surgery part 343131.42

so yeah, all the hormones are good!  hooray!  and all that other stuff, hooray!
we went to the big 5-0 party and it was fun.  we got all dressed up and eric looked super cute in his new vest that i got him! earlier in the day though, i ran in the mustache dache.  i wasn't sure how i was going to race this, i was sorta like, well, i kinda want to take it easy but then i also kinda want to push it, but if i get too tired maybe i will just slow it down.  whatever.  so i woke up late, did none of my normal pre-race things, met up with the girls and headed on out to the race.  i did a short warm up with janet and then the race started.  i think this was the very first race i have ever negative splitted.  i started out pretty mellow then as things spread out i picked it up.  and you know what - i had a PBS-PR! 
by over a minute i think.  still a little over a minute slower than my Pre-BS-PR but man, i will take it!!

it was a very fun event, i'd like to do it again next year!
i went to ohio!  oh my!  can you beleive it!  its been 8 years since we went back!  but it was the 20 year reunion and i really wanted to go.  so the kids went to las vegas with my mom to visit my brother and eric's sister, and then he and i went to ohio!  we flew on thanksgiving day and travel was fine.  we had a layover in chicago, but it was quick.  as soon as we got off the plane we boogied our way to the closest Quaker Steak and Lube!  Oh the magic of it all! we have been talking about the wings for years!  i've ordered the sauces for eric for xmas a few times, but its not the same.  not even close!

the visit to Quaker Steak and Lube was not only delicious, but it was the start of the Ohio Eating Tour.

so we chowed down on a ton of those wings for our Thanksgiving dinner and then headed on over to OHIO.

 in the morning, we headed out to do a few things, one being - visit the Mocha House!  I worked here as a barista the summer after my freshman year of college, that was 1993 folks.  19 years ago.  holy crap.  the place is pretty much exactly how it was back then.

 the pastries and desserts looked just as amazing, only this time they had buckeyes!  so we got some of those!

 and i had a tasty, just the right temp mocha!  they make their mochas a special way, so one must always try one at the Mocha House!  I told the cashier how I worked there so long ago, and she told the owner's daughter, heck, she might be the owner now, i don't know.  but she came over to our table and we reminisced about the good old days.  that was a really fun job.  i am pretty sure i always enjoyed going, i don't think i ever called off, and even though i worked most evenings, especially weekends, it was a great time. 

 after, we headed over to oakwood cemetery to visit my dad.  this cemetery is a really cool place.  so much history.   when we were trying to figure out a place for dad to be, they talked about these other random places, but i remembered going to oakwood when we were little.  my mom would plant flowers on some of the relatives graves and us kids would run to the water pumps and get water.  it was a happy place at that time, as a little kid i didn't have any real connection to it, but to me it seemed like the only logical place for dad to be.  so he is there now.  there are so many very old graves, with dates from the early 1800s, and some historical folks, too.  civil war people, old school baseball players, congressmen and judges.  many of the graves have been effected by the weather over the years and you can hardly tell what they say.  its a very cool place and i am happy that dad gets his place in all of that history.

we had planned to go swimming, but the pool at the hotel was closed!  they shut it down!  totally down!  decommissioned it!  so sad, we swam at that pool every time we came back to visit in the olden days, and we used to swim there as kids.  so we decided to run around the golf course.   because we are who we are, we spent the whole time talking about how they should do a race out there on the course on those golf cart trails.  it was a fun short run!
 later that night, the eating tour continued.  we went to Alberinis for dinner with Jen and Beki.  we did the same thing before our 10 year.  i remember going to Alberinis twice when i lived there. ok, 3 times.  once was when i went before prom when i was a sophomore and i went with a senior!  i wore a white dress, since i was so virginal and all, and i was all proud of myself for remembering to order an entree with not dark colors then ruined it by getting french dressing on my salad.  luckily i didn't spill!  the 2nd time was with that same senior, we went and had bananas foster for desert!  the 3rd time was when a bunch of us got all dressed up and went for the heck of it.  good times.  but their pepperoni bread is da'bomb!!!  holy crap, it was so good!!  and eric had the peppers.  i don't do peppers but apparently they were really good.

we had strawberries beki!  its all about the fire!

in the morning, we headed out super early towards akron, i guess actually to cuyahoga falls, for a trail running race.  it was cold as balls and snowing.  burr. 

 but we stopped at the dunkin donuts by kent state university trumbull campus so i could get some coffee and some donuts!!

