Flying High

The surgery couldn't have gone any better than it did. My Dr. is very happy with the outcome and expects great results. She definitely found endometriosis and had even had to burn off a few lesions to boot. I see that as a good thing, the more she cleans the better I feel!

My experience at Baptist East was pretty good. My pre-op nurse was a little.... distracted. When she found out I had seen an ENT about meniere's disease she did nothing but try and pull the name of my doctor out of me, even though I couldn't remember and didn't really care. She has a friend that is looking into getting tested and seemed desperate to get a recommendation.

She had to poke me twice to get my IV started; the second time she didn't get my vein numbed and thus I felt the ENTIRE process of her inserting the needle and tubing. When I cried out in pain she told me that it shouldn't hurt because she had numbed me; yea, because my back arched, my eyes watering, and my scream meant it felt good!

Even after the IV was inserted it continued to burn and sting. I said something to two different nurses and each time was told to get over it. buck it up, and stop being a whimp. The comments did NOTHING to calm my anxiety about the surgery and in fact made it worse. It wasn't until they gave me the "happy drugs" did I start to feel better.

They wheeled me back to the operating room and placed me on the table in a crucifix position, with my arms outstretched... weird; I hope I didn't make any crucifix jokes! After having to get up so early and a dose of "happy drugs" it only took one inhalation of the anesthetic to knock me out; I never even saw my doctor come in. The next thing I knew I was in recovery with a dry mouth and upset stomach, nothing a little water and crackers and Motrin couldn't help. With in a hour I was in phase II recovery and was able to see Brandon. The nurses in recovery were AWESOME, super sweet, and very gentle and released me to go home before 11; I was home in my own bed sleeping before 12.

I've slept on and off most of the day and the only soreness I've had so far is in my shoulders. In a way, I feel like I've been in a car accident again the way my whole upper body aches. I'm sure my abdomen and incision pain/ cramps will come tomorrow. :)

I'm home, I'm happy, and I'm recovering.
Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!

Spring Cleaning

The surgery is set and I am hopeful of the results.

I'm having laparoscopic surgery for Endometriosis at 7:30 AM. That means I have to get up at 4:30 AM to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM for surgery prep... yea... that sucks!

The Dr. said the procedure shouldn't take more than 2 hours, max. I will be under anesthesia but I should be home resting in my own bed by lunch as long as all goes well and I come out of recovery fairly quickly. It's considered minor out patient surgery so recovery will take about 4 days and the side effects are usually minor with just aches and soreness; they'll give me something to take if I feel the need to.

I'm a little nervous but not freaking out; it's the whole idea of being put to sleep and then sliced open that kinda gets to me but only when I think about it too much.

They're gonna hose me down and clean me out; nothing like a little bit of spring cleaning to help with pain and fertility! ;)

Country Style Movie

If you know me well you know that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are two of my favorite people in Hollywood. I was ecstatic when they did Sweeny Todd, my favorite musical of all time, and was excited to see what they were going to do with the AWESOME children's book Alice in Wonderful.
Of course I wanted to go see it opening weekend so we opted for Sunday afternoon in hopes of avoiding most of the crowds.

When we first entered the theatre we were the only ones there, keep in mind we live in a small town. With only 5 minutes before the movie started about 20 people came in; including an obnoxious group of 3 high school girls that decided to sit behind us (oh goody!). The girls talked at full volume through all of the previews and although we hoped they would stop once the movie started they continued their chatter, at full volume. They didn't bother to whisper and didn't even try to. I started getting frustrated 20 min into the movie, they were still talking, and turned around and quietly asked them to please whisper. This only caused them to talk louder, giggle, and make fun of me. 40 min. into the movie I was LIVID and, unfortunately, made matter worse by turning around and rudely asking them if they were going to talk the entire movie. Of course, they answered with a resounding YES and then proceeded to make fun of me even louder.

