Are You There, Eyelashes? It's Me, Nat

Well, got my laser eye surgery done.  It's absolutely amazing.  You wanna hear all the gory details?  Okay!

So, you get a Valium, so you don't care about anything.  Then you go lay on a table and hold a teddy bear.  You look at a little green light, and then it gets dark.  They move the table to another area, then back to the green light.  You stare at the green light for about 10 seconds, and then you're done.  Rinse and repeat for the other eye.

Seriously.  It didn't hurt, it wasn't weird.  I could almost instantly see better.  (Right now everything looks as if I am still wearing my contacts.  Cool, huh?)  For a couple of hours following my eyes stung, but they told me to try and sleep.  NOOOO problem there-the Valium made me really tired.  And really, as a mom, when am I not tired?  So I slept most of the rest of the day, putting eye drops in whenever I woke up.  And they felt fine after I slept a little.

The next couple of days I had a hard time with sunlight and with headlights.  But I've been totally fine ever since.  If you're thinking about getting it done, DO IT!!!!  So, so worth it.

There is one downside: I haven't been able to wear makeup from three days before the surgery to a week after surgery.  It's a small price to pay for, you know, VISION.  But.  My eyelashes are really light, and when I don't wear mascara I feel like my eyes disappear.  My brother-in-law said I look "washed out".  Which is true.  I don't think I would want to be wearing mascara right now, anyway.  There are some eye drops you have to put in 4 times a day, and if I were to have makeup on and do that I would look like, well, her:

But in a few days I'll be good to go AND I'll be seeing 20/20.  Oh, and my eyes are a lot less bloodshot without contacts.  I even bought some new mascara to go with my new eyesight.  Fancy, huh?

In other news...well, not much going on.  Just kind of the same old.  Work, work, and more work.  Work at home, work at the office, work at teaching piano, work at keeping things, you know, working.  There are days that I feel like the hamster on the wheel-you just keep running, with no end in sight, and for what?  So you can keep running, with no end in sight.

I hit kind of a lull the last few days.  I'm very project/goal oriented, so now that I got my eyes done, I'm like, what next?  There is plenty to DO, but nothing that I'm really aiming for.  Monday and Tuesday days I felt kind of "meh".  Today I feel better.  Of course, I have all the ongoing things, but they're the hamster wheel kind of things.  Which are important as well, but... I don't feel like I have to constantly have entertainment, per se, but it IS nice to look forward to things, too, right?

Of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming.  I like to do my Christmas shopping in November.  I find there are just as many sales but far less crowds.

Halloween was fun. Last year we were all matchy-matchy, which I loved doing, but this year the kids were all different things.  Ivy was "Gumpunzoh" (Rapunzel), Troy was Batman, Brock was The Count/a vampire, and Jake was a ninja.

Ivy's wig itched her a ton, so she didn't wear it all that much.  Brock's makeup, though very cool, was also very time consuming.  And there were about 20 other ninjas just like Jake.  I told him it was like a Ninja club, but I don't think he really liked that.

Next year the kids will all be different things again.  Brock already told me he wants to be Spiderman.  And today I went to the store and got some costumes for 50% off.  Even though I HATE keeping stuff around (it goes against my minimalism tendencies), I'd rather spend half the money on costumes now for next year.  Cheapness 1, Minimalism 0.

Well, that's about all for now.  I'm off to work!

Kidney Update

So, Pete had surgery Tuesday morning. When they went to get his stone, it went back up into his kidney.

*sigh*

The anesthesia made him really sick, and kind of made him trip out, I think. I visited him early in the afternoon, and he was just staring at the wall, all hunched over. Me: Pete, how are you doing? Pete: I feel weird. Me: Are you nauseous? Are you in pain? Pete: I feel weird. Me: Can I help you out somehow? Pete: I feel weird.

Quite the productive conversation.

Later he felt better. And now he knows to never do drugs.

Pete will probably feel like crap again today, because he had to go in and get his kidney blasted with sound waves to break up the stone this morning.

When the nurse, named "Loopy" (no joke) was checking Pete in, she asked if we had a living will. I said, "No, but I know what to do if something goes wrong," and made the slit-your-neck motion. Loopy said, "I told my husband he wasn't allowed to die, that I'd keep him around somehow." I'm all, "Like stuff his dead body?" Loopy: I had four little kids. I needed help. Me: "Kids, if you don't behave, you'll have to go sit on Dead Dad."

I really hope this is the last of it. Going to the hospital over and over is getting a little old.

Oh, and if anyone has any money they don't need, feel free to send it my way. Because dang.

Drug-Induced Musings

You know how there are some musicians that take drugs and totally make their best music when high? Well, you're not going to get any genius from me while I'm on pain meds; I mostly just lose my short-term memory and repeat myself a lot and watch the room spin around. Which can be fun, too, I guess. I was going to make this super clever post about my awesome surgery, but the more I think of it in my swooshing head the more it's just not super clever. But I still want to type, so you get a mediocre version of my super witty post. Lucky you! (See? And I said "super" at least three times in the last two sentences. Yay, short term memory!)

First, I realized that I should have explained my surgery; I just kind of threw the news out there. I had what is called uterine prolapse, where the ligaments that typically hold the uterus in place and upright kind of gave up, which was giving me a lot of back pain; the solution was to get a complete hysterectomy. Despite some nausea afterwards, the surgery went well, and hopefully I'll be getting back to normal soon. I can't do any lifting or stretching for about a month, which means no housework like sweeping or vacuuming or laundry. So it's like a vacation. A pretty sucky vacation, but a break of sorts nevertheless.

The anesthesiologist that came in the first time (I saw about three or four of those guys, but I'd better only get charged for one of 'em) was like the McDreamy of my hospital; I swear when he smiled he that little star-thingy (*) by his teeth and it went ping! All of the nurses and doctors were really nice, especially since my surgery got pushed back because of an emergency C-section my doctor had to perform.

They had this thing called Bair Paws; the dressing gown had little tubey things in it, and a tube of warm air connected to it, and it fills the gown with warm air. Oooooh, so nice. I'm going to try to link to a pic of it right here. I've also had these anti-embolism stockings, which have kept my post-surgery cankles in check, and keeps the circulation a-flowing, so my feet are actually warm, and helps with the blood clot chances. Added bonuses there! Oh, and the best part: they had these leg brace looking things, and they alternately fill with air and squeeze your legs a little bit, then let go. Again, for the clotting reason, but it was like a 24-hour leg massage. Me likey. A lot.

I totally stayed up until 2 a.m. Monday night making bags for YW in Excellence, along with hemming these colored cloth things. I did a really crappy job. It was like drunk dialing, but for seamstresses. I don't think I could have done a better job with my current drugged state as I did that night. Which tells you how great of a seamstress I am.

When we were checking in at the hospital, they asked if we wanted to pay upfront. I asked if we could get a discount if we did pay now. We got 20% off. There are a lot of couponers out there that would be so proud of us.

Um, that's all I can think of right now. Maybe when I'm a bit more sober/lucid/coherent I'll come up with something more.