Routine Procedure turned out to be not so routine......

It all started when I got a letter from my insurance company telling me it was time to get my very first colonoscopy. They also reminded me I didn't get my mammogram last year. Since Dad died from complications of GI disturbances (they removed his colon about 6 weeks before he died) I knew it would be important for me to get this screening.

I did the prep, which was not easy, if you ever have to take the multiple bottles of liquids they give you to clean out your colon, you'll know what I mean.....I am a huge drinker to begin with, not alcohol, but of all liquids, I don't discriminate, I love them all. So, two days before I started the prep, I worried I would dehydrate, so I drank glass after glass of water, juice, broth, and warm sugar free jello water. All to no avail. The first bottle of prep I took knocked me into the bed for 2 hours, my energy was completely knocked out of me. I laid down for 2 hours until Steve came home from work. Then I took the next bottle around 7pm. When it started to work, I felt dizzy and nauseous. The next morning I woke early to take the last prep, it was supposed to be at 6, but because we live so far from the hospital where the exam was to take place, I thought I better take it early, giving it a chance to be 'done' working by the time we had to hop in the car to drive the 35 minute drive to Jennie. When I took it, I laid back down on the bed, feeling dizzy and oh so weak. I got up to shower before we left, and ended up not only nauseous, but vomitting quite a bit. This left my knees weak and me dizzier and shakier.

When we arrived at the hospital the nurses were concerned that I was late, so I explained the reason. When the nurse was doing her intake questionnaire and initial physical assessment, she spend an inordinate amount of time taking my pulse peripherally (on my wrist) and also listening to my heart with her stethoscope. I thought that was very strange. She looked at me and told me she thought I should be taken to the exam room (where they do the procedures)stat to have the monitor hooked up just as a 'precaution'. Being a nurse, I began to wonder what was going on. Then the nurse anesthesist came to check the monitor. He told them I might be dehydrated, so give me a bolus of 500CC of fluid. They ran the fluid, but my heart continued to beat at 148-168-186 beats a minute. Next thing I knew, I was admitted to ICU, on a telemetry monitor, and seeing a cardiologist. LORD!!! They gave me a shot of IV Digoxin, my heart converted in about 10 minutes. I was kept overnight for observation, dismissed yesterday to home. Without any other issues. However, I will need an ECHO of my heart in the next week or two, probably before Steve and I go on our cruise to Hawaii.

Poor Steve was a basket case during the whole thing wondering if I was going to be OK. I was certain the prep made me deplete my potassium reserves, which caused the irregular heart rate, but it was a little concerning. However, I am OK today and good to go.

Steve and Isaac took off to the wooodcarving store to spend their holiday gift certificates. I have been left home with orders to not do anything, no cooking, cleaning, dusting, sweeping or vaccuuming. They never said I couldn't take the tree down, so I think I will.

I love photos of Isaac and Miss O:

One More Day!!!

The little ones will be here tomorrow, I can hardly wait!

Here they are hugging in front of the tree. Karen and Brian took them to the hotel where Karen works to see Santa:



Noah has that 'look' on his face, "OK, MOM, I will stop and smile for the camera.....there! That's done!"



Here is one of Miss O, she is so funny! She hasn't gotten tired of the camera so much. But, Noah has had one more year of it than she has. Wait until they get here, Grandma has loads of camera batteries and SD cards ready to go!



I love the little trees in their bedrooms. Noah has a blue one, Olivia a purple one and Karen has a pink one. I think that is so neat, the kids love them!

Her cup Runs Over!

Doing a spoof on our boss for the holidays. Our department is 13 people. Each year we do something cool for our boss, she is a neat lady! This year we are individually buying her a bottle of holiday 'Spirits.' It has been great fun to see how the bottle are growing as the day moves on:



Here is my grandbaby in her dress, she went to the Chrirstmas program with her brother. She sat perfectly still and was good as gold. Her mom told her the teacher would be watching her to be sure she would be ready to come next year to school. Karen put a post on her blog about the difficulties of toilet training her, my sis-in-law told her about the problems she had with her little girl. The secret to Katie (411) was she wanted to wear her brother's undies. She so wanted to be like him! When Brandy let her wear his undies, her problems ceased, and she was trained. Lo and behold, after her nap 2 days ago Olivia asked if she could wear Noah's undies. Karen put them on her and her 'accidents' stopped. She is now wearing Bob the Builder pull ups, but she is dry and using the potty. Here is our little princess:



My Noah is not allowing many photos this year, so no pics of him to share. He did great at his program doing all the hand gestures to go with the song, but he didn't sing. He was there with both girlfriends, Eliana and Dakotah. Quite the li'l schmoozer! Merry Christmas all of you!

This, That and the Other

This morning Steve and I tore out of bed to go eat breakfast for the Volunteer Fire Dept. We had a choice of: omellettes, french toast, sausage, toast, coffee, juice and milk were our choices. My brother in law cooked, he did a good job! We ordered like in a cafe, and they firemen brought it out to our tables.

We went back home where I started to clean and organize the kitchen for my annual Christmas baking. I had some leftover pretzel sticks from the open house I helped do last weekend. Isaac was hanging out talking to me, so I put him to work. His first challenge was to bet me $2 he could hold 4 pretzel rods together without touching them so they could drip over a bowl. I of course fell for that, he held all 4 without any trouble. His hands are HUGE:




I continued to up the challenge to see if I could earn my money back, so he did 5:



Then 6, he got hand cramps and I won, but it was after I lost double or nothing, so I still owe him, should quit when I am ahead, which is something I am sure you hear at most Gambler's Anonymous meetings:



Karen sent pictures of Little Miss Olivia in the dress I got her, I have been dying to see her in it, but she is not inclined to jump into a dress on a whim, so there was a little bribing involved:



Here are the shoes, they are so darn cute, soft brown ballet slipper type shoes, she loves them, they are nice and soft. I couldn't resist, I got 3 pairs of shoes for her, along with 3 dresses. I had to force myself to leave the store and not buy anymore. Noah is not a clothes person, I had a terrible time finding him anything, so he was left out on clothes, but scored in the Transformer dept. Secretly I am sure he was relieved!:



Here is a black and white image for Grandma Thuy, I am not crazy about them, but she likes them:



I also made a HUGE pan of homemade vegetable soup for dinner, it is sooooooo good when the weather is all foggy, with ice pebbles and sleet coming down. THe house is all warm from the boiling stew. The boys are just hanging out, Steve sleeping in his chair, Isaac has been sick with a cold. He is finally starting to feel a little better. Have a good week!