Update on Tom (the Unknown)

Kind of funny I'm calling my husband an unknown...but I seriously believe he's certainly ONE OF A KIND! I'm sure I'll look back on these past 2 years with his health issues and smile (couldn't bring myself to say laugh). For anyone out there contemplating marriage...get a whole-body workup from a certified doc before you tie that knot!

Ok, on to the update: Heard from his back surgeon and he believes it has something to do with the SI joint injection he received last week. So he's going to call the doc that did the injection. We get a call late Tuesday night from the injection doc and he's still puzzled as to why Tom's having issues with his right foot, but will call him the next day to check on him. Later that evening, Tom was laying on his left side and said he felt a golf-ball size bump in his back when he laid on his left side. He shows me where he feels it and it looks about the same spot as they did the injection. We have him lay on a heating pad for about an hour and low and behold after that 1 hour of heat, he can wiggle his toes. As soon as he puts the foot down after getting off the heating pad..it starts to swell again...just more confirmation to me that it strings from the injection. Injection doc calls yesterday and after Tom told him of the revalation of the heating pad and knot..his response is "Ohhhhh". He wants to see Tom tomorrow morning. So hopefully that was a good "Ohhhh" and he knows what the problem is or NOT! I'm banking on the 1st one so we can get this cleared up. I'd like my life to go back to normal where I do the "mom" stuff around the house and he does the "dad" stuff. I didn't enjoy my evening spent removing caulk from the tub and replacing it and having to redo it cause I pressed too hard and it wasn't filling the cracks like it should! Or having to chissle open the frozen trash can lid to put a bag of trash in there. I need a vacation!

P.S. - Yesterday was my nephew's 14th Birthday - Happy Birthday Tyer, and thus starts the beginning of birthday season.

Dealing in the unknown...

For those that know me, know the issues my husband is having with his back, etc. He hurt his back at work in November of 2007. They kept telling him, he must have sprained something and it would get better. Fast forward to July of 08 when he finally had an MRI done on his back. The orthopedic surgeon diagnosed a degenerated disk in his back at S1/L5. So he started Tom on physical therapy 3 times a week. After 3 weeks of physical therapy and still no progress, he sent him to a pain management doc for steroid/cortizone epidural injections into his back. After 2 of these, the pain management doc said there was nothing he could do for him. He could do a 3rd shot, but since the first 2 didn't take, there was no reason to do the third. So that ortho doc sent us to a Neurosurgeon for surgery. We had that appointment on the day before Thanksgiving and surgery scheduled for Dec. 9th. Came through his 2 hour surgery 4 hours later because of some issues they encountered with is nerves and joints. Spent 5 days in the hospital and was sent home. He had an elevated heart rate (up to 170 at times) and a fever, so they were not going to release him, but finally after a vast array of tests and finding nothing wrong with him (remember this..cause it's a pattern), so they decided to release him.

Right before Christmas his right leg continues to go numb at certain points and is throbbing and causing him alot of pain. The day before Christmas Eve, he gets an MRI of his back to see what the cause of the pain is. We see the doc the next day and figure out that his SI joint is acting up (sacroiliac joint), which causes sciatic pain down the leg. He sends us to another pain management doc for a lanacain injection in his R SI joint. We get that done on Monday, Jan. 5th. He tells the doc in the office after the shot that his toes were tingling, he said it was normal and would wear off when the shot did. Fast forward 2 days...his right foot is starting to throb and really bother him. 3 days later it's swelled almost double in size. Call the pain mgnt doc back and he is very adamant about this not being anywhere related to the shot he gave him. Call the surgeon and since he was really worried about a possible DVT (blood clot), they told me to take him to the ER.

3 1/2 hours spent in the ER, an US and xray later, they can find NOTHING wrong with his foot. Thank God it's not a blood clot nor a fracture of his foot...but come on people...what could it be? The ER doc is very adamant about it being something with the shot he received on Monday and I even called the pain mgt doc from the ER (got all his docs on speed dial) and again nothing he did with the injection could cause swelling and pain in his foot.

Ugh, believe me, I'm very grateful all the major things that could have been wrong are not wrong at all....but his foot is still in alot of pain and still swollen.

It helps to work for Radiologists, so I had another one look at the xrays they took last night and he couldn't pinpoint anything that would cause pain and swelling. "Could be" a stress fracture, but that wouldn't show up on xray for 1-2 weeks. Only other thing they could do is an MRI which would show a start of a stress fracture if that's what it is or send him to an orthopedist (our original doc) for more tests, opinions, etc.

So...today, Tuesday, January 13th at 10:43am - still waiting on his back surgeon to get out of surgery and call me back to figure out what our next course of action is!

