Adventures with Tonsils

As a child, I often had strep throat and would keep it for what seemed like weeks at a time. Over the past few years, I have been having more throat issues. I had acute tonsillitis four times between late August and January. The last two bouts were only three weeks apart. The doctor decided my tonsils needed to come out.

In case you haven't heard, having a tonsillectomy as an adult is considered pretty major stuff and quite painful. My mother had hers removed a couple of years ago, and had problems and pain for over a month. She even had to return to the hospital a few times after the surgery. The ENT warned me that it was going to hurt. And I'm an a huge weenie with a very low threshold for pain.

My surgery was on February 25th. Just a couple of weeks after I started my new job. The surgery went pretty quickly and I was given ten days worth of liquid antibiotics and liquid pain medication. I was told to take the Vicodin every 4 hours whether I thought I needed it or not. No worries...it quickly became my best friend.

For the first couple of days, the pain was pretty tolerable. Not much worse than having tonsillitis. But something happened on day three, and the pain intensified. GREATLY...

I spent over a week on a completely liquid diet. Then I started having referred pain in my right ear that would come in waves and was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Most times I could do nothing but rock back and forth crying until the pain medication kicked in. Even the Vicodin didn't take it completely away.

It is now 2 1/2 weeks post-op. I am finally back on solid foods, unless they are really rough and crunchy. My voice is back and the ear pain went away a couple of days ago. I returned to work this morning after taking two weeks off.

NOTE TO SELF: Advise anyone I come across to take care of the problem as a child. Do NOT wait until you're old. I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone...

Back to the Real World

Whew! This has been a long time coming...

We were gone last week on the cruise we purchased a mere 45 minutes before I was laid off from my job. We got home on Saturday. Had church and choir practice on Sunday; then had a HOUSE FULL of people over to watch the Super Bowl. We had a blast.

This morning I start my new job! Yippee! I have been off work since October 15th and am looking forward to my new challenge. I am so going to rock this new job!

On February 25th, I will have surgery to remove my tonsils. Now THAT will be fun :( I understand that having that done later in life is really painful. Luckily, my new boss is willing to work around it all.

Now that I am returning to a new routine, I hope to be able to post more often.

Wish me luck!

Anniversary

I missed a very important day yesterday:

December 8, 2004 - Anthony James Yaklin was released from Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital after 71 days in the NICU. He weighed exactly 4 pounds that day...

Happy Five Year Anniversary, sweet boy!

Missing

I seem to be missing a lot these days...

- I haven't been posting on my blog
- I haven't even been reading other blogs...and that's odd considering for a while I was checking them several times a day...
- I am missing having a job to go to every day
- I am missing my motivation

My routine used to be: get up a 5-5:30am, get self and AJ ready to go, drop off AJ at 6:30am, carpool with hubby to work, get stuff done at work, carpool home with hubby, fix dinner, watch TV with family, do a few chores, get AJ to bed, do a few more chores before bed at 10pm.

My routine now:
hear hubby's alarm go off at 5am, stay in bed while he gets ready and leaves for work, let AJ sleep in until about 6:45am, get both of us ready to take him to school, drop AJ off some time before 8am, come home, check Facebook, check email, check online job posting resources, clean house, watch TV...on my really exciting days I actually do the grocery shopping after I drop AJ off at school.

I REALLY need a job...I feel like I am killing more and more brain cells each day...

On the Lookout

On October 15th I was laid off from my job with absolutely no clue that it was coming. I hadn't been happy for several months, and just earlier that week, Hubby told me I should start putting out feelers to look for something else. Then we had a connection group meeting at our house and I asked for friends to pray for some clarity regarding my job. That clarity came less than 12 hours later when I was laid off.

What to do? Sit around and wallow and feel like a victim? Worrying what we would do without my income and a new house? OR

Look at it as the opening for something even bigger and better that God is setting up for me. Spend more time getting involved in AJ's school. Rest and reflect on what I would really like to be doing.

Someone wise reminded me this weekend that I only have limited space in my life. The past and the future cannot occupy the same space. So you have to move the past out to make way for the future. So I'm putting the past behind me and waiting anxiously to find out the next step.

I have sent my resume out to lots of different places. But in my industry, this part of the year is very slow. I have sent out to other opportunities, but haven't had much luck yet.

I know there is something really good coming. I just have to work on my patience...But I must confess, my attitude and stress level have improved greatly.

Whatever is on the horizon?

BRING IT!

Wordless Wednesday - UH Homecoming Alumni Band

Does this make me look fat?

Fannish Cookers

More evidence that my son shares most of his genes with his Daddy:

Last night we went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant because the Hubby was craving tamales. When the waiter came to take our order, AJ said (loudly), "Mommy, why all those cookers (waiters) talking in Fannish (Spanish)?

I explained to him that we were in a Mexican restaurant. He replied (again pretty loudly), "Mexican?! They REALLY like tamales here!"

Once his food came, he came up with an idea..."Mommy! I got an idea! We should come here to eat every day 'cuz these tamales are really good!"

Yippee...now I have two people in the house who would eat Mexican food three meals a day, seven days a week...(sigh)

Meat Eater

AJ has been learning a lot about dinosaurs at school recently and is fascinated by the subject. In fact, he announced to me earlier this week that he is going to be a paleontologist. (That's a mighty big word for a 4-year-old!)

On Monday night he watched a show with his Daddy on the History Channel. It was about volcanoes. By Tuesday, AJ announced that he was going to be a paleontologist and when the volcano 'rupted, he would save all the dinosaurs.

Tuesday's project at school was cutting out dinosaur pictures and sorting them as either plant-eaters or meat-eaters. (This will come back to haunt me later...)

When I picked him up Wednesday evening, I noticed that he had not eaten the peanut butter crackers that he wanted me to make for his lunch. When I asked him why he hadn't eaten his lunch, he declared:

"'cuz I'm a carnivore. If you put meat in my lunch I will eat it!"

Guess I need to stock up on the proteins...