Updates for my friends.
CAMERON’S SURGERY
Cam’s probe and irrigation surgery was yesterday morning. All of the stuff before the actual procedure (sitting in a little exam room, changing into the gown, having blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels taken, answering questions, getting hospital id bracelets, being touched and looked at by several nurses, waiting, waiting, waiting) was not so fun for Cameron. He was irritated and a little scared. Luckily, though, there was a TV in the room and Cam was somewhat distracted by The Wiggles.
Then it came time for the surgery. Only one parent was allowed to go back with Cam when he got the anesthesia…since he seemed to be especially attached to me yesterday, Tony and I decided I should be the one to go with him. A friend of mine warned me that it might be a bad idea to watch my child go under, but the nurse acted like one of us should go and I felt I could be strong about it, so I went. There was a nurse anesthetist, an anesthesiologist and two nurses that accompanied us to the operating room area. Cam seemed to be happy with this team (he really did not like his initial nurse – don’t know why…I thought she was pretty nice). He sat in my lap as the nurse anesthetist placed the mask with strawberry scented gas over Cam’s mouth and nose. He was pretty interested in the mask at first but then he started fidgeting and he looked up at me with a worried look in his eyes. After about 90 seconds, I guess, his eyes kinda rolled back and he was out. It kind of got to me when he gave me that scared look, but overall, it was not a horrible experience for me. Then one of the nursed took me to the waiting room where Tony was and then 15 minutes later, the ophthalmologist came out and told us everything went as planned. They inserted a thin probe (think fishing line) into each tear duct, “popping” the membrane that was causing the ducts to be clogged. Then he flushed the ducts with a solution to see if it flowed through. He’s confident that Cam is in the 90% of patients for which this procedure is successful.
When we were taken back to see Cameron in recovery, he was awake, but drowsy and a little cranky. He seemed a little disoriented. I just rocked him for a bit and the nurse watched him for a bit. After about 15 minutes, we were free to go. Cam was doing well on the way home…he was kind of almost falling asleep most of the time…so we decided to stop to pick up some lunch. Of course while Tony was in the sandwich place, Cam puked. Not that he had much to puke up (Tylenol and a little water) but he puked nonetheless. He was still acting tired when we got home, but he didn’t want to go to bed. Instead, he wanted to eat, like, a million saltine crackers! Poor guy was hungry – he hadn’t eaten since the night before. Then he had a nap and when he woke up, it was like our normal Cameron was back! He ate a ton for lunch and played like a madman. You would never know by looking at him that he had had surgery that morning. He’s been fine ever since.
His eyes may still leak or be crusty for a couple more weeks. Sometimes the surgery leaves the ducts a bit puffy. But after that, we should notice a marked improvement. Actually, his eyes have been rather clear all day. Hardly any tear spillage at all.
OUR COMPUTER
Some bad and sad news. Our computer died Wednesday night. Tony tried a bunch of stuff and it turns out our hard drive just fried. Using his words – I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. I’m currently typing on a laptop Tony borrowed from work. I really miss my computer! T bought a new hard drive tonight and is currently installing Windows. What really sucks is we’ve most probably lost everything that was on the hard drive. T managed to save some of the stuff off of it on the limited disk space we had available (stuff like my email and Microsoft Money). But what I’m really going to miss are all the pictures we had saved there. Luckily, though, a lot of Cameron pictures are on the website. However, they’re resized and you really can’t have quality prints made of resized pictures. Oh well. We really should have backed those up. I’ll also miss my favorites in IE and my budget workbook in Excel. Blah. I think T is going to take the old hard drive to his brother’s to see if he can recover anything. He doesn’t think it’s possible, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
BNLBNLBNLBNL!!!
You didn’t think I’d be able to get though an entire entry without mentioning BNL, did you? I found out tonight (thanks to this hot little laptop) that they’ve released U.S. holiday tour dates! And guess where they’re playing December 17? Yipee-ky-yay yes! The Taft Theater (or is it Theatre?) in Cincinnati!! How lucky are we? There are no dates in Indy or Lexington or Columbus, but Cincinnati gets one! I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get my email back so I can logon to The Ladies Room (fan club site) to see when their tickets go on sale. You see, I just very recently joined The Ladies Room, because I learned you can get very good seats (i.e., floor level, first several rows!) So, I was banking on the fact that BNL would have a show around here and thank god I joined! I am so going to get wonderful tickets this time! What an extraordinary Christmas gift this is. I guess there really is a Santa Claus! I’m silly, I know.
MY DAD
Dad officially checks into the hospital on Monday for at least a month. He gets his first round of chemo on his first day there. My mom is quitting her job to take care of him. It’s going to be a hard year. I hope we all come out stronger (especially Dad!) It’s gonna be rough going for a long while. I hope my entries don’t get too depressing. I’m going to try to maintain a positive attitude and outlook through all this.