10 min. later, now almost a hour into the movie, a man sitting in the row behind them stepped into their row and nicely asked them to be quite so that others could enjoy the movie. They giggled some more, talked at full volume, and made fun of him. The man gave them 15 min. to quite down and then very sternly told them that if they didn't shut up he would have them removed from the theatre (I cleaned his response up for posterity sake). They retorted that they did not deserve to be talked to in such a manner and an argument ensued with plenty of cursing between the two. I honestly thought the man was going to punch one of them but instead he stormed out and retrieved security. Security came in and told the girls that people were complaining that they were talking and asked them to stop; if they did not stop they would be asked to leave. The girls were outraged and claimed they hadn't been talking at all and began arguing with security.

Once security left they moaned and groaned at being treated so poorly until the same man who yelled at them before told them to shut up or he would have them kicked out (Okay, so not exactly what he said but you get the point with out me having to get graphic). At this threat they quited but not with out yelling at anyone in the theatre who leaned close to whisper to the person next to them to STOP TALKING!!!

As we were leaving the theatre I heard a couple people thank the man on their way out. He kept an eye on the girls as they left and luckily no fights took place afterwards.

In all honesty, I couldn't help but giggle. I love our small town but the people in it really are country; go KY! I can't really say if I recommend Alice In Wonderland or not, I guess you'll have to go see it for your self and hopefully you'll have a better experience than us.

Brandon's response to it all was: "We can't even go see a movie with out something going wrong, and you want kids!"

"We Believe in Elfin Magic" ~Keebler

As most nights at the Mann house, Brandon and I were settling in to watch one of our shows. It's not uncommon for us to curl up together in our recliner, yes we BOTH fit in the recliner, and every now and again we have the dog join us. On this particular night Brandon had just gotten up so I called Tiko to join me. I hugged him tight and rocked the chair while rubbing his tummy. Needless to say the dog was jiggling all over the place to which Brandon looked at Tiko and in all honesty asked:

"Are you being thrown around like a little elf?"

I laughed so hard I knocked the dog off the chair. Brandon had no idea where it came from and neither do I, but it was FUNNY!!!

Pee Stick Blessings

I'M OVULATING!!!

As my Dr. requested I have been doing an ovulation test everyday since my cycle ended. For 6 months I have seen negative tests and I was not expecting to see anything different today. To my great surprised there were two lines on my test making it a positive test. For a whole minute I just gaped at it unsure of what to do. Once I recovered I immeditally called my Dr. to inform her. She was surprised and confused, that would make my cycle over 40 days long! To have such a long cycle AND ovulate was not really possible to her.

It's possible to me because with God all things are possible.
She asked me to take a second test in 20 minutes just to be sure. Sure enough, the second test came out positive and I burst into tears; I couldn't help it. I'm an emotional person and after the roller coaster of what if's and maybe nots I have gotten the last couple weeks I was excited to see God work this little miracle and give me the reassurance I so desperately needed.

I called my husband in tears, confusing the poor guy. I had to explain that they were happy tears because God had answered my fervent prayers. I had also asked my bible study ladies, who are prayer warriors, to pray and when they ask God answers!

I may still have a long road ahead of me; however, I now feel I have the strength to walk it. I have hope and renewed faith that my Father is a Father of grace, mercy, and LOVE! He knew what I needed and that I was reaching my limit. He reached out and gave me a great big HUG as he whispered in my ear that he loved me.

I am schedule to have laparoscopic surgery in April to get a better idea of what's really going on and give my Dr. the chance to see how bad it all is in there. It should help my montly pain along with increase our chances of getting pregnant. The best part is that our insurance covers the procedure 100%, YAY God!

Who knows if I'll birth my own kids. Who knows if we're called to adopt. Either way this little blessing has given me what I needed, a little hope of something greater.

I'm thankful for my pee stick blessing!

GOLD is Made With Sweat and Tears

As a child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grow up I have no recollection as to what my answer was. I do, however, remember that a deep rooted love for children started very early. I remember loving to play house and always wanting to play the role of the mother. I thoroughly enjoyed babysitting, working in the nursery, and helping with children’s church and was willing to babysit some of the worst kids that no one else wanted to; why, because I loved it. My parents on more than one occasion commented on my patience with children and I honestly thought nothing of it.

