the lowdown

Where to start, where to start? Did I talk about the incredibly bloody nose? ah yes, I did mention it. So - from there, I'll go to the days post bloody nose.
I was pretty much down for the count Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday. I finally turned a corner on Friday. It was astounding to me how out I was. I mean, it was just a damned bloody nose! But the nose has all those little nerves connected to so many other parts of my face - so the right side of my head was just ouchie; behind my eye, my cheek, my teeth - all sore. Wednesday i was so bad that i could barely open my computer or read my book. People, that is serious! The vicodin would work really well for the first 2 - 2 1/2 hours, then it would be a waiting game for the next 4 hours. I would sleep through the good part of the vicodin and then wake up for the bad waiting part. Sometimes I could get back to sleep, but mostly not so much. I got dizzy and really had a hard time getting up. The vicodin affected me much differently than when I had my c-sections. I really couldn't focus on more than one thing at a time and having lots of sound from different areas was hard. So if Irene and Rhys were in the room and both talking to me at the same time, I couldn't focus at all. Very odd, that.

Thank heavens that Rob was able to take Tuesday off. Irene and I were supposed to go to the eye doctor. I was looking forward to it as I haven't gotten new glasses since Irene was 6 months old, and Irene NEEDED to get her vision checked as she's been squinting up a storm, so Rob took both kids to that. Yep, as you've seen in the pictures, she does indeed need glasses. She's nearsighted. We are hoping to have her glasses this coming Tuesday (the day after school starts up again). Mom came home on Tuesday and was SUCH a tremendous help on Wed and Thurs. She figured out a way to wash my hair right on my bed - it was amazing. She also took the kids for me so I could sleep and not worry about them both days. Friday the kids were here and were wonderful - actually all the days they were wonderful and caring and careful.

Irene would read to me from one of her books, Rhys would come and check on me every so often. Rob came home early on Friday and took the kids out for a bit. That was good b/c even though they were being wonderful, I couldn't sleep because I wanted to keep an ear out - just
in case something happened. when Rob left, I slept. Saturday I made a big journey and we went to Costco - the big Frame Finding Day for Irene's glasses. I used the cart for support as we found a few things we needed for the family gathering. By the time we got to the checkout stand, I needed to be sitting down, so I grabbed the keys and went to the car. When we got home, I went upstairs and vegged/slept. I was able to come down for dinner and actually EAT some dinner. That was huge.


Sunday morning, the McRae family reunion began. Jolie and Kris were here with their kids, Ted was here, and Jeremy, Jesse and their 3 were also here!!

Sunday morning we went to brunch with Mom, Ken, Jolie and her family. I looked lovely with my yellow crayon bandaid keeping the "tail" of my cramming - er, i mean packing - from falling in front of me. Jolie et al came to our house soon after and we played on the Wii a bit and i lounged on the chaise. We then went to the pool - me on Rob's comfy lounge-y chair while everyone else swam. Jer and his family (who arrived midafternoon) followed a bit after and we had a great time! Ted arrived later that evening when we had dinner.

Monday was the big day - my packing was taken out!! Mom took me to the ENT. He had his schtick that he wanted to get through and didn't really want to listen to what I had to say. That was fine really b/c he took the damned thing out and it didn't hurt like I thought it would (though i did make sure to take my vicodin so i'd be at the highest point during the appt) and the doc had my bp taken again b/c he was concerned about how high it was at the ER (he said my stress level had nothing to do with how high my bp was...whatever...i still think it was the stress b/c it was something crazy like 150/110 and i'm usually WAY lower than that and the ER triage nurse had that damn band on my arm so tight it really hurt and i moved my arm and got scolded by the nurse). It was back to normal. Doc gave me a script for an antibiotic ointment to put in my nose, recommended getting a humidifier, said it was probably due to cracking b/c of the dryness. He also told me next time (if there is one) that I hold the nose tight (which we did) and after 10 minutes if it's still bleeding, use neo senephrin (like afrin) and put some on a cottonball, stuff it up the bloody nose for 10 minutes, remove it and hold for another 10. If after 1/2 hour it's still bleeding, go to the ER (the afrin like stuff is a vaso constrictor). After the packing was out, I felt quite good. Didn't need anymore vicodin. Under normal circumstances, I'd have probably still relaxed a bit more, but b/c we had lots and lots of plans, that didn't happen. We met everyone at the pool by the Villas (right by our house where jer and his family were staying). Somehow Irene didn't get her sunscreen applied very well and the reapplication happened too late for several of the kids - so Irene had her very first sunburn (usually she just tans).

We did huge family pictures on Tuesday at Portait Innovations (they were fantastic, btw. I recommend them over Picture People. They were fast and willing to do fun things and when my sister and her partner walked in, she asked if they were both my sisters or if they were married - I said they were married and no one batted an eyelash. I was SO pleased b/c Nevada is closer to a red state than a blue one and oftentimes, people are not so accepting. So YEA portrait innovations!) and then went to the big water park and had a great time culminating in chinese and sushi at the villa. Jolie and her family left after the waterpark to start the journey back to CA. My kids spent the night w/Jer and family while Rob and I went out gambling with Ted.

Wednesday...what did we do wednesday? Oh, we came here to our house on wednesday - I can't seem to remember what else. What did we do before?? hmm...oh! We met Ted for lunch before he had to head home to his kitties and work the next day. Drom there we went to the rivewalk and we played a bit in the Truckee River. That was great fun. We went back to our house and had dinner. Andrew and Kaitlyn (jer's oldest two - 8 & 4 1/2) stayed the night here.

Thursday we went to what I call the Splash Pad - it's a "park" filled with different water things - fountains and buckets that fill and dump. I'm not explaining very well, but Rhys is ready for me to be done typing and come downstairs, so I'm losing track. we had a great time. Then we went back to the villas and dropped off the kids. mom, Jesse, and I went to Kohls for a bit. Back to the villas for dinner and then home. Irene, who is usually up at 6:30 slept in the next day until almost 8:00! Jer and family left yesterday morning and arrived home (Colorado) this afternoon.

I'll post pictures at some point. It was a really wonderful visit and the cousins played together and got to know one another really well. I wish we all lived closer.