Forgive me - the dog ate my homework

[SuzCa]

Please forgive me if me Christmas cards are a bit late, and thank you to everybody who sent cards. They are beautiful! I have a all the components I just have to sit down and finish them off.

Despite getting a preventive flu shots some nasty bug got ahold of our entire family. DH and MIL were first. Fevers followed by laryngitis and stuffed noses and coughing fits. Then Sophia started getting sick on Saturday. By Sunday she was running a temp of 104. If took two days of alternating Tylenol with Motrin to keep the temp in check. She barely moved for two days. Now she is up and about, but coughing like crazy. Now it's FIL and my turn. I had a short fever, half a day and now I have the chest problem and a nice case of conjunctivitis to go with it - as does dh. We have disinfectant wipes, lotion and bacteria killing tissues everywhere. Just call us the mucus family. Ugh!

On top of that, I am back into "seeing the doctor" mode. I had a chest wall MRI a week or so ago followed a few days later by a CT scan of upper middle and lower body. I will do a tumor marker blood test in preparation for seeing my oncologist on December 29. Since the re-occurrence with cancer I have been upgraded to a higher risk for a while.

I am also scheduled to do the stage two surgery on January 6. They will remove the implant on the right and put in a smaller one to match the TRAM flap side, create a nipple on the tram flap fix a hernia or bulge on my abdomen where muscle was moved, lipo a small area and harvest the fat to fill in some dents on the tram flap, and then lipo the rest of the abdomen to smooth it all out. Because of the surgery, I need to do pre-op bloodwork for them and and EKG. I had a pre-op consult last week too.

I had just come back from the pre-op consult when a splint of two teeth that had been installed on long posts snapped and two teeth fell out. Ack! I called my dentist. Dear man, he had closed his office for the holidays, but came in to see what he could do. He took an x-ray and made me an emergency referral to a specialist. That dentist took one look, said I needed two implants, about 5K each I think, and sent me back to my regular dentist to make a temporary flipper. On no. My dentist proceeded to meet me at the office again, and patiently removed both the posts lodged way up in my upper jaw. Then he tried to fix the splint. The dang thing broke on him so he patched it together and installed it. As one of the teeth is an eye tooth, the post had to be go way into my upper jaw in order to hold and I am still sore, but very grateful to have my two almost front teeth back for Christmas. The splint will probably last for a while and we now have time to think about what my next move should be. I had to take Sophia to the dentist too for a routine visit last week.

So in the course of a few weeks, I am having every test one can imagine. Oh and in 2009 I am supposed to do a baseline colonoscopy. Hohoho!

Thank for letting me whine. I think I should order that book for hypochondriacs. LOL! I would make a great guest bathroom read.

Happy Holidays Everyone! It really is wonderful to have this community even though we are here for the 'wrong' reason.

[MarieL]

Too much on your plate! Glad family is healthy again....ouch on the teeth...both in pain and in $$$.

Merry Christmas!

[Nic_Oz1]

Now, are you absolutely sure you've got enough on your plate at the moment?

I'm sure all will understand if the christmas cards are a bit late!

Here's hoping after a frantic start to 2009, things will settle down for you asap!

Nic
xxx

[shawny]

Suz - The tooth thing sounds painful! And how many tests can one person have? Hang in there...hopefully the 'bug' will quickly run its course and leave your family feeling well again.