pm Thursday - my last meal was a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast Thursday morning at 6:30.

I didn't go to work today but I'm going to try a half day tomorrow and then I hope to be back to normal on Wednesday, that's giving myself not quite a week for recovery. It was laprascopic remember.

I never filled my script for pain meds. I guess I have a higher pain tolerance than I give myself credit for. Ha Ha Ha, that's funny. But I have managed to make the pain tolerable with aleve instead of vicodin. So, for me, major accomplishment!

I'm sore in all sorts of places you wouldn't imagine being sore in from an appendectomy. Like my shoulders (from being tubed I've learned), my throat (tubed), and my wrist (from the end of the IV needle sitting there for 24 hours). Other places too, but those were the most noteworthy.

I'll keep you posted on my recovery.

Major Ouch

Thursday I had an emergency laproscopic appendectomy. I am still in so much pain it's almost unbearable.

Anymore, they slice and dice you and kick you out the door. I was discharged from the hospital not even 24 hours after surgery, more like 16 hours. I had surgery at about 4pm Thursday and left the hospital at 10:30 Friday morning.

I can't sleep laying flat, so my couch is again being used as a bed. And I'm still so full of the gas they blow into your belly that I get shooting pains just moving certain ways.

I'll get better, I know, but for know I still feel like I've been hit by a train.

They say time flies when you're having fun...

...so I must be having a blast! I've made several unsuccessful attempts to blog in the past week. I've decided I'm just too damn busy!

My Bead Retreat business is picking up. I have my first retreat scheduled for this weekend. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I know what I'm doing, I'm not nervous about that, I'm just not real familiar with the catalog yet other than knowing the things I want. It's also going to be a group of my family at the retreat. Nothing like the pressure of family to freak you out.

Work has been stressful. We've got a lot going on and my filing (remember, this is a problem for me) is out of control. I'm working on it today since we have a slow day. As you can tell, I'm really getting after it. (ha ha ha)

The weather is starting to turn cold again and I'm again hating every minute of it. They keep saying we're going to have a warm winter but I don't believe it until I see it.

Duck season starts here this weekend so I'll be a duck hunter widow again for 60 days. It's ok with me. Years ago when we first married I had a problem with it. Now, I'm practically shoving him out the door - AS LONG AS HE TAKES THE DOG!

That's about it. I'll let you all know how my first retreat goes next week.

Better than Expected

Friday night I finally told my husband about my signing up to be a Bead Retreat Coordinator. I had put it off for as long as humanly possible given the fact that a 6 pound box of supplies is on it's way to my house and expected to arrive this Wednesday.

I was pleasantly surprised with his reaction. I was prepared for the "what the hell was I thinking" direction but was instead received with the "why didn't you tell me so I could pass the word around" direction. I had planned to take a low upfront cost approach but he insists that I get as much PR material as I can right now to help get things started. So, I'm working on setting up online ordering, ordering business cards, etc.

What a relief that he's on board with this project! That makes my attitude much more positive!

I already have 7 retreats scheduled and my first one is in less than 2 weeks. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I just really really want this to be something that makes me money and is consistent.

We've been looking through the start-up material I've been provided and the lady who is my "boss" had over $100,000 in sales in a year - using the lowest commission base available that means she made no less than $23,000.00 in one year selling beading kits! Can you believe it! Hubby's hope is that I can get a strong enough customer base that this "hobby" will net enough income that I can quit my full-time job and only do retreats - and make more money.

So, my first goal as an Independent Bead Retreat Coordinator/Instructor is to earn enough money to buy the plasma TV we've been looking at. It's about $1,000. So, at my commission base, the lowest available, I need to have retreat costs and sales of about $4,500.

Wish me luck!!!