A very special man

So, as I was planning on getting ready to go for my blood test this morning I checked my email. It was probably a bad idea, but since I use an iPhone I guess it's better that I saw the message before I left the house rather than all the way there with a 40 minute drive to get home.

It's a message I've been dreading receiving for some time now. It was the news of the death of a man that was so dear to me, and a person who was such an instrumental part of me becoming a Christian in my mid-teens.

My good friend had emailed to let me know the sad news. I was inconsolable.

As I thought of Ron, and memories of him came running through my head I looked down at my hand. His name was written there as a reminder from yesterday - a note I'd written myself as I sat in church listening to Charlie's talk.

Yesterday as I was at church our pastor was talking about people who went before us in our journey with Christ and saw something in us that we didn't see ourselves. They were the people who had laid the foundation for our Christian life, and they would always be a part of something special. It conjured up images and thoughts of Ron for me. He was a wonderful man, and he was such an encouragement to me always, even when I didn't believe in myself. He could always see the potential underneath and always encouraged me to be the woman God wanted me to be. I often think of him and am so glad I got to visit with him last March when he was in hospital.

As I was there at church I had the feeling that I wanted to make sure that Ron knew that he was such a big part of my Christian life and who I am today, and I wanted to write a letter to tell him all of this and thank him for everything.

It's ironic (and sad) to me that this morning I would hear the terrible news of his passing, and so that letter will remain unsent. This dear man meant so much to me and to so many people.

He touched the lives of everyone he met. He was a great encourager, a wonderful Christian example and he also gave the biggest biggest hugs!

Rest in peace dear Ron. You will be sorely missed.

Such a productive & fun weekend!

So - This weekend we had grand plans... Usually when we have grand plans for a weekend I'm disappointed on Sunday night when I realise I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. This weekend was the exception!

On Friday we went to visit Cory's Grandmother at the rest home. It was her birthday, so we wanted to spend some time with her. We went for dinner with Cory's parents after and came back to see Paula before heading home. Right before we left I asked her if she's had a terrible birthday and she replied "It could have been worse!". Her response sparked in me - she was going through so much and times were very hard for her but she still managed to give me a positive response.

We headed home & hit the hay early - we had a big day planned.

First thing Saturday morning we went to the farm to pick up the 'little tractor'. It would save us (well, mainly Cory) a lot of backache rotertilling the garden with the little tiller, and our neighbours John & Janet had a truck load of compost delivered so we'd promised to help them distribute it around their garden. It would save their backs from having to move it all by wheelbarrow - and would save them a ton of time too!

So, we got busy, rotertilling the 'lawn' and moving compost... we were busy all day - even the tractor was tired by the time we were done.

We got together with J&J for dinner and by 8.15pm all of us were yawning and aching. It was time for us to get an early night.

Sunday morning came quickly, and I was on 'duty' for the projection. We headed out the door, stopped at Dutch Bros for a much needed morning kick and got started at Church. The service was really good - the music was sounding great and the choice of songs was fab. The sermon as always was clear and hit home...

After we got wrapped up at church we needed to go grab a few bits & bobs around town, and we grabbed a quick bite to eat too. We couldn't find the fescue seed we had wanted to plant the lawn. Bummer... we'd have to think this one through a little better.

We worked on the garden for a couple more hours, planted a whole new flower bed and Cory smoothed out the area he had rotertilled the day before. It was still looking like we had mud for a yard, but it was a step closer!

We dropped the tractor back home and went to the farm to help Cory's Mom with a few computer and iPhone things. We had dinner there and about 8.30pm hit the road for home. Another night getting home later than we'd hoped... Oh well!

This morning I'm meant to head to Dallas for a blood test to check my thyroid levels. I didn't sleep well and feel drained... I should drink a ton of water before I hit the road, hopefully that will help them get some blood this time... Ewwww

Here's some pics of the garden progress:

Hummm.... What's for dinner?

So, with the kitchen freshly organised and looking great, yesterday I cooked a kick-ass dinner. Yes, I know that seems pretty big headed or over confident or whatever, but hey, it was great.

It took me most of the day to cook it too...

I started by making hubbies favourite cookies and then put the baby back ribs in the oven about 11/11.30am ish. I cooked those babies alllllll day.

With the last hour to go I got together a tray prepped for "Mary's roasties" and added them to the oven! YUM - It smelled delish! I served it with beans and it was good. It was Cory's choice of dinner, since it was his 'special evening'. I was happy with his choice for din-dins....

But...

Now I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight. The trouble with having a delicious dinner like that last night is how to follow it up the next day. Hummm....

I'm thinking chicken, perhaps the chicken pasta bake I throw together that comes out pretty good....

Fat Tuesday... Shrove Tuesday... Pancake Day!

