Before and After

I've been wanting to do this post for a while, but keep forgetting. Happenings of yesterday made me remember.

Yesterday - I was up at Walmart picking up a few groceries. As I was heading to the check out I got a sharp pain in my head. Best way for me to describe the location is it was where your head starts to curve from the back to the top. That is not near the location my tumor was removed. The tumor was in the area of my head where it curves from the back to the bottom right before your neck. What got me worried is it gave me an instant headache that was different from any headaches I normally get (I don't get headaches very often, not even when I had the tumor). It also made me get dizzy when I was checking the parking lot as I was backing out. I haven't had a dizzy spell like that in a long time now. Once I got home my neck felt stiff and sore and I started to get tired and weak. All this was bothersome so I called my neurosurgeon's office and left a message for the PA to call me back. She did, and she felt it probably wasn't really anything to worry about right now, and to just keep an eye on it. After thinking and talking with my mom about it, we think we figured out what it was. The weakness clued us in. Yesterday I had a sugary bowl of cereal for breakfast, something I haven't had in a while. And from past experiences, we know sometimes I don't handle that well. And I did remember that I had gotten hungry for lunch much earlier than normal. So I probably had a sugar rush that may have given me a mild but sudden migraine.

What was most upsetting is when the PA called, I discovered she was a new PA, and a good portion of the staff that was working for my doctor this summer is no longer there. This was still a very nice and caring person, but I liked having it where when I called, they knew who I was right away and were very personal with me.

Something else that had been bothering me is the back of my head where the surgery was performed. Right now I have a lot of pain and sensitivity in the back of my head due to all the fusing of the nerves back together. I was told this could last a long time (brushing my hair is quite painful). One of the things I was told to do to help reteach the nerves what feelings are OK is to rub and pat it back there. I've been doing this and have noticed that the bone feels odd back there. I finally remember to ask Larry to check it for me. He said it's OK. It's just where to bone was put back in and it's just different now due to the way he had to replace it.

Anyway I've been wanting to post these comparison pictures for quite a while of before and after the surgery. I just with I had some high school pictures loaded on here so you could see the before before pictures. The ones before the tumor effected me.

• This picture was taken on vacation a little over 4 months before the surgery. You notice my head is greatly tilted. This is due to the tumor. This would happen in almost every picture I took since spring of 2001. To me it felt like I was looking straight at the camera. If someone would turn my head towards the camera properly (like when we would take family pictures), if felt like the whole world was spinning.

• This picture was taken after Larry's work Christmas party a little over 4 months after the surgery. This is the first picture I took after the surgery where I noticed I'm looking straight at the camera without someone telling me how to hold my head.

These pictures bring me great joy because it really shows the difference my surgery has made and how important it really was to have and how God is so wonderful and has taken care of a problem that was really bothersome and embarrassing to me and one I thought I would live with my whole life.

Another rejoice. A couple weeks ago I had a first in a number of years. I walked up and down some stairs without holding on to a rail or some one's hand. I really have a new appreciation for children learning to walk. ;)

Wanted to share this more for myself than anyone else, but I hope you find it interesting and it that I am able to show more of God's glory and greatness through my experience. Have a wonderful day!!

P.S.

This is how I found Flash this morning. Too funny!!

A litte bit of my world in pictures

This is my stocking stuffer Larry bought me, or I should say stocking holder since it was a little too large to fit in my stocking. It's a little green house herb garden. I planted it Jan 6, and as you can see it really is growing quickly. I keep it in my kitchen window and haven't had to water it except for the initial planting. You can see a little of the condensation that builds up daily.

Here is my hat I knitted over the weekend. I knitted Larry one yesterday, but he has quickly latched on to it due to the cold weather and working outside a good portion of the day.

And here is one of my cats, Flash, enjoying a snooze on his favorite chair last night in a slightly peculiar position. Usually (like right now) you can find him curled up on the front pillow napping the day away. My other cats Matty and Milee were snoozing there yesterday morning with Matty in a comical position too, but he moved before I could get the camera.

Just wanted to share a few pictures today. Hope you are all having a great day and staying warm!

Just over this mountain...

is one more mountain. At least that's what it feels like for us. Larry and I were greatly looking forward to this weekend. Holly went to her mom's for the weekend, making this the first one we could enjoy alone since June, before I got the news of my tumor. Holly's mom lives in Austin, so we meet half way in Waco. I had just gotten her dropped off and was on my way back. I stopped in Hillsboro about 30 miles north of Waco to get gas. I was just getting back in from paying when my phone started ringing. It was Larry. I figured it was him calling to see if it all went ok with the girls' mom. Shockingly it wasn't. He called to tell me he just got rear-ended. It hit hard enough to make him hit the car in front of him (which he had left a car link in between the two of them), and hard enough to knock him out. He told me he wasn't able to see. He was speaking calmly, but I could hear the panic behind it. And since my husband is the much, much calmer one of the two of us, I went into panic and took off to get back to him in Dallas.