P.S. Happy Birthday MOM - Hope you have a fantastic day and we can still make our lunch date today!

Party-Packed Weekend

We had a party-packed weekend. Friday night, Hannah had her Girl Scout Cookie Rally kickoff for girl scout cookies (selling started on Saturday). They had games, pizza and you could earn tickets from the games to turn in for prizes.

Saturday, we went with my sister's GS troop to Young Chef's Academy. Hannah

and Samantha (and the rest of the girls) had a blast. They got to prepare their own food, mix it and then eat it and even make a cookbook of the things they made. They made sloppy joes, fruit salad, soup and baked apples. The sloppy joes' were the bomb. I've always used a can when I make sloppy joes - NEVER AGAIN! Just take 1lb of hamburger (cooked), 1 can of

tomato soup and mustard and ketchup to taste and heat through. And whala..sloppy joes. They tasted great.

These little cutters are really cool too..I got one for each of them and some scrapers. Tomorrow night, they get to make dinner for us.

Then Saturday night we went to Tyler's birthday party (he turns 14 on Wed) and then today we had a party for Mom's birthday (which is on Tuesday). Good thing we have nothing going on this week.

Such innocent slumber

Samantha had to sleep with her Princess Aurora crown last night. She played with it for about 1 hour when I finally told her if she didn't go to sleep, I was going to take it from her. She found a hook right above her bed that she hung it on before I left the room.

About an hour later, I go in there to shut off her string of princess lights and make sure she's covered and this is what I discovered. Does she look like Sleeping Beauty waiting on her Prince or what? I couldn't have staged this picture any better. As soon as I saw her, I grabbed my camera, took a pic and had to wake Tom up to see :)! Soo precious.....

So then I felt bad about taking her pic and not Hannah's while she was sleeping..she definately sleeps like her Father!



Tonight is our Girl Scout cookie rally - so I'll make sure I get lots of pics of the delicious cookies Hannah will be selling!

Consumer Ratings - Need a new vacuum?

I'm certainly not Molly Maid by anyone's standards. Now, my neighbor is the epitome of Molly Maid..you will NEVER find a speck of dust or anything in her house, it's always impecable. I just walk in awe around her home.

We've been needing a vacuum cleaner for a while. Actually, we need to replace our carpet, but that's not gonna happen for a while. So I got a gift card for Christmas from Target and we decided to bite the bullet and get one. We got the Bissell Cleanview II Bagless Plus. As skeptic as I am...I figured I'd give it a try before I left for work this morning. We've always had vacuums with bags..never one without one. So this was a new experience for us.

We have a sectional couch...so I decided to just do the square inside the sectional on the carpet. You could actually see the carpet fluffing up after the vacuum rolls over it. Tom and I sat there in awe. After doing that tiny square of our living room, I took out the cup that holds all the stuff that our carpet had been holding and here's what we got. Can you even imagine that all that stuff was in our carpet..just that little square. Gives a whole new meaning to the 5 second rule we've been using!

My family - 1st time blog post

This is my 1st attempt at trying to blog. My friend April has a blog and she's completely coherent and even witty in hers, so here's my attempt :o)!

My year has been eventful (opposite of uneventful - good word huh!).

I am 35 and work outside the home as a Residency Administrator for Eastern Virginia Medical School and have been there for 15 years.

Tom...hmmm...do I have good things to say about him...hee hee...yep, he loves me...(is that good enough) lol. I can attribute all of my grey hairs (do I have any), lost hairs and increased stress level to him - he wins the award. In 2007 he spent 4 weeks in the hospital for a ruptured colon and then about 4 months out of work. This year, 2008, he spent less than a week in the hospital for back surgery and has been out of work for going on 3 months and is expected to be out another 8 weeks - YIKES! Did I mention he's a police officer - oh sorry, are they this accident prone? Someone, anyone?



We will be celebrating our 15th year anniversary in 2009 and I can say that 99.9% of those years have been estatically happy (no, I'm not holding my nose). We enjoy camping (we have a 31ft travel trailer) and spending time as a family. Before the back surgery, every weekend he had off, we were on a camping adventure..whether it be with family and friends or just by ourselves.


Hannah is very much a tomboy, so she's enjoyed 2 seasons of Baseball this year. She loved every minute of it and especially liked when she played "pitcher" and "catcher" this past season. She loves to read and play her DS. Just recently she moved out of her sister's room and had to have her room painted blue. She is doing great in 2nd grade and is on Honor Roll.





Samantha is our little princess. She loves to dress up, dance, sing and just be the center of attention when she walks into a room. She's in Pre-K and is learning so much from school and her older sister. She is taking dance at school and has her 1st recital coming up in May.

Asleep yet? Hope not! I'm just an ordinary wife and Mom and these are my adventures!