Update 2

Just another update. The past 2 days have been far worse than the first two. Nights have been pretty restless because I cannot get comfortable. I have moved downstairs to the couch and that seems to have helped some.

I think a good majority of the pain is coming from the packing but then again I have no clue what I am really feeling. The stitches itch and some of my hair is slowly coming back. The outside of my ear feels pretty weird. The top is numb and the bottom has some feeling to it. Dr. Kesser said this was to be expected and pretty normal since blood flow and other stuff was interrupted by the surgery. Full feeling should come back in a few weeks. Mom did help me wash my hair so that has been nice. Feeling yucky and smelling yucky just makes things worse.

The meds have me a bit loopy so the past few days I have been stumbling around or sleeping. I hate feeling so groggy all of the time. One pill wasn't quite helping the pain so I had to increase to 1.5 which just made those issues worse. Yesterday I tried to get out of the house for a bit but the heat proved to be too much and I stumbled around the farmers market like a drunk person. I did get some free blackberries from Ms. Frymyer out of it though! Haha. Our outing lasted a half hour or so and then I came back and slept all afternoon.

Today I decided to try to go to church. That was a bad idea. The band was overwhelming and the buzz of people just got to me and hurt my ear. Also the meds had me all jittery so I stood in the pew swaying back and forth until I finally had to walk out. After the band stopped I came back in and fought the rest of the service to stay awake. I hate hate hate feeling that way. Plus it's just plain embarrassing. After that we came home and had lunch. Guess what I did after that?! Yup, I took a nap. Then somehow this evening I got tricked into making peach preserves. We shall see how they come out, I'm not holding my breath for award winning preserves.

I'm getting nervous about going back to work. The pain is still there plus I can't really lift anything or walk very far. Should make for an interesting day Tuesday. Tomorrow I am supposed to be going with my grandparents to Borders since they are closing. Gives me another chance to get out and get my legs back beneath me.

I suppose that is all. Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes!

Tympanoplasty Post Surgery Update

Woohoo, I have an eardrum! I suppose this post is mainly for myself to remember it by someday and my nerdy friends who like all of the technical stuff and gory details.

Yesterday went great. It's actually hard for me to believe it is all over with. I thought for sure that I would be super nervous but having such a great doctor really put me at ease. I simply cannot say enough great things about my team at UVA. They were all so wonderful from the nurses, anesthesiologists, residents and Dr Kesser himself. Everyone really took their time to make sure that I was comfortable and answer all of my questions. Lets starts from the beginning of the day and go from there.

6am- Woke up, got ready and headed to the hospital.

9am-Checked in and filled out some paperwork. We waited around in the family surgical area for a while then I was called back to do the pre-anesthesia work up. The nurse there was great and made me feel even more confident. She raved about Dr. Kesser and told me that he had patients come in from all over the country just to have him as their doctor. It's always comforting to know that your doctor is the best of the best and is loved by his staff. After she took my bp, temp and O2 stats I went back out to the waiting area.

10:50 I got buzzed that my room was ready. The hospital had these cool buzzers like you get at a restaurant so it was nice not to have to constantly be on alert for them to call my name. I was so hungry that when my buzzer went off I was really disappointed not to be greeted by a waitress asking what I wanted to drink and if we wanted an appetizer. LOL. The nice lady took me up to my room where I changed into what I referred to as my kimono and I got to get in bed. I called my gown a kimono because I swear it was a triple extra large. It had these really cool ports in it that tubing hooked into and blew in warm air. It was pretty nifty. After that a nurse named Kat came in and hooked up my I.V. She wins a prize in my book as it only took her one try and she put it in my hand as I requested. I HATE arm IV's. They are so uncomfortable. Another nurse came in and took my vitals again then the waiting game began. We watched some show on discovery channel about marines while we waited and I was surprisingly calm.

