September 19

So, you know they cut my chest open, took a piece of pec muscle, bent it in half going upwards, and installed it as part of my throat. This way, the muscle stays attached to its original veins and there's none of that finding viable veins to hook it up to and checking a doppler thingy every couple of hours to make sure it's still alive, blah, blah, blah. So, there's this huge lump on my left collarbone where the muscle is bent in half. Supposedly it goes down in time. What I find really disturbing is that I will sometimes be patting my throat with gauze to soak up some ooze and it causes the muscle way down near my armpit to twitch. How messed up is that?? Seriously, it's kind of gross.

How's that for starting a blog off with a bang? Ha!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I decided that I needed something to look forward to other than doctor's appointments so I sent an e-mail out to ~20 of my coworkers inviting them to stop over at my house next Wednesday during their lunch break (I live ~3 miles from work) where I will be busy in the kitchen making a vat of jambalaya along with cornbread. I already have 7 people signed up to come dine at Chez Quinny's. I miss my peeps. It will be good to see some of them. :-)

Since I was sending out e-mail invites for visits, my buddy Jer decided I might like some company for lunch that very same day. So, yesterday he, JT, and Toby all stopped in and we managed to squeeze in three hands of Euchre on their lunch break. Jer and I partnered up and were the big losers for the day. I don't think it helped that I had been up since 3:00 am and I had just taken my pain medicine before they arrived so I was a little spacy. We'll get 'em next time, Jer!!

Hopefully the brownies that came out of the oven while they were here smoothed over all the trash talking that was happening when cards fly at my house. HA!

No sooner did they leave and Kit came to pick me up for my doctor's appointment. Have I mentioned what a godsend this woman has been? I have other people that I can ask for rides but I would be pulling them away from work to do it which makes me feel a little guilty. Not that I should feel any less guilty about pulling Kit away from her leisurely retirement activities. And let me tell you, I got a glimpse of her calendar on her iPad yesterday and for someone that's supposed to be loving the slow and easy life, that's one busy woman! Anyway, I went and saw some new doc, Dr. F, at my PCP's office to discuss my thyroid issues. She said that it takes 4-6 weeks for thyroid meds to settle in and take effect. She was baffled why they were checking my levels on what seemed like a daily basis for a few weeks. I told her that in the hospital they take your blood every single stinkin' night and run every test known to man on it. At least that's what they were doing to me. So she said that she's okay with me being on the 200 mg dose for now. She asked if I've had dry skin, been constipated/had diarrhea, had my girlie thing stop, gained weight, etc. My response was not really. I'm pretty sure the girlie thing stopping was due to the birth control implant. The diarrhea is from being on an all liquid diet plus the Roxicet, and the weight gain thing has been on purpose. So I need to go back mid-October to give them some blood to check and I have an appointment with Dr. K on 10/18 to see how things leveled out on the 200 mg.

Got back home and grabbed the mail. I got prezzies! Kim and Andy sent me a really pretty scarf! Which reminds me, I don't know if I gave a call out for the other scarves I've recently gotten. My friend Karen sent me a gorgeous black scarf with fringe and sequins and flower patterns, it's beautiful! And T got me an assortment of frilly infinity scarves that are all soft and warm. Plus the flowery infinity scarf Sammy had sent me, and I did a little of my own shopping. Amazon had a 12 piece bulk pack of scarves for $10 that I ordered plus I purchased a couple of fancier $12-$15 scarves that caught my eye. All in all, I now own 30 scarves! I sure as hell hope the scarf look works on me at this point. LOL!

I also received a package from JBB. She's been concerned about keeping my Skeletor body warm. She sent me fingertipless gloves and some pure silk long underwear. I felt warmer just looking at this stuff!

I finally received the stoma covers that I ordered from that lady in PA.

Aren't they pretty? Here's the problem though. You can see that they're meant to be worn in the center of the neck and as I mentioned, my stoma is torqued way over to the right. If I wear one of these, I'm going to have to place it way off center to cover the stoma at which point I think it's going to look weird. Again, I need to ask Dr. M tomorrow what the deal is with my non-centered stoma hole.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. I thought for sure I would zonk at some point in the day but ended up staying up all the way to 11:00.

I'm still having a hard time gauging what's going on with my lungs. I feel like they're moist enough (still a little bit too much so) that I don't need to wear the mister. I wore it for a couple of hours last night anyway and then decided to set up the warm air humidifier that I had purchased last year instead. Had that on all night. I think it was fine for the lung sitch, on the downside though it kept my neck moist all night too and I think we're currently trying to dry out the neck graft so that it can heal. I just can't seem to win!

I was up at 6:30 this morning. Took care of the animals and then decided that today was shower day. I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to get my leg wet yet or not but said screw it and figured I'd play it by ear. It was fine. I'm once again all sparkly clean. Except for my hair. Due to the whole neck situation, washing the hair has to be tackled as a whole separate project from the shower. I'm going to save that for later on today.

Right now I'm done eating so it's time for my power cocktail and then I think I'm going to relax on my chaise with my Wii game. The only excitement planned today, other than washing my hair, is that I think I have some new and fun puzzles arriving today. Woo hoo!