Crater Lake (June 13-14)

After breakfast with the Hoppers we headed south to Crater Lake, after hours of driving we got to the lake just as the sun was setting.  So beautiful!  We then proceeded back down to our cabin that we rented.  The cabin was covered in snow and in the woods.  I think if we were to go again for just a night like this we would have stayed at the lodge with a view of the lake, but it was cheaper to stay down at the cabins so that is what I had booked.  After getting settled in we ate the Subway we picked up on the way there and headed to bed early so we could get up and snowshoe the next morning. 

For breakfast I had some danish that I had bought in Vancouver and then we headed back up to the lake.  It was an insanely clear day and the snow was almost blinding.  So absolutely beautiful.  The lake is so majestic.  Part of me wishes we could have gone later in the year when you can go down and boat on the lake but the other part is very happy we saw it covered in snow, it was absolutely gorgeous!

Following our snowshoe adventure we went and checked out the store and mini museum with info on the lake.  I picked up a Christmas ornament and a t-shirt and we headed out.  We had some beautiful views of Mt. Shasta and then settled down for the night in Redding.  

Crater Lake was beautiful and we certainly are planning on going back someday!

Visiting the Hoppers (June 11-13)

The first couple days of our vacation we stopped off at the Hoppers in Vancouver to catch up and visit with them.  I wish they lived closer, they really are great friends.  The night we got there we went and watched X-Men First Class, it was what it was expected to be.  I liked it, but I'm not a huge X-Men fan or anything so I wasn't blown away by it or anything.  Very entertaining though. 

The next day we had planned on going to the zoo but decided to go to the farmers market instead. It was a nice relaxing stroll through the market and I had a very tasty Belgium waffle.  Yummy!  Dereck seemed enjoyed the music while we ate, he sure is getting big, I can't believe he is already two years old.  I found these really neat bird baths that I think would be fun to make someday.  For dinner Valerie and I went and got Thai food take out and borrowed a Cricut cartridge from Lindsey so I could cut out a few things to use for Sara's bachelorette party boxes.  Later that night ended up doing some shopping to get the paper and such that I would need for the boxes.  While we were off doing that Richard and Adam played some magic and visited.  We then came back and proceeded to cut out lots of little rings and such for the boxes.  It was nice to visit with Valerie while we did that, have I mentioned how much I wish they lived closer?

On Monday we were heading to Crater Lake but we didn't have any plans for that day really so we stayed and visited a little and then went and had an incredibly yummy breakfast at a place that Adam and Valerie had never eaten at but always heard it was good.  It was good, I'll try to remember to tell them we want to go there again next time we visit.  To bad I can't remember the  name of the place.

I'm not sure why but I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but we did get a picture of Valerie and I before we left from the restaurant.

Guys and Dolls at the 5th Avenue Theater

I love going to the theater so when these tickets went on sale for black Friday I just had to pick them up.  I called the whole family and tried to get everyone to go but they decided they wanted to see Oklahoma! instead (which later got changed to Aladdin).  So I just bought the two tickets to this and Richard and I got to go on a nice little date.  It was an awesome production, great singers, great songs, great story.  I just love Guys and Dolls! 

Meet Izzy!

We got a new dog and we've named her Izzy.  She is a sweetheart but can be quite the handful as well.  It took us a couple weeks to get her crate trained and she does enjoy barking which I am really not used too, but all in all she's been adjusting quite well. I'm way behind on blogs so I'm just going to add a couple pictures of her for now and I'll try to touch up on how she is doing later.

Sinus surgery... aka Hell week

Now that it's two weeks post surgery I can look back on it all and say, yes that was hellish indeed.  The surgery itself wasn't so bad, but the week following was pretty horrible, pretty horrible indeed.  This blog is pretty much a reminder for me of everything I went through, you really don't have to read it.

4/21: We went into the surgery floor and checked in, they quickly took me to change into my lovely gown with funny little shoes and put everything of mine in a little bag.  From there I went with a nurse who put the IV in my vein and they started putting a saline type solution in me to get nice and hydrated.  They also gave me an anti-inflammatory/anti-nauseous medicine into the IV as well.  After she finished doing that the anesthesiologist came and talked to me (about what? who knows), had me take a couple puffs on my inhaler just to be safe and said he would see me in the operating room.  I sprayed stuff up my nose every 5 minutes and visited with Richard until it was time to go to the operating room, it really didn't take long at all.

My first impression of the operating room was, this place is huge!  I wonder how many people they could fit in there.  They had me climb on the little table in the middle of the room and the anesthesiologist was talking to me while giving me oxygen.  The nurse was trying to take my arm with the monitor and stick it to my body with the sheet, she was all worried about my being claustrophobic, like I would have long for that to be a problem.  The anesthesiologist was telling me about the drug they were giving me, how it was much better for nausea but quite a few people say that it makes their arm feel like it's burning.  As he's saying this if felt like my arm was being lit on fire from the hand and it got right about to just a little above my elbow and I was out.