11:40ish- The doctors started stopping by. Dr. Kesser and two residents came in and we went over the game plan again. He answered all of our questions and went to start scrubbing in. Next the two anaesthesiologists came in. The first was nice but the second was nicer. Luckily the 2nd I dealt with more. He was pretty funny. I told him I was disappointed in the service because my buzzer went off and I had yet to have a waitress take my drink order. He laughed and said he brought me a mimosa which was really a mild sedative. He gave that too me and we chatted some more waiting for that to kick in. He explained what all we would be doing once we got back to the O.R. and that the breathing mask would smell like a shower curtain (he was right!).

12ish- He wheeled me back to the O.R. and they put some really cool massage cuffs on my legs to prevent blood clots. Then he put some more stuff in my I.V. and put on the shower curtain smelling mask. It felt like I was awake for 5 more minutes but it was probably only 30 seconds. I remember looking around at everyone and them looking at me like ok, close your eyes now. Haha.

3:30ish-The next thing I knew I was waking up and dreading feeling sick. After I had my tonsils out I was super sick so I was afraid of that. This time I had no nausea. Come to find out they had given me some anti-nausea meds in my I.V. before hand. I am super thankful for that because being sick is no fun. My head felt funny and I thought for sure that I had peed myself. The nurse laughed and said that I was probably just hot and a bit sweaty from the gown. Thank goodness she was right! The dr's were all too cute for me to have peed myself! Haha. Dr. Kesser came in and told me that everything went really well and that my 2nd and 3rd ear bones looked much better than he was expecting. Apparently my 2nd ear bone is slightly turned for some reason which made it appear eroded. The 1st bone he was able to fix some. I don't remember the technical details because I was so loopy. Next, mom and dad came up and I got dressed. A few minutes later I was munching on some ice chips and my grandparents came up and brought me some pretty flowers. Here's me still pretty drunk as you can tell.

4ish- Discharge papers were signed and a wheel chair was brought for me and we headed home. I got some pretty interesting stares from passing cars and we finally made it home.

Decided to try to eat however it hurt to chew so I ended up swallowing some ramen instead of the pizza. The numbing meds began wearing off so I tried some Tylenol before the vicoden. Tylenol helped for a bit but I've ended up switching to the other as it helps more. The night was pretty restless because I could only lay certain ways. I'm a side sleeper so it was hard to keep off of my left side. Here's my beautiful mummy head band.

My grandmother came and stayed with me this morning since mom and dad had to work. Dr. Kesser called to check in on me and told me that I could take my mummy wrap off. I was a bit surprised because my ear looks so strange. All of the packing has it sticking out a bit more than the other. Hopefully once the swelling goes down everything will return to normal.

Once mom gets home she's taking off the material behind my ear. Behind that there should be some band aids covering the stitches and incision behind my ear. I tried taking it off myself but I was afraid I would also rip off the bandages that are supposed to stay on. I am also interested to see how much hair they had to take off to do the skin graft. I would say it's just the area that is bandaged. We shall see. This whole post probably made very little sense because I'm still a bit loopy.

Lastly, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has called, texted and fb messaged me. Your support, thoughts and prayers mean so much to me!

Beach Week 2011

So I have been a bit behind in blogging as there has been so much going on. Between the beach, work and other things it has just been crazy around here. Hopefully this blog will make some sense. I'm rather tired so who knows.

Lets start with the beach. It was AMAZING as always. The surprise baby shower for John and Genny was a hit and they were totally shocked. It makes me so happy to do things that makes others happy. I just cannot believe they are having a baby! They are going to be such wonderful parents. Having Genny as part of the family has been so wonderful and I know that baby Ruby will make things even better. I cannot wait to hold her. Here are a few pics



Ruby's family tree. I just love how it turned out. Can't wait to do one at our wedding!

