Post-op

We avoided the stomach bug so far and had the surgery without incident. It was so short and simple, they said they could have done it in the office except it would have been very painful. So we had to go through the whole hassle of the hospital just for a little gas sedation. They didn't even need to do the IV sedation. It made we wish that we could have just stopped in at the nearest dental office instead of the hospital and have had them sedate her :).

Since the surgery had been pushed back, her arm had healed a lot more than  it would have if we had the surgery earlier. That meant a Christmas surprise of only a soft splint on her arm and no more hard cast! To celebrate, Willa was finally able to put on her Rapunzel dress that Bridgett got her for her birthday and that she has never been able to wear.

Surgery is always a pain and having a toddler wake up with anesthesia is no joke, but I am also so grateful that it was such a minor thing. We were at the children's hospital this time and it was sobering to see the new baby next to us going in for a five hour heart surgery . We got to leave the hospital just as they were starting on her. It definitely made us feel very grateful.

Ta da! Rapunzel dress at last!

Rollin' with the homies

This amazing new park opened up a few miles from our house. It is amazing and has all kinds of playground equipment that I had never seen before. My friend took this photo and it cracks me up. I love Willa's little arm up on the side of the car. Rollin' with the church homies, for sure.

That photo is unrelated to the current stress of the moment. I've got a dirty kitchen downstairs, a million things to do, and I'm a little stressed, so of course, I'm blogging.

Willa is scheduled to get the rods out of her arm tomorrow, yay!! It was an ordeal to schedule the surgery, she should have had them out last week, but since we were changing insurance with Ryan's new job, we pushed it back a week to give the doctor's office and hospital time to process it all. Then, the nurse called and said that they were moving her from a Tuesday 9 a.m. surgery to a Thursday 11 a.m. surgery. Of course, you can eat or drink anything eight hours before surgery, so Willa wouldn't be able to have anything all morning. Has anyone had a toddler who deals well with being hungry? I sure haven't. I was tossing and turning all night worrying about how I would deal with Willa when the day came. I was worried she would sneak food or just have a huge fit. Plus, June would be eating and it would be really hard for Willa. So I called the nurse and begged in my nicest voice explaining what a monster Willa would be if she had to wait that long for the surgery. So, the nurse nicely called around and switched the location of the surgery so now it is in a different place but at 8 a.m. Apparently, it's hard to schedule something at the end of the year because they are crowded from people meeting their deductible. Thankfully that was all settled. 

THEN, this morning a mom in our preschool co-op casually mentioned on Facebook that her daughter woke up with the barfies at 3 a.m. Since Willa had preschool with this girl at their house just yesterday, I am a stress case. I'm so worried that she's going to get it and we're going to have to cancel the surgery. There's nothing I can do about it now, so of course I sit and stew. I need to do some relaxation to calm myself. June got the stomach sickies and we had to cancel our Utah trip, so now I know from experience that bad things can and do happen! Hopefully, everything will go well, but for now I'm just stewing about Willa's behavior tonight and if it was the norm or if it seemed like she is coming down with it. That's our news! Hopefully you'll hear a happy surgery story tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the first time in our entire married life, we had Thanksgiving with my family. I had to post a few funny photos.

Turkey outfits from Grandma Daniels. At first, Willa didn't want to wear hers until we convinced her that the shirt was more like a dress.

By far the most fun was seeing all the cousins playing together. Willa was in the thick of it and June wanted to be. My nephews always have naughty and imaginative play such as sledding down the stairs.

My sister's family just got a pocket puggle puppy last week. He was adorable. Willa kept saying things like, "That dog is chewing on everyfing" and "He's going to ruin my new outfit!" We joked that they just had to save him from the swanky pet shop in Newport Beach where they bought him - he was basically a rescue :).

A very nice day. We had to write down what we were thankful for and put it in a box to read together. Ryan and I both wrote his new job. Employment is such a blessing and feels so good!

