Monday - I want to be sedated

I stayed up and watched Beautiful Girls last night tried to relax enough to go upstairs. It took about another hour of clock watching last night to fall asleep. Even though we had no kids to wake us up early this morning I had to get up and drink the prep fro my CT scan. Rob slept in a bit but came down to join me not too much after I got up. I mixed the prep with cranberry juice again and have the same complaint as last time - I don't drink that much juice ever and to drink it on a timetable is gross. I showered and got ready to go to my first appointment of the day.
We arrived and checked in and I was sent to the waiting room where I got to read about half a magazine before being taken back.
Tommy took me back and asked if I had any questions - I said no I was a pro at this by now. He got me set up on the table and told me Amy would be in to start my IV - I said Amy would not be in to start my IV because she couldn't start it successfully last time. Ben came in to start my IV and guess what - he was no better than Amy. He tried my left arm first and he couldn't get the catheter to advance. Right arm fished a bit but when Ben saw me wincing he stopped and pulled it saying he was going to get a nurse. I can't even remember the name of the nurse who came in but she looked at my arms and asked if I was always a hard stick - um yes. She was able to get it on the first try but it didn't feel like it was right. The test started - one I am all too familiar with now - breathe in, hold breathe, breathe. Ben came in to push the dye and I wasn't getting the warm tingle feeling that I have previously - he then came back in and held my arm at various angles until I felt the warm tingle - guess I was right about that IV not feeling right. The test ended I got my complimentary bottle of water and Rob and I went to get some breakfast.
We went to Le Peep in Evanston to eat and it was nice to just be able to visit and not have to be interrupted by the kids. Mom called while we were out to let us know that she was going to take the kids to see Alpha & Omega this afternoon while I was at my Dr. Muldoon appointment. I stopped by Mom's house on the way back to ours to give the kids a smooch. I got the sleep report or the lack of sleep report and a few kisses and hugs before we went home. I put my feet up on the couch and took a nap waking up just a couple minutes before we needed to leave to go back to the hospital. We arrived and although we had a wait for vitals - Dr. Muldoon was very prompt today. My blood pressure was higher that I am accustomed to but I was pretty nervous about the colon-ring. We sat and talked with Dr. Muldoon first - he asked how things have been going at home - I said much better than they had in the hospital. I asked exactly how much of my colon I am without now and he told me he had removed my entire rectum and sigmoid colon so about 14" or 15" - nothing I cannot live without. Then came the fun part - if you don't want to hear graphic details jump down to the next paragraph. I jumped up on the table and assumed the left sided position - Dr. Muldoon told me it wasn't going to feel real good - he was right. Sure enough the sneaky colon-ring was still there and he did a count of 1,2 - I thought he was going to 3 but no he just said pressure, pressure. That was it the ring was out - no sedative or numbing agent - he asked if I wanted to see it and I decided against it. I got dressed and Rob came back in.
I asked if I had his approval to do the 5K with Ellie - he gave me his permission to walk it and even run it but said I wouldn't feel so good running it. I asked his permission to start chemo tomorrow - no problem he said. He did say my incisions looked most excellent - I told him I had to give props to the staphysagria (the homeopathy specifically for surgical wound healing). He quickly said it was good I thought so and moved on - wow that integrative medicine department is like the bastard child of the hospital. That was about it - still no heavy lifting and I will see him again in about 6 weeks. Rob and I walked over to Kellogg pharmacy to pickup my 2 week supply of xeloda and zofran - this time around I will be on a higher dose of xeloda - 4 pills twice a day. Woohoo appointment day was done. We came home and Rob went out to the garage to play while I did my part to sedate myself - a giant glass of red wine. I had discussed with Mom taking an ativan before my appointment today and she talked me out of it saying we didn't know what he might use as a sedative in his office - apparently nothing.
Mom called to say they were coming home from the show - Rob and I went and sat on the front porch for a bit. Nick fell asleep during the movie and Ellie described in detail many scenes of the movie for me, Mom told me to save our money and not consider putting it on our netflix list. Rob took both jeeps out for the kids to ride together and that worked great until the neighbors came out and half a dozen kids wanted to ride too. Nick went nuts (again) and was jumping over the neighbors Halloween decorations and finally took them down when I asked him to stop. I took Nick inside for calm down time and Ellie played outside for a bit longer. I fell asleep on the couch again- I guess drinking the giant glass of wine at 2 in the afternoon does put a wrench in things.
We ordered dinner from Dengeos - it was school fundraiser day and the PTA gets 20% of the receipts today. The kids found out that Handy Manny had his special on tonight so we had our dinner picnic style. I did some laundry - I have 3 over-filled baskets to put away tomorrow - full laundry baskets and 2 flights of stairs fall into the heavy lifting category. The kids took a quick bath and Rob attempted to get Nick to sleep. We had the windows open but between the neighbors starting their fire pit and then incessantly screaming we had to close most of them. The screaming was crazy and I tired to give a clue by slamming the back windows but Rob after 30 minutes of trying to get Nick to sleep stormed out to the upstairs deck and told them to be quiet - worked for about 10 minutes - then they started again. I would normally be more understanding but it was pitch black outside and the screaming was at a shrill tone and so not acceptable. Ellie and I finally went upstairs and I switched places with Rob and he took over Ellie. Finally, 2 sleeping children under our roof.
Cool thing happened today - over a year ago Rob and I won a custom sketch of our house from a school fundraiser - long story short - the gift certificate has been in Rob's drawer all this time but while he has been off he took care of all the details and today it was delivered. It looks so awesome - the detail is insane - I need to get it framed and find the perfect spot to hang it up. Needless to say, I have some pains today that weren't previously bothering me - hopefully that will go away soon. I wanted to ask Dr. Muldoon what would happen if we just left it in but didn't. I did ask how many rings "naturally" come out and he admitted none have come out "naturally" when an ostomy is placed - shouldn't that be part of the consent form? Changing it up tonight because recovery has been going pretty well - Visualising my healthy body, an un-remarkable xeloda course and the new normal me - whomever that shall be, Tree