Mommy’s little Red-Eyed Demon Arcas (aka You’re Too Cute Shortie) turns 5 today, June 29.
[I know, horrible parent being so late with the birthday post.]
chris on June 29th 2009 in Animals
Tuesday, June 16. Stitch removal day.
I was already a little freaked out going in. Honestly, who schedules a stitch removal at 10 am? That’s just enough time for me to get worked up for a catastrophic minor freak out [not the good type either] but not enough to request Chad to haul himself across town to pat me on the head and tell me it would be OK.
So there I sat in the waiting room….waiting. Until my number was up I was called and led to a different room to wait. I would argue this new room to simply be waiting room 2, but I believe it was in fact the Suture Removal Room. No, really. Saw it on the door. So there I saw in SRR waiting. Until it was time to have an x-ray. I march down the hall following a very nice lady who probably wasn’t a born liar, but I could be wrong. I was visibly freaking out distressed and tried to bolster my confidence by stating that, “I’m a little freaked out because the only other time I had stitches was in my face and they REALLY hurt when removed.”
And the next words out of the nice lady’s mouth made me reconsider that perhaps, in fact, she was a born liar. [Bear with me, this isn’t an exact quote] “Oh it won’t hurt. The more fat you have under the skin the less it will hurt. You’ll be fine.” Ok. First off, I do have fat. I am aware of this. But I do NOT have fat on the under side of my forearm, and particularly NOT on my elbow. I think my eyeballs buldged out of my head – you know, like Wile E. Coyote.
I did not have much time to ponder this statement as I was soon trying to contort my (recently) broken arm for a series of X-rays. Presumably to ensure that (despite these contortions) the bones were still all nicely plated & pinned together. This achieved I went back to the SRR. So there I was hanging out, sending emails until the surgeon came in to let me know that all was still where it was supposed to be. Yay. Pins, plate, bones. All good. Whew. With that good news, I settled in to wait some more.
[As an aside: When choosing my outfit for the day I figured hey, maybe this suture removal might cause bleeding. Exercising a little foresight which is not typical for me, I wore a tank top & a loose button up shirt. Eventually I do catch on.] So there I sat in the SRR in my tank top…waiting. In comes man in lab coat who states in a sing-song way, “And you’re here for suture removal…” Which I was fairly certain was obvious since I was in the Suture Removal Room.
I nod yes (trying desperately not to freak out) and hold up my left arm. He walks around me and looks confusedly at the back of my shoulders, then glances down at the, sort of, outstretched arm. “Oh, it’s your arm. Your shoulders were all there so I thought that’s where it was.” I’m not certain what he meant by all there, which is again not exactly a direct quote, but I guessed he meant exposed. ‘Cause that’s what happens when you wear a tank top.
Trying to remain calm I apologize for being “a little freaked out” and tried to not escalate to Berzerker level A LOT freaked out since I couldn’t possibly have that many stitches. When that failed I tried to take deep breaths. When that failed, and it did in about 1 second, I just dug the nails of my right hand into the exam table and tried not to make loud “someone help me I’m having my skin pulled off” noises…. at which I also failed. Yes, I was that person behind the curtain making horrid moaning noises so loud that you have to imagine that an emergency appendectomy is being performed without anesthesia.
I think I must have turned a little pale because Mr. Suture Removal Guy, upon the removal of the final, stupid, painful, mean suture seemed to think I required steadying. I assured him that I was fine and was not going to pass out on him. But if he could really hurry up with the putting tape on the wound I’d be quite thrilled as it was rather uncomfortable and I would like to go home and take some acetaminophen, thank you very much.
So there you have it. Stiches out. All stuff still where it’s supposed to be. Four more weeks of PT to try to get full extension back. Then another check up. Then who knows. I’m fine, but pity Chad!
chris on June 24th 2009 in Family
Instant Family made the trek from the great frozen tundra that is Canandia (although i understand it is thawing now for the short week they call Summer up that way) to West Virginia to have the kiddos baptized. I was excited to stand (and not due much else with the brokenness and all) as godmother to Giant Baby V. Fortunately Giant Baby V’s uncle & godfather was able to hold her for our photo op. Otherwise I’d have been back in surgery I fear.
As with most things that involve Team Kuclick [that would be us representing ICK and Instant Family representing KUCL], there was a tiny hitch. This time in the form of a 10K race. Now normally something like this would not cause any of us a second thought…except that half the roads in town leading to the rendezvous point were closed. But never fear, I am, if nothing else, a little too prepared with navigational equipment. Take that stupid 10K race.
The proud grandparents of Instant Family – both sets – as well as the siblings, sibling-in-law and related small children made this a decent size gang of well dressed folks parading through the streets on our way to the church. The twins were above average adorable in their little white christening outfits sitting in a red wagon. I mean honestly, the cute factor was off the chart. And when you added in Giant Baby V in a fluffy cloud of baptismal gown stuffed into her stroller….
For a triple baptism all went well. Especially considering we were impinging on naptime and hedging close to food time. Throw in a little overstimulation and we could have had a disaster or at least a meltdown. As it is, the small children of Instant Family pulled it off. [this bodes really well for our future forced marches…or it will when Giant Baby V learns to walk]
After dousing the kiddos and taking a profuse amount of photos [yay for digital, shoot to your heart’s content and feel secure that at least one of those pictures from the three, or four, or five cameras was going to come out nicely] we paraded back across town.
After tucking Giant Baby V in for a well deserved nap, the rest of us headed out for a little post-baptismal food cramming. And white sangria.
chris on June 19th 2009 in Family
My original plan for Saturday, June 6, was to go geoaching at Seneca Rocks with a good portion of the MAGPI gang. Being broken put a kibosh on that idea (and the percocet didn’t help much either). So instead of meeting up in Fairmont at 7:30 a.m. I was safely planted in bed surrounded by pillows and cats, my arm swaddled in bandages.
My mood was in no way improved when I finally managed to reach the great outdoors (if you can call the postage stamp size back yard the great outdoors) and noticed it was a perfect day for caching. I was missing it! The first big warm weather outing of the season. Aw man.
Tuesday I was flipping through the mail that had accumulated during my convalescence and noticed this…..
chris on June 18th 2009 in Geocaching