Next thing I know I'm in a recovery "room" and flailing around wanting to know where I am and if everything went okay.  The nurse kept telling me to calm down, I kept saying I was sorry and flailing just as much, it was surreal feeling, I really do like to feel in control of myself.  Eventually I calmed down and they brought me to the little space where Richard was sitting, not sure what they gave me for medicine but it must have been something good.  I don't know how long I was there, I just remember the nurse before saying that I needed to have my pain under control or I wouldn't get to go home, she said if I said it was a 7 or higher they would have to send me to the hospital to get my pain controlled.  Never do I actually recall them asking me if I was in pain while in the recovery area, I'm sure they did but I don't really recall feeling pain then, just disoriented.  But then I don't recall them getting me into my clothing either and I certainly didn't go home in a hospital gown.  After awhile they told Richard where to pick me up and they helped me walk to the door that lead out to the sidewalk right as Richard pulled up to talk me home.  I got home, plopped onto the couch and quickly fell asleep.

4/22-4/23: After getting home I had a day or two of not feeling too horrible, I wouldn't say I felt good, but it wasn't as bad as what was to come.  Thursday night and Friday went okay, I was wobbly and needed help to the bathroom but I was eating soft foods and not feeling all that nauseous, sadly that was about to change.  Sometime on Saturday I started feeling nauseous, I wouldn't eat anything and I would get hot and cold and shiver uncontrollably.  

4/24: Come Sunday Richard called the doctor because I was still shivering and not eating and feeling miserable in general, yes he had to call the doctor on Easter Sunday. Thankfully the doctor was able to order some anti nausea suppositories after Richard found a pharmacy that was open to send the order too.  The suppositories helped, I went from feeling really horrible to just feeling horrible.  Joy joy.  

4/25-4/26:  Not too much eventful went on for the next couple days, I continued to feel horrible and barely ate anything.  Richard made sure I had my pain meds every 4 hours, my suppository every 6 or 8 hours, my antibiotics day and night, kept my ice chip bowl full and tried to get me to eat something.  At this point about all I was eating was apple sauce and popsicles.  Richard was amazing about taking care of me, and when he couldn't my mom would come over to assist me with walking across the house to the bathroom and fill the ice chip bowl.  I knew I needed to stay hydrated and my mouth was constantly dry so I was sucking on ice chips like crazy and just trying to keep hydrated.  Richard slept on the floor every night by the couch so he was there to make sure I had everything I needed, he would wake up and give me my meds, fill my ice chip bowl and help me to the bathroom anytime I asked.  He really is an amazing man and I am so incredibly lucky to have him as my best friend and partner for life.

4/27:  (I should warn you this day ends kinda grossly) The day started out just about the same as every other day since I got home, still feeling absolutely horrible, not eating and sleeping most of the day.  To make matters worse right about in the middle of the day one of my pain pills got stuck in my throat. I kept drinking water, sucking ice chips, doing anything I could think of to get the thing to go down.  It was driving me crazy!  My mom finally talked me into having tea which only kind of helped, but the pill continued to be stuck.  I looked on my phone to see some suggestions of things to get pills to go down, someone suggested peanut butter, so my mom slathered a piece of bread with peanut butter and I ignored my nausea and ate it.  The pill went down and I was amazed by my new found friend peanut butter.  Later that night I took my next pain pill no problem, but my antibiotic which is much larger once again got stuck in my throat.  Back to drinking water, tea, trying to eat apple sauce and finally a slice of bread covered in peanut butter.  This time the peanut butter didn't work and I had this huge pill stuck in my throat.  I kept drinking and drinking and praying the thing would go away, but no.  I poked and prodded at my neck and could feel where I thought the pill was.  I wanted to sleep so bad but the pill was driving me insane, finally I got up to get some more water and as I was filling my water container I coughed up one of the nastiest things I've ever seen, especially coming out of my body.  I'm guessing all the drainage down my throat plus my laying down for most of the week made stuff just slowly build up.  It was gross and freaked me out, I had previously had a pretty intense dream regarding coughing up lung pieces earlier in the week so it really did freak me out.  I went and sat at Richards laptop trying to calm myself down, after sitting for about 15 minutes I just about fainted walking back to the couch, once again I was incredibly thankful Richard was sleeping on the floor because he had to help me back to the couch to lay down again.

4/28:  Richard helped me get ready to go to the doctor to have my shunts and spacers removed, I took the last of the evil pain pills that I would take and we headed to the doctors office.  When we got there we both expressed our concern that I might faint (I'm not very good with blood), so the doctor laid the chair back and had the nurse come in with smelling salts just in case.  I closed my eyes and didn't open them again until everything was over.  The things that came out of my nose/nasal passages felt like there was no way they should have fit in there.  The cleaning was a bit painful and I was incredibly happy that the nurse recommended making sure to take the pain pills at least a half hour before the appointment.  Richard had to go into work for a meeting so my mom took me home from the appointment and helped me all day. It was amazing to finally be able to breath again, though the air felt rather cold and like there was too much of it (you have to remember I could barely breath before the surgery so it's something new)!  I think my mouth and throat had been numb from the ice chips for most of the week because after I started drinking the hot tea I started to feel more pain. My throat hurt something horrible from all the poking I did at it the day before.  I was able to get to the computer in the evening for the first time in a week and actually sit up, a huge improvement but still feeling ick.  I switched over to taking tylenol for the pain, I just couldn't take any more of the more powerful things that made me sick.  This was my first day back in my bed, and oh how I appreciated that!

