Happy Halloween...and why I've been gone.

Happy Halloween, darling readers!  It's been awhile since I've blogged and I'm very sorry.  The last several weeks have been a bit rough.  I had surgery, again, September 24th.  This time was to move the battery I just had put in back in April of this year.  I had requested back then that they move it somewhere else because I was having an issue with it feeling like it was resting on a nerve, but my doctor thought, with it being a smaller battery, it wouldn't cause that feeling any more if he modified the pocket and made it smaller.  Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way.  The modification he made came undone and it was sliding back and forth and was resting up against the bone, as it had done with the larger battery.  He agreed, once he had the pocket open and the battery out, that I was right and it should have been moved when I had the first surgery.  The battery is now in the muscle of my mid-back, about 1.5" to the left of my spine.  Well, it's supposed to be there.  I think the doctor is going to be surprised when I go in for my follow-up check up to see that it's already popped out of the pocket he made for it.  But after he hears why, I think he'll understand a lot better why.

This was only the 2nd time that I've kind of had a bit of complications after a surgery.  The first surgery I had complications afterwards was my hysterectomy back in 1996 and they suspect that was caused because my appendix burst just as the doctor did the incision.  That was one of the first things I remember him telling me about when I regained enough of my senses after that surgery to recall anything.  He said he got the surprise of his life because it was the last thing he expected.  I ran a fever for nearly 2 weeks after that surgery.  The 2nd surprise with that surgery was finding out I was allergic to the surgical staples they'd used to close my incision with.  With this surgery, the doctor used a special glue to close the incisions.  I have two, one for the old pocket and one for the new pocket.  Both are maybe 3.5 inches long, if that and they might be 5 inches apart and both on the left side.  I'm glad my doc knows how to make a straight line.  ;0)

My husband and I really debated on if I should reschedule my surgery or not because his father had been admitted to our local hospital, I think it was on Sept 6th, where he spent a few days, before being transferred to a larger hospital where he underwent surgery for a possible bowel obstruction.  They did not find an obstruction, but the doctor did repair several small hernia's.  Overnight, after surgery, his heart started racing and they thought it best to transfer him to the ICU department.  They did a procedure to get his heart back in rhythm then he started having problems breathing and had to be put on a vent to help him breath.  There was some debate over this for awhile but I'm not going to get into that here.  I talked with a few members of my husband's family about if I should go through with my surgery or if I should reschedule it and those I talked with all said I should go ahead and get it done.  The night before, hubby and I talked and debated for a couple hours and I stayed up all night, going back and forth about it.  I had my hand on the phone to pick it up to cancel when I heard my hubby's alarm go off so he could get ready to go and I thought to myself that I'd better get it over with and I got dressed and now here I am, a month later, wishing I'd picked up that phone because 6 days after my surgery, my father-in-law passed away and I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to him since I was recovering from surgery when he was moved to hospice and it was suspected that he had MRSA in his lungs and it was too risky for me to go see him.

Back in 2010, when we lost my husband's mother, it was difficult.  She had heart problems and really started going downhill when Dad had surgery for an abdominal aneurysm in December of 2009.  He spent 17 days in ICU after that surgery, another 13 or 14 in a step-down unit at the hospital, then 2 weeks at a nursing home before he finally came home.  The same day we brought him home from the nursing home, we brought Mom home from respite care at hospice.  She passed away 3 weeks later, just after Dad had been re-admitted to the hospital for a UTI.  He was released from the hospital the morning of her funeral.  My husband was recovering from his first shoulder surgery at that time and although it was hard on both of us (me with my back problems and him with a bum shoulder), we were both thankful to have had those 3 weeks with both of his parents together.  (Yes, we moved in with them during that time to care for them.)

I almost forgot, October 10th, we had stopped to get a price quote on some items to do a home improvement project we want to work on soon (we're going to put a new door in) and decided to pick up dinner on the way home.  The main drag through town is a 4 lane highway with a lot of traffic lights and we were the first vehicle waiting at the red light.  Hubby and I were just chatting idly, about what, I have no clue now, when I saw the light change and the car to the left us took off like it had been shot out of a cannon.  All of a sudden, I felt a jolt go through me.  The car behind us took off before we did and ran into us!  Hubby hadn't even lifted his foot off the brake pedal yet.  The guy behind us hit us hard enough it pushed our car about 6 feet from where we'd been.  Thankfully there was no damage to either of our vehicles, but the jolt I felt left both my legs and feet numb for a few minutes and we thought it best if I went to the ER and got checked out.  The next day I felt as if I'd been hit by a train.  I still need to schedule my follow up visit yet but I don't think there is any lasting damage but won't know for sure until after my check-up.

There is some good news...I signed up with my first indie company to do a review and got my first polishes to swatch and review!  :D  Those came in the mail on the 10th (I had them on my lap when our car was hit and the first thing I said to the EMT when they leaned in the car was "You'd better take care of my nail polish!" ) and I'm very much looking forward to posting my review of them in the next few days now that things are starting to get back into a bit of a routine again around here.  I've really missed doing my nails (I've only painted them maybe twice) over the last few weeks.

Thank you all for sticking around and waiting patiently for me.  I appreciate each and every one of you who've stayed with me over this last year.  That is something else I missed, my first year blogiversary.  I'll try to get something going next month to celebrate it or maybe wait until December and do a bigger Christmas give-away.  What do y'all think?  Huggles to you all!