Nose job!

****WARNING: This blog contains pictures from after my surgery so stop now if you don't want to see them!****

Ok, So I didn't really get a nose job, but I did have surgery on my nose. For at least the past 7 years, probably longer, I have not been able to breathe out the left side of my nose. Besides being annoying it started causing major problems recently. I was getting bad headaches and felt a lot of pressure on the left side of my face near my eye. After many CT's and visits to the doctor I was finally sent to an ENT. He diagnosed me with chronic ethomidal sinusitis, chronic maxillary sinusitus and deviated nasal septum. Basically that means my nose was blocked and causing all sorts of problems!
Yesterday I had my surgery. I arrived at the hospital at 10 am and was scheduled to go into surgery around 12:30. Seth took me and Kimmie stayed home with Oma. Because this was not "major" surgery it did not require me being put fully under anesthesia! I was so nervous about that! They started an IV and around 11:45 the anesthesiologist came in and talked me through what was going to happen. He gave me a couple shots and then I said bye to Seth. At that point I was sleepy, but not asleep. They wheeled me into the Operating Room and started the surgery. They did cover my eyes so I could not see anything, but every once in a while I could see the tools he was using. I felt him give me the shot in the nose and it felt kind of like when you get numbed at the dentist. I could feel it but it wasn't painful. Even though I was pretty out of it, I was still kind of aware of what was going on. The doctor started with my right side and I was so loopy from the drugs I started getting nervous he would forget to do the left side. So, at one point I even asked if he was going to do the left side, it was a dumb question but the drugs were talking:) He assured me he was going to do both sides. I don't remember much after that. Before he put the packing in my nose he asked me to breath in and for the first time I could breathe through both nostrils! Then he packed my nose and sent me back to recovery.

Seth was quickly by my side again & assured me I looked amazing! Because of all the padding in my nose I had to breathe out my mouth, which was annoying, but I was not in any pain at this point so that was good. I was mostly sleepy. This picture was taken right after I got to my room. It was hard to smile, so that is why I look so weird, plus I am still drugged up:) After about 30 minutes in recovery the anesthesia started wearing off and they gave me some vicodin. We had to wait another 20 minutes to make sure the pain medicine was working, then they discharged me. I was pretty much out of it the whole way home. I went to see Kimmie right away. Oma tried preparing Kimmie for seeing me by putting tape on her nose, but that only scared her. When she saw me she was a little nervous, but she let me hold her. I held her for a minute then headed downstairs for bed. I was told to spend the rest of the day laying with my head elevated and getting plenty of rest. I could only eat really soft things because it hurt my nose to chew. I hadn't eaten since midnight the night before so Seth made me soup right away. It was so good! I stayed in bed watching Felicity Season 1 and at one point Kimmie came and snuggled with me. She is so cute! I stayed in bed the rest of the night. Seth went out and got me mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC for dinner (which I love!) and then also got me Coldstone ice cream. It was so yummy! I also got a special delivery that afternoon. I received some beautiful yellow and white daisies and a teddy bear from Angie and Rossii. They are so sweet, thank you so much! They also sent a card that read "Hope you can finally breathe better. Now gets makin a baby!:)" It made me laugh so much! I can't say I am up for the baby makin just yet, but soon enough:) That night I slept ok. I woke up around every 20 minutes to get a sip of water. Since I could only breathe out my mouth it would get very dry, fast. I was also taking pain meds every 4 hours. Around 3 am I noticed the pain medicine wasn't working that great anymore. I tried to sleep but all I could think about was taking my packing out of my nose. I was told I could take it out early the morning after surgery. I was set to take a vicodin at 6 am and I was going to give that an hour to take effect and then take the packing out at 7. Well, at 6 I was just in too much pain. The swelling was going down, but because I had all the packing in my nose it was causing a lot of pain. So, at 6:15 am I woke Seth up and made my way to the bathroom to take it out! These next pictures are kind of gross, so don't say I didn't warn you.