 the race was fun although it was freezing!!  we did a warm up, and tried to stay warm.  we weren't too sure what the course was going to be like.  eric was going to run with me, but then after like not even 2 minutes into it he asked if he could go ahead.  i had told him all along that he could, so he took off.  i saw him make his way through the other runners until he was out of sight.  the course itself wasn't technical - mostly mowed grass field and pavement, but it was fun to be out there running.  i felt good.  i was pushing myself but not all balls to the wall, as some might say.  eric wound up 4th overall and 1st in his age group of 0-39, and i wound up something or another over all and 3rd in my 0-39 age group.  we won t-shirts and socks and water bottles and a hat.  that was a nice treat!  i am so glad we did the race.

 after i showed my dismay over the cold!  burr, it went right to the bone!!

 only 31 but felt like 21!  it sure did feel like 21!  I made the mistake of fashion over function with my coat choice for the trip - i did not take my puffy with me1  boy i wish i had!  at least i looked good, but hot damn, it was cold!!

 eric dropped me off to get some manicures done with lisa and cary in preparation for the reunion.  i randomly picked out the same color i had picked out when the three of us had manicures in atlanta several years before - Suzi Skiis the Pyrenees. its almost black in color.  i like it.  i normally get almost black whenever i get a manicure.  we called up eric to see where he was  at taco bell.

not the taco bell that turned into the car loan place but a different one.  so we went for coffee.  then as we were leaving coffee, we called up eric again and he was in Sharon, PA at Quaker Steak and Lube again!    so cary took me to gorants to get 3 pounds of meltaways!!  oh my, so delicious, i have to stop!  but they are so good!!

 back at the hotel, eric and i chowed down on the wings he had gotten to go - must eat wings, might not ever get them again!!

 later that evening we went to Alberinis again with a bunch of the girls, and then headed on over to the reunion.  it was fun to see everyone.  i was happy to see everyone who was there, but sad that so many people i was hoping to see didn't come.  high school sucked but there were lots of good people there, too.  maybe i will see them someday.
the next day, we got up and headed to the airport.  the drive was fine, only this time we could see since it wasn't night time.

we got to the airport quite early, got through security without incident.

and then waited to get on the plane.  i was asleep before we even took off and slept for 2 hours.  we had a layover in Phoenix which was quick and easy, back on the plane and we both fell asleep instantly.  after an hour we woke up to find out we were still on the ground, but we both fell back asleep for another hour.  wow, ohio sure wore us out!!

on monday i went to work and drank my coffee out of my new 20th anniversary Mocha House coffee mug thing!  so happy!  you can see a bit of my manicure in there, too!

Monday was a big day for a few reasons!  the gym emailed and told me they got my shirts in!  they have shirts that say stuff like "Stronger than Cancer" "Stronger than the boys" and stuff like that.  i emailed them saying i don't have cancer but could i get a shirt saying something about brain tumors?  they said they would make me some!  i told them how my fitness and health have been so helpful through this whole thing and how after the big surgery in May i was at the gym in two weeks on the recumbent working my way back.  i was so excited, and totally overwhelmed when they send proofs showing me what the shirts would look like.  they said they would have them to me in time for my surgery on the 27th - and they did!  as soon as i picked them up, i put one on and had a little photo shoot!

 tuesday morning i woke up, checked my phone and found a voice mail asking us to come in an hour earlier than originally planned. so i boogied into my ash tray shower and off we went!
we checked in and before i was even able to pick up the white phone to call the people behind the doors, they were out there calling me back.  so we headed back.  not totally sure why we had to get there so early because we wound up waiting around a long long time.  but we ease dropped on everyone's check in stories again.  sounded like most people were having heart related surgeries, mostly "procedures" of some sort or another.  lots of older people.  i found out i am not pregnant - thank goodness!  that would have been a game changer right there.  omg.  finally we found out that the doctor had a surgery right before mine and that patient was being taken to recovery, so we would be up pretty soon.  it was around 1230, or 1pm, and we were joking how the surgeon was grabbing some lunch real quick, and how he might even take bites of his sandwich while operating on me.  we sure hoped he didn't drop a pickle into my head and sew it up in there.  and no sesame seeds - we are pretty sure sesame seeds would show up as tumor on an MRI.  we even thought that maybe he might have spaghetti, since he could slurp the noddles up under his mask.

this is a before photo - the last one of the dent!

 this time around wasn't as scary as last time.  i didn't feel as alone or freaked out, and boy i was a talker.  and i took my phone so i could take photos!!!  we got on the elevators and down to the basement we went!  we headed to PACU, which i learned is post-anesthesia care unit.  but we didn't actually go in there.  we went somewhere else. since i ask a lot of questions, i asked why was i there before my last surgery, they said because that was early in the morning, before there were patients in there recovering.  so this time, since that area was all filled up, they took me to some other pre-surgery holding cell.