YAY - So, it seems that today is definitely a day to celebrate! :) When I was a child I used to absolutely love Pancake Day. Mum would make us pancakes after dinner and we would be able to have whatever toppings we wanted. It was always fun to try and toss the pancake in the pan too!
Hey, who am I kidding... I still love pancake day as an adult. I don't think I ever let one pass without honouring it with the perfectly thin & delicious discs of goodness. I even hosted a pancake party or two in my day, I'll have you know. Tossing dozens upon dozens of the things in various colours and sizes for whoever wanted to show up!

So, today will be no different. I am about to go and make the batter so it can sit in the fridge for the rest of the day to 'settle'. It always makes them taste so much better.

The rest of my day is dedicated to trying to get finished on the organisation I started in the kitchen. I will say, it looks really good. We added some shelving beside the cooker for food storage, and then also added some more shelving above the (new) dishwasher. The one thing this kitchen never really had was ample storage, and it got even worse last spring when we took out the pantry closet to put the fridge in there. I love that the fridge is away and not taking up all the room in the kitchen, but that deep floor to ceiling storage was very handy!

Anyway... What else can I tell you?

Hummmm - This weekend was awesome. It started when Cory got off work early on Friday and we headed up to Portland for an early Valentines date. We did some shopping (craft shopping for me) and hit IKEA too for some storage jars and such... I had a plan for the kitchen!

After that we went out for a yummy dinner and we had a great evening. It was so nice to just have a chilled relaxed evening.

On Saturday we did a quick clean up around the house and cut Cory's hair, and then we headed to Dallas to visit Cory's Grandmother in the residential home. She's been there a few weeks now and we try and see her as much as possible, but it's hard since it's such a long drive from here.
We hadn't intended being gone all day, but it happened anyway. We ended up going to the farm to cut a quick load of wood and had dinner with Cory's parents and niece Julia. After that we headed home, via Cory's Grampa's place to pick up some old family photo albums.

We headed over to our neighbours for a glass of wine when we got home and ended up being there til after midnight... we're not used to staying up late these days, so we dragged ourselves home and hit the hay!

After Church on Sunday we decided to get cracking on the house... That plan of mine was still bubbling away and I was excited to see if it would work. Cory started putting up the shelving brackets and I started spring cleaning - OH BOY! What a task!

After lunch we heard a little knock on the door, it was John and Andy... they needed some help (and a big truck) to relocate their Japanese Maple tree.

What a task - it took three men and a truck a total of about 2.5 hours to move that thing. Not to mention the 3 hours John had put into digging around it the weekend before. At least it's moved now and it's in the most perfect spot. I just hope it survives after the boys cut quite a bit off the tap roots... it's so pretty.

Anyway, that's our weekend in a nutshell... after moving the tree we got back to the spring clean on our kitchen and dining room.... I was a tired girl by the time I was done!

4 things I'm glad for...

So, today I had an appointment with my regular (and the most wonderful in all the world) dentist, Dr Brian just so they could check on how the 'flipper' fits and see how I'm doing.

He said that the doctor who performed the surgery on me last week called him right after my surgery to tell him exactly what he had done and how it had gone. He explained that he was really shocked at the size of the void up in my face that had bone loss, and that amazingly there was an area between my nose and mouth that had 'absorbed' through which basically meant my nose and mouth were interconnected. They shouldn't be. That's wrong, it's bad, it's weird and it's a pain in the neck to fix - literally!

So, he explained that the area where he packed the bone into went down past the second knuckle on his pointer finger. He had only expected it to go as far as the first knuckle. He also said that he'd taken some pictures and x-rays of me while I was 'open', so I'm kind of interested to see those. He said there was 'light' through there when you look up into the skull of my face... there shouldn't be light!

So basically, I did end up having plastic surgery / a face lift - it's the same procedure of having a 'nose job' except that they went in through my mouth instead of cutting the skin outside my mouth...
ewwwww. I prefer to call it maxillofacial surgery, I'm not really ready to join the face lift brigade just yet! ;)

YIKES!!!!

I am glad for a few things.
1 - I am glad that this surgery is behind me, and hopefully it is successfull & the bone heals awesomely and I can continue with the rest of my treatment plan.
2 - I am glad I didn't know exactly what the surgery would involve beforehand. I think I would have completely freaked out if I would have known I was having my face peeled open that far.
3 - I am so very glad that I have an awesome team of dental professionals looking after me. I couldn't find a better group. They are wonderful!
4 - I am thankful for my wonderful husband, Cory who has taken great care of me and supported me through all of this - I LOVE YOU!

Why the surgery?

A couple of you have wondered and asked "why" I had this surgery and I guess I haven't really explained it too well to some of you before now. I'll quickly try to explain the general gist.