The morning after surgery, getting ready to take out the packing

The start of taking out the packing. It wasn't so bad at the beginning, but then i just kept coming and I started to feel a little nauseas. It was a little painful, but mostly uncomfortable.

It seemed like it was never going to end. How did they even get all that up my nose?!?! Once I was done I had to go sit down because I thought I was going to vomit.

After taking out the packing I started feeling a lot better. I went back to bed and was able to slept until 9:00 am this morning! I still have some drainage and I have to use a saline spray every 4 hours, but I CAN BREATHE OUT BOTH NOSTRILS!!!! It is crazy! I am still really tired today and I need to take it easy. I still haven't had anything to eat yet, it is still a little uncomfortable to chew. Mostly my nose feels really dry and scabby inside so if I do too much it starts bleeding. I am hoping to feel better by dinner and have a nice big meal! This morning Kimmie and me watched Happy Feet. It is still hard for me to hold her because sometimes she accidentally hits my face. She wants to play and doesn't understand why mommy can't play with her. These pictures were taken this morning after I woke up. I feel much better and by tomorrow I hope to be almost back to my normal routine. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. I really do have the best family & friends EVER!! I love you guys!!!

Neil Diamond concert canceled:(

So I got an email today saying the Portland Neil Diamond concert this Monday has been canceled due to "unforeseen production logistics". What does that even mean??? I know he has been having trouble with his voice and some fans left his concert demanding refunds & they gave them! I am so bummed! I was so excited to go to the concert. They said we can get a refund for our tickets or wait and use them for the TBD concert date. I don't know what to do!!! I want to see him really bad but who knows when/if they will reschedule it. So sad:(
My surgery is tomorrow at 10am. I am so excited to be able to breathe again! Well, I am going to do some more research about the canceled concert and decide what to do.

Oneonta Falls

So, we went to Oneonta Falls last week with Cyndy, Scott, Kimmie & Oma (Kimmie and Oma stayed back and played in the stream) It was so beautiful! I have been there a couple times, but have never been able to hike all the way to the falls. To get there you have to climb over a bunch of fallen logs......then walk through FREEZING cold water. I have NEVER felt such cold water in my life! The water gets up to your waste and then it opens up to the beautiful falls! It was my goal to climb up and jump into the falls. The boys have all done it many times before. I swam over to the rock ledge (you can see it in the first picture, there is just a little space on the right of the falls where you can stand). You have to somehow pull yourself up and then jump off into the water. The force of the falls hitting the water caused a strong current that pushed you against the rocks. I was so scared! I have a very vivid imagination and I kept thinking I was going to drown (I know it, it sounds stupid when I say it now!). Now that I think about it the current wasn't that strong, I was just scared! The water is only deep around where the falls hit, every where else it is either waste deep or to your ankles. So it was very silly of me to be scared. But, I swam out and waited as Seth pulled himself up. By this time I was freezing and very nervous. I decided that I wasn't going to try it and I swam back. Seth got up there and jumped into the falls. It looked so fun! Now I am so mad at myself for not trying! Oh well, we will go again and next time I am getting up there! Here are some more pictures from the trip. It is very dark in there so some of the pictures may be hard to see.

the water is getting deeper

and deeper.................

Scott trying to pull himself up while Seth and I wait

Seth made it up & tried to help Scott. I am holding onto the rocks & at this point decided I was too scared to try it so I swam back to Cyndy. It is hard to see me but I am there.
me and Seth after we swam by the falls

Overall it was a fun trip and is definitely worth doing again! I wish I had some pictures of Kimmie playing in the stream but Oma doesn't have a digital camera so we will have to wait for those. Thank you Oma for watching Kimmie while we hiked.

We did it!!!

