Three total surgeries - there was blockage from her knee to her hip. Not good. They put a filter in the main artery in her neck to keep anything from going to the heart, lungs, and brain. They had to put the drugs directly in the vein to get it to thin out. But she’s doing well - so far so good. They’ll keep her there a few more days, but hopefully she’ll be home Monday or Tuesday. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts! Keep them coming.

We got the opportunity to visit Mike’s mom at the hospital yesterday. It was hard seeing her down because she’s a lot like Mike - not one to sit around and not do all the time. As we were leaving the hospital, LG looked up at Mike and said, “I think Grandma will be all right. I think your mom will be all right, Dad.” The first time she’s really connected the fact that Grandma is her dad’s mommy. And I thought the fact that she was trying to comfort him was pretty precious. It’s amazing what they can process at the age of 3.

The news today is that they will be doing several surgeries to clear out all the clots in her leg. They were going to do the first one today, but there were no open slots, so they will be doing it tomorrow. I don’t know much more than that at this time, and I’m sure that the surgery will go well. But surgery is surgery and there is always a risk, so please keep sending those good thoughts and prayers.

Scroll down for updates…

So this is shaping up to be a banner day.

7:00 am I am awoken by Mike telling me he has to go to his parents house because his mom’s leg is swollen and she needs to go to the hospital. (Someone has to stay with his grandpa and aunt, so his dad stayed and Mike took her to the ER).

Did I mention we are doing music for a wedding ceremony this afternoon? And that LG was supposed to go to Grandma’s while we did that? So that was my immediate thought - what are we going to do with LG? Well, thank God for good friends. I emailed Marlene and she offered to take LG with them to the birthday party they are going to (which is for the little girl I made the onesies for in the last post) and to which we were invited, but couldn’t attend because of the wedding obligation. She’s even going to come pick her up. For both things, I am eternally grateful. The back up plan was that she go to Rochelle’s where we will be going after the wedding, but they are in the middle of getting ready for her graduation party and I figured she would freak out with all the strange people there anyway…lol!

7:30 am The doorbell rings. WTF??? Who on earth would be ringing my doorbell at 7:30 am??? I look out my bedroom window and see a strange car parked in the cul-de-sac. Obviously, I was not yet dressed since I’d been awoken only half an hour before and since then had been busy arranging for my daughter’s care. So, I jump out of bed, throw on some shorts and a robe, and go to the door. Only to see the car driving off down the road and no clue left as to why they rang the doorbell in the first place. Do you think that if you ring someone’s doorbell that early on a Saturday morning, you might assume they are not dressed yet and give them time to answer the door? Again I say, WTF???

8:30 am I have to take a shower and there is no one to keep an eye on LG while I do it. Other than Melody. And she’s just as mischievous as LG is. So, I get LG changed and dressed. I turn on Disney Channel. I make her a bowl of cereal and move her little table off the carpet and onto the tile so she can eat and watch TV figuring that should keep her out of trouble. Then I go take my shower. When I come out, she has spilled her cereal on her table. (I knew that would happen!) But not on herself or the floor. And she’s trying to clean it up. So that went fairly well don’t you think?

9:00 am I am IMing with Rochelle about various things. I also sent an IM to a friend who is graduating from college today. At one point, I sent Rochelle a message saying that I just realized I needed to get the graduating friend a grad gift/card and that I was a dork. Only I didn’t type it in Rochelle’s window. I typed it in the graduating friend’s window. Doh! Karin = bigger dork.

So, that’s my morning so far. Mike is still at the ER, but he texted me when they went in the exam room. That was an hour ago and I haven’t heard anything since. So, on a serious note, please keep my mother-in-law in your prayers. Swollen legs can be scary things and we want her to be around for a good long time.

Now, let’s just hope the wedding is a resounding success. Please. I can’t take anymore stress today!

Update 1: Mike called and they did an ultrasound on his mom’s leg and were waiting for results, but said they would be very surprised if it was not a blood clot. *sigh*

Update 2: Opened the door to go outside and look at my garden and found a newspaper up against the door - which explains the doorbell ringing at 7:30 am.

Update 3: Or not. Mike said the paper was here when he left, so whoever it was brought it to the door with them. Still don’t know who or why they rang the doorbell at 7:30 am!