Wellums, I must end this for tonight. Send some lucky computer vibes our way. Hopefully my next entry will be from my very own comfortable keyboard. ~Mel
CAMERON’S SURGERY
Cam’s probe and irrigation surgery was yesterday morning. All of the stuff before the actual procedure (sitting in a little exam room, changing into the gown, having blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels taken, answering questions, getting hospital id bracelets, being touched and looked at by several nurses, waiting, waiting, waiting) was not so fun for Cameron. He was irritated and a little scared. Luckily, though, there was a TV in the room and Cam was somewhat distracted by The Wiggles.
Then it came time for the surgery. Only one parent was allowed to go back with Cam when he got the anesthesia…since he seemed to be especially attached to me yesterday, Tony and I decided I should be the one to go with him. A friend of mine warned me that it might be a bad idea to watch my child go under, but the nurse acted like one of us should go and I felt I could be strong about it, so I went. There was a nurse anesthetist, an anesthesiologist and two nurses that accompanied us to the operating room area. Cam seemed to be happy with this team (he really did not like his initial nurse – don’t know why…I thought she was pretty nice). He sat in my lap as the nurse anesthetist placed the mask with strawberry scented gas over Cam’s mouth and nose. He was pretty interested in the mask at first but then he started fidgeting and he looked up at me with a worried look in his eyes. After about 90 seconds, I guess, his eyes kinda rolled back and he was out. It kind of got to me when he gave me that scared look, but overall, it was not a horrible experience for me. Then one of the nursed took me to the waiting room where Tony was and then 15 minutes later, the ophthalmologist came out and told us everything went as planned. They inserted a thin probe (think fishing line) into each tear duct, “popping” the membrane that was causing the ducts to be clogged. Then he flushed the ducts with a solution to see if it flowed through. He’s confident that Cam is in the 90% of patients for which this procedure is successful.
When we were taken back to see Cameron in recovery, he was awake, but drowsy and a little cranky. He seemed a little disoriented. I just rocked him for a bit and the nurse watched him for a bit. After about 15 minutes, we were free to go. Cam was doing well on the way home…he was kind of almost falling asleep most of the time…so we decided to stop to pick up some lunch. Of course while Tony was in the sandwich place, Cam puked. Not that he had much to puke up (Tylenol and a little water) but he puked nonetheless. He was still acting tired when we got home, but he didn’t want to go to bed. Instead, he wanted to eat, like, a million saltine crackers! Poor guy was hungry – he hadn’t eaten since the night before. Then he had a nap and when he woke up, it was like our normal Cameron was back! He ate a ton for lunch and played like a madman. You would never know by looking at him that he had had surgery that morning. He’s been fine ever since.
His eyes may still leak or be crusty for a couple more weeks. Sometimes the surgery leaves the ducts a bit puffy. But after that, we should notice a marked improvement. Actually, his eyes have been rather clear all day. Hardly any tear spillage at all.
OUR COMPUTER
Some bad and sad news. Our computer died Wednesday night. Tony tried a bunch of stuff and it turns out our hard drive just fried. Using his words – I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. I’m currently typing on a laptop Tony borrowed from work. I really miss my computer! T bought a new hard drive tonight and is currently installing Windows. What really sucks is we’ve most probably lost everything that was on the hard drive. T managed to save some of the stuff off of it on the limited disk space we had available (stuff like my email and Microsoft Money). But what I’m really going to miss are all the pictures we had saved there. Luckily, though, a lot of Cameron pictures are on the website. However, they’re resized and you really can’t have quality prints made of resized pictures. Oh well. We really should have backed those up. I’ll also miss my favorites in IE and my budget workbook in Excel. Blah. I think T is going to take the old hard drive to his brother’s to see if he can recover anything. He doesn’t think it’s possible, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
BNLBNLBNLBNL!!!
You didn’t think I’d be able to get though an entire entry without mentioning BNL, did you? I found out tonight (thanks to this hot little laptop) that they’ve released U.S. holiday tour dates! And guess where they’re playing December 17? Yipee-ky-yay yes! The Taft Theater (or is it Theatre?) in Cincinnati!! How lucky are we? There are no dates in Indy or Lexington or Columbus, but Cincinnati gets one! I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get my email back so I can logon to The Ladies Room (fan club site) to see when their tickets go on sale. You see, I just very recently joined The Ladies Room, because I learned you can get very good seats (i.e., floor level, first several rows!) So, I was banking on the fact that BNL would have a show around here and thank god I joined! I am so going to get wonderful tickets this time! What an extraordinary Christmas gift this is. I guess there really is a Santa Claus! I’m silly, I know.
MY DAD
Dad officially checks into the hospital on Monday for at least a month. He gets his first round of chemo on his first day there. My mom is quitting her job to take care of him. It’s going to be a hard year. I hope we all come out stronger (especially Dad!) It’s gonna be rough going for a long while. I hope my entries don’t get too depressing. I’m going to try to maintain a positive attitude and outlook through all this.
Wellums, I must end this for tonight. Send some lucky computer vibes our way. Hopefully my next entry will be from my very own comfortable keyboard. ~Mel
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