The hospital they took him to was far, far less than any proper standards. I got to the hospital an hour after they brought him in. I went to the ER reception to request where to go for him. THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS!!! THEY TRIED TO TELL ME HE WASN'T THERE. I called his cell phone to double check the hospital, he put a nurse on the phone to try and tell me where to go. Finally got to him and asked what they had done. NOTHING!!! HE WAS IN A BED IN THE HALL!! He told them he needed to use the restroom, so they gave him a urinal and told him to use it in the hallway!!! I went to the nurses station to ask when a doctor would see him, and they tried to tell me that he had only been there for 6 minutes!!! Now I'm usually a very calm person especially with doctors, but this time I was full on Mama Bear at her fiercest!!! I won't get into everything, but after waiting over another hour to have a doctor see him and listening to nurses talk about bra sizes instead of taking care of patients and after he told me that before I got there nurses were standing by his bed asking who was suppose to look after him, not knowing and each one saying they wouldn't take him, I requested the paper work to have him sign to be released so I could take him to another hospital. After almost another hour of waiting, we walked out. Or I should say I walked out almost having to carry him. We went to another hospital, who took him straight back and took great care of him. Thankfully all is fine. Nothing broken, and the CT scan came back good. They aren't sure what made him have numbness and blindness. Larry thinks maybe it just gave him and instant migraine. All I know is I'm glad he is ok. And I will be dealing with the director of the first hospital, 'cause so much of how he was treated was unacceptable. I would totally understand the wait if they were taking care of people more hurt than him, but I consider (along with most other doctors and hospitals from past experiences) being knocked unconscious something serious...at least a lot more serious than bra sizes.

To top that mountain off, the guy who hit him had no car insurance. Thankfully we have full coverage on both of our cars, so our insurance will cover it. But we have to wait for the police report, up to 7 business days, to prove he had no insurance before they will start the work and paying for his time missed from work and all medical bills.

After sitting in the house sore all day Saturday, Larry had to get out and do something. So on Sunday after we got back from picking up Holly Larry worked on Holly's go-cart and got it working safely. It still needs some adjustments, but she can finally ride it. We took it across the street to the High School Parking lot and let her tear it up! he he Here are a couple pictures from that.





Well I guess that's all for now, have a great day!! I'm going to try and get a little done. It's a lot harder to get things done when he's here wanting me to keep him company. :)

Halloween

So this year Holly decided to go scary for the first time and was a vampiress. The cape turned out not too bad for just cutting it and adding some iron adhesive to keep it from riping. It needed to be a little shorter so she didn't step on it, but she wouldn't let me cut it anymore.

I have to claim some bragging rights on her makeup, but I'll get into that later.

Larry unfortunately is having some rough days with work, trying to get things perfected before he leaves (today is his last day with the company). And his tooth was cause him pain again, so he ended up staying home. This was even more sad since it was such great weather for Halloween. The best we've had in a few years. But I wasn't about to take her door to door on my own. So we ended up meeting my parents, brother, brother's girlfriend, and her little girl at the mall to take them trick-or-treating there. This was disappointing due to so many people and so much of having to watch out on not stepping on other kids. There also was very little candy. The girls mostly received sweet tart, a couple pieces of bubble gum and some tootsie rolls. And by the time we all made it, it was almost time for them to put away. So we hurried back to my parents' neighborhood (the one I grew up trick-or-treating in), and were able to go down the block and let the girls fill their bags with some chocolate for the moms. ;) And of corse my parents had stashed away bags of the "good" candy so they could give them a bunch.

So it was a fairly mild Halloween, which turned out to be fairly good. Holly was just starting to get a cold. And the start is always the worst. So she was dragging pretty good fairly early. She also had had a costume parade that morning at school that I had to miss. (When I scheduled Larry's eye appointment with my eye doctor that day we originally thought he would be off from work, and I didn't know then that there would be a parade. And with the job move there was no way I could reschedule it for before we lost our current health insurance. ) So Holly was being extra clingy and ready to finish before she got much candy. And with the blacked out eyes I did, she looked like she felt really, really awful. I kept asking her if she was ready to go long before she was. I had to wash the makeup off at my parents house before we went home, so I could really see how she felt.

So I brought my camera with me, but I got so busy watching out for the girls, that I forgot to take any pics of them together or while trick-or-treating this year. My brother did get some of them together, so as soon as he sends me those I'll post them. Olivia (his girlfriend's daughter) was Jasmine. I think that is so cool 'cause she is in 1st grade, and when Holly was in first that's what she was for Halloween. I'll have to post some comparison pics too.

Off to see if the grass is finally dry enough to mow. Have a fab Friday!!

A few pictures

Thought I would post a few pics to be enjoyed.




This is a pic. from the backyard looking across the street on one of the really, really foggy days the other week. There is suppose to be a high school, parking lot, and football stadium for you to see. So you can tell it truely was a foggy day.

This is my birthday cake. Larry and Holly had a little too much fun with the icing.

The school district Holly attends has a uniform dress code, but this week is red ribbion week . And yesterday was crazy sock day, so Holly borrowed a pair of my toe socks .

Larry's work has a company party today. Each property had to create a table center piece from thing found in the office. Larry created the one for his property. I am more than impressed with his creativeness!! (this is only one side. He made it where it had two fronts and no back.)

And this is Larry in his Greek god costume created by a coworker for the company party.

Enjoy!