It isn't related to the Graves Disease that we have been dealing with - thankfully. It is a completely separate issue. The graves disease finally "tested" in the required range the last blood test I had about two or three weeks ago. The Doctor dealing with that side of my health said it shows that my thyroid was completely obliterated by the radiation instead of the desired 1/4 of it being destroyed. He suggests on that side of things I should start getting to feeling better in the summer or late spring now... We are sure hoping he's right!

The surgery and all the dental stuff was only affected by the graves disease in the sense that the local anesthesia wouldn't work while I was hyperthyroid because I had the metabolism of a hummingbird, so I could feel all the procedures we did in the earlier stages. The other problem was that I wasn't physically healthy enough to withstand the surgery they needed to do for a while, so we had to wait a little longer than would have been ideal.

The cracked roots to three of my upper frontal teeth actually happened last summer, completely by accident. I was playing with our niece and she headbutted me full on in the face. It's not her fault at all, it could have been anyone... Anyway, long story short - it caused the roots of those teeth to completely shatter (Fast's have hard heads apparently and I'd definitely have to agree). There was a huge CRACK noise and it hurt like I can't explain but the teeth didn't fall out so we didn't realise the extent of the problem. A few weeks later when it still hurt and a bump was forming over the teeth I went to the dentist to have it checked, and with the x-ray he could see a little of what we were facing.

After several opinions from and visits to different specialists we came up with a plan that would be a long term solution which we have been working on now for a few months, little steps (and sometimes bigger steps) at a time.

Anyway, I hope that helps explain it a little better.... And no, I didn't have a face lift or a nose job (although if you saw me today, you'd probably have to wonder) and since it wasn't a side effect on the Graves Disease we don't have to worry about it causing further random problems to my body. The GD is getting under control and yesterday we have taken a very large step in getting on track with the dental/facial situation too!

Thanks to all of you for your friendship, support and prayers, it means a lot to both of us!

Is it a bird? A plane? A face lift?

Well, the time came for my maxillofacial surgery... I am now so glad that Cory and I had a wonderful time in Hawaii before my surgery. We had originally planned to have the surgery 4 days before we travelled. I would have been miserable.

Hawaii was exactly what we needed. Some time to relax & recuperate and to just get away from everything. The warm weather felt great too!

So, my surgery was scheduled for Monday morning (passed). I felt just a little nervous on Sunday evening as I went to bed, but I hardly slept. My mind was spinning. On Monday morning I woke feeling quite scared. Deep down I knew everything would be OK, and had a lot of confidence in the surgeon, but it was such a big step for me and it represented something so huge it was honestly quite daunting. I knew there was a lot of people out there thinking and praying for me, so that gave me real comfort as I got ready to face the day.

I took my prophylactic antibiotics (4 of them and they were huge) an hour before surgery and just tried to keep busy so I wouldn't be thinking and mulling everything over in my mind. Cory took me to the appointment and he was so good at keeping me from turning into a complete mess.

The nurses were great - they could tell I was nervous (my guess was by the involuntarily stream of tears running down my face that I couldn't get to stop) and they made arrangements that the doctor would put the IV in himself! The IV was a big concern to me after the last experience I had getting blood drawn for my routine thyroid test - the Dr couldn't get any blood.
Thankfully, I have to tell you that he was great. Yes, getting the IV in still hurt, but he was in the vein with no problem and he drew the 6 vials of blood without jiggling it around too much. I remember saying to him as he taped it down to my arm "humm, I'll have to come here for all the IV's I ever need in the future". (Yes, I have a warped sense of humour!)

After a little more prep work and after I'd asked him to promise he'd be able to wake me up after (again, weird humour) and after kissing Cory bye they put the anesthesia through my IV (which I don't even remember) and got to work. The next thing I remember I was waking up and Cory was there to take me home. Someone had put an ice pack on my face and I was completely busting for the 'loo'. So after some bizarre sign language to Cory (since I was so swollen I couldn't talk) he finally realised what I wanted and asked the nurse if it would be OK.

Cory had also talked to Dr Johnson before I came round. He told Cory that they had extracted the two final teeth (I had already had two taken out a few weeks ago) but also that the amount of the bone loss in the area was significantly more than they had expected. It was to the full extent of what "bottle bone" could do, and they would have probably taken a graft from my leg if they'd have known, but since they'd planned and prepared the bottle bone with my blood they went ahead.

I slept for an hour or so at home after the surgery and had a fairly relaxed afternoon and evening. I even managed to eat a little soup and Jell-O last night, so we're getting there.

There is quite a fair bit of swelling and bruising which we hadn't anticipated. I thought I'd have a little swelling around the mouth area for an hour or so, but instead my whole face is yucky - It looks like I had a face lift or went a round or two with Mike Tyson!

They didn't do the soft bone graft because the procedure was already extensive enough. They did have to put in a titanium membrane to hold the bone in place and protect it if I accidentally rubbed my nose/face a little too hard so the bone has time to settle. This will be removed in 4 weeks.