LifeUpNorth

Apollo 13

Henry and I are hanging out today doing homework and watching my favorite movie, Apollo 13, on HBO. He seems to be enjoying it! Like mother, like son.

Congrats, Dustin!

Last night Dustin came home and shared the good news with me and Henry...

HE PASSED HIS COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS!

We are so proud of you, Dustin!

Next, step... dissertation. :-)

Bye Bye Gallbladder

For those of you who didn't hear, I had surgery yesterday to remove my gallbladder. After almost four months of dealing with doctors who kept telling me that it was just heartburn, I finally found a doctor who did more testing. I was on my way to Columbus on Friday (a week ago) when I got a pain attack in the car. When this happens, I am totally wiped out. It's the worst pain I've ever had (far worse than contractions). We drove straight into town and to the Dublin Methodist Hospital. They got me in fairly quickly and ran some blood work. The test came back and showed that several enzymes were elevated and that it indicated that I had gallbladder disease. They had me do a CAT scan to make sure that my pancreas wasn't inflamed (a side effect of gallbladder disease) and that I wasn't in danger of getting very sick. The scan came back clean and they had me schedule an ultrasound on Saturday at Riverside.

On Monday I called the surgeon that I was referred to and set up a consultation for Tuesday and then surgery on Wednesday. I was a little nervous about the anesthesia, but mostly just happy that having my gallbladder removed was going to make all of the pain and crazy diet restrictions go away. Once I got to meet my surgeon (Dr. Fisher) I was even less nervous. He seemed like a great doctor. He told me that my gallbladder was full of stones and that I had the stones before I ever got pregnant with Henry. Giving birth just makes the problem appear more evident because of all the hormonal changes. He also said that my attacks were so bad that they were causing my liver to become inflamed.

I went to Doctor's West to have the outpatient surgery on Wednesday. We ended up waiting a little longer than expected because Dr. Fisher was called to an emergency surgery at another hospital. When it was finally my turn, it went much smoother than I thought. I honestly don't remember anything after laying down on the operating table and having this lady put a warm blanket over me. I woke up from the anesthesia and immediately needed a breathing treatment because I felt like I was having an asthma attack. They gave me some Albuterol through my oxygen mask and I was good to go. My belly button hurt a lot, but they gave me some IV drugs to help with the pain. (I had four incisions... the largest one was in my belly button and three across the right side of my abdomen. I stayed in the hospital for about 35 minutes after the surgery and then they said I could leave. I had some apple juice and graham crackers and I was out the door.

Today I felt pretty good. My throat hurts a bunch from the tube they put down there and my belly is just sore, but nothing unbearable. I'm not allowed to drive for a week and I'm not allowed to hold my chubby baby (or anything heavier than a gallon of milk) for a week or two. I had my first sip of coffee today since Henry was born and I wasn't scared to have some banana peppers on my sub for dinner-- this is a major improvement. I'm going to add back in foods slowly so that my liver and bile duct system can get to know each other without their little friend Mr. Gallbladder. 

I'm a bit pissed at my family doctor in Lansing for not listening to me when I suggested that it was my gallbladder. I'm also irritated that the first time I went to the ER for these attacks that my liver enzyme was elevated and he didn't figure out that it was my gallbladder. He just told me it was heartburn and sent me on my way with a handful of prescriptions. Since I'm paying for 20% of all these tests and the surgery itself, this is going to set us back several thousand dollars -- and if they had listened to me sooner I wouldn't have had to pay for as many of these ER visits and all the unnecessary tests. 

Oh well, at least it's over with and I'm going to be able to enjoy myself again instead of constantly worrying about going out in public in case I get an attack.

Update from the other half

Hi everyone, it's Dustin.

Leslie asked that I give our family and friends (you) a brief update on my work/school life. On October 13 and 14, I took my department's annual comprehensive examinations. Each year, the 3rd year students take these so-called "comps" together. There were only 4 of us who took the exam this year. I was the only native English speaker, so any chance of anonymity and blind grading was shot! :- ) I think the professors would know who we are anyways given the particular studies we cite to support our responses.

Students spend the summer prior to the exams studying for this monster. The test consists of essay questions asking about topics in five different research areas:
(1) Strategic management -- e.g. competitive advantage, mergers & acquisitions, CEO compensation, etc.
(2) Organizational theory -- e.g. understanding how firms maintain their boundaries, how they gather resources from their environment, how people in organizations make sense of their surroundings, etc.
(3) Human resource management -- e.g. selection, performance appraisal, work design, etc.
(4) Organizational behavior (my major) -- e.g. emotions, leadership, teams, decision-making, etc.
(5) Research methods -- e.g. philosophy of science, experimental design, statistics, etc.

On comps, we're responsible for all of the major research findings and knowledge in each of these areas. Unfortunately, we don't have any textbook or reading lists. If it was published in a top journal or popular book, we're responsible for knowing it. The only thing we're allowed to bring to the exam is a one-page reference list (author, date, and title information). It must have been quite hysterical watching me read my 4.5 size font with a magnifying glass during the exam! :- )

We won't get the results back for another couple of weeks, but I think I did okay. I don't know for sure, of course, and I'm not holding my breath! Many people before us have failed... Whatever happens, happens. It was honestly one of the most miserable and emotionally exhausting things I've ever done in my life. I should note that it did give me a broad overview of the literature to support my future research. Plus, it's a rite of passage in our department. Suffering is part of the fun.