4/29: Friday brought continued nausea and it was my first day home alone since this whole ordeal started.  I was feeling well enough to walk around but was NOT feeling like eating a thing.  I took to facebook to see if anyone had any good anti nausea remedies, lots of good ideas, I ate saltine crackers for most of the day and then Richard brought me home ginger tea and chicken noodle soup.  This was the first day I was actually able to eat anything and that was a very good thing.  I must say the worst part of the day was the being alone, I felt like crud and had really gotten used to having someone there with me, even if I wasn't talking or doing anything it was quite comforting to know someone was there.  I missed my Richard something horrible!  Oh, and I stepped on the scale to find I had lost 10 lbs in the last week, not a recommended diet at all!

4/30-5/1:  Just took it easy all weekend and slept through my first night in a long time!  I was finally eating some real food, plain type food but nourishing which was very much needed.  On Sunday I left the house for the first time for something not related to the doctors.  We went over to my parents and picked up a bunch of hamburger and then went out again to get some things we needed from Fred Meyers.  I was hoping getting out would make me a little more ready for work the next day.  After we got home we worked on getting the hamburger packaged up and in the freezer (my parents get emails about inexpensive meat/food deals and now I have a freezer full of food I need to remember to use).  Exhaustion set in quickly from doing the work, but I felt a little better about going to work Monday, but only a little.

5/2:  Back to join the masses! I headed to work, it was the first time I had driven since surgery and it was a bit freaky I must say.  I didn't really have the focus to pay attention to things and moving my head quick brought a sense of unbalance so I was exhausted from the drive before I even got to work.  I somehow trudged through the day though I'm not really sure how I made it.  I found that smiling is really difficult, all the little muscles in my face were frozen or something and I needed to reactive them for use, not to mention the little ones above the lip push my nose up and that just hurts.  I really shouldn't have gone back to work, but the doctors said that's when I would be ready.  I suppose I just like to prove the doctors wrong, well like to isn't really right but I do manage to do that.  I got home and collapsed onto the couch, watched a little TV with Richard that I don't really recall and then went to sleep. I was pretty happy that Richard and I put together a chicken and rice crock pot meal in the morning so we had food ready when we got home, there is no way I would have been able to make anything or go out to get something.

5/3:  I woke up feeling like I couldn't move any part of my body, it was completely worn out.  It's funny how we do all this stuff every day and never notice how much work it is until our bodies go through something traumatic.  And my face was hurting for the first time in quite a few days, it almost felt like someone was squishing my nose for me.  Not pleasant at all.  I stayed home and rested most of the day.  I did finally watch Eclipse, not sure why it took me so long, I liked it but then I like all the Twilight movies even if they are cheesy at times, what can I say?  Went to bed early so I could get up for work the next day.

5/4: I went back to work again and felt much better this time.  My smiler was starting to work better and I didn't feel like every little thing took insane amounts of effort.  Other then my face hurting and getting tired really easy, things were certainly starting to feel more normal.

5/5: Woke up bright and early for my 2 week check up, everything is healing as it should be and all the annoying things I have going on still are to be expected.  He said the post nasal drip should drop off in the next 2-3 weeks, I sure hope he's right because it's driving me crazy.  I have always had it but it is even worse then normal right now.  Ugh.  He cleaned out my nose and worked on removing crusts and such.  One of the crusts didn't want to be removed though and that hurt like a son of a gun, it's like picking at a scab that isn't ready to come off, but in your sinus cavities.  For the rest of the day my nose hurt pretty bad, I took tylenol but that's about all I can take right now and it just didn't quite do the trick.  I was happy when I could go and sit in the storage room and shred things, my people skills might have been lacking do to the fact that my nose felt like it was on fire.  But I made it through the day, went home watched some TV and did the sleep thing again.

5/6: It's finally Friday!  Feeling much better today and I made it through my first week back!  Very good.  Richard and I even went out for dinner at the tasty burger place (Blazing Onion, but we call it Tasty Burgers). I might have been ready for a burger, but my tummy wasn't quite as sure so I had an upset tummy for the rest of the night.  No fun, but it feels good to be out and about doing real things again.

5/7: Here I sit finishing up my blog about the last two weeks, I'm not planning on doing too much today, I just want to take it easy. I am still healing and I need to respect my body needs a break while I do it.  I'm hoping to be back to climbing by the end of next week, just the easy stuff but I need to be active again, if I wasn't so tired it would really be driving me crazy that I haven't been doing anything.