June says "yesh", Willa gets cast wet, My phone goes black

June is still so sweet and adorable and naughty and mischievous and funny. She adds to her vocabulary almost daily and loves repeating what we say and trying new sounds. A few days ago, I asked her something and she said, "Yesh." I realized that was the first time she had ever said it, before she had just been saying, "Huh." It is so adorable (and helpful)! Her little voice is so cute trying to say it so precisely. I really need to get it on camera. June also likes to bring me things and then run away with them laughing when I reach out to grab them. She loves playing in the kitchen sink with the water running. Which is helpful and annoying at the same time. It keeps her occupied for almost an hour if I let it and it's nice to cook or clean while she's doing it. But, it also blocks up the kitchen space and she gets her clothes wet and I feel bad wasting water.

Two nights ago Willa decided to swim in the bathtub, which she used to do a lot before the cast. This time, the water was higher than normal and neither of us were thinking until I saw water pouring into the top of the plastic bag. When she got out of the bath, there was water in the bottom of the bag and it was dirty colored - like maybe it had gone through a dirty cast and washed away some of the dried blood from her arm, yuck. I didn't really think too much about it, and went off to YW, but that night Ryan said it was dripping all over. I called the doctor in the morning and they thought we'd better change it because with the rods sticking out of the skin they could get infected. So, we are back to a purple cast! When they took the old one off, you could see dirt and glitter on her arm. The glitter is from all her princess dresses. She cried and cried even though it didn't hurt. She started crying before they even started. She did not get the Sonic Slush that I promised her IF she didn't cry.... more crying.

 On Wednesday my phone went black... after it slid out of my pocket and onto the ground. After many annoying phone calls (made by Ryan), I went to the Apple store and they changed the screen for me for free since it was still under warranty. The worker was very nice, even when I admitted that the phone may have "slipped" a little.

Medium-size changes

It's so nice to not have a big cross-country move or anything crazy like that to report. We are ho-humming along here. Ryan started a new job about two weeks ago. We'll always be so grateful to the first firm that hired him. They really took a chance and they gave him the experience he needed, as well as space on his resume and income for us. The past few months, he hasn't been super happy there. I think he enjoyed the work, but there were a few things about the firm and its culture that threw some red flags from the beginning. Tiny red flags, since we were so glad to have the job, but red flags nonetheless.

He slowly contacted a few attorney friends to let them know that he was looking for something new. He had a few interviews that went well, and then out of the blue he got a call from the new firm, which I will call Firm Awesome. It really feels like divine providence because they were calling about an application he sent in back in January. They hadn't filled the position then, but they were looking to fill it now and they asked if he was still looking and if he would come in for an interview.

He had the interview the day of Willa's surgery and they called two days later to offer him the job. The pay and benefits were substantially better than at the other firm and the work was also a lot more interesting. Another definite high point was that the firm is just three miles from our house. He's been timing himself and can make it home in six minutes if he hits the lights right! The commute to the other firm wasn't bad, about 20-25 minutes, but you can't argue with six. It's nice to know that we're not losing time with him when he leaves or comes home from work. He leaves and can begin work almost immediately and the same coming home.

The cases from the other firm were closing up when he had the interview, so he was able to tie up the loose ends pretty easily. He finished on a Monday and started at the new firm on Thursday. It was a very smooth transition as far as that. He's only been there two weeks, but things are looking good. I'm slightly nervous about the increase of hours that might be coming, but the other benefits were so good that hopefully it's worth it. Plus, the shorter commute... I'm telling myself that it won't be too bad. It's a mid-size firm with offices here and in Reno. He's got a great assistant and paralegal and he really enjoys the other attorneys and workers he's met there. So, that's our medium-size change! We have to believe that even though the first job wasn't perfect, it was something that Heavenly Father put there to help us make it to this job. Maybe the extra experience helped push him over the top at the interview and the income and stability provided well for us and gave us the first calm we have had in years.