Update 4: The ultrasound confirmed the diagnosis of a blood clot in the leg. At this point in time they are treating it with medication, so please send prayers and/or good thoughts that this treatment will be successful. She will be in the hospital for a couple of days. Including Mother’s Day. :(

Update 5: Mike’s mom is status quo, but apparently in less pain (thank you morphine). The wedding went well. I didn’t screw anything up! Yay! And I think I sounded pretty okay if I do say so myself. LG had a good time at the birthday party and ate cake (even though she told me she didn’t want to eat cake). Thank you again, Marlene! Rochelle’s party was good. And hey guess what? LG ate more cake (even though she told me didn’t want to eat cake).

So, all went well at the doctor’s office. They didn’t do an echo. I have no idea why the telephone message (it was a recording) said they were going to, but whatever. Not a big deal I guess. My blood pressure was 110/80 and considering how stressed out and anxious I’ve been the last week or so, I consider that a small miracle (and also good genes - thanks Mom). My EKG was normal. Everything is good. He says to follow up with my regular cardiologist (the one I saw today is the one who does the ablations for flutters) at the next scheduled appointment, but if I have any major shortness of breath issues to call him sooner and get an echo scheduled so they can check blood flow.

We talked again about the Catscan they did of the heart several months ago and he said the radiologist said everything looked fine to him. So, things are good and try not to worry.

Try not to worry is a tough one, but maybe I can calm down now and not let the anxiety take control. Apparently, for all intents and purposes, I’m fairly healthy. I certainly don’t think I’m as healthy as I could be, but that’s mostly something I do have control over and need to take control over. So that’s what I need to focus on now. And maybe that will help the rest of it not be so stressful. Thanks for the good wishes!

I have an appointment with one of my cardiologists tomorrow - 6 month checkup kind of thing - which is probably good because then maybe if all is well I can stop stressing about every little twinge and not be having these anxiety attacks. They called yesterday to remind me of the appointment and to give me all the information (?!) I needed for it. Like, for instance, the fact that they are doing an echocardiogram (?!?). I suppose that’s not a bad thing, but when I made the appointment no one said anything about an echocardiogram. Shouldn’t they have maybe mentioned that when they were scheduling the appointment so that I’d be able to plan accordingly? Apparently they didn’t find it necessary to do so, but I would have liked to have had that little piece of information before yesterday is all I’m saying. I expected an EKG, but an echocardiogram is a little bit more involved. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have my appointment and all will be as well as can be expected.

Ever heard of mittelschmerz? I hadn’t until today. It’s a medical term for “ovulation pain” or “midcycle pain”. Who knew?

I used to get pain in my ovaries on a fairly regular basis when I was ovulating, but I haven’t had any for years, so when I felt it last night, I was rather startled. It was gone when I woke up this morning, but decided to make a return trip while I was in the grocery store. It’s not excruciating, and it’s not really debilitating, but it’s not fun and it’s annoying. And it makes me want to just sort of lay in bed all day.

I did a little research and found out it becomes more common as you grow older. So I guess that means I’m doomed huh? Freaking ovaries. Only ever did one good thing for me my whole life. :P

By the way, so that I can end this post on a positive note, that one good thing is 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days old today. And when this picture was taken, she was 3 hours and 18 minutes as well.

You might remember that I posted a few days ago about a bill I got from the anesthesiologist that was used for my ablation last summer and how I found out that the reason I got this bill for $608 six months after the fact was because the anesthesiologist was “out of network”.

I have an update and I also have some new information in my possession. The update is that the billing office for the anesthesiologist called me back a few days after I left the message regarding the bill and told me she would check with the insurance company and then get back to me, but in the meantime, I didn’t need to do anything with the bill since we were in telephone contact.

I haven’t heard back from her yet and it’s been over a week, but I did find a very interesting post today that gives me more ammunition. Here’s a snippet from the post…

When you purposely see an out-of-network doctor, your plan usually makes it clear that it’ll cost you. But when you have surgery, the hospital chooses the anesthesiologist. If you get that annoying “out-of-network” bill, Flynn says, draft a strongly worded letter stating you had no say about the anesthesiologist—in-network or otherwise—and, therefore, won’t pay any additional fees. “If you don’t have direct control, you are not liable,” Flynn says, adding that this tack is likely to work every time, but few consumers know about it.

Interesting stuff that. Read the rest of the post. There is some very good information in it. But that paragraph is the one I’m going to be testing out if necessary!

Edited to add: The squishing went as well as the squishing can go. It’s not fun, but it’s not horrible. And at least I’m done until next year! Yay!

