Quite a few thing to write about today.

#1 still no PET scan results.

#2 'Nother procedure scheduled for this upcoming Tuesday. I really hope this will be the last one. Not that I don't love balloon animals, or even Dr. Lo and his staff...I'm just sayin'....

#3 Cary and I have made the conscious decision to be the least festive house on the block. We are opting for the "hope that bare Christmas tree that has sat in our living room  for two weeks gets at least ornaments thrown on it" look. It works for us.

#4 If I had a hypothetical friend who was nervous because that hypothetical person thinks I "found out" this person was hypothetically gay, I would have three things to say. Hypothetically.   A-hem...First, I lived in West Hollywood.  My gaydar is as tuned as they come.  I already knew.  Second, I understand the need for discretion in a conservative climate, but if this hypothetical friend thinks for one second I would even care I would be heartbroken. And finally, I would hope that this hypothetical person would finally learn that I pick those I love based on what is in their heart and how amazing they are, not who they choose to spend their life with. 'Nuff said.

#5 Cary and I just celebrated our 12th anniversary together.  We actually CHOSE to watch a sunset together ~ and it was actually romantic!!! How weird was that? We even went on a real date and everything. It.was.awesome. We found an a.mazing Greek restaurant near Ynez and Jefferson in Temecula called, imagine this, The Greek Place.  If you are close you gotta check it out.

#6 still no stitching Delores back in, Ben had the flu the day we went up to LA, so we could not in good conscious ask someone to watch him. Poor baby made the trip with us and waited in the car during the PET scan. I just couldn't ask him to wait several MORE hours while I was in the ER.

#7 Ben had his kindergarten program yesterday. He was WONDERFUL.  We were singing on the way home and he told me I was singing Jingle Bells all wrong. I was supposed to go "one horse SOAPS and SWAYS.". We have been singing it that way ever since. It is much more fun.

#8 Cary and I have finally figured out a cheap labor source to keep our house clean (ish).  We pay the kids wages to do different chores (Oh we are brilliant). Twenty-five cents to unload a dishwasher has never been more worth it. We always used to say we would never pay our kids to do chores because that is part of being a family. We also used to say we would never let the TV babysit our kids. Or allow them to have candy. Or bathe in the same water as the kid before. Or pass a holiday without putting up decorations so our kids would always remember it how festive it was. Or my favorite, never ALLOW our kids to get cavities. Need I go on at this point? We have learned that we should never say never. It is just dangerous. Like throwing down the gauntlet to God.

It fell! I promise!!!!!

I had my day all set up to go into LA to get Dolores stitched back in, but I got word late last night that my 6 month PET scan was scheduled for tomorrow. I will just wait until then to get jabbed.

Long story short, the local ER told me to go to my primary care physician to put in those stitches. Primary care doctor said he doesn't have the facilities to do it, go to urgent care. Urgent care says they can't help, I need to go to my surgeon. Insurance will not approve a trip to see the surgeon on such short notice, go to the ER. *sigh* I am going to the ER at Cedars cause they have done this before and won't turn me away. It just adds up though, because every time I set foot in any ER , I have the joy of paying the $100 co-pay. I should be thankful I have insurance, 'cause man I would be in a mess without it, but still, 200.00 in a week just before Christmas kinda sucks.

SO here we are at the 6 month mark. I am a bit apprehensive (understatement) as this is the first full scan since the surgery. I could drive myself crazy with all the "what ifs", but I just can't. I mean I really can't. Every time I sit down and have a minute to think, a kid yells bloody murder, or the washer starts banging it's way across the laundry room floor, or the dog starts barking ferociously at the squirrel parked outside the living room window, you know ~ life.

To tell you the truth, I am OK with that. In fact I love it. Just this morning I heard this little interaction from the other room:

"Eat my sword mighty beast! HYAH! Hyah! AH HA! I have you now! You cannot escape! Eat my sword Mighty Beast!"...

...silence for about 4 seconds....

"MOoooom, Cowboy (the dog) ate my swOord!"