After passing comps, students can start working on their dissertations. So, I will be starting that soon and finishing it up (hopefully) in mid-2012. It's common to do one's job search the year before that, so I'll be on the job market during fall of 2011.

Mostly, I'm happy to be able to re-introduce myself to Henry and spend time with the family instead of jumping from my office, to a coffeeshop, to another coffeeshop, back to my office, then home each day. It sure is nice to be back to normal. The experience was tough on the whole family, especially Leslie! She was fantastic though... watching Henry night and day and letting me study so much. Thanks Les :- )

Hank the Tank

It's been awhile since we've updated the blog with pictures of our little chubby man...

He is smiling all the time, now. It doesn't take much to get a huge grin from him. He's even starting to laugh! Here is he standing up with a little help from his Dad. Apparently, this is really funny to him.

 

Henry would now like to takeover the blogging so that he can "shout out" to his friends...

Hi Charlie and Olivia! Thanks for letting me borrow your super-cool play mat! I like to play on it when Mom is doing her homework and my Dad is off being a huge dork. I won't play on it when it's on the floor though, I will only do this if my Mom puts it on the bed. It's much softer this way. I also want to thank you for letting me borrow your jungle bouncer thingy. I really like to play in that too. You guys have cool toys!

Here's Henry playing in the jungle bouncer. I would love to say that he is staring at a educational and developmentally appropriate toy...

 

  ... but he's really just watching television.

 

As you can see, he's getting bigger by the minute. We can't wait to take him for his 4 month check-up in a few weeks. I think he's close to doubling his birthweight! 

A pumpkin for our pumpkin

On Saturday Dustin and I headed out to a little family farm in Mason (about 20 minutes away) to pick a pumpkin for Henry. We didn't have a lot of time (Dustin is down to the wire in regards to studying for his test), but we did get a couple of cute pictures....

One of the ladies that my mom works with had the hat made for him. It's a little big, but we use it anyways.

Also, thanks for the outfit, Kate! It looks great on him :-)

Heartburn

So, about two weeks after I gave birth to Henry, I started having this horrible pain in my sternum. I can't accurately describe it other than to say that it is the worst pain ever. I would rather have back labor again -- no joke. One night it got so bad that I had to go to the ER. I had no idea what the pain was, but I couldn't handle it anymore. 

After an EKG, X-Rays and blood work they determined that it must be gastrointestinal (i.e. heartburn). They have me some strange crap to drink (it had lidocaine in it) and it helped the pain go away. 

For the next few weeks this pain continued to happen at least twice a week. I lived off of Alka-Seltzer, Pepto-Bismol, Tums, Prilosec and Carafate. At one point I had an entire bottle of Pepto in a 24-hour period. When it happens I can't do anything. I am totally out of commission... which doesn't work well when you have a newborn to tend to. I can't lie down and I can't stand up. I have to be hunched over the side of the bed. When it finally subsides, I am WIPED OUT. 

It's strange because usually heartburn happens when you are pregnant and when you gain weight. This began after I has Henry and after I lost weight (and I continue to lose weight but it still happens). 

I went to the ER again about a month ago because it happened again and would NOT go away, but no matter what I took it would not go away. They gave me more prescription drugs to take (including a drug called Reglan). 

Meanwhile, I drastically changed my diet. Here is a list of things I no longer eat:

red meat of any kind (so no hamburgers or steaks)

alcohol

any tomato-based products (this means no pasta sauces)

orange juice/grapefruit juice

pizza

fast food that would be too greasy (i'll still eat chicken sandwiches)

any hot or spicy things (which sucks because I love spicy food)

anything that I think might give me heartburn

So after taking the Reglan (and the other drugs) for awhile, I noticed that I was losing the ability to form words. My tounge wasn't working the way it should - I was making involuntary expressions with my mouth. In addition, I was seriously restless. I couldn't sit still or get comfortable lying down. After I talked to a family friend (who happens to be a pharmacist), she told me that I was having a side effect of the Reglan. It's called Tardive Dyskinesia and apparently there's a whole ton of lawsuits pending against this drug because of this side effect. There's even a nice little FDA warning out on the drug. In fact, they don't even sell the drug in Canada or Europe anymore... but they still sell it here!

So after that whole mess was over, I had another episode which sent me to the ER and this time they had to give me an IV with Morphine to make it go away. 

I wish this story had a happy ending... but instead I've just been dealing with it. I don't eat what I want to anymore and I don't eat past 6:00 at night. Although, as of today I haven't had heartburn in 12 days. that's a record since it started. 

Napping boy

Ok... He's asleep in his crib for a nap. He usually never naps in his crib.

Progress, people.

This. Is. It.

Tonight's the night folks. I've been saying it for a few weeks now and for one reason or another the timing just didn't work out right. 