As my senior year of high school approached I had NO IDEA what I wanted to with my career or how I wanted to make money for the rest of my life. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to be a mom. More than anything I wanted to get married and start a family; a family with 4 kids and 2 dogs. My lifelong dream is surrounded around the idea of children and family; all the other stuff is icing on the cake.

We’ve been married for almost 3 years and for 6 months we have tracked my cycles in hopes of being blessed with a baby. For 6 months we’ve tested for ovulation to better our chances, I’ve taken prenatal vitamins to prepare my body, and everyone we know has been praying over my womb.

2 weeks ago I got a God given reality check: no matter what we do or what I prepare for if God does not will it, it will not happen. After a visit to my gynecologist and numerous phone calls between us, I learned NOT ovulating is NOT normal. My biggest and longest lasting fear smacked me in the face full force; I may not be able to get pregnant.

As with my mom, I suffer from endometriosis. In her case having children was not a problem; obviously, I’m the youngest of 3 and we all came one right after the other. I, on the other hand, may have to take the long and hard endometriosis road, the road that is laden with fertility tests, drugs, and surgeries.

Immediately bitterness set in. Here I am young, willing, and begging for a child only to be told not… right… now. Never in my life have I ever been refined by God’s fire (1Peter 1:6-9) so strongly, never have I been asked to trust more, never have I required so much God given patience just to make it through one more month of excruciating and debilitating cramps, and never have I prayed so hard and relied so much on my Lord (Matthew 7:7-8).

My Father knows that my heart is broken; He feels my pain each month and cries with me. He hears my begging pleas everyday and sees my tears of despair every night. He knows my discouragement is great and can slowly see me being chipped away as His light seems to grow brighter from within me (Psalms 55). This is a lesson I wish upon no one but today, it’s a good day, I stand proud to learn it. My Savior knows not every day is a good day and that I’m not strong every day; however, He loves me and stands with me through it all (Philippians 4:6-8).

One day my dream will be fulfilled for it is a lifelong deep rooted desire of my heart (Psalms 37:3-6). I don’t know how and I have no clue when but I WILL be a mom one day!

Frisbee Anyone?

I hope that everyone was able to get out and enjoy the GORGEOUS weather, if you had any, this past weekend. My AWESOME hubby planned a fun day out for us that included a picnic and a round of frisbee golf. Excited, I got online to see if there were any courses in Louisville that we had yet to try; unfortunately we only have 2 and the one we had yet to try out had a Disc Golf tourney going on. Sat. came and we headed to Iroquois park; only to discover that our main path to the park was closed due to construction. DETOUR (bummer), we should have taken the sign for what it was... someone telling us to turn around and go home while the going was still good.

Once at Iroquois, having played there before, we were shocked to find that the course was 1/2 gone due to construction on plumbing lines that run under the park. Stunned and amused that of course this WOULD happen to us I called a friend to get directions to a park in Indiana that had a course. We were bound and determined to take advantage of such a nice day and refused to let the sight of bulldozers and mounds of dirt deter us from our goal. :)

As we approached our exit to get on 65N from 264E we found it closed. (seriously?!) We had to go down to the next exit and get on 264W before we could get on 65N; only the ramp to 65N from our lane was closed (are you kidding me?!). We had to turn around on Poplar Level and get on 65N from the other direction. LOL. Finally on 65N, we reached the bridge and were crossing the river when I realized we were on the wrong bridge (OHMYWORD!!!). We had to get off and turn around so that we could take the 64 bridge to IN. By this point, I was laughing hysterically and couldn't stop it was just too funny.

After almost 2 hours in the car we FINALLY reached the park. Having had our picnic in the car we headed out for a fun round of Disc Golf. The course was deserted, the weather was perfect, and Brandon only won by one stroke; his winning meant ice cream for me! Despite the rough start it was a fun day... and OF COURSE it would happen to us! :)

This is what happens when Brandon wins.