We had such wonderful weather at the beach that I just couldn't believe it. We usually have a few rain showers here and there but none this time! Grant's parents were able to come this year and we had such a great time with them. I hope that they are able to come back again

My mom, me and Grants mom at Tail of the Whale

The guys! My dad, Grant, Kyle and Grants dad



We stopped by my favorite lighthouse, Bodie Island

Aren't they cute! I just love my family to be!

Henry and Lydia had a great time too!

I do believe that everyone had a great time. I swear every year just gets better and better. I absolutely love spending time with all of my family. There are at least 50 of us that go. Basically my whole immediate family was there minus my Uncle Chris. It is wonderful to have so much family time and to catch up with everyone. While we were at the beach Rebecca took engagement pictures for Grant and I. We cannot wait to see them. It was so windy so I am sure my hair will be a sight but I'm sure they will still be amazing. Rebecca does such a wonderful job and I highly recommend her, and no, not just because she is my cousin! If you get a chance check out her website http://www.sterlingreflectionsphotography.com/

Hummm, what else has happened.... OH YEAH! I GOT A JOB! I am officially the newest 5th grade science and math teacher at L.E.S. I cannot wait to begin. I am nervous but so excited. I was able to sneak a peek at my classroom today and it is pretty sweet. The old teacher moves her stuff out sometime this week so I am looking forward to getting started. I have collected so many things over the years so I am anxious to get it in my room and start setting up.

Work at the cave is a bit nuts. I was off for a week of vacation then will be off for a few days after my surgery at UVA on Thursday. I feel so far behind but it will all be ok.

On to the surgery thing. Today I had my pre-op appointment at UVA. It went well. I met with their Audiologist and she was very nice. She did such a wonderful job and really took her time. After that I went up to see Dr. Kesser. This time he had two students with him. They were both amazed by my lack of ear drum. The second guy looked in and said "OH WOW!" which made me laugh because usually they get really quiet when they are surprised. I told him that I would rather have that reaction than the silence and that I'm going to start charging admission to the freak show. He laughed and promised me that he would make Dr. Kesser fix it. I'm trying hard not to be nervous but surgery is surgery so it's a bit scary. Thursday is the day and everything will be fine!

I think that is just about it for now. At least that is all that I can remember. Lets leave off with a picture of the beach so we can stare and pretend we're there shall we:



July 7th, 2012 cannot come soon enough. Until then Nags Head I will miss you terribly!

Big Dreams

So I have been stuck on this idea of buying land. Really it's not a far fetched idea as land prices are really down and it is a "buyers market" as they say. At least I think that is what they say, haha.

Dad and I drove around yesterday looking at some properties and I fould two which I really like. The two that we looked at backed the George Washington National Forest. Both were in the same subdivision or whatever you might want to call it.

The one on Mockingbird Lane had a great view.

The lot was more hilly and somewhat steep in spots. We did not get out to walk around so I'm not sure what direction the 4 1/2 acres included. The downside to this lot is that it is pretty far from the main paved road. All of this area is gravel road, which is fine, however I'm not looking to drive too terribly far on one when it's icy. The upside is that it has this great view. If you took down another few feet of trees on each side you could see even more. However in doing that you're adding more work.

The second lot is on Cardinal Lane. It's 3 acres however the lot is level. There isn't really a view like the last one had as it is closer to the main road but it is forested and nice. The fact that it is flat sounds great to me. It's only the 4th or so lot back from the main road so that means less driving on the gravel. In talking to someone who lives here they said that the lots around that one are vacation rentals. That is kind of nice since no one would be there year around. Not that you can really see the houses through the woods anyway. Not a very nice picture but here it is.

There are several more lots that I would be interested in looking at. Basically all of this is just a big dream but I see it as a pretty good investment. Even if I did buy land we wouldn't build any time soon. If I'm building a house I want a "forever house". One that I don't ever have to worry about being to small or too large because I don't want to move a million times. If we would never build on it that is fine too. Eventually land prices have to come up and we could make money off of selling it. I see it as an investment either way. While I'm dreaming I'll show you my dreamhouse :-)





Nice huh? I just love it. Who wouldn't haha! Now I just have to wait till Grant comes down and gets a feel for the lots. Hey, maybe he will love one as much as I do! Lets hope so.