I am so grateful I have that.

Cary and I saw the most beautiful southern California sunrise together this morning.  Ask me WHY we were treated to such a spectacular sight.

Why you ask? Oh how kind of you to inquire.

Well, about 3 AM this morning, ye ol' feeding tube decided to finally take umbrage at all the verbal abuse I had been heaping upon it - and exited my body, stage left.

Maybe if I named it and talked nice to it from now on it will be nicer to me.  Hhhmmmm... *furrows brow* ... what's a good name......*jepardy theme*....

OOO  OOO I know! I will give her a nice Latin name. Dolore Asinum.  Dolores for short.

But back to my story...

The fun part was that I had recently lost my wallet, so no insurance cards, no ID, no nothin'.  After calling the hubby to come home from work, I tore through every file I had looking for something to prove I was me and that I had insurance (note to self and any others who have medical issues - keep a photocopy of everything in a handy place in case of this kind of emergency. Lesson learned the hard way.).  About the time I had found everything I needed, Cary got home and we decided to try a new ER. Rancho Springs was closer than Inland Regional, although it is much smaller and only has basic services. The entrance to the ER looks like a cheap motel, but the staff are lovely. They got Dolores back in place and even did an x-ray with contrast to make sure she was in the right place. Bless their hearts, they still refused to stitch her back in though. *big sigh*. Is it really that scary to take a jab at a completely willing victim patient? Cauliflower anyone?

So on the way home a completely exhausted me and an even more depleted hubby were blessed to witness said gorgeous sunrise. When I was single (a million years ago - or twelve - who's counting)  I would have thought it was romantic or something. We were both too pooped for romance. Buuut it was beautiful.

I may hate ERs and all that comes with them, but once in awhile they can be kinda amusing in a sick, twisted sort of way.

I went in yesterday to have my feeding tube stitched back in - Note to self and anyone else - NEVER go to the ER on a rainy Monday morning. First it took us 3 hours to get there (apparently people in LA panic when they see rain). Then we waited 5 hours in the waiting room to be seen. I wasn't concerned about that, I was far from critical and understood I was on the bottom of the totem pole.

But on to the fun part. I had read every magazine in the place (all 4 of them), read the paper, and was just basically bored out of my skull when a guy about three seats down said ~ out of the blue, "My son was shot down in Vietnam". I immediately went into "oh poor guy mode" and glanced up at him. He looked about 30 or 35. Hmmm. I was trying to ponder on this and do the math in my head, just cause I was bored,  when he said,  "Yeah he won the Medal of Honor". In a very crowded ER, NO one spoke.

I will now give a few choice quotes from this obviously VERY intoxicated young man, and in the order they were given. Keep in mind a couple of things:

1. he was never confrontational, just a nice guy who smelled bad and had had a few too many.
and
2.  ~ no one was speaking to him. 

" I wanna talk to Jesus. Wasn't he Jewish?"

" I got a lot of daughters, they are all Republican thank God."

"I NEVER SAID I was God!  I already met him, he sent me back to save all your souls".

"I'm still going steady with John Bonham"

" hmmm, Bill Gates... never mind I'm not allowed to talk outside of school".

"Whatever happened to Led Zepplin? He's my uncle".

" Here's my vote... Here's my vision...King Arthur... BOOORING."

"I'm jewish you know"

"Everybody's accusing me of being white. I'm not you know, I'm olive."

" I'm only here on business ya know"

To everyone who came in he said loudly, " I saved a seat for ya!"

"They treat me like gold here " (this was right after he got in trouble for picking the flowers in the planters)

When the volunteer, nurse or registration people would call out any name, He would stand up and yell, "THAT'S ME!". The security guard escorted him to the triage area after that, where his vitals were taken and he was escorted, very kindly, out.

He then ran back in , threw the flowers he had picked down on the floor and ran back out.

He snuck back in later and actually told the triage nurse he was having heart pains so he got his little bracelet and was told to wait. He still said some pretty wild and funny things, but by that time, he had found someone real to talk to ~ so Cary and I , we played hangman.