We did it! We ran our 5K this morning! This is us at the finish line. Seth and Scott finished in 29 minutes (Seth was 2 seconds ahead of Scott). My time was 31:54. I averaged 10:30 per mile. That is not super fast, but it is the fastest I have done in a long time! I am pretty proud of my time, especially since we just started running last week! Seth's cousin Bekah also ran with us and she did GREAT!!! Kimmie was waiting at the finish line with Oma cheering us on! Next year we will take Kimmie with us!
We also hiked Oneonta Falls this week. I have never been able to do it because I was pregnant when they went last time. You have to hike through a log jam and the water is FREEZING! I will post pictures and more about that later. Well, the run was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Running a 5K

Yesterday we found out our city is having a 5K run/walk this Saturday (they are doing a bunch of activities for Tigard Family Fest). Seth & I have just started running every night & so far we have done 3.48 miles a night. Neither one of us have ever done a 5K before but it is only 3.1 miles so we figured since we do more than that each night why not give it a try! We signed up yesterday and the race is tomorrow morning. It starts at our city hall and takes us through the trails in the parks. Then we end at our church building where we will get free breakfast! Scott is also running with us. It should be a lot of fun! I don't really care how fast we do it as long as I finish! I will post the results tomorrow!

Congrats Cyndy & other fun stuff!

Cyndy has been promoted to General Manager of the Wilsonville Regal Cinemas! Congratulations Cyndy! Cyndy has been working with Regal since 2003 & she definitely deserved this promotion. We went there to get a tour of the theater and Kimmie is practicing for her future job in concessions. We are so proud of you Cyndy & very excited to screen all the new movies with:) Especially Twilight!!!! We have had a fun week. Last weekend Cyndy went to Astoria, Oregon to do some canning. I have never been there so we decided to drive up and see the sights. We ended up leaving later than we planned so we didn't see too many sights but we had a lot of fun visiting Cyndy & our friend Kim. When you first drive into Astoria you notice this HUGE bridge. I am working on overcoming my fear of bridges so we decided to drive across it. It was not scary at all! The Astoria-Megler Bridge is a truss bridge that spans the mouth of the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America at 4.1 miles across. It was hard to get a picture that showed exactly how long and scary looking the bridge was! I took this one as we were driving but hopefully you get the idea. You should google it to see more pictures.
Today we went blackberry picking. Kimberly LOVES blackberries! Every time we picked on she would stick her hand in the bucket and eat it. We decided to give her some and she started shoving four or five in her mouth at a time! If you have ever picked blackberries you know they are very thorny so it is a pain, but worth it! We took lots of fun pictures but there are too many to post. I think this one sums of picking blackberries!
Seth & me have been running every night & last night we ran 3.48 miles. I will post some pictures later to show my weight loss progress. I have lost almost 60 lbs since August 2007 & I am trying to lose at least 10 more pounds by Halloween! Wish me luck!!!

Walking with Mickey & a little Twilight news!

Kimberly loves walking while holding your hands. Her new thing she LOVES doing is walking with her friend Mickey:) She will hold onto your finger with one hand, then hold Mickey's hand with her other and walk around with him. It is the cutest thing ever. She looks at him while she walks and she is always so excited! (You may have noticed this is not your normal size Mickey doll) Now I can't stop thinking we should take her to Disney World & see how she likes it!
She still walks holding your hands but has also started where she will walk from me to Seth and if we let go of her hands she takes a few steps by herself. Any day now she will be running around! She has also figured out how to go down the stairs, she slides on her belly & reaches her back foot around until she finds the next step, then slides some more. She is so smart, maybe too smart;) She keeps us on our toes, that's for sure!


P.S. I am sure all of you have heard that the release date was moved to Nov 21 for the Twilight movie but for those of you who haven't heard you can read part of the manuscript for "Midnight Sun" (Twilight from Edwards view) on www.stepheniemeyer.com You will LOVE it but will also be sad you can only read 264 pages. It sucks you in & then leaves you wanting more! She better get working on it again and finish it soon!