Blackberry Jelly

So I've been on a roll with this Suzie Homemaker stuff as my dad calls it. Tonight Diane and I picked some more blackberries and I had just enough to make some blackberry jelly. If I didn't do the first part of it myself I would have taken pictures just so I have a reference in the future. Making the jelly was pretty simple, although I wouldn't recommend starting it at 8:20pm like I did. :-P

To get the juice you need 10ish cups of blackberries. After removing all of the bad berries, stems etc you mush the berries up. After they are good and mushed you strain them through cheesecloth to get the juice and rid them of seeds. Next time I'm doing this with my jam as it is way too seedy. Live and learn, right? So from that you need 3 cups of juice. Next you combine the juice, 5 cups sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice in a large pan. Bring mixture to a rolling boil and add pectin, I used liquid pectin. Resume a rolling boil and stir constantly for exactly 1 minute. The next thing you know you have jelly! Well, what is going to be jelly. The mix gives you approx 3 pint jars (of course you have properly cleaned them beforehand and you have your canner heated and ready to go). Put the filled jars in the canner for 5 minutes then finally pull out and let sit at room temp for 24hrs. Presto, blackberry jelly!

The foamy stuff that I took of the top was pretty tasty so I look forward to giving it a try. Big shout out to my dad for helping me with the canning process, my grandmother for answering a million questions, Diane for letting me pick the berries and most of all my mother for providing the entertainment. She was doing Zumba the whole time. Haha. The pictures I do have won't upload, grr. Mom wants me to try peach on the next go around so we will see how that goes. Yippie! Oh, and my raspberry jam is quite good. It's just a bit seedy so next time I will use cheesecloth on that too.

Jam

So the other evening Diane and I picked raspberries. They are soooo yummy! I have been debating on what to do with them so I decided to try my hand at making jam. I have made blackberry jelly with my grandmother before but it has been so long that I forgot exactly how to do everything. So, as this was my first attempt alone I decided to just make 2 pints of jam.

Oh! You want to know the difference between jelly and jam? Well so did I many years ago. Here's what my grandmother taught me:
Jelly: is made with the juice of the fruit
Jam: includes crushed fruit or pulp of the fruit. Jam is usually less firm than jelly.
There ya go. Mystery solved! (You know I had to teach you something today)

So anyway, I made jam. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The way I made it was equal cups of sugar to fruit. My understanding of raspberries is that they contain their own pectin so I did not add any extra store bought stuff. Perhaps I'm wrong or you have a better recipe. If you do please share! I would love to cut down the sugar a bit.

The major problem that I ran into is that we don't have a caner. Instead I used a large stock pot. So to sterilize the jars I laid them sideways, covered them with water then boiled them for 10 minutes. During that time I made the jam. 4 cups of raspberries to 4 cups of sugar. In a pot I mushed them together using a potato masher. Once everything was well mashed I brought the mixture to a boil, stirred and allowed it to reach 104'C as the recipe I was using called for. After this I transferred the jam to the sterilized jar, put a lid and rim on and barely tightened them. Finally I moved the jars back to the stock pot (I placed a steamer net in the bottom to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the pot) and boiled for 10 minutes. I did have to lay the jars sideways in order to have water cover the top. I'm sure this is a big no-no for many reasons. Anyway, after the 10 minutes was up I pulled them out and now they are cooling on the counter.

So far the only thing I notice that is wrong is the head space, I was way off. My understanding is that it should be a quarter of an inch or so. Correct? Both jars will be pretty much eaten right away so I'm not overly worried this time. So, how terrible did I mess up? I should probably invest in a caner or a bigger stock pot since I plan to make more because we are going to be picking more soon. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!