We're Alive

Yep, we've survived. And I emphasize "we" because even though M was the one having surgery, our whole house was affected. Oh yeah, and there were some other mini-disasters taking place simultaneously, but, we're still standing.

First priority - M is doing fantastic. I mean, I am reporting back nearly a month post surgery, but seriously, he's such a trooper. The first week was a little hairy, with me stepping in to help M with nearly every single task (let's just say we had many "intimate" moments, and I'm not talking about the romantic kind). I don't know if it's mental or me being more hopeful, but I'm inclined to say that his physical and mental recovery this time around are seriously improved. He's more himself, less cranky than after his last surgery. I think somewhere in the back of both of our minds, with the last surgery, we both just knew it wouldn't be successful. I couldn't be any happier for M. He's still got a long way to go, and the pain isn't gone just yet, but I'd say that I'm beyond impressed with how he's handled such an emotional and painful experience. I just keep thinking of how exciting the day will be when he is able to run around and play with the Goose like he's never been able to do before - just like he's been dreaming of since we found out we were pregnant (seriously, M is a big kid. From the day we found out, he was all "I can't wait to teach him/her to play sports and wrestle and just PLAY with them). My heart will be so happy.

Second - mini disasters? Hmm, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but in such a time of high stress and exhaustion, we didn't need anything added to our plate. But, life has a funny way of being ironic, so the extra stress piled on. Let me vent explain. The Goose was also a trooper and hopped around from our house, to my mom's house, to my MIL's house for about two weeks (and he still is, but not nearly as much, only about an extra day or two a week when M would have normally been watching him). With all that hopping around, and with this crazy weather (80, in March? really?) the Goose managed to get a pretty bad cold. Which came and went, and then came again. All in all he had a runny nose/cough/congestion/fever over the course of three weeks. Yep, three weeks. Poor, poor kid. He slept pretty well, but had his bouts of sleeplessness here and there b/c of it. There was a doctors visit, but overall he did pretty well and it stayed out of terrible-cold-land.
Next up is our car. Our g-damned car. We bought a very good condition, new-to-us car about a week before the Goose was born back in 2010. Turns out we bought a lemon. We paid a decent amount in cash for the car (I didn't want monthly payments - and, as explained in a past post this was actually the money we were saving for the staircase project), and have since had to pour in a few thousand more. About a week after M's surgery, the conclusion was the the g-damned car needs a new engine. ENGINE. Those things aren't cheap people. So, for the third year in a row, our savings for the staircase project are being put towards something else. And now we're considering a new car instead of fixing this lemon. We're trying to balance our options of new vs fixing and exactly how much of our saving we want to compromise vs taking on a car payment. I hate being an adult.

Other mini disasters include, but are not limited to:  making sure the house is cleaner than usual since I didn't want to scare away the visiting nurses and PT's that were coming in on a daily basis (which in reality means being on top of my typical chores which rarely happens, plus taking on M's half of the house duties - fun); fight with and clean up after an overflown toilet that the Goose thought would be fun to play with (which also entailed cleaning up the Goose); fight with the surgeon's staff and the visitng nurse services over the phone to fix mistakes they made with medications/post-op procedures (kind of serious mistakes that could have caused major problems); dealing with the mini-meltdown I had because of all of the previously mentioned items happening in the course of 7-10 days. Oh yeah, and lastly there was that entire day-long hangover from the bottle(s) of wine I drank - with my MIL- after there were some anger-inducing issues with a family member that we decided to vent about (her mostly, but I'm nothing if not a good drinking buddy). Also, said "issues" royally pissed me off to the extent that I'm pretty much done with said family member, so while I'm choosing not to air someone elses dirty laundry that ripped a whole into my husband's heart, you can add that to the list of mini-disasters. Mkay?

Vent Explanation over.

All in all, it was an exhausting experience,but, it's mostly over. While we loved M's surgeon, we hated the recovery hospital staff and I hope to never return to this experience anytime soon (it will come again one day, when M's new hip will have worn, but let's not think about that).

I still owe a picture dump post, including proof of the fact that I now have an 18 month year old. Also, I'd like to share pics of our new dining table and the chairs I'm still figuring out how to love.

Finally, in an attempt to step outside of my comfort zone I'm hoping to write a post that will allow me to open up a little. It's pretty scary for me. I'm a very guarded person and I like to keep personal stuff personal. But letting my guard down and opening up is something that I have wanted to do, since it is a quality I love most in all of the blogs that I read. The "Keepin' it Real" posts are always my favorite. I know my readership here is small, if anything at all, and probably will remain so for a while since I don't advertise it's existence to ANYONE. But maybe if I start to write about more personal things and let my guard down, I'll actually be proud enough to share. Or maybe not, who knows. I just know that I've wanted to get more personal for a while and have been holding back. We'll see where this goes.

Until next time...