Thank you drunk guy for making a five hour wait much more enjoyable and yes I know I am a sick sick twisted person for enjoying that so much...

 Boring.....

  Not so boring....

Ok,
1. Still working on the kids school thing, but it is looking like we gotta move.

2. Almost finished straightening out the checking account mess.

3. Tore my last stitch holding my feeding tube in. Gotta run to the ER as soon as we drop of kids.

4. Today is picture day at school.

This has been, Update In a Flash...brought to you by crazy moms everywhere....

OK, so I went to the ER yesterday to have the feeding tube stitched back in, had a barium swallow and tried to get some I.V. fluids, but my veins kept bursting. (ouch BTW).  I am fine now though. Just tired and a bit bruised.

Cary had the three younger kids with him as he dropped me off and they were able to have a bit of fun while I was in there. On the way to come pick me up, he got a bit of a jolt though. As he was on the corner of 3rd and San Vicente, he heard 2 gunshots fired! He ordered the kids to get down on the floor of the car and he drove like crazy to get out of there! He called 911 to report it, and the operator didn't act like it was a big deal at all!!!  It made for quite the long and repetitive conversation on the way home though. Every kid was very keen on hearing that the policeman would catch the bad guy.

wayyyyy too much excitement...

I just love to hate that old curse, " May you live in interesting times" , with the idea that famine, flood and pestilence are all very interesting. My idea of the perfect wish for someone would be, " May you live a boring life". Quick , somebody wish that for me!!!!

My wound vac (a really cool piece of technology that uses a vacuum to help big wounds heal faster) got a blockage at 2 am on Saturday morning and I spent the rest of the night trying to resolve that. I finally called the home health care nurse at about 5 am, and she said she would send someone out in the AM to change everything, just to turn it off for now. I had dealt with her before and I trusted her. I did what I was told, but the on call nurse for Saturday (I had not had dealings with her before) did not want to come out to help me. She kept insisting that she would just walk us through changing the canister~ when Cary and I both knew just by the process of elimination the canister was not the problem. Both Kim and Donna, the nurses that came out to my home were lovely, but we were both sort of frustrated by Gloria. Being an on call nurse means by definition, covering any problems that arise~ am I too far off base on that one?!  grrrrr....

Anyway, long story short, we were fine just letting it be until Monday  as I had a followup appointment with Dr. Soukiasian, and we knew he would handle this no problem.

Well, then about 10:00 am, I was mid dose giving myself medicine through my feeding tube, when it got unimaginably clogged.  I was next to tears as I had tried to be so @###!!##T&**  careful about flushing it, even going so far as to flush it whenever I took a sip of water. That way I knew I was WAY over the minimum amount of before and after each dose of meds, before and after each feeding and 4 x a day on top of that. This was a bit more serious, so I called the home health care nurse again, and she advised me to go to the local urgent care. We both were not comfortable with that, so we called the on call dr . for Dr Soukiasian, Dr Parker. She told us to come into the ER and in the meantime try to put Diet Coke (of all things) into the tube on the drive up. Apparently it sometimes helps to breakup blockages. Who knew?! 

Well, as we were getting ready to leave, Cary called poor little Haley bug  (she took this weekend to go on a river rafting trip),and bless her heart, she cut the trip short and immediately headed here to watch the boys for us. And she was so sweet and cheerful about it!!! ( people - never wonder why I love these kids so dang much!!!)  Just as we hung up, our home teacher called us and asked what he could do for us (THANK YOU QUINTON for listening to that little voice!!!!!).  He and his sweet family watched the boys until Haley could make it the nearly 4 hours back from Bakersfield.

Long story short, new feeding tube put in,wound vac taken off and wet to dry dressing applied and Cary is now trained how to do that new kind of dressing. I was so proud! He didn't faint or get queezy once!!!  I have to admit, we've both kinda toughened up a bit since all this started... I could be wrong, but I really think we are tough enough now and am really praying for that boring life to start..... any ....second .....now....