 now, i couldn't totally remember what PACU meant, so i did a quick google search.  apparently there is a fish, called Pacu that is also known as the Ball Cutter because it will bite off your testicles if you aren't careful!!
once in that holding cell, they filled up my air blanket with warm air.  not sure why they use these crazy blankets but they are weird and warm.

 i had some time to chill, so i took a photo of this Portable X-ray Machine Parking sign.  it made me laugh.
the anesthesiologist came in, same guy as before.  he was awesome.  he asked if i remembered him and we had some laughs.  he had a fellow with him.  she was super nice, too.  and man, she is good at putting in an IV - didn't even feel the tiniest of poke!  they were all chatty and i was getting them caught up on everything.  then some other guy came in and started talking with the anesthesiologist about what was going to happen during the surgery and i was like, uh, who are you?  he introduces himself and he was another fellow, but a surgeon fellow.  he had an accent so i asked him what it was - swedish!  omg - a swedish doctor at swedish hospital!!  he was going to be assisting my surgeon during the whole thing.  the anesthesiologist explained the whole fellow situation to me.  anyway, whatever.

 so we headed on into the operating room, it was a different room this time, but i asked about the monitors with the brains projected on them and i shimmied my way onto the table, yapping away the entire time.  we talked about the flavored gas and why do i have to have beach ball flavor when there are other nice ones out there.  then the mask came on and i wasn't out as quickly as last time, i don't think i was fighting it, but i know the nurse was there, gently rubbing my non-iv arm as i drifted off.  that was nice.
i eventually woke up in the PACU!  i didn't remember waking up there for the first surgery since they took me on the CT tour of the world that time, but this time i was there, i saw a nurse sitting there monitoring stuff.  i told her my head hurt.  it wasn't too bad, i know i reached for it because she pulled my hand down from it.  i asked her what pain medicine i was on - morphine.  i asked her i the surgeon closed a pickle into my head.  she probably thought i was all drugged up, but i wanted to know.
then they said i would be going to ICU.  everyone was like, what?  why? so there was lots of drama about that.  and then up i went to the ICU.  once there, they were all like, what is she doing here?  they were nice and took great care of me of course, but at the same time were like, uh, she doesn't need to be here. i moved from one bed to the next and eventually to another one when they decided to take me to the real hospital floor - floor 5.  i got settled in and fell asleep. 

 eric was there visiting and xtie came too.  i had a dressing stapled onto my head, but i felt good.  they gave me antibiotics but no more pain medicine unless i asked for it, which i didn't.  i eventually took some tylonol but that was it.  the guy across the hall had his tv turned up super loud until about 12:30 that night.  crazy.  i woke up every few hours to go to the bathroom and drink some water and occasionally i would turn on the tv for a little until i was ready to go back to sleep.  they checked my vitals, apparently i am very consistent!  100/57 is the way to be, baby!

in the morning the surgeon stopped by at the crack of dawn.  i love him, he is so awesome.  we talked about everything that happened.  we looked at some photos and i asked him about all kinds of stuff.  i told him how i had asked the radiation doctor about getting a tattoo on my head where i lost the hairs, and how that doctor was all like, yeah, don't do that - you won't want your surgeon having to look at some big ugly tattoo on your head, now do you?  to which the surgeon turned his head to the side and looked to be stifling a laugh.  he told me that my head will be like a breast implant.  nice, right?  that it will seem over built for a while but eventually will settle down.  he said i would have some swelling and some bruising and will wind up with a black eye.  as of right now, no black eye.  i had some discoloration and swelling in my eye but that seems to be better now.  i think i might get off without anything like that!
then i had some blood work done by the super nice lab guy who took my blood every day the last time i was there.  i told him he is the best blood taker there is because he is really is!
later that day eric brought my mom in for a visit, then i took a nap and then eventually eric and the kids came to pick me up to bring me home.
this surgery has been nothing even remotely close to the one in May.  my recovery from that was pretty amazing, i will say, but wow, i feel pretty much normal this time around.  eric and i joked about how the surgeon called this one a minor surgery.  yes, i can see that as there was not skull cutting, brain shrinking or digging, but it was still pretty intense.  but then we remembered how he told us my last surgery was a big deal, but not as invasive as like open heart surgery where they crack your sternum.  ok, putting it all in perspective.  the human body is amazing, and the things they can do with it are crazy amazing!!
on thursday and friday i was well enough to work from home, and i will go into the office with my new staple headband on monday!
ps its december already!!