Well, it’s 5:12am on Wed, January 30th. I’m waiting 18 min. so I can take another Oxycodone. So I thought I’d update the blog.

I know I never blogged that I was to have surgery, so here’s the scoop.

Ultrasounds that were done during pregnancy revealed that I had a large cyst on my right ovary (about golf ball size). I know that’s nothing compared to what some women have, but was rather painful, anyway. Especially when Caleb got in a good kick right there! Or if I moved wrong. Or at random moments. We all assumed it was the "corpus luteum of pregnancy" (look it up) for a while, even if a rather large one. But when the thing never went away, my Dr. "prophesied" it was not that, and that it likely would not go away on its own. She said we’d wait until after delivery to remove it laprascopically (sp?) unless something went horribly wrong during pregnancy. So at my 6 week post-partum check up they did another ultrasound to make sure it was, in fact, still there. Of course it was. BUT! With no pregnant uterus in the way, they discovered that it was actually 2 cysts which had been smooshed together to look like one. And at this point the radiologist detected some "solid elements" (look it up) in them. So I got to have a fun cancer screening blood test. Thankfully, nothing was revealed there. We also learned that the blood test detects "almost all" cancers. So we knew the cysts would be sent to pathology later to make double sure.

So yesterday was the surgery to remove my little friends. I was quite nervous. I was not as much of a basket case as I was when I was to be induced though, because absolutely NOTHING depended on me. All I had to do was show up and go to sleep. But I have never had ANY anasthesia of any kind, much less General. So I was still scared of the unknown. (Although… I was also kind of looking forward to it so I could get in a lot of guilt-free napping. Is that wrong? ) The staff were AWESOME! This was done at a private women’s hospital (actually where both kids were born), and they are simply fabulous there. In fact, our friend who came over to watch the boys is a Labor and Delivery nurse there, and so was able to give me comfort by telling me how great the anasthesiologists (sp?) are there.

Anyway! Dr. Stone was hopeful that she could save the ovary, but that with mutiple cysts, it does make it harder to save the ovary. She did manage it, so that’s nice. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world to lose the one, but it’s nice to still have my original parts. I still know very little of what happened because all of yesterday I could tell that I wasn’t very intelligent any more, and that I’d have to ask all my questions over and over. So maybe today Tim can really update me.

This was outpatient surgery, and I pretty much slept the day away in my own nice bed, but boy did I feel lousy. It wasn’t great sleep for waking up in pain a lot (can’t imagine how bad it would be without the narcotics!) and the fact that I still had to get up and pump milk out of myself. Oh yeah, the puking wasn’t a lot of fun either. Of course the feeling of disorientation and dizziness from the Oxycodone was lovely. On the other hand! I still got to sleep — a lot! I plan to do something similar today.

But I’d still argue that Tim had it harder! He fetched and carried for me, fed children, played with children, put children to sleep, the whole shootin’ match, all with way too little sleep for himself. I knew he was golden when I married him, but he really really is the best. Also, thank goodness for our wonderful class friends from church who brought supper, and who will continue to feed us every other night for a week! Tim is home tomorrow and maybe Thursday, and his sister will have Ethan probably at least one day, if not two. I’m expected to be doing very well by next Tuesday, and fully recovered the week after that. All prayers are still welcome, of course.

Well, yay! I can go drug myself again , and hopefully sleep another couple hours before the house awakens.

Don’t know at what age a baby is supposed to giggle, but Caleb sure seemed amused by his bouncy seat toy tonight.  We were eating our Taco Bueno.  Caleb was in his bouncy seat, having just been fed.  Then by accident (from flailing his arms around) Caleb hit one of the dangling toys and suddenly started kicking his feet for all he was worth.  I noticed he was really zoned in on that toy.  Then he started grinning really big and suddenly let out the happiest little squeal!  (Well, he is a Pigg, after all…  sorry, it had to be said.)

It’s so fun to watch them!   Ethan and I were both so pleased by it we just laughed and laughed along with Caleb.  Tim’s an engineer… so he stoically (but with a pleased air) thought it was very cute.  You could tell he really did think it was cute.  But he was more interested in the idea that Caleb may be learning that he can manipulate his environment.    (sigh!)   I assured him that at 6 weeks old the child still doesn’t even know he has hands; but that we can be happy with him noticing things.

It’s also fun to watch the dad. 

Tonight we were sitting in the drive-thru lane at Taco Bueno.  Tim was deciding what to order and mentioned that whatever he got, if it wasn’t hot enough, he could "always add plenty of cayenne pepper to it."  Ethan announced his dislike of cayenne and Tim said, "That’s okay.  You don’t have to like it.  But maybe someday you will like it."

"No, I not wike it when I a baby.  I not wike it when I a boy.  I not wike it when I a man oooorrr a womans."

Tim: "Well, you’ll be a man, and you don’t have to like it."

Me: hysterical laughter 

Side note: Did you notice the apparent hierarchy that’s in the child’s head?                       Just kidding.  I think he was just covering his bases — making sure we understand that no matter what happens cayenne pepper is NOT going to be his thing.