Halloween

The last few years with kids, there are so many pre-Halloween activities that by the time the actual day comes I'm a little surprised that it hasn't passed yet. We started out early this year with the Saturday before when Ryan ran a "Trick or Trot" 5k with his team. He got second and Bryce, his friend got first but it wasn't a great race for him - possibly due to the copious amounts of candy and minimal amount of real food he ate the night before. Still, he won $50, a really nice camping chair, one of those nice picnic blankets that has the waterproof liner on the bottom, and some gift cards for a Subway platter and some hot wings of some sort. I told him he should give those away in an EQ raffle for home teaching.

There was a very fun and free family fun run. I dressed the girls in their costumes and we ran a little tiny course they had taped off. Then the girls got little prizes and were able to play little fun games for treats. June was Snow White and Willa was Anna.

Willa was having fun but too shy for the camera.

That same night was the trunk or treat. The Thalmans came, hooray, so it was fun to spend time with them. Willa really liked June's Snow White costume that morning, so that evening she agreed to match.

Finally, Halloween night. Willa chose to be Elsa. Little kids are great, they do a few houses and that's just enough. Also, I'm so annoyed with people that go all scary for Halloween. It started as a kid's holiday. Do you see adults trick or treating? So why make things so scary for the littles? Willa got scared by this giant attacking animatronic spider that jumped when she tried to get candy. Then, an adult wearing a skeleton mask scared her enough that she wanted to go home.

 

The surgery

We had surgery Tuesday morning, nearly a week and a half ago. We had to be there at 6 am and the surgery was scheduled for 8. It was a little early, but nice because she wouldn't get too hungry beforehand since she couldn't have any food. 

I didn't tell her what we were going to do because I didn't think she would understand and it might have just scared her. I told her we were going to see the doctor and that they would look at her arm while she was asleep. It all went well beforehand, she didn't want to change into the surgical gown and cap, but the anesthesiologist gave her a little "cocktail" and it made her pretty compliant to do it all. I was worried she would freak out when they took her into the operating room. They didn't have a gown for me so I couldn't go in with her. The anesthesiologist was so great, though. He was young and had young kids. He reminded me of my friends who have just finished their residencies and are starting to practice. He was so good with her and when she was scared to go in, he picked her up really gently and carried her.

It was really quick, under and hour. We got in at the right time because the bones hadn't set too much and the doctor was able to insert the rods subcutaneously. The wake-up was really sad and hard. They say that kids have a really hard time coming out of anesthesia and it wasn't pleasant. She was so disoriented and crying. She also has GIANT adenoids and they had to keep putting the oxygen mask on her to keep her oxygen levels up. It was funny because the anesthesiologist kept telling me how big her tonsils are and blah, blah, blah and how we really needed to talk to our primary care physician and get a referral to an ENT, etc etc. She does have huge tonsils and snores loudly. I was planning to ask the doctor about it at her four-year check up, but with all the arm stuff and other doctor appointments, I decided to put the well visit off until she's feeling a little better.

Cutest little patient. Her hair is very fluffy since I pulled her straight from bed and into the car.

Recovery was rough the first day. They said the anesthesia takes about a day to fully leave the system. She was trying to watch a movie but kept crying because "my eyes won't stay open!" She was crying and saying her arm was hurting. I gave her some medicine but used the dosage that the ER recommended when she first broke her arm. She was still having a really hard time and I checked the doctor's prescription and he had written for her to have twice the dose! I felt so badly that I had let her go without getting enough drugs to cut the pain.

The other funny thing was that they put a pink cast on instead of purple. She told me, "But purple is my favorite color!" I told the doctor about it when we went in for a check up a week after surgery. He laughed and apologized and said the surgery center only had white and pink.

Our middle-school neighbor broke her arm the week after Willa. Matching casts! They will take the rods out six weeks after surgery and then she will have yet another cast for a few more weeks. I'll be glad to have this all over!