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. :-)
Posted at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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.
Posted at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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 :- )
Posted at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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!
Posted at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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 :-)
Posted at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
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.
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Posted at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I've been meaning to write down a few things that Henry's been doing over the past two months.
Posted at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)