California!

Matt and I returned Tuesday from a well-deserved (well, by Matt anyway) vacation to California. More to follow later (pictures sans captions are up on our photo site), but here I give you a treat - Matt was so tired and footsore after walking from L&B's house->BART->Coit Tower->Pier 33->around Alcatraz that he paid $20 for a bicycle rickshaw to take us back to the Embarcadero BART station. Here's the video.

New design

Inspired by my recent return to blogging, I decided to update the look of my blog. Thanks for the help, Blogger! I like the new (new? to me anyway) template designer. Some of the stuff formerly located on the right side of the page is now found at the bottom. A few things are gone. Anyway, enjoy!

And to add a little content to this post, I'd like to present below a recent cross stitch of mine, given to cousin Lisa (which she had framed really nicely). I like it!

stained glass rose counted cross stitch (Janlynn)

My fingernails are bright yellow right now. Stephanie got some really fun nail polish called "mellow yellow" and I was jealous so she let me borrow it. We spent a good chunk of Friday hanging out and eating Dutch Babies (no we aren't cannibals, you should really visit the Original Pancake House).

Friday night was a fun evening at the Roberts with John, Susie, Emily, Rick, Luke, and Matt. Even though the deadline is technically April 18, Matt is pretty much done with busy season. He has spent the weekend sleeping and doing yard work. (It's amazing to me how much energy he has in such a short period of time once taxes are done). So he should be good to go to enjoy the end-of-busy-season orgy of drunkenness tomorrow night. Last night we hung out with Luke at our house. I shouldn't have been surprised that while I did something in the kitchen, they put in a Phish DVD.

I'm co-hosting the Roberts/Stimson family baby shower for Emily next month. The theme is the Very Hungry Caterpillar, inspired by a really amazing quilt that Susie made. We'll be having it at Amore and I'm thrilled to have cousin Lisa and five aunts as my co-hosts. It's my first time doing something like this so it's been a stretch for me. Fun, though! It's going to be awesome.

The end! For now!

Travel and stuff

Springtime is a time for travel for me because Matt is so busy with tax season. I've had some fun trips - California twice and Austin twice. Some other stuff has happened too.

Mom, Dad, Leslie, and me skiing at Northstar at Tahoe, 1/27/11

Cam and Dad, ski bums!

Lisa and Emily hanging out on the porch at Lisa and Eric's new house in Bastrop (Eric was trying to remove a stump), 2/20/11

Miles took my picture as I pushed the stroller at Babies R Us

Emily and me at Hula Hut

Emily, Baby Rhodes, and me with the amazing dinner we made for the Drehers (thanks for the mac & cheese recipe, Les!)

Sous, Bryan, and Leslie as we prepare to hike part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, 3/13/11

me on the hike

trying sushi at L&B's favorite restaurant

I had enough hair that I got a haircut! 3/24/11

riding the Tour of Dallas with Dad, Steff, John, Charlie, and Meredith, 4/2/11

getting new ink at Tiger Moon tattoo from Stephanie's brother Bryan, 4/5/11

new: the sun/clouds above the tree of life

Uncle Michael, as captured by Miles

playing Legos with Miles

Lisa and Lyla, 4/9/11

quickie update...oh wait, it's been a while. Not that quick then.

stitch-free!

I got my stitches out on 11/29. I can sleep on my right side and stomach now and being able to shift into any position at will has done wonders for my sleeping. Yay!

Tuesday marked three weeks since my second surgery. As I wrote that last sentence, I realized that my last blog update was before surgery #2. I guess I'll need to backtrack...

My chest incision was not healing well, this much I knew. And I knew that my head incisions were a little suspicious and weren't cleaning up like I'd hoped after I got my staples out on November 1. On November 4, I was in meeting with the study people and I asked Dr Enisa (who can do anything) if she could get me in to see the neurosurgery people to have them check me out. They put me on antibiotics (Levaquin) and scheduled me to come back in a week. Flash forward to 11/11 - Matt and I are in meeting with my neurosurgeon and he says all three of my sites are infected and I need surgery. The next day. Uh...

surprise! another surgery!

...so, on November 12 I went in for surgery #2, to debride the areas, treat the infection, stitch me back up, etc. And I was just starting to grow back my hair! I was supposed to be in the hospital for a night; instead I was there for four. At some point in there I turned 28, too. I still mess up my age sometimes because I was pretty high on pain meds on my actual birthday (the nurses sang me Happy Birthday, which was pretty dang nice of them). They even put in a PIC line to send me home with six weeks of IV antibiotics. Getting the PICC hurt (it took the person multiple tries and she kept bumping into the sides of my veins). My right arm was sore and bruised for weeks. But just when I thought I was going to be hosting home health aides and spending about six hours a day hooked up to an IV, the neurosurgeon's PA discovered that the study would pay for me to get Zyvox instead, a freakishly expensive and effective oral antibiotic ($90 per pill, two pills a day). They were able to take out the PICC and I got to go home. It was like surgery #1 all over again except the pain pills I went home with weren't as strong. I was as helpless and weak as a newborn kitten and my amazing family again swooped in to took care of me (I am very lucky to have them!).

I've had two post-op meetings with the neurosurgeons, and they are very pleased with my healing this time around. I'm just over halfway through my antibiotics course. My stitches came out on 11/29 and I am relieved to have those spiky things out of my head and chest!

Now, the obligatory gory pictures will follow... :)

INFECTION! (chest incision, three week post-surgery #1)

chest incision, four weeks post-surgery #2

PICC

Post-surgery #2 (I like taking pictures. They are going in my brain surgery scrapbook.)

And he can sing, too!

My father-in-law is a man of many talents, like being able to bike a hundred miles in August, catch big fish, and finish the New York Times crossword puzzle. But did you know he sings, too? =P