So, it’s 5:45 am and I’m awake. At least today I know why I’m awake.

For most or all of my life, I’ve had this infernal body clock. I call it infernal because while it usually works pretty darn well, it sometimes works too well. Like, you know, waking me up at 4:30 am for a 9:10 am appointment. Helpful. Well, okay, I have to be there at 8:30 am. But still, 4 hours is a little excessive don’t you think? I tried for an hour to go back to sleep, but no go. So finally I gave up. Of course, I’m getting sleepy again, but I don’t dare go back to sleep. I do have an alarm set at least, so if I do fall asleep, it should (theoretically) wake me up.

I am so paranoid about missing appointments that I set alarms, send myself email reminders, put it on my computer calendar and send myself text messages. Par.a.noid.

Today’s appointment is my first yearly mammogram. I’ve had mammograms before, so I’m not really scared of the process, I just know that it’s not painless. Boobs were not made to be squished between plexiglass plates. That’s just not what they are there for. But. It’s a necessity, so off I will go in about 2 1/2 hours. And then it will be over. Until next year.

Hurray for the 40s. Bah humbug.

Ah, the joys of growing older. Monday I get to go have my first yearly mammogram (as opposed to my first mammogram which I had a few years ago). Soooo looking forward to that. It really should have been last summer, but well, it didn’t work out that way. It wasn’t that I was avoiding it, but here’s what happened…

Ever since LG was born, I saw my ob/gyn for my yearly visit in the summer, which is before my birthday. So when I saw my ob in 2006, I was 39. However, last year I was having all those silly heart issues during the summer and I put the appointment off. So, by the time I finally saw him in December, I had actually turned 41, but if I’d seen him in the summer like I was supposed to, I’d have still been 40. See how that works? Since it was just a routine mammogram, I didn’t rush to get it scheduled before the holidays and now it is finally upon me. Yay. Not so much looking forward to it, but not stressing either.

On the bright side, I had two people in the last couple of weeks surprised to find out I was in my 40s. They thought I was still in my 30s! And that made me feel really great. I’m sure having a small child helps with that thought process, but still…every little ray of sunlight is appreciated.

Marlene and I are back into our walking routine, which is not only good in the exercise department, but it’s fun to be able to have a half hour to talk and catch up and vent and so forth. And the scale is making me happier, too. Not happy. But happier. Onward and upward.

My weekend should be fairly quiet, but next week is going to be kind of crazy. Lent is almost upon us. My goal for Lent is to try and post daily reflections (or almost daily) over here. So if you’re into that type of thing, feel free to check it out and join in starting sometime next week.

And just in case I don’t manage to post again this weekend, have a a great one!

Well, this has been 24 hours or so I could have done without. Sunday-ish, I started having this blurry area in the bottom corner of my right eye. I thought maybe my eyes were just tired because I’d been using my computer a lot, so I determined to ignore it - it really wasn’t obstructing my vision, it was mostly just annoying. The blurriness kept hanging around, though, until yesterday when I started having pain around my eye - not in my eye, but around it. After a consult with Dr. Google, I decided that I should probably get it looked at since there were all kinds of scary things that it could be.

I don’t have a primary care physician (again) because my last one closed her practice, but I had the name of one I was planning to use, so I called there to get an appointment, only to hear there were no new patient appointments available until next Friday. Um, possible detached retina - waiting a week and a half? Maybe not such a good idea. The appointment setter suggested I go to Urgent Care, which I did. The urgent care doc couldn’t see anything, but thought it best I go to the ER. So off to the ER I went. When they finally got me back there, the PA in the ER also couldn’t see anything, but wasn’t overly concerned. He told me the best thing to do was follow up the next day with an opthalmologist.

So, this morning, I set out to make an appointment with a specialist…without a referral. If you’re on or have ever been on an HMO, you know how effing frustrating referrals are. I found a doctor that would be able to see me (after first managing to calling two pediactrics only doctors), called the insurance to see what to do about the referral, was told the written referral from the ER would be sufficient and called the doctor back. Well, then they told me that I needed to see a retinal specialist, so I had to call yet another doctor. Finally, I got an appointment, went to the office, waited an hour to get called back, got called back, got my eyes dilated, got examined (which OW! bright lights! shining in my eyes! ow!) and the diagnosis was…

…eyes are perfect, no problems, no retinal detachment, vision is great, everything is wonderful, but he didn’t quite know what was causing the blurriness - possibly my ocular migraines. So, now I’m just waiting for my eyes to undilate - they’re much better than they were. I can at least read things close up again.