But tonight is the night.

Tonight Henry is sleeping alone in his *new* crib. 

Since he was born, he had been sleeping in our room in his pack-n-play. I didn't have a baby monitor at the beginning and I was worried I wouldn't hear him over all of the fans and the loud window a/c unit we have in our bedroom. 

But we have a monitor now. And he's not sick anymore. And I'm back from Columbus. And I don't work or have class at all tomorrow, so I can be as dog-tired as I need to be. 

For everyone's sake he needs to sleep in his real crib in his own room. 

We just put him to bed about 15 minutes ago and I've already had to go up there once to calm him down. He's kinda whining right now, but it hasn't turned into a full-out "Mommy help me" cry. 

Nevermind, I spoke too soon. Dustin's on his way up to console him. 

During our trip to Columbus this past week, he started sleeping through the night (11-5, which is good enough for me). BUT, he slept in the bed next to me for those days. (Dustin was gone and I didn't want to bring the pack-n-play.)

We'll see if he wants to sleep through the night when he's on his own. 

I think this is going to be pretty hard for him because he seriously hates to be alone. He gets all worked up if we even leave the room for a couple minutes and he can't see us. He's definitely a sensitive little guy.

Ok, he's crying again.

Wish us luck! I have a feeling it's going to be a looooooooooooong night. 

It's actually probably going to be many long nights...

UPDATE: After consoling Henry three times he went right to sleep and didn't wake up again until 6:18 this morning. Maybe this won't be such a problem after all!

Henry Updates: 2 Months

I've been meaning to write down a few things that Henry's been doing over the past two months. 

1) Henry has been able to roll over from his tummy to his back since August 14th. He was one month and five days old. I sat him on his play mat on his tummy and went into the kitchen to make him a bottle. When I came back out, he was screaming bloody murder and he was on his back. It's really funny because every time he rolls over, he cries really hard when he gets to his back.

2) He is in the 25th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. He was at birth and he continues to stay on that growth pattern. I guess that makes him kind of a little guy, but he seems like he's getting HUGE!

3) At his last doctor appointment he weighed 11 pounds and 8 ounces and he was 22.5 inches long (that was on September 9th). 

4) He continues to smile more and more every day, be he still won't do it every time we smile at him. We have to make really exaggerated smiles (basically make ourselves look like fools) and then he does it about 60% of the time. 

5) He is stubborn. There's no way around it. This is one of his most obvious personality traits. 

6) He loves, loves, loves his baths. Ever since his first bath in the big tub with me (right after his belly button fell off) he has loved the water. If he's in a bad mood, if you put him in the bath he immediately calms down. He loves to kick his legs in the water. We give him a bath every other day because he loves it so much. 

7) He has the following nicknames: Stinky, Hen, Little Hen, Henny Penny, Henrietta (when he whines like a girl... he actually sounds like a baby girl.), Hanky Panky, Hank, Joe and Henro Joe

8) I don't call him Stinky for the heck of it. This kid still farts all the time. Loud, adult farts. He also burps huge burps that smell like crap. Formula is gross!

9) He always has his hands up by his face. He often tries to fit his hands in his mouth along with his bottle.

10) He is a baby that constantly needs to be held or touched. At the very least he needs to know you're in the same room as he is. He's very sensitive to this. He doesn't do very well entertaining himself. 

11) He is a terrible sleeper. This is probably been the hardest thing so far. Because he likes to be around people so much, he really struggles sleeping in his own room. We had him sleeping in our room in his pack-n-play for the first several weeks, but it's been a constant struggle weaning him off of being in our room. He doesn't even like to be by himself for naps. He got sick a couple weeks ago so we stopped trying and had him stay with us until he got better (he was coughing a lot and I was worried). When I decided to start trying again (two days ago) I realized, thank God, that his crib was broken. I'm so glad I didn't put him in it before I realized that. So we went and bought a new crib and put it together today. We'll see how things go tonight. Cross your fingers! He also fights sleep. I can tell he is SO tired, but if his eyelids start to get heavy, he will open them as wide as he can for as long as he can until he just can't take it anymore. 

12) He has three little woodland creatures that hang from his bouncer seat... a raccoon, an owl and a squirrel. He loves the raccoon. He looks at it and smiles at it and talks to it. It's obvious that he is looking at the raccoon and not the other two animals. Weird. 

13) He loves his Dad. He smiles for Dustin the most. 

14) He is too cool to be held "like a baby" anymore. He wants to be held so that he is sitting up or over your shoulder so he can see what's going on. It's been like this for about 3 weeks now. 

15) When he's tired his eyelids and under his eyes get red. 

16) He still has his red "stork bites" on his eyelids, under his nose and on the back of his neck. The ones on his face are fading, but the one in the back is not fading at all. I was told by the doctor that sometimes the ones on the back of boys necks don't ever go away.

17) He still has red hair. It's definitely red and it's not getting any darker. 

18) His eyes are getting a bit darker towards the inside of his irises. They're still blue, but I think they're on their way to brown.

19) His belly button is still an "outie". 

20) He is eating 4oz. of formula every two hours on the button. He is a hungry boy.