It was quite a stressful time, though, worrying about whether there was something critically wrong with my eyes. My eyes, other than an astigmatism (that got better after my pregnancy oddly enough) and some nearsightedness, have always been pretty good, so it was scary to think something might be wrong with them. The blurriness is still there, but it doesn’t effect my vision, and I can live with it, I suppose, as long as I know there’s probably nothing to worry about.

Next on my list of not-so-fun medical procedures? A mammogram. Yay 40s! :P

P.S. I still hate, detest, and otherwise loathe insurance companies. Bah humbug.

If I had the opportunity to go back in time and change one thing about my life, it would be keeping my very young self or my pregnant mother from taking Tetracycline which caused staining (and I’ve been told it also can affect the matrix of the teeth and cause them to become brittle which seems to be what happened in my case). I figure that would have prevented most or all of the dental issues I’ve had in my life. Who knows? But that’s the thing I’d go back and change.

So, anyway, I have a lot of dental issues. And it’s going to cost a lot of money to fix them. And dental insurance? Is sort of worthless if you ask me. Yes it covers certain things, but it doesn’t cover what you really need it to cover if you’ve got a lot of problems. It won’t even cover the extractions and deep cleanings I need before I can even think about the dentures or implants that I’m going to need once we get my mouth in a little better shape. And don’t even think about insurance covering implants since that is considered “cosmetic”. Cosmetic my butt. I need to chew don’t I? Isn’t that what teeth are for? Bah humbug. (Read on …)

I have to go to the dentist this morning. I hate going to the dentist. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I get anxiety attacks. And it has nothing to do with pain. It’s a lot of other stuff that I might explain after I get home and have survived. So, yeah, pray that I don’t run away I guess. *sigh*

I woke up with a cold this morning. Well, actually I started feeling congested during mass last night. LG was running a very low grade temperature yesterday (99 for most of the day, which I don’t really count as a fever and 101 when we got home from mass), but she seems to be okay today, so hopefully it’s just a 24 hour thing and I’ll be done with this by tomorrow.

Our property guests have left us and moved on to their next stop. LG is really going to miss their little girl! With all that was going on this week, I’m way way behind on my email and my RSS reader, so I’m going to spend the day lounging around doing nothing but trying to catch up on my internet and watching television. And attempting to take care of my kid while not be able to talk much louder than a whisper. That’ll be fun. But at least we have leftovers so I don’t have to worry about cooking tonight.

Update: LG’s fever has returned, so we’ll be hanging out in Mommy’s bed today getting some much needed rest!

All the ultrasound test results were normal. Except there is a small (very small) mass on the uterine wall which is “probably” a fibroid. Personally, I think it’s scar tissue from when I had the c-section because of the partially detached placenta and my doctor told me it was a mess in there and that he tried to get everything out but there might be some left. So, I’m not really concerned. I have to go see him for my yearly exam anyway, so we can discuss it then.

The blood tests results are not back yet, but she will call me Friday with those. And I don’t really expect there to be anything wrong. As I said to Marlene today, I think my heart problems are a big enough cross for me to bear. Ya know?

Now about those palpitations I’ve been having. I tried to get an appointment with my cardiologist yesterday just to check, but my doctor is changing practices and is no longer seeing patients. And there weren’t any other appointments available this week other than one that was too far for me to want to drive. So, I figured since I was going to see my regular doctor, I’d talk to her about it. She did an ekg and it came back abnormal (which is normal for me if you think about it :P) and then called the cardiologist’s office and faxed ekgs back and forth. And lo and behold, they decided they could see me today. Amazing huh? So I zipped over there and the doctor (who was new to me) told me not to worry about the palpitations unless they were accompanied by rapid heartbeat and no medication was necessary at this time.

So, basically all that worrying was wasted. But I guess that’s a good thing right?

Nothing exciting going on around here. Unless you count going to get medical tests as exciting.

Tuesday I had three ultrasounds (pelvic, abdominal and thyroid) to make sure everything is kosher and today I had a CT scan on my heart to map it. The CT scan itself was short and not really a big deal. But the getting the “contrast” into my veins was a bit of a deal. Took two tries. And look at that purdy bruise… (Read on …)